Program Highlights

Friday – 2/10

7 pm: FROM THE TOP  
This week, “From the Top” comes to you from Dalton Recital Hall at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where you'll hear a fantastic percussion duo play music by Avner Dorman and a 15-year-old violinist play Wieniawski.

Saturday – 2/11

12 pm: THE SPLENDID TABLE
It's a look at the mysterious eel with James Prosek author of Eels, An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Saragasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish. We look at the food life of Thailand with David Thompson author of Thai Street Food and Gilt Taste's Francis Lam teaches us to make Ginger Milk Pudding.

1 pm: MARKETPLACE MONEY
Coming up this weekend on “Marketplace Money”, host Tess Vigeland talks with Meg Favreau, senior editor with Wisebread.com on budgeting for Valentine's Day. And, Jill Schlesinger, Editor-at-Large with CBS/MoneyWatch talks with Tess about the difference between whole and term life insurance. Ramit Sethi, author of "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" expands on last week's commentary about the best strategies for job hunting. Marketplace's Jennifer Collins reports how home décor retailers have jumped aboard the affordable luxury train and are now collaborating with big name artists and designers offering consumers brand name products at bargain prices. And finally, host Tess Vigeland is in New York for Fashion Week and reports on how designer clothes can cost thousands for one piece on the runway but then a similar piece is manufactured and sold at affordable retailers like Target and H&M.

3 pm: FREAKONOMICS - "Eat and Tweet"
In this episode of “Freakonomics Radio”, we look at the tension between "slow food" – a return to the past – and the food future. You'll hear from slow-food champion Alice Waters and uber-modernist Nathan Myhrvold, who advocates bringing more science into the kitchen – including, perhaps, a centrifuge, a pharmaceutical freeze drier and a... food printer?

Also in this episode: we delve into the social mores of Twitter. Is it a two-way street? Do you have to follow someone on Twitter to garner a large following yourself? Or are the mores of digital friendship different from those in real life? Twitter is a tool that has created a funny kind of friendship -- one that's less social than most people think. We'll hear about the Twitter give-and-take from sociologist Duncan Watts. Also, Justin Halpern parleyed his hit Twitter feed "Sh*t My Dad Says" into a best-selling book and a TV show; we learn about the one guy he follows. And Steve Levitt weighs in on just how important (or not) Twitter is in his life.

4 pm: THIS AMERICAN LIFE – “What I Did for Love”
Love makes us do crazy things. But not this crazy. This week for Valentine's Day we have stories of people going to extremes as they fall in love, chase love down, and try to make sense of it - including a teenager who falls for an undercover cop, and epic tales of snooping.

6 pm: A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION  
Coming to you this week from The Fitzgerald Theater in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, it's a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. With special guests, dazzling Minnesota-based folksinger Ann Reed, and vocalist Heather Masse. Plus, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell and Sue Scott, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Sunday – 2/12

7 am: BEING  
Can journalism be a humanitarian art? New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has learned that reportage can deaden rather than awaken the consciousness, much less the hearts, of his readers. He shares his wide ethical lens he's gained on human life in our time — both personal and global.

11 am: A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION 
Coming to you this week from The Fitzgerald Theater in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, it's a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. With special guests, dazzling Minnesota-based folksinger Ann Reed, and vocalist Heather Masse. Plus, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell and Sue Scott, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

2 pm: FROM THE TOP
This week, “From the Top” comes to you from Dalton Recital Hall at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where you'll hear a fantastic percussion duo play music by Avner Dorman and a 15-year-old violinist play Wieniawski.

6 pm: FREAKONOMICS - "Eat and Tweet" 
In this episode of “Freakonomics Radio”, we look at the tension between "slow food" – a return to the past – and the food future. You'll hear from slow-food champion Alice Waters and uber-modernist Nathan Myhrvold, who advocates bringing more science into the kitchen – including, perhaps, a centrifuge, a pharmaceutical freeze drier and a... food printer?

Also in this episode: we delve into the social mores of Twitter. Is it a two-way street? Do you have to follow someone on Twitter to garner a large following yourself? Or are the mores of digital friendship different from those in real life? Twitter is a tool that has created a funny kind of friendship -- one that's less social than most people think. We'll hear about the Twitter give-and-take from sociologist Duncan Watts. Also, Justin Halpern parleyed his hit Twitter feed "Sh*t My Dad Says" into a best-selling book and a TV show; we learn about the one guy he follows. And Steve Levitt weighs in on just how important (or not) Twitter is in his life.

9 pm: THIS AMERICAN LIFE – “What I Did for Love”
Love makes us do crazy things. But not this crazy. This week for Valentine's Day we have stories of people going to extremes as they fall in love, chase love down, and try to make sense of it - including a teenager who falls for an undercover cop, and epic tales of snooping.

Wednesday – 2/15

7 pm: HEAVENLY SIGHT 
Since the time of Aristotle, blind seers have been regarded as bearers of special insight. Host David Marash brings us the stories, music and this insight from the blind gospel tradition that transformed American song and gave it soul. We hear the music and stories of black gospel singers including: Arizona Dranes, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Blind Willie Johnson and  Ray Charles -  as well as interviews and music from Henry Butler David Bromberg, Valerie Capers, Sam Cooke,  Jimmy Carter, Blind Mamie Forehand, the Fairfield Four, the Golden Gate Quartet,Bessie Smith and more.