The Senate and the Supreme Court thwart meaningful action on gun violence, but the chair of the epidemiology department at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health asserts that his field offers a way forward. Ignorant despair (mine) versus sophisticated hopefulness (his). Music from Lily Henley and Duncan Wickel. Photo by Michel DiVito. Continue reading »
Author Archives: Randy Cohen
Episode 256: Elizabeth Diller
“I believe architecture can never really be finished,” says this founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, designers of the High Line, the Shed, and the well known so much more. But she is not creating monuments to eternity. “I think of buildings that could be repurposed or reimagined – rescripted later.” A conversation at the … Continue reading »
Episode 255: Susan Cheever
When she was 13, her father let her skip school to stay home and read in bed. “It was a great paternal moment, too,” she tells the New York Society Library, “to say to your child: I get that this is more important than going to school today.” The making of a reader, the making … Continue reading »
Episode 254: Sarah Pearson
Doing pure is science akin to doing art, says astrophysicist Sarah Pearson: both lack obvious utility; both enable us to see the world in new ways. The first in our women scientists series, produced with Lori Schwarz at KGB’s Red Room and 500 Women Scientists. Music from Miss Maybell and Charlie Judkins. Continue reading »
Episode 253: David Oshinsky
Alexander the Great was taught by Aristotle; Donald Trump had Roy Cohn. A look at some teacher-student relationships by a Pulitzer-winning historian, director of medical humanities at the NYU School of Medicine. Music from Amiri and Rahiem Taylor. A conversation at NYU Langone Health. Produced with Dr. Ruth Oratz. Continue reading »
Episode 252: Payam Akhavan
Still in his twenties when he prosecuted a war crimes case at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, he’s come to believe that social justice will not come through courts or politics. To change the world we must first change ourselves, if I can reduce a lifetime’s work to one glib phrase. A conversation … Continue reading »
Episode 251: Brian Lehrer
Reviewing his 30 years at WNYC, the invaluable broadcast journalist considers this question: have decades of technological progress improved the shows themselves? Yes, he asserts, and in an unexpected way. Plus music from The Wisterians. Continue reading »
Episode 250: Michael Frank
Many of us become interested in our family’s history later in life, but the author of the celebrated memoir The Mighty Franks was drawing family trees before he was 14. Who they were shapes who we are. A conversation at KGB’s Red Room. Music from Lauren Lee. Produced with Lori Schwarz. Continue reading »
Episode 249: Ethel
This quartet performs in concert halls around the globe but still works the Balcony Bar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “We’re a bar band,” say artistic directors Ralph Ferris (viola) and Dorothy Lawson (cello). What a band! What a bar! Plus a performance with Face The Music, all at the Kaufman Music Center. Continue reading »
Episode 248: Jeffrey Sachs
This renowned economist, an advisor to governments around the world, tells the Center for Architecture that to save the planet and increase human happiness, we must study sustainability, read Aristotle, and drink very good coffee. Music from Sam Reider. Continue reading »
Episode 247: Dominique Browning
If everyone – everyone! – knows that mercury does horrible things to children, why would anyone weaken the regulations that protect them from exposure? Dominique Browning, co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, has an answer, and she expounds it eloquently at the Environmental Defense Fund. Music from Stephanie Jenkins and Ben Cosgrove. Continue reading »
Episode 246: Jane Alexander
A much admired actor, she’s lead the National Endowment for the Arts – when the White House still supported the arts. And education. And clean air. And… what was the question? Right: what about her environmental concerns? She is on the board of the Audubon Society and is the author of Wild Things, Wild Places. … Continue reading »