With thirteen official candidates for the office and just over six weeks to go until election day, the Dallas Mayoral election is heating up. What are the key issues in the race and which candidates have the support (and the money) to go the distance? What do you think? We’ll discuss the election this hour with Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer and Dave Levinthal of the Dallas Morning News.
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What’s your favorite George Gershwin tune? One of America’s quintessential composers, Gershwin died of an undiagnosed brain tumor in 1937 at the age of 38 – but not before he put his indelible stamp on the American song. We’ll explore Gershwin’s short but prolific career this hour with Howard Pollack Professor of Music at the University of Houston and author of the new book “George Gershwin: His Life and Work” (University of California Press, 2007).
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How do you get a film made today? Do you start with a screenplay? Do you start by looking for funding? Do you shoot on film or go with digital? We’ll spend this hour with film makers who each have films in the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, which runs until April 1st. We’ll be joined by Amy Talkington, writer and director of “The Night of the White Pants”; Jeremy Coon, producer of “American Fork”; and Sian Heder, director of “Mother.”
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How are things connected? What is the true shape of those things? Mathematicians have attempted to prove or disprove a tantalizing puzzle related to these questions since it was first posed by Henri Poincar?? in 1904. Our guest this hour, Professor Donal O’Shea of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, believes the proposition may have been proved. He writes about what has been called one of the greatest unsolved problems of the new millennium in his new book “The Poincar?? Conjecture: In Search of the Shape of the Universe”(Walker and Company, 2007).
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We hope you’ll enjoy an archive program featuring a conversation with journalist Andrew D. Blechman author of “Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird” (Grove Press, 2006). Blechman takes us from pigeon shoots to pigeon races; and from the quarters of Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Pigeon Handler to a radical pro-pigeon group in New York City in his new book. Krys Boyd talked with him on November 21st of last year.
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What is it like to live in a convent today? What was it like in the turbulent 1960s? Sister Karol Jackowski shocked her friends and family when she decided to enter a convent after high school in 1964. Her experiences within paralleled the changing climate outside the convent’s walls. Sister Karol will join us this hour to discuss her new book “Forever and Ever, Amen: Becoming a Nun in the Sixties” (Riverhead Books, 2007).
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Music Within screens at the AFI DALLAS International Film Festival Opening Night Gala this week. We’ll talk with the film’s director, Steven Sawalich, and the subject of the film, Richard Pimentel, who overcame profound hearing loss in the Vietnam War to become the driving force behind the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our Scene segment will feature a look at the legacy of Raymond Nasher, who passed away last week.
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What is the nature of a borderland? How do our borders with Canada and Mexico differ? How are they the same? We’ll examine the peculiar nature and history of borders this hour with participants in SMU’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies Symposium “Bridging National Borders in North America.” We’ll be joined by Dr. Carolyn Podruchny of Toronto’s York University, Professor Miguel Angel Gonzalez Quiroga of the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, and Dr. S. Deborah Kang of SMU.
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Since 1993, more than 500 girls and women have been killed and disappeared in Juarez, Mexico. Award-winning veteran journalist Diana Washington Valdez has spent seven years investigating the murders and disappearances that have attracted the attention of the U.S. Congress and Senate, Amnesty International, United Nations and Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. Diana Washington Valdez, who writes for the El Paso Times has also written a book on the subject called “Harvest of Women.” She’ll be our guest this hour.
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The war in Iraq entered its fifth year this week. Where do you stand on the conflict? Has your opinion changed? Where do you turn for verifiable information about the war? We’ll open the phones for your opinions and thoughts this hour.
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What’s it like to travel solo to the North Pole? How about trekking 1500 miles across the Gobi Desert? Our guest this hour, Helen Thayer, has accomplished these trips and many more. Thayer, who was named “One of the Greatest Explorers of the 20th Century” by National Geographic, will join us this hour to discuss her career and upcoming adventures. She’s featured in the book “Women Explorers” (2007), a new title in the Women Who Dare series from the Library of Congress.
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Is the United States prepared for the next terrorist attack or major natural disaster? According to Stephen Flynn, a senior fellow with the National Security Studies Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, the answer is simple. No. Flynn will join us this hour to explore the weak spots in our country’s defenses as detailed in his new book “The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation” (Random House, 2007).
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