Speakers' Forum Podcast

Challenges To Mainstream Gay Culture With Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:05:00 -0700

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is worried that mainstream gay culture has become too focused on consumerism, marked by designer products like jeans or vodka. Sycamore is the editor of a new anthology called "Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges To Masculinity, Objectification And The Desire To Conform." The book challenges the idea that the only way to be safe is to "act straight, get married, join the military and adopt kids" and advocates what Sycamore calls an emergency intervention: a return to a subculture that was at once angry, flamboyant and subversive.

Sycamore spoke at the Elliott Bay Book Company on March 20, 2012.

Women Entrepreneurs In Afghanistan With Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:05:00 -0700

Journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon traveled to Afghanistan in 2005 to report a story on female entrepreneurship. When she met her "fixer" — someone who engineers interviews in foreign countries — at the airport, he told her: "I don't know why you're going to stay here for a couple of weeks. We don't have women in business here."

Those words were far from the truth. In "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana," Lemmon tells the story of Kamila Sidiqi, a woman in Kabul who began a thriving dressmaking business after she was banned from school and confined to her home after the Taliban seized control. Lemmon spoke at Seattle's Town Hall on March 26, 2012.

Life In Modern India With Akash Kapur

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:05:00 -0700

Akash Kapur was born in India, but he was educated in the United States. In 2003, he left New York City and returned to live in his birth country. He was surprised by India's modernization and rapid economic growth, and he interviewed a variety of people from cities to the countryside to learn more about how India's transformation had affected their lives. The result is the book "India Becoming: A Portrait of Life In Modern India."

Kapur spoke about the book and his experiences March 23 at Seattle's Town Hall.

The Meaning Of Religion And Spirituality With Diana Butler Bass

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:05:00 -0700

Over the past decade in the United States, there has been a purported rise of people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. However, according to Diana Butler Bass, that percentage of Americans has actually remained static since the year 2000. The real story, Bass says, is the increasing number of people who consider themselves spiritual and religious. She believes this illustrates an increasing anxiety about the word "religion" and a rise in acceptance of the word "spirituality."

Bass tries to address what the words "religion" and "spirituality" mean in her new book, "Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening." She spoke at the Elliott Bay Book Company on March 16, 2012.

'Is Marriage For White People?' With Ralph Richard Banks

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:05:00 -0700

Though it was once the norm to get hitched right out of high school, marriage rates have declined throughout American society. This development is the most pronounced among African–Americans, and black women are more than three times as likely as white women never to marry. When black women do marry, they are more likely than any other group to wed a man who is less educated or earns less money than they do. In his new book "Is Marriage For White People? How The African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone," Ralph Richard Banks explores this trend through a series of interviews with men and women. He also attempts to answer the question of why so few black women tie the knot with someone of a different race.

Banks spoke at the Northwest African American Museum on March 13, 2012.

Yoram Bauman, The World's First (And Only) Stand-Up Economist

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:05:00 -0700

Yoram Bauman finally got his Ph.D. in economics — only to realize he wanted to do stand–up comedy instead. The solution? He's a stand–up economist, meaning that he tells jokes about the economy. It's a pretty niche market, he quips. Bauman travels the world doing comedy tours, and he's also a professor in the University of Washington's Program on the Environment.

Bauman performed at Town Hall on March 4, 2012.

Feminism And Female Identity: The Best Of Speakers' Forum

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:05:00 -0700

What does it mean to be a feminist? And how have women's movements changed throughout the past half century? In this special best–of edition of Speakers' Forum, we look at feminism and female identity from three unique perspectives.

First, we hear from Gloria Steinem, whose name has become synonymous with feminism. Steinem was a leader of the women's liberation movement in the 1960s and 70s, and she was also one of the co–founders of Ms. Magazine.

Then, Evergreen State College history professor Stephanie Coontz talks about Betty Friedan's controversial book "The Feminine Mystique." When it was published in the 1960s, it exposed the widespread unhappiness among American housewives.

Finally, Peggy Orenstein talks about the princess culture that threatens to engulf young girls, as researched for her book "Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From The Frontlines Of The New Girlie–Girl Culture."

Secrets Of French Parenting With Pamela Druckerman

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:05:00 -0700

French kids don't throw their food. They don't throw tantrums in the supermarket or in the park. And their parents seemed a lot happier than their American counterparts. This was what journalist Pamela Druckerman observed when she moved to France in 2003. She has since raised a daughter and twin sons in Paris, and she writes about the differences between French and American parenting styles in her new book, "Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting."

Druckerman spoke at the Elliott Bay Book Company on March 5, 2012.

StoryCorps Love Stories With Founder Dave Isay

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:05:00 -0700

If there's one tradition that's never faded away in our history as people on this earth, it's storytelling. StoryCorps is a massive oral history project whose mission is to record, preserve and share the stories of Americans from all background and beliefs. It was founded in 2003 by radio documentary producer Dave Isay. People tell their stories in mobile booths all around the country, and selected stories air nationally on NPR. All of the stories are preserved in the Library of Congress, with the hope that it will one day become a public, searchable database. Isay spoke at Seattle's Town Hall on February 7, 2012.

'Cinderella Ate My Daughter' With Peggy Orenstein

webhelp@kuow.org (KUOW 94.9 Public Radio) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:05:00 -0700

Pink is no longer just a color for young girls — it's a lifestyle. It celebrates girlhood, but more alarmingly, it fuses girlhood to an obsession with appearance, argues Peggy Orenstein. Orenstein, an author and the mother of a young girl, was shocked by today's "princess culture" that forces girls to value material objects and looking pretty over individuality.

To research this phenomenon, Orenstein braved toddler beauty pageants, Disneyland and Miley Cyrus concerts, and her resulting book is a tough examination of the girlie–girl culture and its affect on young girls' identities and futures. Orenstein spoke at Seattle's Town Hall on February 15, 2012.