Program 361: Remembering the Titanic; Jewish Prague; Global Peacebuilding

Release Date: 04-12-2014

On-Air Description

On the next edition of our weekly travel show, we'll learn how Ireland is displaying its connections with the infamous ship Titanic -- where it was built in Belfast, and its final port of call in County Cork.

Prague once had the largest Jewish population in Europe.  We'll also explore the important history you can encounter in its synagogues and museums.

And we'll meet a woman who's been helping former enemies make peace, in a number of the world's hot spots.  It's all on the next Travel with Rick Steves. 

Notes to Stations

If your station would like to insert local fundraising breaks during a weekly edition of Travel with Rick Steves, contact producer Tim Tattan at 425-608-4234 for help identifying clean cutaway opportunities to insert local pitch breaks during any week's show.

Guests

  • Susie Millar, proprietor of Titanic Tours in Belfast
  • Jana Hronkova and Katerina Svobovoda, tour guides based in Prague
  • Paula Green, founder of the Karuna Center, Amherst, Mass.

Related Links

Callers

  • "I’m planning my first trip to Prague. What is the one thing not to miss in the Jewish Quarter and how much time should we allow for exploring the Quarter?"   (Donna in Oldsmar, Florida)
  • Caller notes that a Jewish Quarter tour they took "last April in the morning," was crowded; recommends going later in the day.  Also describes visiting the Lidice concentration camp.  (Cary in Hayden Lake, Idaho)
  • "Do you have a recommendation for a good historical novel explaining the area, the struggles of the Jews, the time of chaos?"  (K in Las Cruces, New Mexico)

Incidental Music

  • Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel, cond., "Theme from 'The Great Whales,'" Sailing / Telarc
  • The Greene String Quartet, “The String Machine: I.  ‘Cruise Control,’” The String Machine / Virgin Classics
  • Mike Oldfield, "Music Universalis," Music of the Spheres  / Decca
  • * Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel, cond., featuring Silver Arm, “‘Irish Party in the Third Class’ from ‘Titanic,’” A Celtic Spectacular / Telarc
  • Rebbe (Bruce Berger), “Avinu,”  Rebbe Soul  /  (self-released)
  • Keola Beamer, "If My Complaints Could Passions Move,” The Renaissance Album (collection) / Windham Hill
  • Rebbe (Bruce Berger), “Junkman’s Son,” Rebbe Soul  /  (self-released)
  • Czech musician Tomas Kocko and Orchestr, “Svatojan,” EBU World Music Workshop, vol. 2 (2003 collection) / Radio Netherlands Music
  • Victoria de los Angeles, "Kaddisch," The Fabulous Victoria de los Angeles / EMI Classics
  • * The Yuval Ron Ensemble, “Olor Molor,” Tree of Life / (self-released)
  • The Drums and Pipes and Regimental Band of the Gordon Highlanders, “Highland Troop,” The Best of the Highland Bands (collection) / Bandleader Records
  • Mark Isham, “Sympathy and Acknowledgment,” Vapor Drawings / Windham Hill
  • Oystein Sevag, “Reflection,” In Search of Angels (soundtrack) / Windham Hill
  • David Chevan and Warren Byrd, "Waters of Babylon," This is the Afro-Semitic Experience / Reckless Do Music
  • Vinicius Cantuaria, “Corre Campo,” Sol Na Cara / Gramavision-Rykodisc
  • Leonard Cohen, "Villanelle for Our Time," Dear Heather / Columbia

Dated References

  • In the billboard, Rick notes that the people of Belfast "are starting to remember the legacy of Titanic," which was launched from that city's shipyard "a little over a hundred years ago."
  • Titanic sank on April 15, 1912.   Rick mentions it at 6:51. 
  • At 13:10, Susie describes the Titanic Belfast museum which "opened a few years ago."
  • At 16:43 Rick remarks that Belfast today has moved beyond the safety issues of the years of "The Troubles."  At 17:10 Susie cautions to avoid the Orange commemorative marches around July 12-13 in Belfast. 
  • Katerina notes at 21:37 that Prague has one of the largest collections of Judaica in Europe.
  • Caller Donna says she's going to Prague for the first time "this spring" at 27:02.  At 28:48 caller Cary describes dealing with crowds on her trip to Prague "in April last year."
  • The Prague guides note at 32:04 that a joint ticket for five sites in Prague is valid for seven days. 
  • At 45:22 Paula says that people in Bosnia are still exhuming bodies from cemeteries to identify loved ones killed in the 1990s Bosnian War.  She outlines her work in Bosnia for six years at 56:44.
  • Paula notes at 51:22 that she's been going back regularly to Sri Lanka "for the past 20 or 25 years" since their conflict in the 1990s.  She adds that former enemies from different communities in northeast Sri Lanka now consider themselves to be friends.
  • Paula responds to Rick's question about artificial colonial borders at 53:50 by saying there are still conflicts to correct borderlines drawn by colonial rulers in Asia and Africa.  She gives an example at 54:35 of the separation of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011, to make "the newest state in the United Nations."  Rick adds a reference about Syria's European-drawn borders at 55:25. 
  • At 56:43, Paula says she stopped working in Bosnia in 2003, but was gratified to see a local Peacebuilding center established in one of the cities she worked in, while visiting there last year.