Patt Morrison for Thursday, December 23, 2010

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Thursday, December 23, 2010

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

1:21 – 1:48

Tests detect early onset Alzheimer’s but, without a cure or treatment, should they?

Advances in spinal taps and M.R.I.’s now make it more possible than ever for doctors to run diagnostic tests to diagnose early onset Alzheimer’s. But should they? There’s still no treatment for the degenerative brain disease or even a test to verify a patient is suffering from Alzheimer’s and not severe dementia. That moral dilemma is cropping up in various areas of medicine as technology for diagnostic tools bounds ahead of treatment research.  With tests that can spot or predict disease decades in advance of symptoms but with no way to prevent or treat those diseases, is it worth knowing? Some doctors say no and even refuse to administer the tests, arguing the results do more to burden patients with information overload than to help them prepare to make life-changing decisions. Would you want to know even if there was nothing you could do to change the outcome?

 

Guests:

Dr. Michael Rafii, Director of the Memory Disorders Clinic, Associate Medical Director at the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study and Assistant Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego

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• Feels personally conflicting about giving people the diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s because there’s not much they can do with that information

 

 

Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania

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1:48 – 1:58:30

John Henry Faulk’s Christmas Story

It was more than forty years ago that story-teller and radio host John Henry Faulk first recorded his “Christmas Story.” Since then it’s become an NPR Christmas tradition.  But Faulk was more than a story teller. Among other things, he was an activist, author, playwright, and husband. Faulk was branded a communist in the late fifties, but won a libel suit that helped to bring an end to the Hollywood blacklist. He was known for his work as a proponent of civil rights and made speeches at universities on the First Amendment.  But, let's hear that wonderful story he told so many years ago.

 

 

 

2:06 – 2:30

Holiday cooking in Bon Appétit’s test kitchen

Bon Appétit, the recipe-driven magazine founded in 1956, is packing up its Los Angeles-based test kitchen and moving back to New York.  But before they do, Patt plumbs the depths of their palate for a few new takes on the same old holiday recipes.  Whether you’re on a tighter budget, you’re an advanced cook looking to spice up the standard fare or simply a beginner in search of the basic nuts and bolts; Bon Appétit test kitchen head Sarah Tenaglia has a recipe for you. Still wondering what to do with those giblets? In search of a sure-to-amaze New Year’s Eve dessert or cocktail? Tune in with your questions and to find out the most requested dessert recipe in the magazine’s history.

 

Guest:

Sarah Tenaglia (ten-AL-eea), Senior Food Editor at Bon Appétit, where she heads their test kitchen

IN-STUDIO

-          Sarah can talk about everything but specializes in desserts and chocolate (!)

-          Ask her about how the test kitchen works—there are 3 full-time recipe testers who test 6 times a week, 2x a day. They ring a bell to let the staff know it’s time to come into the kitchen for a taste test.

-          Bon Appétit is a recipe-driven magazine, looking for inspiration for beginner, intermediate, advanced

-          She has ideas about how to save money this season, like pot lucks and substituting pork loin (or veggies) for beef.

-          People who don’t cook will do whole dinner parties with recipes they’ve never tried before, they trust us that much.

-          Bon Appétit’s third cookbook came out this fall, “The Bon Appétit Dessert Cookbook: recipes for all things sweet and wonderful,” 650 recipes.

 

 

 

2:30 – 2:58:30

The Atheist's Guide to Christmas
It's tough for an atheist on Christmas.  Everyone's a-ho-hoing or a-ring-a-linging, and it's an obstacle course these days trying to avoid long shopping lines and at-capacity parking lots.  When even the gas stations have nativity scenes and the elevators play Christmas music, where is an atheist to turn?  Why to The Atheist's Guide to Christmas, a collection of essays by Richard Dawkins, Phil Plait, and others, of course!  Patt talks to two of the contributors to gain some insight--Neal Pollack, the satirist and journalist who wrote Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude, and Emery Emery, film maker, author, and prominent voice for the atheist cause.

 

Guests:

Emery Emery, stand-up comedian, writer & producer; contributor to “The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas”

IN STUDIO

 

Neal Pollack, author & journalists; contributor to “The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas”

IN STUDIO

 

 

Jonathan Serviss

Producer, Patt Morrison Program

Southern California Public Radio

NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles

89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM

626.583.5171, office

415.497.2131, mobile

jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org

www.scpr.org