Our Thanksgiving special is here, and we’re ready to help you with the big day! We take your calls with special guest co-hosts Jet Tila and Cheryl Day and share recipes and ideas from J. Kenji López-Alt, Sohla El-Waylly, Mary Giuliani, Stacey Mei Yan Fong, Meathead and Nigella Lawson. The Sporkful’s Dan Pashman makes the case for why you should celebrate on Friday this year, and our friends from “A Way With Words” tell us the best ways to give thanks to the chef. Plus, host Christopher Kimball gives a special lesson in making the best Thanksgiving pie you’ll ever try.

Well, it’s Thanksgiving, a holiday that revolves around family, football, and most importantly, food. So on this Afterglow special, we’re going to chow down on some food-related songs from the Great American Songbook. Ahead this hour, we’ll hear some odes to beans, cornbread, meat, and potatoes by some guys named Louis. Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, and Louis Prima, that is. Nat King Cole will also get in on the food-song fun. And we’ll hear a few songs saluting feasting together at home, sung by Kay Starr and Cab Calloway.

Massasoit was the leader of the Wampanoag Confederacy when English settlers landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.  He and his people kept the Pilgrims from starving in the early years of their settlement, attended the first Thanksgiving and forged a peace treaty with the English that lasted 40 years until his death.  We'll talk with American Indian scholars Darius Coombs and Bob Charlesbois who'll fill in the details of this Native American leader's attempt to make peace for his people and with the new strangers.   Also, Native American film director Chris Eyre on his portrayal of Massasoit for the 2009 PBS television series We Shall Remain.

Thanksgiving special featuring the classic holiday mix: "A Shortcut Back Home". with Neil Young, Fats Waller, Vera Ellen, James Stewart, Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, The Kinks, John Travolta, Billie Burke, Bert Lahr, Elvis Costello, Ray Bolger, Judy Garland, W.C. Fields, Carole King, The Beatles, Vivian Leigh, Clark Gables, and much more 

A lot of folks scratch their heads over the concept of a Thanksgiving themed Blues radio program; but when you boil it down to its essence, it comes down to simply playing songs about food, family, and gratitude - and there is certainly no shortage of songs dealing with those topics.

This week's installment of Full-Time Blues Radio is a cornucopia filled with an abundance of great Blues music that won't make you sleepy after you consume it! The featured selection from inside "Johnny's Mailbox" is the title cut from Freddie Vanderford's album Greasy Greens. The album was released in 2010, but conveniently arrived this week at our studios.

Full-Time Blues Radio is the home for new and independent Blues music. The weekly series is hosted by "Johnny Full-Time" and features new material by today's stars, tomorrow's legends, and self-produced indie artists. In addition, each week we dig inside "Johnny's Mailbox" to spotlight a new album that just arrived in the last seven days.

More information, archived artist interviews, and much more can be found online at http://www.fulltimeblues.com

Most of us say "thank you" dozens of times a day, but how often do we really mean it?   And why do we feel so hurt if we're not thanked?
In this week of giving thanks, we present Margaret Visser discussing her book The Gift of Thanks. Visser discusses how and why we're taught to say thanks, how different cultures express thanks, and she offers a brief history of
gratitude. 

'Debts of Gratitude' is a variety of light hearted conversations and a retelling of experiences about the way we say "Thank You" and why sometimes we don't say it at all.  

Lost opportunities to say thank you. How does an anonymous organ donor ever say thank you to the person who gave them a second chance at life?  When Canadian actor Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy) made her thank-you speech at the Golden Globes, who did she struggle to remember?  Also, hear about the etiquette of "thank you" in North America, and how it contrasts with the customs of some folks from Somalia, Iran and Burma. 

Hosted by the CBC's Alan Neal, 'Debts of Gratitude' is a Thanksgiving Program that won silver at the 2010 New York Festivals Radio Program and Promotion Awards.

Kaleidoscope's "I Remember Radio Series": A delightful nostalgic account of the heyday of radio with all the legendary performers, music, drama, commercials, comedy, newsmakers and newscasters, the soaps, the songs, the bands, the kid's shows, the horror and sci-fi programs, the mysteries, the public service presentations.

This 45 minute program features selections from "The Stan Freberg Show," "The Jack Benny Show," and "Our Miss Brooks" for a Golden Age of Radio Thanksgiving.

World-renowned naturalist Joe Hutto, subject of the Emmy winning BBC documentary "My Life As a Turkey", discusses how he became a wild turkey mother in the hammocks of Florida. Plus: Fourth-generation pilot Eric Walden gives a play-by-play of the ninja-like moves of the wild turkey—mid-air.  And: The once-scorned bronze-feathered turkey is making a comeback, with the help of organic, free-range farmers like Paul Kelly. Also: Jay Sullivan sends his students off to Thanksgiving Break with a poem about a young engineer’s ingenuity and of course, a turkey.

Massasoit was the leader of the Wampanoag Confederacy when English settlers landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.  He and his people kept the Pilgrims from starving in the early years of their settlement, attended the first Thanksgiving and forged a peace treaty with the English that lasted 40 years until his death.  We'll talk with American Indian scholars Darius Coombs and Bob Charlesbois who'll fill in the details of this Native American leader's attempt to make peace for his people and with the new strangers.   Also, Native American film director Chris Eyre on his portrayal of Massasoit for the 2009 PBS television series We Shall Remain.

This program is also available on PRX in 59:00 and 54:00 lengths.

Many of us have our favorite cookbooks, complete with dog-eared, sauce-stained pages. But cookbooks can be more than just a source of recipes; lavishly illustrated cookbooks transport us to faraway places. Classic cookbooks serve as cultural artifacts of their time and place, and cookbooks with stories may engross us as much as novels do. James Buzard takes us back to nineteenth-century England and a Victorian classic, _Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management_; Doris Witt talks about early African American cookbooks and Verta Mae Grosvenor's _Vibration Cooking_; and cookbook reviewer Sukey Howard talks about contemporary cookbooks and what they offer in addition to recipes. Well-suited to Thanksgiving. Fifteen- and thirty-second promos available.

In Virginia, there are eleven Indian tribes, some several thousand people in all. Yet the United States doesn’t believe they exist. The seeds of this denial were planted in the early years of the last century by one man with a narrow vision and unrestrained power. Charles McGuigan recently visited the Indian Council Grounds in Charles City, Virginia and heard the story from one of the assistant chiefs of the Chickahominy tribe.

Thanksgiving is the favorite holiday for many Americans, but what is it like for those who are from other countries and celebrate it too? This piece gives you a glimpse of how special American Thanksgiving is to foreigners.

From turkey farm to supermarket, the life and death of a turkey.

Commentator Andrew Lam remembers his first Thanksgiving in America, when he was a teenage refugee, fleeing war in his native Vietnam.But it was neither American history lessons nor Puritan cuisine that taught him the meaning of the holiday.... (this is a debut piece)

Most Thanksgiving dinner tables are where we hear fun family stories, some involving memorable holiday meals of the past. But for graphic designer and writer Jeffery Rudell, one crazy Thanksgiving in particular stands out in his mind. He told this story at a Moth Story Slam, and it has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and on All Things Considered.

Hear more Moth Radio Hour stories and get the shows for broadcast here.

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About Jeffery Rudell:
A graphic designer and writer, Rudell is currently writing a series of books for Sterling Publishing.  He won The Moth's annual Story Slam championship in 2003 and was a featured performer on the National Storytelling Tour in 2007.  He has performed his stories at the New York Public Library, the Long Wharf Theater and The Player's Club, and they can be heard on National Public Radio and the Moth CD's Audience Favorites, Vol 1 and Love Hurts.  Rudell live in New York City with his partner, Albert.

Both parties want to cut food aid to the poor -- they just differ on how much.  House Republicans want a $40 billion  cut.  Senate Democrats want $4 billion. Whatever they choose, it’ll be on top of the loss these families suffered when a 2009 temporary increase ran out November 1st.