Spectrum

For 25 years, Stephen Crowley was one of two “New York Times” (NYT) photographers stationed in Washington to cover the White House, the President, and Congress. Being a politically-minded guy since childhood, Crowley says that covering politics was never boring and in fact, it often was exciting. He says that covering politics is a lot like shooting athletic events…there are always surprises, successes and failures. There are stars and also-rans. Each personality is different and it reflects in the pictures of them, he notes. For example, he says Obama often attempted to appear thoughtful and Lincoln-like when cameras were around while photographing President Donald Trump is like capturing a television variety show host. He also notes that Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can hear a camera go off from 20 yards away and quickly makes his reading glasses disappear before the second frame is shot. He says that part of his job as a photographer is to be able to “quickly organize chaos” into some type of coher

Medical historian Jacqueline H. Wolf, a professor at Ohio University, has just authored a new book tracing the history of the use of Cesarean Section baby deliveries in the United States noting a definite upward trend in the 21st Century. The book, “Cesarean Section: An American History of Risk, Technology, and Consequence,” explores the history of the C-Section from the 19th century until today. Wolf tells Spectrum podcast that Cesarean births rose in the United States by 455 percent from 4.5 percent to 25 percent for the period between 1965 and 1987. The growth has continued and now the rate for the procedure is one-third of all American births – one of every three. This is twice what is recommended by the World Health Organization. Although sometimes a C-Section is necessary for the welfare of the baby or the mother, too often it is used as a matter of convenience, according to Wolf. She details many of the risks associated with Cesarean deliveries compared to vaginal births and according to many, they

As if the tangled and muddled web of potential Russian collusion and conspiracy with Americans to interfere in the 2016 Presidential Election was not confusing enough, we now have the activities of President Trump’s former attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen to further complicate matters. Philip Ewing, security editor for National Public Radio (NPR) in Washington, has been following the Cohen situation as it unfolds. He notes there are three main elements. First, what documents should be turned over to federal agents and secondly, what roll, if any, did Cohen play in the Russia collusion matter and thirdly, did Cohen break any laws in his representation of major global corporations by promising access to the Trump Administration? Ewing tries to break the events down to understandable terms for the average person. He shares with us his insights and expertise. In early April 2018, the FBI executed a court-ordered search warrant on Cohen’s office, his home, and his hotel. Multiple records and electronic device

Investigative journalism is not the sole province of only big-city newspapers like the “New York Times” or the “Washington Post.” Instead, it is starting to flourish at the grassroots level through the assistance of the Institute for Non-Profit News (INN), a collective of over 100 non-profit news organizations across the country. The groups are committed to transparency in government and to hold public officials accountable. Affiliates across the country pay INN “a small fee each month in exchange for tech support; they help to negotiate deals on behalf of all members, and every year they have matching funds for member fund drives,” says Lucia Walinchus, the executive director of Eye on Ohio, the Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism. Members also have the ability to share content from other member organizations. Walinchus is an award-winning journalist, an author and an attorney. She often uses large data sets to research stories and is extremely adept at computer-assisted reporting. She has been publ

Andrew Revkin has spent his professional career covering environmental issues and writing about them contemporaneously. However, his most recent book, just published in May 2018, tracks climate change by looking at 100 historical events that help explain today’s climate debate. The book is “Weather: An Illustrated History: From Cloud Atlases to Climate Change” published by Sterling and it is co-authored by Revkin’s wife, Lisa Mechaley. He goes back to pre-history and brings the important climate events, people and milestones forward to our current political climate-change debate. Each short narrative section is accompanied by stunning illustrations. During his discussion with Spectrum’s podcast host Tom Hodson, he highlights some of the most noteworthy historical events and personalities with fascinating and sometimes witty stories about people such as Benjamin Franklin and his lightning rod and weather events like the killer London Fog of the 1950’s. Revkin certainly has the credentials to write a retrospe

Journalist Leo Mirani has spent his life in big cities. He worked for the Guardian in Mumbai, India – a city with a metropolitan population of over 22 million people. And, he now lives in London with a population of about 9.8 million people. His whole life has been spent in large cities and metropolitan areas. He, however, has been curious about what small towns might be like and small cities in the United States. So, he came to America on a paid sabbatical to spend 70 days traveling the heartland of our country…examining what small town life is really like. He is coming to the end of his journey and, soon, he will return to his position as News Editor of the Economist magazine in London. There he will write stories about his American experience and try to capture for his readers, the heart of small town American life. Needless to say, the journey was a culture shock for a young man who has spent his life in large cities where anything is available at any time of the day or night. While visiting the college

Dr. Steve Crocker was there for the birth of the Internet. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was part of the group that developed the protocols for the ARPANET. That was the foundation for today's Internet. It was originally designed to share data and scientific research; however, it quickly morphed into a system used by millions of people for both productive and nefarious reasons. He helped formulate the Network Working Group, the forerunner of the modern Internet Engineering Task Force. He also helped initiate the Requests for Comment (RFC) through which protocol designs are shared and changes made to systems for upgrades. Dr. Crocker still remains optimistic about the thousands of positive uses of the Internet. He doesn’t think that we have even come close to maximizing the use of the Internet. However, he also cautions that security breaches remain a problem the need to be addressed with some urgency. He, most recently, has been the CEO and co-founder of Shinkuro, Inc., a start-up company focused on

The term “liberal” seems to be fading from the political lexicon. Instead, daily, we, as voters, are bombarded with the term “progressive.” We constantly hear of progressive versus mainstream candidates. It was really apparent in the 2016 primary with Sen. Bernie Sanders challenging Hillary Clinton. But “progressivism” also has seemed to invade state elections and grassroots politics. For example, in Ohio’s Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, political rebel Dennis Kucinich is calling himself a progressive against more mainstream candidates. The state has become a microcosm of the fight between progressives and more centrist candidates. But, what does that term “Progressive” mean? In this edition of Spectrum, we talk with three people who give us their perspectives on what it really means to be a “Progressive Democrat” in 2018. We hear from Dennis Kucinich who labels himself a progressive after a long and controversial life in politics. He was a young mayor of Cleveland, a U.S. Congressman, and ran for Preside

Artificial Intelligence quickly is becoming a greater part of our lives. Algorithms already trace our digital footprints and routinely send us targeted advertising and social media content compatible with our views. AI checks our credit scores and approves/disapproves us for loans and mortgages. It also is being used to predict behaviors – especially by law enforcement and criminal justice systems. But, is it biased and does it racially profile? Randy Rieland, is an award-winning journalist and a digital media strategist in Washington DC. He also writes about innovation for Smithsonian.com. He recently wrote about how AI is used by some law enforcement. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/artificial-intelligence-is-now-used-predict-crime-is-it-biased-180968337/ “A program called PredPol was created eight years ago by UCLA scientists working with the Los Angeles Police Department, with the goal of seeing how scientific analysis of crime data could help spot patterns of criminal behavior,” Rieland wrote.

The serious side of Dr. Michael E. Mann approaches his battle with the climate change deniers in the Trump Administration with scholarly excellence. But, the author side of Dr. Mann approaches the same topic with science, satire and cartoons. Dr. Mann is one of the world’s foremost authorities on climate change and its impacts. He is an award-winning scholar. He is a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He also is the director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC.) He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles in his field and is known as one of the top scholars on this topic. He discusses with the Spectrum podcast the serious side of climate change and the dangers we face with climate change deniers both in the Trump Administration as well as in Congress. He also, however, discusses his most recent book and how he takes a different approach to e

In the early 1970s, Madeline Carvalho Lanciani traveled from suburban Dayton, Ohio to New York City as a young woman with dreams of being an opera singer. After many twists and turns in life, she now owns the famous Duane Park Patisserie in the fashionable Tribeca District. She is famous for her baking, her creativity and for her tenacity. March is National Women’s History Month and the theme this year is NEVERTHELESS SHE PERSISTED: Honoring Women Who Fight All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Madeline is truly a study in persistence and the embodiment of this theme. Early in her New York life, singing jobs became scare. Besides having a day job, Madeline started baking at home to help pay her bills. She sold her goods in local Greenwich Village shops. Soon, she decided to put singing on the shelf and instead, she followed her passion of baking and cooking full-time. She attended a local culinary school where she was the only woman student. After graduation, when she had to look for a job she ran i

“Fake News” is a term that does not have one definite meaning. Its definition is fluid depending on who is using it to describe news coverage, says an assembled team of experts. Spectrum brought together a veteran journalist, a scholar in the fields of communication and education, and a media executive with 30 years of experience in public broadcasting to dissect the topic of “Fake News” and what it means. Allison Hunter is currently the Editor-In-Chief of WOUB News. Over her career she has had experience in both commercial and public broadcasting. She has produced award-winning news programming in the major markets of Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles as well as the smaller markets of Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio. Hunter also currently co-hosts a news related podcast #457SEO. Dr. Scott Titsworth has been the Dean of the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University since 2009. The Scripps College consists of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, the School of Media Arts and Studies, the School of Visu

This month the civil war in Syria will enter its eighth year of fighting. More than 400,000 have been killed, nearly 1 million injured and over one-third of the nation’s infrastructure has been destroyed, says Dr. Bassam Haddad, an expert on Syria. Millions have been displaced from their homes and other countries have felt the glut of millions of Syrian refugees fleeing the fighting. What started as an internal civil war in 2011 against the dictatorship of President Bashar a-Assad has become a cauldron of international intervention. In addition to the United States and Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have been involved in supporting one side or the other. Hezbollah also has been involved along with ISIS who, at one time, controlled 45 percent of the country, Dr. Haddad notes. ISIS took control of much of the northern and eastern parts of Syria in 2013 in an effort to establish its own caliphate. But, ISIS was finally routed from their territory by a military coalition after fierce battles

Students of color, students who don’t know English well and LGBTQ students are “vastly over-represented among students who face school disciplinary actions,” says Dr. Lisa Harrison and Dr. Theda Gibbs-Grey of the Patton College of Education at Ohio University. This has led Dr. Harrison and Dr. Gibbs-Grey to launch a research study called “Black Girls Matter: Exploring the School Experiences of Middle School Black Girls Who Have Experienced School Suspensions.” Discipline rates of Black girls far exceed those of white girls in the same classes. “Instead of finding understanding, they get discipline,” says Dr. Harrison. This can have life-long impacts and contribute to high drop-out rates. Harrison and Gibbs-Grey currently are following the progress of eight middle school Black girls at an Ohio school. They are conducting “school observations, interviews with the girls and their parents, as well as documenting their school disciplinary records,” Dr. Gibbs-Grey noted. “We are also providing a year-long ment

Russia intended to support candidates against Hillary Clinton- the object of Vladimir Putin’s hatred, says expert on Russia, Dr. Steven Miner, scholar, author and professor in the Contemporary History Institute of Ohio University. Russia also intended to disrupt American politics and social systems leading up to and after the 2016 Presidential Election, says Miner after perusing the 35 pages of indictments filed February 16 by United States Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Russians intended to cause discord and chasms within the United States and Miner says they have been successful. The indictments accuse 13 Russians, who infiltrated the United States with special agents, of illegal activities surrounding the 2016 Election and three Russian companies who helped illegally finance the espionage. Some American experts have called this infiltration an act of war. Dr. Miner calls the operation acts of aggression. He agrees that the Russians have and will continue to breed chaos within the American systems and

Often Appalachian natives decry the “drive by journalists” from big cities that come to small Appalachia towns just to capture pictures and depictions of poverty, unemployment, drug addiction and squalid and trashy living conditions. They come, stay for a day or two, take pictures of the most decrepit conditions and human devastation, conduct a few interviews and then leave painting the whole region with the same brush of destitution. The same criticisms have been levied by some against the recent book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, written by J. D. Vance. Michael Clay Carey, a former journalist and current assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at Samford University in Birmingham Alabama, instead thinks that local news media in Appalachian towns often ignore poverty and local social ills to the detriment of their citizenry. They generally don’t report about poverty, economic or health issues, because they don’t want people to think that they are exploiting ste

The news in Washington D.C. regarding the investigation of the Trump campaign for possible conspiracy with Russians in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice on the part of the President is roiling. According to Philip Ewing, National Security Editor for National Public Radio (NPR), the news comes at such a rapid pace that all journalists are scrambling to keep up with the latest developments and skirmishes. Ewing, in this edition of “Spectrum,” attempts to bring us up-to-date on the latest moves by the parties and gives us perspective behind the Washington headlines we read and hear each day. Most recently we have had attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice by the White House. Meanwhile, some Republicans in Congress are raising questions about the investigative techniques used by the FBI. These accusations of wrong-doing on the part of law enforcement are clearly part of President Trump’s defense strategy to ward off any potential damage from the Robert Mueller investigation, says

The days of video or computer games being just for the entertainment of a small segment of our population are over. The gaming industry is exploding and developing beyond the confines of simple games into applications for healthcare, rehabilitation, education and even finance. The business of gaming is worth over a $100 billion globally per year. Games bring in more money that music and movies combined, says Chris Volpe, entrepreneur and CEO of Multivarious Games headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Volpe is also the co-founder of the Ohio Game Developer Association, a group designed to bring more gaming business to the heartland. Volpe says that the Midwest is perfect for start-up game development companies. As more and more people become internet connected at younger ages, Volpe says that developers need to take advantage of this “opportunity for growth.” Volpe notes that the average age of a gamer is 36 and a game purchaser is 40 years old. He also says that 42 percent of gamers are female. It is no longer

Some observers characterize politics as a game…a sport where there are game plans, strategies, and winners and losers on almost a daily basis. And, often the news media cover politics as if it were a sporting competition with play-by-play descriptions and color analysis. Such was the case during the most recent three-day federal shutdown over the spending resolution– a battle between Democrats and Republicans and a battle between the White House and the Senate. Terminology mimicked sports coverage. Was it the “Schumer Shutdown” or the “Trump Shutdown?” When it was resolved, did the Democrats “cave” or “choke” or did they “win” concessions from the GOP? While the news media concentrate on covering the “game” of politics, stories about how the shutdown impacted average Americans in the heartland went untold, according to Andrew Alexander, former Washington Post ombudsman and former Washington bureau chief for Cox Newspapers. Often the media report from a limited perspective or from a Washington D.C. point of

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by news daily pouring out of Washington D.C. and the White House that you find confusing, depressing or just plain outrageous? Do you think that our democracy is in jeopardy by threats being made by the President and other governmental officials against free speech and civil liberties? Do you begin or end your day full of anger or rage at what our government has become? Do you feel frustrated thinking, as an individual, that you can do nothing to counteract the tide of authoritarianism projected from the Oval Office? Well, if you do, then you need to read “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” written by noted historian and Holocaust expert Dr. Timothy Snyder. This book is directed toward the average person and it outlines 20, very doable, things that individuals can do to protect democracy in America. This New York Times best seller is only 128 pages and it is written in the form of a political pamphlet – like those distributed during our country’s early history