AUDIO LIBRARY

The Lessons of the Howard Dean Campaign
Howard Dean was once an electrifying frontrunner in the Democratic primary race. But the votes never followed the hype. Host Gretchen Helfrich and guests discuss the lessons of the Dean campaign.
Guests:
Michael Kazin — Historian at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and author of the forthcoming book, A Godly Hero: William Jennings Bryan and the Rise of Celebrity Politics in America
Kevin Boyle — Historian at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio and author of the book, The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism: 1945-1968

Gay Marriage and Federalism
President Bush has called for a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. What does this mean for relations between the states and the federal government?
Guests:
Andrew Koppelman — Legal scholar at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois and author of The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law
John Dinan — Political scientist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and author of Keeping the People's Liberties: Legislators, Citizens, and Judges as Guardians of Rights

The Politics of Defense Spending
The "War on Terror" has once again made defense spending a priority. What are the political calculations that shape the military budget?
Guests:
Ann Markusen — Director of the project on regional and industrial economics at the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and author of the book Arming the Future: A Defense Industry for the 21st Century
Cindy Williams — Defense specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Security Studies Program and author of the book, Filling the Ranks: Transforming the U.S. Military Personnel System

Science and the Amateur
Science doesn't belong to specialists in white coats. From bird counters, to radio hams, and inventors of all stripes, ordinary people have participated in and contributed to the practice of science. Are amateurs still a valuable part of science?
Guests:
Paul Farber — Historian of science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon and author of the books, Finding Order in Nature: The Naturalist Tradition from Linnaeus to E.O. Wilson and Discovering Birds: The Emergence of Ornithology as a Scientific Discipline
Eric Drown — Visiting professor in the American studies department at George Washington University in D.C., and is at work on the book project, Invention Culture: Reading Popular Science and Science Fiction in Modernist America

Human Cloning
Scientists in South Korea recently announced they had successfully cloned human embryos. Host Gretchen Helfrich and guests examine the changing science and ethics of human cloning.
Guests:
Laurie Zoloth — Medical ethicist from the Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois
Rex Chisholm — Geneticist, whose research focuses on cell movements during embryo genesis and director of the Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois

Film Forum—Going Native
Apocalypse Now, Dances with Wolves, and The Last Samurai are all films that explore American encounters with foreign cultures.
Guests:
Elizabeth Ann Kaplan — Film scholar and Director of the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook University in New York, author of the book Looking for the Other: Feminism, Film, and the Imperial Gaze, and co-editor of the book Trauma and Cinema: Cross-Cultural Explorations
Kirsten Ostherr — Film scholar at Rice University in Houston, Texas and author of the forthcoming book, Cinematic Prophylaxis: Globalization and Contagion in the Discourse of World Health

The Spectacle of a Trial
High-profile trials garner plenty of coverage in the media. Long before cable television, infamous trials have captivated the public. What do these trials reveal about American culture and values?
Guests:
Gary Fine — Sociologist at at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and author of the book, Difficult Reputations: Collective Memory of the Evil, Inept and Controversial
Joshua Gamson — Sociologist at the University of San Francisco and author of the books, Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America and Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity

Language, Thought and Politics
Newspeak, thought control, double think. In George Orwell’s 1984, language is manipulated to control thought. What does Orwell tell us about the power of language?
Guests:
John Searle — Philosopher of language at the University of California, Berkeley
Michael Silverstein — Linguistic anthropologist at the University of Chicago
originally broadcast July 10, 2003

The Changing Meaning of Homelessness
Issues of homelessness raise questions not just of housing and poverty, but of race and citizenship. How has the meaning of homelessness changed over time?
Guests:
Leonard Feldman — Political theorist at the University of Oregon and author of the forthcoming book Citizens without Shelter: Homelessness, Democracy and Political Exclusion
Todd DePastino — Instructor at Waynesburg College and author of Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America
originally broadcast October 30, 2003

Shopping and Identity
People are shopping in different kinds of spaces and they're also shopping in new ways. But do changes in where and how we shop transform how we think about ourselves?
Guests:
Lizabeth Cohen — Historian at Harvard University and author of A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
Gail MacDonald — Literary scholar at the University of North Carolina and author of the forthcoming book Collaborative Sin: American Naturalism and the Languages of Responsibility
originally broadcast November 18, 2003

Secrecy in the Courts
Trials involving suspected terrorists are not the only cases where legal proceedings are kept from the public eye. Secrecy is a growing trend in the legal system. Whose interests are trumping the public's right to know?
Guests:
Ronald Allen - Legal scholar at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois and author of the book Constitutional Criminal Procedure
Bernard Harcourt - Legal scholar at the University of Chicago Law School and author of the forthcoming book, Rethinking Racial Profiling

Declarations of Love
There are love poems, love songs, and love letters. If actions speak louder than words, why so much yammering about love?
Guests:
Martha Feldman — Music historian at the University of Chicago, author of City Culture and the Madrigal at Venice, and of the forthcoming book, Opera and Sovereignty: Sentiment, Myth, and Modernity in Eighteenth-century Italy
Lori Newcomb — Literary scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of Reading Popular Romance in Early Modern England

Japan
The Japanese economy was once unstoppable. But it's been in a slump for over a decade. Can Japan remain a major international player?
Guests:
TJ Pempel — Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at the University of California in Berkeley, and co-editor of the book, Beyond Bilateralism: US-Japan Relations in the New Asia-Pacific
Sheldon Garon — Historian at Princeton University and author of the book, Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life

The Political History of Taxes
These days when politicians talk about taxes, you can bet they are talking about cutting them. What political forces drive tax policy in America?
Guests:
W. Elliot Brownlee — Historian at the University of California at Santa Barbara
John Witte — Political Scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison

The Midwest
The Midwest has many faces. It’s the moral high-ground, cultural middle-ground, and a political battleground.
Guests:
Susan Gray — Historian at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona and author of the book, The Yankee West: Community Life on the Michigan Frontier and co-editor of the book, The American Midwest: Essays on Regional History
Andrew Cayton — Historian at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and author of the book, Ohio: The History of a People and co-editor of the book, The American Midwest: Essays on Regional History

Film Forum—Animation
Successful films like Finding Nemo and Ice Age have put digital technology at the forefront of animation. Host Gretchen Helfrich and guests discuss the state of the animated film.
Guests:
Tom Looser — Teaches in the department of East Asian studies at McGill University in Montréal, Canada and is author of the recent article, "From Edogawa to Miyazaki: Cinematic and Anime-ic Architectures in Early and Late 20th Century Japan"
Kirsten Thompson — Thompson teaches in the film studies program at Wayne State University in Detroitand author of the article "Ah Love! Zee Grand Illusion!: Pepe Le Pew, Narcissism and Cats in the Casbah"

Government Intelligence
With no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, U.S. intelligence is under fire.
Guests:
Glenn Hastedt — Chairs the department of political science at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and is the author of the book, American Foreign Policy: Past Present and Future
Amy Zegart — Political scientist at the University of California in Los Angeles, served on the staff of the National Security Council
in the Clinton administration and is author of the book, Flawed By Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS and NSC

Pornography and Culture
The glut of sexually explicit material on the internet is just one example of pornography's move from the seedy sidelines to the center of American culture.
Guests:
Linda Williams — Directs the film studies program at the University of California, Berkeley, author of Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible, and the editor of the forthcoming anthology, Porn Studies
Allison Pease — Professor of English at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York and author of
Modernism, Mass Culture, and the Aesthetics of Obscenity

Thrill Seeking
From mountain climbing to hang gliding to bungee jumping, some people just get a kick out of risking their necks.
Guests:
Elaine Freedgood — Literary scholar at New York University and author of the book, Victorian Writing about Risk: Imagining a Safe England in a Dangerous World
Jonathan Simon — Legal scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and co-editor of the book, Embracing Risk: The Changing Culture of Insurance and Responsibility

The Democratic Primaries
Iowa and New Hampshire are over. But in the next two weeks thirteen states will weigh in on the democratic Presidential race.
Guests:
Alan Gitelson — Political scientist at Loyola University in Chicago, and author of the book, American Elections: The Rules Matter
Barry Burden — Burden is a political scientist at Harvard University in Cambridge, and the co-author of Why Americans Split Their Tickets: Campaigns, Competition, and Divided Government