Tuesday      
January 19, 2010
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Massachusetts Voters Head to the Polls

Reports from the field indicate that in many polling places, Massachusetts voters are turning out in droves to cast ballots in the special election to fill Edward Kennedy’s senate seat. Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown are locked in a pitched battle that political pundits are calling a referendum on President Obama’s plans for health care reform, which hangs in the balance. We speak with Here and Now’s Monica Brady-Myerov.

Drug Official Calls for Treating Addiction like Chronic Illness

We don’t use the phrase “War on Drugs” much these days. The new drug czar, Gil Kurlikowske, wants to shift the focus from the law enforcement to prevention and treatment. Both he and his second-in-command, A. Thomas McClellan, know about addiction. Both have family members who have struggled with it, and Dr. McLellan lost a son to addiction. We speak to Dr. McLellan about his work and research.

Haiti Day 7

The latest from Haiti as thousands of people have queued up outside the U.S. Embassy desperate to leave, while thousands more continue to leave the capital. The BBC’s Matthew Price reports on the latest situation in and around Port au Prince.

  • Here & Now’s Cristina Quinn visited a Haitian Church and met with relief organizers in Boston to see how people in the third largest Haitian community in the U.S. are responding to the crisis.  You can find her video below.

Private Firms Take up Rescue and Security Operations in Haiti

Private search and rescue teams are operating in Haiti searching for specific people who are missing. We speak with Dan Richards of Global Rescue, one of the firms that’s in Haiti now.

A Conversation with Guitarist Julian Lage

We reprise our conversation guitarist and composer Julian Lage. At the age of 21, he released his debut album “Sounding Point”, which has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz album.

Music from the show

  • Dntel, “Last Songs”
  • Christian McBride, “Theme for Kareem”
  • Charles Mingus, “Open Letter to Duke”
  • Clint Mansell, “Farewell”
  • The Wee Trio, “Flint”
  • Kar-Kar Madison, “Boubacar Traore”
  • Freddie Hubbard, “Gibraltar”
  • Julian Lage “All Purpose Beginning”
  • Julian Lage “Familiar Posture”
  • Julian Lage, Chris Thile, and Bela Fleck “The Informant”
  • Julian Lage “Clarity”
  • Keith Nelson

    My college-age son just told me that he wasn’t going to vote because he had been told that he could not unless he had “specially” registered by Dec 31. This rumor is not an accident! It is straight out of the Republican playbook to plant deceptions (or in some parts of the country, to set up police roadblocks to allegedly check for drunk drivers) designed to keep likely opponents away from the polls. Please let folks know that if they are registered to vote in any election, they can vote in this one.

  • Mark

    With regard switching course on our “war on drugs,” what the speaker is saying makes perfectly good and logical sense. The problem is, the alcohol and pharma lobbies are way too powerful to expect much to change. It doesn’t matter that pharma opiates are the second leading causes of accidental death in the country. Too much money’s made. Call me jaded, but this is America. $ first. Always.

  • David Frances

    Hi -
    You played a solo piano to accompany the close of today’s show. It was terrific. Who was that?
    Thanks for doing such a great job today, and every other day, for that matter.
    David Frances

  • Eric Gorman

    Dr. McClellan uses the example of prescription opiates to justify keeping marijuana illegal, citing in particular the number of fatalities due to opiate overdose. As a pathologist who performs forensic autopsies, I can attest first hand to the commonality of death due to opiate overdose, accidental and otherwise. I have yet to see a fatal case of marijuana overdose. In fact, I am unaware of any case of hospitalization due to marijuana overdose. And you failed to address the cost to society of keeping offenders convicted of marijuana posession in jail, to say nothing of the cost these individuals and their families incur do to the overzealous prosecution of people who use marijuana, which is, as Nixon himself managed to establish, basically harmless.

  • Rev.Bob Knoll

    I felt that Dr. Mclellan insulted my intelligence twice,!st by suggesting that we could “introduce” a drug that is already widely used(legally in 13 states),Second when he compared marijuana with pharma opiates.Oxicontin is twice as addictive as heroin,Marijuana is only connected with psycological dependancy,much like his dependancy on our outdated war on drugs.

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Friday, May 18, 2012
A Road Trip Along Italy’s Ancient Appian Way
The Appian Road, in the Monti Aurunci area of Italy. (Robert Kaster/University of Chicago Press)

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Friday, May 18, 2012
A Firsthand View Of A Suicide Bomb In Afghanistan
(Michael M. Phillips/Wall Street Journal)

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Thursday, May 17, 2012
John Fullbright May Be Okemah, Okla.’s Next Musical Son
Musician John Fullbright at Here & Now studios at WBUR in Boston. (Jesse Costa/Here & Now)

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