Saturday's show is dedicated to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who passed 4 years ago Sunday, February 5th. In my life: he is the reason we have this vortex in southeast Iowa. He is the reason KRUU radio exists. He is the reason I'm here. He Is. We'll feature songs from the CD Beauty by Vargo. Vargo is Ansgar Uffink and Stephanie Hundertmark. Vargo believes "that inner peace- serenity- in every single human being is an important requirement for peace in the world." Song titles from Beauty include "Get Back To Serenity", "Relax", "Pure Consciousness", "Happiness", "The Flow", "Intuition" and "Silence"- which "has been inspired by a poem of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi". "Flowing silence is love / shared silence is friendship / silence seen is infinity / vibrating silence is creation / expressed silence is beauty / maintained silence is strength / allowed silence is rest / received silence is joy / perceived silence is knowledge / silence alone is Being..."

Jai Guru Dev.

2:05pm: John Collins, associate chair of the Sustainable Living Dept at MUM in Fairfield talks with station manager James Moore about the bills and the issues on the Iowa legislation supporting new nuclear reactors. Collins lays out the pros and cons, coming down clearly on the side of not supporting the measure which is looking likely to pass this year's Iowa legislature.

3pm: Delia Ephron writes about bank nightmares in Greenwich Village for the New York Times. 

3:10pm: As the drumbeats for another Islamic war grow louder, Vali Nasr discusses the Obama administration's big stick diplomacy-vacant Iran nuclear containment strategy on Foreign Affairs. 

3:20pm: Ari Berman, contributing writer for The Nation, talks about his book HERDING DONKEYS, which has just been released in paperback edition. Ari, who has written for the NY Times, Rolling Stone, Editor & Publisher and The Guardian, grew up in Fairfield and hosted Politickin' with Ari in 2007-08 on KRUU-FM. Here's Ari's piece from today's Nation called "How the GOP is resegregating the South."

4pm: Join PLANET ERSTWILD host James Moore and Newsvandal JP Sottile (@newsvandal) for an in-depth discussion on the latest haps in newsville every Friday at 4pm CT on www.KRUUfm.com. For a complete list of referenced articles for today's show, click on "Read more" below.

Get a behind the scenes look at the world of book publicity on the next Writers' Voices. Molly Brouillette works for Penguin books as a publicist at Tarcher, an imprint focused on mind/body/spirit books. A life-long lover of books, Molly has worked on campaigns for books ranging from healthy soul food to the upside of aging to near-death experiences. Her career has led to such adventures as doing facial yoga on Good Morning America, hand-modeling for the cover of a dating book, and attending a UFO conference. Molly has found that keeping up with the ever-changing publishing world isn't easy, but she finds it worth the effort to have a job that revolves around reading, writing about and talking about books.

Don't miss this delightful conversation!

Enthusiastic and adventurous cook and eater, Keith Dixon, had to make some changes in his kitchen habits after the birth of daughter, Gracie.  Keith's culinary and parenting odyssey is chronicled in Cooking for Gracie:  The Making of a Parent from Scratch.  There are plenty of trying and triumphant moments in this memoir of the evolution of a couple from when Gracie makes her first appearance five weeks premature to the end of her first year, plus scattered throughout Keith shares recipes, including the one found at the end of this blog post. We'll talk with Keith, a New York Times writer and novelist, about some of the memories that he chronicles in the book.  Also, we'll find out how life (and cooking) have changed since the addition of another child.

Molly Aronica, Restaurant Editor for The Daily Meal joins us in the second half of the show.  Molly and the staff of the popular internet site have their pulse on the food world.  I'm very excited to announce that she has agreed to do a regular monthly stint on Great Taste, and bring our listeners the top culinary news and trends from around the globe.  Check out the following links for some of the stories we're going to feature on the show:

http://www.thedailymeal.com/50-most-powerful-food-folk-america
http://www.thedailymeal.com/decade-super-bowl-food-bets
http://www.thedailymeal.com/americas-best-wings
http://www.thedailymeal.com/super-bowl-xlvi-50-reasons-eat-drink-party
http://www.thedailymeal.com/diy-chicken-wings

Resident chef Liz Peralta will add her kitchen sense to all the conversations.  Also, Curt Goudy, one of the Indian Hills culinary students, will introduce a new KRUU program called Quick Bites.  Whew, I think that's about it.  Drop on by or drop into the show via the web on our live stream beginning at 7:00 pm central time. 

You can catch all the excitement from previous Great Taste shows by checking out  the KRUU archives.  Each show is available to listen to or download.  Be sure to share them with your friends, and have some fun kitchen adventures.

Remember the Sikh devotional singer, Snatam Kaur who came to Fairfield a couple years ago? You won't believe what her beautiful "Ong namah" sounds like on my show this week.

2011 saw some accomplished artists like Robbie Robertson and Todd Rundgren play music inspired by even older artists, Django Reinhardt and Robert Johnson. And new guys like ambient tune-smyth Tycho (pictured), the undefinable Brooklyn duo Tanlines, Fairfield's Wade Travis, and Pretty Lights were advancing the musical frontiers last year.

And then there's big-voiced Eddie Vedder and his tiny ukulele, straight from the shores of Hanalei, Kauai.

All the songs are here.

Right after the 3 AM bell, you will hear George Harrisons first album in all its glory. Two cuts, each full side length. It is called 'Electronic Music', from 1968. I am not sure, but it  seems like it would have been cutting edge then, considering it sounds that way NOW. Hee. In the 2 O'Clock hour, I am featuring an album called 'Birds' by a band called Trace. Bought this album from a used store in West Des Moines. when I listened to it I discovered that it sounded a lot like ELP mixed with an orchestra. Pretty cool stuff, if you ask me. The other song in hour one worth mentioning: 'Cute', by The Rascals, from their Freedom Suite release. They would go on to record a lot more music like this song. Nightime music for discriminating palates... Cool Breeze

dreamgreen  Iowans making a greener tomorrow... today.

Kickoff show of the 20-part Dream Green Series on solar-powered KRUU-FM, Fairfield, Iowa's grassroots community radio station. Co-hosts Stuart Tanner & James Moore travel the state to explore green initiatives, innovators, educators, cutting edge projects and communities who are leading the way toward a more sustainable, energy efficient future. Follow the journey at greeniowa.org. Funded in part by a community grant from the Iowa Power Fund.

Featured interviews this week include Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, an advocate for green initiatives here and abroad, Lynnae Hentzen, a founder of the Iowa Center on Sustainable Communities, and Monica Stone of the Iowa Office of Energy Independence.

Let me introduce myself. I am The G Man, the Only Government you will ever need on Planet Rock & Roll. This show is the beginning of a massive amount of proof of that statement! By 'Overture' I mean that I have assembled a two-hour show that has elements of each of the next 6 shows. By 'Progression', I am referring to the radio program that originated on KUNI FM out of Cedar Falls, IA, back in the late 70's and 80's. At the time, I had a stereo receiver that had quite a good range of signal capture. So, I recorded music off of the radio onto 90 minute cassettes, and played them back later when I was driving around and working outside. To say that these tapes are priceless is to diminish their worth, somehow. Some of the music on those tapes is by bands that later became famous. A lot of the music is by bands you have never heard of, and will never hear from again. That is the amazing part. They have been painstakingly transferred to digital form. I have about 6 shows worth of music. These are rough recordings, and crystal clear recordings mixed together.