Is China moving in the direction of greater freedom or oppression? What prevented Mahatma Gandhi from winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Why did Thomas Jefferson own slaves yet preach freedom?

These are just some of the questions co-hosts Norman Gilliland and Emily Auerbach ask of their distinguished faculty guests from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

See University of the Air program dates, titles and guests for the following years...
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These programs currently air on Sundays at 4pm on stations of The Ideas Network. CDs for many of these programs are available at the Radio Store. Call 1-800-747-7444. WPR Members can download programs that have aired in the past year. Programs are also available for free online listening in the University of the Air Audio Archives.

Norman Gilliland has degrees in English and Broadcasting. He began hosting classical music broadcasts in the mid-1970s. With few exceptions, he has been on the air each weekday since 1977.

The subjects of his non-musical productions range from "Back from the Shadows Again: A Firesign Theater Retrospective" to "Children's Pictures at an Exhibition: Art from Chernobyl." Since 1990 he has been the narrator for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra's popular summer series, Concerts on the Square. In the fall of 1999, his historical novel "Sand Mansions" was read on WPR's popular daily program "Chapter A Day".

In addition to co-producing University of the Air, he hosts Wisconsin Public Radio's well-received "Old-Time Radio Night" and produces the biographical modules Grace Notes, which are broadcast each weekday morning at 11:30 on the NPR News and Classical Music network of WPR.

Emily Auerbach is a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a joint appointment in the English Department and the Department of Liberal Studies & the Arts (Outreach). She has received teaching excellence awards from University Outreach, UW-Madison, and the UW System; an arts award from the UW-Madison; and national awards for several of her projects.

In addition to publishing books and articles on women writers and on the overlap between music and literature, Emily Auerbach has developed a series of radio programs, written guides, and courses about women writers called "The Courage to Write." The series has received four national awards, including the Ohio State Award for Excellence in Broadcasting presented at the National Press Club and a Distinguished Program Award from the American Council of Higher Education.

Emily Auerbach's most recent book is entitled "Searching for Jane Austen". She serves as director of the UW Odyssey Project, a free humanities course for adults facing economic hardship. She has served as co-host of "University of the Air" since 1995.