These are a few of our favorite things.

These are a few of our favorite things this week.

Another coronavirus has been appearing with troubling frequency, this one seems to have originated in Saudi Arabia.

Back by popular demand, these are a few of our favorite things.

In 1863, New York Tribune reporters Junius Browne and Albert Richardson were captured by the Confederate army in Vicksburg, Mississippi. What followed was an epic journey through an archipelago of Confederate prisons, a daring escape, and a perilous 300-mile trek to freedom. It's the subject of the book, Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: a Civil War Odyssey, due out at the end of the month. Author Peter Carlson takes Bob through the highs and lows of the adventure.

Music: Jim Taylor - Bonaparte's Retreat / Bonaparte's Charge / Bonaparte's March, Eastman Wind Ensemble - Liverpool Hornpipe, Craig Duncan - Dixie, Judy Collins - Battle Hymn of the Republic, Craig Duncan - Shiloh's Hill

A few weeks ago we talked to Dr. Robert Nussbaum, a geneticist at the University of California San Francisco. Nussbaum was frustrated by the monopoly that one company, Myriad, had over the interpretations of abnormalities in two genes  - BRCA1 and BRCA2 – those abnormalities are predictors of breast and ovarian cancer. Those two genes are also patented by Myriad and the legality of that patenting is currently before the Supreme Court. But Nussbaum’s issue, as a geneticist and a genetic counselor, wasn’t the ownership of genes, it’s the ownership of years and years of test results that Myriad has privatized. Keeping that information from the public means that his patients, usually women, are denied second-opinions and alternative interpretations of genetic information that for many of them has enormous stakes.

Well today one of those women came forward to tell what she’d done when confronted with her BRCA1 and 2 test results – Angelina Jolie wrote in the New York Times that she’s gotten a preventive double mastectomy because her BRCA1 and 2 tests indicate that she has a high likelihood of developing breast cancer. Nussbaum told us that this was a stark, but not uncommon decision made by his patients who confront few other choices when they get back alarming Myriad test results. Unfortunately it was a part of the story that got edited out of the interview we broadcast. Since Jolie has put it back in the news it might be worth re-listening to our interview with Nussbaum about the consequences of locking away public health information.

As the casualty count in the Bangladeshi textile factory collapse rises by the day (on Tuesday morning it stands at 382), it’s being described as the worst disaster in the history of the garment industry. That’s a record with a bloody history, some of it American.

On Sunday, Mohamed Ibrahim Rage, a Somali radio news reporter, was shot and killed at his home in Mogadishu. He's the fifth journalist to be killed in Somalia this year. Last year 18 media workers were killed, many in targeted killings. Reporters Without Borders calls it one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.

A few weeks ago we talked to NPR's East Africa correspondent Gregory Warner about the unintended consequences of Somalia's deadly climate for journalists, as experienced journalists flee or are killed more and more children are rushing in to fill the void ...

Duck Duck Go is a small search engine based in Pennsylvania that is, according to Google at least, a Google competitor. OTM producer Chris Neary talks with Duck Duck Go founder Gabriel Weinberg, SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan, and a dedicated Duck Duck Go user about the site. Also, each of the OTM producers try Duck Duck Go, and only Duck Duck Go, for a week.

Theme from I Dream of Jeannie

These are a few more of our favorite things.

These are a few of our favorite things:

These are a few of our favorite things:

How a single LP sums up the music of earth.

A few of our favorite things this week.

A few of our favorite things this week.

A few of our favorite things.

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. did what he’d done countless times before: he began building a sermon. And in his sermons King relied on improvisation, drawing on sources and references that were limited only by his imagination and memory. It’s a gift — and a tradition — on full display in the "I Have A Dream" speech, but it’s also in conflict with the intellectual property laws that have been strenuously used by his estate since his death. In a segment originally aired in 2011, OTM producer Jamie York speaks with Drew Hansen, Keith Miller, Michael Eric Dyson and Lewis Hyde about King, imagination and the consequences of limiting access to art and ideas.

Charles Mingus - Prayer for Passive Resistance (Live at Antibes)

A few weeks ago, Brooke asked listeners to visit our Media Scrutiny Theater website, and gave the address with a "backslash", a mistake that turned out to be like nails on a chalk board for some of our listeners. OTM's acting Senior Producer Jamie York asks for your forgiveness, and vows to do better. 

The Walkmen - Flamingos (For Colbert)

A few of our favorite things.  Please, please leave us comments below and enjoy.

The staff of OTM choose a few of our favorite things.  Please, please leave us comments below and enjoy.