Tell Me More

Brazil's economy is fast developing and it will garner more attention as it gears up to host the next summer Olympics in 2016. As part of Tell Me More's series looking at fiction from countries on the rise in the global arena, host Michel Martin speaks with Brazilian author Clarah Averbuck. She's the author of "Cat Life."

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Coming up, we take our weekly visit to the Barbershop, and, yes, we must go there. We are going to ask the guys if Team USA's women are the big winners so far for the U.S., perhaps outshining the men. Just asking.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. Now it's time for our weekly visit to the Barber Shop, where the guys talk about what's in the news and what's on their minds.

Sitting in the chairs for a shape-up this week are writer and culture critic Jimi Izrael, civil rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar, Lester Spence, political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. They're all here with us in our Washington, D.C. studio. And, from Las Vegas, Fernando Vila. He's the managing editor of Univision News in English.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. Today, we begin our summer BRIC-tion series. That's where we're going to check out literature from countries that are rising on the global stage, the so-called BRICS nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. We're going to start the series with Brazil, and that's in just a few minutes.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now it's time for Back Talk. That's where we lift the curtain on what's happening in the TELL ME MORE blogosphere. Usually, our editor Ammad Omar, joins me, but somebody let him have the day off. Go figure. So I'll be shepherding this one.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. Coming up, we'll hear why some analysts are calling Mali, of all places, the Afghanistan of Africa. We'll ask NPR's West Africa's correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton about why this formerly stable democracy has so many in the region on edge. We'll have that conversation in just a few minutes.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. Coming up, we will meet an American filmmaker whose film about her Tanzanian father and Korean mother bring a global twist to this weekend's Asian-American International Film Festival. We'll hear more about her and her film in just a few minutes.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

You might wonder why a film about the Asian-American experience being featured in the Asian-American International Film Festival that kicked off in New York City last week features a lengthy journey to Tanzania and emotional conversations about issues like force marriage and the rights of women in Africa. That's because, as filmmaker Eliaichi Kimaro shows, the personal histories of many young people these day are not just multiracial and multiethnic, but global, but even then can leave them wondering where they fit in.

I got a chance to travel a little bit recently — and no I won't be showing slides, no matter how much you beg me. And call me a nerd but on our little car trip I found myself thinking about health care.

Certain provisions of last year's health care overhaul are going into effect today and they remain controversial...but that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about something deeper, about our country's attitudes about health and wealth, which are in front of us even when we aren't looking for them.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Later in the program, we'll hear about some important provisions in the health care overhaul bill that go into effect today. Now, a number of these provisions remain controversial but we're going to step aside from the politics for a minute to try to find out what they mean for individuals. That's coming up later in the program.