The Big Float, coming up July 29, will put you on the Willamette River in a personal floatation device along with a couple thousand of your best pals doing the same thing. Last year, about 1,300 people floated across the Willamette and no one reported rashes, tetanus, or injuries. What's next? A sandy swimming beach at Waterfront Park? Maybe.

Host Michelle Schroeder Fletcher speaks with professor and author George Lakeoff about his new book, co-authored with Elisabeth Wehling, called THE LITTLE BLUE BOOK: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic. Lakeoff says the Democrats have too often failed to use language linking their moral values with their policies. He offers Democrats and progressives language to communicate their moral values clearly and forcefully, with hands-on advice for discussing the most pressing issues of our time. He also deconstructs the ways that extreme conservative positions have permeated political discourse.

Host Marvin Simmons speaks with Rajiv Chandrasekaran about his new book Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran is a senior correspondent and associate editor of The Washington Post. From 2009 to 2011, he reported on the war in Afghanistan for The Post, traveling extensively through the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to reveal the impact of President Obama’s decision to double U.S. force levels. HIs previous book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone won numerous awards for non-fiction.

Food Show guest in the studio will be Dr. John Kallas from Wild Food Adventures.  He has a long list of publications about his research, most notably a book titled Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate.  He teaches about wild foods and leads wild food adventures.

Also hear about the Cully Community Market.

Al Cohn to John Coltrane today

with Dave Frishberg, Ben Wolfe, and Ron Steen thrown in.

Portland music summer events past (Blues Fest), ongoing (Concerts in the Parks),

and yet to come (Cathedral Park and Port Townsend).  We'll bring you up to date

with musicians to remember (Jessica Williams), requiems of recent losses,

and ones to watch - and listen - for (Devin Phillips).

At least 2 KBOO debuts, too.

I'll be your host today.

Hope you'll tune in and enjoy.

With regards,

Bob Riddle