The Callie Crossley Show 6/11/12

Week in Review
We look at the headlines that flew under the radar this week. Among the local headlines, a civic group gives a resounding no to an 80 foot tall eyesore and Boston Democrats show some love.

GUESTS:
Peter Kadzis: executive editor of The Boston Phoenix
Gintautas Dumicus: vice president and editorial page editor of The Providence Journal
Sue O'Connell: co-publisher of Bay Windows and The South End News

The Gavel Comes Down on Government

It’s judgment day. The Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s health care reform has huge implications for the presidential race. The legal challenge has highlighted two fundamentally different views of what the role of government should be: big or small. It’s an ideological divide that now definitively distinguishes Obama from Mitt Romney. Obama’s goal of insuring health care for all came by way of his controversial individual mandate—a mandate that has been a cornerstone of Romney’s attacks on Obama. We’ll look at how this ruling will play out on the campaign trail and in the voting booths this fall.

GUESTS:
Arnie Arnesen: political analyst, tv and radio commentator
Robert Whitcomb: vice president and editorial page editor of The Providence Journal

The Pru: A Love/Hate Story

Rising 52 floors into the sky, Boston's Prudential Tower stands as a 20th century symbol of... a life insurance company. It anchors the city's skyline, but it is derided as an architectural eyesore. In his new book, architectural historian Elihu Rubin has written the Prudential’s biography. Nearly 50 years-old, "the Pru" is hailed as the skyscraper that turned Boston into a modern city. From the spectacular view from the 52nd floor to the pulsating stream of workers and shoppers who cycle through its revolving doors, there’s no denying that this structure has forever changed Boston's form and function.

GUEST:
Elihu Rubin: author of Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape, assistant professor of architecture and urbanism at Yale. He'll be giving a lecture about Boston's skyscrapers at the Boston Society of Architects tomorrow at 6:30PM.

Regional Week in Review
Today we hit the rewind button on the week’s news, looking at it through a regional lens, from the Bay State to the Ocean State. On the Cape the Mashpee Wampanoag are tentatively winning and in Rhode Island things are only getting worse for Curt Shilling's beleaguered 38 Studios.

GUESTS:
Paul Pronovost, editor, The Cape Cod Times
Arnie Arnesen, New Hampshire-based commentator
Robert Whitcomb, vice president, editorial page editor for The Providence Journal

The History of Cheese

What do Homer’s Oddessy, slave labor, and European monasteries have in common? Cheese.

In his new book, Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and Its Place in Western Civilization, food scientist Paul Kindstedt traces cheese from ancient civilization to the 21st century. He not only tracks how cheese changed the arc of human history, he also examines the versatility of this dairy wonder. Turns out a pockmarked wedge of artisanal Swiss and the preternaturally shiny and smooth Kraft single are linked by milk curds that are part of cheesemaking’s 9,000 year-old history.

GUEST:
Paul Kindstedt, author, professor at the University of Vermont in the department of Nutrition and Food Sciences

The Boston Jazz Chronicles
Jazz. It’s African-American music. It's the music of the American experience. It's music that has some deep roots in Boston. Originating in New Orleans and proliferating in New York, the swinging snap, crackle, and pop of jazz has made an enduring mark in Beantown. From the Savoy to Storyville, its venues have been the stomping grounds for fans and the stopping grounds for jazz giants and homegrown heroes.

In his new book, The Boston Jazz Chronicles, Boston jazz historian Dick Vacca writes about Boston’s jazz scene between the late 1930s and early 1960s. It was an era where Prohibition was long forgotten, big bands were packing the dance halls, and local legends like George Wein and Father Norman O’Connor, also known as "Jazz Priest", were making an indelible mark on the way our city sounds.

GUESTS:
Eric Jackson, host of Jazz on WGBH with Eric Jackson
Dick Vacca, author of The Boston Jazz Chroniles: Faces, Places, Nightlife 1937-1962

Boston Aircheck
Boston rock station WFNX was sold off to Clear Channel for a cool $14.5 million on May 16. The station officially changes hands in July, but the impact of the sale has already sent shockwaves through its audience of faithful listeners, indie rock fans and supporters of local, independent radio.

Recent years have seen shifts on the radio dial as bigger operators scoop up small stations, pressure mounts to "unify" programming to attract advertisers, and media increasingly shift onto the web. The halcyon days of music sets curated by local DJs and spiced up by excitable callers may be coming to a close. The high cost of running a station may also be keeping the voices of people of color off the airwarves.

Today we talk to local Boston radio historian Donna Halper about the changing face of radio in the town. We're also joined by radio legend Bob Bittner, who runs two independent stations, including AM 740 WJIB in Cambridge.

GUESTS:
Bob Bittner, owns and operates two independent stations in New England - WJTO in Bath, ME, and WJIB in Cambridge, MA
Donna Halper, assistant professor of communications at Lesley University, author of Boston Radio: 1920 to 2010, former radio consultant

*Alicia Anstead guest hosts

Alex Katz
Whether you know it or not, you’ve seen the artwork of Alex Katz. His prints combine bold colors and in-your-face imagery. They can be as big as billboards and as intimate as a portrait. He was influenced by Abstract Expressionism, but has built a vocabulary that is distinctly his own and distinctly American. Landscapes of Maine, scenes from New York cocktail parties, and ongoing portraits of his muse and wife Ada, Katz’s flat and close-cropped style is influenced by movies and fashion, by urban and rural themes. It’s Mad Men meets an “unapologetic sense of beauty” – as Sebastian Smee wrote in the Boston Globe.

His work is now on view at the MFA through July 29. (Below, "The Green Cap" by Alex Katz.)




GUESTS:
Alex Katz, American artist known for his sculptures, painters, and prints
Sebastian Smee, Pulitzer Prize winning art critic for The Boston Globe

Week in Review
Today we go over the local headlines. Election reform legislation and Roxbury's artistic approach to economic stimulus are among the stories we'll be discussing.

GUESTS:
Howard Manly, executive editor of the Bay State Banner
Marcela Garcia, journalist, media analyst

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty
We’re talking about what makes us lie, and what keeps us honest. We’ve seen a Yahoo executive forced to resign for padding his resume. Closer to home, a New Hampshire legislator has stepped step down for fudging his way into a law degree. But, it’s not just politicians and high rolling CEOs who spin the truth. We’re all guilty- from cheating on diets, to cheating on the ones we love.

In his new book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, behavioral economist Dan Ariely looks at our capacity for both honesty and dishonesty. He finds that dishonesty can be contagious. It can also be short-circuited. A minor white lie might not seem like a big deal, but Ariely says we need to discourage these daily dips into dishonesty. This bad behavior affects us all. And these seemingly small transgressions can pave the way to larger ones.

When is it ok to lie? Does our society reinforce lying? How do you feel when you lie? How do you feel when you are lied to? Leave a comment on our Facebook page, or Tweet us: @CallieCrossley.

GUEST:
Dan Ariely, James B. Duke professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves