Viewpoints Radio
Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.
How we buy our food has drastically changed throughout the decades. We discuss the evolution of the grocery marketplace from local grocers to big-box retailers and how this has affected the production chain. More so, how food co-ops operate and aim to help support local farmers and communities.
School lunches in the U.S. have long been overlooked. Dan Giusti, the former head chef of Noma and founder of Brigaid, is gaining ground in his efforts to overhaul the school lunch system and bring scratch cooking back into cafeterias. We speak with Giusti about his journey from fine dining to lunch reform and some of the barriers facing Brigaid.
We all get gut instincts when we walk into a room of strangers. Do we fit in here? Do these people seem friendly? Snap judgments are simply a part of how we function. But Princeton University psychology professor Alexander Todorov says that while these first impressions are natural, we should try to resist them.
Fashion advertising raises issues about confidence, self-esteem and body image. Our guest discusses why it’s important to look beyond the advertisements and find the fashions that are right for you, how cheap clothing is hurting developing countries and the environment, and why designers and manufacturers need to change how they create clothing for and …
You see authors thank their editors all the time in the acknowledgements section of a book. But exactly what does an editor do? We talk to an editor himself who explains to us what an editor does to get the book from a manuscript to the finished copy on store shelves.
The hustle and bustle of the world can overwhelm us all from time to time. Expert Marc Lesser talks about how we can embrace mindfulness to relieve anxiety, enhance our empathy and become better collaborators and leaders in our lives.
Brian Scudamore founded 1-800-GOT JUNK when he was just 18. Now, it’s one of the biggest companies in the world. He talks about the lessons he learned and what advice he has for young entrepreneurs dreaming of creating the next big startup.
We’ve all seen how our fiction portrays cybercrime, but what does it really look like? Jonathan Lusthaus, the director of the Human Cybercriminal Project at the University of Oxford, joins the show to talk about the real crimes committed online and what, if anything, we can do to protect ourselves.
It used to be that when you were watching sports, you were only watching with the people in the same room as you. Now, sports have become the gold-standard for entertainment that demands a second-screen.
Video games are often considered child’s play, or at least something below “real” art. Author Andrew Ervin argues that’s not true, and that video games are now big-business for TV networks and advertisers, as well as a source of true artfulness.
Sarah Smarsh is a journalist and author who grew up poor on a farm in Kansas. She discusses life in rural America, how our culture treats people living in poverty, and the causes she attributes to America’s wage gap.
Retirement can be bittersweet. On one hand, it’s something you build toward your whole life, but it can also be intimidated to lose your purpose in the workplace. We talk to Helen Wilkes about how she found a new passion in her retirement, and how she’s helping others make their retirements more fulfilling.
Frances Stroh grew up in the family that owned America’s third biggest brewer, Stroh Brewing Company. As she aged into adulthood, she watched as both the brewery and her family life fell apart. She talks about the struggles the company faced, how her family dealt with it, and when a legacy can become a burden.
Everyone has different causes that are close to their hearts. We talk to a philanthropy specialist about how we can donate to those causes and ensure that our contribution makes the biggest impact possible.
Comedy is all around us: all over social media, in advertisements, even on church signs. Former Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings says that while it can be fun, it does come at a cost when jokes are made in arenas where they're inappropriate. We discuss the history and impact of jokes on our culture.
Teamwork is seen as a premium in our culture. We believe that two is better than one. But entrepreneur and author Shane Snow says that we often don’t use our groups and teams to their fullest potential. He gives us the science behind why, and how we can improve our communities.
With all of our technology many schools are phasing out some handwriting lessons like teaching cursive. We talk to two experts about whether that’s a good idea.
Bringing a new baby home is exciting... and chaotic. The last thing parents want to worry about is their work life. But for many dads, the stigma and financial burdens of trying to stay home means they have little time to bond at home. We talk to Josh Levs, a journalist who took the fight for paternity leave head-on.
For years, Barnes and Noble was the big enemy to independent bookstores. Now, Amazon is the big bad and some are calling for consumers to ‘save” Barnes & Noble…but should we?
We talk to experts about how teachers and schools are teaching young adults to think critically about important topics and take an active role in the ongoing debates.
Authors Richard and Billy Chizmar aren’t just partners, they’re family. Their new horror novella, Widow’s Point, tells the story of a haunted lighthouse. Despite its scary plot, the father and son say writing it was a blast.
We talk to marketing specialists about how to craft a good ad, how ads are effectively measured and what makes an ad memorable.
We talk to a literary editor who explains to us what an editor does to get the book from a manuscript to the finished copy on store shelves.
Our guest offers advice on how to navigate various situations when you’re the newbie in the room.
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