Focus
Interviews on global affairs and daily life
Monday thru Friday, 10 am to noon on WILL-AM 580
Interview Archives: Biography
Friday May 11, 2012, 10:06 AM
Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick
Bill Dickson, Freelance Award-Winning Writer
Host: David Inge
We’ll explore the life and times of one of baseball’s most eccentric personalities, Bill Veeck. Many will remember him for all of the wacky things he did to get people to the ball park. But this one-time owner of the Chicago White Sox had a serious impact on the game, introducing innovations we now take for granted. He was also an early advocate for the inclusion of black players. Our guest will be Paul Dickson, author of the new biography "Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick."
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Categories: Biography • Entertainment • Sports
Monday May 07, 2012, 10:06 AM
A Family Farm: Life on an Illinois Dairy Farm
Robert L. Switzer, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, University of Illinois
Host: David Inge
Over the past hundred years the United States lost two-thirds of its family-operated farms. We’ll bring you the story of one such farm as we talk with Robert Switzer, author of "A Family Farm." The book tells the story of life on a Northern Illinois dairy farm beginning in 1916, the time of the author’s grandparents. The story ends when the farm is sold in 1991. The author says millions of these stories, often sad ones, could be told, but they are rapidly being lost.
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Categories: Agriculture • Biography • Family
Monday April 23, 2012, 11:06 AM
Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
Stefan Kanfer, Writer, Editor; Film Critic
Host: David Inge
He was not conventionally handsome or particularly versatile as an actor but he had a quality that was at once dangerous and sympathetic. Fifty years after his death the American Film Institute ranked him the greatest male legend in cinema history. We’ll look back to the life and career of Humphrey Bogart as we talk with film critic Stefan Kanfer author of Tough Without a Gun. He will reflect on what made Bogart so appealing on screen and try to explain why his popularity has never faded.
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Categories: Biography • Film/Movies
Friday February 24, 2012, 10:06 AM
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest
Wade Davis, Ph.D., Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society; Anthropologist, Ethnobotanist, Filmmaker
Host: David Inge
In the years after World War I, British mountaineers became obsessed with the idea of climbing Mt. Everest. The public, hungry for heroes, followed the project intently. The greatest of all those heroes, arguably the greatest climber of his time, was George Mallory. In 1924, the last of his three attempts ended in his death. Wade Davis tells Mallory’s story and looks at how his generation was shaped by the carnage of the Great War. It’s all in his new book "Into the Silence."
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Categories: Biography • Exploration • History
Thursday February 09, 2012, 11:06 AM
The Sublime Engine: A Biography of the Human Heart
Stephen Amidon, Novelist, Essayist, Critic
Thomas Amidon, M.D., Cardiologist in Kalispell, Montana
Host: David Inge
Our hearts beat roughly every second of our lives, pumping around 74 gallons of blood every hour once we become adults. But the heart is filled with more than the blood it pumps. It is also the source of a vast supply of stories, reflecting the fact that it has long been a central image for describing those qualities that make us human. We’ll sample some of these stories as we talk with novelist Stephen Amidon and cardiologist Thomas Amidon, authors of "The Sublime Engine."
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Categories: Biography • Cultural Studies • Health • Cardiology • History
Monday January 09, 2012, 10:06 AM
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
David Kaiser, Ph.D., the Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science; Department Head, Program in Science, Technology, and Society; and Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics, MIT
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Biography • Cultural Studies • Innovation • Science
Wednesday January 04, 2012, 10:06 AM
Eisenhower The White House Years
Jim Newton, Journalist; Editor at Large, Los Angeles Times and weekly Columnist
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Biography • Government • History
Wednesday December 21, 2011, 10:06 AM
Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion
Robert Morgan, the Kappa Alpha Professor of English, Cornell University
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Biography • History • United States history
Thursday November 17, 2011, 11:06 AM
The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill
William Adler, Writer
Host: David Inge
This is a repeat broadcast from Wednesday, August 31, 2011, 11 am
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Categories: Biography
Thursday October 27, 2011, 11:06 AM
Grant's Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year
Charles Bracelen Flood, Writer
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Biography • History • United States history
