Knox Pods

Former Knoxville Chief of Police Sterling Owen remarks on the history of violence as he discusses The better angels of our nature : why violence has declined by Steven Pinker. (Recorded February 20, 2013)

Pinker, a New York Times bestselling author, shows that despite the ceaseless news about war, crime, and terrorism, violence has actually been in decline over long stretches of history. Exploding myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly enlightened world.

When we consider our monumental environmental challenges—climate change, air and water pollution, environmental toxins, etc.—it seems that we must be the first civilization to face environmental degradation serious enough to threaten our very way of life. According to author Clive Ponting, we aren’t the first, and history does have something to teach us. Steve Cotham, Manager of the Knox County Public Library's McClung Historical Collection, considers Ponting’s book A new green history of the world : the environment and the collapse of great civilizations, in this recording.

Using the Roman empire as its central example, this classic work reveals how overexpansion and the exhaustion of available natural resources have played key roles in the collapse of all great cultures in human history. With an argument of urgent relevance to our modern society, Ponting offers a provocative and illuminating view of human history and its relationship to the environment.

Cotham has worked in the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library System since 1980 and has been manager since 1986. He is the author of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and holds three academic degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, including advanced degrees in history and library science. (Recorded November 16, 2011)

Marianne Wiggins is the author of seven books of fiction including Evidence of Things Unseen, which is set in Knoxville. She has won an NEA grant, the Whiting Writers' Award, and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and she was a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist in fiction for Evidence of Things Unseen. An evening with Marianne Wiggins was sponsored by Friends of the Library in honor of the 125th anniversary of Knox County Public Library. Here's a short excerpt of her reading and opening remarks recorded on January 24, 2012.

Christopher Walsh, author of In the Wake of the Sun: Navigating the Southern Works of Cormac McCarthy, discusses his favorite aspects of McCarthy's work in this recording edited from his public remarks on April 7, 2010.

Miss Evelyn Hazen, a beautiful and independent woman of a prominent family, caused a stir in Knoxville society when she sued her lover for jilting her. The reading is edited and compiled from several Knoxville Journal stories filed in Covington, KY in 1934 as Miss Hazen's courtship was examined in a court of law.

James Agee's A Death in the Family has been a staple in American literature for 50 years, but it is not the novel the author intended to publish. University of Tennessee professor Michael A. Lofaro restored the novel to reflect the manuscript Agee left completed at his death. In this recording he discusses the new version: A Death in the Family: A Restoration of the Author's Text.

On July 28, 2008 the Sunsphere was both the site and the subject of a luncheon lecture by one of the architects who worked on creating the theme structure for the 1982 World's Fair. William Denton spoke about the challenges of constructing the world's first spherical building, and what he hoped Knoxville would do with it. Former mayor Randall Tyree spoke following Mr. Denton's remarks.

The first in a podcast series based on readings of old Knoxville newspapers, this article is "A Night on the Bowery," published in The Journal and Tribune, Sunday, July 8, 1900. Robby Griffith reads the article, after which Knox County Historian and librarian Steve Cotham provides the historical context. The music was performed by Music Therapy, recorded live at the Time Warp Tea Room in Happy Holler.

As part of our 2007 Big Read, the library hosted discussions of the book To Kill A Mockingbird and a screening of the film. Gerald Wood, Dean of Humanites at Carson-Newman College, and Barbara Moore, Professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, joined us to discuss the film adaptation of the book.