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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
Carol Tuck: Racing Against Time and S. Africa’s Assisted Suicide Law
Death was the undercurrent in South Africa from 1948 to 1994, when the government aggressively enforced the policy of apartheid–separate accommodations for blacks and whites. So it’s interesting that in 2016, a different discussion can be heard. About whether or not a person can ask a doctor for direct help in dying. This week, we’ll hear about how that debate is unfolding in South Africa, through the experience of a man who specializes in medical ethics, and a doctor who practices palliative care–the relief of pain.
We begin with the story of Carol Tuck, a resident of South Africa’s eastern coast. She was diagnosed with colon cancer at 37. Now in stage four, she has reached the end of her treatment options. And she’s hoping to leave this world on her own terms, with doctor-assisted dying. The practice is illegal, but that could change after November 4th, when an appellate court re-examines the law. Reporter Kim Cloete brings us her story featuring Dr. Liz Gwither, CEO of Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa and
Willem Landman, Executive Director of the Ethics Institute of South Africa.
Nuns Now: Crimson Robes and the Pursuit of Compassion
Venerable Thubten Chodron takes us on her journey from jeans and dangly ear-rings to crimson robes, and even offers a meditative approach to being stuck in traffic. Having studied Tibetan Buddhism in India and Nepal, she went on to found Buddhist abbey in Washington state, and is the only nun to have co-authored a book with the Dalai Lama. She explains why Tibetan Buddhist nuns shave their heads, forego perfume and tune out pop songs. Thubten Chodron is a Tibetan Buddhist nun, the founder of Sravasti Abbey, and the author of several books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation.
