- COVERING THE TOPICS THAT MATTER, ENGAGING REAL VOICES
- 443-804-1252
- talk@steinershow.org
Jessica
September 3, 2008
Palin, Palin, Palin. The mainstream media is obsessed and the feminist blogosphere has been very interested in the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. On many feminist blogs you'll see questions like "Is Sarah Palin a feminist?" or "Can someone who was given a free ride break a glass ceiling?" and an old favorite "Can someone who doesn't support reproductive choice be a feminist?" The Palin pick may cause a feminist identity crisis just as the Obama-Clinton primary season did.
Click READ MORE below!
June 2, 2008
Hello everyone,
Jessica here, happy to be back in the good old USA. Nothing like two weeks out of the country to make you appreciate home again. Even if you have a wonderful time, as I did during the past two weeks in Vietnam, it is good to come home again. But enough of that; I have so much more to tell you about my trip.
Click "Read More" below for more stories and pictures.
May 29, 2008
Hello friends,
Jessica here with an update from Vietnam.
The past few days have been among the strangest, most challenging and most wonderful of my entire life. There is no way I could even begin to do them justice in this blog post. All I can do is bring you a basic outline of what has transpired over the past few days and promise you that soon after I return home we will begin work on a documentary to bring you this amazing story.
Click "Read More" below for the story and pictures.
May 26, 2008
Greetings from Pleiku
I am sitting on my bed under a mosquito net in Pleiku, Vietnam, and I finally have a few spare moments to update you on the latest adventures of your favorite globe-trotting producer. Click "Read More" below for stories and pictures.
May 22, 2008
Hello from Hanoi!
Well I see that my coworker Justin is trying to outdo me with multiple blogs from his trip to West Virginia. Since it is
only 5:30 am at home and he is sure to be asleep, I will take this opportunity to do a little reporting of my own!
Click "Read More" below for stories and pictures.
April 21, 2008
Welcome to the Center for Emerging Media's new website!
We're so excited to bring this to you after working on it for a month and a half. This website brings together in one place all our various projects, and also incorporates an interactive forum for our listeners to interact with each other. If you have any questions about how to use this website or where something is located, leave a comment below or send me an email at jes.phillips@gmail.com. To navigate the website, pay attention to the top menu bar. That will be your number one place to go once you know what you wanted to do. Do you want to read the blog? Click on "Blog". Do you want to listen to CEM programs? Click on "Programs". And so on. Once you make a decision, depending on what you click on, the right column will give you more options. For example, if you click on Programs, the right column will show you what programs we have available for you to listen to. If you click on Blog, the right column will show you archived entries and tags. Just click around and get to know the site. Please let us know if you have any problems or questions about how this works! We look forward to seeing you all in the forums and on this blog! -JessicaFebruary 21, 2008
Habi lives in Niger. She will tell the story of how she came to be incontinent as a result of being married as a child.
Mamta
Mamta was only 7 when she was married to a man she had never met. She is afraid of her husband.
Other resources
-Jessica
February 21, 2008
I want to thank all of you who came to the CAB meeting tonight. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to see your faces and hear your thoughts.
I see some people already made post-CAB comments in the previous post, so I imagined others would follow suit, and I wanted to make a place for all the post-CAB comments. So feel free to share your impressions, feelings, thoughts in this post.
I am sure Marc will write something to you tomorrow.
-Jessica
February 20, 2008
Hi everyone,
Please note the new header tab above with the words "Protest Links". If you go there, you'll find links to the following sites:
*Marc Steiner is not involved with these websites. We’re just linking to them!*
Bring Marc Steiner Back-A website with information on how to get in touch with underwriters, Community Advisory Board Members, WYPR Board of Director members, and essays on why this firing is important to YOU.
Save Steiner Show-a website run by local activists with information on how to join the daily demonstrations outside of WYPR.
Bring Marc Steiner Back petition-Sign a petition decrying this move by WYPR.
Wear protest threads-Link to a Cafepress store where a listener has set up a tshirt shop supporting Marc Steiner
Support Steiner on Facebook-On Facebook? Join this group to show your support.
Have fun, kids.
-Jessica
February 15, 2008
Don't miss Marc on the Ed Norris Show on 105.7 WHFS FM today from 10:30-11:30. He's joining them for their news roundup. Call and be part of the show at 410-481-1057 or email theshow@ednorris.com.
-Jessica
February 14, 2008
Happy Valentines Day, everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful day!
New Poll!
Poll: Are you going to the Feb 20th Community Advisory Board Meeting?
Here is a picture of the Heart Nebula. Isn't it beautiful? If you like this kind of stuff, I highly recommend you hightail it to the Walters Art Museum, where they have a whole exhibition of photographs from the Hubble Telescope.
-Jessica
February 13, 2008
Big news out today. Looks like Maryland will have two new faces in our Congressional delegation (unless Wayne Gilchrist and Albert Wynn choose to run as Independents and win).
What are your thoughts? This could be the first competitive general election the Eastern Shore has seen in a couple decades. Does a Democrat have a chance on the Shore or is state senator Andy Harris going to sweep into office? What about Republican challengers to Donna Edwards?And of course, Obama wins in Maryland. Did you vote yesterday? I am still registered in Worcester County. I tried to travel home yesterday to vote. I meant to get an absentee ballot, but in the craziness that was my life the past two weeks, I plumb forgot. So I set out for Ocean City at 3:30 yesterday. I hit a wall of traffic several miles from the Bay Bridge and sat there until 6 pm, at which point I realized there was no chance I was going to make it home in time to vote. I won't make the same mistake in November!
This is what we had planned to be discussing for the noon hour on the Steiner Show today. Since we're not there, give us your thoughts HERE.
-Jessica
January 29, 2008
January 28, 2008
I remember in 2006 during the race for Maryland's vacant senate seat, a hot debate being sparked on our show when a guest said, "Any black person who votes for a Democrat in this election is a patsy." Oh, the calls that came in for the rest of the hour-people were SO angry!
While it was a comment that probably could have been worded in a much more intelligent way, what it implied was interesting. The implication was that the Democratic party was taking the African American vote for granted by not supporting the candidacy of Kweisi Mfume-and that blacks should vote for the Republican candidate, Michael Steele, an African American. Most of the callers were offended by the very suggestion that the Republican agenda had anything to offer black voters.
But according to statistics, more and more blacks are finding something about the Republican party to interest them. In 1972, fewer than 10 percent of African Americans identified themselves as conservative; today nearly 30 percent-11.2 million-do. Those are the numbers presented by Christopher Alan Bracey in his new book, Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, from Booker T. Washington to Condoleezza Rice. He points to the social issues that African Americans tend to be conservative on-abortion and gay marriage for example-and traces the history of politicla conservatism in the Black world.
Figures like Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell--what appeal did they find in conservative politics? Why do they remain such polarizing figures? Join us today to discuss.
-Jessica
P.S. Go here for information on Bracey's event in Howard County this weekend!
January 24, 2008
Then-Mayor Martin O'Malley at an Earth Day Planting at Gilmor Elementary in 2005
Before I came to work at WYPR, I worked at a documentary company called Soundprint. While I was there, they were working on a series of stories about urban forests that delved into the unique environmental issues that cities face. For the documentary Watershed 263, we attended an Earth Day planting ceremony at Gilmor Elementary in Baltimore. Gilmor was one of a dozen schools in Baltimore that had converted their parking lot into a garden. Things like parking lots and roads are terrible for the environment. When it rains, the rain gathers up all the oil and other pollutants that have been sitting on the pavement and then whooshes it all into a storm-water drain. That all ends up in the Chesapeake, of course, where it wreaks havoc. A garden, on the other hand, keeps that water right there, and puts it to good use. It's a lot of fun for the kids, too, to get a day out of class to get their hands dirty and have a beautiful spot to play. The purpose of that whole long story was to tell you that on that day, then-Mayor Martin O'Malley was at that school, and ceremoniously planted the first flower in the soil. I remember being impressed that he would find time in a busy schedule to visit a school, make a speech, plant a flower, and hang out with the kids for awhile. I left with the feeling that he cared about the environment. The impression I was left with would please the now Governor, and those who work to craft his image. He has very purposefully cast himself as a "Green Governer". But what does that term really mean? As the environmental crisis in the Bay and beyond seems to grow more urgent, how does the criteria for being an environmental politician change? What is the gold standard in environmentalism for a politician? What is the leading edge-and is O'Malley on it? We'll discuss this today with people who all care deeply and have devoted their lives to the environment. Join us, to share your thoughts on what you would like to see happen in Maryland. Poll: Do you think Governor Martin O'Malley is a Green Governor?-Jessica
Here are some pictures courtesy of one of our guests today, Gerry Winegrad. His descriptions are below:
1
23
1. brown bull headed catfish taken from the South River near Annapolis by USGS. Nearly 2/3rds sampled had these cancerous tumors from water pollutants, most likely from stormwater runoff.
2. BROWN TIDE KILLS 7,000 INNER HARBOR FISH June 5, 2007 BALTIMORE -- State environmental officials said a lack of oxygen killed thousands of fish in Baltimore's Inner Harbor last weekend. State program director Charles Poukish said the fish kill is the result of an algae bloom or brown tide. Poukish said the lack of dissolved oxygen is the result of a large bloom of microscopic algae. Recent warm water temperatures killed the algae and that depleted oxygen near the water‘s surface. Massive fish kills also were reported in the Potomac during the summer and other kills in the Magothy and other rivers.
3. rockfish with mycobactreiosis (chronic wasting disease). A wasting disease that kills rockfish and can cause a severe skin infection in humans has spread to nearly three-quarters of the rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, cradle of the mid-Atlantic's most popular game fish. The disease also sends a grim message about the entire bay ecosystem. The rockfish remains bay conservationists' only success story -- a species nearly wiped out, then revived by fishing limits. But as the number of rockfish surged, the fish remained in a body of water too polluted to support the level of life it once did.
-Justin
January 23, 2008
-Jessica
January 22, 2008
As the subprime mortgage mess has gone into major meltdown mode, we're hearing a lot about "predatory lenders" while sympathetic words are being used for the people who are losing their homes.
But at what point do we say, "Wait a second--should these people bear some responsibility for making bad financial choices? Why did they choose a loan that was not good for them? Are they guilty of living beyond their means?"
Ah, living beyond ones means. An American tradition, some would say. Advertisers and credit card companies surely want you to engage in this kind of behavior, and hey, it's good for the economy, which is good for America, right? Or at least that's what we tell ourselves when those $230 Cole Haan shoes at Nordstrom are calling our name.
But at what point does it become too much? If I buy the Cole Haan shoes, or use my credit card to pay for groceries or for my kids school uniform, and then I can't make the payments and my interest rate jumps not only on the credit card I didn't make the payment on but on ALL my credit cards--is that my fault for not being responsible with my money? Or was I lured by dishonest and seductive promises about easy credit and low APR's into thinking that I could spend now, pay later?
And if, as in the case of the subprime debacle, the government intervenes, what message will it send to people? Will it help us become smarter spenders and borrowers, or teach us that we can engage in risky behavior and not bear the consequences?
We're talking about issues of responsibility with debt today, and how our culture thinks about money and credit. The subprime mess has showed us how far this issue reaches. All sectors are hurt, not just those involved with the industry. Is it time for our country to radically transform the way we think about money, credit, and debt?
Join us!
Poll: Who do you think is to blame for the mortgage meltdown?
Poll: Should the government intervene to keep people from losing their homes?
-Jessica
January 17, 2008
-Jessica
January 16, 2008
January 16, 2008
January 15, 2008
January 10, 2008
At Noon today, we welcome you to add your opinion to the never ending analysis of the 2008 Presidential election and the results of the Iowa caucus, the New Hampshire primary, and the Wyoming GOP primary. From Obama's surprise victory in Iowa to Hillary's emotional moment to Edward's attempts to keep from becoming completly irrelvent, the Democratic primary has been providing some exciting times. On the GOP side, things are no less exciting, as McCain attempts to accomplish what at times has seen inevitable and at times completly out of the question-to become the Republican candidate for President. Will he be able to get the Republican base to trust him? Only time will tell.
Poll: If the Democratic primary in Maryland were today, who would you vote for?
Poll: If the Republican primary in Maryland were today, who would you vote for?
-Jessica
January 2, 2008
Marc loves Studs Terkel, the great historian, author, broadcaster, and so much more. So whenever he releases a new book or is anywhere near a studio and they offer us an interview, we know the answer is always yes. Recently, he released a memoir called Touch and Go. After decades of telling other people's stories, Studs is finally telling his own. Today at one we bring you an interview with Studs that we recorded before the holidays. It may be the last time we get to speak to this 95 year old American treasure, so don't miss it.
And then we'll talk with Nelson Peery, an author and activist whose latest book is Black Radical: The Education of an American Revolutionary. This book examines the time in this communist's life after he returned home from serving in World War II to the time of the Watts Riots in 1965. He challenges the notion that the Civil Rights Movement in America was led by the clergy elite. Instead, he believes that it was the experiences of black veterans of WWII that gave the movement the mass appeal that it needed to succeed. He joined us to discuss his experiences in the Communist party, the freedom movement, and more.
A great show...today at one. Don't miss it.
-Jessica
January 2, 2008
We're back, so dry your tears and join us at Noon today for Open Phones. What is on your mind? We're interested. 1-866-661-9309 or 410-662-8780 or email at steinershow@wypr.org. Or leave your comment here.
-Jessica
December 14, 2007
Time for our annual Holiday Music week. Here is what is coming up!
Monday, December 17th
12-1 pm Lea Gilmore shares her favorite music. Want to check out some of what she played? Here is the playlist.Tuesday December 18th1-2 pm, Tom Hall shares from of his favorite music.
- Baby, It's Cold Outside, performed by Eric Byrd and Lea Gilmore
- Santa's Got the Blies, by Denise Lasalle
- Please Come Home for Christmas, by Charles Brown
- Santa Baby, by Eartha Kitt
- All I Want for Christmas is You, by Mariah Carey
- This Christmas, by Donny Hathaway
- Give Love on Christmas Day, by the Jackson 5
- So This is Christmas, by John Lennon
- Mary Did You Know, by Clay Aiken
- I am Not Forgotten, by Israel and New Breed
- Hark the Herald Angels Sing, by Norman Hitchens
- Silent Night, by Mahalia Jackson
- What a Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong
- Oh Come, All Ye Faithful
- Come Colors Rise
- Thank you, by Dave Brubeck
- Gabriel's Message
- Yvette in English, by Joni Mitchell
- I Wish You Love
- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
- Never Will I Marry
- Nine Crimes, Damien Rice
- Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel
- Hallelujah Chorus
12-1 pm Jon Carney is the Concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and he brought some of his favorite classical music for us. What did he play?Wednesday, December 19th1-2 pm Jason Willett is the co-owner of the True Vine Record store in Hampden, as well as a member of a litany of fine bands including Leprechaun Catering and Half Japanese. We asked him to bring his favorite Christmas music, and this is what we heard - not quite in the order we heard them, go figure -
- Edward Elgar conducting the London Symphony- 1st movement of violin concerto featuring Yehudi Menuhin at age 16 - 1931
- Vivaldi - Largo from "Winter" of the Quattro Stagioni, Jon's recording w/ the Royal Philharmonic - 1992
- Camille St. Saens - from his "organ" symphony (#3) - Jean Martinon and French Radio Symphony - 1975
- Michael Nyman - Prospero's Books (miranda) - 1996
- Beethoven - slow movement from his opus 135 String Quartet - Guarneri Quartet 1987
- Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra - last movement - RPO w/ Danielle Gatti - 1997
- Bach - Chaconne for Partita #2 in D minor for solo violin - Henryk Szerying
- Fritz Kreisler - "La Gitana" for violin and piano - Jon's own recording w/ his mother on piano - 1995
- closing music: Michael Nyman - Quartet #4 - track 14
- James Brown - Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto
- Culturcide - Depressed Christmas
- Frieder Butzmann - White Christmas
- Hybrid Kids - Good King Wenceslaus
- James White and the Blacks - Christmas With Satan
- The Jethros - I'm Dreaming of a Wide Christmas
- Rotary Connection - Opening & Silent Night Chant
- finally, 3 awesome song poems called Snowbows, Santa Came on a Nuclear Missile, and Santa Goes Modern
12-1 pm Keith Covington is the owner of the New Haven Lounge, one of the best places around to see live jazz. He brought us the gift of great holiday jazz music; here they are in order:Thursday, December 20th1-2 pm Rock and Roll has had something to say about Christmas since the 50's. Former disc jockeys Toby Bray and Michael Butscher came by and spun the following tunes.
- Slim & The Supreme Angels - Precious Lord
- Selah Jubilee Singers - When Was Jesus Born
- Kenny Burrel - Merry Christmas Baby
- Ramsey Lewis - Christmas Blues
- David Benoit - Christmas is Coming
- Ramsey Lewis - Merry Christmas Baby
- Chris Botti - Ave Maria
- Dianne Reeves - Carol of the Bells
- The Swan Silvertones - I'm Not Tired Yet
- Ramsey Lewis - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Bobby Durham - Jingle Bells
- Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately?
- The Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama (not to be confused with the Unoriginal Five Blind Boys of Alabama, seriously they're better) -This May Be the Last Time
- Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid
- Father Christmas - The Kinks
- Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
- Step Into Christmas - Elton John
- Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
- Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - Chicago
- White Christmas - America
- The Christmas Song - Linda Ronstadt
- The First Noel - Air Supply
- Merry Christmas, Baby - Southern Culture on the Skids
- Merry Christmas - The Ramones
- Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
- Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
- Please Come Home for Christmas - The Eagles
- River - Joni Mitchell
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen
- Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Shawn Colvin
- The Christmas Song - Nat "King" Cole
- Jingle Bells - Frank Sinatra
- Let It Snow - Dean Martin
- It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town - The Jackson Five
- Christmas Isn't Christmas (Without the One You Love) - The O'Jays
- This Christmas - Donny Hathaway
- L'il Saint Nick - The Beach Boys
12-1 pm Ed Polochick is a busy guy. He's conductor of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska, Artistic Director of the Choral Artists of Baltimore, and Director of Choral Activities at the Peabody Conservatory. He was good enough to find time to come in and share his favorite classical and choral Christmas Music.1-2 pm Hopefully you'll have some time to relax during the holidays. And if you do, maybe you'll want to go to the movies...but what to see? Never fear, we've brought together a great panel of film critics to tell you what to see. We'll talk to Violet Glaze of the Baltimore City Paper, Mike Speir from Variety, and Michael Sragrow from the Baltimore Sun. We really hope you enjoy all of this music and special programming. Happy Holidays! -Jessica, Justin, Marcus
- The First Noel, from the album Crystal Carols by Dean Shostak
- The Holy Boy by John Ireland, from the album A Christmas Garland
- Adeste Fideles, by Liszt, performed by Walker Marshall
- Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 2, by Robert Shaw, from the album Festival of Carols
- Candlelight Carol, from the album Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity, conducted by John Rutter
- Christmas Night, Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity, conducted by John Rutter
- Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 3, by Robert Shaw, from the album Festival of Carols
- Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Concert Artists Symphonic Chorale
- Worthy is the Lamb That Was Slain performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Concert Artists Symphonic Chorale
December 13, 2007
-Jessica
December 6, 2007
In my work as producer for the Just Words series, I've come to believe that inner city mothers are the new stoics. I can't tell you how many times I have asked a mother "How do you deal with all this?" and they just look at me like I am crazy to even imagine that they would take the luxury of considering NOT dealing with it all. I do not know how they do it. Being a mother is hard enough, I imagine. But to be a mother trying to raise a child with drug dealers on the corner,without much money, with the schools in terrible shape and murders on the rise?
That's what we are going to hear about today. We're invited three women who have been featured on the Just Words series. Lorraine Mackey lost her son, Aaron Mackey, to gang violence over a year ago. She's doing everything she can to keep her other son safe, and is trying to pick up the pieces and figure out, what went wrong? Sheilah Cannon's daughter was caught in gang crossfire while going to pick her little brother up from school, and had to spend months in shock trauma. Now Sheila is doing everything she can to find a place she can afford to move her children to. Nargas Hyman began to worry about her eldest son years ago when she saw him and his friends hanging out after school, with nothing to do. She created an afterschool youth program that she is still running, over a decade later, out of her mother's basement.
What do these women go through as they struggle to keep their children safe? We'll find out today. Join us.
To hear Nargas, Sheila, and Lorraine on JUST WORDS, go here.
-Jessica
December 3, 2007
The Marc Steiner Show is getting into the Christmas spirit with a doorbuster opportunity for you today...A twofer! At one o'clock we're going to bring you two authors in one hour.
First, we're talking with Jonathon Scott Fuqua. When you were a teenager, did you ever have a book that just so perfectly captured your life or your feelings that you read it over and over again? I did. It was Girl, by Blake Nelson and I can't say it so much captured my life as it was the life I wished I had. I also loved Unfinished Portrait of Jessica by Richard Peck. Both of these books are about girls turning into women and how thorny that process can be. Jonathon Scott Fuqua writes books like this. They are books that come as a relief to the people reading them; finally, someone understands! His latest book is called Gone and Back Againand is the story of Caley, a teenager whose dad has a personality disorder and whose brother is handicapped. His parents are divorced and he's been moved all around the country, eventually ending up in Florida, which is where the novel begins. It's a story that draws upon the author's own struggles with depression.
And then we talk with Zakes Mda. He's a writer from South Africa whose work is really about our interactions with history and memory and how we manage those things in the middle of present life. His latest book is Cion, and is about Toloki, the hero from a previous novel, moving to Ohio with his family and learning about his ancestors, runaway slaves.
Join us today at one, for all that!
-Jessica
November 29, 2007
"Prostitution is hilarious!"
I'm always shocked when I hear about some stupid group on a college campus having a Pimp's and Ho's party, or a "Ghetto" themed party where you are encouraged to bring 40's in brown paper bags and "wear your favorite gang colors!" I mean, do these people really not get it? Are they really unaware that someone is going to be offended by this? Where is the motivation, anyway? Why do people want to emulate ghetto stereotypes and celebrate the worst of human behavior? These are the questions that Cora Daniels asks in her most recent book, Ghetto Nation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless. Why do people like Paris Hilton appropriate ghetto attitudes and style? How can corporate America defend it's practices of making so much money off harmful ghetto stereotypes? Do we really live in a world where Pimp and Ho" for children costumes are available? Yes. We sure do. Let's discuss...at Noon...-Jessica
November 28, 2007
-Jessica
November 27, 2007
A socialist and a capitalist walk into a bar....
The beginning of a joke, right? Not today. Today we have a socialist (A. Robert Kaufman) and a capitalist (Okay, well not specifically a capitalist, but a business writer, so he writes about capitalism and for the most part we're all capitalists, after all....anyway it's Jay Hancock from the Baltimore Sun) and they are coming in together to talk about how they both came to this conclusion: the War on Drugs has failed and must be ended.
Jay Hancock revealed this belief in a column on November 7th. Kaufman has been advocating this for years. They're going to talk about how they came to this conclusion from very different places.
Join us, to share your thoughts on the War on Drugs.
-Jessica
November 26, 2007
Seems like this week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis has come back from the dead. Everyone was saying that the conference had become irrelevant--that no one was coming, it would only be one day, and it wouldn't make a dent in the enormous amount of work and negotiation that needs to occur between Palestine and Israel.
But things seem to be looking up. As President Bush emphasizes his desire to make peace in the Middle East part of his legacy, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and other nations of the Arab League have agreed to attend.
So looks like we're going to have a bona fide conference. Today at Noon we're going to discuss what issues are going to be at the top of the heap. What are the likely sticking points? What is a reasonable set of things we can hope to see accomplished?
We'll talk with our friend Ali Zaghab, a Palestinian-born local businessman who has joined us many times in the past to discuss these issues, and Dr. Elli Lieberman, a retired Israeli Army major, a PhD in Middle East studies, and a local businessman. We're also going to here an essay on peace and interfaith understanding and love from John Oliver Smith.
So join us. What do you want to see accomplished? Do you feel optimistic?
-Jessica
November 20, 2007
-Jessica
November 15, 2007
-Jessica
November 14, 2007
Can I let you in on a little secret? I am loving the housing slump. It is my favorite thing in the world. I hope it just keeps falling and falling. I, of course, am a prospective buyer. But you, the owner, are cursing me for celebrating the loss you are experiencing in your net worth!
The differences in our attitudes explains in part why it is so hard to come to a consensus about the economy and how it is doing. In my eyes, the economy was flying so high that someone like me, young and without much money, couldn't really get my foot in the door and buy stocks or a house. It was not an economy that was friendly to beginners. I felt priced out of that economy. But to someone whose foot was in the door already, the economy was perfect-great-never been better!
We're going to talk today with people who have different ideas about what the economy we have today means. Does the housing slump portend a recession-or is the market just correcting itself? Are oil prices rising higher and higher because of actual supply and demand issues, or is it market manipulation? Why does the Federal Reserve seem so optimistic? And what role do hedge funds play in alll this?
Join us...with your comments and questions...or offers to sell me your house at a reduced price!
-Jessica
November 7, 2007
October 29, 2007
-Jessica
October 25, 2007
Today we're discussing what is probably one of the uglier topics to be discussed. Rape.
Some interesting things in the news lately:
- Students at University of Maryland are protesting because they feel they should be able to name their alleged assailants on a public forum. The University of Maryland disagrees. Learn more.
- The Court of Appeals is currently considering a case, Baby v. State (pdf)that came to them from the Court of Special Appeals that says that post-penetration rape basically doesn't exist. Maryland currently says that if a woman gives or indicates initial consent, she cannot withdraw it after she is penetrated. Why? According to the Court of Special Appeals, which based their unwillingness to call this rape based on the outcome of a 198o case Battle v. State:
I mean WOW, just WOW. Right? Join us today. We're going to be talking about rape in the modern world--how we deal with it socially and legally. How does our culture treat people who allege they were victimized? How do we treat alleged assailants? Here is a link to the op-edwritten in The Baltimore Sun by Glenn Sacks, one of our guests, in which he supports the University of Maryland's decision to deny protesters a forum to publicly name alleged rapists. Bring your comments and questions....“The concept, undergirding the Battle holding, rooted in ancient laws by English common law, views the initial ‘deflowering’ of as the real harm or insult which must be redressed by compensating, in legal contemplation, the injured party – the father or husband. … [I]t was the act of penetration that was the essence of the crime of rape; after this initial infringement upon the responsible male’s interest in a woman’s sexual and reproductive functions, any further injury was considered to be less consequential."
-from Court of Special Appeals, Opinion by J. Davis, filed February 9, 2007
-Jessica
October 23, 2007
October 18, 2007
-Jessica
October 16, 2007
Today at noon we are talking with 1/2 of Maryland's representation in the House. We'll hear from Chris Van Hollen, Elijah Cummings, Wayne Gilchrist, and John Sarbanes. Topics? Iraq, SCHIP, Iran, veterans issues, and whatever you choose to bring to the table!
-Jessica
October 11, 2007
Today we're going to return to a topic we've been covering since the story broke, and that's the case of wounded soldiers being discharged from the Army under Chapter 5-13 "Personality Disorder." This enables the Army to avoid paying medical and disability benefits for these soldiers. It was being applied despite the fact that these men passed the Army's rigorous psychological entrance examinations and displayed no prior evidence of mental disorders. Joshua Kors from The Nation is the one who broke this story (the original article is here, and he's back with an update, which you can read here. We'll also be joined by Congressman Phil Harefrom Illinois, who has introduced legislation to stop this kind of discharge, and from Congressman Bob Filner from California, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
We'll also have a statement from the Army. They declined to come on live. You can read their statement here. You can also read the statement they sent us on March 27, 2007 here. -JessicaOctober 11, 2007
Beverly McIver "Oh Happy Day" 2001 Oil on Canvas 60 x 55 3/4 in.
I first became aware of Beverly McIver in the November 2006 episode of Art News. The images of her paintings stopped me on my tracks. She depicted herself, a black woman, in black-face. She played off the "Mammy" stereotype. She painting herself dancing with a white man, but scratched her face out. She painted portraits of her mentally handicapped sister, whom she is the primary caregiver for.
I have ambivalent feelings about contemporary art. I walked into a museum in Paris once where a whole room was filled with a table that had potatoes dumped on it, with wires going in and out of the potatoes. At that moment, I sort of broke up with contemporary art. So much of it feels derivative and irrelevant to me. So much of it is absurd and almost obscene in how removed from any real sense of aesthetics it is. Her art escapes that. To me it has both contextual and technical beauty and worth. It is brave and actually manages to shock and unsettle without resorting to ridiculous extremes in terms of medium. So when the card announcing her October show at the C. Grimaldis Gallery came, I told Marc, "You have no choice. You are interviewing this woman!" and he intelligently agreed with me.
I've prepared a page with some of her work on it. Click here. I hope you like her stuff as much as I do.
-Jessica
October 10, 2007
When you think of a Pit Bull, do you think this:
or this?
-Jessica
October 8, 2007
"Why is the Steiner Show having a candidate on?" You might say. "The elections are over! Dixon and Rawlings-Blake won!"
Ah, Baltimore. Where the primary decides it all. Or at least that's the accepted wisdom. Maria Allwine would have it differently. She's running as a Green Party candidate for President of the Baltimore City Council.
People loved her at our debates (go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the links to listen). Her comments elicited lots of applause and cheering, especially when she talked about the War on Drugs and her anger at the treatment developers get and affordable housing. A lot of people seemed to like what she was selling. Is she going to surprise all of us in this election by doing better than expected?
Join us with your comments and questions for Ms. Allwine, today at One.
-Jessica
October 4, 2007
from the New York Times. Read the accompanying article here.
California is one of those places that sets trends. Making restaurants smoke free...the fitness craze..."green living" and nutrition. And if you think about it, they also show us what problems the rest of the country can expect. Illegal immigration, water shortages, gang activity, a real estate market more and more people are getting priced out of....California began to struggle with these problems before anyone else. With that in mind we were interested when we heard about a documentary that will air on the Discovery Channel on Sunday at 9pm called Breaking Point. It is an investigation into the problems of overcrowding in California prisons. Those prisons were built to house about 100,000 people. Today they have more than 170,000 inmates. Prisoners are being segregated by race and gang affiliation in an attempt to keep some kind of peace. Inmates are sleeping on cots in hallways and gyms. And it costs as much to house, clothe, and feed a prisoner each year as it does to send someone to Harvard. We'll talk with Ted Koppel who hosted and produced this documentary, and James Blue, an award w inning producer who worked on the documentary who just happens to live in Baltimore! and then....
"I'm coming for you, WYPR."
He's not seeking the Democratic nomination for President of the United States this time around, but he still has a LOT to say about leadership, citizenship, and politics in America. Marc talks with retired General Wesley Clark about his new book A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country. -JessicaOctober 1, 2007
When they came out with the "new money" a couple of years ago, there were massive technological advancements in the bills in order to deter counterfeiting. I think on the whole the American public feels very confident about our money. When I am given change I don't inspect it, and when I give money to a clerk, unless it is a $100 bill, they don't inspect it. It just changes hands without so much as a cursory glance.
Now put yourself in the early 1800's. You go down to Ye Olde Shoppe to purchase some dry goods. You present the shop-keep with a one dollar bill from the Fairhaven Bank, a respected banking institution in Massachusetts. The shop-keep reaches behind the counter and pulls out a pamphlet called a counterfeit detector. He goes through the book, which includes a page that says that the Fairhaven bank has several known counterfeits. He inspects your bill, checks the pamphlet, inspects your bill again. Finally, he declares that he cannot be sure this is not a counterfeit. He'll still accept your bill-but not for the full price. You haggle with the shop-keep until you both finally agree on a reduced value of the bill, and then you purchase your item, receive less change then you had hoped, and you exit the shop.
Can you imagine? In a time when money was printed not by a central government branch but instead by individual banks, counterfeiting was a great way to "make money" (you love my puns). We'll learn today at one o'clock of the political and cultural system that allowed such a situation to develop. Why did the government shy away from creating it's own money? What caused us to develop the system we have today? We'll talk with author Stephen Mihm, whose new book is A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States.
-Jessica
September 25, 2007
Today for the second half of the one o'clock hour we'll talk with Cynthia Enloe.
-Jessica
September 25, 2007
-Jessica