06/28/07 Natalie Angier

 

I am just going to go ahead and admit that I am afraid of science.  I am also afraid of math.  Just the idea of trying to understand mathmatical or scientific concepts makes my brain shut down.  There were many unpleasant moments in high school because of this mental block.*

But so now that I am a bit older and a bit more patient, and more interested in the world around me, I find myself actually wanting or needing science sometimes in order to be able to understand concepts or ideas that are important to our world.  Like, climate change, or bird flu, or stem cells.  But where to go to get that kind of information?  Who is going to teach science to adults?

Natalie Angier is!  Her new book has been called a “guide for the scientifically perplexed adult who wants to understand what those guys in lab coats on the news are babbling about.”  That would be me.  Is it you, too?  Join us today and find out.

 -Jessica

*College was quite a different story where thanks to distribution requirements that were kind to non-scientific minds, I was only made to take two science classes.  Most people took psychology, but I took a course called Ethonobotany and a course called The Biology of Science Fiction.  This was hands down the best science course I have ever taken.  In fact it was one of the best classes I took in college.  Every meager things I know about science I learned in this class from science fiction writer and professor Joan Slonczewski.  If you like science fiction, check out her stuff.  Thanks for helping me not be totally terrified of science, Professor S.

06/28/07 12 pm Dick Cheney

 

I’m hanging this picture above my desk.

Whether you love Dick Cheney or hate him, you gotta admit…he’s got to be pretty clever to have made the vice presidency so powerful.

Marc shared a colorful quote during his introduction to today’s show.  John Nance Garner said the vice-presidency is “not worth a pitcher of warm piss.”  Lovely image, and perhaps not true anymore-or at least, not true for Dick Cheney, who has exercised considerable influence from that position.

We’ll be discussing this at noon today.  What do you think?

-Jessica

06/27/07 12 PM Lt. Governor Anthony Brown and BRAC

How do you feel about the fact that tens of thousands of people are coming to our state because of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)?

 Are you a real estate agent who is looking forward to the business?

…or a parent who is worried about more kids in an already overcrowded school?

Are you a highway construction worker looking forward to benefit from the money for new transportation projects?

…or a frustrated commuter dreading even more clogged roadways?

Are you a homeowner hoping to benefit from a rise in property values that may result from a rise in demand?

…or someone one or two years away from being a first time home-buyer dreading the effect these well-payed military types will have on local home prices (that would be me!)?

There are just so many ways to feel about BRAC!

Today at noon we are joined by Lt. Governor Anthony Brown.  He is the chair of the BRAC subcommittee.  He is going to tell us what he has been doing to make sure we are ready for all these people.

-Jessica

06/27/07 1 PM Maria Allwine

Whatever you think of her politics, you have to respect the passion and commitment that Maria Allwine shows to the causes that are dear to her.

Her newest incarnation is as the Green Party candidate for President of the City Council of Baltimore City.  She’ll be joining us today to discuss her agenda for that office.  What would she do if elected?  She’s run for office before, but never served.  Would her history of political activism translate into effective political leadership?  What would it mean for Baltimore to have someone like Maria Allwine at the helm of our city council?

Join us with your thoughts and questions.

-Jessica

06/26/07 noon Eastern Shore Development

First off, a geography test.  Can you find the Eastern Shore on this map?

While much of The Eastern Shore is still full of small towns and farms, places like Kent County and Worcester County have seen large population growth and increasingly widespread development.  This hour we’ll be looking at some of the concerns accompanying current development projects around the region.

As Jessica is from Ocean City, perhaps she has more to add here.

 -Justin

06/26/07 1pm Commuting

How much time do you spend getting to and from work every day?  What else would you like to be doing with that time, however much it may be?

Our show this hour will be focused on commuting, so if you need to vent, now’s your chance.  Seems like commuting is something about which just about everyone has something to say, whether it be bragging about only having to walk two blocks to work or bragging about suffering through a two hour drive on congested highways.  We hope you’ll share your stories with us, both here and on the air.

A lot has been written about commuting.  Here’s a great article from The New Yorker a few issues back, There and Back Again: The Soul of the Commuter, by Nick Paumgarten.  It uses commuting as a medium for looking at some fundamental questions about our ability as humans to decide what is best for ourselves and what we do with our time.

-Justin

06/25/07 noon Some of our favorite recent articles and editorials…

These pictures will make sense if you listen to the show on Monday, I promise.

This hour we’ll have interviews with the authors of some pieces that caught our attention in the papers lately, or in one case, online.  If you want to do some homework over the weekend, here’s a link to each one:

What Ted Stevens, Bolivian cocaine and Halliburton have in common by Michael Scherer on Salon.com

Parents’ paranoia takes toll on kids’ health, happiness by L.J. Williamson in The Baltimore Sun

New Lyrics for Israel by Adam Lebor in The New York Times

-Justin

 

06/25/07 1pm Camelia Entekhabifard

Finished reading the articles for noon and looking for something else to read over the weekend?  Read the book that we’ll be discussing in the second hour on Monday with author Camelia Entekhabifard.  It’s called Camelia: Save Yourself By Telling the Truth, A Memoir of Iran. 

Camelia was born and raised in Tehran.  She has a pretty incredible story about being imprisoned there for her work as a journalist, and charming her way into an opportunity to flee the country after some horrible months in solitary confinement.

Now she lives in New York City and continues her work as a journalist around the world.  Just not in Iran.

-Justin

06/21/07 noon Cities With a Lot of Murders

One city had more homicides per capita than Baltimore last year, Detroit.  Newark wasn’t far behind, barely beaten out for third by New Orleans.  This hour we talk with journalists from Detroit, Newark, and here in B-more who have been covering crime in their towns.

Violence is nothing new in any of these places.  How did it become such an entrenched part of their cultures?  How is each place dealing with the problem?  What can we learn from each other?

-Justin

06/21/07 1pm Stephanie Rawlings Blake

Thanks to the City Paper for this artful shot of our current City Council President, taken back when she was City Council VP.  The article that it came from has this nice quote, as well: “I’m a workhorse, not a show horse.”

That said, the City Council President will be here today to discuss her bid to maintain her presidency in this fall’s election.  Tune in at 1pm.

-Justin