TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE
from Wisconsin Public Radio
June 23, 1996 Programs
Click here to return to the Main Menu
1100 - 1159 Hour #1 Crime
1200 - 1259 Hour #2 Animals 4 - Hunting
1300 - 1359 Hour #3 Comics
PROGRAM RUNDOWN Hour 1:Crime
SEGMENT 1:
Craig Ferris conducts research in the Behavioral Neuroscience
program in the psychiatry department of the University of
Massachusetts Medical Center. He tells Judith Strasser that
bullied hamsters have measurable differences in their brain
chemistry and that his colleagues have begun to see the same
thing in troubled children.
SEGMENT 2:
Andrew Vachss is an attorney who defends abused children and a
novelist whose works depict the same horrors he confronts in
court. Vachss tells Steve Paulson that human predators have
universally been the victims of abuse and that rehabilitation
is not possible for the worst of them.
*****This is a compelling and frightening interview with a remarkable
advocate. Listeners may be upset by it, particularly by two examples of abuse
Vachss provides. At @1:52 into the the interview, he cites an instance where
a child is tortured with a soldering iron; and at @7:08, he reports on the
case of an infant with a prolapsed rectum. Vachss uses no sexual slang or
profanity, but the content of his remarks is shocking and disturbing.*****
Also this segment, sociologist Michael Radelet of the
University of Florida, tells Jim Fleming that while support for
the death penalty is at an all-time high, it's an expensive and
ineffective way to address the nation's crime problem. Radelet
is the author of "In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions
in Capital Cases."
SEGMENT 3:
NPR reporter Maria Hinojosa (ee' nah hoe' sah) talks with
Judith Strasser about young New Yorkers who belong to "crews" -
- and explains why they join, and why the crews, which are
sometimes violent, are so important to them. "Crews" is the
title of Hinojosa's book of interviews with members of these
gang-like organizations.
For cassette copies of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number
95-10-15-A.
PROGRAM RUNDOWN Hour 2:Animals 4 - Hunting
SEGMENT 1:
Laurie Marker-Kraus talks with Steve Paulson about cheetahs -
Nature's ultimate killing machine. After working with a
cheetah cub at a safari park in Oregon, Marker-Kraus later
moved to Namibia and founded the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
Also, Peter Steinhart, author of "The Company of Wolves," tells
Steve Paulson about the wolf's social structure and hunting
techniques.
SEGMENT 2:
Cultural anthropologist Richard Nelson is one of America's
leading nature writers and a subsistence hunter. He tells
Judith Strasser what he learned from working with native
peoples in Alaska as they hunted bear, walrus and other big
game.
SEGMENT 3:
Writer Doug Whynott, an eleventh generation Cape Codder, spent
two seasons watching master harpooner Bob Sampson hunt ten foot
long, fifteen hundred pound tuna. The result is a book called
"Giant Bluefin." Whynott tells Jim Fleming about the lives of
the hunters and their quarry.
For cassette copies of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number
95-10-22-B.
PROGRAM RUNDOWN: HOUR 3: Comics
SEGMENT 1
Thomas Inge is a professor of Humanities at Randolph-Macon
College in Virginia and a passionate, life-long fan of comics.
He tells Steve Paulson that comics are an art form worthy of
serious critical attention and have both a distinguished past
and a bright future, in print and on-line.
SEGMENT 2:
Terry Zwigoff directed a critically acclaimed documentary film
about his friend of twenty five years - cartoonist R. Crumb.
The movie is newly available on video. The father of the
underground comic, R. Crumb is best known for "Keep On
Truckin," "Fritz the Cat," and "Mr. Natural." Zwigoff talks
with Judith Strasser about Crumb, the movie and the man. Also,
cartoonist Neil Gaiman, author of the Sandman series, tells Jim
Fleming how he got into comics and what he tried to achieve
with the Sandman character.
SEGMENT 3:
Art Spiegelman's comic "Maus" (which told his father's story of
the Holocaust) won the Pulitzer Prize and was followed by "Maus
II." Now there's a CD-Rom version. Spiegelman tells Steve
Paulson why Maus is making the move to computer.
For cassette copies of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number
95-05-28-C.
Click here to return to the Main Menu
Last modified: Wednesday June 19, 1996