Alan Dershowitz [29:00m]:
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Note: this interview was rebroadcast Jan. 21 at 10 pm on WGBH.
It has also aired on WCAI/WNAN, WNED, KXOT and KYOU.
Alan Dershowitz
The controversial Harvard Law professor, author and celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz talks with ThoughtCast about his latest book, “Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways”, as well as his views on the Israeli-Palestinian-Hezbollah conflict, torture, human rights and our ‘war on terror.’ His premise: the world has changed, and international law must change with it. We need more tools, he argues, in the fight against terror networks whose recruits hold no fear of death or retribution.
Note: Although the subjects we discuss are controversial, my goal is not to argue with Alan, but to find out what he’s thinking. My hope is that our conversation will provoke further discussion on these hot-button issues.
Click here: 
(30 minutes) to listen to the interview.
Click here: to listen to the hour-long version.
And click here to listen to Dershowitz debate Harvey Silverglate on ‘civil liberties’ on the WGBH Forum Network.
Please join the conversation by leaving a comment!
Standard Podcast [28:30m]:
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WGBH broadcast this ThoughtCast interview on Arts and Ideas, and also features it on their “Science Luminaries” series, as part of “WGBH Science City.”
Lisa Randall
Professor Randall is a theoretical particle physicist who sees past the rest of us to a world of extra dimensions and parallel universes. Hers is a world of warped geometry, sink-holes and branes — a world that fills glaring gaps in current thinking, and can finally explain why gravity is so ‘weak’!
Now while this might sound like so much Greek — just wait. Randall’s latest book, written for the layman, is called “Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions” — so she’s had plenty of practice explaining these high-flying ideas to English majors.
Click here to listen to Lisa Randall’s lecture at IDEAS Boston on the WGBH Forum Network.
This is a continuing series of ThoughtCast interviews conducted at the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Philadelphia.
George Boosey, the program director for North Carolina Public Radio, is a bigwig in public broadcasting. Might he also be a contrarian? Certainly he’s more circumspect than many of his colleagues when it comes to the bells and whistles of the new ‘new media’.
Click here: (9 minutes) to listen to the interview.
Nikki Shields is the program manager for Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Hers is a loyal audience — for the time being. And Nikki plans to keep it that way.
Click here: (4 1/2 minutes) to listen to the interview.
Michael Arnold is the director of programming for Public Radio International, which distributes Christopher Lydon’s Open Source, the BBC World Service, This American Life and more. PRI’s the newer kid on the block, and as such, may well be scrappier — and quicker at adapting to the new world of the Web 2.0.
Click here: (5 minutes) to listen to the interview.
Click here for part 1 featuring the BBC’s Phil Harding, Elisabeth Perez-Luna, and Jay Kernis, a senior veep at NPR.
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 Public 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.
Anthony Appiah [41:54m]:
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Note: This program was broadcast on WCAI, an affiliate of WGBH, Boston.
Kwame Anthony Appiah
(Photo: Greg Martin)
Princeton Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses cosmopolitanism on ThoughtCast!
Born in England and raised in Ghana, Appiah is half English and half African. And perhaps because of this, he’s fascinated with the concept of identity, and the power it wields over people. But rather than wage identity politics, Appiah encourages us instead to be good global citizens, interested in and accepting of each other. In short, cosmopolitan. But also, at least a little bit “contaminated”… Appiah’s written a book on the subject: it’s called Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.
Click here: to listen. (42 minutes)
Note: This program was broadcast on WCAI, an affiliate of WGBH, Boston.
Marc Hauser
(Photo: Lilan Hauser)
The provocative Harvard psychologist Marc Hauser recently spoke about “The Evolution of Our Moral Intuitions” at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, as part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
This ThoughtCast interview with Hauser serves as a good “first course” — but to get to the meat and potatoes, check out his book Moral Minds.
Note: This interview is featured on WGBH’s Science Luminaries series, as part of WGBH Science City.
Click here: to listen. (17:40 minutes)
