'Discovering My Mother' Twines Art and Depression

By Liane Hansen

Published May 9, 2004 at 12:00 AM EDT

NPR's Liane Hansen speaks with clinical psychologist and sociologist Thomas J. Cottle, author of When the Music Stopped: Discovering My Mother (SUNY Press). Cottle's mother, Gitta Gradova , was an established concert pianist of the 1920's and 30's, and she relished her budding career and rubbed elbows with the musical greats of the day. She gave it up to raise a family, and her son contends it led her into depression.

Liane Hansen

Liane Hansen has been the host of NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday for 20 years. She brings to her position an extensive background in broadcast journalism, including work as a radio producer, reporter, and on-air host at both the local and national level. The program has covered such breaking news stories as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbia shuttle tragedy. In 2004, Liane was granted an exclusive interview with former weapons inspector David Kay prior to his report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The show also won the James Beard award for best radio program on food for a report on SPAM.