ThoughtCast®

Rebecca Goldstein: the atheist with a soul

Jenny — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:33:06 +0000

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

Rebecca Goldstein

Rebecca Goldstein’s latest work, called 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, is perhaps best described as a hybrid. It is indeed a novel, with its share of psychology, mathematics and academic politics, but it concludes with an appendix outlining these 36 arguments, as well as their rebuttals, in the language not of fiction, but of philosophy. So, as in many of Goldstein’s earlier novels, this one manages to fold ideas into art.
ThoughtCast spoke with Rebecca in her home in the Leather District, in downtown Boston.
Click here (28 minutes) to listen.
Click here (90 minutes) to listen to a discussion with Rebecca Goldstein and Steven Pinker, sponsored by PEN New England. It’s titled Mind-Body Problems: A Conversation About Science, Fiction and God, and focuses mainly on Rebecca’s latest novel.

Steven Pinker

Rebecca Goldstein received her doctorate in philosophy from Princeton, and went on to teach philosophy before trying her pen at fiction. Her first novel, The Mind-Body Problem, was a critical success, and she went on to write 5 other novels, including Properties of Light, Mazel, and The Dark Sister. She has also written non-fiction studies of the mathematician Kurt Gödel, and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

In addition to being Rebecca’s husband, Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and one of the world’s leading authorities on language and the mind. He’s written seven books (so far) including The Blank Slate, How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought.

A Conversation with Los Angeles Impresario Ernest Fleischmann

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

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

Ernest Fleischmann

While still a green arts reporter for KCRW, the public radio station in Santa Monica, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ernest about a youth program at the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s outdoor summer ampitheatre. I have known Ernest for most of my life, largely from a distance. He seemed a trifle intimidating at first, with his South African elegance and erudition. But the more time I spend with Ernest, the more I come to appreciate him. This brief interview only skims the surface of his career and accomplishments, but it’s a pleasure to listen to that voice, and to try to tap into his reservoir of musical knowledge – and instinct. Thank you, Ernest, for making the Los Angeles Philharmonic such a triumph!
Click here to listen (8:26 minutes.)

The “New Biology” with Steven Pinker, Noga Arikha & Melvin Konner

Jenny — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:17:51 +0000

Brave New World?

The Center for the Humanities at Tufts University recently held a panel discussion on “The New Biology and the Self”, an apt topic for the likes of Steven Pinker, the Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Noga Arikha, a historian of ideas and the author of Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours, and Melvin Konner, a professor of anthropology and assoc. professor of psychiatry and neurology at Emory University. The panel was moderated by Tufts professor Kevin Dunn.
Click here to listen (73 minutes.)

And to listen to a talk by Steven Pinker on the Forum Network, click here!

The Journal of Henry David Thoreau

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

Note: this interview, in audio format, will be broadcast March 28th 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 view a longer version of this interview, go to the Forum Network website!

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 will be 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.)

The “Puzzle of Existence” with Jim Holt

Jenny — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:59:51 +0000

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

Jim Holt (photo: Michael Todd)

In this ThoughtCast interview, science writer Jim Holt takes us on a jaunty tour of being and nothingness, existence and emptiness, quantum tunneling and the uncertainty principle. The author of Stop Me If You’ve Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes, Holt lends his wit to a dissection of the puzzle of existence, which happens to be the topic of his forthcoming book. A frequent contributor to The New York Times and other publications, Holt approaches his subject with a personal, philosophical and scientific point of view. But does he solve the puzzle? Well, the book’s not done yet, is it…

Click here to listen (28 minutes.)

Jonah Lehrer on Emotional Hijacking and “How We Decide”

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

Note: this interview will be broadcast on WGBH radio in Boston on March 28th, and was previously broadcast on the WGBH affiliate WCAI/WNAN, on the Cape and Islands!

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!

Architects Nader Tehrani and Robert Campbell @ CCAE

Jenny — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:39:59 +0000

Nader Tehrani

The Cambridge Center for Adult Education recently hosted a talk with the architect Nader Tehrani (an associate professor of architecture at MIT, and the co-founder of the influential Boston-based architecture and design firm Office dA) whose work is on view, among other locations, at the Museum of Modern Art –

Click here to listen (36 minutes).

Robert Campbell

– and Robert Campbell, the architect and Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Boston Globe (who also happens to be a poet and photographer). The subject of their talk: progressive architecture.

Has the Global Economic Crisis – or GEC – got us?

Jenny — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:52:35 +0000

Eat Lunch or Be Lunch

Calling for Acronyms!
Here’s mine to start off –
The “GEC“ — it sounds like a mix between guck, yuck, ick and eck. Like the noise you make in the back of your throat when you’re about to regurgitate, or cough up spume. And isn’t that what we’re doing now? Out comes the excess… Oh, and what about the Global Economic Meltdown, or “GEM” – with a hard g? Sounds chewy, gooey and horror-movie-ish. The GEM is on the move…
And ThoughtCast wants YOU to contribute an acronym as well!
Might as well get – if not a free lunch, then a free laugh out of all of this…

So, here’s Dale Hobson’s contribution:
“How about GRR–for Great Republican Rip-off or Global Resources Rape.
I don’t want to spit or hurl; I want to bite.” Ouch!
And here’s William’s:
I always thought “The GBR” captured it well. “The Great Brain Robbery”
Leighton says: WODD — world order down the drain
While Lee Goldberg has come up with:
Global Economic Meltdown Offers Rude Awakening – GEMORA – !!!
And Anthea Raymond gives GEC two thumbs up:
“GEC works for me quite possibly because of the gagging sound evoked.
We’re in for a long slow retch on this one.”

Meanwhile, Valeria Villarroel suggested Governmental Fail (GF?)
and Barton George followed up with Worldwide Total Fail: WTF
while Helen Tan writes: “GEC sounds like the cracking of an egg!”
Hence: Giant Egg Cracking

Have we covered the whole alphabet yet?
Oh, and that GEC-monster gracing this post?
It’s a sculpture by Juan Cabana, called Stranded…
Perhaps he hatched from Helen Tan’s egg!

For more acronyms –

Me Says:

How about Heny Paulson’s “SHIT” – Structured Housing Investment Trust (i.e the bank bailout)

patricia gras Says:

GEM
global economic mess
It’s a gem because it will teach us how to live differently PERHAPS

Jenny Says:

Okay, here’s an acronym from “anonymous” —
“How ’bout the GMVWUC…for the Global Misplaced Values Wake-Up Call. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.”
Well, I like it anyway. Try pronouncing it! Sounds like a mash-up of US car companies — or should I say a pile-up?…

bill Says:

A couple of groaners…
We have A.D.D., American Deficit Disorder
Some of us have O.C.D., Obliterated Countries Disorder

The Economic Pits with James Poterba

Jenny — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:45:13 +0000

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

James Poterba

What is the right expression to describe today’s economic nightmare? I’m sick of “mess” and “crisis” is too bland. What about “cesspool”? Well, I compromised with “pits” — feel free to add your own juicy descriptions in ThoughtCast’s comments section!
Either way, I dived into the “pool” with MIT’s Mitsui Professor of Economics James Poterba, who’s also the head of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the think tank in charge of determining when recessions start … and end. Wouldn’t that be nice? Headlines proclaiming the “end” of this rather inordinate business cycle.
Are these ups and downs indeed just a part of capitalism’s inevitable booms and busts? Ought we to accept them as natural, rather than resist them? Or ought we to scrap the “system” and rebuild? You tell me…
But first, listen to this: (15:30 minutes).

And — check out a 4 minute video of the interview.

Samuel Huntington — on Immigration and the American Identity

Jenny — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:24:08 +0000

Note: Sadly, Sam Huntington died in late December of 2008, so in memory of him, I’ve moved this 2005 interview to the top of my pile of posts.
This interview was broadcast twice on WGBH, in Boston.

Sam Huntington

The eminent and provocative political scientist and prolific author, talks with ThoughtCast about what he sees as the threat to America’s national identity (and its founding ‘Anglo-Protestant’ culture) posed by large numbers of unassimilated Hispanics, legal or otherwise, living in the United States. His most recent book: “Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity” has caused quite a stir. Huntington is also famous for an earlier work called “The Clash of Civilizations.” In this book, he argues that civilizations, not nations or ideologies, form the basic building blocks of future cooperation — and conflict.

Huntington, a longtime professor of political science at Harvard, is also a member of the editorial board of a new magazine chaired by Huntington’s former student, Francis Fukuyama, called “The American Interest.”

We discuss these topics in a half-hour interview while seated in the back yard of his home on Martha’s Vineyard — hence all those birds chirping away cheerily…

Click here: to listen (30 mins).

The New York Review turns 45!

Jenny — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:10:35 +0000

Note: this interview has been picked up by the public radio station WGBH, in Boston, and its sister stations WCAI and WNAN.

Robert Silvers (credit Melanie Flood)

The venerable New York Review of Books was launched amidst a newspaper strike in the winter of 1963, and has continued unabated ever since. Devoted to intensive and nuanced coverage of politics, the arts, literature, science (and now movies and the Internet!), the paper, as it’s called, is considered to be the premiere journal of the American intellectual elite.
Robert Silvers, its longtime editor, who shared the post with Barbara Epstein until her death in 2006, spoke with ThoughtCast in the WNYC studios in New York.

Click here: to listen (40 minutes).

Note: Scott McLemee, who writes the Intellectual Affairs column each week at Inside Higher Ed, contributed an excellent question to the interview – thanks!

Getrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas & Janet Malcolm!

Jenny — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:23:00 +0000

Gertrude & Alice (photo credit: Cecil Beaton)

They were a strange pair: Gertrude Stein, the avant-garde writer, salonniere and collector of art and artists, and her lover and companion, the querulous Alice B. Toklas, standing beakishly in the background. But together they formed a whole. Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice, a new book by journalist Janet Malcolm, explores this relationship, and the literary output it sustained.

Click here: to listen (30 minutes) to Janet Malcolm speak about her book, at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, presented by the Harvard Book Store.

Reading List for Obama – your thoughts?

Jenny — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:11:11 +0000

barackobama.com

Scott McLemee, who pens the Intellectual Affairs column for Inside Higher Ed, asked a few of us for a suggested reading list for the president-elect.

I discovered that one contributor, Daniel Drezner, is a fellow Williams alum, who blogged about the column here. Other contributors were James Marcus, the editor-at-large for the Columbia Journalism Review; Claire Potter, a professor of history and American studies at Wesleyan University; and James Mustich, editor of The Barnes & Noble Review.

And Christopher Hayes, who blogs for The Nation, picked up this thread for his Capitolism column.
Feel free to elaborate in the comments section, below.

How Fiction Works — with James Wood

Jenny — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 07:06:03 +0000

James Wood (photo credit: Cade Martin)

James Wood, the sincere, somewhat old-fashioned, unpretentious yet high-minded New Yorker literary critic, spoke at the Harvard Book Store recently about his new book, How Fiction Works.
Click here: to listen (30 minutes).
Also… ThoughtCast will be interviewing Wood shortly – hooray! – and we’re interested in your input! We’d like to discuss, among other topics, different kinds of literary creativity. What makes a great critic, rather than, say, a great novelist, or poet? What does the critic look for? How personal is the art of criticism, and how much a matter of taste – or instinct? Just how ‘creative’ is it?

Please add your thoughts in the comments section below, or email them to feedback at thoughtcast dot org!

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)

Ethan Zuckerman’s homage to homophily

Jenny — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:40:57 +0000

Ethan Zuckerman (credit: Esther Dyson)

Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices waxes lyrical on the term homophily, which isn’t actually a web word, but it’s a phenomenon playing itself out on the Internet. Click here for clarification!

(2:20 minutes)

And to listen to a discussion with Ethan Zuckerman on the Forum Network, click here!

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)

Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia – the word!

Jenny — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:27:05 +0000

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales, the founder of the free online encylopedia Wikipedia, shares his thoughts on the power of one incredibly successful neologism – that amazing name! Wikipedia is a name he’s “stuck with” — in a good way, of course!
Click here: to listen. (2:13 minutes) And hear what else “Jimbo” had to say that day, to the Chronicle of Higher Education!

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!)

Zen and the Art of Writing – with Natalie Goldberg

Jenny — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:10:13 +0000

Note: This program was broadcast on WCAI, the Cape and Islands affiliate of WGBH. It also received a 5-star review on PRX!

Natalie Goldberg (self-portrait)

Natalie Goldberg, the well-known painter, writer and writing teacher, who wrote the best-seller on how to write called Writing Down the Bones, is also a Zen practitioner, who applies the lessons of Zen Buddhism to her writing, and her life.

This is a complex brew, but in this ThoughtCast interview, which took place in her home, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Natalie speaks frankly about her often painful but also at times transcendent experiences, and how she has turned these experiences into positive, life-affirming acts of self-expression — and of art.

Natalie paints her father

Natalie seeks the truth, about herself, her father (the charismatic Ben Goldberg), her Zen teacher Katagiri Roshi, and the swirling world around her. As those who know her will attest, Natalie’s quest has been a fruitful one. She’s the author of many books, including the novel, Banana Rose, and the memoirs Long Quiet Highway and The Great Failure, among many others.

Click here: to listen to our interview. (30 minutes)

El Rito, New Mexico

Natalie Goldberg is also featured in the documentary Tangled up in Bob: Searching for Bob Dylan, in which she ventures to his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, in search of – once more – the truth. At the moment, Natalie is at work on a new book, called “Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir”, which will be published in February of 2008.

Click here: to listen to Natalie Goldberg read an excerpt (about her parents’ visit to Santa Fe) from “The Great Failure”. (4 1/2 minutes)

The Future of Europe – with Alberto Alesina

Jenny — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 06:47:02 +0000

Note: a portion of this interview was broadcast on the WGBH public radio affiliates WCAI/WNAN!

Alberto Alesina

Whither the European Union? This is not a question we (in America) often ask ourselves. But perhaps we should. As we now live in an era of borderless commerce – and threats – it might be wise for us to know a bit more about how our key ally, Europe, is faring. Is the EU more than just a powerful economic bloc? Does it have political clout as well? What about a common foreign policy, and the means to back it up?

Harvard economist Alberto Alesina has devoted himself to these questions. In a book he co-authored with Francesco Giavazzi, he asks: The Future of Europe: Reform or Decline??
Click here: to listen. (27 minutes)

Art & Science with Alan Lightman

Jenny — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:04:27 +0000

Note: This program was broadcast on WCAI, the Cape and Islands affiliate of WGBH.

Alan Lightman

Alan Lightman, the MIT physicist and best-selling author of Einstein’s Dreams, is a man of unusual ability. Talented in both the sciences and the arts, he’s both left- and right-brained, a condition that confers challenges as well as benefits.
Lightman has recently come out with a new book which explores these two realms – and it’s called Ghost! It deals with the permeable boundary between hard science and the paranormal — and asks, where does science fail us, and what, if anything, can take its place? Does mystery take over? And can it step in where science falls short?
Click here: to listen (28:30 minutes) on ThoughtCast!

And to listen Alan Lightman on WGBH’s Forum Network, click here — and here!

Jack Beatty, Public Intellectual

Jenny — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:30:12 +0000

Note: this interview was reviewed on PRX and earned 4 stars! And it was broadcast on the public radio stations WCAI/WNAN, the Cape and Islands affiliates of WGBH.

Public -- Or Private?

Who are our public intellectuals today? What purpose are they meant to serve, and are they in fact serving it — or us? How public are they, and how accountable? Is there a venue for such people to even be heard — and if so, who would bother to listen? Are they no better than the talking heads we see endlessly on TV, or are they some newfangled model of the Renaissance Man?
Well, ThoughtCast has tracked down one bona fide public intellectual. His name is Jack Beatty, and he’s not only a “thinker”, he’s also a writer. His most recent book is Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865 – 1900. He’s also a senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly, and a regular contributor to the NPR program On Point. Let’s see if he has some answers…

Click here: to listen. (28 minutes)

Kwame Anthony Appiah: the Cosmopolitan Philosopher

Jenny — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:50:07 +0000

Note: This program was broadcast on WCAI, an affiliate of WGBH, Boston.

Kwame Anthony Appiah (Photo: Greg Martin)

Princeton Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses cosmopolitanism on ThoughtCast!
Born in England and raised in Ghana, Appiah is half English and half African. And perhaps because of this, he’s fascinated with the concept of identity, and the power it wields over people. But rather than wage identity politics, Appiah encourages us instead to be good global citizens, interested in and accepting of each other. In short, cosmopolitan. But also, at least a little bit “contaminated”… Appiah’s written a book on the subject: it’s called Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.

Click here: to listen. (42 minutes)

The End of Our Universe among other timely topics…

Jenny — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 08:49:25 +0000

Note: this program was broadcast on WGBH’s sister stations WCAI & WNAN, on Sept. 9, 2007.

Alex Vilenkin

Want to know how the world is going to end? Just ask Russian cosmologist Alex Vilenkin. If it’s our own universe you’re talking about, well, it’s called the big crunch, and it’s going to be hot hot hot! But if it’s the multiverse, that infinitely expanding, infinitely varied and infinitely populated sea of universes, well, guess what — there is no end. Isn’t that reassuring??
Vilenkin is Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute of Cosmology at Tufts University, and also the author of a new book, called Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes. He’s also a former zookeeper. And – lest I forget – he was blacklisted by the KGB…
Click here: to listen. (29:45 minutes)

Faith and Philosophy with Harvey Cox and Simon Blackburn

Jenny — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:27:29 +0000

Note: this program was broadcast on the WGBH public radio sister stations WCAI/WNAN, on the Cape and Islands!

Harvey Cox

Simon Blackburn

In this half-hour, ThoughtCast talks with two very different men, with one thing in common — a belief in humanism. Harvey Cox, the renowned Harvard Divinity School Professor and author of The Secular City and When Jesus Came to Harvard, talks with ThoughtCast about his faith, and the religious resurgence taking place here in America and abroad. Cox has a unique take on Christianity — while he doubts the Resurrection, he celebrates the life of Jesus, and urges us all to follow in his footsteps, and take his teachings to the streets, to enact them in our flawed, real, and secular world.
Simon Blackburn on the other hand rejects religion but embraces the wisdom of philosophy. He too is an author — of Truth: A Guide, Think and Being Good, among others — and he teaches philosophy at the University of Cambridge, in England. What he offers is a philosophy that’s not just for the educated elite, but for the rest of us!

Click here: to listen (29 minutes)

And to listen to a WGBH Forum Network lecture moderated by Harvey Cox, on the Boston civil rights movement, click here!

Public Media Maverick Jay Allison

Jenny — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:13:39 +0000

Note: this program was broadcast on WGBH’s sister stations WCAI & WNAN, on Sept. 9, 2007.

Jay Allison

Jay Allison has egalitarian instincts. He’s a maverick, who’s made it his mission to put the “public” back into public media. As an independent producer of stellar public radio – and television – Jay’s been able to work outside the system, and then change the system. Take This I Believe for example. Jay’s the man behind this series of audio essays, written and performed by a wide variety of Americans, ranging from the well-known to the unknown. As Jay says in this ThoughtCast interview, their sincerity and lack of skepticism make them almost the antithesis of “journalism” — and yet there they are, on NPR.

Click here: to listen. (28 minutes)

Jay Allison is also a contributor to Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide, a selection of essays from Harvard’s Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism, and edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call. At the Harvard Book Store recently, Allison and Kramer banded together to tell a few stories of their own about authenticity, the narrative voice and the gruelling process of authorship.
Click here: to listen. (55 minutes)
And to hear more from Jay Allison on the Forum Network, click here!

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!

Doc Searls!

Jenny — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:16:02 +0000

Doc Searls

Say the word “Doc” and the technorati cognoscenti know exactly who you’re talking about. Doc Searls is the well-known blogger and co-author of the prescient “Cluetrain Manifesto,” which explains how the Internet has transformed corporate marketing. He’s also the senior editor of Linux Journal, and a fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. During the recent Integrated Media Association conference, Doc sat down with ThoughtCast for a few questions…

Click here: to listen (10 minutes)

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

The BBC and CBC weigh in…

Jenny — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:21:57 +0000

Paul Brannan

Paul Brannan, the Deputy Editor of BBC News Interactive, offers a candid assessment of the state of public broadcasting here in the US – and back home in London. It seems the BBC’s way ahead of us, as Paul, who spoke at the 2007 Integrated Media Association Conference here, explains. He’s an evangelist for “integrated media” and knows from hard experience what that abstract phrase actually means.
Click here: to listen to the interview (8.5 minutes).

Sue Gardner

Across the pond in Canada, Sue Gardner is the Senior Director of CBC.CA, the website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She shared the podium with Paul at the conference, and offers her views on ThoughtCast about how to remain “relevant” in today’s evolving media marketplace — in other words, how to broaden the appeal of public broadcasting without “dumbing down”!
Click here: to listen to the interview (6 minutes).

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

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!

WNYC’s Bill Swersey on “Open Source”

Jenny — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 04:38:49 +0000

Listen Up!

WNYC Radio’s Bill Swersey led a working group at the conference called “Public Radio and Open Source,” which came up with the idea for a watering hole (pubforge.org) where open source developers for public media can discuss problems and share solutions. Swersey speaks with ThoughtCast about the meaning of “open source” and the challenges public broadcasters face in adjusting to the new world of “pubmedia” on the web!

Click here: to listen to the interview (4:40 minutes).

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.

Economist Amartya Sen on “Identity and Violence”

Jenny — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 09:41:52 +0000

Note: this interview was broadcast on WGBH Radio. And here’s a PRX review of the program!

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, the distinguished economist, philosopher, Nobel laureate and Harvard professor, talks with ThoughtCast about “Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny.”

This new book examines the unfortunate connection between violence and our tendency to identify with one key trait — our ethnicity, or religion, for example — to the exclusion of all others. Sen argues that we can combat this tendency by rejecting this narrowly defined, limited sense of identity, and embracing a broader, richer and more complex understanding of ourselves.
Amartya Sen was born in West Bengal, India (now Bangladesh) and teaches economics at Harvard University. He is known in the wider world for his work on the causes of famines.
Note: Susan Wennemyr served as associate producer on this program.
Click here: to listen (28:30 minutes).
To listen to a panel on “Combating Global Poverty” that includes Sen, click here to access WGBH’s Forum Network.

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:

Alan Dershowitz on Preemption and the Hezbollah

Jenny — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:19:12 +0000

Note: this interview was rebroadcast Jan. 21 at 10 pm on WGBH.
It has also aired on WCAI/WNAN, WNED, KXOT and KYOU. And here are 2 reviews of this interview on PRX.

Alan Dershowitz

The controversial Harvard Law professor, author and celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz talks with ThoughtCast about his latest book, “Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways”, as well as his views on the Israeli-Palestinian-Hezbollah conflict, torture, human rights and our ‘war on terror.’ His premise: the world has changed, and international law must change with it. We need more tools, he argues, in the fight against terror networks whose recruits hold no fear of death or retribution.

Note: Although the subjects we discuss are controversial, my goal is not to argue with Alan, but to find out what he’s thinking. My hope is that our conversation will provoke further discussion on these hot-button issues.

Click here: (30 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here: to listen to the hour-long version.

And click here to listen to Dershowitz debate Harvey Silverglate on ‘civil liberties’ on the WGBH Forum Network.

Please join the conversation by leaving a comment!

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

Dan Gillmor on ThoughtCast

Jenny — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:11:36 +0000

IS THIS US?

Dan Gillmor, the influential technology writer and blogger, has recently founded a new initiative called The Center for Citizen Media. Its purpose: to assist in the formation of citizen journalism and other forms of grassroots media. Gillmor, who is now a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, delivered the inaugural lecture for the Berkman Center’s “Citizen Media Series” earlier this year. The title: “We the Media: The Rise of Grassroots, Open-Source Journalism, and the Coming Era of the Citizen Activism.”

This recording is provided courtesy of the Berkman Center. (Three cheers for Colin Rhinesmith! He runs AudioBerkman.)

Click here: (33 minutes)

And thanks to Andigo New Media, Inc. for the ‘Eat or Be Eaten’ logo!

Lisa Randall, Harvard physicist

Jenny — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:32:41 +0000

WGBH broadcast this ThoughtCast interview, and also features it on their “Science Luminaries” series, as part of “WGBH Science City.” It was also broadcast on WCAI/WNAN, public radio stations for the Cape and Islands.

Lisa Randall

Professor Randall is a theoretical particle physicist who sees past the rest of us to a world of extra dimensions and parallel universes. Hers is a world of warped geometry, sink-holes and branes — a world that fills glaring gaps in current thinking, and can finally explain why gravity is so ‘weak’!

Now while this might sound like so much Greek — just wait. Randall’s latest book, written for the layman, is called “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions” — so she’s had plenty of practice explaining these high-flying ideas to English majors.

Click here: to listen (28:30 mins).

Click here to listen to Lisa Randall’s lecture at IDEAS Boston on the WGBH Forum Network.

Poet Robert Pinsky takes on King David

Jenny — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:43:53 +0000

Note: The WGBH sister stations WCAI and WNAN broadcast this interview, and it also received a 5 star review on PRX!

Robert Pinsky

Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky tackles King David of the Bible – the shepherd, poet, warrior and adulterer – in his “Life of David.”
Is David a legend? A real, flesh and blood warrior who killed Goliath, and united the 12 Jewish tribes into one nation? Robert Pinsky delves into these questions, and into David’s story, with relish.

David’s story has been told many times, and the tale has changed with each telling. There’s the David of the Hebrew Bible, and another version of his life in the Talmud. We know he slept with Bathsheba, but was this a sin? An act of love? Of violence? It depends on whom you ask.

David, who lived about 3000 years ago, was beloved of God, and as a result, he got away with more than his share. He was a seductive, wily politician, a doting father, a bitter old man. These contradictions in David’s character spur Pinsky on, and he adds his own twist to the tale, as you will hear, on ThoughtCast!
Click here: to listen (28:30 mins).
And click here to listen to a discussion with Robert Pinsky on Poetry and Democracy on the Forum Network.

Harvard Book Store author talks: Alan Dershowitz

Jenny — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 02:58:48 +0000

Click here: (25 minutes) to listen to Alan Dershowitz’s talk on “Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways” at Harvard Hillel, presented by the Harvard Book Store. Among other subjects, Dershowitz discusses the doctrine of preemption, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, torture, and our ‘war on terror’.
And to hear a ThoughtCast interview with Alan, click here!

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.

The Peabody Sisters – with biographer Megan Marshall

Jenny — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 20:15:44 +0000

Note: This interview was broadcast on WGBH radio’s “Arts and Ideas.” And here’s a review of the program on PRX!

Megan Marshall

Author Megan Marshall has recently written a well-received biography of the three Peabody sisters – Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia – who were key players in the founding of the Transcendentalist movement in the early to mid 19th century.

Elizabeth, the oldest, was intellectually precocious, learning Hebrew as a child so she could read the Old Testament. Mary was the middle sister, somewhat subdued by the dominant – and bossy – qualities of Elizabeth, and by the attention paid to the youngest, Sophia, who was practically an invalid. Nonetheless, Mary managed to become a teacher, writer and reformer. Sophia, beset by devastating migraines, spent most of her early years in bed. But when she had the strength, she painted. In an interview with ThoughtCast, Megan Marshall continues the tale…

Click here: to listen (28:30 mins).

Click here to listen to a lecture by Megan Marshall on the Peabody sisters on the WGBH Forum Network.

The Web 2.0 and beyond — a conversation

Jenny — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 02:02:47 +0000

Note: this program was broadcast on KYOU, open source radio. Check it out!
Three Internet gurus talk with ThoughtCast about the “social architecture” of the web, and how it might bring people together, and/or pull them apart! The four of us spoke following a daylong conference on the subject.

David Weinberger

David Weinberger is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, as well as the man behind Joho the Blog. He is also the author of “Small Pieces, Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web” and “The Cluetrain Manifesto,” and is currently working on a new book, “Everything is Miscellaneous.”

Chris Nolan

Chris Nolan, an independent, online journalist, is a former member of the mainstream media, and is known to have coined the phrase “stand alone journalism.” As the founder of Spot-on, a web site featuring diverse voices across the political spectrum, she embodies this practise of “stand alone” independent journalism on the web.

Stowe Boyd

Stowe Boyd is president and chief operating officer of Corante, a new media company devoted to promoting social software on the web. A self-described “media subversive,” Stowe also pens the blog Get Real on Corante, in addition to his personal blog, A Working Model.

Click here: to listen (29:30 mins).

And there’s more: Corante has recently launched Corante Hubs and the related Corante Network.

coranteSSA

Carol Bundy, Civil War biographer

Jenny — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 08:58:50 +0000

Note: this ThoughtCast interview was broadcast on WCAI/WNAN on Nov. 12, 2006 in honor of Veterans Day.

Carol Bundy

At a time when the country’s attention is focused on the ever-expanding list of American war dead, Carol Bundy’s biography of a Union officer who sacrifices his life in the Civil War is eerily apt.

Carol’s book tells the story of the short, heroic life of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., an elite young cavalryman who embodied the promise of his generation. An ardent abolitionist and reformer, Lowell was also a brilliant battlefield strategist, and he turned the tide at the Battle of Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, a crucial victory for the North just two weeks shy of Lincoln’s re-election. Shot twice during the fighting, Lowell died at dawn the following day.
Click here: to listen (28:30 mins).
Click here to listen to a lecture by Carol Bundy on her biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. on the WGBH Forum Network.

Virgil’s Georgics

Jenny — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:16:06 +0000

Note: This program was broadcast on April 8th 2007 on WGBH.

Click here to read a review of the interview on PRX.

David Ferry

Noted Cambridge poet David Ferry has recently translated Virgil’s Georgics, and on ThoughtCast he joins Virgil scholar Richard Thomas, the chair of Harvard’s Classics Dept., for a detailed examination of this beautiful and insufficiently known poem. It is said to have taken Virgil 7 years to write, from about 36 to 29 B.C.

Richard Thomas

As such, the Georgics was written during a period of political instability and chronic civil war, and inevitably reflects Virgil’s dark, often pessimistic outlook on human nature. But at the same time, The Georgics — which means “agriculture” in Greek — is a celebration of nature and its ceaseless beauty. As Virgil describes the cycles of crops, the seasons, the weather — the birth, death and rebirth that mark the natural world, he provides us with a complex, realistic, painful but enduringly uplifting poem.
Click here: to listen (29 minutes).

Click here to listen to a lecture by David Ferry on “The Art and Practice of Literary Translation” on the WGBH Forum Network.

Harvard Book Store author talks: Carol Bundy

Jenny — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 21:25:40 +0000

Cambridge author Carol Bundy’s first book is called “The Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., 1835-1864.” It’s about her great-great-great uncle, who fought and died in the Civil War. Lowell was a reformer, a cavalryman, and perhaps also a dreamer.

Click here: (30 minutes) to hear Bundy’s talk, at the Harvard Book Store.
And you can also listen to a ThoughtCast interview with Carol Bundy, which was broadcast on public radio.

Ilan Stavans: chameleon, critic

Jenny — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 08:09:49 +0000

In honor of Hispanic History Month, WGBH radio, an NPR station in Boston, broadcast this ThoughtCast interview with Ilan Stavans twice. It was also picked up by KRZA, an NPR station in Alamosa, Colorado, and Georgia Public Broadcasting. And here’s a review of the program on PRX!

Ilan Stavans (Photo by Frank Ward)

Ilan Stavans, the renowned critic of Latino and Latin American literature and culture, and the author of the controversial dictionary, “Spanglish,” is also a perpetual outsider. A Mexican-Jewish-American, Ilan lives simultaneously in many cultures, while truly belonging to none. He calls himself a chameleon, and perhaps this status is just what it takes to be a true critic.
Click here: to listen (30 mins).
Click here to listen to a lecture by Ilan Stavans on “Spanglish: The New American Language” on the WGBH Forum Network.

Harvard Book Store author talks: David Ferry

Jenny — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 02:02:36 +0000

Virgil

A Reading with David Ferry, discussing his translation of Virgil’s Georgics. This recording was made at Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, in May 2005. The paperback of Virgil’s Georgics, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is now available.

Click here: (45 minutes) for the talk.

And you can also listen to a ThoughtCast interview with David Ferry and Richard Thomas, the chair of Harvard’s Classics Dept.

Stay tuned…

Jenny — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 22:11:26 +0000

We’ve got upcoming ThoughtCast interviews with:

Louise Richardson on “What Terrorists Want” !!

Eric Lander of the Whitehead Institute (which he founded) and also of the Broad Institute at MIT, where he serves as founding director. His subject? The Human Genome….

Harvey Mansfield: on “Manliness”! The Harvard guru of libertarian/conservative thought tackles a subject of some delicacy. To what degree is manliness in disrepute today, in the post-feminist West, and … do we like the results? If we seek to feminize men or look down on their more traditional characteristics — aggression, competition, the accumulation of wealth, women, shiny red cars — are we doing ourselves a disservice? After all, Mansfield asks, if there are no warriors, who is going to defend us?

Credit Roll

Jenny — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:02:44 +0000

Credit Roll:

Likoma, web design

Antonio Oliart, editor extraordinaire

Sonata No. 1 in G Minor by J.S. Bach, performed by Nicholas Goluses.
Courtesy Naxos of America

I would also like to thank:

Bob Doyle: entrepreneur/
philanthropist/ Renaissance Man.

Robert Lipsyte:
for telling me to get on with it.

Christopher Lydon:
for setting the pace and … finally having coffee with me. (!)

Charlie Nesson:
for being the first to give me the thumbs up.

Shelley Powers:
for her flair for design and her superior
programming skills, as evidenced on this website.
(Any complaints forward to her, please…)

Lisa Williams:
for introducing me to the world of blogs and pods
- up close and in person.