China Clamors for a Great American Folk Dance...

MEDIA NOTES: Exotic, Not Erotic: China's Latest Fitness Fad NPR 020107

The business card of China’s first pole-dancing instructor reads like a Franz Boaz ethnography: “Pole-dancing is one of the ten great folk dances of the world. It was invented by American construction workers who sang and danced witth steel tubes in their hands.”

If Mr. Big Does Nuance, Why Don't We?

MEDIA NOTES: Talabani's Role in Iraq: Mr. Big? All Things Considered NPR 013007

NPR's blurb for this interview: “Robert Siegel talks with New Yorker writer Jon Lee Anderson about his profile of the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. Titled "Mr. Big," the piece examines Talabani's impressive management of his numerous and often conflicting allegiances — including those with the United States and Iran.”