Audio by Adam

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:29 — 5.9MB)

Down a couple of old Maryland country roads that barely show up on state maps you’ll find Grandma Cora, an elderly African American lady who is known throughout those parts for her delicious sweet potato pies, which she lovingly backs on her old stove and sells to make ends meet nicely. I spent an afternoon with Grandma Cora for this “Women in Business” story, and got both happier and fatter as a result.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:24 — 13.2MB)

A gumshoe is hired find to find God. Straight radio theater comedy I adapted, directed and produced based on the classic Woody Allen story.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:16 — 2.4MB)

The Bible says that a woman’s hair is a glory to her, and they take that quite literally at several African American beauty salons that are springing up in the Washington DC and other urban areas.  Come with me on my visit to a salon where being “born again,” amazing hair-dos and “prayerful” and joyous sisterhood intertwine in a sacred (often musical) weave.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:19 — 7.6MB)

A Dateline report recorded about two months into 2002 with the work crews tasked with clearing the debris from Ground Zero, sorting through it for human remains, and making it ready to be put on barges to be floated for disposal in Fresh Kill. The stress, sadness and nobility of the men there were quite amazing.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:53 — 4.7MB)

Americans were shocked by the boldness of the graft and other crimes allegedly committed by indicted former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and by the 20-plus politicians and others indicted for corruption in New Jersey recently. But corruption is nothing new in American politics, although the scope and definitions of corruption have changed over time.  This piece, which features Harvard University (and New Yorker Magazine writer) Jill Lepore and others, takes the long view.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:24 — 4.9MB)

Einstein may have had one of history’s most enviable cerebaums, but its post-mortem wherabouts were a mystery until an intrepid reporter found out about the weirdo pathologist who stole them at the physicist’s autopsy. He offered to drive the doctor and the the brain from New Jersey to the California to return it. This is a report on their very, very weird road trip.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:56 — 4.5MB)

For nearly 60 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder has combined an environmental awareness shaped by America’s Far West with a Zen Buddhist perspective that celebrates and reveres the natural world.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:11 — 3.8MB)

I was living in Washington at the time of the September 11th 2001 attacks, but was able to get the first train into Manhattan when the island opened on the morning of September 12th. I worked 17 hours a day in the week following, chronicling the human impact of the World Trade Center attacks on the city I love and have always loved. This story was one of several I filed in those first days.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:01 — 7.3MB)

Adam went down to the coal-rich mountains of the southern Appalachian mountains, where “hillbillies” are presumed to live.  Through on-site interviews and a survey look at American pop culture, he examines the hillbilly stereotype, its roots and impact.

Valentine’s Day is usually associated in the public mind with candy and lots of pink hearts. But beneath the fun and frippery lies a core human need — to feel loved, cherished and cared for by one’s romantic partner. I spoke with a random sampling of happily-bonded everyday Americans about the things that make their hearts feel full.