KUOW Presents

Most people know about singer-songwriter LeRoy Bell  from his appearances in 2011 as one of the top performers on the network television singing competition, The X Factor. But long before televised competitions, LeRoy Bell was at the top of the pop music charts.

For 17 years, the Unabomber held the media spotlight as he planted and mailed bombs to people in order to gain publicity (UNABOM is an FBI acronymn derived from his UNiversity and Airline BOMb targets). He hoped to draw attention to his manifesto, a screed denouncing our adoration of technology.

For the most part, he failed. Upon his eventual discovery, much of  the press seemed distracted by his shaggy appearance, the tiny cabin where he lived and his unusual habits. One newspaper piped incredulously: Lacking a car, he rode an old bicycle into town! He spread feces on his garden! (Could it have simply been composted manure?)

Now, a professor at University of Michigan is trying to revive some of Kaczynski’s ideas without the violence. He reached Kaczynski by mail in the Unabomber’s maximum security prison cell. Over the years, the professor and his infamous pen pal have explored and updated Kaczynski’s ideas in a collection of letters and published them in a book. But can Kaczynski The Philosopher be separated from Kaczynski The Terrorist? Or did Kaczynski’s willingness to kill those who disagreed with him reveal a fatal flaw at the core of his philosophy?

Other stories on KUOW Presents, Thursday, March 21:

Father Bernard Lynch says there’s no vow in which Catholic priests promise not to be gay. But that didn’t make Lynch's life any easier. He and other gay and lesbian Catholics in New York City had to hold their own Eucharist (communion) in secret in another church.

It wasn’t until the AIDS crisis, when people suffering from emergent disease couldn’t get comfort from the church, that Bernard discovered why he’d remained a priest through all those years of adversity.

Other stories on KUOW Presents, Wednesday, March 20:

If an architect on planet earth wants to design a home, he or she must work with the same basic elements designers have used for centuries: floors, walls, and ceilings.

That all changed when designers began planning dwelling units for astronauts. In zero gravity, there’s no up, no down, no reason to distinguish floors from walls from ceilings! Every surface was a potential light source, dinner table (just add Velcro) or toilet (please don't mix them up). But the astronauts living in those spaces had a much different take on that design revolution.

It turns we need more than our basic biological needs met in order to feel comfortable. We need a view of the horizon, we need light overhead (like the sun) and we need the ritual of sitting down at a proper table to share a meal together. The more alien the environment, the more reminders we need of our humanity.

99% Invisible explores design for astronauts, today on KUOW Presents.

Other stories on KUOW Presents, Tuesday, March 19:

It’s a popular model for charities these days: “one for one.” Buy something for yourself and a needy African somewhere will receive the same. That strategy has made charities like TOMS shoes wildly successful. Customers who buy the shoes often feel they’re patronizing a different sort of company. But this sort of giving might actually be doing more harm than good.
 

Other stories on KUOW Presents, Monday, March 18:

Peggy was a profiler, by trade. Sometimes, for her work, she had to judge someone’s character in under two minutes. She’d practiced that skill for 26 years.

When she was home, her daughter Liza would introduce Peggy to the boys she was dating at the time. Peggy would size them up, and immediately make a judgment. But Peggy differed from other mothers in an important way: She was always right.

That realization led Liza to embrace her mother’s special skills. And the two of them teamed up together, in a very public way, to find Liza the right guy.

Other stories from KUOW Presents, Thursday, March 14:

Hugh Sykes has covered Iraq for the BBC since 2003. In that time, he’s had to maintain a journalist’s distance. In part two of this special documentary, he returns to Basra and visits many of the Iraqis he met as a war correspondent.

From the opening chorus of frogs in a swamp (Saddam’s dams having been breached like those on the Elwha river), to the closing regrets of a young woman who cannot walk the streets alone, the journalist's deep connection to these people shines through and helps us understand how someone could love a place like Basra.

Other Stories on KUOW Presents, Wednesday, March 13:

In the former Soviet Union, a cult of the former dictator Joseph Stalin seems to be forming. Not in a religious sense. But the adoration his former subjects bestow upon him can sometimes reach a religious pitch. Russians know Stalin was responsible for many deaths, but they brush that aside. There's just seems to be something about a strong man.

Other stories on KUOW Presents, Tuesday, March 12:

It can be hard to know how to respond to tragedies on the scale of the Newtown, Conn. shooting. We want to do something, but what?

What began as widespread protests in response to a brutal gang rape have evolved into a movement. Its object is to change the way women are treated in India. PRI's Rhitu Chatterjee  profiles one girl who seems to represent where girls in India have been - and where they're heading.

Other stories on KUOW Presents, Monday, March 11: