May 2003
Shows
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THURSDAY MAY 1ST
KHRUSHCHEV
AND HIS ERA
Nikita Khrushchev’s rants of "We will bury you!"
and his shoe-pounding antics at the UN solidified him in the minds
of the west as the personification of the communist threat. In
fact, Khrushchev was a highly complex and intelligent man who
served in several key campaigns against the Nazis, denounced Stalin
in 1956, and was later ousted from power for perceived softness
by Soviet hardliners. A major new biography has just appeared
and its author is our guest this evening. WILLIAM TAUBMAN is professor
of history at Amherst and his new book is 
Khrushchev:
The Man and His Era. Beginning at 9:00pm, we will examine
the tumultous times of this highly unusual leader, from the Soviet
Revolution to Stalingrad and Kursk and all the way through the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
FRIDAY
MAY 2ND
COSMOLOGY
Our understanding of the universe keeps changing and, thus, it
is time for another one of our cosmology reviews. MICHAEL LEMONICK
is our featured guest this evening. His new book 
Echo
of the Big Bang examines the birth of the universe and all
the questions inherent in the Big Bang. Our old friend ROCKY KOLB
of the University of Chicago Department of Astrophysics joins
in the discussion.
MONDAY
MAY 5TH
TUESDAY MAY 6TH
Taped interviews will follow 7:05pm Cubs baseball. Among the possibilities:
FAREED ZAKARIA on THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM; ALAN BRINKLEY on HENRY
FORD; ALEXANDER VON HOFFMAN on urban renewal; and LAURO MARTINES
on the plot against the Medici.
WEDNESDAY
MAY 7TH
GULAG:
THE FORGOTTEN TRAGEDY
In the dark annals of 20th century horrors, only a few surpassed
that of the Soviet Gulag, through which some 18 million people
passed between 1929 and 1953, and where at least 4.5 million perished.
An acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei (Main Camp Administration),
the Gulag has been graphically detailed in Solzhenitzyn's Gulag
Archipelago and other Russian sources but remains misunderstood
in the West. ANNE APPLEBAUM, a veteran reporter and expert on
Eastern Europe, and our guest this evening, tries to correct this
problem with a major new work: 
Gulag:
A History. Our look into one of the great tragedies of the
20th century begins at 9:00pm.
THURSDAY
MAY 8TH
THE SARS THREAT
Despite the WHO’s recent declaration that the SARS outbreak
is largely under control, the world remains on edge. Many are
speculating that it may become the “Chinese Chernobyl.”
Where do such destructive diseases originate, how are they transmitted,
what can we do to protect ourselves? Our panel of medical experts
tonight will address all these questions. They include epidemiologists
STEVEN WEBER and SARA VAN ORMAN of the University of Chicago Medical
Center and molecular virologist SUSAN BAKER of Loyola University.
FRIDAY
MAY 9TH
THE EVOLUTION OF SPEECHMAKING
What makes a great speech? Everyone has been inspired by The Gettysburg
Address and Churchill’s Finest Hour speech, for example—-but
why were they so effective (if, in fact, they were effective)?
John Morley once offered an opinion: “Three things matter
in a speech: who says it, how he says it, and what he says—-and,
of the three, the last matters the least.” Is he right?
Tonight, we will examine the evolution of rhetoric and speechmaking
with MICHAEL LEFF of Northwestern University and we will, of course,
listen to a bevy of historical speeches.
MONDAY
MAY 12TH
THE
CHINESE IN AMERICA
Several years ago, IRIS CHANG created an intense historical furor
with the publication of ‘The Rape of Nanking,’ a startling
chronicle of the Japanese war against China. Now, she turns her
focus to the Chinese experience in the United States. From the
earliest immigrants and the notoriously-treated railroad workers
to the development of “Chinatowns” throughout America’s
big cities and the continued flourishing of Chinese descendents,
Chang traces the dynamic history of the Chinese immigrants. Her
new book is 
The
Chinese in America and she will join us following the 7:05pm
ballgame.
TUESDAY
MAY 13TH
WEDNESDAY MAY 14TH
Taped interviews will follow 7:05pm baseball. Among the possibilities:
FAREED ZAKARIA on THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM; ALAN BRINKLEY on HENRY
FORD; ALEXANDER VON HOFFMAN on urban renewal; JAMES WATSON on
the discovery of DNA; SAMANTHA POWER on America in the age of
genocide; and LAURO MARTINES on the plot against the Medici.
THURSDAY
MAY 15TH
THE PRODUCERS
After a 26-month stint at Extension 720, our producer BARRY REGAN
is finally moving on. In commemoration, tonight we offer a time-honored
Extension 720 program: the gathering of the outgoing producer
and two of his predecessors for a look behind the scenes of Extension
720. Check back to this site for more details.
FRIDAY
MAY 16TH
Taped interviews, or a live segment, will follow 7:05pm baseball.
Check back to this site for updates.
MONDAY
MAY 19TH
THE
COMPUTER: A SHORT HISTORY
Before Amazon.com, before Microsoft, before Dell, before Apple,
the world knew computers through three simple initials. International
Business Machines, known to the world as IBM, began, in the humblest
of circumstances, as the failing Computer-Tabulating-Recording
Company in 1914. By the end of the century, thanks in considerable
part to IBM, the personal computer had become perhaps the most
important invention since the printing press. How did it evolve
to become such a vital part of our lives? And what further evolution
is to be expected? Three relevant guests join us tonight in this
discussion. One of them, KEVIN MANEY, has just authored 
The
Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of
IBM.
TUESDAY
MAY 20TH
THE
GOSPEL OF THOMAS
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—-and Thomas? The New Testament
gospels are familiar to all students of the Bible, but, due to
early church politics, little is known about the secret gospel
of Thomas. Chastised by John as a fool (“Doubting Thomas’),
Thomas may, in fact, hold the key to understanding the birth of
Christianity. So says our guest tonight, ELAINE PAGELS, in her
new book 
Beyond
Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas. Her previous books include
‘The Gnostic Gospels’ and ‘The Origin of Satan,’
and she joins us after baseball tonight.
WEDNESDAY
MAY 21ST
THE
CAREER GAME
Down on your luck? Recently laid off? Or simply unhappy with your
job? Our guest tonight is CAROL KLEIMAN, the careers writer for
The Chicago Tribune, and she has the prescription to cure your
working blues. Her latest book is 
Winning
the Job Game: The New Rules for Finding and Keeping the Job You
Want, and she'll reveal her secret tips, beginning at right
after the 6:05pm ballgame.
THURSDAY
MAY 22ND
CORRUPTION IN CITY AND STATE
Corruption in Chicago? Nah!...though Richard J. Daley did once
say, "If our Lord couldn't have perfection, how are you going
to have it in city government." If you listen to TERRY NORTON,
the executive director of the Better Government Association, a
former director of the BGA, we may indeed have a few "issues"
in our city (and state) government. He'll explain more fully tonight,
and offer the BGA's prescriptions for curing our corruptive tendencies,
beginning right after Cubs baseball.
FRIDAY
MAY 23RD
Taped interviews will follow 7:05pm Cubs baseball. Among the possibilities:
FAREED ZAKARIA on THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM; ALAN BRINKLEY on HENRY
FORD; ALEXANDER VON HOFFMAN on urban renewal; JAMES WATSON on
the discovery of DNA; SAMANTHA POWER on America in the age of
genocide; and LAURO MARTINES on the plot against the Medici.
MONDAY
MAY 26TH
MEMORIAL DAY
On this sacred holiday honoring our war dead, we gather the veterans
of the Second World War. Check back to this website for updates
on this special edition of Extension 720.
TUESDAY
MAY 27TH
Taped interviews will follow 7:05pm baseball. Check back to this
site for updates.
WEDNESDAY
MAY 28TH
GENOCIDE
Among all the horrors of the twentieth century, the advent of
genocide was unique in its implications and practice. The attempted
destruction of whole populations and races engulfed every continent
and slaughtered millions upon millions at the behest of the state.
Sadly, the 1990s experience of Rwanda, Bosnia, and elsewhere,
has proven that the phenomenon has not subsided. What motivates
the perpetrators of genocide and why did the 20th Century witness
mass destruction of peoples on such unprecedented levels? ERIC
WEITZ, our guest this evening, has studied four of the major genocidal
outbreaks (Stalin’s war against his ethnic enemies, the
Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot,
and the recent ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia) and published his
findings in 
A
Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation. He joins
us tonight, beginning at 9:00pm.
THURSDAY
MAY 29TH
THE
CIVIL WAR AND ITS GENERALS
ROY BLOUNT is one of the leading humorists in America but, unbeknownest
to most, he is also a great Civil War buff and historian of the
South. He has just authored a new biography in the Penguin Lives
series, 
Robert
E. Lee, and joins us this evening. We will be discussing the
great Civil War generals (Lee, Jackson, Grant, Sherman, Forrest,
Hancock), the total disasters (Bragg, Burnside, Hood, Pope), and
the mixed bags (McClellan, Albert Sydney Johnston, Meade, Sheridan).
Joining Blount will be DAVID EICHER, a profilic Civil War historian
whose books include 
The
Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War and 
Robert
E. Lee: A Life Portrait. Civil War buffs and armchair generals,
unite! This is your night.
FRIDAY
MAY 30TH
THE BOOKS OF THE QUARTER
Another edition of our quarterly book review program is upon us.
Milt has challenged our panelists with a wide array of recent
works in history, biography, science, religious studies, and the
arts, plus several works of fiction. John Ruskin wrote: "All
books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and
the books of all time." We'll see if any of tonight's choices
reach into the latter category or if our show becomes, to paraphrase
Logan Pearsall Smith, "the gilded tomb of mediocre talent."
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