TJC’s Up Close

This week on Up Close: incarceration. America today stands out as by far the country with the most individuals in jails and prisons. The University of Pennsylvania's Marie Gottschalk discusses the reasons for, and consequences of, this in "Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics." And then, the imprisoning of certain ethnic groups during World War II is a controversial topic in our history. Contributing Editor for Texas Monthly Jan Jarboe Russell discusses some fascinating parts of that story in "The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II."

This week on Up Close, a look at the concept of "personal responsibility" from two different angles. University of Pennsylvania classics professor Emily Wilson re-examines the life and ideas of Seneca, the father of Stoicism, in the "The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca." And author Johann Hari challenges commonly held notions about how we deal with drugs and addicts in "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com/2015/03/up-close-rabbi-ayelet-cohen-and-eve-tushnet/ Being LGBT can seem to be at odds with practicing organized religion, but that's not necessarily so for the authors on this week's episode of Up Close. Rabbi Ayelet Cohen details the history of the country's first LGBT synagogue in "Changing Lives, Making History: Congregation Beit Simchat Torah"; and author Eve Tushnet, a devout Catholic who was born Jewish and is also a lesbian, attempts to reconcile her faith and her sexuality in "Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith."

This week on Up Close, a look at how we can better achieve our goals, as individuals and corporations. TJC's Steven I. Weiss talks with NYT business reporter David Gelles about his book, "Mindful Work: How Meditation is Changing Business from the Inside Out," and with NYU psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen about her book, "Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation."

This week on Up Close, two interviews about what happens when we publicize private details: Daphne Merkin on "The Fame Lunches: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, The Brontes, and The Importance of Handbags" and NYT columnist Jim Dwyer on "More Awesome Than Money: Four Boys and Their Quest to Save the World From Facebook."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com/up-close-peter-manseau-and-brigitte-sion This week on Up Close, we explore different ways of looking at our pasts. TJC's Steven I. Weiss speaks with Peter Manseau, author of "One Nation, Under Gods: A New American History," and Brigitte Sion, author of "Memorials in Berlin and Buenos Aires: Balancing Memory, Architecture, and Tourism."

The complete episode is available on The Jewish Channel on cable, and the complete audio of the show is available on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tjcs-up-close/id807702211 or your favorite podcast player.

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com/up-close-shane-harris-and-joel-simon This week on TJC's UP CLOSE, new kinds of warfare and the consequences for non-combatants. TJC's Steven I. Weiss speaks with Daily Beast Senior Correspondent Shane Harris, author of "@War: The Rise of The Military Internet Complex," and with The Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon, author of "The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle For Media Freedom."

This week on Up Close, as we reach new stages in life, embracing who we are and who we'll become can help us achieve a greater measure of happiness. We'll speak to two people embracing new ways of thinking about their respective stages in life.

For Melanie Notkin, reaching her early forties without the husband and children she'd long planned to have offered an opportunity to look at life in a different way. Speaking for millions of women in the situation, she's defined a group called the "Otherhood," and we'll discuss her book of that name.

But sometimes the most we can hope for with our old dreams is to get close to what we'd imagined, and acknowledge that achieving something, even in a less-than-perfect manner, is still worthwhile. Journalism professor Ari Goldman picked up the cello on the eve of his 60th birthday, deciding to simply do the best that he could. He chronicles that experience in "The Late Starters Orchestra."

Watch the complete episode of Up Close on TJC on-demand on cable in the TJC Original Series/Interviews category. You can also watch highlights from the episode in the video above, or listen to the complete audio of this episode at the top of this post or by subscribing to our weekly audio podcast at http://feeds.feedburner.com/tjcupclose or on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tjcs-up-close/id807702211.

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com/2015/02/up-close-meline-toumani-and-mike-kelly/ This week on UP CLOSE, TJC's Steven I. Weiss sits down with Armenian-American author Meline Toumani to talk about her memoir, "There Was and There Was Not," and the commonalities between the Armenian-American and the Jewish-American experience, and with Bergen Record columnist Mike Kelly to discuss his book about the 1996 bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed two Americans, "The Bus on Jaffa Road: A Story of Middle East Peace and the Search for Justice."

This week on Up Close, what happens when an elite domain becomes available to the masses? TJC's Steven I. Weiss talks with Purdue University Prof. Kathryn Cramer Brownell, author of "Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life," and University of Michigan Prof. Paula Rabinowitz, author of "American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street."