Americas World Scene

Americas - list of articles in the section Americas World Scene

  • Pete Myers interviews Bing Crosby (1972)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsBefore joining Radio Netherlands in 1976, Pete Myers hosted BBC programmes like “Late Night Extra” and “PM” and …
  • Pete Myers interviews Judith Hart and Ethel Merman (1973)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsPete Myers speaks to two very vibrant, dynamic and different women: parliamentarian Judith Hart and actress-singer Ethel Merman. Judith Hart …
  • Pete Myers interviews Beverly Sills (1973)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsIn this programme, we hear from American opera diva Beverly Sills (1929-2007), one of the greatest sopranos of her day and remembered …
  • Pete Myers interviews Gene Wilder (1977)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsIn this unedited interview, Pete Myers meets comedian/actor/writer/director Gene Wilder on a promotion tour of his film “The …
  • American song stylist Nancy Wilson
    This programme is part of the series AfrosceneAmerican international song bird Nancy Wilson (1937-2018) has just celebrated 25 years in show business, establishing herself as one of the best song …
  • Pete Myers interviews Lionel Hampton (1979)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsPete Myers caught up with jazz great Lionel Hampton (1908-2002) while he was on tour in Europe in 1979. His performance on the Vredenburg …
  • Bicentennial of Dutch-American relations
    This programme was recorded in Dutch for broadcast by the Dutch-language section of Radio Netherlands to mark the bicentennial of Dutch-American relations in 1982. The Dutch Republic was, after …
  • Press Conference with Queen Beatrix in Washington D.C., on April 20, 1982)
    Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands paid a state visit to the United States in 1982, the year that marked the bicentennial of Dutch-American diplomatic ties. After a state dinner with President Ronald …
  • Happy Station: Pete Myers in Aruba
    To mark the 65th anniversary of the Happy Station, host Pete Myers takes the programme on safari to Aruba, just off the coast of Venezuela, which together with Bonaire and Curaçao, forms part of the …
  • Nevil Grey meets Timothy Leary
    In this unedited interview, Nevil Gray speaks with Timothy Leary (1920-1996) who was in Holland for a lecture and workshop. Leary was a psychologist. He tried to revolutionise the science (group …
  • Pete Myers interviews BB King (1988)
    This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsOne of Memphis, Tennessee’s most famous sons, blues guitarist BB (Beale St. Bluesman) King (1925-2015) was our guest in this edition …
  • Rembrandt Express, including Joseph Heller
    In this edition of our weekly magazine programme “Rembrandt Express”, Pete Myers speaks with Joseph Heller, the renowned American novelist and famed author of the classic “Catch …
  • Nevil Gray meets Paul Theroux
    Paul Theroux is one of the world’s most famous and successful travel writers and an award-winning author of fiction. His description of Britain (“The Kingdom by the Sea”) and of …
  • Nevil Grey meets author Oscar Hijuelos
    In this unedited interview, Nevil Gray talks to Oscar Hijuelos, author the successful “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love”, which won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. The conversation focuses on …
  • The Mauna Kea telescopes and the 1991 solar eclipse
    On the eve of the total eclipse of the sun on July 11, 1991, our reporter Nina Morgan describes the preparations made for this event at one of the world’s best observatories, the Mauna Kea …
  • Barracks of Japanese American internment camp
    Concentration camp U.S.A. – a personal account of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II
    On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, home of the U.S. Pacific fleet. The massive aerial attack claimed more than 2,000 lives, and …
  • Notes from the New World: Music from the Americas, Part 1 of 6 – Europe and the Americas
    This programme is part of the series Notes from the New WorldMarking the 500th anniversary of the arrival in America of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Pete Myers takes us on a fascinating tour of the …
  • Notes from the New World: Music from the Americas, Part 2 of 6 – Aaron Copland
    This programme is part of the series Notes from the New WorldMarking the 500th anniversary of the arrival in America of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Pete Myers takes us on a fascinating tour of the …
  • Notes from the New World: Music from the Americas, Part 3 of 6 – Manuel Ponce
    This programme is part of the series Notes from the New WorldMarking the 500th anniversary of the arrival in America of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Pete Myers takes us on a fascinating tour of the …
  • Notes from the New World: Music from the Americas, Part 4 of 6 – Heitor Villa-Lobos
    This programme is part of the series Notes from the New WorldMarking the 500th anniversary of the arrival in America of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Pete Myers takes us on a fascinating tour of the …
  • Randy Shilts
    And the band played on – AIDS in America
    Anne Blair Gould meets American journalist and author Randy Shilts. He covered the onset (early 1980s) and of the AIDS epidemic for the San Francisco Chronicle. As he found out more about the …
  • Nina Simone: Portrait of a smoldering volcano
    When Nina Simone’s autobiography “I Put a Spell on You” appeared in 1992, we met up with the mesmerising singer in her Paris apartment. Nina Simone (1933-2003) had a classical music …
  • Happy Station: Ghost singers
    Pete Myers takes a look at the voices behind the gorgeous and glamorous actors who could not sing—the ghost singers who sang for stars like Rita Hayworth and Susan Hayward in the golden age of …
  • Sustainable Development on St. Lucia
    It’s only about 230 square miles in area, but the tiny island of St. Lucia is emblematic of the challenges facing sustainable development in the fragile environment of the Caribbean. We visit …
  • Research File: Saba and Sint Maarten
    This programme is part of the series Research FileAnne Blair-Gould visits two of the six Caribbean islands that make up the Netherlands Antilles. Saba is tiny, rocky and made up of sheer volcanic …
  • RCA Victor Radio
    Media Network: Shortwave USA
    This programme is part of the series Media NetworkIn this programme, Jonathan Marks goes stateside and delves into the history of commercial shortwave stations in the U.S.A. Many clips and interviews …
  • Armed Forces Network Europe
    Media Network: Armed Forces Network
    This programme is part of the series Media NetworkJonathan Marks presents a profile of the American Forces Network Europe. With interviews and radio clips tracing the role and influence of the AFN, …
  • Isabel Allende: An interview about her book “Paula”
    The Chilean writer Isabel Allende experienced her first breakthrough with “The House of the Spirits” in 1982. Since then she has written many more best-selling acclaimed books, some of …
  • The Suriname experience: Part 2 of 2, A future in your hands
    In this two-part series, Martha Hawley visits Suriname, 20 years after independence to find out how the country and its people are coping. This programme focuses on the current economic struggle and …
  • The Suriname experience: Part 1 of 2, Giving heritage a name
    In this two-part series, Martha Hawley visits Suriname, 20 years after independence to find out how the country and its people are coping. This programme focuses on the political and economic malaise …
  • Guatemala in the 1990’s: Breaking the silence, Part 1 of 2
    By the time Guatemala’s decades-long civil war came to an end in 1996, some 200,000 people had died or disappeared in the violence, most of them by far having been killed by government forces. …
  • Guatemala in the 1990’s: Out of the shadows, Part 2 of 2
    By the time Guatemala’s decades-long civil war came to an end in 1996, some 200,000 people had died or disappeared in the violence, most of them by far having been killed by government forces. …
  • The wannabees of New York
    Anybody who ever wanted to be a somebody went to New York in search of theatrical fame. Some of the world’s greatest theatrical training institutions are based in the Big Apple, and host Dheera …
  • America’s newest immigrants: The Indian diaspora
    The United States of America has been a country built on the blood, sweat and tears of generations of immigrants: the poor, the hungry and the tired who came to the New World to begin a new life. The …
  • Shai Shahar: Gigolo
    Dheera Sujan meets this former sex worker, but also soldier, journalist and jazz singer. He has just published a booked called “Bedgeheimen van een gigolo” or the “Bedroom secrets …
  • Cirque du Soleil & Circus Oz
    Dheera Sujan goes to the circus, not to the sort that has performing animals and smells of sawdust. Instead it is the sort in which people create the wonder and magic. Cirque du Soleil is the hugely …
  • Justice Gabrielle McDonald & Professor Derrick Bell: Two black American legal trailblazers
    Siren Song features a discussion between Justice Gabrielle Kirk McDonald and Professor Derrick Bell. Both are black Americans and both are trailblazers. She is the only female presiding judge at the …
  • Mucho corazon
    This award-winning programme tells a trans-Atlantic tale of love, music and politics. It is the story of Leon Perlee and Mercedes Sosa, both of them linked to the wooden street organ. He, a restorer …
  • Proud passage: The Holland America Line
    Since it was founded in Rotterdam in 1873, the Holland America Line (HAL) has transported about 7 million passengers to destinations around the world…from immigrants setting out for America in the …
  • Gore Vidal on the movies
    in this unedited interview, Dheera Sujan talks at length to American writer Gore Vidal (1925-2012) about movies (he wrote 20 screenplays and many more for television), their impact, the changes in …
  • Wake of the Half Moon: the Dutch colony of New Netherland, Part 3 of 3 – The Duke of New Amsterdam
    New Netherland was a vast 17th century colony along the east coast of North America, ruled by the Dutch for sixty years. Part Three concerns its darkest hour. The charismatic, if tyrannical, governor …
  • Hudson's Half_Moon_in the New World
    Wake of the Half Moon: the Dutch colony of New Netherland, Part 1 of 3 – A propitious misadventure
    In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed his famous ship “Halve Maen”, the “Half Moon”, up the river in North America that would one day bear his name. It was the start of the 60-year …
  • Hudson's Half_Moon_in the New World
    Wake of the Half Moon: the Dutch colony of New Netherland, Part 2 of 3 – Pioneers and patroonships
    The story of the pioneers who settled the new Dutch colony of New Netherland, the founding of New Amsterdam and why the experiment of New Netherland nearly failed. This Dutch 17th-century colony …
  • Where are they?
    Where are they? – The disappeared children of El Salvador
    Throughout the 1980’s, the Central American nation of El Salvador was the scene of an intense, dirty civil war that left 75,000 people dead and forced over a million to flee the country. A …
  • Member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang displays his tattoos inside the Chelatenango prison in El Salvador
    Warrior faces: Youth gangs in El Salvador
    Since the end of the bitter civil war in the Central American country of El Salvador, there has been a huge increase in youth gangs. 20,000 young people, some as young as 11 or 12, have joined one of …
  • Monument to Memory and Truth in San Salvador
    The unfinished struggle in El Salvador
    In 1980, skirmishes between El Salvador’s government and the Farabundi Martí Liberation Front (FMLN) descended into full-scale civil war. During the ensuing 12 years of fighting, 75,000 people …
  • John Irving
    David Swatling meets John Irving in Amsterdam. They discuss the storyline of Irving’s latest book, “A Widow for One Year” (set in Amsterdam), his love of Amsterdam, and we hear from …
  • Erich Maria Remarque
    In this edition of our arts programme Aural Tapestry, we mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the world’s most widely published writers, Erich Maria Remarque. He is especially …
  • Oaxaca
    Mexico: Mozart and Marimba
    Martha Hawley visits the Mexican state of Oaxaca where music in all its forms is everywhere. It has a long tradition in the many cultures represented throughout the state. Producer: Martha Hawley …
  • Stories of our century: “Century of the wind”
    This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
  • Stories of our century: “The grapes of wrath”
    This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
  • Dutch criminal lawyer Bert Stapert
    Dutch criminal lawyer Bert Stapert runs a legal advice centre in New Orleans for death row prisoners. When he was studying law in the Netherlands, he decided he wanted to become involved in the fight …
  • Gore Vidal on the decline of America
    In this unedited interview, Dheera Sujan talks to Gore Vidal (1925-2012) about the state of the American Union. The topics include children, education, sense of history, the media, violence, guns, …
  • Mary Cassatt
    In the late 19th century, Mary Cassatt was the only American artist invited into the Impressionist circle in Paris. She was a close friend of Edgar Degas, who said of her work: “I am not willing to …
  • Dorothy Allison reading on March 23, 2015
    Not angry anymore: Two lesbian feminists
    David Swatling meets two award-winning lesbian-feminist writers: Dorothy Allison, author of “Cavedweller”, and Donna Minkowitz, author of “Ferocious Romance”. They talk about …
  • Dutch women in colonial America
    Dutch women in colonial America
    The programme features interviews with two authors about Dutch women who settled in the U.S. in the 17th century. Dheera Sujan meets Professor Olwen Hufton, author of the book “The Prospect …
  • The old Winne Place: Dutch architecture in the New World
    Just south of Albany, New York, a beautiful example of early American Dutch architecture is being lovingly restored, using techniques dating back to when the farmhouse was originally built in the …
  • Saratoga: The wickedest city in America
    During the 19th century, a small town in upstate New York quickly grew into America’s most popular resort. With its natural mineral water spas, luxury hotels, horse racing and gambling casinos, …
  • Messages for a friend
    David Swatling meets Patrick E. Horrigan, author of “Widescreen Dreams: Growing up Gay at the Movies”. He is also the author of a play entitled “Messages for Gary”, described …
  • Less cows than kids: Stories of Dutch settlers in Canada
    Martha Hawley visits Canada to meet Dutch settlers who went out there in the first half of the 20th century. Most of them were farmers. What do they remember of those early days? How did they fare? …
  • The fire inside: Dutch farmers in Canada
    The 1990’s saw another exodus of Dutch farmers to Canada. Fleeing Eurocrats and their environmental restrictions, as well as rising land prices, hundreds of Dutch farmers decided to try their …
  • Once a Zonian: The Americans who called the Panama Canal home
      When the Panama Canal Zone, built by the United States in the early 20th century, was transferred from American control back to Panama in 1999, most of the tens of thousands of American …
  • Wider than a mile: The Panama Canal
    Martha Hawley travels to Panama as the U.S. prepares to turn over control of the Canal to Panama. She looks at the history of the Zone and the repercussions of the handover for Panama and its …
  • Three tales of shipwrecks: Part 2 – Survivor
    Shipwrecks can take many forms, and they do not always involve ships. The great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge knew this, and he used the imagery of the fight for survival at sea to describe the …
  • Three tales of shipwrecks: Part 1 – The great, great greats
    Shipwrecks can take many forms, and they do not always involve ships. The great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge knew this, and he used the imagery of the fight for survival at sea to describe the …
  • Three tales of shipwrecks: Part 3 – Zen and multiple sclerosis
    Shipwrecks can take many forms, and they do not always involve ships. The great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge knew this, and he used the imagery of the fight for survival at sea to describe the …
  • A place to stay: Dutch Antilleans migrate to Europe
    In this documentary, Marijke van der Meer looks at present-day Dutch-Caribbean migration to the Netherlands. Thousands of people from the Netherlands Antilles are hoping to find a better life in the …
  • Edmund White
    Edmund White & David Leavitt
    David Swatling meets American gay writers Edmund White and David Leavitt and discusses with them, among other things, the concept of “auto-fiction”, which takes as its premise (French, of …
  • Joining the second line: A jazz funeral in New Orleans
    David Swatling finds himself attending the jazz funeral in New Orleans of the man he went there to interview: Milton Batiste, leader of the Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band. He was the one man …
  • Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman
    Dheera Sujan meets Chilean writer, poet, intellectual and political activist Ariel Dorfman. He spent most of his adult life fighting General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. The themes in his …
  • Walt Whitman: Father of modern poetry, Part 1 of 2 – Songs of the poet
    In 1855, a “poetic divo” burst onto the literary stage and changed the course of poetic expression. Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is considered the beginning of modern poetry. Part One explores …
  • Walt Whitman: Father of modern poetry, Part 2 of 2 – The good grey poet
    In 1855, a “poetic divo” burst onto the literary stage and changed the course of poetic expression. Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is considered the beginning of modern poetry. Part Two explores …
  • American guitar legend Leo Kottke
    Dheera Sujan meets American guitar legend Leo Kottke and picks his brain about music, depression and life in general.  Producer: Dheera Sujan Broadcast: November 3, 2000…
  • Uphill Battles: Gender machismo in Nicaragua
    Centuries of machismo continue to exert a strong influence on Nicaraguan society. Women are regarded as inferior, and domestic violence is rampant. Homosexuality is illegal, and gays and lesbians are …
  • Utopia suburbia: Disney’s town of Celebration
    Michele Ernsting visits Walt Disney’s town of Celebration, which was designed to reflect Disney’s vision of the community of the future. But when the future was no better than the …
  • The kindness of strangers
    David Swatling paints a portrait of Tennesseee Williams in New Orleans, highlighting his famous play “A Streetcar Named Desire” with sound clips from the movie. The context is provided by …
  • Dutch Horizons: Slavery special
    This programme is an updated version of the Slavery Special, broadcast on the December 24, 2000, when the location and the design of the National Slavery Monument had not yet been decided. The …
  • Louis Armstrong
    A letter from Satchmo
    David Swatling attends the auction in New Orleans of a letter written by Louis Armstrong, quotes from it and then goes on to present Louis’ early life in the city. He talks to New …
  • Newsline: 9/11 attacks
    After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in New York, Newsline was on the ball, as the following two editions of the programme illustrate: 1. Newsline …
  • The tent: Inuit nomads in the 21st century
    For centuries the Inuit in northern Canada lived as nomadic hunters following the migrations of sea mammals and caribou. It was only three generations ago that many began to settle in communities …
  • Collective memory: The meaning of sila, Part 2 of 4
    As part of a series on the collective memory, Michele Ernsting presents the meaning of sila: the Inuit perspective on climate change. In what now seems like a distant past, sila was the most powerful …
  • Witch hunts: McCarthyism, Maleficarum and memory
    In this programme, we look at three tales of witch hunting:  McCarthyism – the wave of political witch hunts in 1950’s America. We hear about the persecution of those accused of …
  • Global Perspective: Let’s call the whole thing off
    This programme is part of the series Global PerspectiveA group of international broadcasters exchanges documentaries with a common theme. This five-part series examines the way in which global forces …
  • The song of the Corridistas
    The corrido, or ballad, is one of Mexico’s oldest song styles. During the 19th and early 20th century, it was the Mexican equivalent of Spanish romances or cowboy songs of the old West. A new breed …
  • The kingdom at a crossroads: Reshaping relations the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean
    In this special edition of Dutch Horizons, “The Kingdom at a Crossroads”, we look at the ties between the Netherlands and its former colonies in the Caribbean—Aruba and the Netherlands …
  • Wide Angle: Cuba
    In this edition, Saskia van Rheenen visits the Cuban capital Havana to find out what life is like under Fidel Castro. Producer: Saskia van Rheenen Broadcast: April 7, 2002  …
  • Drugs money infiltrating Colombia’s electoral system (2002)
    This edition focuses on the murder of Colombian Archbishop Isaías Duarte Cancino (1939-2002) who tried to raise the issue of election campaigns being financed by drugs money. Reporter: Rhoda Metcalfe …
  • The Flaneur
    David Swatling meets American writer Edmund White, who spent 16 years living in Paris, roaming its streets and neighbourhoods and basking in its rich cultural life. His observations are recorded in …
  • The New Orleans Creoles of colour: Creole classique, Part 1 of 3
    Of the many styles of music produced in 19th century New Orleans, the least well known was music composed by people of colour, especially free Creoles of colour. These French-speaking and often …
  • The New Orleans Creoles of colour: Creole golden age, Part 2 of 3
    Many Creoles of colour arrived in the New World in the early 19th century and settled in New Orleans, considered the most multicultural of American cities. Creoles made important contributions to the …
  • The New Orleans Creoles of colour: Creole renaissance, Part 3 of 3
    After the American Civil War, Creole people of colour found themselves in the same situation as freed black slaves. For example, they could no longer sit in the best seats at the opera house. Some …
  • Rivers of the World: The Rupert in Canada
    This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
  • Rivers of the World: The Mississippi, “She-wood and Cypress- the Mississippi River Rats”
    This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
  • The Human Be-In: The hippies
    In 1967, a huge outdoor event in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco marked the official beginning of the hippy movement. It was called the ‘Human Be In’. It attracted the focus of world media and …
  • Peace Brigade volunteers accompanying two Colombian human rights defenders
    Guardian angels in Colombia
    In Colombia, it is dangerous to defend human rights. Human rights organisations face constant threats and harassment from the so-called armed actors: the rebels, paramilitary groups and the military. …
  • Coca field in the Tumaco region that has been sprayed with herbicides
    Poison rain in Colombia
    For more than 20 years, herbicides have been sprayed on Colombian soil in a bid to eradicate coca and opium poppies. The South American nation produces 80% of the world’s cocaine, and it’s carving …
  • Colombian troops stand on guard after burning a coca laboratory near Tumaco, Colombia, in the southwest state of Narino, June,8, 2008, According to the Police nearly 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) of coca fields have been fumigated and more than 130 laboratories destroyed in the south of the country since January. Colombia produces most of the world's cocaine. (AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez)
    Assessing Plan Colombia and the war on drugs
    By 2003, the drugs trade was having a pervasive effect on almost all aspects of life in Colombia. By then, Colombia was producing 80% of the world’s supply of cocaine and over a third of the heroin. …
  • Demonstration for the release of people who had been kidnapped in Colombia
    Stolen time – Kidnapping in Colombia
    At the turn of the 21st century, over 3000 people were being kidnapped every year in Colombia, that’s an average of 8 people a day. The South American nation accounted for half of the world’s …
  • Play to commemorate the Bojaya attack
    Colombia: A traumatised nation
    Fighting has been going on for four decades in the South American nation of Colombia. Bombings, fighting and kidnappings are regular occurrences in many parts of the country. Over the past decade …
  • Colombia Farc Project: Three girls members of the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, FARC, rest in a camp near La Macarena, in the rebel controlled area located in southern Colombia. Marcelo Salinas/Special to Chronicle
    Colombia’s child soldiers
    All sides in the conflict in Colombia have abducted children. According to Human Rights Watch, the guerrillas call their child combatants “little bees” because they sting before the enemy realises it …
  • Jan Henk Kleijn
    Under Foreign Skies: Jan Henk Kleijn
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people abroad doing remarkable things. It might seem strange for a 62-year-old …
  • Thomas van der Hammen
    Under Foreign Skies: Thomas van der Hammen
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people abroad doing remarkable things. Thomas van der Hammen (1924-2010) was one …
  • Imagining farm machinery
    American author Dale Peck’s fictional memoir “What We Lost” intersected with producer David Swatling’s own family history in striking ways. Two upstate New York farms in the late 1950’s are …
  • Love exile on the road
    Martha McDevitt-Pugh married her Dutch partner soon after the Netherlands legalised same-sex marriage in 2001. They settled in Amsterdam because the United States does not recognise their union. And …
  • Suriname jungle
    Jim Dempsey goes on location in Brownsberg Nature Park in Suriname to help place special cameras that will help understand the biodiversity of the park. What makes this park of over eight thousand …
  • Quackenbush House
    The last Dutch outpost: The enduring legacy of New Netherland
    Two hundred and fifty years ago, a minor military skirmish in a remote corner of the colonial New World snowballed into what some have described as a world war. One of the casualties was the Dutch …
  • Sueño americano: The American dream for Central Americans
    Our reporter goes to the border between Guatemala and Mexico to observe the realities of illegal immigration from Guatemala and other Central American countries to El Norte. People need to cross …
  • Buffalo Nation: Bringing Back the Bison
    Romantic images from the Old West feature majestic bison, or buffalo, grazing on prairie grass, or thundering across the Great Plains in the company of powerful Indians on horseback. In the battle …
  • Pow wow at Porcupine
    Sounds and voices from a pow wow at Porcupine, in the Oglala Lakota Reservation of Pine Ridge in South Dakota. In North America, ‘having a pow wow’ is an informal expression for holding a meeting or …
  • Adams in Amsterdam, Part 1 of 3 – A poet in your pocket
    The first programme in a three-part series commemorating the 225th anniversary of the arrival in Amsterdam of John Adams. He would later become the second president of the newly independent United …
  • Adams in Amsterdam, Part 2 of 3 – Dearest of friends
    During the American war of independence from Britain, many years before he became the second American president, John Adams represented his country as the first American ambassador to the …
  • Adams in Amsterdam, Part 3 of 3: The two republics
    The final program in a three-part series to commemorate the 225th anniversary of John Adams’ arrival in Amsterdam in 1780. His diplomatic mission was to gain support for the fledgling United …
  • Imagination is the instrument of compassion
    New York author Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is part of a wave of what has been dubbed “post-9/11 fiction”. But some critics say not enough time has passed to …
  • Verbal fireworks: Slam poet Alix Olson
    Spoken word artist Alix Olson calls her voice her “weapon of choice”, and her powerful work contains equal doses of humor, anger and compassion. A champion slam poet, Olson introduced the urban …
  • Family mystery, family myth
    This is Jonathan Groubert’s story, but it could be yours too. It goes like this: his grandfather, Isaac, and all his family were from a small city in northwestern Poland called Konin. In 1905, …
  • Le Maryaj Lenglensou
    Blood wedding in Haiti
    When Dutch filmmaker Hans Fels first traveled to Haiti a quarter of a century ago, he heard about an opera that had never been staged, and he decided to produce it. “Art and performing things …
  • For every atom belonging to me: Novelist Michael Cunningham
    Pulitzer Prize author Michael Cunningham invokes the spirit of Walt Whitman in his collection of novellas “Specimen Days.” It is considered part of a wave of post-9/11 fiction. Cunningham talks about …
  • Slum in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince
    Paradise Lost – Part 2 in a series on failed states
    Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It’s gone through several decades of dictatorial rule followed by civil conflict. Haiti is also considered a classic example of state failure, …
  • The music of love
    Gary Goldschneider (1939-2019) is a concert pianist and an astrologer and to him the stars and music are intrinsically connected. In this programme, he discusses the music inspired by great romantic …
  • Allen Ginsberg: An angel-headed hipster’s owl
    In early October 1957, American poet Allen Ginsberg was hanging out in Amsterdam jazz cafes. At the same time in San Francisco, a Federal Court judge ruled that his poem “Howl” was not …
  • Nanko van Buuren, Braziilian Institute for Innovations in Public Health
    Under Foreign Skies: Nanko van Buuren
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people abroad doing remarkable things. Nanko van Buuren (1952-2015) was the …
  • Wouter van Oosterhout and his son
    Under Foreign Skies: Wouter van Oosterhout
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people abroad doing remarkable things. For the past 15 years, Dutchman Wouter van …
  • Rob Padberg
    Under Foreign Skies: Rob Padberg & Johan Smoorenburg
    This programme is part of the series Under Foreign Skies“Under Foreign Skies” is a series of portraits of Dutch people abroad doing remarkable things. Two Dutchman who settled in Haiti over a …