In this special Election Day episode, we put our democracy in context through various humanities perspectives. Sydnor Roy helps us compare American democracy with its long ago antecedents in ancient Athens, Carol Flueckiger tells us about her new exhibition commemorating the 19th Amendment, Sean Cunningham historicizes the culture of American elections, and Amy Flowerree helps us work through the philosophical crisis of "fake news."

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On this episode, Michael Borshuk speaks with musicologists Roger Landes and Christopher J. Smith about their recurring conference "The Electric Guitar in American Culture," hosted here in Lubbock at Texas Tech.  We hear about what makes this conference unique and how it fits into the mission of TTU's Vernacular Music Center, before Landes and Smith narrate the technological history of the electric guitar and offer some reflections about its cultural importance.  Finally, Borshuk, Landes, and Smith share some of their favorite electric guitar solos and discuss what makes these performances noteworthy.  The conversation covers a wide range of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, Prince, Frank Zappa, the recently departed Eddie Van Halen, and Lubbock's own favorite son, Buddy Holly.

This episode's extras include a YouTube playlist of great solos and a link to the Call for Papers for the next iteration of the conference.

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In this inaugural episode, Michael Borshuk, Director of the Humanities Center at Texas Tech, introduces you to the Center and its mission by previewing our scholarly theme for 2020-2021: Forests.  We hear from our theme programmers, Bruce Clarke, Sara Spurgeon, Curtis Bauer, and Christopher Witmore as they discuss different academic perspectives on forests and what those natural environments help us understand about being human.  Finally, we meet the Humanities Center's new Post-Doctoral Fellow, Katie Magaña, who tells us about her research and what she will be working on at Texas Tech this year.

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