Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Congresswoman Barbara Lee was first elected to represent California's ninth Congressional District in 1998. In addition to being one of Congress' most vocal opponents to the war in Iraq, she has been a leader in promoting policies that foster international peace, security and human rights.

Congresswoman Lee is a graduate of Mills College and UC/Berkeley. Prior to being elected to Congress, she served in the California legislature for eight years. Congresswoman Lee is currently serving as the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Recorded On: Sunday, January 24, 2010

Kalman Hettleman's book presents a bold, unconventional plan to rescue our nation's schoolchildren from a failing public education system. The plan reflects the author's rare fusion of on-the-ground experience as a school board member, public administrator, and political activist and exhaustive policy research.

The causes of failure, Hettleman shows, lie in obsolete ideas and false certainties that are ingrained in a trinity of dominant misbeliefs: 1) that educators can be entrusted on their own to do what it takes to reform our schools; 2) that we need to retreat from the landmark federal No Child Left Behind Act and restore more local control; and 3) that politics must be kept out of public education.

Kalman Hettleman has had a notable career on the frontlines of urban policy and politics, including service in Baltimore as a member of the school board and deputy mayor for education and other social programs, and as a nationally acclaimed education policy analyst. He has also served as Maryland cabinet secretary for social welfare programs, taught at universities, been a public interest attorney, and managed state and local political campaigns. 

Recorded On: Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Science is more than observation of what exists in nature: science is adventure of the mind. It took many creative leaps of the mind to produce science as sophisticated as modern physics and genetic biology.

In his new book, Our Quest for Effective Living: How We Cope in Social Space; A Window to a New Science, Fred Katz offers creative leaps about the social space in which we humans live our lives. Katz taught sociology at various universities, including the State University of New York/Buffalo and Tel Aviv University.

Recorded On: Wednesday, January 6, 2010

In June, 2003, Rear Admiral Barry C. Black was elected the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate. Prior to going to Capitol Hill, Chaplain Black served in the U.S. Navy for more than 27 years, ending his career as the Chief of Navy Chaplains.

A native of Baltimore, Chaplain Black is an alumnus of Oakwood College, Andrews University, North Carolina Central University, Eastern Baptist Seminary, Salve Regina University, and United States International University. He holds a Doctorate degree in ministry and a Ph.D. in psychology and has received numerous awards and service medals. He is the author of From the Hood to the Hill: A Story of Overcoming.

Recorded On: Saturday, January 16, 2010

WJZ-TV anchor Vic Carter tells the compelling story of Ozell Sutton, a civil rights pioneer who risked his life to ensure the rights of others. From rural Arkansas, Dr. Sutton conducted voter registration in the South and helped select and train "The Little Rock Nine." He later worked for the Department of Justice as a conciliator and forced rural police departments to offer adequate protection to marchers.

At age 23, Vic Carter received broadcasting's highest honor, the George Foster Peabody Award. He was named Journalist of the Year by the University of Georgia's School of Journalism and was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.

Recorded On: Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Over a seven-year period Bill Clinton talked intimately to Taylor Branch about what it's like to be president, revealing what he thought and felt and could not say in public. Branch includes his own reactions to the content of these conversations, as well as observations on Clinton's demeanor, moods and puzzlements. The Clinton Tapes provides a unique look at the presidency and Bill Clinton's place in the ranks of our chief executives.

Pulitzer Prize winning historian Taylor Branch is the author of three books on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire, and At Canaan's Edge.+

Recorded On: Thursday, November 5, 2009

Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College and author of Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation, which discusses how American schools are experiencing increasing and underreported resegregation, will talk with David Hornbeck, former Philadelphia superintendent of schools. Hornbeck is the author of Choosing Excellence in Public Schools: Where There's a Will, There's a Way, about how race plays out in our classrooms.

Part of the year-long speaker series, "Talking About Race," presented in partnership with the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.

Recorded On: Monday, November 2, 2009

L. T. (Larry) Woody grew up in Baltimore's Harlem Park neighborhood. At age 13 he received an academic scholarship to attend St. Paul's Episcopal School in Concord, NH. In Black In White is his coming-of-age story, an intimate glimpse into two very different worlds. Woody's journey from the tough streets of West Baltimore to the ivy-covered halls of his New England boarding school serve as a survival guide for young people seeking something better.

Larry Woody received a degree in therapeutic recreation from Temple University in 1976. He lives in Philadelphia where he works with Focus on Fathers.

Recorded On: Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The 2009 Mencken Memorial Lecture - "Bryan Debates Mencken: The Confrontation We Missed," by Dr. Michael Kazin, professor of history at Georgetown University and author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan.

Dr. Kazin is an expert in U.S. politics and social movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. He has taught at American University, Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and Stanford University. His academic honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, fellowships from Georgetown University, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Fulbright Program, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Recorded On: Saturday, September 12, 2009

With the election of President Obama, some say race is no longer an obstacle to success and that the "American Dream" is more reality than not. Ben Jealous, executive director of the NAACP, and Gerald Torres, professor at the University of Texas Law School and co-author of The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy, will grapple with this erroneous supposition.

Part of the year-long speaker series, "Talking About Race," presented in partnership with the Open Society Institute - Baltimore.

Recorded On: Wednesday, September 16, 2009