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June 1998 Shows
MONDAY, JUNE 1
THE ART OF SCHMOOZING
The word schmooze has a bad connotation. It’s something that unctuous
car salespeople, ingratiating college grads and insincere Hollywood agents
do. In his book, The Golden Rule of Schmoozing: The Authentic Practice
of Treating Others Well (Sourcebooks), Aye Jaye, comedian, author and
a member of the distinguished Clown Hall of Fame, explains the etymology
of the word-- Yiddish, for a "friendly, gossipy, prolonged heart-to-heart
talk." He asserts that if we all practiced that kind of schmoozing,
everyone would be richer and happier. Skeptical? Tune in after the game
to hear more about the art of the schmooze.
TUESDAY, JUNE 2
GLOBAL SQUEEZE
21st century globalization is a topic that everyone from Pat Buchanan
to Bill Gates will discuss at the drop of hat-- one worries about its
impact on the American middle class, the other worries about how to profit
from it. Richard C. Longworth, Chicago Tribune Senior Writer, takes a
different tack in his book, Global Squeeze: The Coming Crisis for First-World
Nations (Contemporary Books). He explains how global markets actually
work and how they are undermining the political and social frameworks
of industrialized countries. Tonight’s panel, including Longworth,
will flesh out the economic challenges that lie ahead in the next millennium.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3
THE GREAT DEBATE
Liberal vs. Conservative. Republican vs. Democrat. Donkey vs. Elephant.
Big Government vs. No Government. It is the classic debate topic, and
tonight, each side will revisit and explore what it means to be a liberal
and a conservative. Our panelists include Matthew Rothschild, editor of
The Progressive Magazine, and Tom Fleming, President of the Rockford Institute.
THURSDAY, JUNE 4
THE HIGHWAYMEN
No media wizard who waved his wand in the past decade escaped the critical
eye of Ken Auletta, the New Yorker’s "Annals of Communications"
columnist. The Highwaymen (Harcourt Brace), a collection of his writings,
reads like a road map to the high-powered world of the communications
industry and such players as Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller,
Ted Turner, and Edgar Bronfman, who are not just battling for wealth and
power but for control of the most valuable product in this day and age--
information. Auletta will expand on this brave new world and its embattled
dukes on tonight’s program.
FRIDAY, JUNE 5
SUMMER GETAWAYS
The Beach, the Mountains, the Dunes, the Dells, the Coast, the City, or
the Country-- it's summertime and the time is right for vacationing. So
where is the best place to go on the cheap and what places should be avoided
because of tourist overruns? Find out tonight, with Robert Puhalla, travel
writer for the Sun-Times, and Patricia Piacente, travel agent and owner
of Talk About Travel.
MONDAY, JUNE 8
BEER
"You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it
helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons
but at the very least you need a BEER." So quoth renegade rock musician
Frank Zappa on the importance of a frosty mug of suds. Tonight’s
guests, Mark Dornan and Alan Dikty from Chicago’s very own Beverage
Tasting Institute, probably couldn’t have said it better. They will
bring their expertise to fore in tonight’s post-game celebration
of the best of the local beers and exotic imports.
TUESDAY, JUNE 9
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, SR.
He was the embodiment of the American Dream, a man born into a family
of modest means who later leapfrogged through the ranks of the oil industry
to become the richest man in the world. Along the way, he built the first
modern multinational corporation, institutionalized philanthropy—it
was he who underwrote the University of Chicago--and developed a reputation
as a cold-blooded monster. Biographer Ron Chernow has captured the essence
of this man’s remarkable life in Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller,
Sr. (Random House) and after tonight’s game, reveals much more about
one of this century’s greatest icons.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10
SICILY, AMERICA
EXTENSION 720 DISCLAIMER: PLEASE EAT DINNER BEFORE TONIGHT’S
PROGRAM. WE DO NOT WISH TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ONSET OF SPONTANEOUS
HUNGER PANGS.
Vincent Schiavelli is best known for the eccentric, slightly creepy characters
he plays in movies and television. You’ve seen him in One Flew over
the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, and Ghost. But to his Sicilian immigrant
family, he was just another mouth to feed. His book, Bruculinu, America:
Remembrances of Sicilian-American Brooklyn, Told in Stories and Recipes
(Houghton-Mifflin) is one part cookbook, one part memoir, and 100% entertaining.
After tonight’s baseball game, Schiavelli talks Hollywood, Brooklyn,
Sicily and Cacuocciuli Fritti, Cuccia, Alivi Chini…
THURSDAY, JUNE 11
CHILDHOOD PATHOLOGY AND SOCIAL PATHOLOGY
It might take a village to raise a child, but then ours is a divisive,
distracted and fractious town if it somehow enabled the recent tragic
massacres in Oregon and in Arkansas. Blame it on permissive parents, ineffectual
teachers, schools dedicated to "self-esteem" rather than education,
violence on television, easy access to firearms, and so on; it is clear
that something has gone terribly wrong. Tonight, Wendy Shalit and Heather
Mac Donald, writers for the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, join
us not to assign blame but to examine how family, school, and other institutions
are failing and often warping our children.
FRIDAY, JUNE 12
NURSES ON THE MEDICAL FRONT
As a critical care nurse for 17 years, Echo Heron began writing about
her experiences as the primary caregiver at doctor’s offices and
hospitals. Her latest contribution, Tending Lives: Nurses on the Medical
Front (Ballantine), arrives on the shelves at a time when the American
healthcare system is dramatically changing. Heron has mastered the art
of telling her life story, and tonight after the early game, she and two
Chicago nurses will discuss the everyday truth and reality behind the
caring profession.
MONDAY, JUNE 15
After tonight’s Cubs game, we might run tapes or we might have a
very special guest in studio, but we will promise to make it as captivating
as a Kerry Wood no-hitter.
TUESDAY, JUNE 16
READING PEOPLE
Prosecutors and defense lawyers look for specific clues—in the way
someone walks, talks, sits, dresses--to judge the behavior of potential
jurors. According to America’s best-known jury consultant and author
of Reading People (Random House) Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, these same clues
are useful predictors on the job, in relationships and at home. This evening,
Dimitrius and a panel of experts not only reveal their formulae for assembling
a jury but how to take stock of someone or something and use that information
to make life’s most important decisions.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17
CHEFS’ SPECIAL
It’s not every day that four of Chicago’s most talented chefs
get together to talk shop. Of course, anything is possible, so tonight,
that is exactly what is on the menu. The panel, including Sarah Stegner
of the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room, will start with an appetizer of fresh
perspective on their careers, and next will partake of an impudent and
saucy discussion on what really happens behind those swinging doors, and
finish off with a sweet appraisal of restaurants in Chicago, not to mention
some great recipes and cooking tips.
THURSDAY, JUNE 18
One of the photographs in John Lewis’ new book, Walking with the
Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (Simon and Schuster) depicts a significant
moment in the Civil Rights movement—his meeting with President Johnson—where
he sits passively, listening, as the President talks and talks and talks.
But John Lewis has been an activist his entire life. The son of an Alabaman
sharecropper, he grew up to be one of the civil rights struggle’s
most courageous leaders, and ultimately, to be a United States Congressman.
He is our guest tonight as we look back on the experiences of a remarkable
American during a tumultuous period of our history.
FRIDAY, JUNE 19
LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON
Robert Dallek’s book, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times
1961-1973 (Oxford University Press) does not contain the above-mentioned
photo but it does capture the character of the 36th president of the United
States in all of his extroverted, manipulative, conflicted, and insecure
glory, through his ascension to President, the years of the Great Society
and the Viet Nam War to his tragic decline after his resignation in 1968.
This evening, Dallek joins us as we continue our examination of the ever-fascinating
decade of the 60’s through the lens of Lyndon Baines Johnson.
MONDAY, JUNE 22
Tonight’s post-Cubs game program is as of yet unplanned, but stay
tune for a close examination of …
TUESDAY, JUNE 23
HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS
School is out for the summer, and while students are off frolicking at
the beach, their teachers will be hard at work, teaching summer school,
taking classes or appearing on tonight’s program. Four teachers,
representing different high schools in and around Chicago, will reflect
on their experiences as mentors, instructors, counselors, friends and
disciplinarians and how they try to convey the intricacies of calculus,
geography, science, history, language, and English to students who would
probably much rather be channel surfing.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24
PRESIDENTIAL SCANDALS
The common wisdom is that Richard Nixon’s Watergate debacle was a
pivotal event in modern history in part because it sullied the Office
of the President. Short-sighted historians and pundits seem to forget
what happened back in 1923, when President Warren Harding died under mysterious
circumstances. In his new book, Florence Harding: The First Lady, the
Jazz Age, and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President (William
Morrow), Carl Anthony Sferrazza details the scandal-plagued reign of Harding,
including influence-peddling, the Teapot Dome controversy, bribery, extramarital
affairs, and ultimately his death, and how his wife carried on despite
these hardships. Tonight’s panel, including Sferrzza and two presidential
historians, discusses the crooked road this nation’s most powerful
men (and women) have traveled.
THURSDAY, JUNE 25
DANIEL TUCKER
His name is familiar to any music aficionado because of his unusual musical
compositions, like his new opera Many Moons. His name might also ring
a bell to regular readers of the Chicago Tribune because of his thoughtful
contributions to the Editorial page. Or, it just may be that you recognize
his name because he is one of Extension 720’s regular book reviewers.
Dan Tucker, one of our town’s most literate Renaissance men joins
us tonight to play his music and talk about his adventures and misadventures
over a long and varied career.
FRIDAY, JUNE 26
FROM THE VAULT
We will play previously unaired interviews from the archives after tonight’s
ball game. Some possibilities include Joe Graedon on his book The People’s
Pharmacy (St. Martin’s Press) or Jane Hertenstein, whose new book
Orphan Girl (Cornerstone Press), is a biography of a Chicago homeless
woman.
MONDAY, JUNE 29
Tonight, tune in for a full two hour program that’s been left open
for the news du jour.
TUESDAY, JUNE 30
FROM THE VAULT, II
Look forward to more tantalizing taped interviews after the game tonight!
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