http://forum-network.org (c) 2010 WGBH Educational Foundation NPR API RSS Generator 0.93 en-us Weekly lecture by authors reading and discussing their latest works. Go on, live and learn by explor WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts Forum Network forumnetwork@wgbh.org Forum Network no http://media.npr.org/images/podcasts/thumbnail/icon_510191.png http://forum-network.org Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:49:44 -0400 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:49:44 -0400 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/124794987/WGBH_124794987.mp3 Harvard Graduate School of Education,Education,Literature Philosophy,World,21st Century,Authors,Professional Development,Teacher Education,author,book,Books,classroom,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 77:11 no 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, discusses mind-body problems with her husband, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.]]> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:37:08 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/124545943/WGBH_124545943.mp3 PEN New England,Culture Identity,Literature Philosophy,Science Nature,North America,21st Century,Authors,Psychology,Science,Fiction,Non Fiction,Philosophy,Jewish,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 83:49 no Three Days Before the Shooting. At his death in 1994, Ralph Ellison left behind roughly two thousand pages of his unfinished second novel, which he had spent nearly four decades writing. Long awaited, it was to have been the work Ellison intended to follow his masterpiece, Invisible Man. He died without a literary executor, so the choice fell to his wife Fanny. She chose Ellison scholar and friend of the family John Callahan, who with student-turned-colleague Adam Bradley dove into the unfinished text. Three Days Before the Shooting gathers together in one volume, for the first time, all the parts of that planned opus, including three major sequences never before published. Set in the frame of a deathbed vigil, the story is a multigenerational saga centered on the assassination of the controversial, race-baiting US senator Adam Sunraider, who is being tended to by "Daddy" Hickman, the elderly black jazz musician turned preacher who raised the orphan Sunraider as a light-skinned black in rural Georgia. Presented in their unexpurgated, provisional state, the narrative sequences form a deeply poetic, moving, and profoundly entertaining book, brimming with humor and tension, composed in Ellison's jazz-inspired prose style and marked by his incomparable ear for vernacular speech. Beyond its richly compelling narratives, Three Days Before the Shooting is perhaps most notable for its extraordinary insight into the creative process of one of this country's greatest writers. In various stages of composition and revision, its typescripts and computer files testify to Ellison's achievement and struggle with his material from the mid-1950s until his death 40 years later. Three Days Before the Shooting is an essential piece of Ralph Ellison's legacy, and its publication is to be welcomed as a major event for American arts and letters.]]> Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:24:40 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/124456828/WGBH_124456828.mp3 Harvard Book Store,Harvard Du Bois Institute,Literature Philosophy,North America,20th Century,Authors,Culture,Human Rights,Print,African American,Fiction,North American,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 49:34 no A Friend of the Family, which tackles the precarious balance of family expectations and the widely-felt consequences that can result when those expectations are interrupted. Pete Dizinoff has spent years working toward a life that would be, by all measures, deemed successful. A skilled internist, he's built a thriving practice in suburban New Jersey. He has a devoted wife, a network of close friends, and an impressive house, and most important, he has a son, Alec, on whom he's pinned all his hopes. Pete has afforded Alec every opportunity, bailed him out of close calls with the law, and even ensured his acceptance into a good college. But Pete never counted on the wild card: Laura, his best friend's daughter—10 years older than Alec, irresistibly beautiful, with a past so shocking that it's never spoken of. When Laura sets her sights on Alec, Pete sees his plans for his son not just unraveling but being destroyed completely. Believing he has only the best of intentions, he sets out to derail this romance and rescue his son. He could never have foreseen how his whole world would shatter in the process.]]> Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:17:27 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/124056925/WGBH_124056925.mp3 Harvard Book Store,Culture Identity,Literature Philosophy,North America,21st Century,Authors,Family Issues,Fiction,North American,Men s Issues,Sexuality,internist,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 32:47 no The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the US Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple 90-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third. In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from homeland security to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.]]> Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:09:14 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/123824112/WGBH_123824112.mp3 Harvard Book Store,Business Economics,Health Happiness,North America,20th Century,21st Century,Science,Career,Astronomy Space,Non Fiction,North American,Air Force,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 53:25 no Candyfreak, My Life in Heavy Metal) reads from his new book, This Won't Take but a Minute, Honey, and discusses why he chose to publish the book using Harvard Book Store's Espresso Book Machine. This Won't Take but a Minute, Honey is a quirky resource for budding writers, a sort of freaky Strunk and White. Read through in one direction to find tiny little short stories of a page each. Flip the book over and find mini essays on the psychology and practice of writing. Whichever way you look at it, you're sure to find a nugget of inspiration for your next project.]]> Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:41:22 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/123574483/WGBH_123574483.mp3 Harvard Book Store,Art Architecture,Culture Identity,Literature Philosophy,North America,21st Century,Authors,Criticism,Fiction,Non Fiction,Writing Process,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 53:58 no Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:37:32 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/123346894/WGBH_123346894.mp3 Cambridge Forum,History,Literature Philosophy,Politics Public Affairs,North America,20th Century,21st Century,Activism,Authors,Human Rights,Military Warfare,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 79:05 no Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:35:20 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/123054795/WGBH_123054795.mp3 WGBH Station,Business Economics,Culture Identity,History,Literature Philosophy,People Places,Politics Public Affairs,World,21st Century,Activism,Anthropology,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 55:11 no Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:54:47 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/122783106/WGBH_122783106.mp3 WGBH Station,Business Economics,Culture Identity,History,Literature Philosophy,People Places,Politics Public Affairs,World,21st Century,Authors,Human Rights,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 55:10 no Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:56:26 -0500 http://forum-network.org http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/396/510191/122364768/WGBH_122364768.mp3 WGBH Station,Business Economics,Culture Identity,Health Science,Literature Philosophy,People Places,Politics Public Affairs,World,21st Century,Anthropology,WGBH,WGBH FM,WGBH Forum Network Book Tour,Boston,Massachusetts 55:08 no