January 16 - 20, 2006
Monday, Jan. 16
Stepin Fetchit
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Stepin Fetchit, a.k.a. Lincoln Perry, was the first African American movie star. In the 1920’s and ‘30s he became famous for his degrading portrayals of the stereotyped “lazy Negro.” His colorful life was often celebrated and criticized in the press. Larry talks with Mel Watkins, author of Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry, the first definitive biography of the life of this actor turned American pop icon.
Slam Dunks And No-Brainers
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Author Leslie Savan takes on "pop" language: catchphrases and buzz words spread by the media. Larry talks with Savan about her new book, Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and, Like, Whatever.
Defining The World
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By the early 18th century France and Italy had impressive lexicon, but there was no authoritative dictionary of English. Dr. Samuel Johnson assumed the tremendous task and spent nearly a decade of his life on the project. Larry talks about Johnson’s work and it’s influence with Henry Hitchings, author of the new book, Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary.
Tuesday, Jan. 17
Supreme Court Upholds Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law
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The Supreme Court upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally
ill patients die. Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said that a federal drug law does not override the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people. New Chief Justice John Roberts backed the Bush administration, dissenting for the first time. The administration improperly tried to use a drug law to punish Oregon doctors who prescribe lethal doses of prescription medicines, the court majority said. Larry Mantle talks with Chapman University School of Law Professor John Eastman, Democratic State Assemblyman from Van Nuys Lloyd Levine, and Stanford University School of Law Professor Hank Greeley.
Stardust Mission
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After a seven-year journey, the NASA Stardust space capsule landed safely Sunday at Dugway Proving Ground with tiny particles that scientists hope will yield clues to how the solar system formed. The capsule's blazing plunge through the atmosphere lit up parts of the Western sky. The cosmic samples were gathered as the Stardust spacecraft swooped past a comet known as Wild 2 in 2004. The spacecraft, which was launched in 1999, used a tennis racket-sized collector mitt to snatch the dust and store the particles in an aluminum canister. Larry talks with Thomas Duxbury, Project Manager of the NASA Discovery Stardust and project manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which managed the $212 million mission.
The Constitution And Foreign Affairs After 9/11
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John Yoo served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, from 2001 to 2003, where he worked on issues involving foreign affairs, national security and the separation of powers. Larry talks with Professor Yoo about his new book, The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 and his views on presidential powers in wartime.
The Health Of The California Wine Industry
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More Americans are drinking wine than ever before, but fewer are buying California wines. Larry Mantle talks about these trends and others with experts on the California wine industry. Guests include Jerry Hirsch, LA Times staff writer, John Gillespie, President of Wine Market Council, and Randy Kemner, Owner of The Wine Country, a 7000-foot wine store located in the city of Signal Hill near Long Beach.
Wednesday, Jan. 18
LEFT-WING UCLA PROFESSORS TARGETED BY ALUMNI GROUP: OPEN PHONES
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An alumni group is offering students up to $100 per class to supply tapes and notes exposing professors who allegedly express extreme left-wing political views at the University of California, Los Angeles. The year-old Bruin Alumni Association says it is concerned about professors who use lecture time to press positions against President Bush, the military and multinational corporations, among other things. Its Web site has a list of what it calls the college's 30 most radical professors. One of the professors has called it McCarthyism. At least one of the association's 20-plus advisory board members has resigned in protest. Larry Mantle takes your calls.
THE LA TIMES EXAMINES THE UNITED FARM WORKERS
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Larry Mantle talks with Los Angeles Times staff writer Miriam Pawel about her 4-part series on the United Farm Workers union.
ROBERT HILBURN
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Larry Mantle talks with Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic Robert Hilburn whose last full-time day at the L.A. Times was January 16th. Hilburn will be staying on to do high-profile stories for the Times, but will now be working on book projects. Hilburn has worked for the L.A. Times for over 35 years. Larry discusses his long career with the L.A. Times and about some of his most memorable moments as a pop music critic.
Thursday, Jan. 19
Osama Bin Laden Tape
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Larry Mantle talks with Romesh Ratnesar, World Editor for Time Magazine about the resurfacing of Osama Bin Laden in an audio tape aired on Al Jazeera. He also speaks with Graham Allison, Dean of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation.
Cell Phone Towers
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The Ninth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that local regulators have no authority to prohibit cell phone network operators to erect telephone lines or antennas based on aesthetics. The San Francisco-based appellate court ruled in favor of Sprint P-C-S in its appeal of a permit denial by the city of La Canada Flintridge. The precedent-setting ruling could have broad effects for many California cities. Larry Mantle talks with La Canada Mayor Anthony Portantino and John Flynn, an attorney who represented Sprint P-C-S.
Nazi Looted Art Decision
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Larry Mantle talks with Jonathan Petropoulos, the John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College who was the expert witness in the case of Maria Altmann, whose family fled Austria in 1939 and left behind 5 multi-million dollar paintings by Gustave Klimt. These paintings were confiscated by the Nazis and an Austrian arbitration court has now ordered their return to the Altmann family.
H.P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture
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In his new book The Cult of Alien Gods, author Jason Colavito reveals for the first time that the theory that aliens visited the Earth in the ancient past (and may even have genetically engineered humankind) began not as science fact but as science fiction in the work of master horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. His comprehensive survey of Lovecraft’s work examines the author’s influence on maverick historians, occultists, pop culture and modern UFO cults including those trying to clone human beings. Larry Mantle talks with Colavito about everything from flying saucers to lost civilizations and how Lovecraft created the first ancient-astronaut story, which threatened to permeate mainstream science.
Friday, Jan. 20
THE INTERSECTION OF POLITICS AND EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY
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Larry Mantle examines the ways in which politics are influenced by religion and more specifically how Evangelical Christians bring their theology into their political discourse and vice versa. With a panel of religion experts, Larry explores the potency of evangelicals as a political force in churches and society and looks at whether politics and Christianity should be commingled or kept separate.
Click here for more audio from our discussion on the Intersection of Politics and Evangelical Christianity.
FILMWEEK
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Larry Mantle and critics Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor, and Andy Klein, film editor and chief critic for both CityBeat and ValleyBeat discuss this week's new releases, including End of the Spear, Why We Fight, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, and Boys of Baraka.
Peter also disclosed his Top Ten films of 2005.
