A Game Changer Each Time

"He doesn't want to make just another movie," says Rebecca Keegan of James Cameron. Cameron's long-awaited film AVATAR is doing nothing to dispel the director's reputation for ticket sales. With TITANIC Cameron shattered box office records. With THE TERMINATOR he created a franchise; with ALIENS, he revived one.

TIME magazine contributor Rebecca Keegan got an on-set look at the making of the James Cameron film AVATAR. Keegan has written a book about Cameron called THE FUTURIST. Before the film's release, Keegan talked about the groundbreaking nature of the movie and the ambitious man who made it.

LISTEN: REBECCA KEEGAN - JAMES CAMERON, THE FUTURIST

An Unhealthy Mistrust?

In this age of seemingly limitless information, many people think they aren't getting the straight story. With the massive corporate control of the agribusiness and pharmaceutical industry, the modern-day science of public health is linked to a profit motive. Is the real data on modern day medical practices telling the full story?

Michael Specter is concerned there is a growing sense of mistrust of science and medicine. Specter writes on science, technology and medicine for The New Yorker. He recently has argued with those who believe that vaccines are related to autism and with a growing number of opponents to bio-engineered food. He thinks that skepticism of scientific data is growing to be a literally unhealthy trend.

LISTEN: MICHAEL SPECTER - DENIALISM

Beliefs and Big Questions by the Numbers

Do people really believe what they believe? The numbers indicate they often don't. Steven Landsburg says that mathematicians and economists can apply impartial models to a lot of the issues that get deep thoughts...and produce clear results.

Landsburg has applied his approach to such philosophical head-scratchers as "does it make sense to believe in God?" Landsburg, who is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester contributes to Slate.com and is the author of THE BIG QUESTIONS.

LISTEN: STEVEN LANDSBURG - THE BIG QUESTIONS

Huckster History

No scam is a new scam. Support for that statement is found in Pope Brock's book CHARLATAN.

Pope Brock tells the real-life story of the grandfather of Viagra: "Doctor" John R. Brinkley. Brinkley, a huckster, snake oil salesman, politician and broadcasting pioneer is the spiritual grandfather of Ron Popeil, Billy Mays and even Rush Limbaugh.

In his endless mission to push various miracle cures and dubious products, Brinkley had an inadvertent role in creating the American Medical Association and changed the face of radio broadcasting (and creating infomercials).

LISTEN: POPE BROCK - CHARLATAN

Soap Operas on CNN

It's the end of an era for popular and long-running daytime dramas like GUIDING LIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS. But the real-life serial dramas of scandal play out with greater emphasis on the 24-hour news networks and in the mainstream news.

Robert Thompson from the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture discusses the celebrity focus in the news. Thompson says that celebrity scandal is a kind of "cultural glue."

LISTEN: ROBERT THOMPSON - CELEBRITY CULTURE AND THE NEWS

Bubbles and Bad Fixes

Investment "bubbles" make a lot of people rich. When the bubbles burst a lot of people lose money. Most recently, many of the losers didn't even know they were part of an overinflated bubble. Or more accurately, many people did not realize that one bubble was related to so much else.

Economist Craig Thomas thinks that a true recovery to the system of markets in the U.S. will depend more on a natural balance of the system than incentives created by government fixes.

Thomas was Director of Research for Citi Property Investors, Citigroup's private equity real estate arm. Thomas talks with about how the housing market came to be such a mess, and what he sees as proper maintenance of the "econosphere."

LISTEN: CRAIG THOMAS - THE ECONOSPHERE

Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's

Tim Page was a weird kid. In grammar school he seemed to have a photographic memory, yet was always on the verge of failing most of his classes. He could memorize large portions of the World Book Encyclopedia as a very young child but would still wet his pants long into middle school. One beacon through which Page would connect with the world was music.

Eventually, his obsession with music would lead him to a career writing about it for the New York Times and Washington Post. He won a Pulitzer Prize for music criticism in 1997 .

In his memoir PARALLEL PLAY, Page writes out growing up in his own world and how he eventually learned that the name for his way of thinking had a name: Asperger's Syndrome.

LISTEN: TIM PAGE - "PARALLEL PLAY"

Getting a Picture of Lincoln

There is perhaps no more recognizable American face than that of Abraham Lincoln. And yet Philip Kunhardt III thinks there is more to be learned from looking at the 16th President's image.

Kunhardt and his family have collected and curated historical photographs for five generations. The Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation contains a massive collection of pictures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Over the years Philip Kunhardt has studied photographs of Lincoln in the collection and outside of it in great detail. The new book LINCOLN, LIFE SIZE, edited by the Kundhardts, takes photographs of Lincoln, familiar and more obscure, and blows them up for life-sized detail.

LISTEN: PHILIP KUNHARDT III - LINCOLN IN PHOTOS

When "Breaking News" Gets It Wrong

The bread and butter of CNN and the other cable news networks is breaking news. The problem with the "breaking news" model of broadcasting is that the amount of information immediately gathered does not equal the amount of airtime that needs to be filled. The result: inaccurate reporting, speculation, and a general lax in the application of the journalistic standards applied to the "old media" age.

Coverage of the recent Ft. Hood shooting included all of these unfortunate elements.

But are these problems new ones or old ones? Does new technology like Twitter make the problem of inaccurate reporting worse? Should we even worry about it?

Robert Thompson, Director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University discusses these issues as and more.

LISTEN: ROBERT THOMPSON - BREAKING NEWS COVERAGE

Old Rules and New Rules for Recovery

With a Wall Street recovery making some feel better about the economy, are jobs soon to follow?

Traditional wisdom might suggest that a boost in production by American companies would ease the swelling of unemployment figures. Yet, although many economists are saying the recession ended in the summer, still others are predicting double-digit unemployment to stick around for awhile. New York times national economics correspondent Peter S. Goodman says that the old rules might not apply to the current situation.

Goodman discusses concerns over the GDP in relation to the federal debt, the concept of a "jobless recovery" and suggests some ways American manufacturing can look for a more sustainable type of growth.

LISTEN: PETER S. GOODMAN - THE END OF EASY MONEY

Daily Show Writers Get Bookish

Two of the men behind the razor-sharp comedy of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have produced some work without pictures... at least not moving ones.

Current Daily Show Executive Producer Josh Lieb used the 2007 screenwriter's strike to pen the young adult novel I AM A GENIUS OF UNSPEAKABLE EVIL AND I WANT TO BE YOUR CLASS PRESIDENT.

David Javerbaum has a long list of comedy credits including working for The Onion, The Late Show with David Letterman and last year he wrote the lyrics for Stephen Colbert's musical Christmas special. Javerbaum formerly served as Exec. Producer for The Daily Show. He still works with the staff as writer emeritus. His venture into paperback comedy is faux-advice book WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTED: A Fetus' Guide to the First Three Trimesters.

Both Lieb and Javerbaum talk about their comedic approach to news, media criticism and analysis on television as well as the work they have on book shelves.

LISTEN: JOSH LIEB - UNSPEAKABLE EVIL AND THE DAILY SHOW

LISTEN: DAVID JAVERBAUM - ADVICE FROM A FORMER FETUS

Cheating on the Free Market

New York Times business journalist and columnist Gretchen Morgenson has written about the influence of the banking and investment industry during the financial crisis and the behind-the-scenes discussions made by major players.

Morgenson talks about "creative destruction," the level of "freedom" in the American free market and a lack of reform for the financial industry.

LISTEN: GRETCHEN MORGENSON - READING THE CAPITALIST'S BIBLE

Brushes With Death

Queens College professor Harold Schechter is interested in subjects that simultaneously repel and attract most people. He has written extensively about serial killers, violence and death.

His latest work, THE WHOLE DEATH CATALOG takes at the rituals and ephemera that surround death. Schechter talks about the psychology, history and trends of death amongst the living.

LISTEN: HAROLD SCHECHTER

Rolling Stone journalist Mikal Gilmore has been up close to death in two different ways. In 1996 he was assigned to cover the final days of psychedelic guru Timothy Leary.

Leary, who had terminal cancer, wanted to turn his death into a media event, and had plans to broadcast his final moments live on the internet. Gilmore had been close to a high-profile death before. His brother, Gary Gilmore, was the first person executed after the Supreme Court upheld death penalty statutes in 1976.

LISTEN: MIKAL GILMORE - TWO DIFFERENT DEATHS

The Occult and America

Spiritualism and the occult have often found a place to thrive in the United States.

Mitch Horowitz, author of OCCULT AMERICA: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation, says that this "hidden wisdom" didn't get debunked from American life as much as it just got absorbed into more mainstream ideas.

Horowitz talks about the role the Masons played in the founding of the United States, and how Norman Vincent Peale and other popular self-helpers took from the example of a mail order psychic.

LISTEN: MITCH HOROWITZ - OCCULT AMERICA

The Comedy Factory at Second City

For 50 years the Second City comedy theater has been producing top-notch comic talent. Alan Arkin, Fred Willard, John Belushi, George Wendt, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert are all alums of the "comedy factory" of Second City.

Chicago Sun-Times writer Mike Thomas interviewed over a hundred Second City alums and high-profile fans about the history of the comedy franchise for his new book THE SECOND CITY UNSCRIPTED. Thomas talks about the competition, camaraderie and craft of the famous comedy troupe.

LISTEN: MIKE THOMAS - SECOND CITY

Sex, Violence and Bolsheviks

Dirty letters, icepick wielding assassins and a simmering world war all came into play during the turbulent final days of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

Bertrand Patenaude, a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, details the soap opera final days and turbulent political life of the revolutionary in his book TROTKSKY: DOWNFALL OF A REVOLUTIONARY.

Patenaude discusses the intrigue involved in Trotsky's final days and the battling ideas that splintered the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


LISTEN: BERTRAND PATENAUDE - TROTSKY

Taking Inventory of Pop Culture

Everyone has their all-time top-1o desert island discs. There is no quicker way to start and angry argument with a STAR WARS fan than to dispute their ranking of the quality of the six Star Wars movies.

List making seems naturally linked to pop culture in a way that it is not with higher culture. Does anyone have an all-time top-10 Renaissance frescoes? The populism of listing, and ranking, comes from the chance for everyone to be an expert.

The Onion AV Club has created INVENTORY, a book of lists ranging from "10 Songs Nearly Ruined By Saxophone" to "6 Keanu Reeves Movies Somehow Not Ruined By Keanu Reeves." Entertainment Editor from The AV Club Tasha Robinson talks about the process of list-making and sifting through pop culture.

LISTEN: TASHA ROBINSON - THE ONION AV CLUB

Pencils to Pixels: Language and the Digital Age

It is obvious that a universe of digital technology is changing the world.

A nearly bottomless amount of information available on the internet. Social networking in cyberspace and the digital soapbox of websites and blogs have opened up new options for human communication.

But are these new tools changing the way we think, talk and write? Is the internet having a negative affect on our brains?

Dennis Baron says no. Baron suggests, the negative ramifications of computers are no more harmful than the invention of the written world.

University of Illinois professor of English and Linguistics examines the impact of the digital revolution on reading, writing and communication in his book A BETTER PENCIL.

LISTEN: DENNIS BARON - A BETTER PENCIL

A Communist Ponzi Scheme

Overreaching military expansion. Sudden bank runs revealing a shaky economic foundation. Rampant cronyism. Sound familiar?

Princeton professor of Contemporary History Stephen Kotkin thinks so. Kotkin has notes all these factors in the not-so-distant history of Easter Germany, Poland and Romania.

On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kotkin unpacks the factors that led to what seemed to be an abrupt unraveling of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 80s and early 90s.

LISTEN: STEPHEN KOTKIN - UNCIVIL SOCIETY

The Cable News Audience and Influence

Fox, CNN and MSNBC battle for eyeballs and influence on the political news cycle.

Blogs, opinion columns and even the old-style broadcast networks seem to take their cue from the cable nets. But the cable outlets don't command as many viewers as the bluster of the prime time hosts would seemingly indicate.

Dr. Robert Thompson, Director of the Blier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University watches it all. Who else is watching might be surprising.

LISTEN: ROBERT THOMPSON - CABLE NEWS

Unearthing the Nuclear Age

With the secretive development of a nuclear program in Iran and new concerns over the atomic power base, Amir Aczel looks back at the development of the bomb.

Aczel writes about science and mathematics and is the author of the bestseller FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM. In his latest book, URANIUM WARS, Aczel lays out long-secret details about the development of the atomic bomb and the decision of how to use it.

LISTEN: AMIR ACZEL - URANIUM WARS

Young Money: Gen Y Consumers

Consumer power is shifting as a generation of under-30 spenders take control of the marketplace. Consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow examines how young people are spending money differently than their parents. Yarrow is the co-author of GEN BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail.

LISTEN: KIT YARROW

New Iranian Power

CIA veteran Robert Baer sees rationality and a calculated reasonableness in the leadership of Iran. The former CIA career officer takes a look at the state of Iran following the election protests and a growing degree of brinkmanship over nuclear capability. All of Iran's actions (if not words), are based upon what is a significantly changed region following the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Baer's books SEE NO EVIL and SLEEPING WITH THE DEVIL were the basis for the Academy Award-winning film SYRIANA.

LISTEN: ROBERT BAER

Saving Art From the Nazis

During the second World War, Hitler ordered his commanders to take sculptures, paintings and other art works from museums and individual collectors to fill a giant museum he was planning to build. Much of this art work was lost, and much more notable architecture was destroyed during the course of Nazi expansion. Robert Edsel, who heads up The Monuments Men Foundation, talks about the Allied effort to protect and recover works of art.

LISTEN: ROBERT EDSEL

Haynes Johnson: Kennedy's Impact on 2008

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Haynes Johnson, along with co-author Dan Balz, dug deep into the 2008 presidential campaign for a long-form behind the scenes look at history as it happened. In their book THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA 2008, Johnson reveals heated phone calls between Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy, the decision making process of the McCain campaign to choose Sarah Palin as a running mate and other then-unreported details.

LISTEN: HAYNES JOHNSON

Life In Cars

From dangerous behavior (like texting and steering) to intimate displays (like nose grooming), most Americans seem to act differently while in the comfort of their vehicle than they might otherwise act in a public space.

Tom Vanderbilt, author of TRAFFIC: Why We Drive The Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), discusses misconceptions and misbehaviors we engage in behind the wheel.

LISTEN: TOM VANDERBILT on TRAFFIC

General Tony Zinni on the New Military Role

Anthony Zinni is maybe best known to the general public for his early criticism of the invasion of Iraq. The a former chief of CENTCOM, Zinni has had his eye on the changing face of geopolitics for a good portion of his career.

Zinni talks about how his early service in Vietnam echoes the current mission of the military in Afghanistan and why a different style of leadership is needed across political and business lines. Zinni also weighs in on the current state of Iraq with U.S. troops beginning to withdraw.

LISTEN: GENERAL TONY ZINNI

Kurt Andersen and the Reset Button

What exactly is the United States going through? Have we seen it before? Is it like the Great Depression? Is it like the end of the Roman Empire?

Kurt Andersen thinks we are at a point in time when political, economic and technological cycles have collided. As we are at a unique point in history, Andersen says, the nation is also offered a unique opportunity. He lays out those opportunities his book RESET: HOW THIS CRISIS CAN RESTORE OUR VALUES AND RENEW AMERICA. Andersen, bestselling author and co-founder of Spy magazine, based his book on the response to a Time magazine cover story titled "The End of Excess."

LISTEN: KURT ANDERSEN, RESET

Woodstock Three Ways

The Woodstock music festival defines a generation for some. But as the cultural touchstone is marked by a 40-year anniversary, participants, next-generation observers and historians can come up with various different views about the "three days of peace, love and music." Upon reflection, many cite the highly influential movie (partially filmed by a then-unknown Martin Scorsese) as making the true lasting impact on the culture. Others see Woodstock as the capping event on the transition from good times to bad.

Here are three different views of Woodstock from men who have strong ties to the sixties.

Woodstock literally did change Elliot Tiber's life. His memoir TAKING WOODSTOCK, which recounts his role in helping get the festival off the ground, is the basis for the film of the same name directed by Ang Lee. Tiber serves as the main character in the film (and, naturally, in his own memoir), which stars Demetri Martin.

LISTEN: ELLIOT TIBER, TAKING WOODSTOCK


Rolling Stone magazine writer Mikal Gilmore takes a cultural and sociological view of the festival. Gilmore has written extensively about the sixties and where politics and music meet.

LISTEN: MIKAL GILMORE, REFLECTIONS OF WOODSTOCK


Author of THE ROCK AND ROLL BOOK OF THE DEAD, David Comfort, notes that bad trips were also a part of the festival. Comfort cites an ungrounded stage, weather and traffic problems and stars on the edge of total implosion as reflections of some of the darker side of Woodstock. Notably, Comfort notes that Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix would each live only about a year past the festival.

LISTEN: DAVID COMFORT, ON THE DARK SIDE OF WOODSTOCK

Superpower Problems

It’s now (and has been) apparent that the true impact of globalization on Americans is more than just cheap stuff and a reshaped concept of domestic manufacturing jobs. In other parts of the world information access, the rise of non-state entities and many other forms of “decentralization” are creating new challenges for long-standing industrial and political powers.

Will a growing trend of decentralization start to change our idea of the United States? Has it already? These are some of the issues tackled by Paul Starobin in his book AFTER AMERICA: Narratives for the Next Global Age. In the book, Starobin suggests that current organizational trends and issues need to change for the U.S. to adapt to the changing world.

LISTEN: PAUL STAROBIN, AFTER AMERICA

A Visit To The Moon - 40 Years Later

When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon July 20, 1969 the world's attention was hard-focused on the mission and the achievements of NASA.

40 years later, two authors look back at the engineers and explorers who took part in the crowning achievement of the space age.

Andrew Chaikin, the foremost Apollo scholar and author of MAN ON THE MOON and FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, talks about the incredible danger involved in the missions...

LISTEN: HISTORIAN ANDREW CHAIKIN

Award-winning author Craig Nelson discusses the deeply private man who first set foot on the moon. Nelson's new book ROCKET MEN, tells the personal story of Neil Armstrong and the other Apollo 11 astronauts...

LISTEN: "ROCKET MEN" AUTHOR CRAIG NELSON

The Southern Vampire Romance of Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris includes healthy dollops of humor, social commentary and satire in her Sookie Stackhouse series of books. The "southern vampire romance" novels are the inspiration for the HBO series TRUE BLOOD.

Harris finds inspiration for the supernatural subculture of her fictional world by "people watching" in her home town in Arkansas.

LISTEN: CHARLAINE HARRIS

Joe Queenan Takes Aim

Joe Queenan has a chip on his shoulder. This is apparent to those who have sampled his writing, which pulls no punches in criticizing art, culture, public figures and just about anything else. In his memoir CLOSING TIME, Queenan turns the focus to his harrowing childhood, part of which was spent in a housing project in Philadelphia.

In this interview Queenan talks about his background but more about how in the depts of the financial crisis those that are left out of the conversation are the poor. He reserves a fair amount of venom for a culture he feels gives those hit hardest by financial stress the least amount of concern.

INTERVIEW: JOE QUEENAN'S "CLOSING TIME"

Change in Iran

A growing youth population and the volatile state of the world's economy are factors which present potential for change in Iran. Former Washington Post journalist Robin Wright, who may have visited Iran more times than any other working journalist, sees the potential for a shift in the role Iran holds in the region.

Wright, author of the new book DREAMS AND SHADOWS, discusses the challenges facing the makers of of U.S. foreign policy when dealing with Iran.

LISTEN: ROBIN WRIGHT

Andrew Vachss and the Motivation of Revenge

Novelist, attorney and child protection advocate Andrew Vachss may be the most jaded individual one can meet. At least that is the persona that comes forth in his hard-boiled crime fiction and his blunt statements about the dark corners of humanity he's encountered throughout a career in social and legal services.

In addition to his work as a novelist (which includes 18 books in the "Burke" series), Vachss works full-time as an attorney. He limits his practice to only cases concerning children and youth.

In this interview Vachss talks about how the motivations for his legal practice and his novels come from a similar source...

LISTEN: ANDREW VACHSS