http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-897099.mp3
Albany, NY – All of the fighting, the name calling and the hysteria that accompanied the passage of health care reform feels a bit apocalyptic - until you look at history. Today on 51%, we're looking back ninety years, to a vote that split the country apart - and now seems incredible. This marks the 90th anniversary of women's right to vote - and Producer Sandra Sleight-Brennan found that the story behind the story was one Tennessee representative who listened to his mother.
5:02 Women's Vote
Sandra Sleight-Brennan is an award winning independent producer. She lives in Ohio.
From a mother who got her son to cast a key vote for women's suffrage, let's move on to places where it's a struggle for mothers to keep their children safe. Reporter Blue Chevigny profiles a mother in Iraq - a woman who told her that their lives are bound by fear.
4:12 Iraq mother
Blue Chevigny filed that report for Unicef Radio.
Writer Kelsey Timmerman traveled around the world to find out who made the clothes he owned for his book "Where Am I Wearing?" He found himself welcomed with warm hospitality wherever he went and always tried to find a unique way to express his gratitude. He took kids to an amusement park in Bangladesh; took garment workers bowling in Cambodia. But in China, he encountered a challenge.
3:19 China
Writer Kelsey Timmerman's book is "Where Am I Wearing?" It is published by John Wiley and Sons.
Next, reporter Zak Rosen goes shopping with Detroit resident Jean Wilson at her favorite organic markets. Actually, they went shopping in the dumpster behind the market - and she explained how dumpster diving is keeping her mother, herself and a lot of other people well fed.
5:06 dumpster diving
That report comes to us from intrepid newbie dumpster diver, Zak Rosen.
And finally, some thoughts on motherhood from bestselling author Isabel Allende. Allende has become far more than a writer - more than a political refugee from Chile. She is a mother who lost her daughter - and who created a foundation in honor of her daughter which helps women and children in need. This is an excerpt from an essay she recorded for This I Believe.
1:10 Allende
Isabel Allende is a bestselling author and the founder of the Isabel Allende Foundation. If you'd like to hear her entire essay, go to thisibelieve.org and look for essay 11. You can also find her essay in the book, This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women.