AUDIO LIBRARY

Free Speech and Privacy
As the national "Do Not Call" registry pits the commercial interests of telemarketers against the privacy of individuals, what is the balance between free speech and privacy?
Guests:
Anita Allen — Visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University
Martin Redish — Northwestern University School of Law
here in Chicago

Hygiene
If our rules about cleanliness don’t match our practices, why are we so interested in hygiene?
Guests:
Timothy Burke — Historian at Swarthmore College
Nayan Shah — Historian at the University of California, San Diego

Modern Love
Why have our ideas about relationships shifted over time? And what do they tell us about the social forces shaping love?
Guests:
David Shumway — Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Laura Kipnis — Media Studies Scholar at Northwestern University

Modern Time
From standardized calendars to coordinated time zones, why do we organize time?
Guests:
Peter Galison — Historian of Science and Physicist at Harvard University
Mary Ann Doane — Department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University

Voting Rights
In light of the California recall debates, what constitutes the right to vote?
Guests:
Alex Keyssar — Historian Harvard University
Rick Pildes — New York University School of Law

War and Trade
The war in Iraq damaged a number of diplomatic relationships. Has it hurt economic relations as well?
Guests:
Eugene Gholz — Political Scientist at the University of Kentucky
Daniel Drezner — Political Scientist at the University of Chicago

Emotions and Reason
Are emotions sensations, or judgments?
Guests:
Jesse Prinz — Philosopher at the University of North Carolina
Jerome Neu — Philosopher at the University of California at Santa Cruz

Fascism and Film
The death of Leni Riefenstahl, director of “Triumph of the Will," has renewed debate about the connection between her films and fascist politics.

Rules and Ethics
From the Golden Rule to the Ten Commandments, morality is often presented as a set of simple rules. Should rules guide our ethics?
Guests:
Jonathan Dancy — Philosopher at the University of Reading
Simon Blackburn — Philosopher at Cambridge University

History of Racism
Race is sometimes understood as a biological category and sometimes as a social construction. Where do we get our conceptions of race?
Guests:
Julie Ward — Philosopher at Loyola University
Charles Mills — Philosopher at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is heralded as one of America’s great literary movements. But what is the political legacy of transcendentalism?
Guests:
Lawrence Buell — Harvard University
Jay Grossman — Northwestern University

The Well-Behaved Society
If Americans are better behaved, is the United States a better society?
Guests:
Michael Hardt — Duke University
Joel Migdal — University of Washington

Science and the "Unknowable"
In the twentieth century, science encountered the limits of its reach. How does science contend with what it cannot know?
Guests:
Arthur Fine — Philosopher at the University of Washington
Peter Dear — History and Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University
Sean Carroll — Physicist at the University of Chicago
rebroadcast

Demography and Identity
Politicians, marketers, and even public radio stations use demographic information to reach their constituents or customers. But do demographic categories describe, or do they influence the way people identify themselves?
Guests:
Joseph Turow — University of Pennsylvania
Melissa Nobles — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
rebroadcast

Rape
What we think of as rape can be determined by court decisions, political legislation and cultural representations. Gretchen Helfrich and guests discuss the social forces that shape our ideas of rape.
Guests:
Jill Hasday — University of Chicago Law School
Michelle Oberman — DePaul University College of Law
Pamela Barnett — University of South Carolina
rebroadcast

Women and the Public Sphere
Women’s participation in public life has raised issues like gender inequality, but it has also called into question the line between the private, domestic realm and the public arena.
Guests:
Katharine Gillespie — Department of English at Miami University
Iris Marion Young — Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago

Morality and the Marketplace
Economist Adam Smith — like many early economic theorists — was a moral philosopher. How did Smith’s ideas about morality influence his ideas about the market? And what do they reveal about contemporary capitalism?
Guests:
Stephen Darwall — University of Michigan
Sam Fleischacker — University of Illinois at Chicago

Social Guidance Films
Rick Prelinger — runs the Prelinger Archives in San Francisco
Eric Schaefer — teaches film in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emory College in Boston
rebroadcast

Memory and History
Major historical events are described and analyzed by historians, and make their way into the public record. But survivors and witnesses also offer their own experiences of these events. What is the relationship between these two perspectives?
Guests:
Moishe Postone— Historian at the University of Chicago
Alison Landsberg — Historian and Film Studies professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia
rebroadcast

The Presidential Body
To many Americans, what the President does physically: exercise, chopping wood, or wolfing down a Big Mac, shapes our opinions of both the man and the office. Why do we care what the President does with his body?
Guests:
Tom Dumm — Political scientist at Amherst College
Diane Rubenstein — Professor in the departments of Government and American Studies
rebroadcast

The Promise of the Internet
In its early days the internet seemed to offer endless possibilities. Has the internet lived up to its initial promise? How has it changed our lives in unexpected ways?
Guests:
Tim Jordan — Sociologist at the Open University in London, England
Jonathon Zittrain — Legal scholar at Harvard University
Steve Jones — Media historian at the University of Illinois at Chicago
rebroadcast

Citizenship and the Workplace
In return for your labor you receive a paycheck. But does employment also teach us how to be citizens? Gretchen Helfrich and guests examine citizenship and the workplace.
Guests:
Christopher Tomlins — Historian at the American Bar Foundation
Barbara Reskin — Sociologist at the University of Washington
Thomas Kohler — Law School at Boston College