Happy holidays from your favorite local public radio show <3
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The Where We Live team is taking a much needed mental health/catch-up week during the holiday season. We hope you enjoy revisiting some of our favorite BIG conversations from the past few months. And we’ll be back on Friday with a great show that we haven’t yet booked.
MONDAY: Holiday Special: Majora Carter’s The Promised Land
Think Like a Bee — Marla Spivak
When you sit down at your holiday table, thank a bee. A third of the food on your plate is made possible by these pollinators, whose numbers are being decimated by disease and colony collapse disorder. But the bees have a champion in Marla Spivak, a University of Minnesota researcher and MacArthur “Genius” who thinks like a bee. Her intuitive approach — combined with scientific method — has given the world tremendous insight into these fascinating insects. Marla will show host Majora Carter (no newbie herself — Majora is an urban beekeeper) the secrets she’s beginning to uncover about the lives of bees. Marla’s work explores how bees can help themselves become more resistant to modern-day threats — and how bees can help us humans to be more resilient and to build healthier communities.
TUESDAY: Decisions, Decisions (Rebroadcast)
When you make a decision, do you carefully deliberate? Or do you go with your gut? It seems as though those are our choices…but as scientists dig deeper into the human mind, they’re discovering that this is not actually how the brain works. Our best decisions – they find – are a finely tuned blend of both feeling and reason and the precise mix depends on the situation. Today, where we live – decisions, decisions. Scientist Jonah Lehrer joins us to discuss “How We Decide” …And we’ll talk to an author who says that while the idea of freedom of choice is at the core of American thought,that choice might be an illusion. Head or heart, brain or gut – how do you choose? And ow do you live in a world with what seems like limitless choice?
WEDNESDAY: Dr. Steve Perry’s Education Revolution (Rebroadcast)
Principal Steve Perryhas been hailed for his “tough love and high expectations” atCapital Prep Magnet Schoolin Hartford. He’s had success in keeping kids in school in a city that’s struggled with dropout rates for decades. He preaches strict discipline and no excuses. He greets kids every morning at a school right downtown – in a famous former department store. The students wear uniforms – and he says all of them go to college. This has gotten him into the national spotlight, and onto cable TV shows -he’s a regular on CNN. But maintaining success is difficult. As we head back to school, we’ll talk to Perry about what he’s doing to close the nation’s biggest achievement gap.
THURSDAY: Robert Gates (Rebroadcast)
Robert Gates was defense Secretary for two Presidents – one Republican and one Democrat. Gates also oversaw two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, getting mixed reviews from defense experts for his handling of those conflicts. He’s also been sharply critical of the types of wars that were left to him, pointing to a Future US strategy that avoids “big land wars” in places like the Middle East. That future may also include a different, smaller military. Today we revisit our conversation with Gates, who has called for cuts to “excessive” military spending, something that may be unavoidable in a Washington primed for budget cutting.
FRIDAY: Checking in
Today we’ll follow up on a few recent shows. Which ones, you ask? Tune in to find out!
