Dec 29th, 2009 · Robin D.G. Kelley spent 14 years on a new book, which some are calling the definitive work on a jazz legend. In Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, he portrays the great pianist as a trained musician, a psychiatric case and a father.
Dec 17th, 2009 · NPR religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty investigates the intersection of science and faith in her new book, Fingerprints of God. She researched everything from the brain functions of Buddhist monks, to the effectiveness of prayer to heal the sick.
Dec 8th, 2009 · Robin D.G. Kelley's new book, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, focuses on the career of the eccentric jazz pianist and composer. It reveals new details about Monk's life, music and mental health problems, and provides a glimpse into the New York jazz scene of the mid-twentieth century.
Aug 22nd, 2009 · In this Tennessee city, Main Street is a revitalized arts district, a place to buy crack and a prostitution strip. Mapping Main Street, a documentary project, follows a prostitute's story of love and addiction, a monk's daily journey and a young homeowner's struggle on Chattanooga's Main Street.
Aug 2nd, 2009 · Host Liane Hansen profiles the first Benedictine Archabbey in America. In the mid 1800s, a Bavarian Benedictine monk, Boniface Wimmer, planned to build a church, seminary and college on land in Latrobe, Penn. The monastery and campus was to be self-sustaining. The brothers had livestock, a vegetable farm and fields of grain. A gristmill was also built to grind that grain into flour, which provided bread for the monks. The gristmill is now on the National Historic Register, and still in operation — providing flour for the Benedictines' daily bread.
Jul 27th, 2009 · The Translantic Feedback, a documentary about an oddball band of American ex-GIs dressed up like monks and singing bitter songs, is out on DVD at last. Ed Ward explains the appeal of The Monks.
Apr 27th, 2009 · Drawing from a collection of medieval poetry, composer Carl Orff transformed the sometimes bawdy lyrics into a classical music hit of enormous proportions, heard countless times in television and movies.
Mar 26th, 2009 · Dr. Michael Grodin discusses his experiences treating Tibetan monks who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Many of the monks were imprisoned or tortured because of their resistance to the Chinese presence in Tibet, and now some of them experience "flashbacks" while meditating.