Our guest this episode is Stuart Chafetz, the longtime principal timpanist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra who has just been named the ensemble’s first-ever principal pops conductor. A well-known and cherished presence on the Chautauqua Institution grounds each summer, Chafetz has made annual appearances on the podium for the ensemble’s Independence Day Celebration and the late-season collaboration with the Chautauqua Opera Company’s Young Artists. More recently, he has also served as a conductor for the orchestra’s live performances accompanying film presentations, beginning in 2019 with “Star Wars: A New Hope,” and continuing with “The Empire Strikes Back,” on Aug. 15, 2020.

Our guest this episode is Aug. 15 Chautauqua lecturer Bill McKibben, the author, environmentalist and activist whose 1989 book THE END OF NATURE is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He's also a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized 20,000 rallies around the world.

Our guest this episode is July 26 Chautauqua lecturer J. Ekela Kaniaupio-Crozier, the E Ola! Learning Designer and Facilitator at Kamehameha Schools Maui, where she provides campus support for a world-class Hawaiian culture-based education to students.

Our guest this episode is Julie A. Washington, chair of and professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Georgia State University’s College of Education and Human Development. Professor Washington specializes in language development and disorders in high-risk populations; early literacy and language interactions; African-American Child English; and African-American student achievement.

Trevor Cox, a professor of acoustic engineering at the University of Salford and author of "Now You’re Talking: Human Conversation from the Neanderthals to Artificial Intelligence," joins us shortly after delivering a lecture in the Chautauqua Amphitheater as part of a week themed “The Life of the Spoken Word.”

Gov. John Kasich joins CHQ&A’s John Merino in studio shortly after delivering a lecture last month in the Chautauqua Amphitheater to open a week themed “Uncommon Ground: Communities Working Toward Solutions.”

On this episode, Director of Religion Maureen Rovegno previews the Week Five Interfaith lecture series on the "Burned-over District," the “on fire” religious environment and culture of the early 19th century in Western New York. Chautauqua itself is one of the movements that has roots in the "Burned-over District."

Ambassador William J. Burns, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of the new book "The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal," joins Chautauqua's Michael Hill for an onstage interview in the Chautauqua Amphitheater.

Sam Teresi, longtime mayor of Jamestown, New York, joins Chautauqua Theater Company's Andrew Borba and Sarah Elizabeth Wansley and for a conversation on CTC's traveling Shakespeare production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The renowned political commentator and radio host Hugh Hewitt, the new president of the Richard Nixon Foundation, joins CHQ&A's John Merino to speak on today's politics and international affairs, and his relationship with the 37th president.