Reel History: My Green Earth, The Sun, Poetry

Al Asuncion/KMXT

Hi, I’m Al Asuncion, an intern at KMXT as part of the station’s summer archiving project. This week, I listened to the show “My Green Earth”, hosted by Stacy Studebaker, also known as Leila Liverwort.
“Hello everyone and welcome to “My Green Earth,” a weekly radio show about the environment for the young and young at heart. I’m your host Leila Liverwort and today we’re going to dedicate our show to that big, round shining thing in the sky that we all love so much, the Sun.”
This episode, titled “The Sun” aired on KMXT in March of 1994. In the show, Leila described how the Sun is so far away, but close enough for us to benefit.
“It radiates so much energy that it warms our planet just the right amount to make life possible and comfortable most of the time.”
This show also explained an astounding discovery about what makes up the Sun and how its energy is given off.
“By studying the Sun with special instruments, scientists learned that hydrogen makes up about 90% of the Sun’s content and hydrogen and helium together make up 98%. Now, the Sun’s gravity is so strong because it is so big that the center is ten times denser than iron. This enormous pressure changes the structure of atom, tiny bits of matter, within the core of the sun. To a process called nuclear fusion, the nuclei, or centers of hydrogen atom, fuse to form another element called helium. As this happens, energy is given off.
This week, I also came across a reel containing a poem read by Susan Jeffrey for her contribution to International Women’s Day titled “Eight Days before She Died.”
“I’m Susan Jeffrey and it’s my contribution to International Women’s Day, I’d like to hear a poem I’ve written. The poem is about Karen Silkwood, the first hero of the nuclear movement.”
Jeffrey also explained how Karen Silkwood is a feminist hero.
“She was a young woman when she got married a sophomore in college; she had three kids. She told her husband that she wanted to finish college and go back to work, and he literally traded her in a more conventional model…wife.”
The reel didn’t include any date for when the poem might have aired on KMXT. Here’s a bit of the poem for your enjoyment.
Thank you for joining me this week as I recap some amazing real-to-reel audio.