Public Radio Primer Of Vision & Brilliance

by Tucker Ives

Tomorrow, our own John Dankosky is moderating his second Connecticut Forum! It is the Vision & Brilliance discussion with geniuses  Neil deGrasse Tyson, Neil Gaiman and Neri Oxman. From what we’ve heard, tickets are almost sold out (if they’re not already). Whether you’ll be there or not, here are three shows you should listen to that feature appearances from tomorrow night’s panelists.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Last year, NdGT was on Where We Wonder: Scientific Literacy in the 21st Century where he discussed the need for better understanding of science. As he said, “When you think in a scientifically literate way, the world becomes a knowable place to you.”

Bonus video! Neil deGrasse Tyson gets autotuned in this very catchy Symphony of Science song:

 

The other Neil on this panel has the Twitter handle @neilhimself. Neil Gaiman is an author, screenwriter, graphic novelist…you probably already know this though.

Neil Gaiman

Last year, Gaiman was the main guest on the live public radio show Wits. If you’ve never listened to Wits, this episode is great one to start off with. Gaiman reads from American Gods and gets Mythbusters host Adam Savage to sing “I Will Survive” as Gollum (I’ll leave it at that). Listen to the full episode of Wits from Minnesota Public Radio here.

Bonus video of Neil Gaiman’s singing/songwriting skills from Wits:

 

Neri Oxman

We spoke with Neri Oxman on Where We Live earlier this week. She’s the Mediated Matter Director at MIT Media Lab. We think that means that she’s a designer who combines materials science and new 3D printing technologies with design principles found in nature. She’s been featured on the cover of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” issue and is has been called one of Esquire magazine’s best and brightest.

Bonus video! One question I ask myself a lot is, “What was I doing again?” The question that Oxman asks herself a lot is, “What is the origin of form?” That’s why she is on this panel of Vision & Brilliance and I am not. Check out this PopTech lecture where she tackles that question:

 

Are you not ready to go back to work yet? Well, here’s one last bonus video to the bonus videos: Remember Lydia Callis? Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sign language interpreter who stole the show during the Hurricane Sandy press briefings will be interpreting this Forum. She was so popular that Saturday Night Live spoofed her almost immediately:

Hopefully we’ll see you at the Forum…come say hi!

Coming Up! November 26 to 30, 2012

Happy Monday! Big week ahead. Dankosky is hosting the Connecticut Forum on Saturday. Vision and Brilliance! Get tickets while you still can. Also, I’ll be part of a Salon conversation on Thursday at 5PM at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center as part of their “Salons at Stowe” series. The topic is bullying, and I’ll be playing some audio from the youth-produced special I worked on earlier this year.

Here’s what we have on the show this week:

Monday: Short Stories
We’ve talked on this show about the decline of the book – about how new technology and shorter attention spans make it harder for fiction writers to get their stories out in the “traditional” way – and whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Here’s one thing we do know – this new world could mean good news for the writers of short stories. Today, we’ll explore this form – that used to have a home in dozens of magazines and journals before TV and movies began to dominate the ‘story’ landscape.

Tuesday: Colleges Downtown
News that UCONN is moving its “Greater Hartford” campus to downtown Hartford is being hailed as a key piece of revitalization – young people downtown, spreading life, vibrancy, money? But is the downtown experience good for the school and students? We’ll talk to UCONN president Susan Herbst, and look into Trinity’s move to force frats to go co-ed.

Wednesday: Recovering from Cancer
Due to medical research and improved technology, more people are living with cancer than ever before. The good news is that an estimated 13.7 million men and women currently surviving some form of cancer in America with significant numbers of survivors living with predominantly breast and prostate cancer. The irony is that once treatment is over and cure is on the horizon, many continue to suffer negative and life-altering effects of their life-saving treatment that decreases future quality of life without additional intervention. Today, we’ll talk about how people are living with cancer and the post-cancer treatment programs that are becoming increasingly available to make it a little easier

Thursday: Magazine
Today we’ll preview an upcoming Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Salon called “Bullied No More.” “Salons at Stowe” are 21st-century parlor conversation designed to inspire the audience to move from dialogue and debate to action on current social justice issues. WNPR Senior Producer Catie Talarski will talk about her work on a youth-produced documentary special “BULLIED: Teen Stories from Generation PRX.” We’ll hear voices from some of the high school and middle school producers, and learn how parents and students can protect themselves from cyberbullies. We’ll also preview the upcoming “Vision and Brilliance” Connecticut Forum that Dankosky will be moderating. We’ll interview panelist Neri Oxman. Finally, we’ll take a tour of the new movie theater in Hartford’s Front Street, and get the latest on developments in the riverfront development.

Friday: The Latino News Landscape (Rebroadcast)

Latinos make up one-sixth of the nation’s population, but accounted for more than half of the country’s population growth from 2000 to 2010, according to the latest census. That includes a growth of nearly 50 percent in Connecticut – where Hispanics make up 13 percent of the population. With this growth comes a new push from the media to cater to the population – and not always just in Spanish. Major news networks are creating English language programming for Latinos. And it’s happening in Connecticut too with the recent launch of ctlatinonews.com. Coming up, we’ll talk about ways traditional media’s reaching out to the Hispanic community – and how Spanish-language news is growing at the same time.

Coming Up! November 19 to 23, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s what we have on the show next week:

MONDAY: After Sandy, Beach Erosion
The Connecticut shoreline was heavily damaged during Superstorm Sandy. We’ll talk with environmental experts about how beach erosion may impact the future of the coastline, including wildlife habitats and efforts to protect infrastructure.

TUESDAY: Brownfields
Despite about $1.5 billion in federal grants and loans distributed by the Environmental Protection Agency to communities nationwide since 1994, there remain hundreds of thousands of abandoned and polluted brownfield properties whose clean-up would likely improve the environmental and economic conditions in the communities in which they are located. While environmental clean-up and economic development need not be mutually exclusive goals, many potential clean-ups suffer from an inability to balance both goals against an already difficult process slowed by limited funds, lack of a coordinated federal effort and oversight, and often confusing state-run bureaucracies. While the EPA has given Connecticut close to $60 million to clean-up our brownfield sites since 1994, only 19 in an inventory of thousands have bee completely cleaned. What’s he problem and where do we go from here? Join the conversation.

WEDNESDAY: The Cost of Higher Education (rebroadcast)
President Obama has made it part of his regular education speech that the best path to the middle-class is through a college education. And the numbers bear it out. Getting a college degree brings higher earnings over a lifetime. Today, those with a bachelor’s degree earned 84% more money over a lifetime than those with a high school diploma. And it doesn’t take a bachelor’s degree to obtain greater earnings. Even 1 year of college gives you a bigger payoff. The more schooling you have, the bigger the gain. So, what’s the problem? Seems like long-term, college is a great investment. But, there’s a growing feeling that college is too expensive and brings enormous debt that stays with you, sometimes for decades. Then, there’s the fact that even with the advantage of a college degree, a lousy job market means there’s no work out there once you leave school. It all has some economists worried that a new bubble is about to burst, the education bubble.

THURSDAY: Happy Thanksgiving!
Thirdcoast Audio Festival: The Best of the Best! (Part 1)

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program hosted by award-winning writer, producer and humorist, Gwen Macsai.

The featured documentaries, all winners of the 12th annual TC / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, demonstrate just how powerful radio can be. Innovative and insightful, the stories will engage, provoke, entertain, and transport listeners. In addition to these memorable stories, Best of the Best includes clips from our 2012 awards ceremony and interviews with winning producers Joe Richman, Sue Jaye Johnson, Habiba Nosheen, Brian Reed and Laurence Grissell who give us a glimpse into the art of audio storytelling. You’ll also hear from Olympic gold medal winner Claressa Sheilds, subject of the Third Coast gold award-winning story, Teen Contender. (Part 2 will be airing at 1PM!)

FRIDAY: Post-Thanksgiving Black Friday Turkey Regrets
It’s a show about things related to Thanksgiving and the surrounding hubbub.  
 

Holly Petraeus: “Husband Really Wasn’t at My Dinner Table”

by JD - 

Holly Petraeus in WNPR studios. Photo by Chion Wolf

One of the ugliest outcomes of the David Petraeus sex scandal is the impact on his wife of 37 years, Holly. We read in reports that she is “furious” about his revelation of an affair between her husband and biographer Paula Broadwell. Well, that seems obvious. The scandal has also shed more light on how admired Holly Petraeus is for her work on behalf of military families. 

She was in Connecticut to talk about that work last September, and she appeared on Where We Live.  Her lecture was sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Connecticut who arranged the visit to our studio. We spent most of our interview talking about her job with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, helping to advise veterans on their financial lives – both while in the military, and after they’ve left.   “What I really want to accomplish is to see service members not get into the bad deals that can set them back for years,” she said.

It was only at the end of the conversation that I asked about her famous husband, who had led military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and had just started his new job as head of the CIA.  I didn’t ask her to talk about him, but instead whether their dinner table conversations ever informed each others’ work. Her answer was uncomfortably blunt:

“Frankly my husband wasn’t really at my dinner table much of the last ten years,” she told me.

I nervously laughed at her response, a reaction to what I saw as deadpan humor. Listening back, that laughter sounds cruel and uncomfortable, but an honest reaction to a surprisingly terse answer.  I followed up.  I asked Mrs. Petraeus whether the voices she heard from troops dealing with financial troubles could resonate through her to her husband, the highest of military commanders. And, whether the insight he had gained over 37 years in the Army might help her do her job, too.

“Let’s just say we talk, yes. And I think that he would certainly be the first to say that he’s very happy that I’ve turned this into something that I feel I can work on, to advocate for our service members,” she said.

We left it at that.

According to timelines of the scandal, the same month Holly Petraeus was visiting Connecticut, her husband was settling into his new job in DC. And inviting Paula Broadwell to his office.

Coming Up! November 12 to 16, 2012

MONDAY: Plugging In: Electric Vehicles in Connecticut (rebroadcast)
You might think that by now, there should be hundreds – or thousands – of electric cars in Connecticut. But there are only 98 registered in the whole state. That’s pretty sad, considering a few years ago Governer Rell formed a committee dedicated to expanding electric vehicle infrastructure in the state. At that time there were only 2 manufacturers producing electric cars. Now there are more than 30. But the costs – and the other barriers – are still high. So, today, where we live, what’ll it take to get you to plug in? Why aren’t more people driving electric cars?

TUESDAY: Gas Stations
One reason people are not buying electric cars is because of the lack of charging stations. But didn’t the original automobiles have a similar problem? We’ll talk about how we reached our current gas station landscape. Some of today’s stations have dozens of pumps, convenience stores and even televisions at the pumps! We’ll also discuss the rationing of gas and long lines in New York and New Jersey after Sandy. Do you have a favorite gas station? Or is filling up just too painful on your wallet no matter where you go?

WEDNESDAY: Checking-In With Governor Malloy
This is our first official monthly check-in with Governor Dannel Malloy. He’ll be in-studio now on a monthly basis to talk about the state of Connecticut and take your questions. We’ll talk to him just over a week after the election and two weeks after the state was hit by Superstorm Sandy. As always, you can send us your questions in advance by emailing wherewelive@wnpr.org.

THURSDAY: Small Business Breakfast, Oakdale Theater
Join us at the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Business Expo! We’ll discuss “Small Business and Healthcare” with our business reporter Harriet Jones and a panel of small business owners.

 FRIDAY: Solitude
We’re still coming down from the madness and excitement of ELECTION 2012. Join us for a conversation on solitude. What can we learn from psychologists, hermits, and folks who are taking the time to unplug from it all. Take a deep breath, retreat to an oceanside or mountaintop, and tune in.

Election Day!

Tune into WNPR all day for continued coverage (especially at 1 and 3PM for Colin McEnroe and Faith Middleton call-ins) and then again at 7PM for our remote coverage at Real Art Ways. Even better? Get yourself TO Real Art Ways to be part of our live audience of more than 100 awesome folks who will be cheering or sobbing, depending on how the night unfolds. Great snacks and drinks, too! See you there, 7PM until results come in.