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ThoughtCast

ThoughtCast is an ideaspace for today’s top thinkers, hosted by Jenny Attiyeh. Its focus is on in-depth conversations with key authors, academics and intellectuals, in audio and video format. ThoughtCast is that rare hybrid - a program that is both informative and engaging - a synergy between mass media and the ivory tower.

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The Promise of Open Media in Iran

Thu, Jun 25, 2009

At the first ever Open Video Conference, held at New York University in Manhattan in the summer of 2009, participants pondered the significance of the open media movement, at a time when its tools are being put to use by protesters in Iran. The social networking tools Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have revolutionized communication, and impacted events as they unfold. ThoughtCast spoke with Xeni Jardin, of Boing Boing fame, and Dean Jansen with the Participatory Culture Foundation, among others, about the potential of this movement to effect social change.

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Turbulent Times at the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

Fri, Apr 3, 2009

The 2009 Narrative Journalism conference, sponsored by Harvard University's Nieman Foundation, was titled *Telling True Stories in Turbulent Times*. With news bureaus shrinking and newspapers folding, these are hard days for narrative journalists: they need space, time and funding to do their work, all of which are in short supply in today's web-driven media economy. ThoughtCast spoke with several of the presenters at the conference, including keynote speaker and Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, award-winning author and journalist Adam Hochschild, and Nieman’s own Joshua Benton.

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Niall Ferguson on the American "Empire"

Wed, Jul 23, 2008

The Scottish historian Niall Ferguson is, in some ways, the Russell Crowe of the academic world: charismatic, unconventional, and definitely controversial. He's also a big fan of the British Empire — and wants the United States to follow in its footsteps. That means it’s our job to form colonies in hot climates, for years on end. But are we up for this? While Niall would like that to be the case, he doesn’t really think so, because, he says, we’re an empire "in denial" … ThoughtCast speaks with Ferguson in his office at Harvard University.

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Rebecca Goldstein: The Atheist with a Soul

Sat, Jan 30, 2010

Author and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein discusses her latest work, *36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction*, which is perhaps best described as a hybrid. It is indeed a novel, with its share of psychology, mathematics, and academic politics, but it concludes with an appendix outlining these 36 arguments, as well as their rebuttals, in the language not of fiction, but of philosophy. So, as in many of Goldstein’s earlier novels, this one manages to fold ideas into art. Rebecca Goldstein received her doctorate in philosophy from Princeton, and went on to teach philosophy before trying her pen at fiction. Her first novel, *The Mind-Body Problem*, was a critical success, and she went on to write five other novels, including *Properties of Light*, *Mazel*, and *The Dark Sister*. She has also written non-fiction studies of the mathematician Kurt Godel, and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza. ThoughtCast speaks with Goldstein in her home in the Leather District, in downtown Boston.

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Classical Music Impresario Ernest Fleishmann

Tue, Dec 15, 2009

Ernest Fleischmann, the former General Manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, can be credited with turning this once provincial institution into a world famous orchestra. He was also instrumental in hiring Esa-Pekka Salonen, the famous Finnish music director and composer, and more recently the flamboyant Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who, baton in hand, has taken the classical music world by storm. Now in his 80's, Ernest looks back at his career in a conversation with ThoughtCast, at his home in the Hollywood Hills.

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Jonah Lehrer on Emotional Hijacking and How We Decide

Mon, Jul 20, 2009

Jonah Lehrer, the author of *Proust was a Neuroscientist*, has come out with a new book called *How We Decide*, which examines the science of decision making. Following his talk at the Harvard Bookstore, ThoughtCast speaks with Lehrer about the value of emotion in making rational decisions, the power of wishful thinking to hijack our reason, and the potential to retrain the brain via the mind.

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Simon Johnson Takes on Banks Deemed Too Big to Fail

Fri, Apr 2, 2010

Simon Johnson, the Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, is an outspoken critic of the US government's response to the financial crisis. Now he takes on the "too big to fail" banks, which continue to threaten our economy. In his latest book, called *13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown*, which he co-wrote with James Kwak, Simon argues that if the biggest banks aren’t cut down to size, it’s only a matter of time before we face another financial crisis. And once again, the government (the taxpayers) will be obliged to step in and bail out these behemoths… In Simon's words, if they're too big to fail -- they're too big to exist. Simon Johnson spoke with ThoughtCast at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Coral Reefs, Hermit Crabs, and Tube Worms (Part 1)

Mon, Apr 26, 2010

Randi Rotjan, a coral ecologist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, shares stories from her time spent studying coral reefs. Randi has been stung by jellyfish, coral, you name it. It's all part of the job, studying coral reefs on location in exotic locales like the Red Sea or the Phoenix Islands, the world's largest marine protected area. She goes face to face with hermit crabs as they line up, after the usual jostling, to form "vacancy chains", waiting to trade in their old shells for newer, larger ones. It's the classic upgrade, and it follows rules--perhaps ones we humans might care to copy. Rules abound undersea--as does death. If the water temperature is too warm, corals bleach, starve, and die. And if the tube worms that thrive near deep sea hydrothermal vents venture too far from the fissure, they'll freeze. But most of the time, they're doing just fine, thank you, feasting on the poisonous spewing gases they're so fond of. Note: this is part 1 of 2 with Randi Rotjan, and it features an audio interview. Part 2 features a short video on the subject of corollivary, the eating of coral by fish.

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Faculty Insight: Creativity and Madness with Shelley Carson

Thu, Dec 16, 2010

Faculty Insight is produced in partnership with Harvard University Extension School, and ThoughtCast. This fourth interview of the series is with Shelley Carson, an associate of Harvard University’s Department of Psychology, a lecturer at Harvard Extension School, and also a blogger for *Psychology Today* and the *Huffington Post*. Carson’s scholarship focuses largely on the connection between creativity and mental illness. While it’s common knowledge that artists and writers have a tendency towards depression (and alcoholism), only recently has the link been so clearly established. But Carson also argues that creativity is not just the province of an elect few, it’s a trait that, with a bit of effort, we can all claim for ourselves. Her new book, called *Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity and Innovation in Your Life*, lays out a clear method for awakening and encouraging our own inherent creativity. Carson’s expertise also extends to the subject of resilience, and if there’s anything this planet needs, it’s the ability to bounce back, and live to fight another day. Her research has also caught the attention of the Department of Defense, where she consults on web-based PTSD treatments for soldiers recovering from trauma.

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Faculty Insight: Islam in the West-–A Clash of Civilizations?

Wed, Nov 10, 2010

Faculty Insight is produced in partnership with Harvard University Extension School and ThoughtCast. This third interview of the series is with Jocelyne Cesari, a level-headed yet astute specialist in contemporary Islamic society. Muslims who live in the Western world today face multiple challenges — suspicion, isolation, ignorance, fear. And post-9/11, of course, they carry the weight of that violent attack. So how are we to move forward, in an enlightened, inclusive manner? How ought we to apply our secular, humanist and individualistic values at such a time? For starters, let’s listen to Jocelyne Cesari. She might not have all the answers, but as the director of the inter-faculty Islam in the West Program, she’s clearly the right person to ask. She is also an associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Center for European Studies at Harvard, and teaches in Harvard’s Department of Government, its Divinity School and its Extension School.

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