"Mei Mei" is a 25 minute documentary that chronicles Dmae and her mother, Chu-Yin, as they travel to Taiwan together. Mei Mei is Chinese for "little sister" -- a term of endearment for any younger girl. First produced in 1989, Mei Mei was highly personal and groundbreaking for its time--interweaving interviews and dramatizations to tell the story of a conflicted daughter and her mother who suffered abuse, starvation and the horrors of World War Two. MEI MEI has been broadcast on NPR, the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The Journey of Lady Buddha" is a personal and historical exploration of cultural conflicts in spirituality and the search for the Asian Goddess of compassion and mercy, Kuan Yin, by Amerasian Radio Producer Dmae Roberts, creator of the Peabody-award-winning "Mei Mei: A Daughter's Song." With commentary by Dr. Chu-Fang Yu and readings by Actress Elaine Low, Giang Pham, Yuquin Wang and Ping Khaw-Sutherland and music by Composer Stephen Hoyt. Winner of the Heart of America award. This has been independently distributed to about 100 stations as part of the three-part series Legacies: Faith, Hope and Peace. "Lady Buddha" would work for Asian New Year (Feb. 9th), Women's History Month (March) and Asian Pacific American Heritage Monthe (May). Credits are included at the end of the piece and are read by former Oregon Symphony Conductor James DePriest.

On Mardi Gras Day, tourists line New Orleans' wide avenues to watch the grand parade floats. The celebration tourists rarely see takes place on the strrets and stoops of the Treme, Black Pearl and the Ninth Ward, some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Those are the parade grounds of New Orleans Black or Mardi Gras Indians. The Wild Magnolias, the Fi Yi Yi, altogether about 40 tribes march in elaborate costumes inspired by the noble Native Americans who were not enslaved by whites. , Some say the tradition reflects West African masking and dance rituals. While their numbers have diminished since Katrina, a number of tribes have recorded music through the years. Producer Virginia Prescott dusts off the stacks to hear the music of the Mardi Gras Indians.

Shabnam Ramaswamy runs an informal court of law in a small village in India. For the illiterate and the poor, India?s unwieldly, corrupt and slow justice system is inaccessible, so she has started her own court on the verandah of her home. There she arbitrates on cases ranging from murder and torture of women to dowrty negotiations and land arbitration. Shabnam is totally untrained in the law, but she uses folk stories, the different law structures in the area and her own common sense as guidelines.

CURRENT DATE PEG: In the early morning of January 9, 2005 acclaimed prison journalist Wilbert Rideau was granted freedom after 44 years behind bars. Rideau co-produced and narrated this documentary in 1988; Dave Isay has written new sample intro text to make it easy for stations to feature the documentary in recognition of Rideau's release. The Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola Prison, is a sprawling old plantation on the Mississippi River. It was named, long ago, for the birthplace of the slaves who were brought here to work the land. Now, Angola holds more than five-thousand prisoners, mostly African Americans. It still has the look of another time: long straight lines of black men march to work along the levees with shovels over their shoulders. They are trailed by guards on horseback, shotguns resting in their laps. It used to be that a life sentence in Louisiana meant a maximum of ten years and six months behind bars. But, in the 1970s, the state's politicians changed the definition. A life sentence in Louisiana now means just that. Unless they're pardoned by the Governor, inmates today know they will never again see the outside world -- that they will die inside Angola prison. Tossing Away the Keys is their story.

South Africa has the largest number of people with HIV/AIDS in the world. More than five million South Africans are HIV positive. Thembi is one of them. For the past year, she has been carrying a tape recorder and keeping an audio diary of her struggle to live with AIDS. For photographs, background information, and the AIDS Action Toolkit, visit: http://www.radiodiaries.org/?p=319 

Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, who was prosecuted and acquitted in 2006 for "insulting Turkishness" in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul, takes us on a tour of the steep, narrow street where she once lived and wrote. Shafak sees Kazanci Yokushu, the "Street of the Cauldron Makers," as a metaphor for Turkey's modern history -- a place where the nation's battles over identity, modernity, ethnicity and minority rights have played out in miniature over the decades. The piece was produced by Sandy Tolan with help from Melissa Robbins.

It's hot, middle of summer, everyone's out on their porches thinking about life. This version includes Baptist Church service music (better version). 3:30 and 6:45 Never Aired. PRX premier.

HE TOUCHED ME: ELVIS' GOSPEL MUSIC One-hour radio documentary about Elvis Presley's love for Gospel music, his roots in the church, and the stories behind his greatest Gospel recordings and performances. "Religion always played an important part of Elvis' life and quest of his purpose in life. He was a searcher of knowledge and is a much more intelligent person than has been documented in history so far." - Jerry Schilling MANY OF THE CLASSIC IMAGES OF ELVIS PRESLEY INVOLVE SOME SORT OF HIP SHAKING AND KNEE WOBBLING. AFTER ALL, HE WAS THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL, AND WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED IN HIS SHORT LIFE CHANGED MUSIC FOREVER. BUT ALL THROUGH HIS CAREER, THERE WAS A SECOND TRACK. ELVIS WON THREE GRAMMYS IN HIS LIFE, AND NONE OF THEM FOR ROCK AND ROLL. ALL THREE WERE FOR RELIGIOUS RECORDINGS. ELVIS SANG A LOT OF GOSPEL MUSIC, AND IN THE NEXT HOUR, WE'RE GOING TO HEAR HOW DEEP THOSE GOSPEL ROOTS RAN. WE'RE JOINED BY LIFELONG FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE JERRY SCHILLING, JOE MOSCHEO OF THE IMPERIALS QUARTET AND GORDON STOKER OF THE JORDANAIRES. Broadcast window begins on Friday April 6, in time for Easter weekend, and continues throughout the year in honor of the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death. Throughout this special, you will hear 20 of Elvis' best gospel recordings from all stages of his career. Songs are listed below (* = music bed or excerpt). *So High *Crying in the Chapel Swing Low, Sweet Chariot If the Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side *I, John Where Could I Go But To The Lord Milky White Way *His Hand in Mine Run On *Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho Take My Hand, Precious Lord Peace in the Valley *In My Father's House He Touched Me *Mansion on the Hill Amazing Grace You'll Never Walk Alone *Somebody Bigger Than You and I Bosom of Abraham *How Great Thou Art *So High All music is also featured on the new 2-CD set "Elvis Presley: Ultimate Gospel" in stores now from Sony BMG Music.

When The Beatles arrived in the United States in February of 1964, no one could have anticipated the tremendous impact the band would have on the development of American popular music and pop culture. Paul Ingles hosts The Beatles in America - 1964 and takes listeners back to when The Beatles and America first got to know one another. This lively two-hour montage features rarely heard archival audio, concert recordings, and new interviews with fans and reporters who were swept into The Beatles frenzy. Some of the recordings featured in this program haven't been played publicly in 40 years. They are available here because of Larry Kane and Art Schreiber, two reporters who made almost every stop of The Beatle's 1964 tour and had remarkable access to the band. Their interviews capture the boys'wonder, humor, and thoughtful analysis of the madness that was swirling around them and enveloping the nation. Ingles talks with historians and authors whose enthusiasm and excitement also reflects that phenomenal time. Naturally, The Beatles in America - 1964 includes plenty of hits from that year, but in true public radio form, it also showcases lesser-heard gems from early Beatle's albums that fans wore through. Join Paul Ingles for a thrilling walk down musical memory lane. Offered to PRI affiliates only in 2004. Now available to all public radio stations. Although produced for 40th anniversary of Beatles arrival in America, no specific mention of the anniversary is made so it plays as an evergreen of that remarkable first year of America's experience with the Beatles.

Each hour has an optional 5 minute "Segment 2" which can be deleted if you need a newscast friendly hour.

What's left after someone passes on? Photographs and phone messages. The reality of death hits hardest when the loved one no longer calls you on the phone. Every 100 days, Roberts saves the phone messages of her mom who passed away five years ago as a living memorial and as a way to still get a phone call from her mom. Memorial follows the caretaking and illness of Chu-Yin Roberts through the phone messages. This piece can be aired on Mother's Day or Memorial Day. Could also be appropriately during holidays for those who have lost loved ones. Also appropriate for Asian History Month in May. There is one minute of music tail to read credits to close a magazine show with.

Michael Palin presents a radio special about the Beatles? second movie Help!, which was first released in 1965. The film will be re-issued on DVD in November 2007 in a version that has fully restored the print to its original visual quality and with a soundtrack that has been upgraded with a surround sound mix. In this special programme, we hear comments from the Beatles recorded in 1965 plus director Richard Lester and actors Eleanor Bron and Victor Spinetti recall working with them. There are also amusing stories about the unusual circumstances of filming in the Bahamas and Austria from the group?s then road manager and later head of Apple, Neil Aspinall and the movie?s Costume Designer Julie Harris. The plot of the film revolves around members of an Eastern cult who chase after the bulbous red ring worn by Ringo, because without it they cannot make a human sacrifice to the goddess Kaili. With a nod to the popularity of the James Bond movies, a couple of eccentric scientists are also trying to steal it. As Michael Palin points out, the surreal dialogue and visual gags in the film were the kind of things that the Monty Python team later played with. All seven songs featured in the movie are heard in the radio show: ?Help!?, ?You?re Going To Lose That Girl?, ?You?ve Got To Hide Your Love Away?, ?Another Girl?, ?I Need You?, ?The Night Before? and ?Ticket To Ride?. Most songs are mimed performances in the film - with the group playing their instruments - but for ?Ticket To Ride?, the Beatles are shown fooling about on snow-covered mountains as they skied, curled and fell over! That startling sequence, in particular, has led to Richard Lester?s work with the Beatles being viewed as an inspiration for the style of music videos that caught the eye during the early days of MTV in the 1980s. Director Steve Barron, who first made his name with a succession of videos for artists such as Culture Club, The Human League and A-Ha confirms that influence in this programme. As we hear in the radio show, for all those involved in making Help! it was a remarkable experience; with the film?s new lease of life on DVD, their work with the Beatles now seems guaranteed to entertain generation after generation. There will be a commercial hour version, and a break-free hour for online or other use. Preferred broadcast window is weekend before release through weekend after release, November 2nd - 11th. If you plan to broadcast this special, or would like to receive the radio special on CD, please email to Nicole.Haldeman@emicap.com with air date and time. Product for on-air giveaways is also available.

In March, 1993, LeAlan Jones, thirteen, and Lloyd Newman, fourteen, collaborated with public radio producer David Isay to create the radio documentary Ghetto Life 101, their audio diaries of life on Chicago's South Side. The boys taped for ten days, walking listeners through their daily lives: to school, to an overpass to throw rocks at cars, to a bus ride that takes them out of the ghetto, and to friends and family members in the community. The candor in Jones and Newman's diaries brought listeners face to face with a portrait of poverty and danger and their effects on childhood in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Like Vietnam War veterans in the bodies of young boys, Jones and Newman described the bitter truth about the sounds of machine guns at night and the effects of a thriving drug world on a community. Ghetto Life 101 became one of the most acclaimed programs in public radio history, winning almost all of the major awards in American broadcasting, including: the Sigma Delta Chi Award, the Ohio State Award, the Livingston Award, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards for Excellence in Documentary Radio and Special Achievement in Radio Programming, and others. Ghetto Life 101 was also awarded the Prix Italia, Europe's oldest and most prestigious broadcasting award. It has been translated into a dozen languages and has been broadcast worldwide. A study guide, for teachers who want to share Ghetto Life 101 with their class, is available at: http://soundportraits.org/data/ghetto_life_study_guide.pdf

At the turn of the century until the 1930s in the cigar factories of Tampa and Ybor City, a well dressed man in a panama hat with a loud and beautiful voice sat atop a platform and read to the cigar workers as they rolled. These readers, known as Lectores de Tabaqueres, read Cervantes, Zola, Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Jules Verne... It was the voices and words of these lectores - before radio and mechanization, who informed, organized, and incited the cigar workers, who labored by hand 'til the 1930s, when both the rollers and readers were replaced by mechanization. A lost tradition of story and smoke.

One-hour documentary details the life and music of Sam Cooke through his own recordings and commentary his friends, family and friends. This program features music from throughout his career that displays the great bredth of his talent before his tragic death in 1964 at the age of 33 - from his gospel roots to his upbeat classic hits, and from his high energy live concerts to his recordings of late-night mood pieces. Interview subjects include R&B legend Bobby Womack, Sam's brother L.C. Cooke, and drummer Hal Blaine. Host: Joann Allen Producer: Paul Chuffo, Joyride Media Contact: Andy Cahn, 201-386-1736, cahnmedia@comcast.net Length: One hour with top/bottom of hour breaks Distribution: On CD with no built-in spots Broadcast Window: Nov 20 to Dec 31, 2005 Terms: Available to all stations at no cost Public Radio Satellite System Feed Details Program Number: 05-000-00964 Date: Tue, Nov 22, 2005 Time: 15:00 EST Length: 00:59 Uplink: WA Channel: A72.7 Mode: Stereo Contact: Andy Cahn - cahnmedia@comcast.net, 201-386-1736

Washington Post journalist, Ceci Connolly, explores the healthcare reform issue based on what she's learned from covering congress for 12 years.

British film maker Gurinder Chadha talks with Sandip Roy about her international blockbuster "Bend it Like Beckham". The film tells the story of a young Indian-British woman in England who dreams of playing soccer, while her traditional family wants her to learn to cook.

A trapeze star of the 1920s, his present-day counterpart and a colorful supporting cast reveal the heartbreak and gritty reality behind the tinsel: a story of death and daring under the Big Top. One :30 promo (click "listen" page, promo labeled "Segment 2")