COVER STORY
Farming
Kurt Andersen and writer Verlyn Klinkenborg explore the culture around agriculture.
For more information about the Barnstormers

Tractors
A beautifully designed tractor is the kind of farm equipment that’s guaranteed to induce childlike awe in even the slickest city dweller. Lu Olkowski visited a few farmers in upstate New York and asked them why these machines inspire so much devotion.
Go to a link to Stub Ploutz's farm market and B&B for pictures of his tractors
Go to a John Deere Collector Magazine websites
Go to another John Deere Collector Magazine websites
Go to the Antique Tractor Collector Magazine website
Go to the unofficial Allis-Chalmers tractors site
Go to a website of the Online Community of Antique Tractor Collectors

Teatro Campesino
Luis Valdez has written and directed such films as "La Bamba" and "Zoot Suit" for Hollywood. But in the late 1960's he didn't even have a theater, just a flatbed truck, a few costume moustaches, and the drive to bring theater to Mexican-American laborers. Valdez founded Teatro Campesino -- the Farmworkers Theater which has entertained fruit pickers and their families for 40 years. Peter Crimmins talked to Valdez about his dream of art for the people.
Go to Teatro Campesino’s website
Streaming video clips and a virtual tour of the theater
See a book about Teatro Campesino
Go to a website with a biography of Luiz Valdez
Go to a magazine article on Teatro Campesino's social action theater

Matt Moore
The unrelenting sprawl of tract houses and big box stores has made its way to Wadell, Arizona, outside of Phoenix, pushing out small farms. Matt Moore’s family has farmed there for decades, and before his farm becomes a subdivision, he decided to make art about it, by plowing the floor plans of tract houses into his barley fields. Abigail Beshkin, from KJZZ in Phoenix, has the story of the farmer with a Masters in Fine Art.
Go to Matt Moore’s website
Go to a website of the packing company used by Matt Moore’s farm for pictures of some of their produce
Go to a website for the Center for Land Use Interpretation, which researches land use issues that Matt Moore explores in his art

SPECIAL GUEST
Verlyn Klinkenborg
Verlyn Klinkenborg grew up in Iowa and lives today on a farm in upstate New York. The author of The Rural Life and Making Hay, Klinkenborg is a member of the New York Times editorial board and his essays on farm life are featured regularly in the New York Times.
More about Verlyn Klinkenborg

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Don Stewart/AHA moment
A few weeks ago we asked listeners to tell us about a work of art that changed their life. We received many amazing stories, and will be broadcasting some of them over the next few months. In the first of our new series, Ah Ha! Moments, listener Don Stewart of Homewood, Alabama tells us how he gave up a promising career in medicine after seeing a single drawing at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Produced by Ben Shaw.
Go to Don Stewart’s website

Introducing Vakoka
Engineer Sean Whittaker took a job in Madagascar, thinking he would spend the next few years building and operating windmills. One day, Sean overheard the melody of a healing ceremony and it sparked an interest in music he didn't realize he had. Now Sean produces albums; his latest was a worldwide hit that featured Madagascar's top female singer. Rob Weisberg has the story about how one thing leads to another.
Go to artist/producer site
Go to label site
Go to fRoots' magazine's Madagascar music discography

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