Science Podcast

Interview: SEAN CARROLL and D T MAX live from the LATimes Festival of Books

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:40:54 -0700

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. He is also a contributor to the physics blog Cosmic Variance, and has published in scientific journals and magazines such as Nature, Seed, Sky & Telescope, and New Scientist. He is the author of Spacetime And Geometry, a graduate-level textbook in general relativity, and his new book on the arrow of time is entitled FROM ETERNITY TO HERE.

For the past eight years, D.T. Max has reported mostly for the New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine on everything from the quagga, an extinct relative of the zebra that a South African taxidermist tried to breed back to life, to the president’s speechwriters in the days after September 11th. His work has been anthologized in the Best American Science Writing 2006 and elsewhere. He’s the author of THE FAMILY THAT COULDN’T SLEEP, a staff writer for the New Yorker, and working on a biography of the late David Foster Wallace.

Interview:JOHN WEST / Assisted Suicide

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:19:45 -0700

In the memoir, THE LAST GOODNIGHTS, JOHN WEST revealed for the first time a secret, which he’d kept from everyone, including his two sisters, for ten years. West helped each of his terminally ill parents commit suicide, a crime in the state of California, where the deaths took place.
West could face prosecution, but says, "I'm hopeful that that won't occur. The statute of limitations for assisted suicide has run [out] but the prosecutors can charge you with just about anything. There is no statute of limitation for murder, for manslaughter, probably certain drug offenses."
West says that he acted out of love, and, if given the choice, would do it again. "I really didn't have sleepless nights over it because it seemed the right thing to do. It was what my parents wanted."
JOHN WEST has been the managing partner and owner of two law firms, practiced civil rights and employment law, and worked as a public defender. Through The Last Goodnights Organization, John is preparing an intense lobbying effort in various state legislatures where issues of patients’ rights, especially Death With Dignity, are being debated and decided. THE LAST GOODNIGHTS is his first book.

Interview: BRUCE LIPTON, Ph.D., and STEVE BHAERMAN, Author / Humorist

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:34:16 -0800

BRUCE LIPTON, Ph.D., a leading voice in new biology, bridges science and spirit. A cell biologist by training, he taught at the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine, and later performed pioneering studies at Stanford University. He's the author of The Biology of Belief, and his latest with Steve Bhaerman, SPONTANEOUS EVOLUTION
STEVE BHAERMAN is an author, humorist, and political and cultural commentator who's been writing and performing enlightening comedy as Swami Beyondananda for over 20 years. He's the author of several books prior to his current collaboration with Lipton on SPONTANEOUS EVOLUTION.
http://www.brucelipton.com/  http://www.wakeuplaughing.com/

Interview: LYME DISEASE documentary "UNDER OUR SKIN"

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:20:28 -0700

LYME DISEASE and the documentary, UNDER OUR SKIN  (opening in LA Friday June 26)
ANDY ABRAHAMS WILSON  producer/director/camera
LORRAINE JOHNSON  CEO, California Lyme Disease Association
RICHARD HORWITZ MD  Physician, President, International Lyme and Associated Diseases Education Foundation
MANDY HUGHES  Lyme disease patient
Lyme disease is one of the most misunderstood and controversial illnesses of our time. Difficult to test accurately, tens of thousands of people go undiagnosed-or misdiagnosed with such conditions as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, autism, MS and ALS. The Centers for Disease Control admits that more than 200,000 people may acquire Lyme disease each year, a number greater than AIDS, West Nile Virus, and Avian Flu combined. And yet, the medical establishment-with profound influence from the insurance industry-has stated that the disease is easily detectable and treatable, and that "chronic Lyme" is some other unrecognized syndrome or a completely psychosomatic disorder.
Learn more about the film at  http://www.underourskin.com/
Learn more about Lyme disease at  www.lymediseaseassociation.org  www.ilads.org  www.lymedisease.org

Interview: DAVID BOLLIER, Author

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:54:26 -0700

"A world organized around centralized control, strict intellectual property rights, and hierarchies of credentialed experts is under siege. A radically different order of society based on open access, decentralized creativity, collaborative intelligence, and cheap and easy sharing is ascendant." - from VIRAL SPIRAL

A global brigade of techies, lawyers, artists, musicians, scientists. businesspeople, innovators, and geeks of all stripes are dedicated to creating a digital republic committed to freedom and innovation.

From free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses, Wikipedia, remix music and video mashups, peer production, open science, open education, and open business, the world of digital media has spawned a new "sharing economy" that increasingly competes with entrenched media giants.

I will also ask David to comment on the recent - and upcoming - bailouts, from the perspective of citizens and the commons. In other words, rather than fearing socialism, what are we getting for our "common" contributions to giant corporations -- and what should we be demanding?

DAVID BOLLIER is Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication and co-founder of Public Knowledge, a Washington policy advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the information commons. His latest book is VIRAL SPIRAL: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own.
www.viralspiral.cc
www.bollier.org
www.onthecommons.org