Nearly half a century ago, the UPA animation studio was a haven for misfit geniuses struggling to create relevant cartoon films in the face of political and cultural repression.  Gambling the future of the company on an hourlong television special featuring their most popular recurring character, they created a wildly successful holiday classic. 

The new book Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol: the Making of the First Animated Christmas Special collects long buried archival material into an exhaustive artistic and historical document.  Author Darrell Van Citters is joined by Magoo animator Jack Heiter to tell Words & Pictures listeners the story behind the Magoo story.  Bill Dodge and S.W.Conser host.

For more KBOO audio about the history of the UPA studios, click here and here.

Thanks to Emily Young for her engineering help on this show.

The situation of human rights in Iran is of concern, because the West is so pre-occupied with the nuclear issue that the question is never raised in the context of the negotiations and/or the confrontation with the Islamic Republic. Two of the groups that face gross discriminations by the government, as well as the society, are religious and sexual minorities. These groups do not threaten the governmental establishment in a po...litical way, but still are subjected to mostly silent violations of the Human Rights. Followers of Baha'i and Jewish faiths are accused of spying for Israel and their loyalty is questioned.

Rabia Yeaman invites listeners to call in and give their opinion about Wikileaks, Julian Assange and freedom of speech. Want to weigh in on the subject, post your comments here.