Tell Me More

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, she's been called China's Elizabeth Taylor and the honors keep on coming. Joan Chen is being recognized at the International Asian-American Film Festival, which wraps up this weekend in San Francisco. We'll speak with her in just a few minutes.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now, we want to turn to an important issue from this country that found the international spotlight this week. Yesterday, members of the NAACP, one of this country's oldest and most prominent civil rights organizations, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council about new voter ID laws. More than 30 states now have laws requiring people to show a government-issued ID in order to vote, that according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Now, it's time for our Wisdom Watch conversation. That's where we speak with those who have made a difference through their work.

With us today, award-winning actress Joan Chen. She was born to two physicians in China and wound up becoming a star in two countries. Only 19 when she took home the Chinese equivalent of the Oscar for best actress, she was hailed as the Elizabeth Taylor of China before she moved to the U.S.

As many as a quarter of U.S. students report being a victim of bullying. This Sunday, the Cartoon Network will air Speak Up, a new documentary that shares the stories of victims. Host Michel Martin speaks with bullying expert Duane Thomas and Aaron Cheese, a student featured in the film.

Egypt's Cleopatra was called "Serpent of the Nile," and England's Mary Tudor, was called "Bloody Mary." But were these names fair? That's the question editor Shirin Yim Bridges raises in the tween book series, The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Dastardly Dames. She speaks with host Michel Martin as part of Tell Me More's biography series.

Rick Santorum won the Alabama and Mississippi primaries last night, despite being outspent by GOP front-runner Mitt Romney. Santorum's wins raise questions about the candidates' ability to connect with the party's base. Host Michel Martin speaks with Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Jeffrey Hess and John Archibald of The Birmingham News.

For this year's South By South West conference, some of Austin's homeless were equipped with mobile Wi-Fi devices and t-shirts inviting attendees to use these hotspots to get online. Reactions have ranged from support, to disbelief, to outrage. Host Michel Martin discusses the ethical implications with a technology reporter and an ethicist.

I am dating myself here, but do you remember the 1983 film Trading Places? Where the comedians Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy played an investment broker and a street hustler, respectively, whose places in life were switched by the owners of Akroyd's fictional firm?

A long line of international parenting guides are offering advice to Americans. This made the Tell Me More moms ask, "What's so bad about American parents?" Host Michel Martin checks in with The Washington Post's Brigid Shulte and regular contributors Dani Tucker, Jolene Ivey and Leslie Morgan Steiner.