Programs

  The once quiet field of epigenetics is now making big waves in the biological sciences.  Laboratories across the world are filling up with researchers studying the human epi-genome.  It literally means above the genome.  On the program, producer Sheri Quinn explores this paradigm shift in biology with German scientist Wolf Riek, recognized as a world leader in the field of epi-genetics.  

  A few months ago we explored the culture of hunting with Stephen Rinella author of “Meat Eater.” He asserts, as does Michael Pollan who wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma & Cooked,” that Americans are losing their connection with the way their food finds its way to their tables. Hunting, Rinella argues, is intimately connected with our humanity; and assuming responsibility for acquiring the meat that we eat, rather than entrusting it to proxy executioners, processors, packagers and distributors, is one of the most respectful and exhilarating things a meat eater can do. Thursday we explored this idea from the other direction, talking about vegetarian and vegan culture with a panel of vegetarians & vegans and a former vegetarian. 

  The United States’ rate of incarceration is the highest in the world. Why and how did this happen? Marc Mauer’s “Race to Incarcerate,” first published in 1999, has become an important text for understanding the growth of the US prison system and a canonical work for those active in the US criminal justice reform movement. Now Sabrina Jones, a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective and an author of politically engaged comics, has collaborated with Mauer to adapt and update the original book into a comics narrative designed to reach new audiences. 

  Aired: 5/10/13 We hear about the war in Afghanistan from the perspective of one of the nation's leading industrialists there until the 1980s.  Author Nasser Shansab joins us to talk about his experience growing up in Afghanistan within one of the nation's most prominent families and how his forced exile influenced his unique role in the u.s us government.