Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

In World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, filmmaker Chris Farina tells how John Hunter created the "World Peace Game" for his students in Richmond, Virginia. The game teaches conflict resolution and collective problem solving and transforms students from a neighborhood public school to citizens of the world. The film reveals how a wise, loving teacher can unleash students' full potential. The film premiered at South by Southwest in 2010 and was shown on public television two years later. John Hunter spoke at TED 2011, and his book, World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, was published earlier this year.

After a screening, award-winning teacher John Hunter and filmmaker Chris Farina discuss World Peace -- the game, the book, the film -- and take questions from the audience.

Recorded On: Thursday, October 3, 2013

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, patriarch of America's greatest political dynasty, is widely remembered as an indomitable, elusive, fatally flawed figure. In The Patriarch, historian David Nasaw reveals a man far more complicated than the popular portrait. Drawing on never-before-published materials from archives on three continents, Nasaw examines those parts of Joseph Kennedy's life that have long been shrouded in rumor and prejudice. Trained as a banker, Kennedy was also a Hollywood mogul, a stock exchange wizard, a shipyard manager, the founding chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and ambassador to London during the Battle of Britain. A loving and attentive father, he raised his nine children to devote their lives to service and to be as confident and stubborn as he was.

David Nasaw is the author of Andrew Carnegie, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, which won the Bancroft Prize for history. Nasaw is the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History at the Graduate Center for the City University of New York.

Recorded On: Wednesday, October 2, 2013

October 1 marked the first day Marylanders could sign up for health insurance through the Maryland Health Connection, a creation of President Obama's health reform initiative. To learn more about the changes that are on the horizon and how to make sure that you and your family can access the full benefit of the new law, listen to this discussion with Suzanne Schlattman, Deputy Director for Development and Outreach at the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition.

Recorded On: Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Are you new to fundraising and want to learn how the funding research process works, and what tools and resources are available? In this class we cover: what you need to have in place before you seek a grant; the world of grantmakers; the grantseeking process; and available tools and resources.

Recorded On: Thursday, September 26, 2013

For more than 25 years, Jean Thompson has been a private history scavenger and detective, pursuing what she calls "pieces of The Dream."

"The Dream," as articulated by noted bibliophiles, historians and curators, is to reveal untold, hidden, forgotten or lost stories about the American experience in ways that instill cultural understanding and cultivate pride. The "pieces" that tell the stories include ephemera -- documents, photographs, advertising and other paper records, including items that might have been thrown away rather than saved. These include ancestral belongings, books, artworks, sheet music, souvenirs and other objects of material culture that evoke a specific era, event or place.

"Private collections are vital repositories: major institutions of art, culture and learning have been built with objects preserved first in private homes," says Thompson. "With guidance from many in the field, I specified in my will that when the time is right, I would 'send home' items that can serve their highest and best purposes as part of other collections or institutional holdings. My will specifies the Enoch Pratt Free Library as a major recipient of the collection, so that materials deemed relevant to the larger story of Baltimore and Maryland will remain here."

Guest speaker: Hari Jones, African American Civil War Museum, on "Adding a Powerful Ally: Lincoln's Colored Troops."

Recorded On: Thursday, September 26, 2013