CHQ&A

Our guest this episode is Stuart Chafetz, the longtime principal timpanist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra who has just been named as the ensemble’s first-ever principal pops conductor. A well-known and cherished presence on the Chautauqua Institution grounds each summer, Chafetz has made annual appearances on the podium for the ensemble’s Independence Day Pops Concert and the late-season collaboration with the Chautauqua Opera Company’s Young Artists. More recently, he has also served as a conductor for the orchestra’s live performances accompanying film presentations, beginning in 2019 with “Star Wars: A New Hope,” and continuing with “The Empire Strikes Back,” on Aug. 15, 2020.

Chafetz also serves as principal pops conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and is newly appointed as the principal pops conductor of the Marin Symphony. A conductor celebrated for his dynamic and engaging podium presence, he is increasingly in demand with orchestras across the continent.

Chafetz joined Chautauqua Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Deborah Sunya Moore for a phone conversation shortly before the announcement of his new appointment at Chautauqua.

Our guest this episode is author, environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben, whose 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He is also a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized 20,000 rallies around the world. A former staff writer for The New Yorker, McKibben writes frequently for a variety of publications around the world, including The New York Review of Books, National Geographic and Rolling Stone. He is the author of more than a dozen books; his latest, published in April, is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

McKibben joined John Merino for an in-studio conversation shortly after he delivered his Aug. 15 lecture in the Chautauqua Amphitheater as part of a week themed “Shifting Global Power.”

Our guest this episode is J. Ekela Kaniaupio-Crozier, the E Ola! Learning Designer and Facilitator at Kamehameha Schools Maui, where she provides campus support for a world-class Hawaiian culture-based education to students. A fluent speaker of the Hawaiian language, Kumu Ekela serves on the Hawaiʻi Development team for the Duolingo language learning app. She has been a Hawaiian language, studies and history instructor for more than 40 years in various settings, including K-through-12 schools, community college and four-year universities, and she continues to teach classes on Molokaʻi and on Maui free of charge.

Kumu Ekela and her Kamehemeha Schools colleague Makana Garma joined our Emily Morris for an in-studio conversation on July 26, shortly after she delivered a lecture titled “Renormalizing the Hawaiian Language” in the Chautauqua Amphitheater as part of a week themed “The Life of the Spoken Word.”

Our guest this episode is Julie A. Washington, chair of and professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Georgia State University’s College of Education and Human Development. Professor Washington specializes in language development and disorders in high-risk populations; early literacy and language interactions; African-American Child English; and African-American student achievement. Her work focuses on understanding cultural dialect use in young African-American children, with a specific emphasis on language assessment, literacy attainment, and academic performance. In addition, she is an affiliate faculty of Georgia State’s Language and Literacy Initiative.

Currently, Professor Washington is a principal investigator on the Georgia Learning Disabilities Research Innovation Hub, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health. This research initiative is focused on improving early identification of reading disabilities in elementary-school-aged African-American children who speak cultural dialects.

Professor Washington joined Chautauquan Daily editor and Institution lecture and literary arts associate Sara Toth for an in-studio conversation on July 25, shortly after delivering a lecture in the Chautauqua Amphitheater as part of a week themed “The Life of the Spoken Word.”

Our guest this episode is Trevor Cox, a professor of acoustic engineering at the University of Salford. Professor Cox’s research and teaching focuses on architectural acoustics, signal processing and audio perception. He has written several books for academics and the general public, most recently The Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World and Now You’re Talking: Human Conversation from the Neanderthals to Artificial Intelligence.

A former senior media fellow at the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Professor Cox has presented 25 documentaries for BBC radio and has been featured on BBC1, Teachers TV, Discovery and National Geographic channels; one of his most popular interviews concerned the debunking of the myth that “a duck’s quack doesn’t echo.” He has also written for New Scientist and The Guardian, and runs a website that hosts experiments to test people’s responses to sound: sound101.org, which hosted the popular experiment on the “Worst Sound in the World.”

Professor Cox joined our Christopher Dahlie (who during the day serves as head of audio at the Chautauqua Amphitheater) for an in-studio conversation on July 23, shortly after Cox delivered a lecture in the Amphitheater as part of a week themed “The Life of the Spoken Word.”

Our guest on this episode is John Kasich, who served as Ohio’s 69th governor from 2011 until just this past January. Now a CNN political commentator, Gov. Kasich often speaks about the power of individuals to effect change at the local level, to reach beyond politics and the issues that divide us to achieve solutions through unity and resilience. During his tenure, when Ohio budget reserves grew from 89 cents to $2.7 billion, the governor was a leading voice in promoting bipartisan solutions to health care reform, immigration and international trade, and was one of the few Republicans to advocate for Medicaid’s expansion.

Previously, Governor Kasich served Ohio as a state senator and then nine-term congressman. He’s also hosted the Fox News program “Heartland with John Kasich,” and authored four New York Times best-sellers including Two Paths: America Divided or United. His newest book, out in the fall, is titled It's Up to Us: Ten Little Ways We Can Bring About Big Change.

Gov. Kasich joined CHQ&A’s John Merino for an in-studio conversation last month, shortly after delivering a lecture in the Chautauqua Amphitheater to open a week themed “Uncommon Ground: Communities Working Toward Solutions.” A quick program note on this episode: We had some difficulty with John Merino’s mic in this recording, so he will sound a bit distant, though still should be heard clearly. Gov. Kasich’s mic was operating normally. Ultimately we made the decision to forge ahead out of respect to Gov. Kasich and his incredibly tight Chautauqua itinerary.

On this episode, we feature a conversation between interviewer John Merino and Maureen Rovegno, Chautauqua’s director of religion, on the little-known history of what has come to be called the “Burned-over District,” or the “on fire” religious environment and culture of the early 19th century in Western New York. As you’ll hear, Chautauqua itself is one of the movements that has roots in the “Burned-over District,” and the Institution will program a week of lectures on that era from July 22 to 25. More information is available at chq.org.

The Week Five Interfaith Lecture Series is described as follows:

We refer often to Chautauqua’s beginnings in 1874 and its history going forward, but little-known is the history that preceded Chautauqua’s founding. The Chautauqua Assembly reflected many movements that had had their genesis in what was called the “Burned-Over District” resulting from the “on fire” religious environment and culture of the early 19th century in Western New York. The Assembly synthesized the religious passion of the age with its own unique contributions to American culture, as did other religious and civic expressions of the region arising out of that epoch. In this week we will revisit that incendiary era, and then meet some other religious and civic entities that have also stood the test of time.

Our guest on this episode is Ambassador William J. Burns, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States. Ambassador Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career. Hailed as an “American diplomatic legend” by Secretary of State John Kerry, he holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, Career Ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state.

Ambassador Burns is the author of an acclaimed new book, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal, which Henry Kissinger called “an incisive and sorely needed case for the revitalization of diplomacy — what Burns wisely describes as our ‘tool of first resort.’”

He joined Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill for an onstage conversation on June 28 in the Chautauqua Amphitheater, during the first week of the 2019 summer assembly season, themed “Moments That Changed the World.”

For the second consecutive summer, Chautauqua Theater Company is producing a free, touring outdoor production of a Shakespeare classic. This summer, having started June 25 on our own Bestor Plaza, CTC is performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream at a variety of locations around Chautauqua County, including Jamestown, Mayville and Southern Tier Brewing Company. On this episode, CTC Artistic Director Andrew Borba and Midsummer director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, speak with longtime Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi about the city’s two productions, including the upcoming July 13 show at the Riverwalk Park.

Hugh Hewitt is a lawyer, law professor and political commentator who as of July 1 began his service as president of the Richard Nixon Foundation. His nationally syndicated radio show is heard in more than 120 cities across the United States every weekday afternoon, with an audience estimated at more than 2 million listeners every week. Hewitt also makes frequent appearances on all the major cable news networks and Sunday morning political talk show panels, and he is a contributing columnist at The Washington Post. He is also the author of a dozen books, including two New York Times best-sellers.

Hewitt served for nearly six years in the Reagan administration in a variety of posts, including assistant counsel in the White House and special assistant to two attorneys general. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School and has been teaching constitutional law at Chapman University Law School since it opened in 1995.

Hugh joined CHQ&A’s John Merino for an in-studio conversation on June 27, shortly after delivering a lecture in the Chautauqua Amphitheater as part of a week themed “Moments That Changed the World.”

Dan Egan is author of the acclaimed book The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, in which he traces an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the Great Lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come. The book has garnered comparisons to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring; one reviewer said that “Dan Egan has done more than any other journalist in America to chronicle the decline of this once-great ecosystem.”

For his day job, Egan is a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he has twice been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and a senior water policy fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences.

He joined Emily Morris, for an onstage conversation on June 26 in the Chautauqua Amphitheater, during the first week of the 2019 summer assembly season, themed “Moments That Changed the World.” Morris is Chautauqua's vice president of marketing and communications and chief brand officer.

In The Christians by Obie Award-winning playwright Lucas Hnath, Pastor Paul has grown his church from a storefront to a mega-complex, but nothing prepared him or his congregation for the biggest change of all: a change of heart. The Christians is a highly theatrical yet extremely intimate exploration of faith, family and the courage to stand up for what you believe. Chautauqua Theater Company is preparing to stage THe Christians from June 28 to July 14 in Bratton Theater here on the Chautauqua grounds. On this episode, CTC Artistic Director Andrew Borba speaks with some of the actors from Chautauqua’s production.

Purchase tickets at theater.chq.org.

An internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture, Wynton Marsalis is a living legend. At 17, Marsalis became the youngest musician ever to be admitted to Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center. Since then, he attended Juilliard, performed 120 concerts a year for 15 consecutive years, produced more than 80 records and won nine Grammy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards and an Emmy Award. He is also the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 1987, Marsalis co-founded the jazz program at Lincoln Center. Today, Jazz at Lincoln Center presents rich and diverse programming that includes concerts, debates, film forums, dances, television and radio broadcasts and educational activities. Chautauqua is proud to partner with and host Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center during Week Nine of the 2019 season, August 19–23, with a series of lectures and performances on "Exploring Race and Culture in America." Marsalis called in to the Cohen Multimedia Studio earlier this year to speak with Brian Hannah. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets to one lecture or performance, or to the entire week.

Judy Collins has inspired audiences with sublime vocals and boldly vulnerable songwriting for over five decades, and her luminescent presence shines brightly as new generations bask in the glow of her iconic 50-album body of work. Prolific as ever, Collins released a collaborative and Grammy-nominated album in June 2016, Silver Skies Blue, and will perform live in the Chautauqua Amphitheater on June 22 in a double-bill with renowned jazz artist Madeleine Peyroux. Click here for tickets!

Bishop Gene Robinson joins us to reflect on his first season as Chautauqua's vice president of religion and senior pastor, and particularly the Interfaith Fridays initiative launched in 2018, which will continue in 2019. A full DVD set of the nine 2018 Interfaith Fridays is available for purchase at the Chautauqua Bookstore.

On today's episode guest interviewer David Griffith, vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education, speaks with Alexandria Marzano-Lesnovich, author of The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, winner of the 2018 Chautauqua Prize. Part reportage and part memoir, The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir follows a young law student through her early career as she digs into both her own past, and the past of a convicted murderer. In a book 10 years in the making, Marzano-Lesnevich shows how the law is more personal than we would like to believe, creating a “gripping” story of “great importance.” Chautauqua readers called it “an extraordinary memoir” that is “brave and intimate.”

A 2014 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Marzano-Lesnevich has received a Rona Jaffe Award and has twice been a fellow at both MacDowell and Yaddo. Alexandria’s essays appear in The New York Times, Oxford American, and the anthologies True Crime and Waveform: Twenty-first Century Essays by Women, as well as many other publications.

Alexandria received The Chautauqua Prize in a public presentation on Friday, Aug. 3.

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's Aug. 3 presentation in the Hall of Philosophy:

• Video and audio: online.chq.org/…
• Coverage in The Chautauquan Daily: chqdaily.com/…

On today's episode guest interviewer John Merino speaks with Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, chief executive officer of 20-first, where she works with the CEOs, executive committees and top management teams of some of the world’s best-known companies to identify the business opportunities of gender balance and how best to achieve it. Avivah has written extensively on the subject and is the author of several books, including Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution, which won the prestigious Manpower Business Book of the Year award. Avivah has been recognized by ELLE Magazine as one of the Top 40 Women Leading Change. She has supported Chautauquan women for years as a dedicated member of the Chautauqua Women’s Club, where for many seasons she programmed the popular Professional Women’s Network speaker series. She spoke in the Chautauqua Amphitheater on Aug. 1, during our week on “The Changing Nature of Work.” Follow her on Twitter at @A_WittenbergCox

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox's Aug. 1 lecture in the Amphitheater:

• Video and audio: online.chq.org/…
• Coverage in The Chautauquan Daily: chqdaily.com/…

Today's episode features a conversation with Derek Ham, assistant professor of graphic design in the North Carolina State University College of Design. He is also the creator of the “I Am A Man” VR Experience, an interactive virtual reality experience set to the historic events of the Civil Rights Movement. “I Am A Man” is the basis of Derek’s two master classes through Special Studies at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday, August 13, at Chautauqua. Register for either class at chqtickets.com.

Derek’s research interest spans the areas of game-based learning, algorithmic thinking, and digital fabrication. In his work, he continues to investigate both virtual reality and augmented realty technology to find ways these tools can expand the possibilities of interaction design. Before joining the faculty in the College of Design, Derek has taught at MIT’s School of Architecture, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), and the Rhode Island School of Design. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHam.

On today's episode we feature a conversation with author and professor Ralph Young, an expert on dissent and protest movements. As a history professor at Temple University, Ralph has taught the courses “Dissent in America,” “Recent U.S. History” and “Trials in America,” as well as a weekly discussion forum called the “Dissent in America Teach-ins.” His books include Dissent in America: The Voices That Shaped a Nation; Make Art Not War: Political Protest Posters from the Twentieth Century; and, most recently, Dissent: The History of An American Idea. Ralph spoke to guest interviewer John Merino following his July 23 Amphitheater lecture to open Chautauqua's week on "The Ethics of Dissent."

Ralph Young's July 23 lecture in the Amphitheater:

• Video and audio: online.chq.org/…
• Coverage in The Chautauquan Daily: chqdaily.com/…

On today's episode we hear from Alina Polyakova, the David M. Rubenstein Fellow at the Foreign Policy Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, where she specializes in Russian foreign policy, radical-right movements in Europe, and far-right populism and nationalism. Alina presented an Amphitheater lecture during Chautauqua's week on "Russia and the West," on Thursday, July 19.

Alina previously served as director of research and senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council, overseeing the Ukraine-in-Europe Initiative and co-authoring the Atlantic Council’s investigative report “Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine.” She has also authored the book The Dark Side of European Integration. Alina is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Swiss National Science Foundation senior research fellow, and has had fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, National Science Foundation Eurasia Foundation, among a number of others. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology from Emory University, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Follow Alina on Twitter at @apolyakova.

Alina Polyakova's July 19 lecture in the Amphitheater:

• Video and audio: online.chq.org/…
• Coverage in The Chautauquan Daily: chqdaily.com/…