Thinking Aloud

Over the last century, an African-American tradition in the visual arts has developed in the United States.  It is a tradition which is as strong, engaging, and especially diverse as any other.  Today on Thinking Aloud, BYU Head Educator and Curator Janalee Emmer talks to guest host Mark Burns about an exhibition at the BYU Museum of Art entitled "Embracing Diverse Voices: A Century of African-American Art."

Understanding the Digital Cloud: Where it Came From and How

How do you picture the data cloud we hear somuch about? Perhaps in your mind's eye it is a universal, untouchablecollection of pixels and electricity pulsing somewhere far above our heads.Last night's Thinking Aloud featured a guest who is trying to change how wethink about the data cloud. In his book "The Prehistory of theCloud," he deals with the idea of privacy, the balance of human power inthe realm of technology, and the cloud as a metaphor for a tangible storagespace for digitized information.

Francisco Estevez Diaz is a significant Spanish composer who writes groundbreaking works near Madrid, Spain, but he is almost completely unknown in America. Nathan Thatcher spoke with us on Thinking Aloud last night to change that. His new book, "Paco," (Diaz's nickname) is both a biography and an introduction to Diaz's intriguing music.

Many people wrongly believe that Henry Ford invented the automobile. The truth behind the beginning of the automobile age is far more complicated and interesting than that. Though Ford was one of the geniuses that made autos crucial to modern life, his contribution was as a skilled but Machiavellian businessman rather than as an inventor. But many other players as fascinating as Ford fill out the story of this pivotal moment in the history of the modern world. Today's guest will tell us all about all these characters discussed in his new book "Drive!: Henry, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age."

In this episode of Thinking Aloud, we talked to Nicholas Eberstadt, a leading authority on the U.S. labor market. In his new book "Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis," he writes about the causes of chronic unemployment— lack of jobs, disability, economic disincentives to work, and a social safety net can make working impossible. The potential solutions are just as numerous and complicated as the causes.

In 1958, the Texan pianist Van Cliburn went to Moscow and did the unthinkable: he won the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition even though Soviet authorities had chosen their own winners in advance. Van Cliburn's performances of Russian composers stunned the Russian judges, electrified the Russian audiences, and in the end he was simply to good not to award the gold medal to.  His triumph had important implications for him, Cold War relations, and the history of music itself, and British journalist Nigel Cliff will discuss those tonight with guest host (and Van Cliburn fan) Mark Burns.  

Today, the Peruvian Ambassador to the United States discusses the relatively successful last few decades his country has enjoyed.  He attributes the nation's gradual growth in stability and prosperity to its commitment to international free trade.

Tonight's "Thinking Aloud" is an interview with Andres Resendez on his book "The Other Slavery." Resendez is one of a handful of scholars who have begun to uncover the history of the enslavement of Native Americans in what is now the USA from the time of the first Spanish conquistadors to the present. It's a little known fact compared to the history of African-American slavery, but up to 5,000,000 Native Americans died as slaves.

Tonight on Thinking Aloud, we feature an interview with Amy Marks, a scholar who just co-edited an important, large-hearted volume on the 6,000,000 children of immigrants in the United States. Her work examines those children from many different angles--linguistic, physical, family, emotional health, etc.--and comes up with a perhaps surprising conclusion: in most ways, many children of immigrants are doing quite well and becoming an important part of America's future.