Belfast is intersected with many hulking ‘peace’ walls separating protestant (unionist) and catholic (republican) factions. Nowhere is the separation and animosity more serious than between the working class protestant Shankill Road and catholic Falls Road communities.

Al Jazeera English TV aired an insightful doc on the walls, the communities, and the political protest graffiti that dots either side of them. Apparently, certain artists, who have come to attain near celebrity status, from both sides, have ended up coming together to dialogue, with art as the connecting point. Go figure.

This American Life is an excellent longstanding wkly radio show on NPR radio out of Chicago and hosted by Ira Glass. It does profiles of standout people and gives intimate portraits that look into the soul of America.

They now have TV episodes as well on Showtime based on the same idea. This video is about the Chicago hot dog stand and landmark The Weiner Circle . It starts off seeming like an amusing episode of Seinfeld with the chap who loses his crap when he sells his soup, but it goes south, and fast. It turned my stomach, and not because of the dogs. It says a lot about the hyper-segregation between North and South Chicago. Already covered by CitySPK from a South side perspective here .