Yasmeen is a Yemeni-American high school senior with big dreams. Dr. Guy Royston is her science teacher with a mysterious past. When Yasmeen asks Dr. Royston for an important favor, it sets off a series of events that challenges their core beliefs about science, faith and the nature of love. Includes a conversation with playwright Laura Maria Censabella.

Directed by Anna Lyse Erikson
Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg
Starring Jeff Marlow as Dr. Guy Royston and Medalion Rahimi as Yasmeen al-Hamadi

Paradise is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays. Lead funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, bridging science and the arts in the modern world.

We profile Dorothy Day — a remarkable 20th century figure: journalist and founder of the “Catholic Worker” movement, which established soup kitchens and “houses of hospitality” in the Great Depression. More than 200 Catholic worker facilities remain in operation today. Hear the provocative story of her social activism and inspiring spiritual beliefs.

When Pope Francis addressed Congress in 2015, he cited four great Americans: President Abraham Lincoln, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., writer and activist Dorothy Day and theologian Thomas Merton. Ms. Day, who died in 1980 at age 83, was a remarkable 20th century figure: journalist and founder of the “Catholic Worker” movement, which established soup kitchens and “houses of hospitality” in the Great Depression. More than 200 Catholic worker facilities remain in operation today.

In this profile, we hear excerpts of a talk by Dorothy Day, along with recollections by her youngest grandchild, Kate Hennessy, a Vermont resident, who recently published a moving family memoir, The World Will Be Saved By Beauty for which she reconstructed the Dorothy Day story. Also heard is Kathe McKenna, co-founder of Haley House in Boston, a Catholic Worker hospitality center, inspired by the life and work of Dorothy Day. Today, more than fifty years later, Haley House operates a soup kitchen, food pantry, and other services. Most recently, they opened Dudley Dough, an inner city workplace that offers a living wage and for customers, healthy pizza.

This time on Peace Talks Radio, a 2006 conversation with Northern Ireland Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire. Mairead Corrigan Maguire founded the Community of the Peace People in 1976 along with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown. Mairead was the aunt of the three Maguire children who were hit by a runaway car after its driver was shot by a soldier. The deaths prompted a series of marches throughout Northern Ireland and further afield, all demanding an end to the violence plaguing her country at the time. Mairead and Betty went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.

In this program, Maguire recalls her peace work and talks with host Carol Boss about how the principles of nonviolence can be applied to conflicts around the world and in daily life.

In part two of the program, previously un-aired Peace Talks Radio conversations about mediation programs for middle school students, a verbal technology called non-violent communication, efforts to institutionalize peace in our governing bodies and the quest for inner peace in a post-9/11 world.  .

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life is a paradigm of the American immigrant experience. In one generation, she rose from the daughter of Jewish immigrants to a seat on the Supreme Court. Born in 1933, she credits much of her early success to the influence of her mother, who gave her two pieces of advice: Always be a lady, and be independent. Justice Ginsburg tells Larry Josephson the surprising story that when she graduated at the top of her class from Columbia Law School in 1959 no one would hire her because, as she says, she was a "woman, Jewish and mother." She also recounts her experience with anti-Semitism: as a child she saw a sign on a boarding house that advised, "no dogs or Jews allowed." This conversation offers a rare personal look into the life of a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court: her struggles against gender discrimination, anti-Semitism and severe illness (her mother died of cancer, both she and her husband survived it). Justice Ginsburg, one of the Court's centrist liberals, explains her philosophy of judicial restraint. A fascinating look at a role model for women and minorities, as well as an American success story of upward mobility. Highly topical given the two recent vacancies on the Court. Justice Ginsburg is possibly a swing vote on the new Court. The special is taken from the forthcoming series, "Only in America: A Celebration of the American Jewish Experience," a year-long project to celebrate the 350th Anniversary of the landing of the first Jews in New Amsterdam in September, 1654. A number of specials will be distributed throughout the year, and a six-part series will be distributed in the fall. The program is available in two versions: Evergreen (currently on the server) and A Women's History Month Special (with alternate introduction, available upon request). Both are news-friendly and contain a one-minute cutaway at midpoint. Stations that do not with to run the news can start the program at 6:00.

Stephanie Foo is known for her work on public radio programs such as “Snap Judgment” and “This American Life.” She’s also a columnist, and has now written a book, called “What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma.” Stephanie appeared at a virtual National Writers Series to talk about her book, and also about disability activist Alice Wong, and her memoir “Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life.” She spoke with teacher, columnist, and disability advocate Susan Odgers.