March 29 - April 2, 2004
Monday, March 29
Southland Fifties Nostalgia
(Listen)
Best-selling author, historian and performance artist Charles Phoenix follows up his remarkable hit book Southern California in the '50s with an even more remarkable Kodachrome study of the world that existed between Santa Barbara and San Diego in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. His retro slide tour takes readers to places they never dreamed existed, and our guide tags along with amateur photographers who snapped the best of Southern California. This book will not be published until May, but you can reserve your copy now: a special opportunity available only to KPCC contributors during our Spring fund drive.
Mid-Century Advertising Graphics
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Larry Mantle talks with graphic designer, writer, historian, and frequent AirTalk guest Jim Heimann, about about his four, striking Taschen books filled with Mid-Century Advertising Graphics. The titles are:
·Future Perfect: Vintage Futuristic Graphics
·50s Cars
·All American Ads of the 50s
·See The World: Mid-Century Travel Ads
Tuesday, March 30
Mispronounced Words And Punctuation
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Language maven Charles Harrington Elster joins Host Larry Mantle to talk all about mispronounced words, from “arctic” to “zoology.” Elster is the author of The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker (Houghton Mifflin). Also joining the conversation is punctuation pedant, Lynne Truss, who will explain the finer points of commas and apostrophes to the punctuation-challenged masses. Her new book is called Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (Gotham Books).
Wednesday, March 31
The Rise Of Monotheism
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Jonathan Kirsch’s new book, God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism, describes the fight between monotheism and paganism, with Roman Emperor Constantine securing the fate of the paganism that had held the Roman Empire together. Kirsch looks at the violence perpetrated by early Christians in the name of one God, a kind of totalitarian mentality under the guise of religion. Kirsch joins Larry Mantle to discuss the new book.
Why People Cheat, Gossip, Share And Follow The Golden Rule
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Science writer and Skeptic magazine publisher Michael Shermer joins Larry to talk about his new book The Science of Good and Evil in which he explains how humans transformed the moral sentiments displayed in many primate species---shame and trust, for instance---into ethical principles. This show, Dr. Shermer contends, how our morals and ethics are not products of divine origin but rather of our biological heritage and our cultural history.
Thursday, April 1
A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions and Lore That Shaped Modern America
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In their new book Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore That Shaped Modern America (HarperResource),
Martin Smith and co-author Patrick Kiger have brought together twenty unlikely events, innovations and individuals that have shaped the way Americans live. Making the offbeat their beat, the authors have explored some of the most significant moments that never made it into tour textbooks, revealing the odd, surprising and amusing origins of inexplicable cultural phenomena.
Landscaping and Gardening With California Native Plants
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Larry talks with horticulture experts about how to plan, design, plant and maintain gardens and landscapes using Southern California native plants. Joining him is Bart O’Brien, Director of Horticulture and Curator of the Living Collection at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA, and Jennifer Mok, landscape architect with Walt Disney Imagineering. Ms. Mok is in her sixth year on the board of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants.
Friday, April 2
Guide To Buying A New Car
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Larry Mantle talks with Philip Reed, Consumer Advice Editor from Edmunds.com, an Internet website for car buyers which offers new and used car pricing as well as automotive data, vehicle reviews, features articles and videos related to the purchase of a new or used car.
