OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Middle Distance, 11/9/12: “Honey, It’s Jest Foo-ood”

On November 9, 2012 By

The Middle Distance 11.9.12: “Honey, It’s Jest Foo-ood”

In a parallel life, I think I might have been a cafeteria lady, baking industrial sized trays of yeast rolls every morning in a stainless steel kitchen, ladeling out clouds of mashed potatoes and smothering them with milk gravy.
Last Sunday I spent [...]

Continue Reading →
Gowanus Rainbow

The Middle Distance, 11/2/12: On The Worrying End

On November 1, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn wonders where to best place her worry during the Frankenstorm.

Continue Reading →
henriksen-chalkboard-510x338

The Middle Distance 10/26/12: Doin’ the Math

On October 26, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn embraces the obsessive mathematics of aging.

Continue Reading →
The Denver City Battery with their Gatling Guns, December 1896. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. Image Number: 257-7892.

The Middle Distance, 10/19/12: The Things We Don’t Want to Talk About

On October 18, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn tugs at the long tail of gun violence and its current literature.

Continue Reading →
“At Prayer? by Myron Wood, November 1965. Copyright Pikes Peak Library District, courtesy of Special Collections. Image Number: 002-5960.

The Middle Distance, 10/12/12: The Struggle for Faith

On October 12, 2012 By

In this week’s Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn ruminates on the struggle for faith.

Continue Reading →
Nasturtiums

The Middle Distance, 10/5/12: October Light

On October 5, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn gathers seeds from her garden and remembers the autumn of her twins’ birth.

Continue Reading →
DanChile

The Middle Distance, 9/28/12: A Hand for Farmer Dan

On September 28, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn celebrates locavore and farmer Dan Hobbs on the occasion of his Palmer Land Trust Conservation Award.

Continue Reading →
"Halloween Celebrants" by Stan Payne, October 30, 1953. Courtesy of Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. Image Number: 004-10648.

The Middle Distance, 9/21/12: The Season of Disappearing

On September 21, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn sees her late sister through the eyes of a ghost costume.

Continue Reading →
[Unidentified School], date and photographer unknown. Courtesy of Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. Image Number: 001-2429.

The Middle Distance, 9/14/12: Back to School

On September 14, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn walks back into her second grade classroom.

Continue Reading →
Civil Rights image

The Middle Distance, 9/7/12: Embarrassing to Remember

On September 7, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn unearths a moment in civil rights history that happened right under her nose.

Continue Reading →
anneardenm_na__57

The Middle Distance 8/31/12: Toy Camera

On August 31, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn looks through the blurry lens of a toy camera into the past.

Continue Reading →
phyllis-diller

The Middle Distance, 8/24/12: May You Always Be

On August 23, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn stares into the eyes of a toothless flasher in a dirty raincoat.

Continue Reading →
Children playing jump rope in the Children's Folklore Area at the 1985 Florida Folk Festival - White Springs, Florida, State Archives of Florida, Floriday Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/110365.

The Middle Distance 8/17/12: Barefooter

On August 17, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn spreads her toes across years of shoeless memories.

Continue Reading →
moonrise-kingdom2

The Middle Distance 8.10.12: Memory of a Fantasy

On August 10, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn ties two summer films together with the unlikely string of far-fetched fantasy.

Continue Reading →
Cybill Shepherd Miss Teenage Memphis

The Middle Distance 8/3/12: What Was I Thinking

On August 3, 2012 By


(Cybil Shepherd, center, after winning the Miss Teenage Mephmis Pageant in 1966)

The Middle Distance 8.5.11: What Was I Thinking?

What was I thinking? I was 15 years old and had moved with my family from the small town of Jackson to the big city of Memphis. I didn’t know anyone, [...]

Continue Reading →
Estes

The Middle Distance, 7/27/12: Foot-Shuffling Days

On July 27, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn commemorates the 5th anniversary of her son’s death in the wake a summer of difficult news.

Continue Reading →
FULL_BODY_BURDEN_final_jacket_3-8-2012_JPEG-330

The Middle Distance 7/20/12: The Costs of Secrecy

On July 20, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn’s 100th column for KRCC’s The Big Something, she looks at a new book that examines the long term physical and psychic costs of Rocky Flats.

Continue Reading →
"Children at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind" by Harry L. Standley, 1927. Courtesy of Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. Image Number: 102-4798.

The Middle Distance, 7/13/12: The Parentless Days of Summer

On July 13, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn recalls the joys and dangers inherent in the summertime of her youth.

Continue Reading →
[Grazing Deer] by Myron Wood, April 1965. Image Number: 002-1255.

The Middle Distance, 7/6/12: From the Fire

On July 6, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn finds more than smoke in the fire.

Continue Reading →
Bird Saviors

The Middle Distance, 6/29/12: Under the Weather

On June 29, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn takes us inside the pages of a near future that looks a lot like the smoldering West outside our windows.

Continue Reading →
"Mary Horada Fruit Stand, Swink" by Myron Wood, October 1973. Copyright Pikes Peak Library District. Image Number: 002-3032.

The Middle Distance, 6/22/12: Beans and Peas

On June 22, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn dispels some common myths about southern cooking.

Continue Reading →
hibiscus

The Middle Distance, 6/15/12: A Long Time Coming

On June 15, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn returns to her mother’s home in Galveston and the far side of change.

Continue Reading →
"Memphis Band and Orchestra," date and photographer unknown. Courtesy of Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. Image Number: 102-11388.

The Middle Distance, 6/8/12: Down Home

On June 8, 2012 By

In this week’s episode of The Middle Distance, Kathryn Eastburn continues her summer road trip home to Memphis and through the south.

Continue Reading →

News

EPA /Landov
Russian Official Names CIA Station Chief In Moscow
May 18, 2013 | NPR · The breach of protocol comes after Russia expelled an American diplomat they said was a spy. Analysts said the potential outing is an escalation.
 

AFP/Getty Images
The Unsafe Sex: Should The World Invest More In Men’s Health?
May 18, 2013 | NPR · The world’s top health problems are more common in men than women. But recent global funding has been skewed toward women’s issues. Some health economists say more effort should go toward stopping men’s risky behaviors, like smoking and drinking.
 

EPA/Landov
Immigration Bill Chugs Along, But Some See Deal-Breakers
May 18, 2013 | NPR · The bipartisan immigration overhaul proposed by the Senate’s Gang of Eight has been the target of scores of amendments. So far, the bill has largely held its own, but its prospects for getting through Congress are uncertain.
 

Arts & Life

Courtesy Alice Cooper
Not My Job: Three Headless Chicken Questions For Alice Cooper
May 18, 2013 | NPR · We’ve invited the heavy metal rocker to answer three questions about Mike, a chicken in the 1940s who lost his head and still went on to achieve fame and fortune.
 

‘That’s That’: A Memoir Of Loving And Leaving Northern Ireland
May 18, 2013 | NPR · Colin Broderick’s new memoir, That’s That, chronicles his childhood in Northern Ireland during the modern-day “Troubles.” Broderick says growing up in what was essentially a war zone seemed normal to him at the time.
 

AP
Working Women On Television: A Mixed Bag At Best
May 18, 2013 | NPR · Research shows that prime-time television isn’t a bad place to find portrayals of working women. Working moms and working women over 40 are another story.
 

Music

After Health Issues, Influential Conductor Back At Met Opera
May 18, 2013 | NPR · Host Scott Simon speaks with New York Times classical music critic Anthony Tommasini about conductor James Levine’s return to the Metropolitan Opera after a series of health problems kept him away for two years.
 

Courtesy of the artist
Ana Popovic Shreds The Belgrade Blues
May 18, 2013 | NPR · The Serbian guitarist fell in love with American blues music as a kid — well before she could understand the words.
 

Courtesy of the artist
Audra McDonald, A Broadway Star Gone Roaming, Comes Home
May 18, 2013 | NPR · After extended jaunts in TV and on the road, McDonald’s first new album in seven years marks a return to her roots in musical theater.
 

Get the KRCC iPhone App

The Writer's Almanac

Radiolab