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WMRA Full Schedule WEMC Full Schedule Virginia Insight Civic Soapbox Classical Music Acoustic Café Blues Valley Dick's Friday Classics Bob's Record Shelf Mostly Mennonite, Mostly Acapella AM Daybreak with Alexis Morehouse Mel Lee's Songbag Jan's Jamboree Wavelength with Ted Grimsrud Jim Bishop's Friday Night Jukebox Centerpiece with Harvey Yoder |
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Friday, September 28, 2007 Intellectual Property and the World Economy
19 years ago, doctors said David Martin would never walk again... he proved them wrong. Now Martin has taken on a new impossible challenge... changing America’s approach to world trade. We ask this specialist in intellectual property rights to explain his view that changes in patent and copyright law hold the key to saving the U.S. economy.
Guest:
David Martin, Ph.D. - CEO and founder of M-CAM, Inc., an international intellectual property rights firm based in Charlottesville.
All of us, even those who never leave the backyard, can clearly picture distant locales. (Quick - Imagine the Amazon!) Why is that? In this hour we try to find the answer.
We peer into habitats frozen in time at the American Museum of Natural History. We watch nature documentaries with David Attenborough. We travel to the North Pole (really) to see what there is to see. And, finally, we visit a place where imagination will just have to do: Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet, whose summit is home to the gods and (naturally) off limits to humans.
You've probably heard people talk about the need for more civic engagement, but what does that mean?
We talk with folks from one local college campus who feel they might have an answer to that question.
The new Spencer Center for Civic and Global Engagement at Mary Baldwin College is embracing a new take on civic engagement, and for them it means sending students out to help those in need, both around the corner and around the world.
Guests:
Julie Shepherd - Director of Civic Engagement at the Spencer Center for Civic and Global Engagement at Mary Baldwin College.
Erika Torres - Third year student majoring in Political Science at Mary Baldwin College.
Heather Ward - Director of International Programs at the Spencer Center for Civic and Global Engagement at Mary Baldwin College.
Tromila Wheat - Fourth year student majoring in International Relations at Mary Baldwin College.
Finding Yourself, isn’t that the thing that kids do with backpacks in Europe? Not always.
In this hour, we send a few brave radio producers out into nature on a mission of discovery.
James Spring goes to Mexico in search of old-growth trees... and his youthful idealism. Jon Miller travels a trail he built in his twenties, and ponders what it means to leave his mark. And Sherre Delys discovers how hard it is to leave herself behind when she follows an aboriginal friend into the Australian countryside.
True or False: When it comes to climate, the higher the elevation the colder the weather.
If you said true, there a few things about weather forecasting you could still learn.
But even if that question didn’t trick you, there are probably other ways the work of Virginia climatologist Jerry Stenger is bound to fascinate.
We take on the weather on the this edition of Insight.
Guest:
Jerry Stenger - Climatology Researcher with the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia.
Do you cringe when someone starts quoting Hamlet?
We talk with a Valley man who says it's not uncommon to fear Shakespeare.
And Ralph Cohen believes that you don't have to keep on fearing the Bard, because he knows how to cure it.
Guest:
Ralph Alan Cohen - Founding Executive Director of the Staunton, Virginia based American Shakespeare Center and Blackfriars Playhouse. Cohen is also the Gonder Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at Mary Baldwin College, and author of ShakesFear and How to Cure It: A Handbook for Teaching Shakespeare.
Four participants recently argued the proposed resolution: Keeping troops in Iraq is vital for America's national interests in the Middle East in a debate moderated by Margaret Warner, senior correspondent for PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
This debate was presented by The Miller Center of Public Affairs, in partnership with MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, as a launch to the inaugural event of its National Discussion and Debate Series.
Participants included:
PRO: Fred Kagan - Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and lead architect of the "surge" plan.
PRO: Reuel Marc Gerecht - Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and former CIA Middle East expert.
CON: Jessica Tuchman Mathews - President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
CON: Chas Freeman - President, Middle East Policy Council, and former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Someday in the future the weather is going to get really, really cold. But one thing you can count on, the chill you feel will never be as cold as the things in Cass Sackett's lab.
We talk with the Virginia scientist who cools atoms to almost absolute zero, so he can then push them around in the most interesting ways.
Guest:
Charles "Cass" Sackett, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia.
On some corner of the vast Earth, each one of us has a place, real or remembered, to call home.
In this hour you are invited onto other people’s sacred ground.
Teresa Goff follows a trail of grease into the history of the Namgis Nation, Jeff Rice braves three-digit temperatures to find Charles Bowden’s home in the Sonoran Desert, and Sandy Tolan treads lightly at the monastic home of Barry Lopez.
Also meet two river guides who fell for Arizona’s Glen Canyon in the years before it was dammed, and learn what happens once the place you love is gone.
Are you captivated by catastrophe?
Eduardo Velasquez thinks you just might be.
Whether your favorite TV show is Survivor or Lost, or your favorite music comes from The Clash or the Dave Mathews Band... Velasquez says America has entered a time when apocalyptic scenarios hold unparalleled appeal.
We talk with the author of the new book titled A Consumers Guide to the Apocalypse.
Guest:
Eduardo Velasquez, Ph.D. - Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University and Author of A Consumer’s Guide to the Apocalypse: Why There Is No Cultural War in America and Why We Will Perish Nonetheless.
Of the immigrants now living in Virginia, where do you think the biggest percentage are from, Latin America, Europe, or Asia?
How about the number of immigrants in Virginia that are here illegally? Would you guess 90%, 70% or less than 30%?
We talk with researchers studying immigration. They claim that if you know the facts, it could change how you feel about the issue of immigration in Virginia.
Guests:
Qian Cai, Ph.D. - Director of the Demographics and Workforce Section of The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.
Meredith Strohm Gunter, Ph.D. - Director of Outreach for the Demographics and Workforce Section of The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.
Portrait? Or Landscape? In documenting the natural world, our producers discover those old painterly distinctions don’t quite hold.
The Kitchen Sisters explore a canyon, Jonathan Goldstein goes camping, and Elizabeth Arnold enters bear territory, all places devoid of people. But when they point their microphones at the landscape, they find stories that seem a lot like... well, like portraits.
And so in this hour, you'll hear stories about people, and the places that make them scared, and sad, and fighting mad.
What do you do if you are an established writer, you've published more than 20 books, but there’s one kind of story you resist?
A kind of story that you’ve actually been collecting for years, but you hesitate to tell because you don’t want people to think you're crazy.
One solution might be to simply decide that you don’t care what people think.
We talk with Lexington’s Katie Letcher Lyle about her new, non-fiction book on ghosts and other tales of the paranormal.
Guest:
Katie Letcher Lyle - Lexington, VA based writer and Author of My Neighbors’ Ghosts … and Other Amazing True Stories.
For most Americans, recent history can be clearly divided in two eras: before and after 9-11.
The attacks redefined our national sense of self and how we understand our place in the world.
To this day, we see constant reminders of the events, which brought about war and conflict.
Hear the stories of people whose lives were dramatically altered, or who made big changes themselves.
"America has been going in the wrong direction since Lee surrendered at Appomattox."
So says one of Virginia’s most outspoken conservative thinkers.
Former editorial writer for the Washington Times, onetime campaign aide to Pat Buchanan, frequent contributor to right wing journals, Cort Kirkwood today serves as Managing Editor of Harrisonburg’s daily newspaper.
He also has a new book out about leadership.
We ask him to enumerate some of his most strongly held views, and invite listeners to share their perspective on what makes a true conservative.
Guest:
R. Cort Kirkwood - Managing Editor of The Daily News Record, Harrisonburg. Author of Real Men -- Ten Courageous Americans to Know and Admire.
He has been a political reporter... an attorney specializing aviation law... and a manager of one of the most challenging airports in America.
But one thing has remained constant in his life. Since early child hood, he has loved classical music.
Listen and get to know the voice behind Friday Evening Classics on WMRA.
Guest:
Richard 'Dick' Jamison - Retired airport consultant, former attorney for American Airlines, and current host of WMRA's Friday Evening Classics.
The World Bank is the world's largest development institution and works in more than 100 developing countries.
And over the past 60 years, it’s learned many lessons that have helped drive the World Bank’s mission today, as it faces the challenge of lifting the third world out of poverty.
We’ll highlight a few of those lessons and talk to key decision-makers about the World Bank's role in Latin America after the debt crisis of the 1980s. And we'll visit World Bank projects in Tanzania and Laos to take a closer look at its work on the ground.
True or False - Some problems just have no solution?
A Virginia man who's made a career out problem solving would answer, "False."
For more than 20 years, Chic Thompson has been teaching businesses and governments unique
problem-solving techniques, as well as how to foster creativity.
We talk with Chic Thompson, author of What a Great Idea, a 1990 best selling book which has just been re-issued in a new edition.
Guest:
'Chic' Thompson - Founder of Charlottesville based Creative Management Group and creator of the website WhatAGreatIdea.Com. Author of What a Great Idea and What A Great Idea - 2.0.
What happens when there is no leader?
For Starlings, bees, and ants, it’s no problem. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, without anyone at the helm.
But how do they do it?
To find the answer, we'll gaze down at the bottom-up logic of ants, cities, Google, and our very own brains.
What if you could understand so much about the human brain that you could make yours work both more easily and more efficiently?
It would probably not only make us smarter, it could make learning fun.
We talk with a Valley teacher who’s getting rave reviews for his teaching style. A style he says is based on what science has learned about the brain... a style he says anybody could use in almost any situation.
Guest:
John Almarode - Instructor of Math and Physics at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Governors School, and an educational consultant specializing in Brain-Based Learning.
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Friday, August 31, 2007 Securing the Homeland
When it comes to focusing on Homeland Security, is the primary goal preventing a terrorist attack? How about responding to natural disasters and other massive emergencies? If a terrorist attack does occur again inside the U.S., who should be in charge of each aspect of an emergency response? Three scholars from James Madison University spent the past two years researching such questions and the results are now making their way into classrooms across America. On this edition of Insight, we ask the authors of Understanding Homeland Security: Policies, Perspectives and Paradoxes about their idea that if the homeland is to be secure, each individual American needs to do more. This program was originally broadcast on June 15, 2007.
Guests:
John Noftsinger, Jr. Ph.D. - Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Executive Director of The Institute for Infrastructure and Information Assurance at James Madison University.
Ken Newbold, Jr. M.A. - Associate Director of The Institute for Infrastructure and Information Assurance at James Madison University.
Jack Wheeler, M.A. Security Consultant for IBM Global.
To mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, American Radioworks attempted to find out how culture might save New Orleans.
Find out what the artists, the restaurateurs, the musicians, and the youth bring to daily life after Katrina, when Insight presents Routes to Recovery, an American Radioworks documentary.
Ever think of writing your life story?
A man from Albemarle County, a former journalist, thinks you probably have. And if you haven't... you should!
We talk with the founder of Memoirs for Life about how everyday people are turning their personal histories into published memoirs.
This program was originally broadcast on May 25, 2007.
Guest:
Kevin Quirk - founder of Memoirs for Life; author of Hello, Aibek! A Journey of International Adoption and Not Now Honey, I’m Watching the Game.
Can Capitalism really go green?
A green credit card promises to mobilize an icon of capitalism in the fight against global warming. But will the card do more than absolve American consumers for their eco-sins?
And while Billions of dollars are pouring into the search for a new generation of eco-friendly bio-fuels, three young Berkeley entrepreneurs say they may have found the answer in an unusual source... but what will the market make if their find?
Find out what happens when good deeds grapple with the realities of the free market when Insight presents Green Rush, an American Radioworks documentary.
One of Virginia's most crowded state legislative races this year is the contest for the 24th Senate District seat held by Senator Emmett Hanger.
After surviving a hard-fought GOP primary race in June, Hanger now faces two more challengers in the upcoming November election.
Those challengers are David Cox, a Democrat from Lexington and Arin Sime, a Libertarian Candidate from Crozet.
We talk with the three men on the ballot for the 24th senate district about transportation, education, abusive driver fees, and more.
Guest Host:
Bob Gibson - Columnist and political reporter for The Charlottesville Daily Progress.
Guests:
Senator Emmett Hanger, Jr. - Incumbent and Republican Candidate for Virginia Senate District 24. Senator Hanger was a Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1983 to 1992, and has been a Member of the Virginia Senate since 1996. Emmet Hanger Campaign Website
David Cox - Democratic Candidate for Virginia Senate District 24. Cox is an Episcopal pastor currently serving a small congregation in Bath County. Cox also serves on the Rockbridge Community Foundation; the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board, which oversees mental health/mental retardation services to the region; and the Rockbridge County Public Schools Foundation. David Cox Campaign Website
Arin Sime - Libertarian Candidate for Virginia Senate District 24. Sime is a small business owner and software developer, and lives in Crozet. Arin Sime Campaign Website
Virginia Senate District 24 includes Albemarle County (Part); Augusta County (All); Greene County (All); Highland County (All); Rockbridge County (Part); Rockingham County (Part); and the Cities of Staunton, Waynesboro and Lexington.
Career success has taken you from a small southern town to the skyscrapers of Manhattan. But living in the big city makes you begin to wonder if you're losing your humanity in the process.
Could it be that technology, something that's suppose to make living easier, is actually draining your life away?
We talk with the man who answered that question by taking his family a hundred years back in time to live off the land in rural Virginia.
Guest:
Logan Ward - Author of See you in a Hundred Years; Four Seasons in Forgotten America.
The body has a system for getting out of trouble.
And back when trouble meant being chased by a tiger, that system gave us a real survival edge.
But these days, trouble is more likely to mean waiting in traffic... and the system is more likely to make us sick.
Find out what happens to our insides when we stand in the wrong line at the supermarket or worry too much about that job interview.
There was probably a day when you got your degree and then thought, "I will never have to go to school again."
But if that day happened a few decades ago, you may find yourself thinking that it might be nice to get more education... if only there was an easier way to do it.
We talk with leaders of the Lifelong Learning movement, who specialize in easy access to education for the golden years.
Guests:
Whitman "Pete" Cross, Ed.D. - Program Committee Member of the Jefferson Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of Virginia.
Nancy Owens - Director of The James Madison University Lifelong Learning Institute.
Bob Bloomquist - Program Chair of The James Madison University Lifelong Learning Institute.
Maybe you're in your desk chair or relaxing at home...
You happen to also be in Charlottesville, or Winchester, or Lexington and you're definitely on planet Earth… But how do you know where you really are?
How does your brain keep track of your body, and what happens when that bond breaks?
How highly do we regard the people who keep our vehicles running?
For most of us, the automobile has becoming an absolutely critical part of our daily lives. When it breaks down, we need it fixed fast and well.
Yet for the past one hundred years, the technical experts employed to repair cars have not gotten the same respect as many who work in other technological professions.
We talk with a former car mechanic who’s now a college professor. His new book examines the history and sociology of auto repair.
We also get some perspective from a local man who created a successful car repair business, retired, then missed fixing cars so much went back to working under the hood in someone else’s shop.
Guests:
Kevin Borg, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of History at James Madison University and Author of Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America.
Mark Heisel - Auto mechanic at Wrench Craft in Harrisonburg, Virginia and former owner of Oviedo Foreign Car Repair in Oviedo, Florida.
As a president faces mounting pressure to withdraw troops from an increasingly unpopular war, what is he secretly thinking behind the scenes?
Scholars from the University of Virginia’s Miller Center discuss recently released recordings from the Nixon White House.
The focus of these tapes reveal Nixon’s hidden views about Vietnam.
These secret recordings were made more than 36 years ago, but with a White House and Congress once again at odds over an unpopular war, revelation of the hidden politics of Vietnam could be especially useful today.
This program was originally broadcast on June 1, 2007.
Guests:
David Coleman - Chair of the Presidential Recordings Program, Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia.
Ken Hughes - Research Associate for the Presidential Recordings Program, Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia.
The mind and self were formerly the province of philosophers and priests, but today they seem to be the domain of neurologists armed with giant magnets.
Listen as we look into the mirror and contemplate the evolution of consciousness.
Also hear the story of a woman who woke up one day and discovered that she was a completely different person.
Have you ever heard of something called, "the consumer driven health care movement?"
It’s gaining popularity in many policy making circles, but a Virginia legal scholar claims that consumer driven health care, or health care priorities based on profit motives and market forces, is exactly the wrong direction for America to go.
We ask the author of the new book Health Care at Risk to take us through his international research on health care solutions.
Guest:
Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, J.D. The Robert L. Willett Family Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law. His newest book is titled Health Care at Risk: A Critique of the Consumer-Driven Movement.
Physicians for a National Health Program
The Consumer-Driven Health Care Institute
Where does our sense of right and wrong come from?
In a quest to understand morality, we peer inside the brains of people contemplating moral dilemmas, watch chimps at a primate research center share blackberries, and tour the country's first penitentiary.
What would it be like to have a job where, if you do it well, you can be certain somebody is always going to be mad at you?
On this edition of Insight, we talk with three arts and entertainment critics and find out whether getting paid to go to all those shows is as fun as some people might think.
This program was originally broadcast on June 6, 2007.
Guests:
Frank Albrecht - Theater Reviewer for The News Leader, Staunton.
Clare Aukofer - Entertainment Critic for The Daily Progress, Charlottesville.
Cathy Harding - Editor of C-ville, Charlottesville.
According to Trinh Xuan Thuan: “Science can operate without spirituality. Spirituality can exist without science. But man, to be complete, needs both.”
On this edition of Insight we ask this Virginia based astrophysicist how he came to believe that, not only do science and religion compliment each other, but they may be leading to similar discoveries.
This program was originally broadcast on May 4, 2007.
Guest:
Trinh Xuan Thuan, PhD. Professor of Astronomy, University of Virginia. Co-author, The Quantum and the Lotus.
What is music? How does it work? Why does it move us? Why are some people better at it than others?
We'll examine the line between language and music, how the brain processes sound, and meet a composer who uses computers to capture the musical DNA of dead composers in order to create new work.
We also re-imagine the disastrous 1913 debut of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, through the lens of modern neurology.
Kids seem to always be asking questions that aren’t that easy to answer.
What is love? Why do people fight? Why do you have to go to work every day?
Instead of giving a simple answer, what would happen if you introduced them to some big ideas, like those of Plato and Socrates?
We talk about some innovative ways to engage a child’s natural curiosity and help brace them for the grey areas of life.
Guests:
Marietta McCarty - Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville and author of Little Big Minds.
Anne Carter - Former middle school teacher and current teacher of the Discovering and Developing the Philosopher Within course in the Curry School of Education's Summer Enrichment Program.
What happens when you play detective and find out that what really happened in the past is not at all what you’d expect?
We find out how a trash dump in Egypt, a blood sampling in Asia and a stack of old letters shed light on the mysteries of Jesus, a world conqueror and Route 101.
Hear how forensics, archaeology and genetics are playing a role in solving modern mysteries.
Mention Islam and what springs to mind for most Americans is not Commerce.
Charlottesville based businessman David Martin thinks that is about to change.
We talk with Martin and two international business leaders about their belief that the future of world commerce may be based in the Middle East.
This program was originally broadcast on April 20, 2007.
Guests:
David Martin, Ph.D. - CEO and Founder of M-CAM, Inc., an international intellectual property rights firm based in Charlottesville.
Moustapha Sarhank - Honorary Chairman of Sarhank Group for Investments, a holding company with headquarters in Egypt and Switzerland.
Steffen Schubert - CEO and Founder of the Dubai International Financial Exchange.
Charles Marsh is an Evangelical Christian. He believes in Jesus as his personal savior. He does not, however, believe that to be a good Christian you have to support the war in Iraq, or President Bush.
We talk with Dr. Marsh about his controversial new book Wayward Christian Soldiers, and his theory that the world needs more Christianity and less politics.
Guest:
Charles Marsh, Ph.D. - Professor of Religion and Director of The Project on Lived Theology, at the University of Virginia. His newest book is titled Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity. His previous books include: Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer; The Last Days; God’s Long Summer; and The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today.
Producer Paul Ingles hosts The Emergence of Paul Simon, an engrossing two-hour special on the creative output of heralded songwriter Paul Simon.
Ingles draws from an impressive guest roster to explore how Simon connected with audiences in the 1960s as part of Simon & Garfunkel, in the 1970s as a solo artist and in the 1980s when he re-emerged as a world star with the release of his Graceland album.
The program includes excerpts from several archival interviews of Simon and features musicians Joseph Shabalala, Shawn Colvin, Deborah Holland, David Ziems and Jon Spurney.
Other guest commentators include Simon biographer Patrick Humphries and music writers Ann Powers, Greg Kot, Jim DeRogatis, Pete Fornatale, Ashley Kahn, Anthony DeCurtis, Paul Zollo, Lydia Hutchinson, and Jim Fusilli.
What do you know about Donald Rumsfeld?
Andrew Cockburn suspects that what you think you know is only a small fraction of the true story behind the most controversial Secretary of Defense in modern times.
In his highly critical biography, Cockburn argues that Donald Rumsfeld did more damage than even many of his most ardent critics had previously claimed.
Guest Host Bob Leweke interviews the author on this edition of Insight.
This program was originally broadcast on April 23, 2007.
Guest:
Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007 Insight Presents - The Emergence of Paul Simon: Part 1
Producer Paul Ingles hosts The Emergence of Paul Simon, an engrossing two-hour special on the creative output of heralded songwriter Paul Simon. Ingles draws from an impressive guest roster to explore how Simon connected with audiences in the 1960s as part of Simon & Garfunkel, in the 1970s as a solo artist and in the 1980s when he re-emerged as a world star with the release of his Graceland album. The program includes excerpts from several archival interviews of Simon and features musicians Joseph Shabalala, Shawn Colvin, Deborah Holland, David Ziems and Jon Spurney. Other guest commentators include Simon biographer Patrick Humphries and music writers Ann Powers, Greg Kot, Jim DeRogatis, Pete Fornatale, Ashley Kahn, Anthony DeCurtis, Paul Zollo, Lydia Hutchinson, and Jim Fusilli.
Monday, July 30, 2007 Teaching Boys
Men have long complained that they don’t understand how women think. Now a Virginia woman has written a book detailing how "not understanding how males think" is a problem not just for women, but for most of America’s education system. We talk with this local educator about her theory that schools have to change if boys are going to have the same opportunities for success as girls.
Guest:
Abigail Norfleet James, Ph.D. - author of Teaching the Male Brain: How Boys Think, Feel, and Learn in School.
Construction plans for I-81 and I-64 - New Regional Transportation Boards -
Freight by Rail - Abusive Driver Fees...
Transportation issues in Virginia remain a hot topic and are still evolving.
We talk with Virginia's Secretary of Transportation about these issues and more.
Guest:
Pierce R. Homer - Virginia Secretary of Transportation and Chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board. Virginia Transportation Office.
This summer, a trip to the desert may not sound very appealing, but when you travel by radio, you don’t have to worry about the heat!
So get ready to take a trip out west and discover why the basins near Nevada's Battle Mountain are beautiful, lonely, dreary and full of sagebrush, solace and stories.
Also visit the ghost towns, Opera Houses, abandoned mines, and ancient boulders along Death Valley's Mojave Road.
How is music like collard greens?
Nathan Moore has been writing songs since the age of 9. That’s just a bit shy of 30 years.
Now having toured all across the U.S., he says pursuing the perfect sound is a lot like the pursuit of the perfect dish of collard greens.
We ask him to explain that, and other things, on this edition of Insight.
Guest:
Nathan Moore - Singer/Songwriter based in Augusta County. Moore just released a new album titled In His Own Worlds.
Violence, crime and destitution... not so much fun in real life, but in literature they can be divine.
Dive into the world of pulp when we examine the classic noir novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.
And discover one of the fastest-growing new pulp genres: Scandinavian Crime Fiction.
So get ready to walk the back alleys of fiction, on this final installment of the special four part series Author, Author produced by To The Best of Our Knowledge.
You’ve just graduated high school... but where you live, people with your skin color are supposed to stay in the background.
So instead of taking classes at the college down the street, you become it janitor.
Jump forward more than 40 years, and you’ve just been appointed to lead one of that college’s most prestigious departments.
We talk with the Virginia man who lived that story and ask him about race, education and having a dream.
Guest:
Ted DeLaney, Ph.D. - Professor of History, and Chair of the History Department at Washington and Lee University.
Since 1989, over 200 innocent people have been freed from prison because of DNA testing.
This has shaken the criminal justice system and left advocates asking how many more innocent people are still in US prisons.
We’ll explore how it was possible for these men to have been wrongfully incarcerated and learn of a brand new study by a University of Virginia Attorney who looked at all 200 cases to see why these people were unable to get the courts to believe they were being wrongfully accused.
We’ll also look at what has been happening in Virginia to change the laws so that this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
We explore what it takes to get DNA testing for those in prison who claim to be innocent.
Guests:
Shawn Armbrust - Director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.
Brandon Garrett - Associate Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and author of a brand new report called Judging Innocence.
The world of children's literature is rich and full of imagination.
In addition to Harry Potter, there are the outlandish worlds of Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Artemis Fowl and the Wizard of Oz.
But then the inevitable happens... you reach a certain age and you're supposed to spend the rest of your life reading grown-up books.
So get ready to rediscover your inner child, on this third installment of the special four part series Author, Author produced by To The Best of Our Knowledge.
20 years ago, when Karen met Joe, she asked what he did for a living.
He named a job she’d never hear of, but she married him anyway.
Now she’s written a book about the work Joe, and hundreds like him, are doing that most people still don’t know about.
We talk with this Charlottesville couple about their new book and the Organizers work they say is changing the world one community at a time.
Guests:
Kristin Layng Szakos - Freelance Journalist and lead author of the new book We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do - and Why.
Joe Szakos - Executive Director of The Virginia Organizing Project and co-author of We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do - and Why.
It's been called divine and it's been called disgusting... and it's arguably one of the most important books of all time.
So when it comes to determining what goes into making a modern classic, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita might be a good place to start.
Find out why the classics get better and richer with each re-reading, on this second installment of the special four part series Author, Author produced by To The Best of Our Knowledge.
Author, Author: Modern Classics
Don Ford, Harrisonburg Superintendent of Schools, recently accepted the award for Superintendent of the Year in Virginia.
One factor that led to his recognition was his determination to address the problems that come from running a school system that now has Virginia’s highest percentage of students with English as a second language.
We talk with Superintendent Ford about the challenges facing Harrisonburg schools, the No Child Left Behind Act and the ongoing struggle to adapt to a changing student population.
Guest:
Don Ford, Ph.D. - Superintendent of Schools for the Harrisonburg City School District and recipient of Virginia Superintendent of the Year for 2007.
Herbal Remedies - Acupuncture - Homeopathy - Energy Healing...
While alternative medicine is thriving in America, is it doing any good?
A federally funded center based in Virginia may have a few answers, since they've been studying that question for more than a decade.
We talk with researchers from the Center for the Study of Alternative and Complementary Therapies.
Guests:
Ann Gil Taylor, RN, MS, Ed.D., FAAN - Director of the Center for the Study of Alternative and Complementary Therapies a.k.a. C-SCAT and the Betty Norman Norris Professor of Nursing at the University of Virginia.
Cynthia Brown, RN, DNSc - Post Doctoral Research Fellow at C-SCAT.
Jason Dave, NMD - Post Doctoral Research Fellow at C-SCAT.
Who's the greatest writer living today?
Is it Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison or V.S. Naipaul?
Or maybe it’s last year's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature: Turkey's Orham Pamuk?
How about Amy Tan, Alice Walker or Sherman Alexie?
It’s a hard question to answer, but we’ll give it a try on this first installment of the special four part series Author, Author produced by To The Best of Our Knowledge.
Author, Author: Great Writers On Great Books
There was a time when their vigil was a lonely one.
Now their long held view that invading Iraq was a bad idea has become majority opinion.
We talk with those who were in on the beginning of the opposition to the War.
Guests:
William Anderson, Ph.D. - Steering Committee Chair for the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice.
Rev. Hunter Mabry B.D., Ph.D. - Coordinator of the Augusta Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Susan Oberman - Member of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice.
Hopping time zones, you'll encounter the work of leading producers from Finland, Germany, Australia, and England.
Discover the unique story-telling styles each country has to offer: In Finland, students who clean offices to earn a little extra pocket money, unwittingly create a symphony of sponges and rags.
In Germany, a producer chronicles European history through the sound of bells, which accompany celebrations and disasters, war and liberation, rising floodwaters and big fires, baptisms and funerals.
In England, the allegory of the blind wise men and the elephant is put to the test when four blind people go to the zoo and encounter an elephant for the first time.
A group of women in west Albemarle want to speak with you, especially if you’ve ever been, or have any fear of someday being, diagnosed with cancer.
These women have one thing in common; they have all dealt with breast cancer.
And for more than ten years now they've been meeting in what might be called a survivors group, although they wouldd more likely call it a thrivers group.
We celebrate their friendship and explore the power of a helping hand.
Guests:
Elfie Ash - Retired artist and 11-year member of the Batesville Breast Cancer Survivors Group.
Linda Krag - Owner of Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles and 11-year member of the Batesville Breast Cancer Survivors Group.
Sarah O’Connor, MFA - Professor of Writing & Rhetoric at James Madison University and 8-year member of the Batesville Breast Cancer Survivors Group.
You've heard that money can't buy happiness, but can great wealth automatically cause unhappiness?
On this edition of Insight, we talk with the editors of The Legacy of Wealth, a book based on interviews with more than a hundred Americans who had inherited substantial wealth.
The degree of despair most of the subjects experienced may surprise you, but the good news is that the authors say there is a path to healing that they believe can serve us all.
This program was originally broadcast March 12, 2007.
Guests:
Barbara Blouin - Resident of Halifax, Canada, Co-Founder of The Inheritance Project and Co-Editor of The Legacy of Inherited Wealth.
Katherine Brooks - Resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, Co-Founder of The Inheritance Project and Co-Editor of The Legacy of Inherited Wealth.
Hopping time zones, you'll encounter the work of leading producers from Australia, England, Ireland and Canada.
Discover the unique story-telling styles each country has to offer: In Canada, a young woman reflects on her father’s near-death experience, while relishing his stubborn spirit of adventure.
In Ireland a group of healthy-sized women gather around an elaborate feast, microphones on, to dine and share stories about body-image and weight, love and prejudice.
In Australia, a producer explores the last-ditch hope – tongue in cheek - that karaoke might actually save her marriage.
In a country of the people, by the people and for the people...
Why do so many Americans feel alienated from our democratic process?
What does it mean to be an actively engaged citizen?
How can we stimulate more critical thinking and a more deliberative approach by the citizenry?
One-room schools were once ubiquitous in the U.S. but today, only about 300 remain and they're disappearing fast.
From Maine to Maui, one-room schools still serve rural residents, where the class sizes are small, the teacher gets to know the kids well and there is a strong bond with the community.
But does this school structure really have a place in America today?
The One-Room School in the Twenty-First Century
The bald eagle became America’s national symbol over 200 years ago, and by the 1960’s it had nearly disappeared from our skies.
However, thanks to the efforts of conservationists across the country, in the past 4 decades the bald eagle has survived and thrived.
On June 28th, 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its decision to remove the Bald Eagle from the protection of the Endangered Species Act.
We talk about what it means for this majestic raptor to be de-listed as an Endangered Species.
Guest Host:
Andi Arndt - Part-time faculty with the Theater Department at James Madison University and professional voice over actor.
Guest:
Ed Clark - President of The Wildlife Center of Virginia and former director and current board member of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council.
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