2011 December | Here & Now

The Wee Trio and more.

We may live in the age of the text and Tweet, but 2011 produced great essays. Author Edwidge Danticat takes us through some selections featured in her new book.

Ralph Hergert was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in May of 2009. But it was well before that when Ralph and his wife Leslie began feeling the enormous impacts of his memory loss.

The uprising that brought an end to the 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya began in the city of Benghazi, but some residents there feel they are already being left behind in the new Libya.

Steve Jobs obsessed over the design of his products. Designer Gadi Amit says it goes beyond beauty, design is about function and movement.

Scott Rasmussen is the pollster that Republicans love to quote. He tells us how he thinks both the Tea Party and establishment Republicans will vote.

From REM to Bonobo.

Here & Now producer Alex Ashlock says he got to produce segments with many of his musical heroes this year, from David Bromberg to Steve Earle.

Karen Russell’s debut novel was picked as one of 2011′s best, centering around a family who runs an alligator theme park in Florida’s Everglades.

Alzheimer’s kills more Americans annually than breast and prostate cancer combined, but research into the disease gets a fraction of what’s allotted to cancer–Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey is trying to change that.

From the Raymond Davis incident to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan soured in 2011.

University of Iowa professor Stephen Bloom describes a state with major issues, and wonders whether it should hold so much sway in the presidential race.

From Massive Attack to Donald Fagen.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is popular with young people, even though it includes sexual violence against women.

Scientists are identifying the bio-markers for Alzheimer’s and can now predict with reasonable certainty who is likely to get the disease years before symptoms occur.

Five people were killed on Christmas when fire swept through their home in Stamford, Connecticut. Officials say the fire started when embers from a fireplace were thrown in a bag.

The demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea is about a quarter the size of Yellowstone Park and one expert says it could become a highway for refugees if North Korea collapses.

The United Nations estimates a quarter of the population of North Korea is starving, even though things have slightly improved since the famine of the 90s.

Republicans are flooding the airwaves ahead of next Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses.

We look back on the biggest stories of 2011– from the Arab Spring uprisings, to the end of the Iraq War.