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May 1998 Shows
FRIDAY, MAY 1
SWINGIN’ THE DREAM
Hey Daddy-O, you ain’t got a thing if you ain’t got that swing.
And if you ain’t got that swing (or if you do), you’d better
tune in for tonight’s lively tour of the popular music of the 1930’s
and 1940’s, better known as swing or big band. Who better to act
as tour guide than Lewis Erenberg, professor of history at Loyola University,
whose new book, Swingin’ the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth
of American Culture (University of Chicago Press) explores how big band
swing broke down racial and class barriers through its musicality and
the dance subculture that it spawned. With the melodies of Glenn Milller,
Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and many others on hand, a great time will
be had by all.
MONDAY, MAY 4
MENTAL ILLNESS
Twenty-five years ago when First Lady Rosalynn Carter began her work as
a mental health activist, people did not speak easily about seeing a shrink,
being depressed or taking Prozac. Such confessional talk has gained some
acceptance today, but Carter still carries on her mission to de-mystify
mental illness. She has written about it in Helping Someone with Mental
Illness : A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers (Times
Books) and tonight, Carter and a panel of experts will elaborate on mental
disease, the methods of prevention and the type of treatment available
today.
TUESDAY, MAY 5
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN FACTORY
In Closing: The Life and Death of the American Factory (Doubletake Books)
co-authors Cathy N. Davidson and Paul Bamberger provide the necessary
images and text to show how the downsizing, streamlining, layoffs and
buyouts have emasculated the once-powerful American factory. After the
ballgame tonight, Davidson describes the death of one factory and the
toll it took on its employees.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Alexander of Macedon invaded modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt,
Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and even sent his armies across
the Danube River, all before his death at age 32. His legendary voyages
and military battles opened up the West and the East for the first time,
and spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean and beyond.
Michael Wood retraced Alexander’s conquests for his new book, In
the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (University of California Press)
and an accompanying PBS documentary. Tonight he and two relevant historians
will analyze the man and the myth, and the political and cultural legacy
left behind by the Alexandrian empire.
THURSDAY, MAY 7
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
She is one of the most articulate, interesting and glamorous conservative
political pundits to grace the television talk shows. But long before
her part-time television career made her famous, Arianna Huffington authored
books on Picasso and Maria Callas. Tonight after the game, she talks about
her most recent literary postcard, Greetings from the Lincoln Bedroom
(Crown Books), and her other adventures in and around Washington.
FRIDAY, MAY 8
WHAT GOES UP, MUST COME DOWN?
Do you want to grow your money, save your money, invest your money, or
move your money? If you care at all about the printed paper in your wallet,
you will want to check out this instructive program on the stock market’s
latest machinations, with financial expert John Rothschild, author of
The Bear Book: Survive and Profit in Ferocious Markets (Wiley). So whether
you’re feeling a little bullish or a little bearish, or you’ve
gotten vertigo from watching the market dip a little and soar a lot, tonight,
tune in for some free advice on $$$.
MONDAY, MAY 11-WEDNESDAY, MAY 13
The Cubs play on the West Coast these nights, and Extension 720 will be
fully preempted.
THURSDAY, MAY 14
INSIDE THE CRIMINAL MIND
Tonight’s two-part examination of the criminal mind will fascinate
and horrify:
One of the unlikely witnesses to the trial of the century was attorney
Daniel Petrocelli. He paid little attention to the O.J. murder case until
Ron Goldman’s family approached him to argue the civil case. He accepted
the challenge and won, and in his book, Triumph of Justice: The Final
Judgment on the Simpson Saga (Crown Books), he offers inside information
about O.J. and the criminal justice system. In the first hour of tonight’s
program, Petrocelli shares these revelations with us. In the second hour,
psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis, and author of Guilty by Reason of Insanity:
A Psychiatrist Explores the Minds of Killers (Fawcett-Columbine) probes
the violent criminal mind to determine what it is that makes a killer.
FRIDAY, MAY 15
After a very early Cubs game, stay tuned for the usual stimulating fare
from Extension 720, still a work in progress.
MONDAY, MAY 18
ISRAEL, JUDAISM AND THE JEWS
Tonight’s program features two remarkable characters, both of whom
have great insight on the larger question of what it means to be a Jew—in
Israel and the United States. Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg was there, in Israel,
in 1949 and is one of the foremost experts on Zionism and the Jewish identity.
Throughout his life, Arnold Wolf, Rabbi of the KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation
in Chicago, has questioned religious traditionalism, has fought for civil
rights and has assiduously studied Jewish history. Their respective new
books, Jews: The Essence and Character of a People (HarperSan Francisco),
and Unfinished Rabbi: Selected Writings of Arnold Jacob Wolf (Ivan R.
Dee Publishers), are testaments to their rich and active lives, which
this evening, they will share with us.
TUESDAY, MAY 19
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MICHAEL KILLIAN
Since 1977, Michael Killian, the Chicago Tribune’s wry observer,
opinionated columnist, and cultural and political correspondent in Washington,
D.C., has covered the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA, Capitol Hill,
and in his inimitable style, the black-tie affairs, the social networks,
and who’s who inside the Beltway. In his spare time, he writes historical
novels, like his latest effort, Major Washington (St. Martin’s Press),
about our first president. Killian joins us after the ballgame tonight
to report on who’s keeping company in the nation’s largest one-company
town
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20
Tonight’s program is like an empty canvas. Well, it is an empty canvas,
but tune in anyway to find out how we’ve painted it.
THURSDAY, MAY 21
FIGHTING FIRE
The scream of the fire engine siren is one of the most chilling sounds
in the noisy city soundscape—all activity freezes to allow the trucks
safe and expedient passage. But what actually happens at the site of the
fire is something only a few people can talk about. Caroline Paul, one
of the first women to join the San Francisco Fire Department and author
of Fighting Fire (St. Martin’s Press) is one such person. Tonight,
she and two members of the Chicago Fire Department will describe their
white-knuckle experiences battling one of nature’s most elemental
forces.
FRIDAY, MAY 22
LIFE IN THE WORKPLACE
The boss is supposed to be a potential mentor, an exemplary manager, and
maybe even an inspiration. It is more likely, of course, that the head
honcho is a poor manager, a text book case of passive-aggression, or an
unethical slimeball. For those who work with the latter rather than the
former, tune in for tonight’s post-ballgame program, with Kathleen
and William Lundin, co-founders of Worklife Productions and co-authors
of When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses: How To Survive in a Crazy ad
Dysfunctional Workplace (McGraw-Hill). They will recommend strategies
on how to transform the workplace into a more productive (and satisfying)
place to do business.
MONDAY, MAY 25
MEMORIAL DAY
World War II aficionados, trivia buffs and curiosity seekers will enjoy
this Memorial Day program with Mike Wright, author of What They Didn't
Teach You About World War II (Presidio Press). His history lesson will
differ from those high school history courses that focused on battlelines,
military strategies, enemies and victors. Wright instead tells unknown
and unusual stories of the war: for example, the etymology of the word
"jeep", the role of the Navaho Indians in the war, the everyday
hardships at basic training camps and the significance of the canine patrol.
Fascinated? Intrigued? Tune in tonight, after the game, to hear more!
TUESDAY, MAY 26
We’ve left this two hour slot of prime time programming open for
whatever comes our way.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27
MICHAEL PALIN
And now, for something completely different. British comedy must have
existed before Monty Python’s Flying Circus but when the BBC exported
it to America in the early 1970’s, its peculiar brand of sophisticated
and slapstick humor caught the attention of just about anyone who liked
to laugh, even dyed-in-the-wool public television devotees. The post -Python
life has been good to Michael Palin, whether as a fish-loving stutterer
in "A Fish Called Wanda", as host of the PBS series "Full
Circle", or now, as author of Hemingway’s Chair (St. Martin’s
Press), a novel about a small town postmaster with a Hemingway hang-up.
He joins us for a delightful evening of storytelling and rib-tickling
comedy.
THURSDAY, MAY 28
LIVE! FROM THE ARCHIVES
We will feature some previously unaired, choice interviews from the Extension
720 vault. Some possibilities include Ian Tattersal, author of Becoming
Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness (Harcourt Brace), Robert Lipsyte,
New York Times columnist and author of In the Country of Illness (Alfred
A Knopf), and D.M. Thomas, author of Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century
in His Life (St. Martin’s Press).
FRIDAY, MAY 29
THE BOOK TRADE
BookExpo 1998, the annual book industry convention, hits town this week-end
and offers breakfasts with A-list authors hawking new books, seminars
on how best to position wacky bookmarks so they will sell, and fancy parties
to fete radio talk show hosts and publicists. There is a serious side
to this business which makes the news regularly: a German publisher has
taken over prestigious Random House Publishers, mid-list authors are forsaken
for brand name bigsellers, and second string celebrities still get hefty
advances to write their memoirs. This evening, a panel of industry insiders,
including Nora Rawlinson, editor-in-chief of Publisher’s Weekly,
discuss the make-it-or-break-it world of book publishing and selling.
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