Focus
Interviews on global affairs and daily life
Monday thru Friday, 10 am to noon on WILL-AM 580
Interview Archives: History
Wednesday June 13, 2012, 11:06 AM
Showdown in the Sonoran Desert: Religion, Law, and the Immigration Controversy
Ananda Rose, Ph.D., Poet; Journalist
Host: David Inge
Categories: History • United States history • Immigration • Public Policy
Thursday June 07, 2012, 10:06 AM
Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent
E. J. Dionne Jr., Columnist for the Washington Post; Sneior Fellow, Brookings Institution; and University Professor, the Foundations of Democracy and Culture, Georgetown University
Host: David Inge
Interview links:
Categories: History • United States history • Politics
Wednesday May 02, 2012, 11:06 AM
White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You
James Kwak, J.D., Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law; in 2011–2012, a Fellow at the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance
Host: David Inge
Most Americans have no idea what the federal government does for them, which leads many to believe that it does nothing. Put that together with two parties unable to work together to solve our major problems, and are headed for a future where almost everyone will be hurt. That’s the argument of a new book "White House Burning." Co-author James Kwak, professor of law at the University of Connecticut, is our guest. The book is all about the national debt … what it means and why we should care.
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Interview links:
Categories: Economics • Government • History • United States history • Politics • Public Policy • United Nations
Wednesday April 25, 2012, 10:06 AM
The Mark Inside: A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con
Amy Reading, Ph.D., Writer
Host: David Inge
Con men rely on one thing: victims who are ashamed of having been conned won't report the crime. But Frank Norfleet was not a man to go quietly. He was a prosperous Texas rancher who lost everything in a stock swindle. And he decided to get even. Over a four year period he traveled the country hunting down the men who had cheated him, eventually sending them to jail and becoming famous in the process. Amy Reading shares the story of Frank Norfleet and his reverse-con, the subject of her book "The Mark Inside."
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Categories: Crime • History • United States history
Tuesday April 24, 2012, 10:06 AM
White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf
Aaron Bobrow-Strain, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Politics, Whitman College
Host: David Inge
Over the past century commercially baked white bread has been considered the height of modern progress and a symbol of America’s decline. How is it that one food could inspire so much love and so much disdain. On Focus we’ll explore the social history of white bread with Aaron Bobrow Strain. He teaches the politics of the global food system at Whitman College. He says that industrial white bread has played an incredibly important and largely unnoticed role in American politics, diet, culture and food reform movements.
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Interview links:
Categories: Cultural Studies • Gender issues • History • Immigration • Race/Ethnicity
Monday April 09, 2012, 10:06 AM
The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East
Timur Kuran, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Political Science & Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University
Host: David Inge
During the Middle Ages, the economy of the Middle East was at least as well developed as that of Europe. But by the 19th century, the Middle East had fallen dramatically behind. Why did the region fail to modernize economically as the West surged ahead? Duke Univesity economist Timur Kuran talks about his book "The Long Divergence." He argues that it was not colonialism or geography that made the difference, but two aspects of Islamic law dealing with inheritance and partnerships.
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Interview links:
Categories: History • Science • Middle East
Tuesday March 27, 2012, 10:06 AM
The European Union
João Vale de Almeida, Ambassador, Head of Delegation Delegation of the European Union to the United States
Kostas Kourtikakis, Ph.D., Lecturer & Research Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Illinois
Host: David Inge
Proponents of unification in Europe have long argued that closer ties across national borders would lead to peace and prosperity. Certainly one part has been achieved, but there are questions about the other. Our guest will be the European Union Ambassador to the U.S., Joao Vale de Almeida. We’ll talk about the current economic crisis in the EU, the state of EU-U.S. relations, and get his thoughts on the long-term future of the EU project.
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Interview links:
Categories: Economics • Government • History • International Affairs • Military • Peace and Nonviolence • Politics • United Nations • Europe
Tuesday February 28, 2012, 11:06 AM
Illinois in the War of 1812
Gillum Ferguson, J.D., Attorney in Naperville, Illinois; Historian
Host: David Inge
The most important battles in the war of 1812 took place in the Atlantic, the Great lakes and the South, but the war also touched the land that would eventually become Illinois. Historian Gillum Ferguson explains the crucial importance of the war to the development of Illinois as a state, the subject of his book "Illinois in the War of 1812." He’ll tell us about some of the people who fought the war, review the events that defined it and summarize its lasting consequences.
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Categories: History • United States history • United States • Illinois • War
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."
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Interview links:
Categories: Biography • Exploration • History
Wednesday February 22, 2012, 10:06 AM
The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842
Diana Preston, Historian, Writer, Broadcaster
Host: David Inge
In 1838, the government of Britain became convinced that its empire in India was threatened. To secure a potential invasion route, troops were sent into Afghanistan to remove one ruler and install another. The British expected a quick campaign, but the result was a military disaster. Historian Diana Preston tells the story of the First Afghan War ... what it meant for Afghanistan and for European politics.
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Interview links:
Categories: History • Asia • Afghanistan • Europe • United Kingdom
