September
2002 Shows
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MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 2ND
LABOR DAY NEWS REVIEW
The topic on everyone's mind remains Iraq: will we or won't
we? But many other issues are on the table as we approach the
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks-and looming over the American
political scene are the midterm elections, now just two months
away. We'll be conducting a full news review tonight, with JOHN
McADAMS of Marquette University, ART CYR of Carthage College,
and STEVE FRANKLIN of the Chicago Tribune.
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3RD
Following the 7:05pm Cubs game, we will either be airing a
recorded interview or "going live" with another special guest.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 4TH
THE
HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE WEHRMACHT
In recent years, historical research has produced enormous
evidence that the German Wehrmacht not only was aware of the ongoing
slaughter of European Jewry by the Nazi regime, but was a willing
and active participant. Now, BRYAN MARK RIGG has uncovered an
even more startling fact in his latest research on the German
army: thousands of Jews fought, often with distinction, on both
Eastern and Western fronts for the Wehrmacht during World War
II. The book Rigg has just completed is 
Hitler's
Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men
of Jewish Descent in the German Military, and he'll join us
for the full two hours beginning at 9:00pm.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH
THE
ART OF POLLING
The reading of popular opinion is a political art as old as
politics itself. But the science of the polling process is a twentieth
century phenomenon that continues to evolve. MELVIN HOLLI of the
University of Illinois, Chicago, has produced a new study that
examines the birth of modern polling: 
The
Wizard of Washington: Emil Hurja,Franklin Roosevelt,and the Birth
of Public Opinion Polling. He'll be with us tonight along
with some experts on the uses and methodology of modern polling
for a broad discussion.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6TH
Taped interviews will follow Cubs baseball, as Rosh Hashanah
begins at sundown.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 9TH
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH
On each of these nights following 7:05pm Cubs games, we may
have live guests or air previously recorded interviews. Tune in
after baseball to find out.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 11TH
TERRORISM
NOTE: TONIGHT'S PROGRAM BEGINS AT 8:30PM: A year has now passed
since the horrific and fateful terrorist attacks that felled the
World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon, and ended the lives of
some 3,000 Americans. Tonight, we'll look back on the past year
and what the war against terrorism holds in the near and long
term. Among our guests will be ALAN DERSHOWITZ of Harvard Law
School, one of the most prominent lawyers in the United States
and author of 
Why
Terrorism Works. He'll be with us for the full program, along
with some of our local experts, as we reexamine the historic ramifications
of September 11th.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12TH
BASEBALL'S NATURAL--POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 24th
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH
TECHNOGADGETS
Former WGN Radio host ED CURRAN now runs his own website,
www.technogadgets.com, and is recognized as one of the most knowledgable
technogadget observers in the country. Tonight, he joins us after
the 6:10pm game to reveal the latest in technological toys, both
fun and practical. So grab your robotic puppy, teach him to sit
down, and enjoy tonight's program.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH
THE MAJESTY OF SHAKESPEARE
Perhaps the greatest actor of the twentieth century, Laurence
Olivier, said that Shakespeare was "the nearest thing in incarnation
to the eye of God," and Shakespeare's contemporary rival, Ben
Jonson, said simply that "He was not of an age, but for all time!"
Necessarily, we again turn to the great master-and where better
to look in Chicago than to the renowned Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Its director, BARBARA GAINES, with three actors, will join us
to discuss and perform several scenes from the Shakespearean classics.
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 17TH
TURKEY
AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Though often overlooked, Turkey is one of the lynchpins of
world politics, and has been for hundreds of years. No longer
the Sick Man of Europe whose crumbling empire helped to foment
the First World War, Turkey is a pivotal ally of the United States,
a crucial part of the security of Southeastern Europe and the
Middle East, and could play a substantial role in an Iraqi war.
STEPHEN KINZER of The New York Times, a longtime foreign correspondent
now based in Chicago, is our guest tonight as we discuss the possibility
of impending war with Saddam, the role of Turkey in the Middle
East, and other current hot topics in international relations.
His book is 
Crescent
and Star: Turkey between Two Worlds.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 18TH
THE PERILS OF THE INFORMATION AGE
We live in an age of unprecedented technological innovation
and excitement. It is difficult, for example, to believe that
just a decade ago, economy and society functioned without email
and the internet. But at what cost? Is technology isolating us
and undermining traditional relationships? Our guest tonight,
QUENTIN SCHULTZE examines the issue in 
Habits
of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtously in the Information Age.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19TH
CATHOLICISM
IN AMERICA
Is Catholicism compatible with Americanism? The latter's focus
on freedom of expression, capitalist enterprise, accumulation
of material wealth, and an oft-decadent pop culture often do seem
at odds with the teachings of the church. Yet nearly a third of
Americans call themselves "Catholic." JAY DOLAN, a professor of
history at the University of Notre Dame, the nation's foremost
Catholic university, addresses the disparity between American
culture and Catholic doctrine in his new book 
In
Search of an American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture
in Tension. He'll join us this evening following Cubs baseball.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20TH
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MARTYRDOM
The phenomenon of suicide bombing witnessed its horrific height
last September 11 and continues to plague Israel. But what is
the psychology of the suicide bomber-more specifically, what motivations
or deficiencies lead toward the creation of a cult of martyrdom
that fuels such volunteers? KAL KAPLAN, a psychologist at UIC
and Wayne State University, has studied the issue closely. He
joins us tonight after the game.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 23RD
COSMOLOGY
It's time for another look at the eternally fascinating cosmos.
MARCELO GLEISER, a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth
College, has authored 
The
Prophet and the Astronomer: A Scientific Journey to the End of
Time. He examines the timeless obsession with "the end of
the world," from the apocalypse foretold in Revelations to modern
science's ongoing identification of multiple cataclysmic threats,
including the impact of comets and asteroids on earthly life;
the likelihood of future collisions; the meaning of solar eclipses
and the death of stars; the implications of black holes for time
travel; and the ultimate fate of the universe and of time. We'll
discuss all these issues and more, with Gleiser and our old friend
MICHAEL TURNER of the University of Chicago, one of the world's
foremost cosmologists.
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH
BASEBALL'S NATURAL
All baseball fans know Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in 'The
Natural'--"the greatest ever in the game." In the film, his early
dreams of glory were sidetracked by a near-fatal gunshot wound
just as he was rising to stardom. Fewer people, however, realize
that 'The Natural' was based on the true story of Eddie Waitkus,
who played for several years with the Cubs, and suffered a similar
fate-but without the happy ending. JOHN THEODORE's new book about
this extraordinary story is 
Baseball's
Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus, and he'll join us tonight
following the 7:05pm ballgame.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 25TH
Following the 7:05pm game, we'll have either recently recorded
interviews or live guests.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 26TH
CULTURE OF MORALITY
ELLIOT TURIEL is professor in the Graduate School of Education
at the University of California and an affiliate in Berkeley's
Department of Psychology. His latest book 
The
Culture of Morality: Social Development, Context, and Conflict,
attempts to analyze, in Turiel's words, "how explanations of social
and moral development inform our understandings of morality and
culture." Essentially, he is critiquing those who see an American
moral decline. Tonight, we'll debate the issue of what "morality"
means, how it came to be defined, and whether there is, in fact,
a morality crisis in modern American society.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH
THE
CIVIL WAR: WEST AND EAST
The struggles between the Army of Northern Virginia and the
Army of the Potomac are known to all Civil War buffs. Somewhat
less known, but still widely researched, are the huge campaigns
in the West that may, in fact, have been decisive. But perhaps
the least understood "theater" of that struggle was the unconventional
campaigns far west of Shiloh, Vicksburg and Atlanta-namely, the
Confederate guerilla operations in Missouri and Kansas, the characters
of which included William Quantrill, "Bloody" Bill Anderson, and
Jesse James. T.J. STILES, one of our guests tonight, has produced
a new biography of James that has great relevance to Confederate
history, 
Jesse
James: Last Rebel of The Civil WarJESSE JAMES: LAST REBEL
OF THE CIVIL WAR. We'll look at all theaters of the War between
the States-both well-known and overlooked-with a full panel beginning
at 9:00pm.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 30TH
THE
WORLD OF AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE
Two CIA veterans join us tonight to discuss their careers,
the craft of intelligence, and the future of the American intelligence
community. ANTONIO MENDEZ is the former chief of disguise for
the CIA and a recipient of its Intelligence Star of Valor. His
wife, JONNA MENDEZ, spent 27 years as an operations officer with
the Agency. Their enemies were in the KGB during the late-Cold
War, a story told in their book 
Spy
Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations
that Helped Win the Cold War. They'll tell that story in detail
tonight but, more importantly, we'll examine the role of intelligence
in our ongoing struggleb against our current enemies.
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