TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE

PROMO FOR   "Seeing and Perceiving"
*Oliver Sacks has an unusual problem.  He can't recognize other people's
faces.  In fact, he doesn't always recognize himself when he's looking
in the mirror.  Sacks is also a neurologist who's fascinated by brain
disorders.  We'll talk with Sacks and with the painter Chuck Close, who
also suffers from face-blindness.  In this hour of To the Best of Our
knowledge, the many ways of seeing the world.

PROGRAM RUNDOWN:   "Seeing and Perceiving"

0:00 - 14:25        SEGMENT 1: (14:26)
            Today, we'll talk with Oliver Sacks about the
            neurobiology of vision.  We'll also examine the science
            behind synesthesia - why some people can hear colors or
            feel the flavor of food on their fingers.  First, Oliver
            Sacks, the celebrated doctor who writes about some of the
            brain's strangest disorders.  His latest book, "The
            Mind's Eye," is a study of rare visual impairments caused
            by neurological disorders.  It's an unusually personal
            book for Sacks   because it   reveals his own struggle
            with a disorder called facial blindness.   Steve Paulson
            talked to Sacks recently about some case histories. 
                         
            Segment One Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

14:26 - 14:55  LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

14:56 - 38:59       SEGMENT 2: (24:05)
            Susan Krieger is not completely blind, but her vision is
            bad enough to make her legally blind.   Although she
            prizes her self-sufficiency, she recently got a guide
            dog, Teela, who is now her constant companion.  She tells
            Jim Fleming that this raises some basic questions about
            how Susan Krieger thinks of herself, things she writes
            about in a memoir called  "Traveling Blind." Ken Nordine
            recites his word poem "yellow," which leads to a
            discussion of synesthesia.  a neurological condition
            which causes one sense to cross paths with another.  
            David Eagleman is a neurologist and the co-author of the
            book "Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of
            Synesthesia."   Anne Strainchamps asked him to describe
            the condition. Also, Jim Fleming reads a short excerpt
            from "Speak Memory, by one of the literary world's most
            famous synesthetes was Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov,
            who wrote about his "colored hearing."  
                         
            Segment Two Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

38:00 - 39:29       LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

39:30 - 53:00       SEGMENT 3: (13:30)
            Chuck Close, a painter famous for his huge canvases and
            his uncanny ability to portray his subjects with almost
            photographic realism. He has a neurological condition
            that prevents him from recognizing people's faces. 
            Today, Chuck Close is in his early 70s - still painting,
            with brushes strapped to his hand - and now the subject
            of a biography by his friend Christopher Finch.   Close
            and Finch talked with Steve Paulson about Close's
            painting career
                         
            Segment Three Outcue: PRI Audio Logo


For a copy of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number
2-6-A.

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