audio by album inquiry

HERBERT A. RAFFAELE has been engaged in wildlife conservation in the Caribbean for over 35 years and has authored two important field guides to the area. He also spent some time as a naturalist for the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources and his new book BIRDS, BEASTS & BUREAUCRATS: A NATURALIST ON A CARIBBEAN ISLAND is his fascinating memoir of those years.

In 1271, a pampered teenager joined his father and uncle on one of the greatest adventures of all times.

Those taped glasses and pocket protectors aren’t so funny after all! Can our culture’s stereotype of the “nerd” and “geek” actually be a harmful prejudice against intelligent children who are also just different?

 Writer, journalist and editor JONAH LEHRER has a new book about artists of the 19th Century whose works anticipated the discoveries of 20th Century science. Tonight on Inquiry we discuss how legendary French master chef Auguste Escoffier, inventor of veal stock and Peach Melba, discovered the chemistry of “deliciousness” and how novelist George Eliot got her heart broken and then wrote about the biology of freedom. Tune in for a discussion both lively and totally unexpected.

Atlanta, Georgia is facing critical water shortages, as are many major cities in the southwest. Think it can’t happen here? Massachusetts has plenty of rainfall in most years, yet lately many city reservoirs have been running critically low and there has been an increase in summer water bans. What is going on?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will go on-line this summer. This gigantic particle accelerator, located in Switzerland, will be shooting protons to speeds up to 99.9999% the speed of light and then colliding them to discover the deepest secrets of matter and the universe.

 Inquiry welcomes back KATHERINE C. GRIER, professor of material culture studies, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Tonight we continue our discussion of Grier’s landmark book PETS IN AMERICA: A HISTORY, looking at how 19th Century religious and philosophical ideas of domesticity, kindness and gentility to people forever changed the way Americans looked at the dogs and cats that also lived in their homes.

How does our sense of smell affect our sex lives? Can an odor elicit long forgotten memories? Does a perfume affect a woman in the same way it affects a man? Did Michael Hutchence of the band INXS kill himself because he could no longer smell? Tune in tonight to Inquiry to find out!  We have a wild and thought-provoking conversation with RACHEL HERZ, Ph.D, a leading expert on the psychology of smell and author of THE SCENT OF DESIRE: DISCOVERING OUR ENIGMATIC SENSE OF SMELL.

Werner von Braun was one of the most complex and troubling figures of science and technology of the Twentieth Century. He was an important visionary architect of America’s space program.  He helped launch the first American satellite and headed NASA’s launch-vehicle development for the Apollo moon-landing. But von Braun was also a former Nazi, an SS officer who supervised the development of the V-2 rocket., an effort that required the use of masses of slave laborers working in horrific conditions.

Inquiry speaks with teacher, writer, editor and science fiction scholar GARY WESTFAHL about the life and work of Hugo Gernsback. Though not a familiar name today, Gernsback was an important editor and critic of the 30s and 40s whose revolutionary ideas about what the tone and content of science fiction should be, helped define the genre as serious literature. Westfahl’s book is titled: HUGO GERNSBACK AND THE CENTURY OF SCIENCE FICTION.

We talk with artist and writer BRET M. HERHOLZ about the appeal of comics, getting yourself published and about his new gothic comic series DIARY OF THE BLACK WIDOW. See: http://herbertzohl.webs.com/index.htm for some examples of Bret’s comics and art.

TOM PHILLIPS has spent 30 years composing and producing award-winning scores for network television. Tonight Inquiry talks with Tom about what makes an interesting score for film, who the great film composers were and the challenges of writing music for subjects as diverse as The Antiques Road Show and horseshoe crabs!

Two films released in 1931 by Universal, Dracula and Frankenstein, forever changed the cinematic look and experience of horror in movies. Though these films may not seem very scary compared to today’s blood and gore spectacles, in their day these films terrified audiences around the globe. What was it that made these two films so chilling?

ALICIA REBENSDORF was working in a dead end job with no relief in sight. So she decided to quit and take a classic American road trip. But this was a road trip with a difference.

We speak with award-winning journalist CORA DANIELS about big money, the music business and “gangsta rap”. Daniels exposes the role of corporate America in creating and profiting from the “ghetto persona” that “demeans women, devalues education, celebrates the worst African American stereotypes, and contributes to the destruction of civil peace.” Her book is GHETTO NATION: A JOURNEY INTO THE LAND OF BLING AND THE HOME OF THE SHAMELESS.

Think the world can live happily without DJ Danger Mouse, Shepard Fairey’s graffiti, or those perky Manolo Blahnik pumps?

For most of the 19th Century, there was no federal control over currency in the United States. It was total monetary anarchy. Hundreds of independent banks designed and issued their own bills. Some of these banks were serious concerns, while others were just scams preying on a confused and unsuspecting populace. It was also a field day for counterfeiters who could easily fake bills from existing banks or simply create their own bogus bills.

MIKE O’CONNOR, the owner of the famous Bird Watcher’s General Store on Cape Cod, has for some time written a column in the local paper in which he answers submitted questions about bird behavior, bird feeding and bird identification. Of course, being Mike, his sound advice is given with a great deal of attitude and humor. At 9PM, we talk with Mike about his published collection of columns titled WHY DON’T WOODPECKER’S GET HEADACHES?

Walt Disney’s feature length animations have captivated children’s imaginations for many decades. But how are women portrayed in these films? We talk with AMY M. DAVIS, course director for Film Studies at the University of Ulster, Coleraine (Ireland) about her incisive film history GOOD GIRLS & WICKED WITCHES: WOMEN IN DISNEY’S FEATURE ANIMATION.  

Beatrix Potter is best known for her wonderful children’s illustrated stories populated by the likes of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-duck and Pigling Bland. Writer LINDA LEAR’s new biography reveals Potter as a unique, independent and creative woman well ahead of her times. Potter was a fledgling scientist, an accomplished artist and spent the latter half of her life as renowned woman of British country life managing several farms. Tune in tonight as we talk about BEATRIX POTTER: A LIFE IN NATURE.

Author and celebrator of the sounds of nature, LANG ELLIOTT returns to Inquiry, this time in the company of photographer, sound recorder and natural historian WIL HERSHBERGER. Together they have written and produced one of the most unique natural history book and CD packages called THE SONGS OF INSECTS. Want to know how and why grasshoppers, crickets and cicadas make their chirps, trills and whines, tune in!

Well before there was John James Audubon, there was Thomas Bewick, British artist, engraver and author and illustrator of what might be considered the first field guide to birds in the world. But he was much more than an accomplished bird artist, because Bewick’s miniature and complex engraved scenes of British rural life in the 18th century have defined the way many of us think about England at that time.

We talk with writer and biographer BRENDA MADDOX about her intriguing history of one of Sigmund Freud’s key “paladins”, Ernest Jones. Jones was a complex man, part of psychoanalysis’ secretive inner circle and one of its great international proselytizers. He was instrumental in getting Freud out of Nazi clutches in Austria and wrote a definitive history of Freud’s ideas. Yet, eventually, he would break with Freud and go his own way.

 Inquiry welcomes back author and historian WALTER R. BORNEMAN. Walter’s new book is a revealing account of America’s first truly international conflict, a series of battles that changed the political landscape of the world and prepared America for it’s own War of Independence. Yet, it’s a history most American’s barely know. Tune in as we discuss Walter’s book THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR: DECIDING THE FATE OF NORTH AMERICA.

We speak with professor and Director of Urban Studies Program at Barnard and Columbia University OWEN D. GUTFREUND. His book 20TH CENTURY SPRAWL: HIGHWAYS AND THE RESHAPING OF THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE traces the complex history of how Interstate Highways have been funded at the cost of urban development. This is an alarming story of greed, intense lobbying, urban disenfranchisement and environmental destruction.

Ahhhhrrrrr! it’s “shiver me timbers, mateys” as Inquiry discusses the genuine pirates of the Caribbean. Journalist and historian COLIN WOODARD has written a rollicking tale of plundering pirates and the men who wanted these sea-faring rapscallions hung from the highest yardarm. Grab yer rum, me bucko, as Inquiry discusses THE REPUBLIC OF PIRATES: BEING THE TRUE AND SURPRISING STORY OF THE CARIBBEAN PIRATES AND THE MAN WHO BROUGHT THEM DOWN.

We speak with urban historian and architect DOLORES HAYDEN who has written the beautiful and profoundly disturbing A FIELD GUIDE TO SPRAWL. This book features the outstanding aerial photography of Jim Wark. Tune in and find out how our land is being squandered on the likes of “Starter Castles”, “Privatopias” and learn what “Putting Parsley Round The Pig” means. 

Senior Editor at Atlantic Monthly, JACK BEATTY has written a monumental history of American after the Civil War when corporations and big money wielded the political power in the country and rewrote the laws of the land to favor big business and monopolies. It’s a frightening story of politics, racism, class warfare and special interests. This is an interview you will not want to miss. The book is titled AGE OF BETRAYAL: THE TRIUMPH OF MONEY IN AMERICA 1865-1900

PATTIE BOYD lived a life most of us can only dream of. She was a young model during the heyday of “Swinging London”, dated and eventually married Beatle George Harrison who wrote “Something” for her. She left George for Eric Clapton, who wrote “Bell Bottom Blues” and “Layla” about her.

All aboard!

Were you one of those sullen social outcasts that dressed only in black, thought no one understood you, and listened to the Smiths? Then tune in at 9:30, when Inquiry poses this odd question: can listening to The Cure, Joy Division and Guided By Voices in fact make you a better person?

Noted children’s book author and illustrator JARRETT J. KROSOCZKA returns once again to Inquiry to talk about his latest book PUNK FARM: ON TOUR! This is a rollicking sequel to the wildly popular PUNK FARM. Tune in and find out if an armadillo can have a MySpace page, which farm animal is “emo”, and whether the guitarist “Pig” has groupies. All this to the tune of a hardcore version of “The Wheels on the Bus”.  Don’t miss this interview!

At 9:30 PM, Inquiry speaks with artist KERI SMITH about her wildly creative manual for keeping a very non-traditional journal. This involves crumpling, folding, smearing, piercing, tearing and a lot of other things you normally wouldn’t dream of doing to a book. Smith’s do-it-yourself conceptual art work is titled WRECK THIS JOURNAL, and she definitely means it!

What happens when you give up your long hard-earned career as a serious musician? Can you ever really leave the music behind? Can you ever return? What happens to your formally intimate relationship to the music when you do? Can you ever play as well again? Tonight, Inquiry talks with writer and classical guitarist GLENN KURTZ about his moving memoir of a life in and out of music, PRACTICING: A MUSICIAN’S RETURN TO MUSIC.

Few people realize that American songbook artist Cole Porter attended Worcester Academy. What kind of student was he? Did he skip classes? Throw spitballs? Did Cole find inspiration at Worcester Academy for his later music? Tune in when Inquiry talks with FRANK CALLAHAN, Director of Planned Giving for Worcester Academy, about Cole’s times in Worcester and his rather rocky relationship with the school’s infamous and stern director.

MARTY CRUMP is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University. She has written a wildly entertaining book about the more unusual behavior of animals.

 Have humans, as a species, always been horribly destructive to the environment?

Inquiry always enjoys having writer, television host and historian JAMES BURKE drop by. Tonight, Burke begins with the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and follows them through numerous twists and turns of history to end up with someone of the same name in the 21st Century. Tune in tonight and find out what Josiah Bartlett has in common with Martin Sheen, how John Adams and CERN are connected, and how tracking Samuel Chase can lead to Bjork.

 Holland in the 17th Century was the economic powerhouse of Europe. Goods from around the globe ended up on Holland’s shores. It was also a place where knowledge of medicine, natural history and science flourished. Was there a connection? Does commerce and knowledge go hand in hand?

How much energy is needed to actually leap tall buildings in a single bound? Can the Flash really run up the side of a building if he goes really fast?

One of the most published books in the English language is Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selbourne. This book is a fascinating account of White’s meticulous observations of the plant and animal life in the small eighteenth-century village where he lived and served as curate. Though almost unknown in America, this book is considered the cornerstone of all environmental writing. Tonight, Inquiry speaks with ecology writer RICHARD MABEY about his definitive biography GILBERT WHITE.

“Coffee? Tea? How about some respect?” Inquiry talks with historian KATHLEEN M. BARRY. She has written an outstanding account of the struggles of flight attendants to be taken seriously as workers and professionals. Flight attendants fought for respect and decent pay despite airlines entrenched policies about age, appearance, marriage and dress.  Barry’s book is FEMININTY IN FLIGHT: A HISTORY OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS.

What sage advice would the nation’s expert birders give to novices? Minimize the khaki? Clean your binoculars? At 9:30 we talk with LISA WHITE, editor for Houghton Mifflin. She has compiled a book titled GOOD BIRDERS DON’T WEAR WHITE: 50 TIPS FROM NORTH AMERICA’S TOP BIRDERS, and it’s filled with useful information to help you better enjoy looking at the feathered tribes.

Is the ability to read in our DNA? Does learning to read change our brain structure? What about the evolution of reading? Why did the ancient Greeks invent the alphabet we are familiar with and then not use it for 300 years? Is reading Chinese in our brain the same as reading French? What happens in the brains of people with dyslexia?

We walk through it, it is always all around and above us, it keeps kites aloft,  turns windmills and we even breathe it, yet few of us think twice about the earth’s atmosphere, what it is made of , how much it weighs and how it makes life on earth possible. At 9PM, we talk with award-winning science writer GABRIELLE WALKER about the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer and how the radioactive Van Allen Belts help create the beautiful auroras as well as keep us from being flash fried from solar flares.

Thar she blows! Whaling was one of the most important industries in the history of America. Some men made fortunes from it, but the life of a whaler was typically miserable and extremely dangerous. We talk with writer and historian ERIC JAY DOLIN about how whaling began in America and the heady days when Nantucket was the whaling capital of the world and tried to secede from America. Dolin’s rollicking history is titled LEVIATHAN: THE HISTORY OF WHALING IN AMERICA.

The archetype of the jester is known from many cultures around the world. From ancient China, medieval Islam and Renaissance Europe, the fool can be found shaking their cap and bells and poking fun at society and royalty. But what were the lives of fools really like and how did they get away with making rude comments about the king?

Inquiry speaks with MARK ISAAK, who has written numerous articles on the creation/evolution debate. He has compiled a massive workbook that succinctly rebukes every question or point that creationists have made about evolution. This completely referenced and easy to use handbook should be in the classroom of every science or biology teacher and is titled THE COUNTER-CREATIONISM HANDBOOK.

In the late 16th Century Holland, a certain unique divorced woman carved a life out for herself as an artist and natural historian studying metamorphosis. Eventually she traveled to far-flung Surinam to collect and paint insects in the New World tropics and published a beautiful book of her research. Despite all her accomplishments, her life and art had been overlooked and ignored and it is only now that her reputation as a groundbreaking woman of natural sciences is being restored.

 Inquiry spends some time with noted nature writer ROBERT FINCH. His latest book is a wonderful collection of pieces he has written about the land, the people and the wildlife of one of the remotest places in Atlantic Canada. Finch’s book is titled THE IAMBICS OF NEWFOUNDLAND: NOTES FROM AN UNKNOWN SHORE. 

Inquiry speaks with JAMES MASEFIELD leader of the trio THE JAZZ MANDOLIN PROJECT. We will talk about the groups various musical projects and about their dynamic multi-media presentation “How Much Land Does A Man Need”, based on a work by Leo Tolstoy. Go to: http://www.jazzmandolinproject.com for further information.

 Just when you thought the strange world that PCs and the Internet have wrought couldn’t possibly get any weirder, then comes rabid game players’ and their AVATARS. Writer and photographer ROBBIE COOPER has created a series of startling photographic diptychs of hard-core game players posing opposite their fantasy gaming personalities. It’s a creative world that defies society’s preconceived ideas of race, age and gender. Everything in the gaming sphere is possible and encouraged.

Inquiry welcomes back VANESSA JAMES, professor of Theatre and chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at Mount Holyoke College. Her latest book/art project is SHAKESPEARE’S GENEALOGIES: PLOTS & ILLUSTRATED FAMILY TREES FOR ALL 42 WORKS. This beautiful “book” unfolds to become a 17 foot long, two sided wall hanging!

 Inquiry speaks with artist, writer, filmmaker, musician and fly fisherman par excellence JAMES PROSEK. His complex installation “Life and Death: A Visual Taxonomy” combines paintings, sculpture, field guide silhouettes and actual bird skins in an investigation of the human significance of birds.

 Inquiry welcomes back RACHEL ROSENFIELD LAFO, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park. Rachel discusses the new exhibition PRESEUMED INNOCENCE: PHOTOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES ON CHILDREN FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANTHONY AND BETH TERRANA. This monumental show features a hundred years of photography, from all over the world that features children as their subject.

One of the most complex relationships in a newlywed family is that between a mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. Why are some in-law relationships rewarding and supportive while others are filled with tensions and frustrations?

After discussing the meaning of the universe, it’s time for some philosophy, and I can think of no better guests to have that discussion with than THOMAS CATHCART and DANIEL KLEIN. They met decades ago in the Harvard Philosophy Department and have gone on to write one of the flat out funniest AND intelligent books on philosophy this side of Satre’s Nausea. In person, they are the equivalent of trying to discuss Schopenhauer with Bob and Ray…only funnier.

Ethel Merman started out as a working class girl who literally brought the house down one fine night.  From that moment on, she was known around the world as a legendary singer. Merman was the toast of Broadway in its heyday in the late 30s and 40s. She could belt out the songs of Girl Crazy, Annie Get Your Gun or Hello, Dolly!

In 1818, through a bizarre series of circumstances, taxonomy and science were put on trial in a courthouse in New York City. What started as a minor case about the inspection of barrels of whale oil, became a showcase trial on the publics understanding of natural history and the new order of nature. The whole cause célèbre court case revolved around a deceptively simple question: was a whale  a “fish” or a “mammal”?

Do you remember The Poky Little Puppy? Scruffy the Tugboat? Tootles? The Color Kittens?

Golden Wings and Hairy Toes by natural history writer and Rhode Island native TODD McLEISH is one of the most enjoyable and informative books on New England wildlife published in some time.

 What can a 17th Century painting by the Dutch artist Vermeer tell us about the aesthetics of the rich and powerful in China? How can the pretty designs on a simple porcelain Deltware plate reveal the convoluted story of the pernicious spread of tobacco around the globe?

Have you ever smelled a color? Or heard the song of a day of the week?

American iconic author Jack Kerouac’s seminal works ON THE ROAD and VISIONS OF CODY were inspired by the real-life cross-country trips he took in the late 40s and early 50s. Tonight’s guest, writer and Kerouac scholar PAUL MAHER JR. has written a book that ties Kerouac’s actual adventures across America with Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs and the always out of control Neal Cassady with Kerouac’s fiction. Maher’s book is JACK KEROUAC’S AMERICAN JOURNEY: THE REAL-LIFE ODYSSEY OF “ON THE ROAD”

They were the original hippies, the “ Beats” of the 19th Century”. They were a lost generation of unruly counter-culture radicals, challenging all accepted doctrines, living in crazy free-love communes and communing with nature. They were the Transcendentalists, described by one contemporary wag as “a race who dove into the infinite, soared into the illimitable and never paid cash” all the while “eating Orphic acorns by the peck.” Tonight, Inquiry speaks with PHILIP F. GURA, the William S.

Join us tonight for a full hour of lively conversations about contemporary art. Inquiry welcomes DINA DEITSCH, Assistant Curator at the Decordova Museum Sculpture Park. She will be discussing the always exciting and interesting Decordova Annual Show that features new works from a number of the northeast’s most challenging artists.

Tonight on Inquiry, we have the distinct pleasure of talking with MARY POPE OSBORNE and NATALIE POPE BOYCE, the authors of the beloved Magic Tree House series of children’s books and their fascinating non-fiction companion research guides. Tune in and find out how this series of now forty titles first began; how Mary gets ideas for new titles and learn about the new Magic Tree House musical.

Inquiry welcomes back award-wining children’s book author, illustrator and environmental activist LYNNE CHERRY. Lynne talks about her new book, written with GARY BRAASCH, titled How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate. This new textbook for middle school aged children, is a hard scientific look at what we know about global warming as well as an inviting guide to “citizen science” children can do in their own classroom.

ON-LINE EXCLUSIVE: Sometimes the conversation with a guest just keeps going! A special extended conversation that occured when the on-air show ended.

At 9:30, Inquiry welcomes back artist and teacher SUSAN SWINAND. Susan will talk about her stunning new work and her upcoming exhibition. To see some examples of Susan’s rambunctious and wild paintings, go to: http://www.swinand.com

Put down that I-Pod and take a hike! That’s some of what RICHARD LOUV recommends in his book Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. What is happening to the minds and bodies of this current generation of children who seem to never experience the out of doors? Louv talks about the numerous health benefits to our children that time playing in that local woodlot or field can offer and why many parents fear letting their children roam outside.

One of the most unique and fascinating social histories of America is JEFF WILTSE’s CONTESTED WATERS: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF SWIMMING POOLS IN AMERICA. On tonight’s Inquiry, Wiltse, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Montana, describes how public pools were originally designed as bathhouses for the urban poor.

Writer, artist and teacher PAUL KARASIK has collected the works of one of the most bizarre and unique comic book artists that ever put pen to superhero. Fletcher Hanks worked for third-rate comics in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s.  Till now, his strange tales of banshee-like jungle goddesses and vengeful intergalactic superheroes with insane powers have only been known to a select few collectors.

Roses may be red, and violets of course may be blue, but why? Why is one rose white while another is pink?

Did you know that 58% of the area of the lower 48 states no longer supports natural vegetation? Or that 57% of all ecological communities in the United States are “imperiled” or “vulnerable”?

Exclusive web-only extra content: Rarely does the conversation stop at 30 minutes. So what do we talk about AFTER the mikes are normally turned "off"? Tune in and find out! We continue our conversation with the one and only DANIEL PINK about his wild and hilarious career guide that is the form of a MANGA! Learn about the importance of "making excellent mistakes".

ARCHIVED WEB-EXCLUSIVE: Our conversation continues with MARK HARRIS with this segment not heard during the broadcast. You will not believe what went on during the filming of this notorious bomb of a musical! After listening to this segment, I guarantee you will look at the Oscar-winning star of My Fair Lady in a completely different light.

Inquiry welcomes back DANIEL H. PINK, writer and lecturer on economic transformation and the rapidly changing world of work. Daniel has written a new career guide unlike any other you have seen before. It’s a manga, and a highly entertaining one at that. Tune in as we talk about THE ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY BUNKO: THE LAST CAREER GUIDE YOU WILL EVER NEED.

Inquiry has a fascinating talk with writer and journalist MARK HARRIS about the evolution of Hollywood films in the 1960s by closely looking at the trials and tribulations of the films: The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?

Is there life on other planets in our solar system? Is there a galactic civilization that occupies this tiny end of the universe? If there are aliens out there, how come we haven’t bumped into them yet?

THOMAS CATHCART and DANIEL KLEIN just keep going!!! Lots more content not heard during the "on-air" broadcast.

Is there life on other planets in our solar system? Is there a galactic civilization that occupies this tiny end of the universe? If there are aliens out there, how come we haven’t bumped into them yet?

Inquiry speaks with photographer and natural historian ROSALIE WINARD. Rosalie has spent a lifetime photographing herons, egrets, cranes and pelicans across America. Her shimmering large format black and white photographs are unique, unlike any other natural history photography you have seen before.  A stunning new collection of her work can be found in WILDBIRDS OF THE AMERICAN WETLANDS.

On this "on-line" ONLY segment, we talk about the amazing structures built by BOWER BIRDS and what animal architecture may say about a human's taste in art.

How can millions of tiny termites organize themselves to build complex mounds 10 feet high? Why is starting a bird’s nest the most difficult part of its construction?

The Villages is a mammoth “active adult” community in central Florida that sprawls over three counties. Most residents commute on campus via golf carts. There is a different golf course for every day of the month, and more are being created. The Villages has its own carefully controlled and edited daily paper, radio station and TV station. Residents are free to play, drink and debauch 24/7. But behind this utopia are some ugly realities: this is a privately held business.

After listening to your local “talk” radio, or watching any “reality” TV show or listening to most politicians speak, do you ever get the feeling that we suffer from endemic anti-intellectual tendencies? Why does there seem to be a permanent fault line between faith and rationalism in America? Do you ever get the feeling, as Bill Moyers once lamented, that “the delusional is no longer marginal”?

THOMAS CATHCART and DANIEL KLEIN return to Inquiry to talk about the logical fallacies that make up most of what we call political discourse. Talking to Tom and Dan is like trying to converse with some mad mythological creature that is part stand-up comedian, part Harvard philosophy professor. Hilarious AND thought provoking.

The United Fruit Company, the world’s largest grower and exporters of bananas created an empire that controlled large regions of most of Central America and a few countries in South America. Since the late 1800s, the UFC ran their enormous plantations with an iron hand, and if any country’s president got in the way, well “regime change” was just one of their many common unsavory business practices.

Imagine a vast colorful encyclopedia that would list every single living species of animal, invertebrate, protozoa and plant in existence and include a picture, description, range map and references?

More conversation with Peter Chapman not heard during the on-air broadcast. Learn about the "Banana Man" and that squishy seductress "Chiquita".

Content not heard during the on-air broadcast.  Learn about how you can actually contribute to this important project.

American Chinese restaurants are found from coast to coast, North Dakota to South Carolina and outnumber all the MacDonald’s and Burger Kings put together. But the cuisine these eateries serve certainly isn’t Chinese: it’s contemporary American comfort food. So where did General Tso’s chicken really come from?

Hip Hop emerged because nothing had changed since the ‘60s,” wrote Sonia Sanchez. Is there a connection between the decline of Black Power politics and the rise of rap and hip-hop?

Of course the climate is changing, but what do we really know about the effects of global warming?

What kind of a crazy warped mind does it take to conceive of and work with objects that exist in 196, 883 dimensions?

Birds do it. Bees do it. And for well over a century, cadres of daring scientists have been trying to figure out how we do it. Tonight on Inquiry we speak with intrepid journalist and dogged researcher MARY ROACH.  She looks at the work of sex researchers past and present and what they have found out about such diverse topics as the tender side of porcine insemination, the discovery of the ability to have an orgasm in people with spinal chord injuries and how to design a camera to go where no camera has gone before.

On this special Inquiry, we speak with RAJMOHAN GANDHI, Research Professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlain. Professor Gandhi is also a former member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian parliament and has written a definitive biography of the dynamic Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma GANDHI:THE MAN, HIS PEOPLE AND THE EMPIRE.

Is birding merely “sanctioned voyeurism?” Inquiry spends some time with writer, essayist and editor JONATHAN ROSEN talking about his new book THE LIFE OF THE SKIES: BIRDING AT THE END OF NATURE. In this very literate birding book, Rosen searches for the real meaning that lurks behind our impulse to watch and list birds.

FERN L. JOHNSON is a Professor of English and faculty member in the Communication and Culture program at Clark University. Professor Johnson believes that advertising today speaks as “one of the prominent discourses of our time”. Magazine ads, billboards and TV commercials are the folklore of our commodity culture. Advertisers today can fine-tune the language and images of an ad to better seduce niche markets to buy their products.

SCOTT DOUGLAS is a librarian at the Anaheim Public Library. He has written a hilarious yet touching memoir about what librarians really do, and only a little of it is about books. Mostly librarians interface with a public that includes hungry homeless families; paranoid crazy people, teenage thugs, bitter older people and kids out to hack the library PCs. It’s all in a days work if you are a real “public servant” and it’s all worthwhile because you really can help people.

When you think of Niagara Falls, what comes to mind? Honeymoons? Spectacular natural wonder? Shredded Wheat? The “Maid-In-The-Mist”? Marilyn Monroe? The Three Stooges? Love Canal?

A Birkin is the most sought-after celebrity handbag in the world. Made by Hermes, to buy one you have to get on a waiting list just to get on a waiting list and, trust me, you cannot even get on that list!

The Po’ouli was a mysterious and unique bird only discovered in the 1970s in the dense wet rainforests on Maui. By 2006, the species was extinct. What happened in between is a complex story of habitat destruction, invasive species and the slow recovery efforts by conservationists hampered by funding challenges and internal conflicts of how to best save this species. Before anything could be done, the last bird died in captivity. Case closed.

Titan is a very unusual moon of Saturn. It's huge, larger than the planets Pluto or Mercury. Titan also has an active and complex atmosphere, and has physical features that certainly look like a world covered with lakes and rivers. But Titan is certainly not just a colder version of earth, though like earth, it my harbor life. For one thing, those lakes and rivers on Titan aren't filled with water but something truly bizarre.

BARBARA HURD is a critically acclaimed writer whose essays are personal meditations inspired by her experiences in various natural environments. Tonight on Inquiry, we speak with her about her new collection WALKING THE WRACK LINE: ON TIDAL SHIFTS AND WHAT REMAINS. If you have ever spent time walking among the driftwood, shells, mermaid’s purses, jellyfish and seaweed that wash up along the coast, and let your mind drift, be sure to tune in.

Herpetologist KATE JACKSON, Assistant Professor of Biology at Whitman College, has spent several years doing fieldwork collecting snakes, lizards and frogs in the remote forests of the Congo. The conditions under which she worked were nothing less than horrible: she lived in what can only be termed the “idea” of a shelter. She ate food that redefined “inedible”. There was constant rain and high humidity; daily onslaughts of ants, bees, wasps and screw flies whose larvae hatch and grow under your skin.

JACKIE ORMES drew comics for newspapers in the 30s, 40s and 50s that are unique for their social and political content. She also designed a high end African American doll based on one her comic characters. Though Ormes was a dynamic force for social change and cultural education in the Chicago area, her fascinating story has only recently been brought to the light of day.

The British group Roxy Music has been critically acclaimed as one of the most original, creative and stylish bands of the 1970s, that paved the way for what was to be called “New Wave”. Tonight on Inquiry, we interview noted novelist and non-fiction writer MICHAEL BRACEWELL about the creative roots of this group.

BILL THOMPSON III is the Editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest and author of a number of books about birds. His most recent effort is a wonderful and unique bird guide geared for “tweens”, young people ages 8 to 14: .  To make sure his book was written for the right audience, Bill asked his eleven-year old daughter’s classmates for suggestions.

What does it take to publish a field guide? Is it as big a nightmare as it seems it would be? Tonight, Inquiry speaks with TED FLOYD, the Editor of Birding, the flagship publication of the American Birding Association and creator of the new SMITHSONIAN FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. Ted talks also about why birding is so popular and if new fangled electronic devices will ever replace the printed guide.

JEFFREY V. WELLS returns to Inquiry. Jeff is the Senior Scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative, Visiting Fellow at the Cornell Lab or Ornithology and author of BIRDER’S CONSERVATION HANDBOOK. Tonight we talk about birding and energy conservation and the destructive “hill-topping practices” of coal mining and the little known and even more destructive development of oil tar sands in Canada.

In The late 1700s Britain ran out of change!!! There just were not enough pennies to go around. This meant that factory workers could not be paid and the Industrial Revolution was quickly grinding to a halt. To make matters worse, the Royal Mint just didn’t care, because minting lower denomination coins was beneath them. So what was a working person to do?

Jean-Luc Godard was one of a handful of revolutionary French film theorists who became film directors and forever changed the art of the cinema. Godard’s 1960 masterpiece Breathless (À Bout de Souffle) kicked off a still-continuing career of passionate and intellectual film-making that included such classic films as Alphaville, Weekend and Contempt.

Otto Preminger was one of America’s legendary directors working on popular films as diverse films as Laura, Forever Amber, In Harm’s Way, Carmen Jones, The Cardinal, and Bunny Lake Is Missing. Though many actors considered him a capable and caring director, many others thought of Preminger as a dictatorial, bullying, sardonic, classically Teutonic martinet. Frank Sinatra (The Man With the Golden Arm) found Preminger very amusing.

My special guest tonight is Pulitzer Prize-winning comic artist, editor and advocate for the medium ART SPIEGELMAN. His new book BREAKDOWNS: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG %@ &**! (I have paraphrased that) is both a reprinting of his seminal 1970s work in which he began to experiment with the possibilities of comics AND a complex and entertaining autobiography. Tune in and hear about Art Spiegelman’s early days in “head comics”, his epiphony of Basil Wolverton, and what zipatone can mean to a budding artist.

What happens when an owl becomes your true “significant other”? When STACEY O’BRIEN took home a four-day old Barn Owl, little did she realize how her life would change over the next decade and a half. Her memoir of her shared life with this very complex bird is titled WESLEY THE OWL: THE REMARKABLE LOVE STORY OF AN OWL AND HIS GIRL.

Inquiry welcomes KENT dur RUSSELL, Curator of the MUSEUM OF RUSSIAN ICONS located in Clinton, MA.

BERND HEINRICH is the best-selling author of such books as Mind of the Raven and Winter World, as well as being a professor of biology at the University of Vermont.

 From the beginning of radio, there were programs about science!

Doris Day is nothing less than a full-fledged icon of American entertainment culture, with a stellar career in film, on TV and in music. Though often characterized as “the girl next door”, Ms Day aspired to be much more than that but was hopelessly pigeonholed in squeaky-clean film roles thanks to her husband and manager Marty Melcher. She could have played Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate”.

Did the feature length animation Bambi inspire a sense of concern about the animals of the forest in the 1950s that would later cause those same viewers as adults to become the environmentalists of the 80s? What does the classic housecleaning sequence of Snow White say about American attitudes towards domesticating our wilderness?

We speak with former NASA scientist and astrophysicist JEFFREY BENNETT about his wonderful series of science-based books for children, the MAX series: MAX GOES TO THE MOON, MAX GOES TO MARS and MAX GOES TO JUPITER. Max is a dog, and how he gets to explore our solar system and learn about things like gravity and the possibilities of a space elevator form the basis for these colorful, entertaining and informative books for young readers

What do H. Rider Haggard,  Jean-Luc Goddard,  James Joyce, Clint Eastwood,  the Coen brothers, and Gene Roddenberry all have in common?

Imagine a unique and beautiful museum of art and science combined that featured works from around the world that depicted birds and described their cultural and scientific importance. DARRYL WHEYE, artist and writer and DONALD KENNEDY, Editor in Chief Emeritus of the journal Science have created just such an institution in their stunning new book HUMANS, NATURE AND BIRDS: SCIENCE ART FROM CAVE WALLS TO COMPUTER SCREENS and it’s related website.

When you go to an art museum, do you enjoy seeing art from around the world? Well this may change because there have been a lot of heated debates recently about whether public art museums should return their antiquities to the country of origin. Should the Elgin Marbles be returned to Greece from the British Museum? Should the Rosetta Stone go back to Egypt? Should ancient bronzes on view in America be repatriated to the People’s Republic of China?

Tonight on Inquiry we look into the dark and disturbing world of international reptile smuggling. It’s a multi-million dollar business and it’s clients are looking for any severely endangered species. Our guest BRYAN CHRISTY has spent years investigating and meeting with all the principal players and the story he tells rivals something out of “Scarface”.

Then: Leaping Anacondas!!

Inquiry welcomes back ROSAMOND PURCELL, world-renowned photographer and author. Tonight she talks about the stunning new collection of her photographs just published by Harvard University press titled EGG AND NEST. These are photographs taken of specimens from the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Tune in and find out why a Francis Bacon drawing can be like a Red-winged Blackbird egg!

Lee Morgan was one of the most original and exciting horn players of the 50s, 60s and 70s. He was just a teenager, the “young cat”, when he toured with Dizzy Gillespie and went on to record with some of the finest jazz musicians of his age. But his life was dogged by an addiction to heroin and just as he finally kicked the habit and was starting to reinvigorate his career, it met a tragic and unexpected end. Tonight on Inquiry, we talk with writer and archivist JEFFERY S.

During the 1920s, the “Jazz Age”, the newspaper and magazines of America were full of cartoons and drawings of monkeys, apes, ape-men and cavemen. Why?

: They kicked off their career in the early 1980s playing music that to this day remains impossible to categorize. Today they are “elder counterculture statesmen” still producing complex and fascinating music.

Tonight we speak with award-winning author and editor JOHN HANSON MITCHELL about the natural history of Beantown. From the Pleistocene glaciers and the coming of the Paleo-Indians to the creation of the Emerald Necklace, the dark days of the “New Boston” and finally the re-greening of the city, Mitchell has written a complex but thoroughly enjoyable account of the green spaces of this grand city.

PROFESSOR DANIEL J. LEVITIN, who runs the LABORATORY FOR MUSIC PERCEPTION, COGNITION AND EXPERTISE at McGill University returns to Inquiry to talk about his latest wild and fascinating book THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS: HOW THE MUSICAL BRAIN CREATED HUMAN NATURE. It is Professor Levitin’s belief that music and song may have come before human language, and that song passes down information in human society.

We speak with artist and teacher SARAH WILLIAMS about her fascinating work involving pinholes, lights, whales, pin-ups, motorcycles and Mexican wrestlers. Tune in and find out how she ties this all together! To see examples of her work, go to:www.sarahwilliamsart.com

AT 9:30: Tonight on Inquiry we take a “behind the scenes” tour of one of the great museums of the world, the Natural History Museum of London. Former Senior Paleontologist at the museum, RICHARD FORTEY, takes us through the labyrinthine off limits hallways behind the public galleries of this grand institution, and introduces us to just a few of the great, and sometimes rather eccentric minds that lived and worked here. Dr. Fortey’s wonderful and rambling grand tour of the museum is titled DRY ROOM No.

Inquiry talks with multi-award winning author and poet CAROLE BOSTON WEATHERFORD about her stunning collection of poems: BECOMING BILLIE HOLIDAY. This amazing cycle of poems traces Holiday's life from a very young girl to her singing "Strange Fruit" at Cafe Society. Besides reading an excerpt from her book, Weatherford also talks about why jazz is so important in American culture and how she began her long career in poetry and writing for children and adults.

Recently, a large shark was caught off Australia, shipped to Britain, where the artist Damien Hirst commissioned people to taxidermy it and place it in a large glass tank of formalin. He labeled this artwork “The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living.” It sold for twelve million dollars. Who determines the worth of contemporary works of art like this? What about issues of aesthetics? Will this work be worth even more in the decades to come?

We are a paranoid nation, eager to believe in conspiracy theories and this is most evident in our films and television programs. Tonight on Inquiry, we talk with GORDON B. ARNOLD, Professor of Liberal Arts at Montserrat College about his latest film history CONSPIRACY THEORY IN FILM, TELEVISION AND POLITICS. Arnold’s book looks at our fascination for uncovering the dark powers behind the events in the news from the “Red Menace” to “Chinatown”.

What would it take to actually become the “Caped Crusader”? Unlike all other superheroes, Batman is just a "mere mortal" like you and me. Would it be possible to develop a physical training program that would allow us to swing from building to building and take countless blows from nefarious evildoers?

One person may spend their entire life thinking about nothing but sheep, while another may be a scientist who spends all their time studying sheep. One of those people is considered an obsessive neurotic while the other is considered an icon of research. Where is the line between the clinical diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and someone who just wants to avoid colds and flu by washing their hands often?

Do creatures other than humans use a complex language?  What does this say about animal intelligence and consciousness? Can we have a dialog with another species?

Tonight we talk with MARK OLIVER EVERETT, better known as “E”, creator and frontman for the band THE EELS. Tonight, E talks about his complex and touching memoir of growing up in an emotionally damaged family and how music got him through some extremely tough times. E’s critically acclaimed book is titled THINGS THE GRANDCHILDREN SHOULD KNOW.

LOVE+SEX WITH ROBOTS: THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN-ROBOT RELATIONSHIPS.

Famines are one of the most feared human disasters. But what causes famines is more complex than just a shortage of food.  Politics, geography and economics all also play a part in creating conditions that can cause famines. Tonight on Inquiry we welcome CORMAC ó GRÁDA, Professor of Economics at University College Dublin and an expert on famines recent and historical.

In Britain during the 1920s, a flamboyant group of youth threw never-ending scandalous parties and acted like dancers stepping ever closer to a precipice’s edge. This glittering group of the wild and carefree included such luminaries as Cecil Beaton and Evelyn Waugh. But their way of life would soon be over as Britain stumbled into a serious economic crisis as the war with Germany loomed. Tune in tonight when we talk with literary critic and author D.J.

HIGHBROW/LOWDOWN: THEATRE, JAZZ AND THE MAKING OF A NEW MIDDLE CLASS is an insightful analysis of race, class and culture in the Roaring 20s.

In the early years of the 19th Century there was a Second Scientific Revolution that occurred in Britain and Europe. These were the days of the grand exploratory voyage to uncharted realms, the lonely scientific genius working for that “Eureka!” moment, and the notion of an infinite, mysterious nature, awaiting discovery.

When does lust become sexual obsession? When do these obsessions become untenable and illegal? Can love and obsession ever co-exist?

How does American history and culture look through the lens of contemporary art?

TUXEDOMOON is a band and a performance collective whose unique music has many references. They have been described as everything from the “missing link between Joy Division and Radiohead” to “the Samuel Beckett of electropunk”. They started out in San Francisco in the 1970s and were initially associated with alternative musical groups like The Residents. Eventually they moved to Europe where they have continued to this day to create fascinating films, poetry, and music.

Inquiry welcomes WICN’s own RICHARD E. NOBLE, perhaps better known as “Nick” Noble, host of “Folk Revival” (Thursday evenings from 7PM to 11PM). Nick has written a fascinating history of The Highwaymen, a folk group that originally met at Wesleyan University and before they knew it, had the number one song in the world.

In 1900, deep below the stormy seas off the coast of Greece, sponge divers discovered the wreck of an Ancient Greek ship. Among the bronze and marble statues that were recovered was an oddball collection of encrusted bronze. This small device, made of numerous interlocking finely made clockwork gears, would eventually cause scientists and archeologists to reconsider everything we thought we knew about technology and the Ancient Greeks.

Freshness. We certainly want all our milk, eggs, fruit, meat and fish to be as fresh as possible, but no person or organization has a consistent definition of what “freshness” actually is. It has been described as “not a measurement, but a state of being.” This notion of freshness has changed over the centuries as refrigeration and transportation technologies have evolved. Can a piece of fruit grown in Chile but found now in a grocery store in Worcester still be called fresh?

Tonight Inquiry talks with writer and award-winning author AMY STEWART about the dark and evil side of botany. Stewart’s new book WICKED PLANTS: A BOOK OF BOTANICAL ATROCITIES describes all sorts of plants that are deadly, dangerous, painful, destructive, intoxicating and illegal. Tune in tonight and learn why rhubarb can be harmful; how Stinging Nettles sting and what famous flower smells like rotting meat.

JEFF JOHNSON has been tattooing professionally for over 18 years and is the co-owner of the Sea Tramp Tattoo Company in Portland, Oregon. His new book TATTOO MACHINE: TALL TALES, TRUE STORIES, AND MY LIFE IN INK is part no-holds barred memoir, part behind the scenes look at the life of a tattoo artist as well as an assessment of the “tattoo industry” today and where it might be headed.

Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois is home to the largest proton accelerator in the United States. Here scientists conduct cutting edge high-energy physics experiments to learn about the ultimate structure of matter and learn more about particles like quarks. How does a megascience facility like this get built? How do you manage a place so big it contains a restored prairie and  a herd of buffalo? Is America still on the cutting edge of “big science”?

From the beginning of experimentation, humans have used a wide variety of animal and plant life as equipment in a “living laboratory”. From Galvani’s experiments using frog’s legs and electricity to the Vacanti mouse, with a human ear attached to it’s back, animals have been an intimate part of the human quest for knowledge. How have these animals been used? Who were the people who used these animals? Were humans ever used as part of an experimental apparatus?

Most of us are now on Facebook, but do you have any idea how it was “invented”. It started as a prank at Harvard created by classic geeks wanting find girls and ended up a sordid tale of drugs, lawyers and deep betrayal. Along the way there are dates with Victoria’s Secret models, a koala was eaten on a yacht, and billions of dollars were made.

In the 1840s, a hardy caravan of pioneers set off from St. Joseph Missouri to head for the promised land of California. Lured by glowing tales of teeming game and fertile land as far as the eye could see, these westward heading migrants had no real sense of how to get to their destination, no good maps; did not know the best trails over the mountains. These men, women and many children embarked on what would be one of the most harrowing and horrifying adventures in the history of America.

Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Stevie Nicks, Nirvana, Warren Zevon. These are just a few of the rockers that journalist, PR person and manager DANNY GOLDBERG has worked with over his many decades in the business end of rock. Tune in tonight as Danny shares a few of his stories about trying to get some press for a Zeppelin that critics hated, or his helplessness at seeing Kurt Cobain descend into addiction.

Lena Horne remains one of the most talented, beautiful, difficult and complex artists of our times. Singer, movie actress, Broadway performer and civil rights activist, Lena Horne seemed to have it all.  But only rarely did she ever relax enough to appreciate what she had accomplished.

Inquiry welcomes internationally recognized watercolorist, oil painter and author LARS JONSSON. A plein aire painter following in the tradition of Winslow Homer and Anders Zorn, Lars Jonsson typically paints birds and other natural history subjects with a special interest in the complex and subtle effects of light. Tune in tonight for a fascinating discussion of how he approaches painting in the out of doors and why certain birds like eiders are a never ending source of inspiration.

Inquiry welcomes back MELISSA STEWART, an author who has written over 100 books for young audiences, many about the natural world. Her latest book is UNDER THE SNOW, which introduces children to what creatures like a Mourning Cloak Butterfly, a ladybug or a Red-Spotted Newt are doing when the temperature drops below freezing and a thick blanket of snow lays across the land. This book is part of a series, which also includes WHEN THE RAIN FALLS.

JESSE SHEIDLOWER is a lexicographer and an Editor at Large for the Oxford English Dictionary. He has complied a rather unique lexicon focusing on the “f” word: it’s origins, many uses, initialisms and euphemisms. If you have ever wondered about the origins of a term like “dropping the “F” bomb”, then tune into tonight as we have a serious etymological discussion about THE F-WORD, the title of Sheidlower’s book. (and, no, we never “drop the F-bomb” while doing so.).

Tonight Inquiry welcomes artist and teacher at Clark University TOBY SISSON. Her work includes encaustic pieces as well as paintings and drawings. She has also worked on some fascinating community collaborative installation and education projects. Toby talks about her unique vision of how to teach art and how to talk about art.

As a nation, are we scientifically illiterate? Does it matter if we don’t understand genetics, evolution or energy? After all, how often does electromagnetism come up in everyday life?

Hot and Sour Soup, Chicken Chop Suey, Szechaun Spicy Eggplant, Shrimp Lo Mein.  We have all eaten American Chinese food, but have you ever wondered how Chinese cuisine got to America? What did Americans in the 18th Century think about traditional Chinese food? Where were the first Chinese restaurants in America and what was on their menu?

The American exploration of the moon beginning in 1969 remains one of the most important events in the history of humankind. Yet, how many of you can name five astronauts that have walked on the lunar surface?

Tonight we welcome artist and writer JOSH NEUFELD. His comics and graphic novels often focus on non-fiction events and many people will recognize his work illustrating Harvey Pekar’s  American Splendor comics. Josh’s latest work is a tour de force telling of the lives of a seven real people who lived through Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans.

WHAT SCIENCE SAYS ABOUT OUR SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE AND HOW IT SHAPES OUR CONNECTIONS TO NATURE, CITIES, HOMES AND VIRTUAL WORLDS.

Mathematician and quantum physicist Paul Dirac was one of the great scientific theoreticians of the 20th century. His complex work ironed out many of the sticky problems of quantum theory.  His ideas predicted the existence of antimatter.  The “Dirac Equation” described electrons in such a way as to be consistent with both the principles of quantum mechanics and the theory of special relativity.

Lake Baikal in Siberia remains one of the most isolated and wild places on earth. It is earth’s deepest and largest body of fresh water, and has it’s own unique and complex ecosystem which includes numerous endemics the planets only freshwater seals. Inquiry’s guest tonight, PETER THOMSON, was the founding Editor and Producer of NPR’s “Living On Earth” and current Environment Editor of PRI’s “The World”.

The Labrador Duck is the least known and most mysterious species that has gone extinct in North America in historical times. Shortly after it was discovered, it seemed it was gone. Unlike other extinct species like Great Auks, Passenger Pigeons and Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, there are only a small number of skins and mounted specimens of this legendary duck extant in the world. Some of these antique stuffed ducks have survived the bombing of Dresden and London, others have been stolen and illegally traded.

Neil Diamond is one of the most recognized and loved singers in the world. His songs are indelibly etched in our memories. Yet many serious rock fans dismiss his music as corny and overdone. Tonight’s guest, music, film and television journalist DAVID WILD, is out to change all that. His latest hilarious book HE IS…I SAY: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE NEIL DIAMOND is part over the top mash note, part crazed memoir of growing up in New Jersey and part heartfelt musical biography.

Robert Altman was a  maverick film director who changed the way we look at many aspects of film: dialogue, casting and the relationship between actors and directors. MITCHELL ZUCKOFF, author and Professor of Journalism at Boston University has written and edited a critically acclaimed oral biography of Altman, using extensive interviews conducted with actors, friends and family and most of all with Altman himself who spent many hours discussing his career with Zuckoff before he died.

FERMILAB in Illinois is America’s premiere research facility for studying high energy physics and contains North America’s largest proton accelerator. Why would a cutting edge particle physics institution also have a staff ecologist?

“Zugunruhe” is a term for migratory restlessness, the nervous behavior exhibited by birds just before they take off for a long migration. “Zugunruhe” is also the name of artist RACHEL BERWICK’s latest installation piece at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence Rhode Island. (November 14-February 14, 2010).  Berwick’s work “has focused our attention on human interactions with and understandings of the natural world”.

Before the 1870s, most Americans rarely saw a picture of a doctor or a hospital in a newspaper of a magazine. This is because doctors were to be avoided at all costs and hospitals were only for the truly desperate. Then Louis Pasteur discovered the rabies vaccine and the press discovered medical research and breakthrough cures could be a hot copy.

Inquiry welcomes back artist and teacher ROSEMARY LeBEAU. Rose’s work includes unique hand painted transferred photography, glass etching, book making and large complexly beautiful assemblages of found objects. After decades of creating work, in 2009 she had her first retrospective at her house, and that exhibition garnered many critical raves. Tune in and listen to one of the most unique artists in New England talk about her amazingly varied work.

Sexism is not a problem of the past. Just because women like Hilary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin are now prominent political faces, it does not mean that other everyday women are not still facing problems of not being treated as equals. Writer and teacher BARBARA J. BERG PhD believes that a new a particularly virulent form of sexism is taking root. Tonight we talk about how 9-11 affected women, recent studies of women’s pay compared to men’s, and whether a “maternal wall” still exists in the workplace.

Tonight on Inquiry, we spend some time with MATTHEW CORY, local actor and aspiring stand-up comedian. Matt talks about what it’s like to start out in stand up, how tough it is to break into local comedy scenes and about his new published collection of his SNARKY RESPONSES TO YAHOO ANSWERS.

Tonight on Inquiry we speak with writer, novelist and philosopher REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN about her latest novel 36 ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: A WORK OF FICTION. This complex, wildly satirical and very moving fiction is also a brilliant review of the philosophical and phenomenological proofs for and against the existence of a deity.

Inquiry welcomes back DINA DEITSCH, Assistant Curator of the DECORDOVA SCULPTURE PARK AND MUSUEM in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Dina is here to talk about the 2010 DECORDOVA BIENNIAL, the museum’s new showcase of some of the most interesting and challenging contemporary artists of New England. Ms. Deitsch talks about the selection process, why the Decordova is now doing a biennial, and how organizing such a project is a “doomed endeavor.

Dogtown is a New England “ghost town” nestled in the center of the island of Cape Ann. It is a dramatic example of a terminal moraine, the former abode of several people thought of as witches, a place where American modernist Marsden Hartley painted some of his finest works, and the scene of a recent horrific violent murder. “There is something different about Dogtown” as one Gloucester resident put it.

Inquiry welcomes photographer BRUCE deGRAAF. Bruce has been passionate about the wildlife of New England for some time and has finally assembled some of his finest shots in a book titled AVIAN AWAKENING : DISCOVERING THE BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND. This sumptuous volume traces Bruce’s exploration of the world of birds beginning in his backyard and ending up in such well-known avian hotspots as Plum Island and South Beach.

Tonight on Inquiry we welcome poet JOHN DERVISHIAN. One of his latest cycle of poems is titled PURIFICATION: CLEANSING OF A CONTAMINATED SOUL. It is a decades long poetic accounting of John coming to grips with the effects of drugs, alcohol, love, lust, dysfunctional family and most of all himself. John talks about coming out as a poet to his friends and the long process of discovering his artistic talents. John also reads some work from his last two books.

Britain at the end of the 18th Century was a volatile political minefield. There was widespread suspicion of the effects the French Revolution would have on British society and this lead to numerous riots and serious government instituted repression. It was during this turmoil that scientist and prolific writer Thomas Beddoes set up his controversial Pneumatic Institute.

It has become obvious to many biologists and conversationalists that preserving isolated parks and reserves are just not working. In order to save a representation of the rich biodiversity of the planet we have to think bigger, MUCH bigger. We have to start thinking in terms of what Michael Soulé has called “cores, corridors and carnivores.” Like the huge Yosemite to the Yukon proposed rewilding corridor.

In the late 1980s, at an international conference on herpetology, research scientists began to realize that certain populations of frogs and salamanders were rapidly declining or becoming extinct around the world.

When Charles II returned to Britain to restore the monarchy in 1660, it was a pivotal time for that nation. Exhausted after suffering through the seemingly endless bloody battles of Cromwell’s reign, the British people then made a choice that explains why today there is still a monarchy in Britain. Youthful and flamboyant Charles II set a new standard for modernity at Whitechapel. He loved tennis, boating, gadding about in the park, and dallying often with his mistresses.

Today, animals like cats and dogs are part of our family. Larger mammals like cows, horses, pigs and goats have also been tamed and domesticated. We often develop a close bond with our pets and their presence seems to have a calming effect on our behavior. But these were all once wild animals that in nature would never allow the close approach of a human.

Several years back, two nurses administering palliative care at a local hospital to a terminally ill patient were shocked to learn that they were being investigated for murder by police. This was definitely not a case of euthanasia or physician assisted death, but instead these nurses were doing something that was both legal and ethical in easing a patient’s pain and making her more comfortable. DR. LEWIS M.

Tonight Inquiry welcomes staff writer for the New Yorker, DAVID GRANN. Grann’s latest collection of short non-fiction pieces focuses on intrigue and people who are obsessed. There is the twisted tale of the crazed expert on Sherlock Holmes who is found mysteriously killed while trying to uncover a legendary cache of material left by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Another piece follows a tireless and single-minded researcher trying to get a glimpse at a live Giant Squid.

Homemade hard “likker”, moonshine, is still made in many parts of the country. But are these moonshiners the cartoonish Appalachian hillbillies with patched genes and corncob pipes or are they romantic rednecks like in Robert Mitchem in Thunder Road?

Gianni Versace revolutionized the fashion world. Starting in a poor town in southern Italy, he moved north to Milan and began producing fashions that some declared youthful and sexy, while rivals declared his dresses flashy and trashy. With his sister Donatella as his muse and his brother Santo as the man with the business plan, Gianni changed the way the public understood fashion right until his murder in 1997.

Are the ideas of the Scientific Revolution and the concept of a Liberal Democracy symbiotically linked? Was the democratic revolution sparked by the discoveries of science? Can science only flourish in democratic environments? And what can these ideas tell us about the future of China and Iran?

The Velvet Underground, featuring Lou Reed and vocalist Nico, began as a side project of Andy Warhol’s performance art ensemble The Erupting Plastic Inevitable. Sounding like nothing else in the mid-60s, Velvet Underground went on to record only a handful of albums. But as Brian Eno once quipped, exaggerating only slightly, no more than 100 people ever saw The Velvet Underground, but everyone who did then went out and formed  a band. And those people included such rock legends as David Bowie and Iggy Pop.

The oldest known surgical procedure that we have evidence for goes back to the Neolithic period. It was not setting a broken leg or repairing a flattened nose. It was cutting a three-inch hole in the skull using primitive stone tools! Yikes!!! Trepanation or trephination, was a known surgical practice to the Indians of Cuzco, the Ancient Greeks and was done in many European countries. It is still being done in certain cultures of Africa. The amazing thing is that most patients lived!

Many people in America don’t give insects a second thought other than how to remove them from their homes. But in many other parts of the globe, human cultures have a more complex, a more intimate relationship with the hordes of six legged invertebrates. In China, cricket fighting is an arcane and beloved sport that goes back many centuries. In Japan there is a mania for raising large rhinoceros and stag beetles supported by beetle stores, magazines, manga and even a popular Sega game.

For hundreds of years European Christians battled eastern Mediterranean Muslims during the Crusades. Finally, the Muslims led by the Mamluks won the ultimate battle for the occupation of the Levant. Why did the Crusades happen? Did the Muslim world provoke the Crusades or were these Latin Holy Wars of Aggression? Is there a lasting legacy of the Crusades to found in wars in the Middle East today?

The 1950s and early 1960s witnessed the birth of a new kind of comedy in America. Playing at small, intimate clubs like the “hungry i” in San Francisco, comedians like Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Bob Newhart and Mike Nichols and Elaine May redefined what was funny. Their material was topical, satirical and personal and their on-stage style unlike anything like that of the older “Copa and Catskill comedians”.

Is there anybody out there? If so, as Enrico Fermi once asked, “Where is everybody?” After 50 years, S.E.T.I. (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been hopefully listening for narrow-band radio messages from alien civilizations. But are we going about this search for extraterrestrial life in the best possible way?

Inquiry welcomes PETER SULSKI, Artistic Director and KRISTA BUCKLAND REISNER, Development Director of the WORCESTER CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY. Tonight they talk about the Society’s very unique SUMMER FESTIVAL , a “non-competitive, intensive chamber music program” for strings, woodwinds and pianists ages 12 and up. Held this year on the campus of Anna Maria College, musicians young and old spend five days rehearsing, practicing and learning to perform together.

Is information, not matter or energy, the real building blocks of the universe? Is the cosmos actually a quantum computer and reality just some form of information processing? Are determinism and randomness actually opposite extremes when defining reality? How does a quantum computer work?

Inquiry continues it’s conversation with media historian GERALD NACHMAN about his landmark history SERIOUSLY FUNNY: THE REBEL COMEDIANS OF THE 1950S AND THE 1960S. Tonight on part 2, we talk about the sophisticated and intelligent humor of Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Though their comedy career lasted only four years, they are perhaps the “most ardently missed of all the satirical comedians of the time.

Award-wining children’s book author MELISSA STEWART returns to Inquiry to talk about her latest book A PLACE FOR FROGS. This latest installment in a series,  educates young people about the plight of the nations amphibians and teaches them how to ensure there will always be a place for frogs in our environment. This is children’s science education at it’s very best.

IAN STEWART, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Digital Media at the University of Warwick, drops by Inquiry once again to talk about his new book PROFESSOR STEWART’S HOARD OF MATHEMATICAL TREASURES. It is Professor Stewart’s mission to make mathematics fun and enjoyable. His latest is a wonderful miscellany of topological problems; logic puzzles; mathematical brainteasers, short pieces and even math jokes and is a perfect remedy for the math phobic.

During the last Ice Ages, a new human species arrived in Europe. They had an unprecedented complex relationship with the world around them. They made music. They had sophisticated culture, tools, weapons and art. They were “us”. They were the Cro-Magnons and they lived in a harsh world of changing climates and ferocious beasts and lived along side the agile and tough, but nowhere near as advanced, Neanderthals.

Inquiry welcomes noted novelist and writer CHUCK PALAHNIUK, author of such books as Fight Club and Choke. Tonight Chuck talks about his latest, TELL ALL, a surreal investigation into the politics and insanity of Hollywood, fame, and name dropping as a raison d’être. Tune in and find out how Lillian Hellman single-handedly saves Western Civilization and how Chuck channels Walter Winchell.

“The only thing wrong with music is that you can’t eat it”. So writes journalist and author STEVE ALMOND in his hilarious new book ROCK AND ROLL WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE. In this new book, Steve looks at the life of what he labels the “Drooling Fan”. This is the kind of rock fanatic who owns far too many CDs than is healthy; the kind of person who shouts out the names of band members at a concert; the type of person who makes mixed music CDs as a form of foreplay.

Novelist BRAD MELTZER is known for his thrillers, but his latest book is something quite different. When his first son was born, Brad vowed to create a book of real-life heroes for his son to read and learn from. The results of this years-long quest is the wonderful HEROES FOR MY SON, a book to be shared by parents and children of all ages. Some choices like Martin Luther King or Anne Sullivan, are expected, but other heroes may be unknown to the listeners or you may not realize why they would be chosen as a hero.

At the end of 2008, writer, historian and natural historian JOHN J. GALLUZZO decided the best way to stay healthy was to walk at least 30 minutes every day along the beaches, fields and forests of his native South Shore. So every day in 2009, despite rain, snow, sunshine, heat, humidity, or relentless onslaughts of biting insects, John hiked some his favorite parks, beaches, salt marshes and sanctuaries from Hull to Plymouth.

Critically acclaimed children’s book author and illustrator (and friend) JARRETT J. KROSOCZKA returns to Inquiry to talk about the latest installment of his “who done it” graphic novel series LUNCH LADY AND THE SUMMER CAMP SHAKEDOWN. Tune in and learn about the challenges of creating a series for young readers, the secret origins of the Lunch Lady and much much more.

Inquiry welcomes back PETE DUNNE, prolific writer, natural historian, hardcore birder, vice president of New Jersey Audubon Society and Director of its Cape May Bird Observatory. Tonight Pete talks about his latest book BAYSHORE SUMMER: FINDING EDEN IN A MOST UNLIKELY PLACE. This is a wonderful paean to where Pete Dunne lives: the Delaware Bay section of New Jersey.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s is a film that is an undisputed classic picture, deeply loved by many for a wide variety of reasons. But this sprightly film is vastly different from the dark and complex novel written by Truman Capote. Was there an actual Holly Golightly that inspired Capote?  Who wrote the screenplay for the book and how did they navigate the many concerns of the studio censors?

An ear-splitting encounter in the New York City subway system sets writer and reporter GEORGE MICHELSEN FOY on a grail-like quest for total and absolute silence. Along the way he learned that absolute silence is a very subjective and elusive thing. His relentless search took him to sensory deprivation tanks, to conversations with astronauts and deaf scientists, and ultimately to the Orfield Labs anechoic chamber, declared the quietest place on earth by Guiness Records.

The Atomic Bomb and it’s progeny remain the most destructive and feared weapons humankind has ever developed. But why were they created in the first place?

Inquiry welcomes back IAN STEWART, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Digital Media Fellow at the University of Warwick. We continue our conversation about Professor Stewart’s latest book PROFESSOR STEWART’S HOARD OF MATHEMATICAL TREASURES. Tonight we discuss who invented the zero and why having something that represents nothing is essential for doing higher mathematics. Then: what are the great unsolved problems of math?

Baseball Cards!