This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.

Liliane Landor is the commanding editor of news and current affairs at the BBC World Service. And as a member of the BBC’s Creative Future for journalism team, she’s already devoted a good deal of time to the questions bedevilling public broadcasting. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why she has some tough comments to make about public broadcasting here in America…
Click here: (6 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Eric Nuzum is NPR’s refreshing, colorful director of programming and acquisitions. We spoke in an exceedingly noisy room, so this interview is short and loud. If it leaves you hungry for more, try this.
Click here: (2 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Karen Shiffman is senior associate producer for On Point, the smart, approachable NPR program hosted by Tom Ashbrook and produced at WBUR in Boston. She gives us a glimpse of its inner workings.
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Pubic Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.
Click here for part 5 with Maria Thomas of NPR and Lucio Mesquita of the BBC.

 

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Simon Blackburn

Simon Blackburn is the Cambridge University philosopher and author, most recently, of “Truth: A Guide.” Blackburn has also penned the well-regarded (and best-selling) books “Think” and “Being Good.” And he’s also responsible for “The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy,” and a text called “Lust”!! Tune in to hear his talk with ThoughtCast about why philosophy is good - and bad - for us, what’s wrong with the United States (government) and how the concept of “democracy” isn’t quite as marvellous as we tend to think!

Coming up: Simon Blackburn’s talk at the Harvard Book Store.

This is the final series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.

Maria Thomas is the VP and general manager of NPR digital media. As such, she oversees the development and distribution of NPR content to the Internet, mobile phones and the like. Need I say more?
Click here: (3 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Lucio Mesquita is the head of the Americas and Europe for the BBC World Service. He is thoughtful, almost philosophical, and in this interview he takes me to task for my quest for ‘purity’ in public broadcasting. He also discusses opera, soap opera, Shakespeare, silent movies, and of course, the BBC! I had to save the last word of my ‘Future of Public Radio’ series for Lucio.
Click here: (11:30 minutes) to listen to the interview.

Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, WHYY’s Elisabeth Perez-Luna and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
Click here for part 2 with Michael Arnold of PRI, MPBN’s Nikki Shields and WUNC’s George Boosey.
Click here for part 3 with the BBC’s Liliane Landor, On Point’s Karen Shiffman and Eric Nuzum of NPR.
Click here for part 4 with Iowa Pubic Radio’s Todd Mundt, Jackie Sauter with NCPR and Andrew Haeg of MPR.

 

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Note: This interview was broadcast twice on WGBH radio. Click here for details!

Sam Huntington

The eminent and provocative political scientist and prolific author, talks with ThoughtCast about what he sees as the threat to America’s national identity (and its founding ‘Anglo-Protestant’ culture) posed by large numbers of unassimilated Hispanics, legal or otherwise, living in the United States. His most recent book: “Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity” has caused quite a stir. Huntington is also famous for an earlier work called “The Clash of Cvilizations.” In this book, he argues that civilizations, not nations or ideologies, form the basic building blocks of future cooperation — and conflict.

Huntington, a longtime professor of political science at Harvard, is also a member of the editorial board of a new magazine chaired by Huntington’s former student, Francis Fukuyama, called “The American Interest.”

We discuss these topics in a half-hour interview while seated in the back yard of his home on Martha’s Vineyard — hence all those birds chirping away cheerily…

 

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Note: this ThoughtCast interview was broadcast on WCAI/WNAN on Nov. 12, 2006 in honor of Veterans Day.

Carol Bundy

At a time when the country’s attention is focused on the ever-expanding list of American war dead, Carol Bundy’s biography of a Union officer who sacrifices his life in the Civil War is eerily apt.

Carol’s book tells the story of the short, heroic life of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., an elite young cavalryman who embodied the promise of his generation. An ardent abolitionist and reformer, Lowell was also a brilliant battlefield strategist, and he turned the tide at the Battle of Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, a crucial victory for the North just two weeks shy of Lincoln’s re-election. Shot twice during the fighting, Lowell died at dawn the following day.

Click here to listen to a lecture by Carol Bundy on her biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. on the WGBH Forum Network.

 

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Note: WCAI and WNAN, the Cape and Islands public radio channels, broadcast this interview, as did Yellowstone Public Radio!

Robert Pinsky

Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky tackles King David of the Bible - the shepherd, poet, warrior and adulterer - in his “Life of David.”
Is David a legend? A real, flesh and blood warrior who killed Goliath, and united the 12 Jewish tribes into one nation? Robert Pinsky delves into these questions, and into David’s story, with relish.

David’s story has been told many times, and the tale has changed with each telling. There’s the David of the Hebrew Bible, and another version of his life in the Talmud. We know he slept with Bathsheba, but was this a sin? An act of love? Of violence? It depends on whom you ask.

David, who lived about 3000 years ago, was beloved of God, and as a result, he got away with more than his share. He was a seductive, wily politician, a doting father, a bitter old man. These contradictions in David’s character spur Pinsky on, and he adds his own twist to the tale, as you will hear, on ThoughtCast!