TJC’s Up Close

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com/ This week on Up Close, we’re taking you on two voyages of discovery, and the mix of pessimism and hope we find along the way.

News anchor Imran Garda, covering the past few years for Al Jazeera and other networks, has seen an Arab Spring flow into a refugee crisis. His novel travels around Africa and beyond to bring us a story in the midst of the story, with "The Thunder That Roars."

And then, Meera Subramanian visited the land of her father to explore the way the world's largest democracy was coping with environmental problems, and how some Indians hope to forge a new path. She tells her story in "A River Runs Again: India's Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka."

This week on "Up Close," interviews with journalist Steve Silberman, author if "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity," and NY post reporter Reuven Fenton, author of "Stolen Years: Stories of the Wrongfully Imprisoned."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com/2015/11/up-close-joy-ann-reid-and-gary-rivlin This week on "Up Close," being black in America means getting treated differently from those who are white in numerous ways.

Within the world of politics, the African-American vote was alternately pursued and jettisoned by the major political parties, until the Democratic party won over the vast majority of African-Americans in the middle of the twentieth century. Exploring the Democratic party's approach is MSNBC National Correspondent Joy-Ann Reid, author of "Fracture: Barack Obama, The Clintons, and the Racial Divide."

And then, if one single event typified the treatment of blacks in America in the first decade of the twentieth century, it was Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans. Journalist Gary Rivlin spent a decade reporting on what happened there for "Katrina: After the Flood."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com On this week's episode of "Up Close," we look at those studying how to preserve species, and one psychologist's call for preserving human communication.

When we talk about preserving species, what exactly are preserving? If it's genes and physical characteristics alone, there's an animal culture of sorts that we're surely leaving behind. M.R. O'Connor explores these thorny questions in "Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things."

And then, if we can lose a given species of crow by changing its inherited culture, can we also lose the culture that makes us human? That warning sign is being presented by MIT Professor Sherry Turkle in "Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age."

We tend to believe that a system of laws is there to protect us. But what happens when the law fails to deliver justice?

The largest verdict for environmental damages in history will forever be quite tainted. Bloomberg Businessweek Senior Writer Paul Barrett discusses, "Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win," now out in paperback.

And then, perhaps the greatest symbol of a legal system designed without women is the agunah crisis, in which women are stuck in Orthodox Jewish marriages if their husbands refuse to give them divorces. Susan Aranoff has been an advocate on the issue for three decades, and is the co-author of "The Wed-Locked Agunot: Orthodox Jewish Women Chained to Dead Marriages."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com TJC's Steven I. Weiss interviews CNN's Josh Levs about his book, "All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Businesses--And How We Can Fix It Together," and Publishers Marketplace News Editor Sarah Weinman about her new collection, "Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com This week on "Up Close": the law of the land can help us, and it can hurt us.

First, the groundbreaking efforts and judgments by the first two women to serve as U.S. Supreme Court justices are explored by Linda Hirshman in "Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World."

And then, the Western system of justice treated Jews horribly for centuries. Perhaps the clearest example of that injustice was the blood libel, which traces back to a fixed trial with bad evidence nearly 900 years ago. EM Rose gathers together that evidence to tell the story of "The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe."

Watch the complete episode on TJC on demand on cable!

This week on Up Close, when we examine what's controlling us, we find different sources of authority. In the realm of the mind, new science reveals that our brain is making decisions before we're even consciously aware of them. That is explored by journalist Casey Schwartz in, "In the Mind Fields: Exploring the New Science of Neuropsychoanalysis."

And then, the realm of the law includes many citations of a higher authority. But who establishes that authority, and how? Yale University Prof. Christine Hayes examines that question with "What's Divine About Divine Law? Early Perspectives."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com This week on Up Close: When people work together they can accomplish more than any one individual, but sometimes that's a bad thing. NY Daily News' Alyssa Katz discusses her book, "The Influence Machine: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Capture of American Life," and, exploring the mp3 revolution and its effect on the music industry is Stephen Witt, author of "How Music Got Free: The end of an Industry, The Turn of the Century and the Patient Zero of Piracy."

This week on Up Close, we often close ourselves off from information and experiences that can help us -- and ignore the opportunities right under our noses. We're also ignoring the danger that might lurk in areas we've walled-off from our concern. That's the argument of Financial Times US Managing Editor Gillian Tett, author of "The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers." And sometimes new experiences and new acquaintances can teach us how to be the people we'll become. That's a theme in the novel by New York Times Deputy Washington Editor Jonathan Weisman, "Number 4 Imperial Lane."