JPR presents a fanciful bounty of special programming for your Thanksgiving this year, with a few new favorites thrown in the mix.
Classics & News
10am - Giving Thanks
Classical music is the heart and soul of “Giving Thanks,” with no clichés about pilgrims and pumpkin pies between pieces. Instead, host John Birge presents a contemporary celebration of the spirit of gratitude, with this year’s special guest, chef Jacques Pepin.
Rhythm & News Service
9am - The Splendid Table's Turkey Confidential
Help is on the way for Thanksgiving cooks, kitchen helpers and dinner guests on this, the biggest cooking day of the year. Lynne Rossetto Kasper, award-winning host of public radio's national food show The Splendid Table®, will be available to answer listener questions throughout the live, two-hour program. Quickly becoming a Thanksgiving morning tradition, past shows have included everything from a cross-country trucker cooking his Thanksgiving dinner on the manifold to a panicked first-time cook who didn't realize a turkey needs to be thawed. Lynne handles all questions with wit, expertise and laughter. The call-in line is 800-242-2828.
11am - An American Rhythm Thanksgiving Celebration
American Rhythm host Craig Faulkner celebrates Thanksgiving with four hours of hand-picked songs about food!
News & Information Service
8am/8pm - My Life As A Wild Turkey
World-renowned naturalist Joe Hutto , subject of the Emmy winning BBC documentary "My Life As a Turkey", discusses how he became a wild turkey mother in the hammocks of Florida. Plus: Fourth-generation pilot Eric Walden gives a play-by-play of the ninja-like moves of the wild turkey—mid-air. And: The once-scorned bronze-feathered turkey is making a comeback, with the help of organic, free-range farmers like Paul Kelly.
9am/9pm - Imagined Nations: Depictions of American Indians
The American History guys at Backstory take on the questions: How have native people have been represented — and misrepresented — in U.S. history? And how have American Indians themselves reinvented those depictions?