Knox Pods

Scientists are sounding alarms that climate change is happening right now. Inaction looks like a risky roll of the global-warming dice. Erin Gill, Director, City of Knoxville's Office of Sustainability, reviews The climate casino: risk, uncertainty, and economics for a warming world by William D. Nordaus in this podcast.

“The climate casino offers a no-nonsense look at why communities should be concerned about climate change and the types of policies that can reduce global climate risks," Ms. Gill says. "Its focus on science and economics helps to—in Nordhaus’ words—‘cool down the rhetoric’ and foster analytical and productive conversations about climate change.”

Ms. Gill has over five years of experience managing and implementing environmental programs. The City of Knoxville's Office of Sustainability addresses issues relating to the environmental, economic, and social health of the Knoxville community. Ms. Gill has a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale University and a B.A. in History from the University of Notre Dame. She has also worked for the EPA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer and for ICF International in Atlanta, where she helped administer Georgia Power’s energy efficiency programs. She currently serves on the board of the East Tennessee Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. (Recorded September 17, 2014)

On April 8, 1897, a small fire began in back of a hotel in Gay Street's business district and quickly spread through the expensive establishments that were the pride of the city. The fire claimed five lives and a million dollars' worth of property. Citizens criticized the city council for spending money on a new market house and Centennial celebrations rather than spending more on the newly-established professional fire department. Ordinances regulating fire escapes and shared walls found new support, as well.

The Internet age is giving residents of the free world direct access to information and more responsibility in consuming it. Are modern media consumers smart, savvy, and well-informed enough for the responsibility? Dr. Edward Caudill holds us accountable in his discussion of the graphic book The influencing machine : Brooke Gladstone on the media by Brooke Gladstone. (Recorded July 16, 2014)

“Brooke Gladstone offers the most engaging and insightful critique of modern media since Walter Lippmann,” Caudill says. “She spares no one, including herself and the standards of her profession.”

Dr. Edward Caudill is a professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee. His most recent book is Intelligently designed: how creationists built the campaign against evolution. Earlier this year, Brooke Gladstone interviewed him about the book as part of National Public Radio’s “On the Media.” He and Paul Ashdown have co-authored a trilogy of books on Civil War figures and the myths around them: William Tecumseh Sherman, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and John Mosby. They are working on a volume about George A. Custer and the Little Bighorn.

Dean Rice, Knox County Chief of Staff, looks at the future as discussed in the book The next 100 years: a forecast for the 21st century by George Friedman. (Recorded June 18, 2014)

“Clearly, predicting events over a century is next to impossible; however, Friedman builds strong, logical cases for the shifts and changes he believes lie ahead. The next 100 years is an extremely thought provoking look at geopolitical shifts that, if realized, will profoundly impact the world our children and grandchildren live in. Anyone who follows the current events unfolding in Ukraine and Russia will find this book absolutely fascinating,” Rice said.

In addition to serving as Chief of Staff for Knox County, Rice is an adjunct faculty member with University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s College of Communication and Information Science, where he also earned a degree in communication studies. He served as Legislative/Policy Aid on issues of energy, federal budget, and national defense for members of the U.S. House and Senate during the mid to late 1990s. He was the 2013 recipient of both the Society of Universal Dialogue’s Atlantic Institute "Peace Award" and the Distinguished Alumnus, School of Communication Studies. He recently co-authored a opinion piece for CNN on the Ukrainian crisis and global security.

Law professor Joan MacLeod Heminway critiques Conscious capitalism: liberating the heroic spirit of business by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia.

Professor Heminway remarks, "There has been a longstanding debate in business and legal circles about whether corporations exist solely or primarily to maximize shareholder wealth or whether the corporate form serves—or even is permitted to serve—a larger purpose. Conscious capitalism engages this debate and encourages a more broadly inclusive definition of the corporation—of capitalist business enterprises as a whole—that involves deliberate business choices made to serve a more wide-ranging set of objectives."

Joan MacLeod Heminway is the W.P. Toms Distinguished Professor of Law at The University of Tennessee College of Law; a fellow of the Center for Business and Economic Research, the Center for the Study of Social Justice, and the Center for Corporate Governance; and serves on the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section of the Tennessee Bar Association. (Recorded May 21, 2014)

Dr. John Bohstedt connects the dots in his discussion of Food politics: what everyone needs to know by Robert Paarlberg. His passionate interest in the politics of hunger is both historical and modern. As a University of Tennessee history professor, his research revealed hundreds of food riots during the Industrial Revolution. Today’s struggles over food are again making headlines. “As they did 250 years ago, the social drama of riots brings on stage political forces, conflicts and actors we may not have recognized,” he says.

Dr. Bohstedt thinks most Americans are probably unaware of the offstage dramas of food politics, dramas that are brought to light in the book Food politics. “Paarlberg shows us how politics shapes our food chain—from abundance to obesity to E. coli to organic foods to farm bills to Freedom fries. Paarlberg raises important questions such as, how do our farmers—and the ‘American food regime’—and ethanol—and our menus—affect hungry Asians and Africans? Is ‘food aid’ a blessing or a curse? Why doesn’t ‘free-trade’ doctrine cover food? What about those ‘Frankenfoods?’ What might sustainable farming look like? Are we approaching the abyss of chronic food crisis or the sunny fields of the green revolution? Food is such a basic driver of human affairs,” says Bohstedt. “As I studied food riots in early modern England, I found that customary episodes of crowd violence were a form of bargaining between the common people and their rulers, indeed a first draft of the welfare state. Like ‘our’ recent food riots of 2008, they were politics from the gut where hunger meets outrage.” (Recorded April 16, 2014)

Reverend Bob Galloway, Pastor Emeritus of the Metropolitan Community Church, takes some issues with the book "You can tell just by looking": and 20 other myths about LGBT life and people by Michael Bronski, Ann Pellegrini and Michael Amico. The three scholars and activists challenge both positive and negative myths about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and culture. (Recorded February 19, 2014)

College football has never been more popular, but behind the glittering success are darker truths. Mike Strange, sports reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel, discusses The system: the glory and scandal of big-time college football by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. "A hot dog fresh off the grill on a summer picnic is sublime," Strange says. "But, you probably wouldn't want to be at the meat-packing plant to see what goes into it. College football is sort of like that." (Recorded January 15, 2014)

Suddenly there’s a desert in a region that receives almost 60 inches of rain a year. That desert in the middle of the lush, diversified Southern Appalachian forest took Atlanta attorney Duncan Maysilles by surprise, as he tells in his book Ducktown smoke: the fight over one of the South's greatest environmental disasters. He reads from his book and reveals his research in this podcast. (Recorded October 16, 2013)