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.
Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA
Guest: Tim Junkin.
In 1984, Kirk Bloodsworth was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl. Determined to escape the ruling, he found a lawyer willing to fight for a new technique to be used for evidence that would prove Bloodsworth innocent. After nine years in one of the country's toughest prisons, he became the first death row inmate in America to be exonerated by DNA. Our guest today on Focus, novelist Tim Junkin, tells the full story in his book Bloodsworth.
Dark Light: Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-ray
Guest: Linda Simon.
More than thirty years after Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, barely ten percent of American homes were wired for electricity. At the same time, electrotherapy emerged as a popular medical treatment for everything from depression to digestive problems. Why did Americans welcome electricity into their bodies, but not their homes? Today on Focus, Linda Simon joins us to talk about her new book Dark Light and its use of journalism and fiction to explore public anxiety and awe over electricity.