Monthly Archives: March 2008

Podcast

Poetry Speaks Expanded and Beyond Genocide

April is Poetry Month and we enter it by talking with editor Rebekah Presson Mosby about a new edition of a much-hailed anthology from Sourcebooks Press. It’s called POETRY SPEAKS EXPANDED.
Also, artist Amy Fagin and filmmaker David Edwards who will be showing their work at the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival on Tuesday, April 1.
Fagin’s illuminated book project, BEYOND GENOCIDE, honors peoples who have been genocide’s victims, past and present. Edwards’ film, Kabul Transit, gives a sensitive portrait of Afghanistan under occupation.

Podcast

Greg Palast on Spitzer and the Bank Bailout; also, Field Report on Narrative Journalism

Greg Palast, investigative reporter for the BBC, tells us why he thinks the Eliot Spitzer scandal broke when it did — and what federal prosecutors were trying to keep hidden from the public about the bank bailout by taking Spitzer down.

Here’s a link to a Nation article that tells the story.

Then we go to the Nieman Foundation’s Conference on Narrative Journalism. We talk with broadcast and print journalist John Hockenberry about interactive media, BU journalism department chair Louis Ureneck about memoir, and Nieman narrative program director Connie Hale about what “narrative journalism” is all about.

Podcast

The Open-Focus Brain and Surviving Depression

We talk with biofeedback pioneer Les Fehmi about how to focus the mind and improve productivity and mood. His book is THE OPEN FOCUS BRAIN: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body. The book comes with an instructional CD to put the method into practice.

Also, what are the societal roots of depression? How can we use community-building to overcome the disease? We hear from psychiatrist Bruce Levine about SURVIVING AMERICA’S DEPRESSION EPIDEMIC: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy.

Podcast

Eric Weitz’s WEIMAR GERMANY

Donald Kroodsma
Donald Kroodsma
Eric Weitz
Eric Weitz

We talk with historian Eric Weitz about [amazon-product text=”WEIMAR GERMANY: Promise and Tragedy” type=”text”]0691140960[/amazon-product]. On the one side, there was Bauhaus, Expressionism, Magnus Hirschfeld and new freedom for gays and women, a vital and experimental theater–in short, an explosion of intellectual and artistic creativity. On the other: hyperinflation, economic depression, and bullies of the left and right rampaging in the streets, setting the stage for the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.

We explore both sides of Weimar Germany and what lessons it may hold for us today.

Also, a preview of Spring…we listen to robins and other birds with renowned bird biologist Donald Kroodsma, author of [amazon-product text=”The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong” type=”text”]0618840761[/amazon-product].

Podcast

Life With Asperger’s

John Elder Robison
John Elder Robison

[amazon-product align=”right”]0307396185[/amazon-product]

We talk with John Elder Robison about his memoir, [amazon-product text=”Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Aspergers” type=”text”]0307396185[/amazon-product]. Brother to best-selling author Augusten Burroughs (RUNNING WITH SCISSORS), Robison has written a sweet, compelling tale about growing up with Asperger’s Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. From the inside, he reveals what it’s like to be a misfit, the savant-like talents he feels Asperger’s gave him, and how he overcame the condition’s deficits and celebrated its gifts.

Click here for a Web-only interview extra..

We also talk with Free Press director Josh Silver about new developments in the fight to preserve net neutrality.