Vindaloo

God of All Things

Organised religion is becoming increasingly vocal on the environment. Could the organising power and commitment of spiritually-based environmentalism, change attitudes in a way that secular campaigners can't? I went to the Religion Science and Environment symposium in New Orleans. This ran on the World Service last Sunday:

Download BBC New Orleans story

Sweet America

Obama thinks taxing soda's a good idea, while the fructose corn syrup people are airing propaganda attack ads, saying the poor need access to bad drinks. One thing all agree on is that too much sugar is in America's diet, and too much fat, and too much salt...It's all too much. This bitter-sweet package of mine from the Radio 4 PM programme.

Download Sugar WELLS pack

God is Green

The world's nine biggest faiths, gathering at Windsor to talk tough on the environment. Alongside English arch bishops and a gamut of eastern religions will be the evangelicals from New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore - B'more to Wire fans. Things are changing on the corner for evangelicals...This ran on Radio 4 last Sunday:

Download Baltimore Windsor Wells pack

The Catholic Bishops' caveat on healthcare

The men (all men of course) who run the church in America, are keen on universal healthcare - just as long as it doesn't conflict with the absolute moral bar on abortion, as espoused by Rome. Unfortunately, the law in America is in conflict with the church too, so let all that social equity just bleed away, and stick to the principle, right? This is the version that ran on the Sunday Sequence show. It also ran on Radio 4. My first interview with a cardinal by the way...

Download Healthcare US Matt package

Buying New York?

A quick news-piece on our mayor and his inevitable re-election - or so it seems.

Download NY Mayor WELLS ill despatch

All out of puff

The new health commissioner for New York is backing the perfectly logical extension of the city's hugely successful smoking ban. If they want to get another 5% of New Yorkers to quit by 2012, why not go on making it more and more socially unacceptable to smoke by banning it in parks and on beaches? Well a lot more people are unconvinced this time, including - it seems at this stage - mayor Bloomberg. Have a listen to this, from Radio 4s PM:

Download Smoking ban NY Wells pack

Must crash on...

Wall Street's not really changed. A year on from Lehman, most people are still in work and there's no sign of the punitive regulation the bankers feared. I did a piece for the BBC "Aftershock" series (bit OTT that) and got some interesting reflections from some of the grunts, eating their sandwiches by various midtown fountains.

Download Bankers NY Wells piece

The End?

Is the demise of Guiding Light on CBS, showing the way for all the rest to follow? Is the American soap dead? Will love keep springing eternal at least somewhere on daytime television? Tune in to this piece of mine which ran on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: Download Guiding Light WELLS pack

Land of the rising son

Wataru Misaka was quickly dubbed "Wat" by his pals in Utah. He went on to make sporting history as the first non-white player in the professional basketball league. A clue to why his face just didn't fit can be seen in contemporaneous newspaper reports where he's referred to as "the Tom-Thumb Jap". Frankly, he wasn't Jackie Robinson, so he was always going to be dispensible to the Knicks, and when the jibes came - playing away -they decided it wasn't worth keeping him. That's how it seems, all these years later. This ran on the Outlook programme, and it's a tribute to a documentary on Wat's life that is a true labour of love: Download Wat Misaka Wells pack

Mad Dog stuck up tree

Engelwood - led by the pro-Israel politicians and religious leaders of the town - has banned Qaddafi from pitching his tent. Only in America could the country's leading tv rabbi actually live next door to a Libyan government compound in the first place. Anyway, it just gave everybody in the Garden State a taste for more blood once the colonel is here among us. There were some hysterics, some pretty bad music, and some surprisingly good speeches. This ran Sunday night: Download Gaddafi NJ Wells pack