Sunday, August 28, 2005
Guest: Steven Sherrill
(originally aired February 6, 2005)
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He's not your average English professor. He's a certified welder. He rides a motorcycle. He has a tattoo. But you can't judge a book by its cover. Steven Sherrilll, a professor of English at Penn State Altoona, won critical acclaim for his first novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break. It's been compared to the quirky works of John Irving. We talked with Sherrill about Minotaur, about his second novel, Visits from the Drowned Girl, (his publisher thinks it's Pulitzer-worthy), and about his newest book, which he describes as "Bible stories set in a trailer park."

Sunday, August 21, 2005
Guests: Ron Bailey and Stacy Tibbetts
(originally aired March 27, 2005)
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According to a report issued by the Brookings Institution, years of unfocused public investment in Pennsylvania has not only resulted in billions of wasted tax dollars, but also contributed to sprawl.  What can we do to revitalize the state's stagnant economy?  We talked with Ron Bailey, the executive director of the Campaign to Renew Pennsylvania.

Later in the program, we spoke with Stacy Tibbetts, a seasoned songwriter and entertainer whose 2001 original CD release, "Alleyways," has been called "an eclectic, intelligent blend." He has performed as a professional pit guitarist, as well as a singer/songwriter and he recently wrote the music and lyrics to "Passaparola: The Gourmet Musical," a romantic comedy that is a contemporary updating of Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing.'

Sunday, August 14, 2005
Guests: Marc Silver & Pat Halpin-Murphy
(originally aired February 27, 2005)
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Each year in the United States more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. We talk with Marc Silver, the author of Breast Cancer Husband, a practical guide for men whose wives or girlfriends have been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Later in the program we speak with Pat Halpin-Murphy, a breast cancer survivor who founded the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition.

Sunday, August 7, 2005
Guest: Jim Lichtman (Rebroadcast: This program originally aired December 12, 2004)
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What do you do when you discover something wrong? Do you report it or keep it quiet? Is it more important to be loyal to the company or honest with a client? A new book on ethics poses an ancient and timely question: What Do You Stand For? Nearly 100 people, many of them well-known, share real-life examples when their principles were put to the test or where they were inspired by the principles of others. Author Jim Lichtman is a graduate of the Josephson Institute's Ethics Corp and a popular public speaker on the subject of ethics. His new book, What Do You Stand For? Stories About Principles That Matter, is published by Scribbler's Ink.

Sunday, July 31, 2005
Guest: Bill Kurtis (Rebroadcast: This program originally aired February 20, 2005)
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After observing the workings of the criminal justice system for thirty years, Bill Kurtis, host of the true-crime TV series Cold Case Files and American Justice came to a stunning realization that changed his life:  Capital punishment is wrong and there can be no real justice in America until it is abolished.  We talked with the lawyer turned television investigative journalist who joins a growing chorus of critics who say there must be a serious re-evaluation of the death penalty in this country.  His new book is The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice.  The book is published by BBS Public Affairs.

Sunday, July 24, 2005
Rebroadcast of The Empty Ocean originally broadcast in 2003.
No Archive available

Sunday, July 17, 2005
Guest: Donald Schenider
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You can't see it. Scientific instruments can't detect it. Yet astrophysicists are pretty sure it's there. We're talking about dark energy, thought to be the most abundant form of energy in the universe. Penn State astronomer Donald Schneider is part of a team that deduced the existence of dark energy; the journal Science judged this accomplishment "Breakthrough of the Year " in 2003. He talks about that accomplishment-and about a more recent breakthrough, just announced this April.

Sunday, July 10, 2005
Guest: Coach Rene Portland
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Basketball has been an important and successful part of Rene Portland's life for decades--from playing on a successful high school team to being a distinguished player on a national championship team at Immaculata College in Philadelphia.  After graduating, she spent two winning years at St. Joseph's College before moving to the University of Colorado, where she again had back-to-back winning seasons.  In 1980, she replaced Pat Meiser at Penn State, and guided the women's basketball program into one of the most successful in the nation. Portland will coach her 25th season at Penn State this year.

Sunday, July 3, 2005
Guest: Dr. Stanley Weintraub
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George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the Boston Tea Party.  Those are all familiar names in American history associated with the Revolutionary War. But how many of us know what was going on in England at the time? We spoke with celebrated historian and author, Stanley Weintraub about his new book, Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire, which presents the Revolutionary War from the English point of view.  Dr. Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Penn State, and now lives in Newark, Delaware.

Sunday, June 26, 2005
Guest: Dr. Craig Collison
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Craig Collison was the victim of one of the deadliest infections known to man.  A young physician in his last year of training, Collison underwent surgery to remove a benign fatty tumor from his back.  Within days, Group A Strep-known as "flesh-eating" bacteria-was spreading like wildfire throughout his body.  Surgeons moved fast, removing muscle and skin as the infection moved even faster, killing tissue right before their eyes. He miraculously survived! We spoke with Dr. Craig Collison about the expereince and his book, Tattered Flesh, Resilient Spirit. Dr. Collison is a general pediatrician with Centre Medical and Surgical Associates and Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College, Pennsylvania.

Sunday, June 19, 2005
Guest: Dr. Charles Yesalis
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Much has been written about the dangers of anabolic steroid use, but most books on the subject offer more sensational claims and scare tactics than they do reliable information.  Our next guest has been studying steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs since the 1980s and is one of the world's top experts in the field.  He testified at the U.S. Senate's hearings on steroids in March and has written three books on the subject.  So, what are anabolic steroids?  How do they work?  What are the risks?  Why should parents and kids take the steroid issue seriously? We spoke with Dr. Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor of health policy and administration and exercise sport science.  His most recent book is Anabolic Steroids in Sports and Exercise.

Sunday, June 12, 2005
Guest: Juan Williams
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Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court passed the historical decision in the infamous Brown v. Board of Education trial that mandated integration in our public schools. Looking back at the past fifty years, it's easy to see that we've come a long way. Or have we? We speak wih Juan Williams, one of America's leading journalists and a senior correspondent for NPR's Morning Edition. Williams has more than 25 years of experience in political news media, and joins us today to take a look at what the next fifty years might look like. We'll talk about American politics, past and present, and about the future of contemporary U.S. culture.

Sunday, June 5, 2005
Guest: Bill Marimow
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NPR's audience and its endowment have grown dramatically in recent years. So has its roster of domestic and foreign correspondents. Twenty-nine million Americans tune in to NPR programming weekly, up from 11.5 million in 1994. But some fear the network's increased emphasis on breaking news will come at the expense of deep coverage and pioneering programming. Is NPR at risk of losing its distinctiveness? We talked with Bill Marimow NPR's newest managing editor.

Sunday, May 29, 2005
Guest: Michael Parenti
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Author and activist Michael Parenti says "The enormous gap between what U.S. leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology." The Yale educated Ph.D. lectures to wide range of audiences throughout North America and abroad.  We'll talk with him about his newest book, Superpatriotism.

Sunday, May 22, 2005
Guests: Sandy Schuckers & Rep. Lynn Herman
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Before the Civil War, slaves escaping from southern plantations followed the Underground Railroad to safety-and several routes ran right through Central Pennsylvania. WPSU's Cynthia Berger spoke with Sandy Schuckers, of the Center County Office of Aging. She recently received a grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council to develop a tour about the Underground Railroad in Centre County. Later in the program, WPSU's Greg Petersen talked with State Representative Lynn Herman about the Civil War roundtable in Centre County.

Sunday, May 15, 2005
Guest: Ambassador Joseph Wilson
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On behalf of the CIA, Ambassador Joseph Wilson traveled to Niger in 2002, to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein was purchasing nuclear material from this West African nation. Wilson found no truth to the rumors, yet President Bush cited the alleged uranium connection as part of the rationale for going to war with Iraq. We talked with Ambassador Wilson about the subsequent series of events that forever changed his life.

Sunday, May 8, 2005
Guests: Ann McCauley & members of Hickory Project
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Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived in the boardroom of Hallmark. In fact, the earliest tributes to mothers date back to ancient Greece. In honor of Mother's Day, we'll talk with author Ann McCauley. Her debut novel, Mother Love , is a compelling narrative about family ties, unconditional love, and one woman's journey into self-discovery. Later in the program, Eileen Akin talks with three members of the Wellsboro-based contemporary bluegrass band, The Hickory Project. Their energetic, hard-driving sound has earned them widespread accolades!

Sunday, May 1, 2005
Guest: Bob Frye
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Managing Pennsylvania's white-tailed deer population may be one of the most challenging jobs in the state. While there's growing agreement among wildlife biologists and foresters that white-tailed deer have overpopulated much of their range, hunters say there are too few deer. With so many competing viewpoints, can we find a way to balance a healthy deer herd with the needs of people and the environment? We talked with Bob Frye, author of Balancing Act: Managing White-Tailed Deer in a Changing World.

Sunday, April 24, 2005
Guests: Harry Stokes, Dick Curry, and musicians Jim Colbert, Michelle Katz & Van Wagner
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We continue our celebration of Earth Day with a look at Alternative Energy Projects in Pennsylvania. We talked with two energy consultants who are involved in local projects-one involving solar power, the other involving wind power.  Later in the show, Eileen Akin invited local musicians into the studio, to perform their original compositions with an environmental theme. 

Sunday, April 17, 2005
Guests: Jeff Schmidt, Dennis Buffington, and Dave Keister
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April 22 is Earth Day!--a day to appreciate the natural environment--and to talk about ways to preserve and protect Spaceship Earth. In the first of two-week series on alternative energies, we talk with Jeff Schmidt, the director of the Sierra Club, Pennsylvania Chapter, about energy use and its impact on our environment. Later in the program, we speak with Dennis Buffington, an agricultural engineer at Penn State, about corn and soybeans as sources of fuel, and Dave Keister of Jersey Shore Steel, a company that uses gas from a landfill to power its furnaces.

Sunday, April 10, 2005
Guest: Dr. Cheryl Dellasega
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There are approximately 8 million people in the United States with debilitating eating disorders.  That's one in three hundred people in the U.S. who consume food in such a disordered way as to need specialized treatment.  Those statistics are more than alarming to our next guest who has written a groundbreaking book about the vital role families play in discovering the disorder, finding professional help, and supporting their child through recovery. We talked with Dr. Cheryl Dellasega, author of "The Starving Family: Cargiving mothers and fathers share their eating disorder wisdom."  The book is published by Champion Press.

Sunday, April 3, 2005
Guests: Beverly Vandiver, Laura Knopper, & Dawn Kinnard
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Pittsburgh-native August Wilson has been hailed as one of the most important African American artists and one of the most acclaimed playwrights in American theatre. We'll talk with the organizers of the Penn State August Wilson Play Festival Beverly Vandiver, director of the Africana Research Center at Penn State, and Laura Knopper, Director of Penn State's Institute for the Arts & Humanities.  Later in the program, Eileen Akin talks with singer/songwriter Dawn Kinnard, the Harley Davidson Ridin' daughter of a Baptist minister.  Her sparse and smoky mix of folk, rock and alternative country is getting her noticed!

Sunday, March 27, 2005
Guests: Ron Bailey and Stacy Tibbetts
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According to a report issued by the Brookings Institution, years of unfocused public investment in Pennsylvania has not only resulted in billions of wasted tax dollars, but also contributed to sprawl.  What can we do to revitalize the state's stagnant economy?  We talked with Ron Bailey, the executive director of the Campaign to Renew Pennsylvania.

Later in the program, we spoke with Stacy Tibbetts, a seasoned songwriter and entertainer whose 2001 original CD release, "Alleyways," has been called "an eclectic, intelligent blend." He has performed as a professional pit guitarist, as well as a singer/songwriter and he recently wrote the music and lyrics to "Passaparola: The Gourmet Musical," a romantic comedy that is a contemporary updating of Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing.'

Sunday, March 20, 2005
Guests: Curt Miner & Tom Barnes
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Horse racing and gambling have been popular entertainements in Pennsylvania since Colonial times. In the first half of this program, Cynthia Berger talked with Curt Miner, the curator of Popular Culture at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, about a special exhibit at the museum, which chronicles the history of racing in Pennsylvania. Later we hear from Tom Barnes, the Harrisburg Bureau Chief of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, about how Pennsylvania's new "slots" law will affect horse racing in state.

Sunday, March 13, 2005
Guest: Ray Krone
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Ray Krone, a native of York, Pennsylvania, spent 10 years, four months, eight days and a few odd hours on Arizona's death row for a murder he didn't commit. In 2002, he became the 100th death row inmate in the U.S. to be exonerated when new DNA testing proved his innocence. In February, he was treated to television's "Extreme Makeover." While producers couldn't give him back the 10 years he spent in prison, they did make him look 10 years younger.  Now, he's using his "Makeover" fame to share his concerns about the death penalty.

Sunday, March 6, 2005
Guests: Curtis Rockwell & Johanna Mutti
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The Guild of American Luthiers defines 'lutherie' as the craft of string instrument making and repair. In 2001, a chicken coop built sixty years ago among the rolling hills of Huntingdon was transformed into a 'luthier's coop' - a place where musicians Curtis Rockwell and Johanna Mutti design custom stringed instruments for fellow musicians. We talked with them about how they got their start in making instruments and hear them perform on two of the instruments they made.

Sunday, February 27, 2005
Guests: Marc Silver & Pat Halpin-Murphy
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Each year in the United States more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. We talk with Marc Silver, the author of Breast Cancer Husband, a practical guide for men whose wives or girlfriends have been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Later in the program we speak with Pat Halpin-Murphy, a breast cancer survivor who founded the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition.

Sunday, February 20, 2005
Guest: Bill Kurtis
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After observing the workings of the criminal justice system for thirty years, Bill Kurtis, host of the true-crime TV series Cold Case Files and American Justice came to a stunning realization that changed his life:  Capital punishment is wrong and there can be no real justice in America until it is abolished.  We talked with the lawyer turned television investigative journalist who joins a growing chorus of critics who say there must be a serious re-evaluation of the death penalty in this country.  His new book is The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice.  The book is published by BBS Public Affairs. 

Sunday, February 13, 2005
Guests: Alan Morgan and Harold Mueller
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Do I buy insulin or groceries this week? Do I get my child's asthma medicine or make the mortgage payment? Every year, millions of people make the difficult choice between paying for medications or paying for other essential items such as food or rent. We talk with Allan Morgan, vice president of government affairs and policy for the National Rural Health Association, and Harold Mueller, program director of Rx Outreach about a new program that provides more than 108 million lower-income adults and children access to affordable medications. For more information, visit www.rxoutreach.com

Sunday, February 6, 2005
Guest: Steven Sherrill
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He's not your average English professor. He's a certified welder. He rides a motorcycle. He has a tattoo. But you can't judge a book by its cover. Steven Sherrilll, a professor of English at Penn State Altoona, won critical acclaim for his first novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break. It's been compared to the quirky works of John Irving. We talked with Sherrill about Minotaur, about his second novel, Visits from the Drowned Girl, (his publisher thinks it's Pulitzer-worthy), and about his newest book, which he describes as "Bible stories set in a trailer park."

Sunday, January 30, 2005
Guest: Charles Dumas
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Twenty-two years ago, Charles Dumas was practicing corporate and international law. Today, he is an established professional actor teaching his craft to Penn State students. We talked with him about his experiences as an actor and director and find out what projects he's currently working on.

Sunday, January 23, 2005
Rebroadcast program
Guest: Andrew Vachss
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For more than three decades, Andrew Vachss has sought to protect children from the devastating effects of child abuse. What he has seen firsthand--first as a caseworker with child protective services, then as a federal investigator and now as an attorney and author--is so horrific that most of us have a hard time just thinking about it. How can we protect our children? Andrew Vachss is an accomplished attorney who runs his own practice out of New York, where he works exclusively with child victims of abuse and neglect.

Sunday, January 16, 2005
Guest: Dr. Nina Fedoroff
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The phrase Genetically Modified Food is guaranteed to spark heated debate and contentious discussions. More than a quarter of America's farmland is already planted with genetically engineered crops. The technique, which proponents say allows us to produce more plentiful and nutritious foods, has fueled public and scientific controversy. Do the benefits of tinkering with nature outweigh the risks? We talked with Dr. Nina Fedoroff, Evan Pugh Professor of Life Sciences and the Willaman Chair of Life Sciences at Penn State. Her new book, co-written with Nancy Marie Brown, is Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientists View of Genetically Modified Foods, published by Joseph Henry Press.

Sunday, January 9, 2005
Rebroadcast of Right from the Start originally broadcast in 2004
No archive available

Sunday, January 2, 2005
Guest: Joe Palca
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If you've ever thumbed through a scientific journal, you know that scientists seem almost to speak a foreign language. How do you cut through all the jargon and make sense of scientific discoveries? Cynthia Berger talked with Joe Palca, NPR's Senior Science Correspondent.

Sunday, December 26, 2004
Rebroadcast of The Empty Ocean originally broadcast in 2003.
No Archive available

Sunday, December 19, 2004
Guest: Bob Richards
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The First Amendment protects our right to freedom of speech. But just how unconditional is that right? Bob Richards is co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment (PCFA), and a professor in Penn State's College of Communications. We talked with him about the Center and about some of the major threats to our First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Sunday, December 12, 2004
Guest: Jim Lichtman
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What do you do when you discover something wrong? Do you report it or keep it quiet? Is it more important to be loyal to the company or honest with a client? A new book on ethics poses an ancient and timely question: What Do You Stand For? Nearly 100 people, many of them well-known, share real-life examples when their principles were put to the test or where they were inspired by the principles of others. Author Jim Lichtman is a graduate of the Josephson Institute's Ethics Corp and a popular public speaker on the subject of ethics. His new book, What Do You Stand For? Stories About Principles That Matter, is published by Scribbler's Ink.

Sunday, December 5, 2004
Guest: Robert Speel
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The 2004 presidential election has come and gone, but persistent questions remain. Among them: Why has the northeast become the most Democratic part of the country, along with the west coast? And why do southern whites, who have historically been Democrats, now vote overwhelmingly Republican? More importantly, what's fueling this nation's growing political divide? Robert Speel is an associate professor of political science at Penn State-Erie and author of Changing Patterns of Voting in the Northern United States, published by Penn State Press.

Sunday, November 28, 2004
Guest: Sister Joan Chittister
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According to a United Nations report, half of the conflict situations in the world have religion at their base. Sister Joan Chittister says that's a misuse of the term "religion" and that the role of religion and spirituality is one of the most important questions of our time. Sister Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun and former prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA. She is a best-selling author, a social psychologist and a well-known international lecturer.

Sunday, November 21, 2004
Guest: Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr.
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We hear the term weapons of mass destruction so often, that they're often referred to simply as WMDs and the acronym is understood. But is there real understanding of what they are and the dangers they present? We talked with Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr., who served for several decades as general counsel and acting director to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

Sunday, November 14, 2004
Guest: L. Ronald Scheman
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Despite the tendency to underestimate our ties with Latin and South America, we have more in common with our southern cousins than with any other society. Latinos now comprise the largest minority group in the United States and the influence of latino and caribbean populations is growing. We talked with L. Ronald Scheman, director general of the inter-American agency for cooperation and development about the benefits of a stronger US and Latin-American partnership. He is the author of "Greater America: A New Partnership for the Americas in the 21st Century."

Sunday, November 7, 2004
Guests: Frank Newport and Aaron Matthews
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It seems to defy reason to come up with what 250 million Americans are thinking based on interviews with only 1,500 people. And yet, that's exactly what public opinion polls do. How do polls work? And why? Take Note's Patty Satalia talked with Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll. Later in the program, Eileen Akin talked with filmmaker Aaron Matthews. His documentary, "A Panther In Africa," is an intimate profile of former Black Panther Pete O'Neal and his life in political exile in Tanzania. The program was broadcast nationally on the PBS series P.O.V.

Sunday, October 31, 2004
Guests: Ray McGovern, Dr. Fadwa El Guindi, and Garrison Keillor
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In this program, we talk with retired CIA analysts Ray McGovern who is outspoken in his criticism of the Bush Administration. He and a handful of former intelligence operatives formed the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, or VIPS. Later in the program, we talk with Dr. Fadwa El Guindi, a visiting professor of anthropology at Georgetown University, about the politics of the veil in the Islamic world and beyond. The program concludes with a talk with Garrison Keillor, the host of "A Prairie Home Companion," about his new book Homegrown Democrat: A few plain thoughts from the Heart of America.

Sunday, October 24, 2004
Guest: Andrew Vachss
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For more than three decades, Andrew Vachss has sought to protect children from the devastating effects of child abuse. What he has seen firsthand--first as a caseworker with child protective services, then as a federal investigator and now as an attorney and author--is so horrific that most of us have a hard time just thinking about it. How can we protect our children? Andrew Vachss is an accomplished attorney who runs his own practice out of New York, where he works exclusively with child victims of abuse and neglect.

Sunday, October 17, 2004
Guest: Jill Cordes
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Jill Cordes, co-host of the popular Food Network show The Best Of, has emerged as a leading expert in food and travel, not only in North America, but also abroad. We talked with the State College-native about her culinary adventures and about her new book, The Food Network's The Best of The Best Of.

Sunday, October 3, 2004
Guests: Terry Gross & Dr. Sandra Steingraber
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In this edition of Take Note, we talked with Terry Gross, the award-winning host of National Public Radio's Fresh Air about her first book, All I Did Was Ask. Later in the program, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, ecologist and cancer survivor, talks with us about the chemical contamination of a wide variety of foods found in American supermarkets.