On November 2, 2007, the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society heard from John Miller, a former U.S. Congressman who is an expert on the issue of contemporary human slavery. From 2002 to 2006, Miller served as the director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. He left that position to become Research Professor in International Studies at the Elliott School, George Washington University.
Charlottesville Podcasting Network
Expanding the public square through multimedia
How harmful is television to a child’s development?
What’s happening in the brain of a baby or a toddler when they’re watching television? Do things like Baby Einstein make kids smarter, or do they cause harm? Lisa Guernsey is the author of Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children from Birth to Age 5. The mother of two, Guernsey joins Coy Barefoot to talk about what she learned after an exhaustive investigation.
Is time travel possible?
Dr. Ronald L. Mallet of the University of Connecticut is a leading scholar and an innovative force in theoretical physics who declared in July 2002 that he has a theoretical blueprint for a working time machine. He writes about his theory in his new book, Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality. Mallet’s work is based on the effects that black holes appear to have on time.
Revisiting Abraham Lincoln’s law career with Julie Fenster
The year was 1856, a pivotal year in American political history. That’s when the Republican Party formed, and the year that Abraham Lincoln decided to become a member. Historian Julie Fenster joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about her new book, The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder and the Making of a Great President. Read more of Fenster’s work at her blog at American Heritage.
Benazir Bhutto at Roanoke College, September 2002
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shot and killed today after a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. Bhutto only returned to her native Pakistan two months ago after a long exile. She was campaigning on behalf of her People’s Party in the country’s upcoming Parliamentary elections.
Bhutto spoke at Roanoke College on September 17th, 2002, one year after the terrorist attacks of 9-11. The speech was part of the College’s Henry Fowler Lecture series. The Virginia Podcasting Network now brings you the complete audio of that speech. She is introduced by John Day, the Roanoke College’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College.
Seeds of Change: Mother Knows Best
Have you ever heard the phrase, “I didn’t fall far from the tree.†Well, this can be especially important in the plant world. When habitat changes, animals migrate, but how do immobile organisms like plants cope when faced with alterations to their environment? This is an increasingly important question in light of new environmental conditions brought on by global climate change.
For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog.
Oscar Show: When Less is More
 Are you happy? Well don’t try to be happier; you might become less happy. That is the essence of a multi-cultural study published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study was produced by University of Virginia psychology professor Shigehiro Oishi and his co-authors Ed Diener, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and The Gallup Organization, Dong-Won Choi of California State University, East Bay, Chu Kim-Prieto of the College of New Jersey, and Incheol Choi of Seoul National University. Professor Oishi and his colleagues found that, on average, European-Americans claim to be happy in general, more happy than Asian-Americans or Koreans or Japanese. But it is much easier for them to become less happy by negative events.
Norris makes bid for Mayor on Coy Barefoot show
City Councilor Dave Norris wants to be the next Mayor of Charlottesville (The Hook), and joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to announce that he has the unanimous support of his fellow Councilors to take on the position. Council will officially make the appointment at its first meeting on January 7, 2008.
Norris also weighs in on:
- the recent spate of wheelchair-bound pedestrians being hit by cars and then ticketed by police
- the City’s decision to begin its own ambulance service (Charlottesville Tomorrow)
- police surveillance cameras for downtown Charlottesville (The Hook)
- how City government can be made more efficient
Delegate McClellan weighs in on Governor Kaine’s budget proposals
Jennifer McClellan (D-71) represents part of the Richmond in the House of Delegates, and she joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about the upcoming General Assembly session. This year will feature budget negotiations, and McClellan weighs in on Governor Tim Kaine’s proposals.
“I thought it was a pretty conservative budget given the shortfall that we have,” McClellan said. “It’s a modest budget that doesn’t have many new programs and continues some cost savings that he put in place.”