Yeah, yeah, I know, explorers are all bad people, and they should be reviled.

This week on WPRB, as the rest of the world gets ready to hurl brickbats at Columbus, we’ll take some time to reflect on the theme of exploration. We’ll hear music inspired by a number of the great European explorers, many of whom have recently fallen into disfavor.

There will be plenty of music for Columbus, naturally, in advance of the three-day weekend. We’ll also have works related to Henry Hudson, Sir Walter Raleigh and Francisco Pizarro, with a nod or two to Leif Erikson, who arrived in North American nearly 500 years before Columbus embarked, and Alfred Newman’s decidedly un-PC “Conquest,” in glorification of the Conquistadors.

As a special treat, Sir Edmund Hillary will narrate “Landfall in Unknown Seas,” composed by Douglas Lilburn to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of Abel Tasman in New Zealand.

And to bring us even more up to date, we’ll listen to Joaquin Rodrigo’s salute to NASA and its commitment to the final frontier, “In Search of the Beyond.”

I don’t know, maybe we should all still be living in the Old Country, shuddering against the threat of sea serpents or dropping off the edge of a flat earth. But then where would be our diversity, heightened sensitivity, and righteous indignation?

We sail the ocean blue, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. If the scurvy doesn’t get you, the sea serpents will, on Classic Ross Amico.