Spectrum

The winning presidential candidate has won Ohio in 28 of the past 30 elections – stretching back to 1896, according to Kyle Kondik, the author of a new book The Bellwether: Why Ohio Picks the President. Ohio is not only a “swing state” but better than all other states in predicting the final outcome of presidential elections. In short, how Ohio votes overwhelmingly tells you how the nation has voted. Ohio has a better record than any other state, according to Kondik. His new book, published by the Ohio University Press, examines why Ohio is such a predictor of winning presidential elections. Kondik cites three predominant reasons: 1) Ohio bests any other state in voting for the winner; 2) Ohio’s results most often reflect national voting averages and 3) Ohio has given the decisive electoral votes to winning candidate more than any other state. For a long time, Ohio has been touted as being a microcosm of America and therefore, seen as the predictor state. Kondik thinks that is still true for 2016 but does n

A black woman who is a mother of a teenage son, a former prosecutor and a current judge, a Muslim immigrant, and a gay man of Nepalese heritage each have their own daily struggles confronting escalating fear, hate and racism in American. All three tell their extremely personal stories to Spectrum. All three people have different perspectives but all have similar and sometimes shocking stories of being targeted. Judge Gayle Williams-Byers of S. Euclid, Ohio speaks from three different perspectives: as a mother, as a former prosecutor (who worked daily with law enforcement) and now as a judge. She has a 16 year-old son who is just learning to drive. “Judge Gayle” (as she likes to be called) tells how she instructs her son upon going out with his friends to “just come home alive.” She also says that with escalating violence and racism, that Americans are holding a “stick of dynamite in our hands – and it is lit and burning.” Judge Gayle describes her fears as a mother of a black male teenager and makes some sug

On this episode of "Spectrum", Tom Hodson talks with Ira Flatow, the host and executive editor of Science Friday on NPR. Flatow’s career dates back to 1969 and he has spent over four decades as an award winning television and radio host of science oriented programming. He also is an author of several books. Recently, he talked with us about science and making it understandable to the average citizen. He said that people love science but concepts need to be made real for people to integrate them in their daily lives. In addition to “Science Friday,” Flatow heads a non-profit organization called Science Friday Initiative that provides numerous educational materials to help people understand difficult scientific concepts. Much of the information is digital and Flatow says they have even developed a phone app to add to the myriad of other learning opportunities.

Wesley Lowery covers Black Lives Matter, law enforcement and justice for the Washington Post. He has become a national expert on police shootings. The Washington Post, for the first time in history, is keeping statistics on police shootings in the U.S. As of today, 522 citizens have been shot and killed by police in 2016. Of that group, 128 people were blacks, according to Lowery. That is about one shooting death per day of a black person by police, Lowery says. “Blacks make up between 12 and 13 percent of the population yet they account for nearly 25 percent of the deaths by police shootings,” Lowery says. “American citizens are killed by police about three times a week,” Lowery notes. In 2015, the Washington Post found 990 police shootings resulting in deaths. This year, reporters expect over 1,000 deaths, according to Lowery. By comparison, police are killed by gunshots at a rate of about one per week. Mental illness and traffic stops are two common threads to the shootings of blacks by police. Abou

Sean Peoples is an award-winning international film producer who documents strong and compelling personal stories and weaves them with major global issues and policy questions. It is a unique form of storytelling. Until recently, Peoples was a multimedia producer/program associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he spent 9.5 years. He is now a producer at Think Out Loud Productions. Peoples has been heralded by The New York Times as one of a “new generation of visual communicators who are breaking down conventional definitions of media.” People’s latest film, Broken Landscape: Confronting India’s Water-Energy Choke Point, premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2015. Since then, it has been selected for a number of film festivals including the Athens International Film + Video Festival. The film focuses on the battle between coal mining and water quality in a remote area of India. It features the human stories behind a battle between clean and safe resources and

On this episode of Spectrum, we’re talking with Gwen Ifill, Moderator and Managing Editor of Washington Week on PBS and co-anchor and co-managing editor for PBS NewsHour. She also is an author. She talks about her career, race and politics. Before coming to PBS, Ifill worked at a number of stellar news outlets, including the Boston Herald American, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NBC News. Ifill also became a best-selling author in 2009 with the publication of her book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. “A journalist’s role, a true journalist – not just someone who’s there to stir the pot – is to try to find out more, to have people walk away thinking ‘I didn’t know that, I know more now’. And everybody doesn’t rise to that level”, says Ifill.

Martin Walker, a noted journalist and author, says that nothing is going to move quickly in the United Kingdom after the recent Brexit vote to leave the European Union. He does not think that any official action will take place until at least September when a new Prime Minister is sworn into office. Walker also reminded Americans that the British popular vote is “not necessarily binding.” Parliament will actually have to vote to withdraw from the EU following the referendum. He says many are hoping that “cooler heads will prevail” and that Parliament will not take action to leave. He also noted that, to date, 4 million signatures have been submitted to Parliament asking for a new referendum on the issue. Parliament is required to debate the issue of a second vote. Walker says he agrees with President Barack Obama’s recent comments that we should just hit the “pause key” on the current hysteria surrounding the withdrawal vote. Walker is a veteran journalist who spent some 28 years with The GUARDIAN, a Britis

A Jewish Bible scholar and an African American pastor joined in an intellectual and spiritual journey of faith and scholarly inquiry. The result is they say they uncovered the truth about one of the most coveted prayers in the Christian world – the “Lord’s Prayer” and its Hebrew origins. On this episode of Spectrum, Tom Hodson talks with world renowned Jewish scholar, Nehemiah Gordon, about his discovery of a Hebrew version of the Lord's Prayer. On a journey to Israel in 2002, Methodist Pastor Keith Johnson, of the Park Avenue Church in Minneapolis, met with world renowned scholar Nehemia Gordon. This started a long-term relationship and research partnership that resulted in a book A Prayer To Our Father: Hebrew Origins of the Lord’s Prayer. They discovered a Hebrew version of the Lord's Prayer, preserved by Jewish rabbis for over a thousand years, according to Gordon. Working from the original languages of early texts, the two men translated the texts and found much commonality in most of the traditiona

Comic Paula Poundstone, a regular panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” spent 30 minutes with Tom Hodson stating her opinions on multiple topics from computers, to writing, to her style of comedy, to unusual dog breeds. Besides being a Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me regular, Poundstone had a role in last year’s Pixar movie “Inside Out.” She also is currently writing her second book to be published by Algonquin next January. While doing all that, she still travels the country doing her unique form of stand-up. She said in every show about one-third of it is improvised with interactions between her and her audience. “I never do the same show twice,” Poundstone said. “Every performance is different and unique. It is very interactive.” Poundstone joked that she has the worst record on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me quizzes because her competitors “cheat” and are on “steroids.” She says her preparation for the show is in direct relationship to the upheavals at her home in a given week. If things are in turmoil th

Ira Glass, the award-winning creator and host of This American Life, will be in Athens at 7:30 p.m. March 12th at Templeton Blackburn Memorial Auditorium to present “An Evening with Ira Glass: Reinventing Radio.” Recently, he chatted with WOUB’s Tom Hodson about creating radio content, audio storytelling and the mechanics of putting together a weekly national radio program. He talked about the early days of This American Life, being highly selective about stories they choose to air, and the explosive popularity of podcasting. This American Life is celebrating its 20th year on public radio. It is a mixture of entertainment and news, according to Glass. It is designed to present riveting stories based upon weekly themes. Selecting great stories to broadcast is a key factor to success, Glass says. He notes that they kill up to 50 percent of the stories they begin and instead concentrate on those that have the most potential to highly engage the audience. Glass says that he is thrilled about the popularity of

Ken Ehrlich is a master of music media and his brilliant 50 year career was honored recently by the Scripps College of Communication with this year’s Hall of Fame Award. He graduated in 1964 with a degree in Journalism. He met his wife while a student at Ohio University while he was playing cocktail piano at a local tavern on Court Street called the Lantern. After working in Chicago during his early career, he started producing the national Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) music series SOUNDSTAGE. Ehrlich then moved to Los Angeles and for 38 years he has produced over 1,000 hours of award winning television events including 36 straight Grammy Awards shows and 7 Emmy Broadcasts. During the Emmy’s, Ehrlich is known for combining musical stars and acts who have never performed together before. He prides himself in creating these unique musical combinations and he tells WOUB’s Tom Hodson about how he goes about doing that. In addition to awards programs, he spent two years as the Supervising Producer of the tel

Susan Reimer, a 1973 alumna of the Ohio University School of Journalism, had a career full of variety and a career that paved new paths until her retirement in June 2015 after 36 years with the Baltimore Sun. She spent her career writing local news, sports, a twice-a-week column about being a mother and family life, a nationally syndicated column about politics and national affairs, a book, and feature articles about food and gardening. Reimer is back on the Ohio University campus to receive the L. J. Hortin Distinguished Alumni Award issued by the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism. Her notorious career started in Pittsburgh after her graduation from Ohio University. She worked for the Associated Press, the Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Then, after spending a few months touring the country “in the back of a van,” she convinced the Baltimore Sun that she could write sports. That launched a 14 year career covering the Baltimore Orioles and the Baltimore Colts, among other major sporting e