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Writer Jeff Sharlet.
Jeff Sharlet is a writer whose beat is belief and faith in America. His books have chronicled fundamentalist dogma in the nation's capital and Wiccan ceremonies in the nation's heartland. His most recent work is a collection of nonfiction essays called Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness and the Country In Between. It examines personal faith on a variety of levels in American culture.
WUOT All Things Considered host Brandon Hollingsworth spoke with Sharlet this week. In the special extended cut, Sharlet and Hollingsworth talk about the nature of faith in the United States, the changing role of religious belief and the upside of campaigning for office on one's religiosity.
Each Friday morning, WUOT and the Knoxville News Sentinel bring you a feature called PolitiFact Tennessee. PolitiFact is a national Pulitzer-Prize-winning movement weighing the truth in the news... And Tennessee is the tenth state to join. WUOT's Chrissy Keuper speaks weekly with a News Sentinel reporter who's working to uncover the truth in what we hear from our elected officials. This week, News Sentinel Washington DC reporter Michael Collins takes aim at two claims: one concerning the state’s coyote population and the other concerning the state's new congressional redistricting plan...
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On February 24, the University of Tennessees Clarence Brown Theatre opens its production of Frank Higgins' play "Black Pearl Sings". Set in the Great Depression, it follows the story of two women: Susannah (Susan Shunk) is a privileged, white, Harvard-educated music archivist working for the Library of Congress and Pearl (Tracy Copeland Halter) is a poor, black, uneducated singer doing time in a Texas Prison. WUOT's Matt Shafer Powell recently sat down with Copeland Halter and Shunk and asked them to describe the play in their own words...
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Dr. Jill Biden are touring community colleges and businesses in Tennessee and around the nation to promote a new federal program: The Community College to Career Fund. President Obama introduced the new $8 billion fund earlier this month. The program is slated to help businesses team up with community colleges in order to train and retrain skilled workers for new jobs. Jill Biden is a community college professor and is married to US Vice President Joe Biden. He took some time out to talk to WUOT's Chrissy Keuper about the new program and about education initiatives under the Obama administration...
Alberto Gonzales served as U.S. Attorney General from 2005 to 2007.
Eighty-two men and women have held the title of Attorney General of the United States. Perhaps few were more controversial than number eighty. In his two-and-a-half years as the nation’s chief law enforcement official, Alberto Gonzales faced criticism from the media, from Congress and from the American people about his support of severe interrogation techniques, detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and eavesdropping on phone calls placed by U-S citizens.
Today, Gonzales teaches law at Belmont University in Nashville. On February 22, WUOT All Things Considered host Brandon Hollingsworth spoke with Gonzales as he visited the University of Tennessee's law school in Knoxville. Judge Gonzales began by talking about his role as legal adviser to the president.
Each Friday morning, WUOT and the Knoxville News Sentinel bring you a feature called PolitiFact Tennessee. PolitiFact is a national Pulitzer-Prize-winning movement weighing the truth in the news... And Tennessee is the tenth state to join. WUOT's Chrissy Keuper speaks weekly with a News Sentinel reporter who's working to uncover the truth in what we hear from our elected officials. This week, Chrissy spoke with Tom Humphrey, News Sentinel Nashville Bureau Chief, about personal wealth and members of the US Congress...
(This is an extended version of the broadcast interview.)
Each Friday morning, WUOT and the Knoxville News Sentinel bring you a feature called PolitiFact Tennessee. PolitiFact is a national Pulitzer-Prize-winning movement weighing the truth in the news... And Tennessee is the tenth state to join. WUOT's Chrissy Keuper speaks weekly with a News Sentinel reporter who's working to uncover the truth in what we hear from our elected officials. This week, News Sentinel Washington DC reporter Michael Collins takes aim at a partisan claim and shares the results from the Truth-O-Meter...
As with many modern scientific breakthroughs, synthesizing sunlight into electricity was once in the realm of science fiction. Since the 1980's, scientists worldwide have researched using plant photosynthesis to harness solar power... but it's only in the last several years that real advances in this research have been made. Barry Bruce is a professor of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Tennessee and is one of the pioneers of this research. He sat down with WUOT's Chrissy Keuper to explain the science...
The children's opera Brundibar features a timeless story, but it's definitely a product of its time: Prague, 1938. The opera is an allegory for the treatment Jews suffered at the hands of Nazi officials. In recent years, Brundibar has resurfaced in live performance venues worldwide.
On February 8, Oak Ridge Symphony Music Director Dan Allcott joined WUOT All Things Considered host Brandon Hollingsworth to talk about Brundibar's meaning in its contemporary era, and today.
Each Friday morning, WUOT and the Knoxville News Sentinel bring you a feature called PolitiFact Tennessee. PolitiFact is a national Pulitzer-Prize-winning movement weighing the truth in the news... And Tennessee is the tenth state to join. WUOT's Chrissy Keuper speaks weekly with a News Sentinel reporter who's working to uncover the truth in what we hear from our elected officials. This week, Chrissy spoke with Tom Humphrey, Nashville Bureau Chief for the News Sentinel, about what's becoming quite a scandal for a state representative...
Governor Bill Haslam wants to put more decision-making power in the hands of local school districts across the state, something that has Tennessee's teachers union worried. Christine Jessel covers education issues in East Tennessee for the Southern Education Desk. On February 2, she joined WUOT All Things Considered host Brandon Hollingsworth to talk about Haslam's plans.
(Photo Credit: Matthew Dixon, TN Journalist)
Tennessee's sunshine law reads in part: "The General Assembly hereby declares it to be the policy of this State that the formation of public policy and decisions is public business and shall not be conducted in secret."
On January 31st, 2007 that law, and all it stands for, was summarily dismissed as the Knox County Commission staged a brazen one-day scramble for power. On this episode of Dialogue, WUOT's Matt Shafer Powell joins former commissioner Mark Harmon and retired News Sentinel reporter Rebecca Ferrar as they look back on the day we now call "Black Wednesday".
It's been just over two years since a powerful earthquake hit the country of Haiti. Among the many efforts to rebuild the country, University of Tennessee architecture professor John McRae and former graduate-student Wyn Miller are working in an area called Fond des Blancs, about 70 miles from capital city Port au Prince. WUOT's Chrissy Keuper speaks with McRae and Miller, who are working with UT students to help improve the area's infrastructure. On the drawing board: a major road and bridge project, water quality improvements, and a school, under construction and scheduled to open in September...
Wyn Miller on Haiti's charcoal industry and its effect on the country: