Bringing Two Worlds Together

By Sarah Adams, Island Breeze

The Middle East is more than car bombs and military convoys, although the media often seems to show just that in the headlines and photographs.

"There isn't a lot of time to get into all the happy things that are going on," said Will Everett, host of a National Public Radio program head-quartered in Port Isabel.

Everett hopes to bring the culture and folklore of Middle Eastern countries to Americans.

"These places are really worlds apart," he said. "Iran, of course, is where writing comes from, and agriculture, and accounting."

As a radio host for Themes and Variations, Everett mixes literature with classical music to show how the two intertwine throughout history.

He came up with the idea in 1999, and began broadcasting through local station KMBH. He receives funding through the Town of South Padre Island, and now his program reaches nearly 100 NPR stations.

Right now, though, the office on Queen Isabella Road looks more like a travel agency than a production studio.

A Lonely Planet guide to Turkey sits among mail and papers. A map stitched together with black and white copies of Middle Eastern countries lines one wall. Pushpins mark the places along an invisible Silk Road where Everett and others will travel.

The program, Folk Journeys on the Silk Road, follows a trail made popular by Marco Polo centuries ago to create an east-west dialogue.

"We have broken it up into chunks to make it more manageable," Everett said. He and a
few colleagues plan to travel to 13 countries, from Turkey to Tibet to Iran.

Everett has studied the culture and folklore of Turkey when possible to prepare for the trip.
He leaves June 14. The first leg of the journey will take a speedy three weeks compared to Marco Polo as Everett and a colleague trade vehicles and planes for camels and carts.
Then it's back to Port Isabel to gather his thoughts, work on the radio program and study up on the next part of the estimated four-month journey.