You may need to load a piece of audio software for the streaming audio suggestion (Friday, June 6) -- free. I sometimes suggest you videotape certain shows, especially when they are aired too early or too late in the day to suit your bedtime. The Monday, June 2 programs are an example -- make some tapes and take them to your teacher. You have the right to do this -- it's not piracy unless you sell the tape and pocket the money. Your only problem is that some teachers hate everything about TV, even if the show has information that both you and your teacher know is going to be on a test someday soon.

On the other hand, some of my suggestions are just for fun -- and may be a bit too off the wall for your teacher. Some suggestions may even seem too serious. But those are on the list because I'm pretty sure you're going to need to know certain stuff (like the dangerous chemical compounds in tobacco) as you progress from grade to grade. It's like intellectual money in the bank.

The show for this week's MediaHour is the Tuesday program about smoking, titled "NOVA: Search for a Safe Cigarette". If you want to check it out even before Tuesday, look at the website I've included in the description of the program.

Everyone is welcome to write to me what you and your parents think: Y-mail me, the MediaWiz of Whyville!

And now... the Media Menu!

Friday, May 30

"Saudi Arabia: A Bill Kurtis Special Report" (A&E Network, 9-11pm E/P) This documentary examines how terrorism, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and cultural misunderstandings have shaken the 65-year alliance between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The report includes a look at Osama bin Laden's use of Saudi operatives on 9/11, which some believe was an attempt to undermine the Saudi royal family as well as America.

Saturday May 31

"Secrets of Hershey PA" (Travel Channel, 8-9pm E/P) This documentary Takes you to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where everything in town pays homage to chocolate. Even the streetlights are shaped like Hershey Kisses. Visit the Hershey Resort, Hershey Park and Chocolate World. Watching chocolate on TV is not fattening (I think, but I may be wrong.)

Sunday June 1

"Ultimate Explorer - Basketball Diplomacy: From Mao to Yao" (MSNBC Network, 8-9pm ET/PT) For this initial episode of a new documentary series, host Lisa Ling travelled to China and Texas to report on China's most famous export, NBA superstar Yao Ming. You'll get to see a rare, one-on-one interviews with the reticent 7 foot 5 inch super rich native of Shanghai. The documentary also investigates his role in effort of Nike to unlock the world's biggest consumer market in his home country.

"Nature: Are Animals Intelligent?" (PBS, 8-9pm E/P -- check local listings) This is the initial episode of a 3-part series about current scientific research to assess how animals approach problem solving and whether they are able to understand abstract concepts. Researchers are attempting to define what humans mean by "intelligence" among animals by devising ingenious ways to test the reasoning powers of certain species. The next episodes air on June 8 and 15 in this time slot. The show's website features details, including videoclips, about some particularly clever creatures: http://pbs.org/nature/animalmind/

Monday, June 2

"Assignment Discovery -- Great Books" (Discovery Channel, 9-10am E/P) Ok, this is airing in the morning. So set your TV recorder if you'll be in school -- or if you want to sleep late if you're not in school. The point is that this is the first of a quartet of shows about books you are almost certainly going to need to know something about in one grade or another. Certainly in AP English. June 2, the books described are Dante's Inferno and Kafka's Metamorphosis -- they're about what happens to you if you're very very bad, or if you turn into a cockroach. June 3, the books are Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Tales by Edgar Allen Poe -- both are about love gone wrong.

Tuesday, June 3

"NOVA: Search for a Safe Cigarette" (PBS,8-9pm E/P check local listings) This documentary examines reduced-emissions cigarettes. Are the chemicals in these products safer for smokers or is this whole thing just latest marketing strategy from tobacco companies? The program follows the tobacco industry's decades long effort to create a "safer" cigarette. If this TV show doesn't succeed in extinguish your interest in smoking, take a look at the website http://pbs.org/nova/cigarette/ It features an interactive look at the anatomy of a cigarette, examines two "safer" cigarette designs, traces nicotine's life cycle in the brain and explores the basics of combustion and much more.

"Scientific American Frontiers: Worried Sick" (PBS, 9-10pm E/P -- check local listings) This science documentary may be a bit much to take. The topic may cause you stress -- because that's what the program is about. Anyway, the program explores the reasons why humans experience stress and the negative impact that too much stress can have on our health. In case you would feel better dealing with this stuff via your computer, you could watch the entire program online, examine the history of stress and how we deal with it, determine your personality type, get tips and tools to reduce your stress level and more: http://pbs.org/saf/1310/

Wednesday, June 4

"Sister Kenny" (TCM Network, 6-8pm ET, 3-5pm PT) This Oscar Nominated movie is based on the life of Elizabeth Kenny (1886-1952), a Australian nurse who fought her entire life to bring her own methods of treating polio victims to international acceptance. (The title "Sister," which is often associated with that of a nun, is an Australian term for "nurse''.) Kenny developed methods to ease the pain of the children who have become polio sufferers. Her therapy to restore movement to apparently paralyzed muscles involved continuous hot packs to the affected muscles, and the abandonment of all splints -- and maintaining a positive mental outlook. The most respected doctors in the medical profession ridiculed her unorthodox methods and doctors who believed in her ideas got into trouble with the medical superiors. But nothing stopped her from setting up her own medical institute -- in Minnesota. Available on video. Read her book "And They Shall Walk" or log onto http://www.sisterkenny.org.au/history.htm.

Thursday, June 5

Frontline/World (PBS, 9-10pm E/P) This newsmagazine compiled by independent young reporters travels to the Philippines, where Orlando de Guzman witnesses the war between the government and Islamic rebels on the island of Mindanao, and meets the U.S. soldiers who may soon join that fight. Also featured: The report from the West Bank, a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where journalists say they have become targets of Israeli soldiers firing rubber bullets and even live ammunition, plus a story about the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where cable television is being introduced for the first time.

Friday, June 6

"Book Club Of The Air For Young Adults" (http://www.kpcc.org streaming audio 5-5:30pm ET, 2-2:30pm PT) Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli is being discussed by a live in-studio group of students and also by kids calling in by phone. Log onto the station's website for details. The site provides an opportunity to hear the archived edition of the program which will be put on the web after the broadcast. Read the book so you can participate in the Whyville Media Hour on June 11th.