We went through this week’s show suggestions in our story meeting this morning, and you can find some responses here.
One of the things that came up while we were working through the suggestions was how to explain why some of your interesting questions and ideas — which we depend on to push us to look at things we’ve missed — might not turn into shows right away. Part of the answer is in how we work. We’re not, on a daily basis, completely news driven — in other words, our show is most often not on what’s making the front page of the New York Times that morning. But we do try to cover the big stories of the moment in our own way — often through shows that are topically “linked” (think of links on blogs).
To give you an example of how this works in practice: a couple of weeks ago, when Americans’ dissatisfaction with the Iraq war began to spike after weeks of Bush Administration troubles in Washington, we had to figure out how to cover what was going on. So first we revisited the neocons and whether their ideas have a political future. The next night we looked at the Democrats, and whether they have a politically viable foreign policy alternative. The following week we spoke with a Marine colonel and an Army general about whether or not it makes sense to withdraw from Iraq. And the next night we asked the same questions of an Iranian, a Syrian, and an Iraqi. These were all shows that answered large questions that just fit at that particular time. We probably wouldn’t have done the neocon show 5 months before, even though the questions were in most ways just as interesting then. Our whole race & class series is another example: big big questions, always important — but Katrina gave them a new kind of urgency.
In other words, for some shows, we look for a kind of hook to make them current. That hook, for us, is often a spike in the blogosphere’s conversation about something. But it could also be breaking news. There are so many good show ideas on this thread and out there in the world, but when you can only do four shows a week, you have to be selective somehow. Of course this doesn’t mean we won’t do shows that are completely off the news — e.g. Cuba or graphic novels — but often these answer smaller questions. And we also don’t want big U.S. news to distract us from other stories — in, say, Liberia or Iowa or Venezuela — that may be drowned out in newspapers but that are being reported on blogs. We need and want to do a better job of covering the rest of the world (but it gets harder when, as in the last few weeks, so much has been happening in Washington).
So: one thing that would help us a lot when you send us your ideas would be to think about the “hook,” to tell us why your show idea is the right one to work on right now, today.
Hi Katherine: farreDV on Dover and intelligent design: Yes — we’re going to do this on Tuesday of next week — stay tuned for a relevant post.
You mean Tues as tomorrow (11/22)? Or next week 11/29?
Best,
John
farreDV/John – the Dover/ID show will be tomorrow, 22 November. I’ll try to get a post up soon!
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Show suggestion: “Geisha” film produced by Spielberg
Hook (why now?): DVD came out last week.
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One controversy is the “pan-Asian casting” — The 3 lead Geisha roles were played by Chinese actresses.
Lucy Liu defends the casting.
The casting was so offensive in China that theatrical release was canceled, while bootleg DVDs have been extremely popular.
“Memoirs of a Geisha” DVD came out last week.
Please do a show, and put me on it.
(Listen to me on BBC below.)
See below for Other topics:
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My article on the subject appeared in April in a Japanese monthly magazine.
(Also distributed as a paper magazine in major US cities)
http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=9a2c0cdf24846f77c68102736b6438f6&this_category_id=172
Memoirs from a JA Male (JA=Japanese-American)
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A paper from Jan. 2006:
Politically correct racism and the Geisha novel
— The psychology of sophisticated racism mirrors that of ethnic jokes.
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/2006/Tanaka.html
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=== BBC interview (mp3 from Jan 2006) ===
Tanaka says:
“I like the film, but I must say I _despise_ the novel.”
——- (at 5 min 40 sec)
Tanaka interviewed on Geisha on BBC Radio
Aired Jan 12, 2006 (the day before the film’s UK opening)
(at 8 min 50 sec)
TT: “They call themselves Geiko.” . . .
Bob: “So, even the title of the book isn’t right!”
TT: “That’s exactly correct, yes.”
(at 10 min 20 sec)
Bob: “… kind of forging the stereotype of Japanese men
as being these sex-hungry people that enslave women …”
TT: “That’s exactly what I’m upset about!”
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How about a show on how men and women really are different when it comes to reading.
See also
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1747821,00.html?gusrc=rss
See:
http://tacitus.org/story/2006/4/6/181046/1814
Let the gender war begin!
fc
New topic:
Nobel Prize winner George Olah spoke about methanol on NPR’s Science Friday radio and podcast. He said methanol can be made for $1/gal, can be made from many things — but most significantly — from carbon dioxide, the major component in global warming. Olah speaks slowly and pendantically (?), but what he proposes blows the ethanol and alternate fuels problem away. Wikapedia has an entry for Olah. He has a book out on the subject, so he might be willing to come on an Open Source show.
Pete Townshend.
Pete’s been soaring ahead with a revival of new concepts, material, and amazing new blog/internet communications between himself and participants. Please check out his blog (The Boy Who Heard Music) and his girlfriend’s (Rachel Fuller) online show called “In the Attic”…much fun and in line with what I think Chris L. is interested in.
http://www.petetownshend.co.uk/
http://www.petetownshend.co.uk/diary/display.cfm?id=289&zone=diary
John
First, I want Chris to know that his work on Open Source is greatly superior to The Connection. Open Source is less combative and rude for the sake of “making points” and much more intellectual and thoughtful than the previous show. I’m glad that you and Mary didn’t blow away in the wind when you left The Connection. By the way, under “new management” it is still excessively antagonistic, even rude. Open Source is excellent.
Second, NPR and the member stations claim, especially during fund-raisers, that they are free of commercial influence. I would like an indepth analysis (including self-analysis) of this claim. I suspect thet the “underwriter” language is a legal veil probably to protect the companies and the stations. But to me, the promotional statements for the “underwriters” are ads pure and simple. Why should listners believe that the stations and NPR are free from influence (direct or indirect) from the corporate advertisers? My main point is that I’d like to hear a serious discussion about the contradiction between advertising on public radio and public radio’d hype about being advertising free. I’m more concerned about the aparent hypocracy that with the ads, although I hate the ads.
Here’s the hook: it’s summer vacation for LOTS of American school children. That means idle time for many who can least afford it. As a teacher, I would love to see a discussion about the benefits of a longer school calendar, like many other countries have, as well as an examination of the curricular comparisons. I’ve heard our curricula in America is “wide and shallow” and that other countries’ is “narrow and deep.” But I’ve also heard that we try to educate EVERY kid pretty much the same way through high school, while other countries essentially “track” kids after about age 12.