We’ll see lots of ultra-modern Beijing on TV next month. What we probably won’t see are the centuries-old hutong neighborhoods which are being destroyed at a record pace to make way for new development. We’ll explore them this hour with Michael Meyer, author of “The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed” (Walker and Company, 2008).
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Regardless of the product it represents, it’s probably the brand that we’ll identify with and remember to look for next time. Our guest this hour, Lucas Conley, writes about the phenomenon in his new book “OBD – Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion” (Public Affairs, 2008).
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221 years ago, a group of men gathered in Philadelphia to frame our nation’s government. What was the process like? We’ll look back this hour with David O. Stewart, author of “The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution” (Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2008).
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Who killed seven endangered mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park last summer? Why? Those are the questions that journalist (and adventurer) Mark Jenkins and photographer Brent Stirton set out to answer for National Geographic. Their cover story appears in the May issue of National Geographic Magazine. We’ll talk with Jenkins this hour.
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What are the key challenges facing educators today and what can be done to improve our schools? We’ll talk this hour with Rita Haecker, president-elect of the Texas State teachers Association. She’s in Washington, DC for the National Education Association’s 146th Annual Meeting.
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What is the influence of post-Cold War politics on the America of today? We’ll spend this hour with Derek Chollet, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and co-author of the new book “America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 – The Misunderstood Years Between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Start of the War on Terror” (Public Affairs, 2008).
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Can the drug-approval process be improved, or at least altered to better ensure the public’s safety? Journalist Alison Bass might think so. Her new book is “Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial” (Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2008). Bass will join us for the hour.
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There’s no doubt that Russia is changing – growing more powerful and, as our guest this hour might say, more dangerous. What’s driving the change and what can we expect from this “newly assertive” Russia? We’ll talk this hour with BusinessWeek’s Steve LeVine, author of the new book “PUTIN’S LABYRINTH: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia” (Random House, 2008).
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Globalization and over-consumption are endangering natural ecosystems and traditional human economic systems the world over. We’ll explore one such example this hour with Mark Kurlansky, author of the new book “The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival of Gloucester, America’s Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town” (Ballantine Books, 2008).
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Why is development such a hot-topic issue? We’ll examine a recent conflict in Austin, Texas and how it reflects similar struggles all over the country with documentarian Laura Dunn. Her film, “The Unforeseen,” is in theaters now.
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Can our lives and the complicated systems that affect them be made simpler? We’ll find out this hour with Time Magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger, author of the new book “Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple)” (Hyperion, 2008).
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Is the male gender worth your renewed respect? Nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker thinks so. She’ll join us this hour to discuss her new book “Save the Males: Why Men Matter Why Women Should Care” (Random House, 2008).
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