Lifeslices with Steve Fisher

A song from the 60’s, began with the lyric,

Everybody's talkin' at me

Acclaimed wildlife filmmaker and naturalist Colin Stafford Johnson returns for more of Life in the Wild. Wildlife filmmakers may not be experiencing high demand right now but that doesn’t stop Colin from extolling the wonders and joys of nature and the need to preserve our ecosystems. A master story teller with some great stories to tell.

Colin Stafford Johnson, one of the world's best nature filmmakers, whose work has been seen on the BBC and PBS among others, joins host Steve Fisher to talk about his Life in the Wild, amongst tigers, otters, foxes and more. 

Thanks to streamers, there’s more foreign language programming available every day. Which begs the question, subtitles or dubbed? Some find subtitles distracting so dubbing is the choice for many. But the quality of the dubbing varies as much as the quality of the programs. So we turned to an expert for an insight on the process.  Jessica Blue, a director, voice actress and adapter joins host Steve Fisher to offer a Dubbing Session.

There may be someone in your house listening to your every word, without you realizing it. Your dog. An average dog vocabulary includes about 150 to 200 words, but with training, dogs have been documented to understand more than 1,000 words! Some dogs are even learning when you’re not actively training them. Shany Dror, a cognitive researcher and animal trainer at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, joins host Steve Fisher to tell us about Eavesdropping Dogs.

When people are incarcerated, it’s presumably to pay a debt to society for a crime. But when that debt is paid, and it’s time for them to reenter society, what’s being done to prepare them for a successful reentry? Sabra Williams is changing that with CREATIVE ACTS. She and Executive Director Isaac Gonzalez join host Steve Fisher to explain how. 

Every January, the Technos and the Tech Wanna-Knows gather in Las Vegas for CES. The Consumer Electronics Show. They’re there to discover exciting developments in the world of Electronics. And where there’s CES, there’s technology evangelist Marc Saltzman. Marc joins host Steve Fisher to share what he saw, and didn’t see, at CES this year. 

There was a time when towns and villages thrived on the talents of local craftspeople who could produce the necessities of everyday needs. Much of those skills have been lost in the era of mass production and are being undermined further with the advent of robotics. But there’s a small group of humans who are keeping those analog skills alive. One of them is Leanne Corcoran, a master shoemaker in Seattle, WA. She’s gone from artist to artisan and proves to host Steve Fisher that The Shoe’s Afoot.

81-year old Benjamin Franklin was leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when he was approached by people asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it." We’ve been fighting to keep it for almost 250 years but, perhaps, it has never been challenged before like it’s being challenged today. Bill Ayres has been fighting for democracy for most of his 81 years. One of the founders of the Weather Undergound, Bill has been fighting to Make Things Right ever since. He joins host Steve Fisher to share his views on how to weather the current anti-democratic storm. 

Estimates of when dogs became domesticated range from 20,000 to 130,000 years ago. Cats 9,000-10,000 years ago. What’s next? According to Raffaella Lesch, an assistant professor of Biology at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, it just might be raccoons. Dr. Lesch joins host Steve Fisher to talk about why we might just be seeing new Raccoon Friends Among Us.