Through the Gates at IU

This week, we’ll hear from Michael Adams, Provost Professor of English at Indiana University, and author of “In Praise of Profanity” (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Adams sees “In Praise of Profanity” as a continuation of 2009’s “Slang: The People’s Poetry.” In it, he argues that profanity is not only oversimplified as being taboo, it is also valuable and essential as a vehicle of communication and an element of style.

Adams is an English language historian and a frequent contributor to various dictionaries and academic journals. Though his published articles often explore arcane aspects of language, he also writes books aimed at broader audiences. They include “Slayer Slang: A ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Lexicon” and “From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages.”

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This week, we’ll hear from Nancy Wexler, a leading geneticist and neuropsychologist whose research led to the identification of the Huntington’s disease gene. Her research has also led to the discovery of the genes responsible for familial Alzheimer’s disease, kidney cancer, two types of neurofibromatosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and dwarfism.

In spring 2016, Wexler received the inaugural Hermann J. Muller Award, which is named for a renowned geneticist, a Nobel Laureate, a social activist and an esteemed IU Bloomington faculty member (1945-67). The Muller award and lecture series recognizes luminary international geneticists whose discoveries, like Muller’s, have or are making a significant impact on the field of genetics and society.

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“I have yet to meet the person I can’t teach to draw,” T. Kelly Wilson tells Through the Gates host Jim Shanahan in this week’s episode. Wilson is an architect and director of the Indiana University Center for Art and Design in Columbus.

Wilson talks about the importance of drawing on creativity and invention. “When you go to draw and you look to perceive … the world becomes suddenly very strange and complex,” he said, adding that common notions of what you’re seeing change and modify when translating them to pictures.

This episode also introduces Janae Cummings, a new Through the Gates podcast host, who will also be featured in upcoming “Five Questions” segments featuring campus visitors and faculty, staff, students, friends and alums of IU.

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Water. Hops. Malted barley. Yeast.

Put them together and you have a delicious beer — usually.

But as IU molecular biologist Matthew Bochman shares on this week’s podcast, conditions common to the production of certain craft beers can sometimes inhibit their production, risking a growing segment of a nearly $55 billion industry. On this week's episode of Through the Gates, Bochman explains how yeast is used to produce beer and how his research has helped one local brewery improve their product.

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This week, we’ll hear from Eileen Julien, IU professor of comparative literature and director of IU’s Institute for Advanced Study.

Julien is also co-director of “Arts of Survival: Recasting Lives in African Cities,” a three-week summer institute that has brought together 22 faculty and three graduate students from universities and colleges across the U.S. The institute is hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study on the IU Bloomington campus and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Julien, who is author of “Travels with Mae: Scenes from a New Orleans Girlhood,” is bringing a personal touch to “Arts of Survival” by loaning part of a collection of Mardi Gras regalia to the Mathers Museum of World Cultures for an exhibit beginning July 12. Public readings and films will also be offered during the institute, and the group will travel to New Orleans to examine the intersection of contemporary urban culture art with the political and social structures embedded in the city.

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This week on Through the Gates, host Jim Shanahan is joined by David C. Williams, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy and the John S. Hastings Professor of Law in the Maurer School of Law.

Williams has written widely on constitutional law and consults with constitutional reform movements around the world. Presently, he advises elements of the Burma democracy movement on the constitutional future of the country. In today's interview, he will share some of how that process works.

Later in the episode, student Samantha von Ende will share some of her own work with the Center for Constitutional Democracy. As a Ph.D. student, von Ende has worked extensively on gender-related issues of democracy in the United States and around the world.

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This week, we hear from IU swim coach Ray Looze, the 2016 Big Ten Coach of the Year for both men’s and women’s swimming, along with swimmers Lilly King, a rising sophomore from Evansville studying physical education in the School of Public Health, and Blake Pieroni, a rising junior from Chesterton, Ind., studying biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. King was named the 2016 Big Ten Women’s Swimmer of the Year. Both King and Pieroni hope to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (Aug. 5 to 21) at the Olympic Trials for swimming June 26 to July 3 in Omaha, Neb.

In this podcast, King and Blake talk about the discipline required for day-to-day life as student swimmers — and the numerous calories needed to fuel their training.

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This week, Through the Gates host Jim Shanahan is joined by Trevor Douglas, the Earl Blough Professor of Chemistry in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry.

Douglas is part of a research team working toward a material that may eventually fuel cheap, efficient cars that run on water — work being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The team has created an efficient biomaterial that catalyzes the formation of hydrogen — one half of the “holy grail” of splitting H2O.

Also on this episode, we’ll hear from California-based author Dana Johnson, an associate professor of English at the University of Southern California, who talks about her writing process and reads an excerpt from one of her novels. Johnson will be in town next week as a faculty member at the annual IU Writers’ Conference (June 4-8).

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This week, host Jim Shanahan is joined by Sue Carter, the director of The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. Carter was appointed to her position at The Kinsey Institute in October, 2014, after a long career in the field of neuroendocrinology.

Carter has spent much of her recent career studying the consequences of birth intervention, particularly how the hormone oxytocin affects the health of both mothers and their newborn children.

In this interview, Carter will discuss her career, including research on the mating habits of the prairie vole, the present and historical challenges of sex research and the immediate future of The Kinsey Institute.

Also on this episode, Colin Allen, a faculty member in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine in the College of Arts and Sciences, talks about National Bike to Work Week, from May 16 to 20. May is National Bike Month.

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Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton joins host Jim Shanahan on this week's episode of Through the Gates.

Hamilton represented Indiana's 9th Congressional District from 1965 to 1999 and served on several high profile committees both during and after his career in Congress. Hamilton went on to establish the Center on Congress at IU and still serves as a faculty member today.

In this interview, Hamilton discusses his new book, his career in Washington and the state of American politics today.

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