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The Story with Dick Gordon brings the news home - through passionate points of view and personal experiences. The program brings together ordinary and extraordinary people to provide perspective on the issues which affect us all. Our goal is to inspire conversation, thinking and understanding. Produced at North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC.
Turtles and the Gulf Oil Spill
Thursday, July 29 2010
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TURTLES AND THE GULF OIL SPILL
David Godfrey
This week, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit demanding that the Department of Interior do more to protect endangered sea turtles from the effects of oil drilling off the Gulf Coast. David Godfrey is not waiting for the outcome of that litigation.  He’s a native of Florida, a conservationist, and one of the many people fighting to save sea turtles from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He works for the Sea Turtle Conservancy.  David recently visited a beach in Panama to attach transmitters to giant leatherback turtles. He is also part of the effort to transport turtle nests from around the Gulf to the eastern coast of Florida in hopes of saving hatchlings from the oil spill.
- See pictures of David in action
- Track the turtle "Dawn" on-line
Balloons and an office chair
Jonathan Trappe and his balloons (photo: Shawn Corkery)Â
If you saw the Pixar movie 'Up,' you probably thought nobody can really fly with balloons. Well, you can. On a dare from his work mates, Jonathan Trappe took his first balloon-powered flight two years ago, in his office chair. Hoisted by over 50 giant helium balloons, he sailed up to 14,000 feet, floating across the North Carolina countryside for over 4 hours. Jonathan has done a handful of flights since, and he's become addicted to these silent and joyful flights of fancy. Today, we get an update on his attempt to cross the English Channel, with the power of helium.
- See more pictures
- Visit Jonathan's website for an amazing recap of the journey
- Watch a news report that includes footage of Jonathan in flight
Homeless on the Road
Wednesday, July 28 2010
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HOMELESS ON THE ROAD
Diane Nilan
A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation says the number of children living in poverty in America has hit a new high water mark. Nearly one in five kids now live in poverty. That’s a million more than before the start of the great recession. Five years ago, Diane Nilan sold her home and hit the road in a R.V. armed with a video camera to capture the lives of homeless children. Today Diane still careens through the small towns of America in her small mobile home called “Tilley” to uncover pockets of homelessness.
- Learn more about Diane's work
- Read the new report, 2010 Kids Count
The Soul of Water
Deborah Cramer
This week we are listening back to the special series that aired this past year on The Story. We call the series Clean Water - and we expect to do more stories on this topic in the coming year. The subject is important. Some predict that by 2025, there will be serious water insufficiency for over half of the world's population. Deborah Cramer knows the health of our oceans is a critical part of the cycle. Deborah writes about oceans - her work has given scientists and children alike new insight into how to keep the world’s oceans healthy.
- Find out more about Deborah and her books
- See photos from the books
- See a video for the Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water Our World bookÂ
- Learn more about the Smithsonian exhibit
- Explore the sea around you
- Listen to more stories in the Clean Water series
A Home in Morningside
Tuesday, July 27 2010
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A home in Morningside
Kelley Marks
When Kelley Marks and her family moved into Detroit’s Morningside community in December 2006, the neighborhood was filled with vacant lots and run-down houses. But for Kelley it was the chance of a lifetime to own a home and make a difference. Part of the deal she made was to do her best to inspire others to help turn the area around - even if it meant cutting the grass at abandoned houses and raising money for snow removal. Four years and a recession later, there’s more work than ever, but Kelley says she’s constantly inspired and has no intention of leaving.Â
- Learn more about Kelley’s neighborhood organization
Another Look at 'Clean' Energy
Josh Fox
It has been almost 100 days since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. The concern over the effects of the oil and the clean-up has many people thinking of alternative energy sources besides oil, such as natural gas. Josh Fox first heard about natural gas when he received mail from gas companies wanting a lease on his land. He's a filmmaker who lives in upstate Pennsylvania. The more he learned about how natural gas is extracted, the more worried he became about its effect on people's health, the environment, and in particular, the water. He talks with Dick Gordon about how he traveled to states like Wyoming, Colorado and Texas to see the effect of drilling there, and what he's doing to warn people back home.
- Find out more about Josh's film, Gasland
- Find out more about how natural gas is obtained
- Listen to the special collection of stories called Clean Water
Vimala’s Curryblossom Café
Monday, July 26 2010
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Vimala’s Curryblossom Café
Vimala Rajendran
The economy still seems to be one big question mark. Just when will things begin buzzing again? Vimala Rajendran is emerging from this recession just fine. She's just opened her own business, a restaurant called Vimala’s Curryblossom Café. And she did it without having to borrow from one of the big banks. Instead, she accepted dozens of tiny loans from people in her North Carolina home who believed in her. This may sound implausible, but her story could be a case study in how to get by in a down economy: by banking on the transformative power of community.
- Learn more about Vimala and her community café
Drying Up: Two Sides of California's Water Fight
Todd Allen >>More Photos
Drought and development have brought California to another crisis over water. Today, we listen back to Dick Gordon's conversation about the need for water with a farmer and a fisherman. Although the men are on opposite sides of the fight over water allocation, they share a passion for their work, and face potentially huge losses in income.Â
Todd Allen was raised on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley and has run his own farm for 12 years. Last year, he was stunned to find out that for the first time, the federal government was allocating zero water to farmers in his region.
Larry Collins    >> More Photos
Larry Collins has been a commercial salmon fisherman for 28 years. He depends on salmon for up to 70 percent of his income, but salmon fishing has been banned or allowed for only a few days, for years. Numbers are down in part because of low water flows in the delta rivers where salmon spawn. The water in those rivers is in high demand by farmers like Todd.
- Listen to other episodes in our Clean Water series.
Rising Star on a Fiddle
Friday, July 23 2010
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Rising star on a fiddle
Ruby Jane
Most teenagers are spending the summer hanging out at the pool, cruising the mall or scooping ice cream for a few extra bucks. But 15-year-old Ruby Jane spends her time sharing the stage with some of country music's greatest names, including Willie Nelson and Mark O'Connor. Ruby Jane started playing the violin at the age of two. She's now a world-class fiddler who also sings, composes music and plays the guitar and mandolin. Guest host David Brown talks with Ruby Jane in Austin, Texas about her adventures in music, how she found her home on the road, and why still gets nervous when she meets her musical idols.
The B.U.M.S
Bill Gascoigne (top) and Kyle Mankes
It's been a long fight … but this week, Congress approved a bill to restore federal benefits to the unemployed. This affects 2 and a half million Americans facing long-term unemployment.
Bill Gascoigne and Kyle Mankes are both under 40 and, until recently, both unemployed. Kyle had been a business analyst. Bill formerly worked as a Michigan city manager. Now they’ve created a group called BUMS: The Brotherhood of Unemployed Men. They meet regularly at a local bar for support (and pool). Kyle and Bill talk with Dick Gordon about their efforts to find work and their passion to help other unemployed men. And they both have good news - Bill has had some promising interviews, and Kyle started a great new job about two weeks ago.
- Find out more about BUMS
Living a Dream
Thursday, July 22 2010
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Living a dream
Elden Nelson
This will be a big weekend for cycling enthusiasts - we're nearing the final push in this year's Tour de France. Many of those fans make regular stops at the Fat Cyclist blog for news about their sport. Elden Nelson started the blog a few years back. It was funny and personal. But when his wife was battling breast cancer, he knew he either had to stop blogging, or write about the experience. Elden is a fan of the Tour de France legend and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, so Elden reached out to the LiveStrong Foundation for support. He soon harnessed the energy of thousands of his readers to raise money for cancer research. In one year, the effort raised over a million dollars. Elden talks to Dick Gordon about losing his wife, how he's managed to raise so much money to fight cancer, and his once-in-a-lifetime ride with Lance and Team Radio Shack.
- Read Elden's blog
- Learn more about LiveStrong and World Bicycle Relief
My Good Ol' Pontiac Parisienne
Marc Hoecker
We've had a lot of fun on the program with stories of items lost and found: a class ring, a stolen bike. Today: a big old lovable boat of a car. While living in D.C., Marc Hoecker's 1985 Pontiac Parisienne was stolen from a parking spot. Marc's anger spurred him to action and the beginning of a four-day adventure, involving stakeouts, car chases and ultimately lots of cops. Marc tells Dick Gordon his real-life cops and robbers story.
- Read all about Marc's adventure in recouping his car here
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