June 14 - 18 Programs

Friday, June 11, 2010

Monday: The Life of Language: With a language disappearing every two weeks and neologisms springing up almost daily, understanding the origins and currency of language has never seemed more relevant. From an infant’s first words to the peculiar dialect of text messaging, we’ll explore the intricacies and quirks of our daily words with one of the world’s preeminent language specialists, David Crystal, as a part of our World Language Series.

Tuesday: The Rap Guide To Evolution: After having put Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales into a Hip Hop album called The Rap Canterbury Tales, Baba Brinkman was approached by a microbiologist “to do for Darwin what he did for Chaucer”. Not one to be intimidated by a challenge, Baba Brinkman wrote The Rap Guide To Evolution, telling the story of evolution all while drawing insightful analogies to the way Hip Hop culture works.

Wednesday: The Emotional Side of Math: Alex Bellos wants us to understand the emotional side of math. He has traveled all over the globe to report from the secret world of numbers and has met with the tribe that counts up to five only, the man who sets the odds for half the world’s slot machines, and the two Ukrainian brothers who consider themselves one mathematician.

Thursday: The Council of Dads: We’ll look ahead to Father’s Day with bestselling author Bruce Feiler. After being diagnosed with cancer, Feiler reached out to men from important passages in his life and asked them to carry forth his legacy should his young twin daughters grow up without him. The experience was a “passport to intimacy” with his friends and the story calls us all to consider the many roles of father figures in our lives.

Friday: Soul Food: Juneteenth celebrations, coming up this weekend, commemorate June 19, 1865 when the Emancipation Proclamation was finally enforced in the state of Texas, two and a half years after Abe Lincoln made his famous decree. I’ll be out of town so Lori Skelton will step in to talk with professor and food writer Frederick Douglass Opie about the celebratory foods of Juneteenth, as well as the rich history of soul food in the United States and the many foods of the African Diaspora.

Lend us your ears!

Jean