Viewpoints Radio
Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.
Sarah Ruhl is a MacArthur Fellowship recipient and a famed playwright. As a professor, she met Max Ritvo, who went on to become a published poet. She recounts the story of their friendship and how they used letters to make a connection and comfort one another while Ritvo faced the end of his life.
In the build-up to Halloween, many of us get in the spooky mood by watching horror movies like Nightmare on Elm Street or, naturally, Halloween. Before Christmas, seasonal cheer leads people to dig out their old copies of It’s a Wonderful Life or Elf. But there aren’t many Thanksgiving movies.
Lists are a part of our everyday. Often, they are a forgotten part of our everyday. But Shaun Usher read through countless lists to compile a stunning collection of lists throughout time that shed light on the times, our collective history, and the list makers themselves.
Streaming networks have opened up the length an episode of television can run. Gone are the days when writers needed to accommodate advertisements. But episodes that run long often present a new slate of problems – namely, staying interesting.
We all love a good theater performance. But are theater and performance good strategies to affect social change? Our guest thinks so. He’s a performer, writer and educator who uses serious play and theater to help change people’s minds and change society for the better.
The English language can be hard to spell since it often follows conflicting rules. We trace the origins of this tricky language, and explain how these difficulties came to be.
It’s a topic that has been in the news lately: how our government detains groups of people. We look back at history to see what really happened in World War II Japanese internment camps, and how we can avoid similar shame now and in the future.
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.
The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize is given annually to what a panel of judges deem to be the funniest book of the year. But this year, the judges hit a snag: they didn’t think any of them were funny.
Most parents with adolescent boys at home can tell you all about the difficulties of communicating clearly with them. We talk to a clinical psychologist about how to best talk with young men and understand their perspective better.
Politicians have always stirred up controversy, but no politician has ever done it as often, or as well as Donald Trump. We talk to two experts about the attraction to these politicians.
Scholar Martin Puchner takes us through the history of writing stories down, and how those written accounts have become so important to our understanding of the world.
We discover how Jack London’s own journey informed his writing, and how his books reflect the plight of exploited workers and impoverished women and children.
The rules of the English language always seem to have an exception or ten. We explored how the language got so complicated.
Everyday, we send and receive emails, but when’s the last time you wrote or received a handwritten letter?
Photo historian Richard Cahan talks about the history of the Japanese internment camps, and why we should look at them as a cautionary tale not as precedent.
It’s a common goal to get back to the creative passions in the new year. Two experts give tips on how to over come obstacles and finish your masterpiece.
Our guest, Christina Cook, took a 31-day vacation from the Internet and learned how online life needs to be balanced with face-to-face communications and relaxation.
We talk to two experts on conflict about how to make disagreements with anyone, from your work life to your home life, into a more peaceful, enlightening experience.
Too much screen time can be a detriment to face-to-face communication and decreases our ability to recognize emotions, and possibly even shorten our lives.
Developing “emotional agility” to deal with the thoughts, emotions and the stories we have in our lives.
Throughout American history we’ve had politicians who stir up controversy during their campaigns: Bernie Sanders, Pat Buchanan, Joe McCarthy and now Donald Trump, to name just a few. These candidates are what one of our guests calls “high-conflict politicians.” What is the attraction some voters have for these candidates? Why are they so loyal to them? And …
This week's guest, Larry Bogad is a performer, writer and educator who uses serious play and theater to help change people’s minds and change society for the better.
We discuss how to engage the person you want something from, how to “mirror” their behavior and how to resolve conflicts and come to a mutual understanding.
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