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.
Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science
Guest: Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Ph.D.
Today on Focus, we'll explore the historical tension between evolutionary biology and taxonomy with biologist Carol Kaesuk Yoon. As taxonomy modernized and moved into the laboratory, it began to yield results that counteracted human instinct. In fact, argues Yoon, by giving taxonomists greater scientific authority, we've contributed to our own alienation from nature.
Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress
Guest: Michael Specter.
Distrust of science today may be at an all-time peak. For centuries the institution was viewed as a means of gaining new information, which is nothing but beneficial; today, however, it has become too closely intertwined with politics to be seen as universally good. Today on Focus, New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter joins the show to discuss this war against progress and how to end it.