Jazz and Democracy

Guest: Marcus Roberts, internationally renowned jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and teacher

What can jazz music teach us about compromise and the art of getting along? A lot. To play jazz well, you need to listen, adapt to others, and assume the best about your fellow musicians. Lessons we all need to learn as citizens of a democracy. 

 

LIfe Lessons from a Chess Grandmaster

Guest: Jonathan Rowson, chess grandmaster and author, “The Moves that Matter: A Chess Grandmaster on the Game of Life”

Jonathan Rowson, a former chess grandmaster, offers some insights he gleaned on life, death, family, and finding happiness.

 

Lessons from a Fierce Scottish Terrier

Guest: Sy Montgomery, author, "How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals"

Naturalist and talented storyteller Sy Montgomery was inspired to begin her life's work with animals by a Scottish Terrier named Molly. 

 

Frontier Legends: Truth vs. Tall Tale 

Guest: Jim Motavalli, journalist and author, "The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Legends"

The stories are Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Calamity Jane, and Annie Oakley seem fantastic, and some of them are actually true. Separating fact from fiction in the wild, wild West. 

 

Johnny Appleseed: The Eccentric Man Behind the Great American Legend

Guest: Howard Means, journalist and author, "Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story"

Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman, was a pioneer of the American frontier, and an eccentric one at that. He's a larger-than-life figure with a story we've all helped to promote and expand. His history, though, is a bit more complicated than the Disney biopic lets on. 

 

Camel Corps

Guest: Doug Baum, owner, Texas Camel Corps

Before the Civil War and before the transcontinental railroad, the US Army thought that camels might solve the problem of getting goods and supplies from Texas to California ports.