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Sports February 15, 2016

'Indentured' Explores Efforts To Fight Mistreatment Of College Athletes

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College sports rake in billions, but the athletes’ pay just covers college costs. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with author Joe Nocera about Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

College sports generates about $13 billion a year. Very little of that goes to the athletes who play the games that make that much money – mostly Division I football and basketball players. That imbalance and the effort to fight it is a subject of Joe Nocera’s new book called “Indentured: The Inside Story Of The Rebellion Against The NCAA.” Nocera and his co-author, Ben Strauss, follow the history the NCAA and the fights over athlete pay from the 1950s through a recent class-action lawsuit led by a former UCLA player named Ed O’Bannon. Sprinkled throughout this history are little anecdotes about players who’ve been mistreated by the NCAA, like a basketball player from Nigeria named Muhammed Lasege. He dreamed of playing in the U.S.

JOE NOCERA: Somebody tells him, well, the way you do this is, you go to Russia, and it’s a way station for the United States. So he goes to Russia, and basically, he’s told that he has to sign a professional contract which, by the way, he can’t read because it’s in Russian. And he has to play basketball in Russia, and he’s going to be paid a certain amount of money. In fact, he doesn’t get any money, and he’s basically stuck in Russia…

SHAPIRO: This is a total scam.

NOCERA: …Playing basketball. Yeah, it’s a 100 percent scam.

SHAPIRO: And then what does the NCAA do when he gets to the U.S.?

NOCERA: Well, immediately (laughter) when he gets to the University of Louisville where he’s accepted to play basketball, the NCAA rules him ineligible because he’s been a professional in Russia. And he sues. And in court, the head investigator is on the stand, and Lasege’s lawyer asks her if somebody put a gun to a kid’s head and said, you have to sign this, or I’ll shoot you, would he be ineligible to play college ball? And she said yes.

SHAPIRO: The principles that underlay the NCAA’s philosophy seem like reasonable principles. Students should be amateurs. They should be college students. They should not be paid millions of dollars. But so many of the stories you tell seem like distortions of those reasonable principles, like people are just divorced from reality or out to get a student for no good reason. Did you get a sense of what is actually going on (laughter) in people’s heads in all of these stories that you retell?

NOCERA: I think I do have a pretty good sense of it. Amateurism, which is the core principle of the NCAA, may have started out as a good idea, but with so much money now flowing into college sports, it’s become a sham. And it’s become kind of an excuse not to pay the labor force who are brining in the billions of dollars that are enriching everybody else. The NCAA itself is a kind of bureaucratic, rules-oriented organization, and it’s very suspicious, particularly of disadvantaged black youth who are coming out of high school who may have a benefactor of some sort. And they’re always kind of looking for those kinds of players that they can then investigate and, in many cases, rule ineligible.

SHAPIRO: Do we miss the larger story when we’re talking about poor, black college athletes whose lifeline out of poverty to an education comes with all of these terrible catches when, in fact, they are the tiniest sliver of people with the athletic ability to get the lifeline (laughter) out of poverty, strings attached or no?

NOCERA: There’s a fair amount of truth to what you just said. On the other hands, the exploitation that is taking place in terms of enrolling them in a university – and then they’re expected to put their sport first and their education second. Their sport is a full-time job – 40 to 50 hours a week. And then the coach is making $5 million. The athletic director’s making $2 million. The conference is bringing in, you know, $200 million in television revenue. And by the way, very few of them do, in fact, become pros. Very few of them do, in fact, make money.

SHAPIRO: Something like 5 percent, you said…

NOCERA: Yeah, it’s a very small…

SHAPIRO: …of the male football and…

NOCERA: Right.

SHAPIRO: …Basketball players.

NOCERA: So you’ve got these kids who are between the ages of 18 and 21. This is the time when they are marketable, when they actually have the ability to make some money, and you’re basically saying to them, except for the 5 percent, we’re going to exploit you; good luck once you’re done.

SHAPIRO: Your book tells the story of a rebellion that nearly crushed the NCAA but ultimately didn’t quite.

NOCERA: That’s right. And I find that very disheartening, I might add.

SHAPIRO: Well, what do you think happens next? Do you think the chapters of the story yet to written are going to be more dramatic? Are things going to calm down? Where does it go?

NOCERA: We’re going to find out in the next few years. I feel like I’ve written this book while we’re still in the middle of something that hasn’t completely paid out. What has been surprising is that in the lawsuits, particularly the famous Ed O’Bannon antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, the courts, including the appeals court, has ruled that the NCAA’s amateurism rules are in violation of the antitrust laws. But the judges are afraid of blowing up the system. So they won’t take the next obvious step, which is to say, if the rules are in violation of antitrust, the rules should go away.

SHAPIRO: Well, just in practical terms, what is breaking up a monopoly like this mean?

NOCERA: You would just say that the NCAA no longer has the right to regulate compensation – very simple.

SHAPIRO: So it’s just a market system.

NOCERA: Yeah. But there are other lawsuits coming down the pike, and I do think that the best hope, although it’s difficult, is the players themselves. And the example that I point to is the Missouri football team essentially going on strike because of racism issues on that campus. And they showed in a weekend how much power athletes can have because the president of the university resigned within 36 hours.

SHAPIRO: But it doesn’t sound like you’re very confident that this is going to happen.

NOCERA: I think it’s really, really hard for 18- and 19-year-old kids who think they’re going to be professional athletes to stand up to the system and say this is not right.

SHAPIRO: Joe Nocera’s new book with co-author Ben Strauss is called “Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against The NCAA.” Thanks for talking with us.

NOCERA: Thanks for having me, Ari. It was a real pleasure.

SHAPIRO: And we asked the NCAA to respond. A spokesperson replied, more than 90 percent of the NCAA’s revenue goes to support student athletes, and resources from the NCAA help schools fun $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships every year.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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Business February 15, 2016

'Narconomics': How The Drug Cartels Operate Like Wal-Mart And McDonald's

A Mexican soldier stands guard next to marijuana packages in Tijuana following the discovery of a tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010.
36:11

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A Mexican soldier stands guard next to marijuana packages in Tijuana following the discovery of a tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010. AFP/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption AFP/AFP/Getty Images

When Tom Wainwright became the Mexico correspondent for The Economist in 2010, he found himself covering the country’s biggest businesses, including the tequila trade, the oil industry and the commerce of illegal drugs.

“I found that one week I’d be writing about the car business and the next week I’d be writing about the drugs business,” Wainwright tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “I gradually came to see that the two actually were perhaps more similar than people normally recognize.”

During the three years he spent in Mexico and Central and South America, Wainwright discovered that the cartels that control the region’s drug trade use business models that are surprisingly similar to those of big-box stores and franchises. For instance, they have exclusive relationships with their “suppliers” (the farmers who grow the coca plants) that allow the cartels to keep the price of cocaine stable even when crop production is disrupted.

“The theory is that the cartels in the area have what economists call a ‘monopsony,’ [which is] like a monopoly on buying in the area,” Wainwright says. “This rang a bell with me because it’s something that people very often say about Wal-Mart.”

Tom Wainwright is now the Britain editor for The Economist.

Tom Wainwright is now the Britain editor for The Economist. The Economist hide caption

toggle caption The Economist

Wainwright describes his new book, Narconomics, as a business manual for drug lords — and also a blueprint for how to defeat them. When it comes to battling the cartels, Wainwright says governments might do better to focus on controlled legalization rather than the complete eradication of the product.

“The choice that I think we face isn’t really a choice between a world without drugs and a world with drugs,” he says. “I think the choice we face really is between a world where drugs are controlled by governments and prescribed by pharmacists and doctors, and a world where they’re dealt by the mafia, and given that choice, I think the former sounds more appealing.”

Interview Highlights

On how the narcotics supply chain is similar to the Wal-Mart supply chain

They say that in certain industries Wal-Mart is effectively the only buyer in the industry. So if there’s some disruption to supply, let’s say the harvest fails for apples or something like that, apple growers aren’t able to increase their prices, because Wal-Mart is the only buyer and they say, “Well, sorry but this is our price and if you don’t want to sell to us, well, tough.” So the sellers have to carry on selling it at the same price as before. It seemed that something similar might be going on in the cocaine industry. …

I was looking at the supply chain of cocaine. I went down to Bolivia, and I went to visit some of the terraces down there in the Andes where the coca leaf is grown. The coca leaf is the raw ingredient for cocaine, and all of the world’s cocaine is grown down there in the Andes in either Bolivia, Colombia or Peru. So I went down there, and I read about all the incredible work that’s being done down there to try to disrupt the cocaine supply line, and you’ll have seen footage probably of airplanes and helicopters dumping tons of weed-killer on these Andean terraces in Colombia, for instance. They’ve done lots of work on this and they’ve done a fairly effective job at making it harder to grow coca leaf. They destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares over the years, and it has made the lives of cartels more difficult on the surface, at least. And yet, I looked at the price of cocaine in the United States, and it has hardly budged. You can go back decades and the prices remain roughly $100 per pure gram.

On why an increase in the price of coca leaf doesn’t change the cost of cocaine

When you look at the economics of the supply chain you begin to see why actually even if you could increase the price of that coca leaf, it’s doubtful that it would have very much impact on the final price of cocaine in the U.S. or in Europe. … To make, for instance, a kilo of cocaine you need about a ton of coca leaf, and that ton, once it’s all dried out, in a country like Colombia will fetch perhaps $400. Now, the kilo of the United States will fetch about $100,000. So let’s say you’re incredibly successful in managing to raise the price of coca leaf, and you manage to double it, to $800, if you then manage to transfer all of that extra cost onto the consumer. That final kilo of cocaine is only going to cost now $100,400. In other words, you can double the price of coca leaf and you increase the price of the final product, cocaine, by less than 1 percent. … We’re putting all this effort into raising the price of coca leaf, when in fact that’s only a small part of the cost of the final product.

On how the Mexican gang ‘The Zetas’ franchise

The Zetas are one of Mexico’s biggest drug cartels and they’ve got a reputation for being one of the nastiest ones, so when you see pictures of people who’ve been beheaded or hung up from bridges, these are often the guys who are responsible. And while I was in Mexico the Zetas expanded more quickly than any other cartel. It was extraordinary. Originally they came from the northeast of Mexico, but within a very short space of time they spread across all of Mexico and in fact down into Central America as well. So I got to thinking about how they’d done this and when you look at the way that they spread, it seems that what they do is that they go to local areas and they find out who the local criminals are, people who do the drug dealing and extortion and all the other kinds of crime, and they offer them a crime, they say, “OK, you can use our brand, you can call yourself the Zetas, just like us,” and they give them, believe it or not, baseball caps with embroidered logos and they give them T-shirts with their logo on and they train them in how to use weapons sometimes, and in return the local criminals give the Zetas a share of all of the money that they get from their criminal activity. In other words: It’s exactly like the kind of franchising model that many other well-known companies use.

And it comes with all the same advantages and disadvantages [of franchising]. One of the big advantages is that it has allowed the Zetas to grow much more quickly. One of the disadvantages though, and this is something you often see in the legitimate franchising business, is that the franchisees often start to quarrel among each other and the trouble is that the interest of these franchisees, the local criminals, aren’t very well aligned with the interests of the main company. Because as far as the main company is concerned — and this applies whether it’s the Zetas or McDonald’s — if you’ve got more branches, more franchises in a local area, that means more income for the main company, because they take their money as a slice of the income of the local franchisees. But the local franchisees have totally different motives. They want to be, if possible, the only ones in the area. They want as few branches as possible. And so you’ve had very often cases of franchisees suing the main brand over what they call “encroachment,” in other words, when the main brand has too many branches in the same area.

On personnel issues in cartels

This was a guy … who I went to see in El Salvador and he’s a called Carlos Mojica Lechuga, who is the leader of one of the two big street gangs in El Salvador. There are two of them: One [that he’s the head of] called Barrio Dieciocho, or 18th Street Gang as most people call it in English, and the other called the Mara Salvatrucha [MS-13] and both of these are effectively transnational corporations, really. They make their livings dealing drugs and with extortion, principally, those are the two main business lines that they have. So I thought it would be interesting to go and speak to this guy and find out how he ran his company. So I went to see him and he’s in jail at the moment, which doesn’t seem to be stopping him from running his business in any way. … We sat down and we started talking business and it really turned out that a lot of his complaints were just like the kind of complaints that I’d heard many times before from the business people. He complained about managing his staff, he complained about competition with his rivals, he complained about his image in the international media. It was really strangely reminiscent of speaking to a kind of frustrated mid-level manager.

On how government legalization and/or regulation of drugs affect cartels

There’s an interesting example underway in Switzerland where they’ve legalized heroin, which sounds crazy. But it’s worth making clear that when they legalized it, they haven’t put it on sale in the way that marijuana is on sale in Denver; they’ve just legalized it by allowing doctors to prescribe it to people who are already addicted, and it’s had quite an interesting effect there because many of the people who are addicted to heroin in Switzerland and indeed in other countries are people who deal the drug, because you’re addicted to this drug it’s a very expensive habit and for many people the only way they can afford it is to deal it on the side. So in Switzerland what they found is that by taking those very heavy using addicts into treatment they’ve stopped them from dealing the drug, because now they get their own drug free of charge from their doctors, and because they’re no longer out there on the streets dealing the drug, the number of new users has dropped dramatically. So in Switzerland, funnily enough, since they “legalized” heroin in this very, very limited, restricted, controlled way, the number of new users has actually fallen quite a lot and, of course, the illegal supply has dried up almost entirely, because the supply is now run by the government.

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Entertainment February 14, 2016

'Deadpool' Nabs Record for Biggest R-rated Opening Ever

Break out the chimichangas — with $135 million at the box office in its first three days, the R-rated Deadpool has not only smashed all President’s weekend records, but it also now holds the record for highest R-rated opening ever. And not just by a little, either. The previous R-rated record holder belonged to The Matrix Reloaded ($91 million), which was a summer release.

That makes Deadpool’s record $135 million all the more special, as no film has ever snagged those kinds of numbers in February. Heck, no February film has ever managed to open to $100 million, period. And with Monday being a holiday, box office experts expect Deadpool to reach upwards of $150 million for the four-day when all is said and done.

So what does this all mean? Will every superhero movie from now on come with an R rating?

No, not quite. Disney won’t make an R-rated superhero movie, so you can count out Marvel Studios and any character associated with the Avengers. But we expect Fox to go all-in on an R-rated cinematic universe, though for starters they’ll probably stick to movies that revolve around Deadpool — like the already-announced Deadpool sequel and possibly even an X-Force movie, too.

This is a big deal for the superhero genre, and for 2016 in general as it represents a year where studios will take bigger risks with their comic properties. The big question now is… will Fox tweak any of the X-Men properties with a higher rating? Perhaps Wolverine 3?

What do you think?

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Sports February 14, 2016

Hats Off To A Tale Of Good Sportsmanship

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Rachel Martin pauses to note a story from a New Jersey swim meet. It’s about good sportsmanship and losing gracefully.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Last month in New Jersey, the Monroe High School swimming team broke a record that had stood for 14 years, 51.3 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke. An individual record, which makes sense because there’s only one person on Monroe’s team. His name is Rich Fortels. And since Monroe doesn’t really have a team for him, Fortels didn’t have a team swimming cap to wear in the Greater Middlesex Conference championships, so he wore one from the club team he swims on with the club’s logo on it. But that’s against the rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations. Someone pointed it out, and the medal went to runner-up Michael Spark, who finished three seconds behind Fortels. Well, Sparks didn’t agree so Monday, he went to Monroe High. Here’s what he said to the website mycentraljersey.com.

MICHAEL SPARK: The cap wasn’t enhancing his performance in any way. He beat me because he trained harder than me. He just out-swam me.

MARTIN: And with that, Michael Spark passed the first place medal to Rich Fortels, a win for sportsmanship.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALL-STAR”)

SMASH MOUTH: (Singing) Hey now, you’re an all-star. Get your game on, go play. Hey now, you’re a rock star. Get the show on, get paid. All that glitters is gold. Only shooting stars break the mold.

MARTIN: Our theme music was written by B.J. Leiderman, and you are listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

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Entertainment February 13, 2016

Great Romantic Movies (Without the Stuff That Make You Hate Romantic Movies)

This Valentine’s Day, you could stick with something traditional. You could check out that rom-com you and your partner have been meaning to check out. You could watch The Notebook and try very hard not to cry. You have your fair share of standard, go-to romantic options and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Or you could try something a little different. How about a romantic movie that finds time for gunfights? Or films that find intimacy and tenderness through perverse comedy? Or even something that will let you and your partner live vicariously through another couple as they solve mysteries as a duo? Yeah, you have additional options for sure.

True Romance

The title of Tony Scott’s True Romance initially reads like it’s going to be ironic. However, the relationship between Christian Slater’s small-time crook Clarence and Patricia Arquette’s former hooker Alabama is about as sweet as they come. Here are two movie characters who are head-over-heels in love with each other and it doesn’t feel fake or forced or even bittersweet.

This is Bonnie and Clyde with a happy ending and less erectile dysfunction, a good-natured romance about the perfect couple that also happens to feature violent executions and gun battles. If you want a little blood ‘n guts in your rom-com, you really cannot do better than this.

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The Thin Man

The high society couple who solve mysteries when they aren’t drinking an astonishing amount of booze and trading loving witticisms has become a cliche, a source of easy comedy. But Nick and Nora Charles invented this template and their relationship anchors The Thin Man and its many sequels, with stars William Powell and Myrna Loy showcasing a chemistry that countless other onscreen couples can’t even come close to touching.

You come for the mystery, but you stay for the couple solving that mystery as they remain as supportive and in love and as accepting of one another across seven movies.

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Punch-Drunk Love

Adam Sandler has never been pushed quite like how Paul Thomas Anderson pushes him in Punch-Drunk Love, which finds him turning his angry man-child persona inside out for a thorough self-examination. But the film is about more than Sandler showcasing some serious chops. It’s about how his Barry Egan finds the woman of his dreams in Emily Watson’s Lena Leonard and how these two eccentric oddballs complete each other in such specific ways.

A scene where they playfully threaten each other with bodily harm while lying in bed feels like it was torn straight from reality, reflecting how real couples cut loose and abandon their good graces when they’re alone and in love. “I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine,” Sandler growls at his nemesis during the film’s climax. And it’s true.

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Groundhog Day

Relationships are hard work and the love of a special person can change someone else for the better. While Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day is about so much more than the love story between Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, the film hits its fair share of emotional truths. Watching Murray’s Phil re-live the same day over and over again as part of an unexplained time loop is funny and then sad and then funny again before ultimately becoming emotionally satisfying on a spiritual level.

Watching him work to better himself, to become a man worthy of Rita’s time and attention, is genuinely romantic, especially since Murray often plays characters who work so hard to sidestep affection at all times.

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Casablanca

Michael Curtiz’ Casablanca doesn’t feature a single cliche because it single-handedly invented all of the cliches. This is one of the most romantic movies of all time, a timeless masterpiece that still feels so fresh and moving over 70 years after it premiered, but history often misremembers why it is so powerful.

This is one of cinema’s great romances because not because Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa get together (because they don’t), but because it showcases how two people recognize their love for one another and willingly choose to set it aside for the sake of a greater cause. There is no love more powerful than that. Sad, yes. Deeply, achingly romantic, hell yes.

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Sports February 13, 2016

This Week In Sports: NBA All-Star Game; What About NHL Concussions?

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The NBA’s All Star Game starts this weekend. NPR’s Linda Wertheimer and Howard Bryant of ESPN talk about the upcoming basketball exhibition, the Golden State Warriors and concussions in the NHL.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And now it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

WERTHEIMER: It’s the NBA All-Star Weekend, that wonderful break in the basketball season when we put aside our team loyalties and watch the Eastern and Western Conference dream teams face off. The big game is tomorrow, and here to throw the jump ball for us is Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine.

Thank you for being with us, Howard.

HOWARD BRYANT: Hi, Linda. It’s been a while.

WERTHEIMER: Yeah. Howard, the Western Conference has won the All-Star Game 10 out of the last 16 years. Is that going to keep going?

BRYANT: Oh, who knows? It doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s meaningless. The All-Star Game is all about fun. It’s all about watching your favorite players play, you know, with players that they usually play against. It’s going to be nice to see Steph Curry and Kobe Bryant in the backcourt. Let’s not forget it’s Kobe Bryant who is retiring at the end of this season, his final All-Star Game. So there’s going be a lot of pomp and circumstance around him. It’s going to be great to see Klay Thompson and all of these great players out there, playing in a game where it really doesn’t count. And what you’re going to see is a lot of dunks, not a lot of defense, a lot of great showboating and passing.

WERTHEIMER: (Laughter).

BRYANT: And they’re the best athletes in the world. It’s the best All-Star game. And I love what hockey has done with their All-Star game, but the basketball All-Star game is the best because you really get to see how good these guys are.

WERTHEIMER: Now, the Golden State Warriors have had an incredible season so far. They’ve won 48 games, lost only four. When the season resumes, what happens to them?

BRYANT: Well, the Golden State Warriors (laughter) are doing something that we’ve never seen before. And that includes the Larry Bird Celtics and the Wilt Chamberlain 76ers and the Moses Malone 76ers and, of course, the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls. They’re 48-4. And they are going for the all-time record of 73 wins, passing Michael Jordan’s 72 wins in 1995-96.

This team is incredible. They’re playing basketball at a level that we haven’t seen in this modern era with their ability to shoot 3-pointers and their ability to just absolutely run through (laughter) the opposition. And I think that their playing with so much motivation because so many people have doubted them, thinking that their style of basketball is – wouldn’t stand up to the greats of all time. And they are proving, every single time, that they have got a challenge that they don’t just win, that they’re blowing teams out. They’re blowing the teams out that they might be playing, whether it’s Cleveland or San Antonio. They beat Cleveland. They were up by 40 in Cleveland. They beat San Antonio by 30. So if you’re watching this team, and you don’t think they’re very good – well, they’re proving – and they’re using that motivation to really do something special.

WERTHEIMER: Now, normally at this point, we might be talking about pitchers and catchers report. But instead, we’ve got Mets pitcher Jerry Mejia (ph) make – Jenrry Mejia making baseball history for being the first player permanently suspended by Major League Baseball. What brought this on?

BRYANT: Well (laughter), he won’t stop using steroids. This is – once again, this goes back to, you know, baseball’s worst nightmare. What is the price of the steroid era? And the price is, once again, you have pitchers and catchers who are reporting. This is supposed be the time when the trucks go down to Florida and to Arizona and we’re celebrating the start of baseball season. And what are talking about? We’re talking about drugs. You’re talking about Jenrry Mejia, who’s a player whose team, the Mets, go to the World Series in one of the great Cinderella stories of last year. He wasn’t on the team last year because he had been suspended for steroids.

And now – this year, same thing. This team, the Mets, are going out to defend their National League Championships. And he’s being welcomed back with open arms? Well, not so fast. He’s suspended for steroids again, and now it’s a lifetime ban. He can reapply for reinstatement in two years, but for the most part, it looks like his career is over.

WERTHEIMER: Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine, thank you so much for being with us, and happy Presidents’ Day, Howard.

BRYANT: Oh, yes. My pleasure. Thank you.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

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Business February 13, 2016

The Carpet Weaver Of Shiraz

Zarafshan, shown here with her 10-year-old son, earns money by weaving carpets. But it's not enough to support her family of five children.
3:24

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Zarafshan, shown here with her 10-year-old son, earns money by weaving carpets. But it’s not enough to support her family of five children. Steve Inskeep/NPR hide caption

toggle caption Steve Inskeep/NPR

What does the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran, as part of a nuclear deal, mean for one Iranian?

We met a carpet weaver in the ancient city of Shiraz. She spends her days on the floor of a little room. Working swiftly by hand, she ties knots with little bits of wool — orange, green, white and two shades of red. Wool threads stretch across a steel frame like strings on a harp.

Her clothes — loose, and flowing, and colorful — identify her as part of a traditional nomadic family. She might be in her 40s, though she said she didn’t know her age. She was born back when her family was still living in tents.

It wasn’t bad in tents, she said. They used to move south toward the Persian Gulf in the winter.

The name her family gave her, Zarafshan, means “spreader of gold.” And they made carpets: Her mother did, and her grandmother, and her grandmother before that. It’s a family tradition that Zarafshan has also passed down, saying her oldest daughter makes better carpets than she does.

Even today, Zarafshan’s loom is of a kind that’s simple and easy to carry — though the family long ago settled outside Shiraz.

We’d found her by following one street to a narrower street to a still narrower dead end, and finally to a little house, where her daughter-in-law was reading a book beside the gas stove.

Zarafshan is divorced with five kids, not all of them grown. She said what she earns from making carpets isn’t enough to support her family.

Zarafshan comes from a family of carpet weavers, dating back to her great-grandmother.

Zarafshan comes from a family of carpet weavers, dating back to her great-grandmother. Steve Inskeep/NPR hide caption

toggle caption Steve Inskeep/NPR

Still, “What do I need a husband for?” she says with a laugh. But now that he’s gone, she is forced to supplement her income with help from her son-in law.

This is true even though she employs her local craft as part of the global economy. Zarafshan works for a local businessman, who says he employs a total of 40 women to make carpets in their homes.

He told us the carpets are sold in Germany. They were sold overseas even during economic sanctions, passing through third-party sellers. Iran is said to sell about two-thirds of its carpets abroad, exports worth about $330 million in 2014 alone.

They can be sold more easily now, though it’s not clear what difference that will make to Zarafshan. I asked if she’d ever seen one of her carpets in someone else’s home.

This is such an outlandish idea that she doesn’t understand the question at first.

She finally says no. She hasn’t. She’s never even kept one of her carpets for her own home. She can’t afford her own handiwork. So she keeps a machine-made, red-and-yellow carpet, the kind you might see in any modest home in Iran.

“Rich people can buy the carpets,” she says.

And she goes on making them, working in this room whose only window opens to another room.

She’s part of a very big world, though her world remains very, very small.

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Entertainment February 12, 2016

Rokia Traoré's Commitment To Her Culture

Rokia Traoré's new album is called Né So.

Rokia Traoré’s new album is called Né So. Danny Willems/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption Danny Willems/Courtesy of the artist

When we hear about Mali, it’s usually about that country’s civil war.

But the west African nation has long been a shining star of music and culture. It’s where the annual Festival in the Desert once attracted visitors and pop stars from around the globe.

“[War] simply changes your life,” musician Rokia Traoré says. “And you’re no longer naive, and your way of seeing and thinking — everything changes. And Mali is still what it is. You know, music there is so important and culture is an important part of our social life. And in such a situation, I think that culture is even more important.”

Rokia Traore is one of Mali’s stars. She wrote and rehearsed the music for her new album Né So (which means “home”) in Bamako, and then she recorded in Belgium and England. She recently spoke with NPR’s Linda Wertheimer from the studios of the BBC in Berlin.

Interview Highlights

On living and working in Mali

Actually, one of my biggest frustrations is that the best of African culture and arts in general is not for Africans. I would like so much to have in Mali and in Africa places where people can go and have their own culture and appreciate it and know about themselves in a certain sense and learn about themselves. And so my foundation is to contribute to the existence of this cultural and artistic dynamic in Africa in general.

On covering ‘Strange Fruit,’ an American protest song

Because unfortunately, racism is still one of the problems in the world, in general. And it’s not always and only about racism; it’s not about the color, but it’s also between social classes. And I think it’s important to remember the past, the darkest parts of our past, without feeling guilty or ashamed about it. Just remember that we humans can be so bad, so we have to be careful with ourselves.

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Entertainment February 12, 2016

Today in Movie Culture: Donald Trump on 'Citizen Kane,' Terrence Malick's 'Zoolander No. 2' and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Classic Movie Tribute of the Day:

Watch presidential candidate Donald Trump discuss Citizen Kane for an old canceled project of documentary director Errol Morris (via Reddit):

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Alternate Dimension Movie of the Day:

In another universe, Terrence Malick directed Zoolander No. 2. This is what it looks like:

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Parody Song Music Video of the Day:

There’s a new bad lip reading of Star Wars, and it’s another musical one with a video and everything. Watch Luke Skywalker sing “Not the Future” (via Geek Tyrant):

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Music Video Comic Book Adaptation of the Day:

Deadpool isn’t the only X-Men character to get a new film this week. See Dazzler, Lila Cheney, Strong Man, Stevie Hunter and the New Mutants — Cannonball, Cypher, Karma, Magik, Magma, Mirage, Sunspot, Warlock, and Wolfsbane — in the music video short “I Will Steal Your Heart” (via Fashionably Geek):

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Interactive Commercial of the Day:

Check out an interactive version of Coca-Cola’s Hulk and Ant-Man Super Bowl commercial featuring a sweded version of the ad:

Vintage Image of the Day:

Charlie Chaplin and soon to be secret wife Paulette Goddard film a scene for Modern Times, which opened in theaters 80 years ago today:

Movie Truth of the Day:

Apparently they speak Danish under the sea. Watch Disney animated feature music numbers, including songs from Frozen and The Little Mermaid, sung in the characters’ actual language:

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Video Essay of the Day:

The Frost Bros analyze the structure of the Coen brothers‘ Inside Llewyn Davis and how like a folk song:

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Supercut of the Day:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to get hurt in every movie he’s in. Watch this supercut as evidence (via Reddit):

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

This weekend is the 25th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Silence of the Lambs. Watch the original trailer for the movie, which would go on to win Best Picture, below.

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and

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Sports February 12, 2016

MLB Bans New York Mets Pitcher Jenrry Mejia For Life For Doping

New York Mets relief pitcher Jenrry Mejia during a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 7, 2014.

New York Mets relief pitcher Jenrry Mejia during a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 7, 2014. Al Behrman/AP hide caption

toggle caption Al Behrman/AP

New York Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia received a permanent ban from Major League Baseball on Friday after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone. The right-handed pitcher is the first player to be banned from the MLB for life for failing three performance-enhancing drug tests.

The league’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program states that a third violation for performance-enhancing drugs results in a permanent suspension. But it also says:

“…a Player so suspended may apply, no earlier than one year following the imposition of the suspension, to the Commissioner for discretionary reinstatement after a minimum period of two (2) years.”

According to The Associated Press, a spokesman for Mejia’s agents said the pitcher had no comment, and it is unclear whether the 26-year-old intends to apply for reinstatement in the future.

In April 2015, the Mejia was banned for 50 games after testing positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol.

At the time, Mejia said: “I know the rules are the rules and I will accept my punishment, but I can honestly say I have no idea how a banned substance ended up in my system.”

After serving the suspension, he returned in July 2015 but played in only seven games before testing positive for both Stanozolol and Boldenone. Mejia was banned for 162 games, which would have carried over into the 2016 season.

From the Dominican Republic, Mejia was signed by the Mets in 2007 and reached the major leagues in 2010. He has a 3.68 career ERA in 18 starts and 95 relief appearances.

NPR’s Tom Goldman reports, “Many say baseball is in a post-steroids era, but Mejia, from the Dominican Republic, is one of a number of Latin American players, mostly minor leaguers, who’ve tested positive for banned drugs in recent years.”

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