October 6: 1926 Father Coughlin 'On the Air' and the rise of right wing radio
With the popularity of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hanitty and now Glenn Beck, we felt it was time to look at the 'original' nationally known conservative radio talk show host, Father Charles Edward Coughlin, who organized and addressed large rallies, called for a return to God and became a leading oppositional figure for a sitting President. Father Coughlin's reach was huge, establishing a national network of radio stations to carry his show and help him to raise funds for his preferred causes. Originally attracted by the New Deal, Father Coughlin veered right from FDR's policies, establishing ties eventually to Nazi and anti-Semitic elements in our society. In our conversation we will look at Father Coughlin's career to see what methods of communication and distribution he created and to compare our current group of conservative commentators in philosophy, method, and content as well as in their reach and popularity. Our panelists for this episode are Dr. Susan Smulyan, Professor of American Civilization at Brown University with a research specialization in American radio history, Dr. Sheldon Marcus, Professor of Education and Fordham University and Coughlin biographer, and Talk Magazine's Michael Harrison.
Farmer's Market's, community gardens, localvores, and California cuisine are in many ways the children of Alice Waters and her restaurant, Chez Panisee. Started in 1971 by Ms. Waters as an attempt to replicate her dining experiences of a recent trip to France, Chez Panisse created a market and a movement in cooking that emphasized the fresh and the local. Rather than franchising her restaurants like many celebrity chefs, Ms. Waters turned her attention to the quality of school lunch programs, founding the Edible Food Project in a Berkeley middle school. Just how possible is "eating local"? What. if anything. is wrong with internationalism in food? Why should local farming be protected if it isn't financially viable? What are some of the implications of the local food movement for our private and public health? There are just some of the questions that will be addressed by our panelists Tom McNamee (Chez Panisse's "biographer"), Rolando Robledo (Cambridge, Massachusetts-based localvore chef), Dr. Katherine Brown, Director of Providence, Rhode Island's South Side Community Land Trust, and Dr. Christine Thompson, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at Johnson and Wales University.
October 20: 1973 The First US Mobile Phone Call; Always within reach!
Start any conversation with, "What do you think the effects of the cell phone are?" and you'll get everything from "It's ruining the English language," to "It's creating brain tumors and killing people on the road." to "It's the best way to create community." Everyone has an opinion about this invention that has made us "always available" and, some argue, never "here." Professor Sharon Kleinman from Quinnipiac College will join writer William Powers (Hamlet's Blackberry) and social media activist Linda Raftree to discuss these and other topics around our digital "Swiss Army Knife."
October 27: 1987 The Roaming Mobro Garbage Barge; Garbage, Garbage Everywhere and no direction home!
In 1987, a Barge filled with garbage was dragged up and down the East Coast of the United Sates and down into Caribbean and Mexican waters. Starting as an attempt to produce methane, the barge became synonymous with our society's problems with consumption and disposal. In our discussion of this classically underappreciated moment, famed Boston University Professor, Juliet Schor will join with the only "Archeologist in Resident" ever hired by the NYC Department of Sanitation, Professor Robin Nagle, and the Director of the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, Michael O'Connor to discuss the issue of what to do with the waste products from a material rich society.
