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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 64 (2-12)

Compiled By: KUT

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KUT's O’Dark 30 heads into the unknown this week with the best from the world of independent radio production. Every Sunday at midnight on Austin's KUT 90.5 and also at 4pm on digital KUT2 we present 3 hours of a little bit of everything from the world of independent radio production.

Episode 64 (2-12) includes Clever Apes: Apes in Space...Seth's Garage...Neither A Borrower Nor A Lender Be...Memoir Cafe: Episode 26...America Abroad: European Dis-Union...My Mother vs. The Streets...Jeff in Boston: Halfrican...Nonsense At Work: Buy Some Respect

Clever Apes: Apes in space

From WBEZ | Part of the WBEZ's Clever Apes series | 12:59

In this episode, host Gabriel Spitzer considers what science has to learn from flying saucers, what it might take for humans to colonize space in our lifetimes, and how a very clever ape helped launch the space race.

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Few things have changed humanity’s self-image in quite the same way as human space travel. Whether it’s seeing that famous image of the blue-green ball spinning through blackness or the rise of UFO sightings, reaching space has rejiggered how we imagine our place in the universe.

We begin this installment of Clever Apes with a remembrance of J. Allen Hynek, perhaps the best-known American ufologist … or at least, the best-known ufologist with an actual science background. He chaired the astronomy department at Northwestern University, and worked as a consultant on the Air Force’s official UFO investigation, Project Blue Book. Along the way, he transformed from skeptic to believer. As a debunker, he was the first person to write off UFO sightings as “swamp gas.” Later, as a full-throated UFO enthusiast, he invented the “close encounters” classification system. Incidentally, he consulted on Steven Spielberg’s movie, and even has a cameo. 

Next we consider what it would take to kickstart human settlement of space, and along the way we ask what it takes to get people to do big things. I mean really big. Like build a 10,000-person space colony within the next 10 years or so. Anita Gale is an engineer at Boeing who works on the space shuttle program, and she’s done some deep thinking about those questions. She also runs a contest for high school kids to design a plausible space settlement. We caught up with her at the International Space Development Conference in Rosemont, Illinois, to talk space real estate.

Finally, we honor the contributions of one very clever ape to the space program. Fifty years ago, HAM the Astrochimp became the first ape in space. 

Neither A Borrower Nor A Lender Be

From The humble Farmer | 01:00

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Humbleoats_small I have aphorisms by the number, heartaches by the score --- a country and western song

Memoir Cafe: Episode 26

From Gary Smith | 25:56

Episode 26: A pot pourri of stories by women about men!

Default-piece-image-1 Created for community station WOOL in Bellows Falls, VT, Memoir Caf? is a weekly program hosted by Stephanie Montgomery. In each episode Stephanie reads a number of stories from her online writing workshop www.memoircaf?.com which is a community of women writing stories from their lives. All stories on Memoir Caf? are cleared for broadcast and all interstitial music is represented by ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Once a month, Stephanie interviews a published author in the field of memoir writing. The stories are fresh, the experience is unique, and though some of the authors whose stories are read are already published, almost everything you will hear on Memoir Caf? is being heard here for the first time. This week's stories: Your Behavior Young Lady, Silence!, Games Men and Boys Play, Roading, Michael and His Motorcycle

My Mother vs. The Streets

From Radio Rookies | 08:20

In the past, hanging out with boys has gotten Jacuyra into trouble. But as a 16-year-old who doesn't often think about the consequences of her actions, Jacuyra would love nothing more than to head back out to "The Ave", if only her mother would let her.

Jacuyra_small If her strict, Panamanian mother would allow it, Jacuyra would hang out all the time on Franklin Avenue in her Brooklyn neighborhood--because that's where all the boys are. In the past, hanging out with boys has gotten Jacuyra into trouble. But as a 16-year-old who doesn't often think about the consequences of her actions, Jacuyra would love nothing more than to head back out to "The Ave", if only her mother would let her.

Jeff's Diary: Halfrican

From Radio Diaries | Part of the Teenage Diaries series | 35:20

Jeff Rogers first recorded his Teenage Diary back in 1998 when he was a self identified 'halfrican.' He was thinking more and more about race and being forced to answer the question "What are you?"

Now, fifteen years later, Jeff no longer refers to himself as a 'halfrican,' in fact he is the founder of something called Mulatto History Month. Listen to the Radio Diaries podcast below to hear Joe Richman catch up with Jeff and hear a bit about what's happened in the past 15 years.

This story is part of the Teenage Diaries series produced by Radio Diaries for NPR.

Jeff_small More and more these days Jeff finds himself thinking about race and being forced to answer the question "What are you?" "When I was younger - you know my father's black, my mother's white - that's the way it was supposed to be: father meant black person, mother meant white person. Race had no bearing on anything. To me, two Asian people could just have a black kid. It made perfect sense when I was younger."

This story is part of the Teenage Diaries series produced by Radio Diaries for NPR. Since 1996, Executive Producer Joe Richman has been giving tape recorders to young people around the country to document their lives. In December of 2012, Radio Diaries will revisit five of the original diarists 16 years after their first recordings. The series is broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered.