ThoughtCast® » ThoughtCast Shorts

Simon Johnson Takes on Banks Deemed “Too Big to Fail”

Jenny — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:54:20 +0000

Simon Johnson, the Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, is an outspoken critic of the US government response to the financial crisis. Now he takes on the “too big to fail” banks which continue to threaten our economy. In his latest book, called 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown, which he co-wrote with James Kwak, Simon argues that if the biggest banks aren’t cut down to size, it’s only a matter of time before we face another financial crisis. And once again, the government – aka the taxpayers – will be obliged to step in and bail out these behemoths…
In Simon’s words, if they’re too big to fail — they’re too big to exist!
Simon Johnson is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. And he’s the co-author, again with James Kwak, of the influential economics blog The Baseline Scenario. Simon spoke with ThoughtCast at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Coral reefs, hermit crabs and tube worms with Randi Rotjan

Jenny — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:42:46 +0000

The Cambridge Science Festival returns this week with Inspiring Minds: Meet Women in Science, a program at the Museum of Science that includes a talk by Randi Rotjan, a coral ecologist at the New England Aquarium in Boston. Randi has been stung by jellyfish, coral, you name it. It’s all part of the job, studying coral reefs on location in exotic locales like the Red Sea or the Phoenix Islands, the world’s largest marine protected area. She goes face to face with hermit crabs as they line up, after the usual jostling, to form vacancy chains, waiting to trade in their old shells for newer, larger ones. It’s the classic upgrade, and it follows rules – perhaps ones we humans might care to copy.
Rules abound undersea – as does death. If the water temperature is too warm, corals bleach, starve and die. And if the tube worms that thrive near deep sea hydrothermal vents venture too far from the fissure, they’ll freeze. But most of the time, they’re doing just fine, thank you, feasting on the poisonous spewing gases they’re so fond of.
Watch this brief video on corallivory (the eating of live coral by fish!) to get you started.
And then click here (12 minutes) to listen to the audio interview, for the details.

A Conversation with Los Angeles Impresario Ernest Fleischmann

Jenny — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:39:10 +0000

Note: this interview was broadcast March 28th on WGBH radio in Boston!

Ernest Fleischmann

Ernest Fleischmann, the former General Manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, can be credited with turning this once provincial institution into a world famous orchestra. He was also instrumental in hiring Esa-Pekka Salonen, the famous Finnish music director and composer, and more recently the flamboyant Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who, baton in hand, has taken the classical music world by storm.
Now in his 80’s, Ernest looks back at his career in a conversation with ThoughtCast, at his home in the Hollywood Hills. This brief interview only skims the surface of his career and accomplishments, but it’s a pleasure to listen to that voice, and to tap into his reservoir of musical knowledge – and instinct.
Click here to listen (8:26 minutes.)

Sadly, Ernest Fleischmann died in June, 2010 after a long illness. He will be missed! Here is a tribute to him from Gail Eichenthal at KUSC.

The Journal of Henry David Thoreau

Jenny — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:08:08 +0000

Note: an audio version of this interview aired on WGBH radio in Boston!
Henry David Thoreau is justly famous for his book Walden, which tells the story of the two years he spent living by the pond, in the Concord woods. But he also wrote a journal, which he started at age 20 in 1837, and kept up until 1861, shortly before he died. This diary of Thoreau’s daily thoughts and experiences has just been published by New York Review Books Classics, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this autumn. Edwin Frank, the editor of the series, speaks with ThoughtCast at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

To watch a shorter version of this interview, go to the NY Review Books Classics blog A Different Stripe! And to read a review on Thoreau’s Journal by intellectual historian John Summers, click here!

Lydia Ratcliff: Vermont Farmer, Stubborn Survivor

Jenny — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:06:38 +0000

Note: this audio program and slideshow have been picked up by Word of Mouth on New Hampshire Public Radio! The audio interview was also broadcast March 28th on WGBH radio in Boston!

Milking Time at Lovejoy Brook Farm

About 40 years ago, farms were thick on the ground in Andover, a rural town in southern Vermont. Today, 75-year-old Lydia Ratcliff’s Lovejoy Brook Farm is the last working farm still in operation. But can it survive much longer? ThoughtCast’s Jenny Attiyeh grew up visiting Lydia each summer, listening to her tales, eating fresh corn and carrots from her garden, and watching the animals give birth, and grow old. On a recent visit to see Lydia, Jenny brought along her microphone …

Note: this slideshow was commissioned by the BBC Radio program Americana.

Lydia Ratcliff is a survivor. She’s farmed her 90 acre plot of land in Andover Vermont for 43 years, and though she’s now come down with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, she still climbs on top of that tractor in hay season.
Does she offer a lesson for the rest of us? Does she represent the future of farming in Vermont, or is she one of the last of a dying breed?
Click here to listen (9 minutes.)

Jonah Lehrer on Emotional Hijacking and “How We Decide”

Jenny — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:05:08 +0000

Note: this interview was broadcast on WGBH radio in Boston as well as on the WGBH Cape and Islands affiliate WCAI/WNAN!

Jonah Lehrer (photo credit: Lori Duff)

Jonah Lehrer, the precocious author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist, has come out with a new book called How We Decide. He spoke at the Harvard Book Store, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Click here to listen (28 minutes.)

After his talk, ThoughtCast spoke with Lehrer briefly about the value of emotion in rational decision making, the power of wishful thinking to hijack our reason, and the potential to retrain the brain via the mind…
Click here to listen to this rather noisy interview (8:50 minutes.)

The Promise of Open Media

Jenny — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:17:27 +0000

(Note: This program is featured on the Socialbrite and P2P Foundation websites — thanks for that!)

At the first ever Open Video Conference, held at New York University in Manhattan, participants pondered the significance of the open media movement, at a time when its tools are being put to use by protesters in Iran. The social networking tools Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have revolutionized communication, and impacted events as they unfold.

ThoughtCast spoke with Xeni Jardin, of Boing Boing fame, Peter Kaufman, the CEO of Intelligent Television, and Dean Jansen with the Participatory Culture Foundation, among others, about the potential of this movement to effect social change.

The Dopamine Economy

Jenny — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:17:40 +0000

Note: this story was broadcast on the WGBH public radio affiliate WCAI, on the Cape and Islands!

dopamine brain

Wall Street on Drugs: What motivated these former masters of the universe? And why did they act like kindergartners? ThoughtCast’s Jenny Attiyeh speaks with James Poterba, the Mitsui Professor of Economics at MIT, and Jonah Lehrer, the author of “Proust Was a Neuroscientist” and “How We Decide”, as well as the writer and public intellectual Jim Holt and the Harvard economist Alberto Alesina.
Here’s another question — don’t the continental Europeans like dopamine as much as we do? And — where do we get our fix now??

Click here to listen (3:24 minutes.)

Turbulent Times for Truth Tellers? Just ask the Nieman Foundation…

Jenny — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:34:02 +0000

This year’s Narrative Journalism conference, sponsored by Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, was titled “Telling True Stories in Turbulent Times.” With magazines folding and newspapers shrinking, these are hard days for narrative journalists: they need space, time and funding to do their work, all of which are in short supply in today’s web-driven media economy. ThoughtCast spoke with several of the presenters at the conference, including keynote speaker and Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, award-winning author and journalist Adam Hochschild, and Nieman’s own Joshua Benton. The title does indeed appear to be apt…

To listen to a talk with Adam Hochschild on the Forum Network, click here!

Public Radio goes Hollywood!

Jenny — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:52:40 +0000

Note: This piece has been picked up by KYOU Radio, in San Francisco, and it’s also been mentioned on Current.org and the PRPD site — thanks for that!

PRPD

Public radio could easily be described as a smashing success story. Take NPR, for example. From its counter-cultural roots in the early 1970s, it has grown to become one of the most trusted sources of journalism in the United States. Although it still is accused of liberal bias, an equal number of liberals and conservatives find themselves drawn to its reassuring sound. So – what’s the problem? Like newspapers and symphony orchestras, public radio has a graying audience and it is having trouble attracting younger people and minorities. So today, in order to stay viable, public radio’s job is to reach out to new listeners. But at what cost, if any?
ThoughtCast attended the Public Radio Program Directors Association conference this September in Hollywood, and spoke with:

Jeff Hansen, program director at KUOW in Seattle
Mike Crane, COO of Wisconsin Public Radio
John Voci, the general manager of WGBH radio in Boston
Jennifer Ferro, assistant general manager of KCRW in Santa Monica
Sam Fleming, managing director of news and programs at WBUR, Boston
Chris Bannon, program director of WNYC in New York City.

Click here: to listen (7 minutes).

Our American “Empire” with Niall Ferguson

Jenny — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:28:08 +0000

Note: This interview has been picked up by the public radio stations WGBH, in Boston, its affiliates WCAI and WNAN, and WCVE in Richmond, VA.

Niall Ferguson

In some ways, the Scottish historian Niall Ferguson is the Russell Crowe of the academic world: charismatic, unconventional, and definitely controversial. He’s also a big fan of the British Empire — and wants the United States to follow in its footsteps. That means it’s our job to form colonies in hot climates, for years on end.
But are we up for this? While Niall would like that to be the case, he doesn’t really think so, because, he says, we’re an empire “in denial” …
Click here: to listen to a 4 minute excerpt.
Click here: to listen to the entire interview (15:30 minutes).
Or watch this brief video excerpt! (1 minute.)

And to listen to an interview with Niall Ferguson on the WGBH Forum Network, click here!

“The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It”!!!

Jenny — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:47:38 +0000

Note: This program was broadcast on the public radio station WCVE.

bookcover

Cyber law expert Jonathan Zittrain is one of the canniest thinkers out there, pondering the wide world of the web, and his new book is called The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It. It’s a call to arms. Before it’s too late, he says, we must make sure the Internet stays in our hands – not in those of industries like Verizon, or Apple, seductive as their services might seem at times. Anybody say iPhone??
Click here: to listen (5 1/2 minutes).
For those to whom Jonathan is a new phenomenon, he is the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, a professor at Harvard Law School, and also the Chair in Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University. He’s an expert on Internet law.

Griefer, Google Cooking and other Neologisms

Jenny — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:17:00 +0000

Note: This piece was broadcast on Word of Mouth on New Hampshire Public Radio and on WCVE in Richmond VA.

been there - done that

Today’s online world is in overdrive. Think of it as a novelty factory – spewing out new ideas, products, and neologisms – new words, or phrases. Take the word blog, for example, or broadband. These are now old-hat neologisms even my mother would recognize. But neologisms can also be existing words that acquire new meaning, like the term spam. Or the word friend – that’s now a verb! People friend each other on social networking sites like Facebook all the time!
So what better place to look for neologisms than at a conference devoted to the “Future of the Internet”, held by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.
Click here: to listen to Esther Dyson, Jimmy Wales, Tim Wu and Judith Donath (4 minutes). Or check out this 1 minute video with MIT Media Lab assoc. professor and Harvard fellow Judith Donath…

To friend or not to friend: Judith Donath on online social status

Jenny — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:57:54 +0000

Judith Donath

Have you “friended” someone recently? Have you ever? Sooner or later, we’ll all start to friend, or be friended, if we are to inhabit the jolly online world of social networking. MIT Media Lab’s Judith Donath explains….

Click here: (4:17 minutes)

More Neologisms with TPM’s Josh Marshall

Jenny — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:34:19 +0000

Josh Marshall (credit: NY Times)

Here are a few more thoughts on new words gleaned from life online — gathered at a Berkman Center conference on The Future of the Internet!

Joshua Micah Marshall, who founded the influential site Talking Points Memo discusses the term “blogger”, a now old neologism that may have outgrown its usefulness, at least to him!

Click here: (2:30 minutes) to listen. And let us know if you agree!

And here on this YouTube video, Josh Marshall tells Jenny Attiyeh how he came up with the name “Talking Points Memo”…

Plus:

Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices waxes lyrical on the term homophily.
MIT Media Lab’s Judith Donath explains the jolly online world of social networking!

Tim Wu’s neologism: Network neutrality!

Jenny — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:34:18 +0000

The term network neutrality was the brainchild of Tim Wu of Columbia Law School. So what does this term mean, and what power does it have?

Click here: (2:23 minutes)

In Search of Neologisms with Esther Dyson

Jenny — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:22:52 +0000

Esther Dyson

Neologisms are defined as new words or phrases (or new uses of a word or phrase). And what better place to find them than at a gathering of netizens (itself a neologism) steeped in the new world of the “net”. The Berkman Center for Internet and Society, at Harvard, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and ThoughtCast was there, fishing for novelty…
The Catch:
Internet guru Esther Dyson came up with an expression I’d never heard before… Have you? Here’s a clue: what does Google have to do with your refrigerator??!!
Click here: (1 minute) to find out!
But wait, there’s more!

Jimmy Wales, the founder of the free online encylopedia Wikipedia, shares his thoughts on the power of one incredibly successful neologism – that amazing name!

The term network neutrality was the brainchild of Tim Wu of Columbia Law School. So what does this term mean, and what power does it have?

Steve Reich Meets The Borromeo String Quartet!

Jenny — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:18:06 +0000

Note: So far, this piece has been broadcast on the following public radio programs: New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth, WDAV’s Artist Spotlight, Tapestry from 90.3 WBHM, in Birmingham, Alabama and KUAR, in Little Rock!

Borromeo String Quartet (photo: Christian Steiner)

Steve Reich is perhaps the preeminent composer living today. And one of his most heart-wrenching and affecting works is called Different Trains for String Quartet and Tape. It tells the story of Steve Reich’s early childhood — his train trips between the East and West coasts to visit his separated parents — and also of the train trips Jews were forced to take during the Holocaust.

The piece, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet in 1988, is notoriously difficult to play. But the Borromeo String Quartet has recently taken up the challenge. ThoughtCast’s Jenny Attiyeh attended a rehearsal at the New England Conservatory, where the Borromeo is currently in residence.

Click here: to listen — (7 minutes) on ThoughtCast!

Click here: for a shorter version (4:30 mins.)

The Origins of “Rock”

Jenny — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:13:59 +0000

Note: this piece was broadcast on NJN (New Jersey Public Radio) and on WMUB, an NPR station in Oxford, Ohio.

Why Not?

What does the word rock mean? Simple enough question. But how did the term originate? Where — and why? These questions are bit more difficult to answer!

Tune in for a quick romp through the origins of the word — with Berklee College of Music professor Ken Zambello.
Click here: to listen (3:30 minutes).
(And thanks to Pam Scrutton and Planning For Elders for the “Let’s Rock and Roll” illustration!)

Astrophysics in Cambridge — at the Planetarium!

Jenny — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:18:22 +0000

Noreen Grice

As part of the Cambridge Science Festival, Noreen Grice, the operations coordinator of the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science in Boston, hosted a series of presentations that feature new research in astrophysics taking place in Cambridge. Specifically, she highlighted the work of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, in Kendall Square, as well as scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and MIT.

Click here: for Noreen Grice’s presentation at the planetarium (30 minutes)
Click here: for an interview with Noreen Grice (15 minutes)

Marc Hauser on “Moral Minds”

Jenny — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:05:55 +0000

Marc Hauser

Note: This interview was broadcast on WCAI/WNAN, and is also featured on WGBH’s Science Luminaries series, as part of WGBH Science City.
The provocative Harvard psychologist Marc Hauser recently spoke about “The Evolution of Our Moral Intuitions” at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. This ThoughtCast interview with Hauser serves as a good “first course” — but to get to the meat and potatoes, check out his book Moral Minds.
Click here: to listen. (17:40 minutes)
And to listen to Marc Hauser on the WGBH Forum Network, click here!

Henry Jenkins@Beyond Broadcast 2007

Jenny — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:41:29 +0000

Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins, director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, talks with ThoughtCast about the path from “participatory culture” to “participatory democracy.” He was the keynote speaker for this year’s Beyond Broadcast conference, held at MIT. He’s also an author, blogger and pop culture fan.
Click here: to listen to the interview (8:12 minutes)

And now, for extra credit, to listen to Jenkins’ thoughts on the “moral economy”… (5:12 minutes) CLICK HERE!

To listen to a discussion with Henry Jenkins on “The Economics of Open Content” on the WGBH Forum Network, click here.

And there’s more….

WNYC’s Bill Swersey on “open source”
Beyond Broadcast — the state of mind

Doug Kaye at the IMA

Jenny — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:26:50 +0000

Doug Kaye

Doug Kaye, who spoke at the 2007 Integrated Media Association conference, is the co-founder of the pioneering podcast on information technology called IT Conversations, the CTO of GigaVox Media, and the CEO of the Conversations Network. But Doug is hardly resting on his laurels, as you’ll hear in this ThoughtCast interview. (Oh yeah, he blogs and writes books too!)
Click here: to listen (4 minutes)

P.S… photo credit goes to Chris Pirillo!

Two Questions: Redux

Jenny — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 02:56:17 +0000

There's more...

Click here: for CPB’s Sondra Russell, WGBH’s Ron Bachman and Chad Davis of KNME. (1:53 minutes).
Click here: for Adam Rubin of Public Interactive, NHPR’s Jon Greenberg and Patrick Foster with Public Broadcasting Atlanta. (1:27 minutes).
Click here: for Adrianne Mathiowetz of PRX, KUOW’s Elizabeth Hovantz and Julia Schrenkler with MPR. (1:46 minutes).

Two Questions

Jenny — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:39:38 +0000

Hmmm…

Number 1:
How integrated is your media?
Number 2:
Is there anything about the way media is being integrated today that concerns you?
The answers?
Here are the first 8 of 17, all recorded at the 2007 IMA conference in Boston.

Click here: for NPR’s Andy Carvin and KQED’s Tim Olson (1:44 minutes).

Click here: for WBUR’s Anna Bensted, Michael Skoler of American Public Media, and The News Hour’s Lee Banville (2:34 minutes).

Click here: for American Public Media’s Mike Bettison, VPR’s Jodi Evans, and Daniel Ash, of Chicago Public Radio (2:05 minutes).

To listen to a discussion on “Open Content and Public Broadcasting” with Andy Carvin on the WGBH Forum Network, click here.

Integrated Media — are we there yet?

Jenny — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:31:28 +0000

Henry Becton (courtesy WGBH)

WGBH President Henry Becton inaugurated the 2007 Integrated Media Association conference with a talk on the strengths and weaknesses of public broadcasting today. He speaks with ThoughtCast about the definition – and purpose – of public broadcasting, and how it’s responding to the pressing realities of the new online media landscape.
Click here: to listen to the interview (13 1/2 minutes)

Some mildly subversive questions to think about: Are all the old parameters out? Need only revolutionaries apply? What’s worth saving, indeed savoring, from the MSM? And what does traditional media do that the newcomers can’t? Will anyone miss the good ol’ days once they’re gone?

To listen to a discussion on “Open Content and Public Broadcasting” with Henry Becton on the WGBH Forum Network, click here.

The Future of Public Radio: Part 5

Jenny — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:52:21 +0000

This is the final series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.

Maria Thomas is the VP and general manager of NPR digital media. As such, she oversees the development and distribution of NPR content to the Internet, mobile phones and the like. Need I say more?
Click here: (3 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Lucio Mesquita is the head of the Americas and Europe for the BBC World Service. He is thoughtful, almost philosophical, and in this interview he takes me to task for my quest for ‘purity’ in public broadcasting. He also discusses opera, soap opera, Shakespeare, silent movies, and of course, the BBC! I had to save the last word of my ‘Future of Public Radio’ series for Lucio.
Click here: (11:30 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 3 with the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman and Eric Nuzum of NPR.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Pubic Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.

The Future of Public Radio: Part 4

Jenny — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 04:09:43 +0000

This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.Todd Mundt is one of the Young Turks in public media — he even has an influential blog. Todd recently left Michigan Public Media to take a job in his home state at Iowa Public Media. I’d keep your eye out for some upheaval there (in a good way!)
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Program director Jackie Sauter admits she’s no pro when it comes to newfangled Internet contraptions. But that hasn’t kept her from moving North Country Public Radio online.
Click here: (5 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview, and click here to read a PRX review of my interview with Jackie Sauter.

Andrew Haeg is the senior producer of Public Insight Journalism at Minnesota Public Radio, which is a fresh new way to interact with — and learn from — your audience.
Click here: (4 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 3 with the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman and Eric Nuzum of NPR.
Click here for part 5 with Maria Thomas of NPR and Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

The Future of Public Radio: Part 3

Jenny — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:33:44 +0000

This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.

Liliane Landor is the commanding editor of news and current affairs at the BBC World Service. And as a member of the BBC’s Creative Future for journalism team, she’s already devoted a good deal of time to the questions bedevilling public broadcasting. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why she has some tough comments to make about public broadcasting here in America…
Click here: (6 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Eric Nuzum is NPR’s refreshing, colorful director of programming and acquisitions. We spoke in an exceedingly noisy room, so this interview is short and loud. If it leaves you hungry for more, try this.
Click here: (2 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Karen Shiffman is senior associate producer for On Point, the smart, approachable NPR program hosted by Tom Ashbrook and produced at WBUR in Boston. She gives us a glimpse of its inner workings.
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Pubic Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.
Click here for part 5 with Maria Thomas of NPR and Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

The Future of Public Radio: Part 2

Jenny — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:42:39 +0000

This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia. George Boosey, the program director for North Carolina Public Radio, is a bigwig in public broadcasting. Might he also be a contrarian? Certainly he’s more circumspect than many of his colleagues when it comes to the bells and whistles of the new ‘new media’.
Click here: (9 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Nikki Shields is the program manager for Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Hers is a loyal audience — for the time being. And Nikki plans to keep it that way.
Click here: (4 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Michael Arnold is the director of programming for Public Radio International, which distributes Christopher Lydon’s Open Source, the BBC World Service, This American Life and more. PRI’s the newer kid on the block, and as such, may well be scrappier — and quicker at adapting to the new world of the Web 2.0.
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, Elisabeth Perez-Luna, and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 3 with the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman, and Eric Nuzum of NPR.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Public Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.
Click here for part 5 with Maria Thomas of NPR and Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

The Future of Public Radio: Part 1

Jenny — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:26:44 +0000

PRPD

Annually, public radio programmers from across the nation (and overseas) gather to talk shop. This year, the mood at the Public Radio Program Directors Association conference in Philadelphia was one of concern. With many listeners newly entranced by the gadgets and gizmos of the 21st century — podcasts, blogs, satellite radio, streaming audio — it all adds up to one intimidating fact: the consumers of today’s ‘content’ want it on their terms. And the old guard of public radio now realizes it has some catching up to do. But therein lies the opportunity, and the reason why many of the more adventuresome attendees had a spring in their step.

For starters, here’s Jay Kernis, the senior VP of programming at National Public Radio:
Click here: (9 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Also in attendance was a contingent of BBC World Service cognoscenti, who brought their own brand of blunt charm to the affair. Key among the charmers was Phil Harding, director of English Network and News.
Click here: (7 minutes) to listen to the interview.

But with Elisabeth Perez-Luna in attendance, the Americans were able to hold their own. Currently, she’s the news director and the executive producer of national radio programming at WHYY:
Click here: (12 minutes) to listen to the interview.

And there’s more!

WUNC’s George Boosey, Nikki Shields of Maine Public Radio & Michael Arnold of PRI
the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman & Eric Nuzum of NPR
Iowa Public Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR & MPR’s Andrew Haeg
Maria Thomas of NPR & Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

Note: to read a PRX review of my interview with Jackie Sauter (part 4) click here:

Beyond Broadcast: more state of mind…

Jenny — Fri, 26 May 2006 06:44:55 +0000

A key panelist was Terry Heaton, the president of Donata Communications. He’s part rebel, part businessman, part visionary:
(5:30 minutes)

Here’s my interview with Jamie Biggar, the young but wise senior developer at WGBH Interactive:
(4:30 minutes)

Dan Fellini, managing producer, Public Interactive Now here’s a man with a mind of his own!
(5:30 minutes)

Donna Liu, Founder and Executive Director of The University Channel. This distribution network provides academic lectures and conferences, over the Internet, in video format. It’s unadulterated, and it’s free!
(4:30 minutes)

Second Life guru John Lester of Linden Lab. Rather light-hearted talk about sexually ambiguous avatars and virtual 19th century islands with ’steam robots.’ That was John’s avatar…
(7 minutes)

and Mark Anderson, the author of “Shakespeare By Another Name“, who covered the conference for Wired News. Here’s his article, and here’s our interview:
(2:40 minutes)

To hear MORE podcast interviews from Beyond Broadcast, check out Audio Berkman’s line-up!

Beyond Broadcast: the state of mind

Jenny — Wed, 17 May 2006 22:15:37 +0000

Branching Out

I attended the Beyond Broadcast conference at Harvard Law School in in the spring of 2006, and here are some of the participants I grabbed for a quick ThoughtCast interview: For starters, there’s Pat Aufderheide, the director of the Center for Social Media, and a professor at the School of Communication at American University, in Washington, D.C.
Click here: (7 minutes)

And click here to listen to the Beyond Broadcast conference hightlights on the WGBH Forum Network.

And there’s more… click here for the following:

Terry Heaton, president of Donata Communications
Jamie Biggar, with WGBH Interactive
Dan Fellini, managing producer, Public Interactive
Donna Liu, Founder of The University Channel
John Lester, the Second Life guru of Linden Lab
Mark Anderson, who covered the conference for Wired.com

Harvard Book Store author talks: Kevin Smokler

Jenny — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 06:00:10 +0000

Kevin Smokler

Kevin Smokler, the author, critic and literary blogger, has recently edited a book of essays called “Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times.” Its aim is to remind the world of the relevance of reading, eh, books. Not just summaries of books, or book reviews, or headlines about books, but the real thing. No matter if the book is a bunch of cartoons, the latest supermarket bodice buster, or issued from the Apple PowerBook of yet another disaffected kid from Brooklyn — you know, the one with the rectangular glasses, pale skin and perfectly uncoiffed hair.

It’s all good to Kevin, and who can disagree with him. He spoke with ThoughtCast shortly before he took the mike at the Harvard Book Store.

Click here: (7:18 minutes) to listen to the interview.

And here’s Bookmark Now, the Talk! (34 minutes.)
It features Kevin, naturally, and also Paul Collins, the author of Sixpence House and Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism.