Culture
Children of the Depression — in Photographs
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Children-of-the-Depression-in-Photos.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 5/27/2002 Children of the Depression Transcript The facts are still staggering, as Kathleen Thompson and Hilary Mac Austin remind us in their new book, Children of the Depression. In 1933, they write, “34 million men women and children were entirely without income. That was […]
Childhoods of the Presidents: Harry Truman
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Childhoods-of-the-Presidents-Truman.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 5/8/2002 Childhoods of the Presidents: Harry Truman Transcript Today, on the birthday of Harry S. Truman, we are beginning an on-going series of programs about the childhoods of the American Presidents. One wonders, of course, if, with these figures who have been and are […]
Cirque du Soleil
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Cirque-du-Soleil-and-the-New-Circus.mp3 Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 3/28/2002 Cirque du Soleil Transcript One wonders – how in this modern age of computer enhanced films and 3D amusement park rides can something as old fashioned as a circus survive? The truth is, that the circus – since it invention- has always been […]
Houdini, a Magician’s Childhood
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Houdini-a-Magicians-Childhood.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 3/25/2002 Houdini, a Magician’s Childhood Transcript It was the birthday yesterday of one of the most famous magicians of the last century, Harry Houdini. His real name was Erik Weisz, and he was born on March 24th, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of […]
The Frisbee
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/The-Secrets-of-the-Frisbee.mp3 Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 1/11/2002 The Frisbee Transcript Today, we celebrate the Frisbee, that sublime, colorful and somewhat mysterious flying disc. The ancient origins of the Frisbee are lost in the annals of history, though no doubt, it was a child who first discovered that flat wood chips […]
Edwin Hubble
Tomorrow is Edwin Hubble's birthday, and John Cech has some reflections on his life and scientific contributions.
The First “Books” for Children
The ancient Middle East has often been called the "cradle of Western civilization." It gave us our first writings for children, as Kevin Shortsleeve explains.
Captain Kidd’s Treasure
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Captain-Kidds-Treasure.mp3 Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 9/4/2001 Captain Kidd’s Treasure Transcript What child playing in the sand has not fantasized about digging down with a spade and “thud” – encountering a sea chest containing a hoard of doubloons? Since the publications of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Mark Twain’s […]
Some Notes on Camp
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Some-Notes-on-Camp.mp3 Author Kenneth Kidd Air Date 6/27/2001 Some Notes on Camp Transcript Organized camping in the United States dates to 1861, when Frederick William Gunn, headmaster of the Gunnery School in Connecticut, took his entire student body for a two-week foray into the wilderness. The camping movement gathered steam with […]
Coming of Age Day
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Coming-of-Age-in-Japan.mp3 Author John Cech (read by Fiona Barnes) Air Date 1/17/2001 Coming of Age Day Transcript This past week in Japan, tens of thousand of young men and women will celebrate the exhilarating, frustrating, and often tumultuous journey from childhood to adulthood. It’s called Seijin-no-hi, and is a national holiday […]