AUDIO LIBRARY

Freaks
Circus sideshows, featuring such human oddities as conjoined twins and bearded ladies, may be a thing of the past. But freaks remain an enduring part of popular culture.
Guests:
Vanessa Toulmin — Research director of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, England. Toulmin also researches and writes about 19th century British fairgrounds and show-people, and is the author of Pleasurelands, and co-editor of Visual Delights: The Popular and Projected Image in the Nineteenth Century.
Leonard Cassuto — Literary scholar at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York and author of The Inhuman Race: The Racial Grotesque in American Literature and Culture

The Mommy Wars
Whether from parenting manuals, on television, or in magazines, women are bombarded with conflicting images of motherhood.
Guests:
Susan Douglas — Communications studies scholar at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and co-author of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women
Judith Stacey — Sociologist at New York University and author of In the Name of the Family: Rethinking Family Values in a Postmodern Age

The Politics of Popular Culture
Politics and popular culture often go hand-in-hand. What is it that makes popular culture political?
Guests:
Esther Leslie — Teaches in the school of English and humanities
at the University of London and author of Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-Garde
Jane Shattuc — Teaches in the department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College in Boston, author of The Talking Cure:
TV Talk Shows and Women, and co-editor of Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture

The Poor in America
Low wage worker. Welfare Queen. Day laborer. What do such labels reveal about our attitudes towards the poor? Host Gretchen Helfrich and guests examine American ideas about poverty.
Guests:
Alice O'Connor — Historian at the University of California Santa Barbara, currently a visiting fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies of American History at Harvard University, and author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth Century U.S. History
Michael Katz — Historian at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and author, most recently, of the book, The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State

The Politics of Childhood
From the Pledge of Allegiance to the F.C.C. crackdown on obscenity, many current political debates are centered around children.
Guests:
Caroline Levander — Levander is a literary scholar at Rice University in Houston, Texas and co-editor of The American Child: A Cultural Studies Reader. Her forthcoming book is Natal Nation: The Child, Race, and U.S. Nation Making.
Jill Hasday — Legal scholar at the University of Chicago. Her writing on family law includes the recent article Parenthood Divided: A Legal History of the Bifurcated Law of Parental Relations.

Politics and Negative Advertising
The presidential race is already rife with negative ads. But what do these attacks actually accomplish?
Guests:
Stephen Ansolabehere — Co-author of Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate
John Geer — At work on a book entitled Attacking Democracy: A Defense of Negative Advertising In Presidential Campaigns, 1960-2000

Domesticity
The demise of Martha Stewart has set off a search for the next domestic diva.
Guests:
Gillian Brown — Literary scholar at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and author of Domestic Individualism: Imagining Self in Nineteenth-Century America
Christopher Reed — Art historian at Lake Forest College in Waukegan, Illinois and editor of Not at Home: The Suppression of Domesticity in Modern Art and Architecture

Terrorism in Europe
The recent bombings in Spain brought a new wave of terrorism to Europe, a place long acquainted with this kind of violence.
Guests:
Omer Bartov — Historian at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and author of the book, Mirrors of Destruction: War, Genocide and Modern Identity
Stephen Van Evera — Political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written extensively on American and foreign defense policy.

Film Forum—The Retro Film
Films like Boogie Nights and Starsky and Hutch try to recreate the look and feel of previous decades. Is that their only interest in the past?
Guests:
Paul Grainge — Film studies scholar at the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, England, and author of Monochrome Memories: Nostalgia and Style in Retro America, Memory, and Popular Film
Vera Dika — Independent scholar in New York City, author of Recycled Culture in Contemporary Art and Film: The Uses of Nostalgia. She is at work on a book about representations of Italian-Americans in film

The Christian Left
For the last two decades, the Christian right has defined religious politics in America, but liberal Christians were once an influential voice.
Guests:
Douglas Rossinow — Historian at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and author of the book, The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America
Kenneth Wald — Political scientist at the University of Florida, director of the Center for Jewish Studies, and author of the book, Religion and Politics in the United States

The Early Universe
The Hubble space telescope has captured images of the universe from long ago, when stars and galaxies were just starting to form. Host Gretchen Helfrich and guests discuss what we know about the early universe.
Guests:
Robert Kirshner — Astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and author of the book, The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos
Sean Carroll — Cosmologist at the University of Chicago, and author of the book, Space-time and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity

Interest Groups and Electoral Politics
Campaign finance reform has transformed the way candidates run for office. But it's also changed the way interest groups can assert their influence.
Guests:
Robert Boatright — Political scientist at the Campaign Finance Institute in Washington D.C.
Derek Willis — A senior writer at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington D.C.

Photography and Portraits
From candid snapshots to yearbook photos and mug shots, every picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words. So what do these images have to say?
Guests:
Marcy Dinius — Visiting literary scholar at Northwestern University in Evanston, and is at work on the proposed book, The Camera and the Pen: Daguerreotypy and Literary Representation in Antebellum America
Barbara Savedoff — Philosopher at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York, and author of Transforming Images: How Photography Complicates the Picture

Women's Magazines
For almost two centuries, women's magazines have been offering advice and information about issues ranging from housekeeping to sex.
Guests:
Moya Luckett — Media studies scholar at the University of Pittsburgh and co-editor of Swinging Single: Representing Sexuality in the 1960s
Ellen Gruber Garvey — Fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society, on faculty in the English department at New Jersey City University, and author of the book, The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s. She also edited with Sharon Harris the book, Blue Pencils and Hidden Hands.

Gothic America
The term gothic usually describes violent and macabre forms of culture. Can the gothic also explain American political life?
Guests:
Eric Savoy — Film scholar at the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada and co-editor of American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative
Mary Chapman — Literary scholar at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her writing on American gothic includes the essay "The Masochistic Pleasures of the Gothic: Paternal Incest in Alcott's 'A Marble Woman'"

Immigration and Assimilation
The inflow of immigrants to the United States from Mexico and Latin America is challenging traditional ideas about assimilation and national identity.
Guests:
Maria Torres — Political scientist at DePaul University in Chicago and co-editor of the book, Borderless Borders: U.S. Latinos, Latin Americans, and the Paradox of Interdependence
Richard Alba — Sociologist at the State University of New York in Albany; fellow at the at the Radcliff Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and, co-author of the book, Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration

Depression and Culture
Depression is now considered by the medical community to be primarily biological in origin. But representations of those suffering from depression still carry social biases.
Guests:
Jonathan Metzl — Psychiatrist, director of the program in culture, health and medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and author of the book, Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs
Melissa Harris-Lacewell — Political scientist at the University of Chicago, author of the book, Barbershops, Bibles and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, and is currently at work on a project exploring black women's mental health and African-American politics

Swing Voters and American Politics
If the primaries are about appealing to your party base, the general election is about capturing the elusive swing voter.
Guests:
Michael McGerr — Historian at Indiana University in Bloomington and author of the book, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920
Sandy Maisel — Chair of the department of government at Colby College in Waterville, Maine and co-author of the book, Two Parties-Or More? The American Party System

Special Presentation

Wealth and Politics:

How Well Do Money and Democracy Mix?

Expert discussion and listener questions explore the role of money in American politics. Taped February 17, 2004, before a live audience in Memphis, Tennessee, this special Odyssey looks at how money influences our political views, how we vote, and the way we’re represented.
Guests:
Douglas Imig—Director of The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, University of Memphis, Tennessee; Author, Poverty and Power: The Political Representation of Poor Americans
Larry Bartels—Political Scientist, Princeton University
Elisabeth Clemens—Sociologist, University of Chicago; Author, The People’s Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890-1925
Larry Noble—Executive Director, the Center for Responsive Politics; Former General Counsel, Federal Election Commission

Film Forum—Memory Loss and the Movies
Fifty First Dates and Finding Nemo both have characters who suffer from short-term memory loss. Why is this condition such a popular device in movies?
Guests:
Judith Halberstam — Literary and Cultural Studies Scholar
at the University of California, San Diego and author of the book, Transmodernity: Postmodern Space and Queer Embodiment
Jeffrey Pence — Film and literary scholar at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. Pence's essay "Postcinema/Postmemory" appeared in the anthology, Memory and Popular Film.

Iraq in Transition
This week, the Iraqi Governing Council agreed upon an interim constitution, suggesting that Iraq is moving closer to a working democracy. But violence continues to plague the country. Can an Iraqi-led government establish political stability?
Guests:
Adeed Dawisha — Political scientist at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and author of Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair
Juan Cole — Historian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and author of the book, Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shiite Islam

Spies and National Values
Allegations that Britain and the United States have spies at the United Nations is provoking questions about espionage, international law, and national loyalty.
Guests:
Myron Aronoff — Political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and author of The Spy Novels of John le Carre: Balancing Ethics and Politics
Rebecca Walkowitz — Literary scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-editor of Secret Agents: McCarthyism and Fifties America

The Politics of Redistricting
The Supeme Court is likely to decide cases from Georgia and Pennsylvania that could transform the rules for drawing legislative districts.
Guests:
Mark Rush — Political scientist at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and author of the book, Does Redistricting Make a Difference?: Partisan Representation and Electoral Behavior
Samuel Issacharoff — Legal scholar at Columbia Law School in New York City and co-author of the book, The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure and the Political Process

The History of the Imagination
Imagination is considered critical to any work of art or literature. But what the imagination consists of, how it actually works, and what it produces are questions that have long intrigued philosophers, writers, and scientists. How have we imagined the imagination?
Guests:
Claudia Swan — Art historian at Northwestern University and author of the forthcoming book, Mimesis and Imagination in Seventeenth Century Dutch Art
Forest Pyle — Teaches at University of Oregon and author of The Ideology of Imagination: Subject and Society in the discourse of Romanticism
originally broadcast December 4, 2003