Uncategorized - Think

Challenging Vision and Nothing New

February 13, 2009 Uncategorized

How should photographers challenge their audience and how has the practice of photography progressed in the last several decades? We’ll talk this evening with one of the agents of that change – artist Barbara Crane. Her groundbreaking work from the last 25 years can be seen in “Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision,” which is on exhibit at the Amon Carter Museum through May 10th, 2009. Dallas Morning News editors (and spouses) Nancy Visser and Guy Reynolds will join us during the Scene segment to discuss their pledge and on-going effort to buy nothing new in 2009.

The Complete History of Sesame Street

February 12, 2009 Uncategorized

For almost 40 years, no other show has delighted kids and parents like Sesame Street. How did it get started and why has the show lasted so long? Television critic Michael Davis will join us this hour to discuss his new book, “Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street” (Viking, 2008).

Sleep and The Brain

February 12, 2009 Uncategorized

We all need sleep to make it through the day, but are there other benefits of getting that important shut-eye? We’ll talk this hour with Dr. Matt Walker, who’ll lecture at UTD’s The Brain: An Owner’s Guide BrainHealth Lecture Series on Tuesday, February 17th.

Will America Get the Health-Care System it Needs?

February 11, 2009 Uncategorized

Will the U.S. Government, under a new administration, finally be able to solve the health-care issues that have trouble so many Americans? We’ll talk this hour with Luke Mitchell, Senior Editor for Harper’s Magazine and author of the current piece “Sick in the Head: Why America Won’t Get the Health-Care System it Needs.”

How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution

February 11, 2009 Uncategorized

What followed the so-called “great leap forward” in human civilization and was that really the end of biological evolution in human beings? We’ll explore the subject this hour with Gregory Cochran, physicist and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah and co-author of the new book “The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution” (Basic Books, 2009).

Escaping from North Korea

February 10, 2009 Uncategorized

If you had to flee your homeland in order to have a life free from government persecution, how would you do it? We’ll spend this hour with journalist Tom O’Neill, whose story “Escape from North Korea” appears in the current issue of National Geographic Magazine.

The Young Charles Darwin

February 10, 2009 Uncategorized

Who was Charles Darwin before he wrote the landmark “On the Origin of Species?” We’ll find out this hour with Keith Thomson, professor emeritus of natural history at the University of Oxford and author of “The Young Charles Darwin” (Yale, 2009).

Listening to the Twentieth Century

February 9, 2009 Uncategorized

What does a century sound like? This hour we’ll discuss and listen to the sounds of the last century with MacArthur Fellow Alex Ross. His highly acclaimed book, now in paperback, is “The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century” (Picador, 2007).

The Sound of Literature

February 9, 2009 Uncategorized

Why does some literature seem better when read aloud? That’s the question that Selected Shorts has been answering for almost twenty years on the stage and nationwide on public radio. We’ll spend this hour with Isaiah Sheffer, a founder and artistic director of Symphony Space in New York City, and director of Selected Shorts. Sheffer will read tonight as part of Arts and Letters Live’s “Texas Bound from Broadway: Food Fictions” event at the Dallas Theater Center. Selected Shorts airs on KERA 90.1 on Saturdays at 7pm.

Tulia, Texas

February 6, 2009 Uncategorized

The July, 1999 drug busts in Tulia Texas were initially hailed as great progress in the War on Drugs, but quickly became emblematic of the serious racial divides in Tulia and elsewhere. PBS’s Independent Lens takes a look back with “Tulia Texas” on Tuesday, February 10th. We’ll talk this evening with Judge Ron Chapman, Retired Justice of the 5th District Court of Appeals who presided over the evidentiary hearing that led to the overturning of the Tulia drug cases. We’ll also be joined by Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director and founding member of Friends of Justice, the organization which fought to have the verdicts overturned. Argentinean artist, Florencia Levy, will join us during the Scene segment to discuss her current project “Commute Portraits” which examines highway commutes and documents the automotive way of life in DFW. It’s on exhibit at UTD’s Centratrak until March 18, 2009.

Social Aggression Among Girls

February 5, 2009 Uncategorized

How big a problem is aggression among children? How can parents and educators deal with the issue? We’ll spend this hour with Dr. Marion Underwood, UTD Professor of Developmental Psychology. Underwood is also the author of the 2003 book “Social Aggression Among Girls” (The Guilford Press).

Washington and America's Veterans

February 5, 2009 Uncategorized

What does the future hold for the thousands of veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan? According to journalist Aaron Glantz, it doesn’t look good. Glantz will join us this hour to discuss his new book “The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle against America’s Veterans” (University of California Press, 2009).