Show for March 11, 2011. Gay Writers and Gay Rights.
In his new book, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America, Christopher Bram says it was literature more than any other art form that opened America’s eyes to same-sex relationships and paved the way for gay rights. In the years following World War II, when homosexuality was taboo territory for movies, TV and other mass media, it was writers who broke the silence. Chris and I discussed the impact of writers such as Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, James Baldwin and Allen Ginsburg; the sometimes nasty critical reaction to their work; and how Chris himself read his way out of the closet.
Chris’s previous nine books include Father of Frankenstein, the basis for the movie Gods and Monsters.
Click the Play arrow above to listen to the show, or you can download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for Nov. 6, 2011: Peter Singer on Ethics in Theory and Practice
Peter Singer may be the world’s best-known ethicist. He’s regarded as the intellectual father of the animal liberation movement and has staked out prominent positions on euthanasia, abortion, the use of military force and economic inequality. We talked about those and other sticky moral questions, as well as Peter’s brand of utilitarianism, which aims to provide a single logical framework for all ethical decision making. Originally broadcast in 2006.
You can download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for Oct. 16, 2011. Remembering Frank Kameny
As mentioned in an earlier post, I was saddened to learn this past week that gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny had died. For today’s show I replayed my 2010 interview with Frank, in which he looked back on his life as an activist. This is a somewhat longer cut of the original 2010 broadcast. In part 2 of the show, more on the subject of political activism and the sacrifices it sometimes calls for: an excerpt from a 2009 interview with former track star John Carlos, who talks about the famous black power salute he and fellow medalist Tommy Smith gave at the 1968 Olympic Games.
You can download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Frank Kameny, 1925 - 2011
I just got the unwelcome news that Frank Kameny died yesterday. Frank was an early leader of the gay rights movement in the US, an extremely effective activist, and certainly one of the most important civil liberties trailblazers that most Americans have never heard of. Aware that he’d been staging Fourth of July demonstrations for gay equality as far back as the mid-1960s, I interviewed him on my July 4, 2010 show. He was 85 at the time we spoke, feisty and funny and trenchant as ever. I had hoped to speak to him again. Regrettably, I never got the chance. But I’m grateful for the one conversation we did have, which you can hear below. The interview with Frank starts around the 32-minute mark.
You can download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for October 2, 2011. The Life Unconscious: Psychologist Brian Nosek
Just how well do we know our own minds? For the last 15 years, Brian Nosek has been studying the hidden biases, preferences and thought patterns that lurk just below the threshold of self-awareness. Those unconscious attitudes are often at odds with our conscious account of ourselves, yet they may influence our outlook, our choices and even our actions. One of the tools Nosek and colleagues have used to expose latent racial preferences and other forms of bias is a simple online test, the Implicit Association Test, or IAT. In this edition of the show, I take the test myself and talk to Brian about implications of his research for our understanding of the mind, decisionmaking, politics and society.
Visit Project Implicit and take the IAT yourself.
This diagram is nonsense, but I needed something to put here.
Click the “play” arrow above to listen to the show, or download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for September 25, 2011. Down and Out in Dogpatch, Pt. 2
In part 1 of this two-part series, I talked to sociologist and writer Teresa Gowan about her years among the homeless recyclers of San Francisco’s Dogpatch district. As we walked through the neighborhood, Teresa described how much it’s changed. Most of the homeless have been pushed out, and therein hangs a tale of societal attitudes—toward poverty, property and rootlessness—going back hundreds of years. In this second and final part of the series, we found out where some of Dogpatch’s remaining homeless are holing up and how they’re hanging on.
Maya (front left), Iona (back) and Teresa.
Click the “play” arrow above to listen to the show, or download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for Sept. 4, 2011. Down and Out in Dogpatch, Part 1
The sociologist Teresa Gowan spent years getting to know a community of homeless recyclers in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. She recounts the experience in her book Hobos, Hustlers and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco. It’s about many things: not just homelessness but also the ways we talk about it and how they hem us in; the meaning of work (which is why I chose to run this on Labor Day weekend); class and underclass in America; and the not-so-heartening history of attitudes toward poverty and “vagrancy.” Those are some the things we discussed as we paid a visit to a very different Dogpatch than the one Teresa once knew. The neighborhood has gone upscale in recent years, and many of the homeless have been driven out. We talked a lot about that, too.
Warm Water Cove, one of the spots in Dogpatch that Tereza Gowan and I traipsed through. Once a homeless camp, now a park.
Click the “play” arrow above to listen to the show, or download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for July 3, 2011. Celebrating In(ter)dependence Day
Stories about becoming American: where we come from, how we got here, the connections we make and the connections we keep, at home and abroad. In part 1, KUSP’s Sean Rameswaram joins Team America and swears some oaths. In part 2, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi attends naturalization ceremonies in all 50 states, meeting new US citizens. In part 3, Mwende Hahesy, also of KUSP, pays a visit to her mother’s homeland and reflects on the relationship of family and nationality.
Citizen Sean, fully naturalized. Mwende in Kenya with her grandmother Esther.
Click the “play” arrow above to listen to the show, or download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Pledge Drive Continues: Still Time to Give
Many thanks to those of you who made contributions during our pledge drive show yesterday. Same to all who’ve pitched in during this drive. And to those of you who haven’t (yet), there’s plenty of time. Just call 888-777-1507 or go to KUSP.org. It’s soooo easy. And tell them what your favorite shows are.
On yesterday’s 7th Ave Project, we aired some choice bits from the past year’s shows. An accidental (and pledge drive-relevant) throughline emerged. If you want to hear the full stories from which the segments were taken, here are the links:
- Knowing you’re right, before the majority does: interview with Frank Kameny, gay rights pioneer
- Knowing you’re right, even when you aren’t: Political Scientist Brendan Nyhan on people’s resistance to facts
- Dying for love: conversations from Juvenile Hall
- A change of heart: an ex-con looks back on his 38 years in prison (voices from the Poetic Justice Project)
- War without end: evolutionary biologist Barry Sinervo on genetically-driven competition among lizards
- Breaking the vicious cycle: neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky and the baboon commune
- War, peace and music: David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet on Alexandra Vrebalov’s …hold me, neighbor, in this storm…
Show for Oct. 10, 2010. Laura Kipnis: Scandals and Why We Love Them
What fuels society’s endless appetite for scandals? And what do public humiliations, meltdowns and flameouts reveal about their participants and the rest of us? The ever-trenchant social critic Laura Kipnis discusses her latest book, How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior. Those adventures include a lovelorn astronaut, an unhinged judge, a conniving confidant and a confabulating memoirist. What’s not to love?
Click the “play” arrow above to listen, or download the MP3 here.
Wes Moore was a Rhodes Scholar on his way to a successful career when he learned of another Wes Moore, wanted by police for murder. He discovered surprising parallels in their early lives, before their paths diverged. He tells their two stories in his book, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates.”
Click the arrow above to listen. If you don’t have Flash player or have other playback problems, click this link for the MP3.
Show for May 2, 2010. Political Scientist Brendan Nyhan; Wealth Reporter Robert Frank
Two entertaining, eye-opening and unsettling conversations highlight the shaky relationship between reality and perception. Political scientist Brendan Nyhan studies the impact of facts on political views, and finds that often, information doesn’t change minds. Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Frank says that despite fears that they’d lose their fortunes during the financial crisis, many of the wealthiest Americans are doing better than ever, the gap between rich and poor has grown and a new class divide may be emerging—between the rich and super-rich.
Click the arrow above to listen to the show. If you lack Flash player or have other playback problems, click this link for the MP3.
Visit Brendan Nyhan’s blog.
Read The Wealth Report by Robert Frank
Show for Apr 25, 2010. Spoon Jackson and Judith Tannenbaum: By Heart
He’s serving life in prison. She’s a poet and teacher. Spoon Jackson and Judith Tannenbaum discuss how they met, discovered a mutual love of writing, and forged a 25-year friendship. Their new memoir is By Heart: Poetry, Prison, And Two Lives.
Spoon Jackson at New Folsom Prison
Click the arrow above to listen. If you don’t have Flash player or have other playback problems, click this link for the MP3.
Show for March 28, 2010. Gabriel Thompson: Working in the Shadows
So you think your job sucks? Journalist Gabriel Thompson went undercover to learn about the grueling, low-wage work mostly done by immigrants in the US. He harvested lettuce in Arizona, toiled in a poultry processing plant in Alabama and did time at a (surprisingly nasty) flower shop in Manhattan. He describes his year of living strenuously.
Click here to read more about Gabriel and his book Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do
Show for Nov 8, 2009. Medicine at the Extremes: Ashis Brahma
Physician and human rights activist Ashis Brahma of the Phoenix Global Health Foundation talks about practicing medicine in conflict zones and refugee camps. Ashis has spent years caring for the ill in India, Nepal, Burundi, Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia. He was for a time the only doctor at the Oure Cassoni camp in Chad, treating refugees from the Darfur conflict.
