stories by Manhattan-based radio reporter, newspaper writer and podcast producer Jon Kalish
Waste Plastic Used to Make Filament for 3D Printers
College student Tyler McNaney became obsesses with 3D printing and not long thereafter designed a machine that grinds waste plastic down, melts it and creates spool of filament that can be used in 3D printers that make plastic objects. Listen to a report on Vermont Public Radio. And, Tyler, get your butt back in mechanical engineer class!
The Michael Jordan of Dwarf Basketball
Listen to Only A Game this weekend to hear a story about Jahmani Swanson, the 4’5” point guard for the New York Towers, a basketball team comprised of men that are between 4’ and 4’6”. The 27 year-old New York City native is poetry in motion on the basketball court.
Dorothy Day’s Granddaughter
Martha Hennessy divides her time between Vermont and Manhattan’s East Village where she volunteers at a house of hospitality founded by her grandmother, Dorothy Day. Listen to the story on Vermont Public Radio.
3D Printed Firearms
This is a lower receiver for an AR-15 rifle. It’s the chassis on which all the other components of the weapon are attached. It was made on a 3D printer and there are amateur gunsmiths who think that one day almost an entire firearm will be produced with a 3D printer. Oy.
Listen to my report on All Things Considered.
Radio Ambulante
Radio Ambulante is a long-form narrative radio project that aspires to create the kind of storytelling magic a anumber of public radio prograns are known for but they hope to do it for Spanish-speaking listeners. Read about the Radio Ambulante crew here.
Judith Malina and the Living Theatre
Read a blog post on The Arty Semite about the closing of the Living Theatre’s performance space on the Lower East Side. Or listen to the story on NPR. End of an era…
Sam Lovejoy, the Anti-Nuke Firebrand Who Became a Civil Servant
39 years ago today Sam Lovejoy toppled a tower in Montague, Massachusetts and declared the Montague nuke will never be built. He was right about that. But who could’ve predicted that more than 30 years later Lovejoy would become a civil servant in the state of Massachusetts. Listen to a story about a key figure of the anti-nuke movement of the late 1970’s. It aired this morning over WFCR in Amherst, MA.
Vermont Sculptor Eben Markowski
Eben Markowski makes life-size sculptures of animals on a Vermont homestead that doubles as an animal sanctuary. Listen to the story on Vermont Public Radio.
The Collector of Bedford Street
Larry Selman will collect no more. He passed away last Sunday at the age of 70. I wrote a remembrance for the NPR web site that you will find here. You’ll also find audio there for a short piece on Selman that aired this morning on Weekend Edition. There are also obits on-line for the New York Daily News and The Forward. The Forward obit includes a link to 10-minute podcast I produced about Selman surviving Hurricane Sandy. The last time I saw Larry Selman he told me he wanted a kitten to replace his cat Happy, who died in the days after the hurricane.
Printed Matter
Listen to a story on NPR about the bookstore Printed Matter. It was devastated by flood caused by Hurricane Sandy and is struggling to keep going in Manhattan’s Chelsea art district.
This Israeli Life
Four young Israelis became enamored of This American Life, the wildly popular American public radio series. So, they started an Israeli version. Read about it in The Arty Semite.
The Weberman Mishpocah
So, Paul Krassner gets up one morning out there in the desert of Southern California and forwards me an email with a link to a wonderful new web site dedicated to the Satmar mensch Nechemya Weberman, who is facing a serious time out behind bars for sex crimes. I’ve long struggled with the question of who is more despicable: African-Americans who won’t “snitch” on a someone who has killed a black person or haredi Jews who won’t go to law enforcement authorities when they know a child has been raped. A pox on both their houses. Read this piece in The Forward about the family of Nechemya Weberman. And remember: you don’t need a Weberman to know which way the wind blows.
Collector of Bedford Street, Part 2
Thanks to a saint from the Bronx and a cabal of neighbors in Greenwich Village, Larry Selman survived Hurricane Sandy. Listen to the podcast that details doings on Bedford Street on the web site of The Forward.
Hacker Scouts
Listen to a report on NPR’s Weekend Edition about the emergence of groups around the country offering a co-ed DIY alternative to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. We attend a gathering of the Hacker Scouts in Oakland, California and visit the headquarters of diy.org which kids use to show off their projects. We also meet 11 year-old Grace McFadden who made a pair of felt slippers using a juice carton for soles and drop by Adafruit Industries, which makes merit badges for dumpster diving.
