|
|
Table of Contents |
programs recorded prior to 2007 may be found in the Index |
|
|
Table of Contents |
programs recorded prior to 2007 may be found in the Index |
| 2011 | 2011 |
James Stewart The end of civilization. Organized crime. Tribalism. These are some of the words that James Stewart uses to describe a plague sweeping across America. The greatest damage, he says, comes from role-models who take a solemn oath to tell the truth ... and then lie. Even when convicted of lying, they continue their offensive performance. In Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America, brings together the stories of four convicted criminals: Martha Stewart, "Scooter" Libby, Barry Bonds and Bernie Madoff. The complicity of lawyers, the SEC, baseball owners, the media and gullible (and frequently dishonest) supporters further enables their delusions. Democracy requires justice. When justice is perverted and obstructed by willful lying, democracy is imperiled. Journalist and author James Stewart has won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the 1987 stock market crash and insider trading. Formerly Page One editor of the Wall Street Journal, he is now a business columnist for The New York Times. Mr. Stewart is perhaps best known for his 1991 book, Den of Thieves. He practiced law until 1979 and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker. [July 16—July 30] |
James Mann Rather than re-direct savings resulting from the end of the Cold War and in the absence of enemies that could justify the huge costs of the military budget, the Defense Department under Dick Cheney came up with a new rationale (yes, he ran the Defense Department before he became vice president). According to James Mann, the new excuse was "we need a huge military that's so big that any emerging rival would realize it is crazy to try and challenge the American military power." Could it also be "crazy" to spend what America spends?
[June 12—June 26] |
|
Lonnie Johnson America's irrational commitment to coal, oil and natural gas is a mistake. Billions of dollars flow to nations which are hostile to the U.S. Billions more are spent on military ventures intended to protect those energy supplies. Carbon based fuels pollute our air and water. They cause disease and death. Burning fossil fuels destabilizes the global climate.
One of the people who has stepped up to this challenge is Lonnie Johnson. Until now, Mr. Johnson is best know as the inventor of the Super Soaker water gun. It is the profits from that invention which have principally funded his research. With years of experience in the Air Force and NASA, at JPL and the Oakridge National Laboratory, he stepped outside the confines of industry, government and academia to pursue his own vision. Mr. Johnson is building and testing devices, batteries and solar electric generators, that many scientist had said were impossible. The odds are heavily against him, but he may be the person who leads us away from the fiscal and environment devastation of fossil fuels. See what you think. [May 21—June 12] |
Michele Goldberg America grants human rights to corporations and questions whether those same rights should be permitted to women. That’s irrational ... and maddeningly counter-productive.
[March 28—May 21] |
Elizabeth Strout We have to go to literature for the deepest, truest emotions. Otherwise we do not know who are, we cannot understand what it’s like to be another person -- and we must, says Elizabeth Strout, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Ms. Strout’s Olive Kitteridge is a novel composed of a series of short stories. She is also the author of the national bestseller Abide with Me and of Amy and Isabelle. Both won major prizes. A finalist for both the PEN/Faulkner Award and England’s Orange Prize, Ms. Strout’s short stories have been published in magazines from The New Yorker to O: The Oprah Magazine. She grew up in Maine, is currently is on the MFA faculty of Queens University in Charlotte, NC, and lives with her family in New York City. [February 14—March 28] |
Carolyn Jessop "Money laundering ... child abuse ... worse than the Taliban ... priesthood prostitutes ... ."
Carolyn Jessop’s memoir, Escape, traces her former life as a member of the radical polygamist FLDS cult. Born into the sixth generation of polygamists and forced at 18 to become the 4th wife of a 50 year old man who fathered her 8 children in 15 years, Ms. Jessop was the first woman to be given full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the closed world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), an off-shoot of the Mormon church. Working with the Utah attorney general, Ms. Jessop was crucial to the arrest, conviction and sentencing of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. She now actively campaigns for education and in defense of women and children still trapped in polygamy including boys forcibly ejected from the FLDS and for the enforcement of anti-polygamy laws nationwide. [January 30—February 14] |
|
Why Speech Must Be Free As political discourse in America becomes diminishingly civilized, understanding the role of free speech in a nation nominally governed by its citizens is exceptionally important. Freedom for the Thought We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment is Anthony Lewis' wise and insightful examination of the essential nature of this basic freedom ... and the obligations it imparts. Mr. Lewis points to the pivotal New York Times v. Sullivan case as a prime example of the importance of free speech and of a free, unfettered and responsible press. An award-winning reporter and author, the Pulitzer Prize has twice been awarded to Mr. Lewis over his long and distinguished journalistic career. Gideon’s Trumpet, his book on the important right to legal counsel, has been in print for almost half a century. Mr. Lewis was columnist for The New York Times op-ed page from 1969 through 2001 and for many years the paper’s London correspondent. He has also been a lecturer at Harvard’s Law School, a visiting professor at the Universities of California, Illinois, Oregon, and Arizona, and since 1983, the James Madison Visiting Professor at Columbia University. He and his wife, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, live in Cambridge. [January 17—January 30] |
Alan Alda
[December 23—January 17] |
| 2010 | 2010 |
Robert A. G. Monks
[November 16—December 23] |
John Dean
In Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches, John Dean makes the case that, for all of the damage done by Republicans to American democracy, the gravest threat is to the Judicial Branch. Judicial fundamentalist, he says, believe that "the Bill of Rights don't apply to the states ... . What happens? ...(R)emoval of the protection against self-incrimination, ... Utah might decide to have the Mormon religion as their state religion. ... Women have no rights at all in the fundamentalist thinking." The Roberts' Court is living down to Mr. Dean's predictions. John Dean is attorney, author and key "Watergate" witness. In addition to Broken Government, his Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, and Conservatives Without Conscience, form a trilogy based on 40 years inside his "former tribe", the Republican Party. Once White House legal counsel to President Richard Nixon, Mr. Dean’s Blind Ambition, published in 1976, was followed by a number of other books. He had also served as chief minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee and an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice. Following a successful career as a corporate attorney, he is now a columnist for Findlaw.com and with his wife, Maureen, lives in California. [October 30—November 13] |
Thomas Frank
If we turn over the government to people who are hostile to government, it is unsurprising that government will suffer and the people whom government exists to serve will pay the price. We are paying the price. Bob Dylan's 1988 song "Everything is Broken" could be the soundtrack for the mess republicans are making ... with quite a bit of help from nominal democrats. Thomas Frank's The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule documents decades of Republicans serving the interests of Big Business at the expense of the American people. Mr. Frank, a former Young Republican, also wrote What’s the Matter with Kansas? and One Market Under God, contrasting everyday cultural conservatives with predatory acts of free-market fundamentalists and right wingers committed to destroying government. He was founding editor of The Baffler, received the Lannon Award and was a regular columnist for The Wall Street Journal until moving full-time to Harper's in August, 2010. [October10—October 30] |
David Orr
If our world is to have a chance of remaining livable in ways to which we are accustomed, we must find the will and courage to change our politics and our lifestyles. David Orr is candid about the challenges we face and hopeful about our abilities to meet and overcome those challenges. Active worldwide as scholar, teacher, writer, speaker and entrepreneur, Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse is David Orr’s seventh book. He helped launch the green campus movement and organized the first-ever conference on the effects of impending climate change on banking in the 1980s. He led the creation of the first “green” building on a U.S. college campus, the iconic Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College, where he is Distinguished Professor and Special Assistant to its President. Dr. Orr is also a Professor at University of Vermont; he has received numerous awards. {September 23—October 10] |
Rodger Schlickeisen
In many ecosystems, the wolf is a keystone species. Remove the keystone and the system is imbalanced and endanger. For Rodger Schlickeisen, this is imporatnat and this is personal.
President & CEO, Defenders of Wildlife since 1991, Mr. Schlickeisen has spurred tremendous growth for Defenders, one of the United States’ most prominent conservation advocacy organizations. Mr. Schlickeisen is also President of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, a political non-profit working to elect pro-conservation national leaders. Earlier, he was CEO of a leading consulting firm specializing in advancing the work of progressive advocacy organizations. He served in the Carter White House in the Office of Management & Budget and was Chief of Staff for U.S. Sentator Max Baucus. He is on the advisory committees of the Earth Communications Organization and the Environmental Media Association. His opinion pieces and articles are widely published. [August 5—September 23] |
Millicent Monks
Millicent Monks spent much of her childhood in her room, alone, hiding from her mother.
Mental illness is blind to great wealth, Ms. Monks demonstrates in Songs of Three Islands. The great-granddaughter of Thomas Carnegie (Andrew’s brother and business partner), Ms. Monks, unflinchingly relates the multi-generational impact of her great-grandmother’s, mother’s, daughter’s and granddaughters’ mental illnesses. She strives to help others to cope with mental illness, especially mothers. Her “islands”, both physical and metaphorical, stretch from the early, matriarchal Carnegie estate on Georgia’s Cumberland Island, through Ms. Monks’ adult life on an island in Maine, to her guiding metaphor and final destination, a patriarchal island far to the North. {July22 —August 5] |
Charles Raison & Stuart Kauffman
Charles Raison is a psychiatrist who is researching the efficacy of meditation as a tool for coping with stress. Stuart Kauffman is a theoretical biologist who has attacked the roots of reductionist science, and offered plausible alternatives. Together they explore what science is telling us ... about us, and perhaps where we're headed next. We're evolving into our futures and have great difficulty in knowing what that means, but the effort is still worthy of our time. [June 20—July 22] |
James Mann
As the United States militarizes more and more of its foreign policy, the role of soldiers becomes more important: on the often amorphous battlefields, in alien communities and, after their soldiering is done, on the streets of America. Throughout its history, the nation has typically abandoned its soldiers after they return home, though they are frequently damaged -- physically and psychically. Historian Edward Lengel writes about wars and warriors. In To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918, he honors the bloodiest battle in American history. (If remembered at all, it’s for Carey Grant’s movie portrayal of Sergeant Alvin C. York, Dr. Lengel’s cousin.) Other military history books Dr. Lengel has written include General George Washington: A Military Life. Dr. Lengel, in conjunction with the Papers of George Washington documentary editing project, received the National Humanities Medal. He makes frequent appearances on television documentaries and was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize. [May 18—June 20] |
James Carse
If Jesus actually said "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free," he was wrong says James Carse. "Truth" is closed and dogmatic; our commitment should be to truthfulness, a constant striving to explore and learn. Dr. Carse is a religious scholar, author and artist. The Religious Case Against Belief continues his long-time public engagement with pressing current issues, as he did for many years on CBS-TV in New York City. His widely admired book, Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility has been continuously in print since first published in 1968 and has become a best-seller over that period. His other books include The Silence of God, Breakfast at the Victory and The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple. Emeritus Professor of the History and Philosophy of Religion, Dr. Carse directed New York University’s Religious Studies Program for 30 years. He lives in New York City and Massachusetts’ Berkshires. [April 27—May 118] |
Edward Lengel
As the United States militarizes more and more of its foreign policy, the role of soldiers becomes more important: on the often amorphous battlefields, in alien communities and, after their soldiering is done, on the streets of America. Throughout its history, the nation has typically abandoned its soldiers after they return home, though they are frequently damaged -- physically and psychically. Historian Edward Lengel writes about wars and warriors. In To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918, he honors the bloodiest battle in American history. (If remembered at all, it’s for Carey Grant’s movie portrayal of Sergeant Alvin C. York, Dr. Lengel’s cousin.) Other military history books Dr. Lengel has written include General George Washington: A Military Life. Dr. Lengel, in conjunction with the Papers of George Washington documentary editing project, received the National Humanities Medal. He makes frequent appearances on television documentaries and was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize. [April 7—April 27] |
Garry Wills
While far from inevitable, the conflict between reason and religion was built into American politics by an accident of the historical timing of its political creation. The nation's founding thinking, principles and documents are rooted firmly in the English Enlightenment. Yet at roughly the turn of each century since that founding, the nation has swung into periods of anti-scientific, fundamentalist fervor. Garry Wills says that the latest manifestation of this habitual oscillation was the political ascendancy of George W. Bush and the Republican Right. [March 23—April 7] |
Christopher Dickey
Making people feel safe is not the same as making the people truly safe. Illusions and delusions are no substitute for actual security. When the threat to our well-being comes from terrorist, Christopher Dickey says the work of the New York Police Department provides important lessons for all of us. [March 7—March 23] |
Anthony Lewis
A major challenge to the framers of the American constitution was the question of how to get the people to truly act as the nation's ultimate sovereigns ... a challenge which continues to haunt us. "They have to know what's going on; they have to be free to criticize their leaders," says Anthony Lewis. "That's the First Amendment." At a time when corporations have subsumed many of the rights of natural people, the question of the exercise of sovereignty is more vital than ever. [February 19—March 7] |
Ray Anderson
Industrialist Ray Anderson has convincingly demonstrated that genuinely green businesses can be genuinely profitable. Despite claims by vested economic interests that environmental and economic well-being inevitably conflict, the facts clearly demonstrate that sustainable future growth in the econo-sphere rest firmly on compatibility with nature, rather than conflict. Mr. Anderson presents the what and the how in Confessions of a Radical Industrialist. [February 3—February19] |
Paul Hawkin
Environmental leaders all over the world cite Paul Hawken as their inspiration. The clarity of his vision and his manifest compassion are a valuable resource as we work to create human solutions for the problems we've created. If the question is "what's going to happen to the earth and to us?" the answer is "it depends on what you do."
Pioneering environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist and author, Paul Hawken is one of the world’s foremost environmental leaders, having spent his life putting his commitment to justice into action. Starting his activism in Selma, AL, when he was 19 years old, he has founded multiple businesses including Smith & Hawken and now heads the Natural Capital Institute. He is an widely sought speaker internationally, has contributed to and appeared in countless media outlets, has written international classics include The Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism (with Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins), Blessed Unrest and Growing a Business, which Mr. Hawken also took to television. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area. [January 12— February 3] |
Frederick Ferré
As we are rapidly learning, humans are deeply connected to the context in which live. We are deeply embedded within nature and ignore that at our peril. Frederick Ferré, building on the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead argues that we simply cannot separate ourselves from our surroundings, that the universe in all its parts is fully alive. [January 3— January12] |
| 2009 | 2009 |
| 2008 | 2008 |
| 2007 | 2007 |
