The Media Monopoly, Fifth Edition
with author Ben Bagdikian, dean emeritus, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley
Focus
Focus, or Focus 580, was WILL Radio's flagship talk program from 1981 until 2014. David Inge was the host from 1981 until his retirement in 2012. Always engaging, the program acted as a resource for citizens to directly question politicians and candidates as well as keep up on the arts, science, health, and even the latest from well-known novelists.
The Focus archive below offers thousands of great interviews and serves as a time capsule and a great resource for researchers and those just curious about how influential people spoke of important topics as they were happening.
The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam
Author and sociologist Tom Wells discusses the influence of the anti-war movement on American policy decisions affecting the Vietnam war, proposing that the movement had a significant impact on restricting, minimizing, or ending the war.
Interview with Larry Heinemann, Chicago-based author and Vietnam War veteran
Larry Heinemann (born 1944) is an American novelist born and raised in Chicago. His published work—three novels and a memoir—is primarily concerned with the Vietnam War.
Double Vision: Reflections on my Heritage, Life
with Ben Bagdikian, journalist, editor, media critic, and author
Thread of the Silkworm: The Story of Tsien Hsue-Shen and the Chinese Missile Program
Guest: Iris Chang.
Today on Focus, host Jack Brighton interviews Iris Chang, author of Thread of the Silkworm. The recent book is the definitive biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, a pioneer of America's space age who was denounced as a communist for unknown reasons, deported, and taken in by the Chinese missile program.
Busted: A Vietnam Veteran in Nixon’s America
Between March and September of 1974, as Richard Nixon's presidency of the United States unraveled on national television, Bill Ehrhart, a decorated Marine Corps sergeant and anti-war Vietnam veteran fought to retain his merchant seaman's card after being busted for possession of marijuana. He was also held on suspicion of armed robbery in New York City, detained on the Garden State Parkway for looking like a Puerto Rican revolutionary and thrown out of New Jersey by the Maple Shade police. All of this occurred while the House Judiciary Committee conducted hearings on Nixon's impeachment.
The Future of Public Broadcasting and Federal Funding
With a pledge to zero-out public broadcasting, U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has cast another battle line over the future of public broadcasting...and WILL. General Manager Don Mullally spends an hour with David Inge and several callers discussing what's at stake.
Seeing Vietnam: Encounters of the Road and Heart
Susan Brownmiller, best known for feminist writings (Against Our Will; Femininity), first visited Vietnam in 1992 after travel restrictions for ordinary Americans were lifted. Traveling from Hanoi to the Mekong Delta, Brownmiller praises Vietnam's literacy rates while noting widespread malnourishment and the massive failure of large-scale state enterprises. She notes the continuing differences between north and south and the ecological damage caused by the war, integrating these observations into lengthy discussions of hotels, meals and plumbing, and accounts of people met and sights seen.