See below for all Q2 specials and visit our website for more.
News / Talk
How to LA: DACA
- Broadcast Window: September 25, 2023 – November 30, 2023
- Description: In this one hour special, host Brian De Los Santos, a DACA recipient, talks about the hurdles and risks associated with leaving the U.S. and what it meant to go back to Mexico for the first time in 30 years – a place he may not be able to go back to again as DACA and a path to citizenship are in limbo.
L.A. Made: The Barbie Tapes
- Broadcast Window: September 25, 2023 – November 30, 2023
- Description: LA Made: The Barbie Tapes tells the backstory of the world’s most popular doll, Barbie. Barbie is a cultural icon but what do you really know about her? Learn Barbie’s origin story from the people who created her. Co-hosted by Antonia Cereijido and M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, hear the wild stories from the never-before-heard tapes of interviews with Barbie inventor Ruth Handler, her wardrobe designer and the sculptors and fabricators, and the innovative marketers who made her what she is today.
Substance Use & New Paths to Recovery
- Broadcast Window: October 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023
- Description: Addiction is at an all-time high in the United States and the results are deadly. This program shares the experiences of people who are managing substance use disorders, and leading experts working to transform the substance use disorder treatment field while decriminalizing the conversation about addiction disorders.
Encore from January 2023
Turkey Confidential
- Broadcast Window: November 22, 2023 (3pm ET) – November 23, 2023
- Description: Turkey Confidential is The Splendid Table’s annual Thanksgiving show. Francis Lam takes calls and comes to the rescue of Thanksgiving cooks, kitchen helpers, and dinner guests during the biggest cooking day of the year. This program will be file based for 2023 and going forward.
The One Recipe Holiday Special
- Broadcast Window: December 1, 2023 – January 1, 2024
- Description: Join host Jesse Sparks for a holiday edition of The Splendid Table’s newest “podbaby,” The One Recipe. Jesse talks to culinary superstars about their “One,” the recipe that signals the holiday has begun! They’ll get into traditions and food with influences from all over the world and leave you with recipes that could jumpstart your own festivities! It’s delicious eating all month long. Guests to be announced in late September.
Selected Shorts: Unwrapping the Holidays
- Broadcast Window: December 1, 2023 – January 1, 2024
- Description: Host Meg Wolitzer presents three unexpected stories that let us see the holidays’ associations—family, friends, food, gifts, and goodwill—in different ways. Selections from Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Sherrie Flick, and John Cheever will be read by Jayne Atkinson, James Naughton, Adina Verson and Teagle F. Bougere.
Get Your Money Life in Order
- Broadcast Window: December 14, 2023 – February 29, 2024
- Description: From Marketplace, listen as host Reema Khrais helps listeners get their financial life together in time for the new year. She’ll unpack some practical tips, share a personal money story that is sure to captivate, and interview a financial therapist to get some useful tips for understanding our relationships with money. This hour will make listeners laugh, gasp, and think about money in a whole new way.
Musical / Classical
2023 Remembered from the Current
- Broadcast Window: December 13 – January 15, 2024
- Duration: Two hours
- Description: Join The Current in honoring the life, music, and legacy of artists we lost this year with 2023 Remembered from The Current. This two-hour musical tribute is a celebration of all sounds – from indie to influential – and the perfect way for music lovers to unite in paying homage to the artists who have shaped music history. Each hour will be discrete.
Reclaiming the Sound Waves: with Connor Chee
- Broadcast Window: October 1 – November 30, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: Navajo pianist and composer Connor Chee has embarked on a mission to translate traditional Navajo vocables to the modern piano. Host Scott Blankenship talks with Chee about his artistic process, the importance of preserving Navajo music for future generations, and the Land Back movement. Music includes solo piano compositions from Chee’s recordings, plus the premiere of Unbroken: Music for the Navajo Code Talkers, commissioned by American Public Media. Encore from July 2023
My Journey, Yours : A Cantus Immigration Special
- Broadcast Window: October 1 – November 30, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: My Journey Yours, a program of works anchored by Elise Witt’s piece of the same name, explores the courage of those who leave their homes in search of a brighter future and how they adapt to their new homeland. This program honors the struggle, courage, and deep humanity of migration with music from around the world, as well as a newly-commissioned piece by Melissa Dunphy, one of today’s most compelling compositional voices.
Every Good Thing
- Broadcast Window: November 3 – November 27, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: On Thanksgiving, host Andrea Blain and classical music fans from all around the country take some time to give thanks and celebrate one of life’s most meaningful gifts: music. It’s “Every Good Thing” — an hour of stories and music to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Giving Thanks
- Broadcast Window: November 3 – November 27, 2023
- Duration: One and two hour versions available
- Description: Giving Thanks shares music and stories that reflect the meaning of gratitude. And this year for its 25th anniversary Giving Thanks presents the best moments of a quarter century of guests, including Stanley Tucci, Anne Lamott, Deepak Chopra, and many more.
A Winter’s Solstice
- Broadcast Window: December 1 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: A winter solstice program, with modern classical sounds for the longest night of the year, chosen especially to compliment the chilly, starry nights of the season.
This is Christmas with the Imani Winds
- Broadcast Window: December 1 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: Join us for a new Christmas special featuring the Imani Winds. More details will be released later in the fall.
Candles Burning Brightly
- Broadcast Window: December 1 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: A delightful hour for everyone to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights! There is lots of music from Jewish communities worldwide, a hilarious lesson on preparing a classic Hanukkah dish, and a timeless and touching holiday story that brings light into every home.
Encore from 2022
Montserrat Boy Choir (Escolania de Montserrat)
- Broadcast Window: December 1 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: Perched atop the mountains near Barcelona, the choir of the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat is one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious boy choirs. For the first time in their 800-year history, the choir made its Midwest premiere. Bringing with them a message of peace, the choristers will use music to transcend borders and speak directly to your heart.
Welcome Christmas
- Broadcast Window: December 1 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: There’s no better way to welcome Christmas than Welcome Christmas!, the VocalEssence holiday concert. It’s an hour of joyful, classic holiday music from VocalEssence, one of the world’s premiere choral groups, singing traditional carols and new discoveries.
All is Bright
- Broadcast Window: December 1 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: One hour
- Description: All Is Bright, with host Lynne Warfel, offers an hour of gorgeous, contemplative choral music that tells the traditional Christmas story with songs about angels, the star and the manger scene. Updated for 2023
Carol Countdown
- Broadcast Window: December 15 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: Two hours
- Description: Join us this holiday season as we count down the top christmas songs as voted by you in a two-hour special.
MN Orchestra New Year’s Celebration
- Broadcast Window: December 15 – January 15, 2024
- Duration: Two hours
- Description: Ring in the new year with the Minnesota Orchestra! The program opens with Bernstein’s animated Overture to Candide. Awadagin Pratt performs the Minnesota premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds for Piano and Orchestra, a work written for him. A New Year’s celebration wouldn’t be complete without adventure and passion, and the Orchestra brings that in multitudes in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s beloved Scheherazade. Encore of 2022 live performance.
St. Olaf Christmas Festival
- Broadcast Window: December 18 – December 31, 2023
- Duration: To be confirmed
- Description: The St. Olaf Christmas Festival has become one of the nation’s most cherished holiday celebrations. Started in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the St. Olaf College Music Department, the festival includes hymns, carols, choral works and orchestral selections celebrating the Nativity. It features the St. Olaf Choir, the St. Olaf Orchestra, the St. Olaf Cantorei, the St. Olaf Chapel Choir, the Manitou Singers and the Viking Chorus, performing as individual groups and as a massed ensemble.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
- Broadcast Window: December 24 – December 25, 2023
- Duration: Two hours, beginning at 10 AM ET
- Description: A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols presents your audience with an opportunity to share in a live, world-wide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of Biblical readings, carols, and related seasonal Classical music. This special will be presented by one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue, the 500-year-old Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England.