Viewpoints Radio
Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.
Many American workers don’t get raises or promotions because they don’t know how to negotiate for them. We talk to two negotiation specialists about how to approach a salary increase request, get some psychological advice on how to gain the upper hand and find out why women are good at negotiating for others, but not for themselves.
When you ask an American, “where are you from?” most of them will say it’s where they live now or where they were born. We talk to one man who thought long and hard about that question and went on a journey around the Midwest and Plains States to try to answer it. He learned a lot about his family’s heritage and the cost in lives, land and culture that …
We’re taught from a young age that we should obey authority and do what adults tell us to do. Those lessons usually work in our favor, however there are times when a child – and an adult – should say "no" to the ones in charge. Our guest has studied this issue and has come up with situations where refusing to do something is the right thing.
Everyone makes lists: shopping lists, to-do lists, Christmas lists, and many more. But what do your lists say about you? We talk to an author who looked at hundreds of lists compiled by the famous, the infamous and the unknown, and found out that they say a great deal about the times, our history and the list makers themselves.
What’s a women’s prison really like? Motherhood, drama and romantic relationships are all quite common. We visited Rockville Correctional Facility and sat down with two inmates to discuss their prison experience, past regrets and what they’ve learned while serving their sentences.
The Netflix television show, Orange is the New Black, depicts life in a women’s prison – but is it real? Are the inmates whose lives they portray realistic? We toured a real women’s medium-security prison, talked to the administration and some inmates there to find out.
Jazz is the quintessential American music genre, and nobody sings it better than Sheila Jordan. We talk to Jordan and her biographer about Jordan’s rise from poverty to her career singing with some of the most famous jazz musicians of the 20th century, the racism that jazz musicians – both black and white – experienced, and the need to preserve this music …
There has been a debate going on for decades over Social Security and it’s future. We talk to an author and researcher about his ideas on why Social Security is important, isn’t going broke, and how it can be expanded and funded with modest increases in the future.
America is a melting pot of many nationalities, races and religions, each with its own traditions and cuisines. Some of the food that is so loved by families across the country isn’t the healthiest, however, and can cause obesity, blood sugar problems and heart issues. We talk to two experienced cooks and an award-winning baker about how they are trying to …
The Atomic Age is credited mostly to men like Einstein, Oppenheimer and Fermi. Although there’s no question that these eminent scientists were leaders in the development and understanding of nuclear power, there were also many women who contributed knowledge and sometimes their health and lives, but who are overshadowed by the men. We talk to two authors …
Can race be taught as a school subject, like chemistry and foreign language? And if so, what kinds of curricula are best for making students understand how different races fit into and benefit society? We talk to two researchers about the answers to these questions and take a slightly different look at race, ethnicity, religion and how they affect our …
A few weeks ago, veteran news anchor, Brian Williams, was suspended from his job on the Nightly News because he had embellished a story about his involvement in an event in the Iraq War. Did he purposely lie? Or could it have been a matter of “misremembering”? We talk to a psychologist and a news veteran about the issue, how it can happen and what the future …
The Academy Award-nominated film, “The Imitation Game” brought to light the contributions of Alan Turing in breaking the Enigma code during WWII. Throughout his career, he thought that maybe we could build a computer that could think like a human. But could even the best tech whizzes of today build a machine that could not only think but also converse like a …
Researching your ancestors is popular these days. It can be exciting if your ancestors were famous or if they had some connection to a historical event. However, it can be painful if your family played a part in one of the darker periods in our history, such as slavery. We talk to a man whose family held slaves and hear how he went back in history and to his …
Our guest, an award-winning author, says it’s time to hear from different voices in literature – beginning when children just start to open books. We’ll hear how she became a writer, and get a peek inside her memoir of growing up in two worlds – written entirely in verse.
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