Harold Ramis – Year One

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Harold Ramis is one of the legends of movie comedy. Ramis is the writer of “Animal House,” writer/director of “Caddyshack,” “Groundhog Day,” “Analyze This” and many other films, and has acted in everything from “Ghostbusters” to “Stripes.” His new movie “Year One” stars Jack Black and Michael Cera and is set at the dawn of time amidst the Biblical backdrop of Genesis. Ramis discusses how the movie grew out of his balancing his Jewish upbringing, Buddhist leanings and reading of the Torah.

Original Air Date: 5/30/09

[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/CWDL-Harold_Ramis_Year_One.mp3]

Matt Tynauer – Valentino the Last Emperor

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Matt Tyrnauer is a writer for Vanity Fair and now director of the film, “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” about the fashion icon and entrepreneur. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the world of fashion, featuring extraordinary access into the high temples of Haute Couture. The legendary Valentino is the star of the film, along with his longtime business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti. Valentino the Last Emperor follows them for the final two years of their careers and shows the struggles the two men face as they confront the final act of a nearly 50-year career at the top of the world’s most glamorous and competitive game. The struggle of art vs. commerce is at the center of the film. In the end, however, the story proves to be not one about money or expensive clothes, but about love.

Original Air Date: 5/20/09

[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/CWDL-Matt_Tyrnauer_Valentino_The_Last_Emeperor.mp3]

David Dorn – Hommage A Nesuhi

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David Dorn of Rhino Records talks about the release of “Hommage A Nesuhi,” a limited print box set dedicated to Nesuhi Ertegun. Ertegun was the legendary founder of Atlantic Records where he recorded the likes of Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, Mose Allison, Lavern Baker, Big Joe Turner, Les McCann, John Coltrane, Roland Kirk and Ornette Coleman, amongst many others. Dorn is the son of legendary Atlantic Jazz producer Joel Dorn who was mentored by Nesuhi Ertegun and succeeded him as Atlantic Records’ jazz producer in 1967. The box set features many of these artists recorded with Ertegun at the helm.

Original Air Date: 5/19/09

[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/CWDL-David_Dorn_Hommage_a_Nesuhi.mp3]

Sanda Mackey on Iran

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Sandra Mackey is an Atlanta-based expert on Iran and the Middle-East. She talks about the upcoming Iranian elections and the ongoing political dance between the United States and Iran. Mackey is the author of multiple books on the Middle-East.

Original Air Date: 4/29/09

Part 1[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/CWDL-Sanda_Mackey_on_Iran_Part_1.mp3]
Part 2[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/CWDL-Sandra_Mackey_on_Iran_Part_2.mp3]

Charles Sennott – New Models for Journalism

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Charles Sennott was a longtime foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe. Now, in the age of collapsing economic models for journalism and rapidly diminishing coverage of international affairs, he has co-founded the website Globalpost.com, a new media startup which aims to find new ways to cover the world.

Original Air Date: 4/20/09

Part 1[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/CWDL-Charles_Sennott_GlobalPost_Part_1.mp3]
Part 2[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/CWDL-Charles_Sennott_GlobalPost_Part_2.mp3]

Matt Beynon Rees – The Samaritan’s Secret

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Author and former Newsweek correspondent Matt Beynon Rees talks about his newest book, The Samaritans’s Secret, the third book in his series of detective stories set in the West Bank and Gaza. The travails of his character, aging teacher Omar Yussef, create a deeply revealing window into the nature of contemporary Palestinian society — the corruption, honor, savagery and joy. The books have sold to publishers in 23 countries and have earned Rees the title “the Dashiell Hammett of Palestine.”

Original Air Date: 4/13/09

Part 1[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/CWDL-Matt_Beynon_Rees_The_Samaritans_Secret_Part_1.mp3]
Part 2[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/CWDL-Matt_Beynon_Rees_The_Samaritans_Secret_Part_2.mp3]

Calvin Johnson Jr. – Georgia Innocence Mission

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Calvin Johnson Jr. spent 16 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. Johnson’s conviction was eventually overturned as a result of the efforts of the Georgia Innocence Project that used advances in science and DNA evidence to exonerate him.

Original Air Date: 4/6/09

[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/CWDL-Calvin_John_The_Georgia_Innocence-Project.mp3]

Walter Mosley – The Long Fall

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Walter Mosley is the best-selling crime novelist perhaps best known for his noir detective stories featuring the black private detective, Easy Rawlins. One book in this series, Devil in a Blue Dress, was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington. Mosley’s newest book, while still a detective story, is the beginning of a new series and is our first introduction to the character Leonid McGill, an ex-boxer, hard drinker and old-school P.I. In The Long Fall: The First Leonid McGill Mystery, McGill is turning over a new leaf, and has “decided to go from crooked to slightly bent.”

Original Air Date: 4/3/09

[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/CWDL-Walter_Mosley_The_Long_Fall.mp3]

Laura Lippman – Life Sentences

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Laura Lippman is the hugely successful mystery writer who has just published her 14th book, Life Sentences. She discusses why mystery and genre writing isn’t as well regarded or critically accepted as literary fiction.

Original Air Date: 3/24/09

[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/CWDL-Laura_Lippman_Life_Sentences.mp3]

Nicholas Noe – Lebanon

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An interview with the American scholar based in Beirut, Nicholas Noe, author of Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah. He is also co-founder of the translation service for middle-eastern media outlets mideastwire.com. Noe talks about Lebanon and the prospect of America finding a way to broker a peace there. Noe argues that Lebanon is far more likely than Syria or Iran to show diplomatic dividends and should therefore be elevated to greater prominence on the US foreign policy agenda.

Original Air Date: 3/23/09

Part 1[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/CWDL-Nicholas_Noe_Voice_of_Hezbollah_Part_1.mp3]
Part 2[audio:http://1690wmlb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/CWDL-Nicholas_Noe_Voice_of_Hezbollah_Part_2.mp3]