Thinking Aloud

Today on Thinking Aloud, a specialist in medieval architecture tells about the fascinating records from that hospital.  She has studied them in depth for years and has pulled out of the arcane minutae some fascinating stories about the daily lives, and sicknesses, of all those involved with London’s Savoy Hospital.   

Youmay find this hard to believe in our high-tech age, but a whopping 99% of all our data that travels overseas(and far more of it crosses the oceans than you realize) moves via underwatercables.  Media scholar Nicole Starosielski joins us here today on Thinking Aloud to tell us all about a singularly important and hugely complex infrastructurethat we rely upon every single day but mistakenly think floats about in theether over our heads.

Hope Jahren is a celebrated botanist who has spent her life studying plants.  In her new memoir Lab Girl, she details how that love affair with plants developed, what it's like to work in a scientific laboratory, and who are some of the other scientific personalities she has come to know over the course of her career.

Our guest today on Thinking Aloud is Roger T. Reed. The son of the first New York City art gallery owner to specialize in illustration art, he has spent his life studying, collecting, selling, and loving illustration.  He is one of the most important figures in the illustration universe; in fact, most significant illustration art sold at public auction goes through him.  He’s here today to talk about illustration art’s place in visual studies and the modern art market, and teach us about its unquestioned present-day value and worth.  Thanks for listening. 

This show focuses on the whole publishing "team" that helps bring a book out after it is written and selected for publication by a publishing house. Our guest is Stephen Fraser who has had a distinguished career in publishing stretching more than 35 years and still loves what he does.

A Taste of Power uncovers the intersections of food, politics, and privilege in American culture, and the author Katharina Vester is here to talk food with guest host Mark Burns today on Thinking Aloud. 

Tim Slover and Jane England of the University of Utah Theater (Theater?) Department have a job that many might envy: they take student and adult groups to London each year on theater trips.  Why London theater is so consistently excellent and in many ways better than New York City theater is the topic of today's Thinking Aloud.  This interview was originally conducted by Julie Rose for the BYU Radio show Top of Mind.

Brigham Young University was recently blessed to have a visit from Renee Fleming, another double-duty doing singer and ambassador--the Leonard Bernstein of the opera world, as it were.  In addition to being one of the world’s great sopranos and a regular lead singer for the Metropolitan Opera, she also gives recitals where she sings jazz pieces and show tunes in addition to operatic arias; performs master classes for young singers; and educates others on opera and vocal technique via interviews and writing.

Our guest tonight on Thinking Aloud, Robison Wells, is a successful author of several young adult novels, a public speaker, and the owner of a Psychiatric Service Dog named Annie. Having dealt with several mental illnesses for the last six years, Wells keeps up with his busy schedule of traveling, writing, and speaking only with Annie’s help. Tune in tonight to hear his story of diagnosis, healing and how Annie's specialized training helps his day-to-day life.

Some people in our culture have faces which through birth or later trauma appear to be markedly different from most 'normal' faces.  Today on Thinking Aloud, Dr. Heather Laine Talley talks with host Marcus Smith about the meanings of that most seemingly noticeable of all differences and what it shows about our culture's attitudes towards beauty, the body, and social difference itself.