The Spark

Book Week continues on Wednesday's Smart Talk.

America is a polarized country on political and cultural issues. There have been times in the past when Americans have been divided but one of the unique characteristics of the time we live in is that there often seems to be little appetite for compromise or even considering what someone is saying when there’s a disagreement.

If you listen to Wednesday's Smart Talk guest, it may make for less polarization – even if there are disagreements.

Bo Seo is author of the new book Good Arguments: How Debate Teaches Us to Listen and Be Heard. Seo is a two-time world champion debater and former coach of the Australian national debating team and the Harvard College Debating Union.

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Book week continues on Tuesday’s Smart Talk and features a conversation with two bestselling novelists – Adriana Trigiani and John Searles. Both appeared last month at the Council of Friends of Lancaster County’s Public Libraries fundraising event.

Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Shoemaker’s Wife. Her books have been published in thirty-eight languages around the world. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker. Adriana’s latest novel, The Good Left Undone, tells the story of the Cabrellis, a hardworking family of Tuscan artisans with long-held secrets.

Searles is the author of four novels: Her Last Affair, Help For The Haunted, Strange But True and Boy Still Missing. His essays have appeared in national magazines and newspapers, and he contributes frequently to morning television shows as a book critic.

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It's Book Week on Smart Talk. All our programs through Thursday will focus on books—mostly talking with authors of new books.

Best-selling novelists Adriana Trigiani and John Searles, world champion debater Bo Seo and Historian David Brown are among the authors who will with us this week.

However, we start this special week Monday with a show Smart Talk features every year in the first days of summer – books that you would enjoy or find interesting while on vacation or relaxing at home.

We’re joined by our worthy panel of readers and new book experts – Catherine Lawrence, co-owner of the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg and a writer herself, Travis Kurowski, Ph.D, assistant professor of creative writing at York College of Pennsylvania, and Carolyn Blatchley, Executive Director of Cumberland County Library System.

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Juneteenth will be celebrated across the country a week from Sunday on June 19th. It marks the day when all enslaved people were free in the United States.

The State Museum of Pennsylvania opens a Civil Rights Movement exhibition on Friday, June 17 that ties in with Juneteenth.

It’s called A Place for All: Three Stories of Integration in Pennsylvania.

The exhibit is comprised of A Story of Strength: The Myers Family Moves to Levittown, A Story of Bravery: Integrating Pittsburgh’s Public Pools and A Story of Resilience: The Desegregation of Girard College.

We’ll learn more about the exhibit on Thursday’s Smart Talk from State Museum Director Beth Hager and Senior History Curator Dr. Curtis Miner.

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June is Pride Month to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots that marked the beginning of the fight for LGBTQ rights and works to achieve equal justice and equal opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) Americans. That involves all aspects of the lives of the LGBTQ community.

Access to and affordability of healthcare is a major concern for LGBTQ people and there are some unique challenges as well.

Next Thursday at 8 p.m. on WITF-TV, you can learn more from Transforming Health LGBTQ+ Health.

On Thursday’s Smart Talk, we’re joined by Transforming Health producer Keira McGuire and Christa Nelson, who identifies as a transgender woman.

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The historic Lebanon Cemetery or Mt. Vernon Cemetery, west of Chambersburg, is the cemetery where many African-Americans from Franklin County were buried after the Civil War. It is the final resting place for more than 25 Black soldiers who fought in the war, including those of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Colored Troops.

The Cumberland Valley Civil War Roundtable has plans to clean and restore the grave sites of the soldiers.

The Roundtable’s Tracy Baer is on Wednesday’s Smart Talk to discuss the history.

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The aftermath of the mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde Texas, Philadelphia and other places around the country the last two weeks have followed a familiar pattern. Shock, outrage, calls for expansion of mental health resources and, of course, new gun laws. After every shooting, there seems to be a sense of this is the one that will result in action. Most often, it doesn’t and another news story comes along and diverts the attention.

One proposal that appears to have public support according to most polls and even bi-partisan political support is “extreme risk or red flag laws.”

Red Flag laws allow family members or law enforcement officials to prevent an individual from accessing a gun if they believe the person is in crisis.

Less than half the states in the country already have red flag laws and the states with the lowest firearm deaths rates fall into that category.

Pennsylvania doesn’t but Democratic State Senator Wayne Fontana of Allegheny County would like to see that change and is on Wednesday’s Smart Talk to explain why.

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An extended conversation of Smart Talk's road trip to the Carlisle Ford Nationals.

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Last week, Sheryl Sandberg announced she is stepping down as chief operating officer at Facebook’s parent company Meta.

Sandberg oversaw Facebook’s spectacular rise to a company that generated $100 billion in revenue each year, but she also had to answer for several scandals involving Facebook.

Sandberg became a feminist icon after her best-selling book Leaning In about women in the business world was released.

However, it was a more personal story that Sandberg told in September 2020 when she appeared on Smart Talk. She and psychologist and university professor Adam Grant co-authored the book Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy after Sandberg’s husband died unexpectedly.

You’ll hear an encore of that conversation on Tuesday's Smart Talk.

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What may be the largest environmental rally and campaign since right after the Three Mile Island accident is scheduled for this weekend in Harrisburg.

The Pennsylvania Climate Convergence is staging the "Festival for the Planet" Saturday through Monday.

It will include advocates and activists sending a message to “Gov. Wolf, lawmakers and regulators to step up” to fight climate change.

The Festival will be made up of panel discussions, arts, music, theatre, rallies and a march on the Capitol.

Karen Feridun of Pennsylvania Climate Convergence is on Monday’s Smart Talk to explain what the group is looking to do.

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