FORA.tv - Audio Program of the Week

In her November 2011 cover story in The Atlantic “All the Single Ladies,” Kate Bolick asserts that “recent years have seen an explosion of male joblessness and a steep decline in men’s life prospects that have disrupted the “romantic market” in ways that narrow a marriage-minded woman’s options,” to deadbeats and playboys. But amid this strange state of affairs, Bolick sees an opportunity to “acknowledge the end of “traditional” marriage as society’s highest ideal.” One of The Atlantic’s most-talked-about stories in recent years, Bolick discusses her article and subsequent public reaction with Hanna Rosin, a senior editor at The Atlantic and author of the book End of Men; and Garance Franke-Ruta, a senior editor at The Atlantic. ---- Kate Bolick is a contributing editor at The Atlantic, culture editor of Veranda, and contributes regularly to Elle, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate, among other publications. Her November 2011 Atlantic cover story, "All the Single Ladies," about the social and economic trends shaping America's current romantic landscape, drew more than 1 million readers to The Atlantic's web site, earned 50K "likes" on Facebook, is the magazine's most responded-to article of 2011, and was optioned by Sony for a TV series. Garance Franke-Ruta is the politics editor of TheAtlantic.com, but when she's not trying to understand the mysterious charm of Rick Santorum or why Newt Gingrich would post a picture of himself jauntily posing in front of Auschwitz, she's maintained a sideline in writing about women in politics. Hanna Rosin is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and founder and co-editor of DoubleX, Slate's women's section, for which she does a bi-weekly podcast. Rosin is the author of The End of Men: And the Rise of Women and God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America.

National Journal and The Atlantic, along with CBS News, bring together leading pollsters to break down the numbers and talk about the real story of Election 2012. ---- The 2012 Democratic and Republican Conventions provide a rare opportunity both to connect with the country's leadership ranks and to participate in one of the nation's most cherished traditions. These spirited gatherings are equal parts policy, politics, and celebration and attract the power centers of each party, including state, local, and federal officials, senior party leadership, national media, and business leaders. National Journal and The Atlantic will combine their brand strengths at the 2012 conventions for special on-site events in Tampa, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina. From breaking news and probing analysis of Washington policy and politics to thoughtful reconnaissance on the big ideas shaping the national conversation, National Journal and The Atlantic will provide a panoramic perspective on the world of American policy and politics during this pivotal election year.

Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, talks with WIRED's Steven Levy about Twitter, politics, and social media at the 2012 WIRED Business Conference. ---- On May 1, 2012, WIRED gathered together thought-leaders for ground-breaking discussions on disruptive business practices, ideas, and innovations.

The incredible feats that athletes accomplish fascinate us, but what are the personal, cultural and athletic impact of doping in sports? After the Olympic Games and just prior to the America's Cup World Series in San Francisco, swissnex San Francisco will kick off its series Sports & Tech with the event Gaming the System: Doping in Sports, focusing on the controversial and omnipresent use of performance enhancers in sports. ---- Max Gassman tells us about his research on the hormone erythropoietin (EPO), which elevates red cell blood production and increases arterial oxygen, ultimately leading to improved exercise performance. Gassman will explain how EPO, normally used to treat patients who suffer from anemia, is also an effective blood-doping agent used by some athletes. He presents his data on mice and the adaptive mechanisms of humans who live at elevations above 3000 meters, where the reduced availability of oxygen induces the production of EPO. Carsten Lundby of the University of Zurich presents his research on blood doping in the sporting world. This common practice has been around for at least half a century, and Lundby discusses its effects and attempts by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to detect and limit blood doping, as well as whether they have been successful. Finally, John Gleaves from California State University, Fullerton, addresses how the cultural fascination with performance-enhancing technologies, manifesting itself as both fear and enthusiasm, reveals larger social concerns about what it means to be human and how to handle advances in sciences that affect sporting performance. Because sports mirror our society, our interest in doping tells us more about ourselves than we realize. Kate Scott, sports anchor at KNBR 680 AM in San Francisco, joins us as the moderator for the panel discussion.

MythBusters co-host Adam Savage discusses his childhood experiences as a budding builder, and explores the impetus that lies at the heart of maker culture. ---- Adam Savage has spent his life gathering skills that allow him to take what's in his brain and make it real. He's built everything from ancient Buddhas to futuristic weapons, from spaceships to dancing vegetables, from fine art sculptures to animated chocolate and just about anything else you can think of. The son of a filmmaker/painter and psychotherapist, Savage has been making his own toys since he was allowed to hold scissors. Having held positions as a projectionist, animator, graphic designer, carpenter, interior and stage designer, toy designer, welder, and scenic painter, he's worked with every material and process he could get his hands on - metal, paper, glass, plastic, rubber, foam, plaster, pneumatics, hydraulics, animatronics, neon, glassblowing, mold making and injection molding, to name just a few. Today, in addition to co-hosting Discovery Channel's "MythBusters," Savage teaches advanced model making, most recently in the industrial design department at the San Francisco Academy of Art. Somehow, he also finds time to devote to his own art - his sculptures have been showcased in over 40 shows in San Francisco, New York and Charleston, W.Va.

Most of the time when we order up some beers, we're just happy to put that life-giving elixir into our bellies, especially after a rough work week. But it isn't often that we actually consider how the delicious beer is created. Sure, we know that you need hops, whatever those are, and water, and some other stuff, and then you put it in a pot and ... then ... beer happens? Not quite. Dave McLean details the science of brewing, from the perspective of a craft brewer. ---- Dave McLean has a degree in brewing science from UC Davis and is the owner and brewmaster at San Francisco's Magnolia Pub & Brewery.

Joe Grand and Zoz Brooks were co-hosts of Prototype This, an engineering show that followed the real-life design process of a unique prototype each episode. This presentation shares stories and technical details of their favorite builds. ---- Dr. Zoz Brooks is a robotics engineer, pyrochemist, and inveterate tinkerer. He delights in designing and building things that help people improve their ability to learn and create. Joe Grand is an electrical engineer, hardware hacker, and daddy of two fledgling makers. He specializes in the design of consumer products and modules for electronics hobbyists.

White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett talks with MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski about the challenges faced by women in the workplace, and what the Obama administration is doing to address them. ---- Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She is also the Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls. Mika Brzezinski is a co-host of "Morning Joe" and an MSNBC anchor. Brzezinski also reports on "NBC Nightly News" and is an alternating news anchor for "Weekend Today."

Sebastian Thrun talks with Jason Tanz about the self-driving car. Thrun is a Google Fellow and professor of computer science at Stanford University. Thrun is director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). He led the development of the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and which is exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. His team also developed Junior, which placed second at the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007.

Experts in psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience discuss the interrelationship between evolution, humanity, and the brain. ---- As we use the tools of science to explore the nature of humanity, we are learning more and more about how our brains function and what motivates our behavior, built-in biases and blind spots. These fresh insights are interesting scientifically, but they also evoke significant questions about our lived experience. These perspectives challenge our basic assumptions of who we are, both as individuals and as a society. David Eagleman is a neuroscientist, New York Times best selling author and Guggenheim Fellow who holds joint appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Eagleman’s areas of research include time perception, vision, synesthesia, and the intersection of neuroscience with the legal system. Thomas Metzinger is currently Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Study (FIAS). He is also Director of the Neuroethics Research Unit in Mainz and Director of the MIND Group at the FIAS. Laurie Santos is an associate professor of psychology at Yale University and the director of Yale University's Comparative Cognition Laboratory. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Biology from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard.

A lively panel discussion comprised of the founder of Raspberry Pi Eben Upton, everyone's favorite modder Ben Heck, Matt Richardson from MAKE magazine and a California education professional who can speak to the Maker movement in the classroom. ---- Ben Heckendorn is a graphic artist turned internet celebrity, famed in the world of electronics "modding". From hits like his Bill Paxton pinball machine to the in-demand XBOX 360 Laptop, Ben is known for hacking-in-to pop culture's biggest gadgets and giving them his own unique and playful spin. He is also the host of the popular online television series The Ben Heck Show, which is now entering it's second season. Matt Richardson is a Brooklyn-based technophile, maker of things, artist, photographer, video producer, and creative technology consultant. Eben Upton is a founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and is responsible for the overall software and hardware architecture of the Raspberry Pi device. In his day job, he works for Broadcom as an ASIC architect and general troublemaker.

Please join us in welcoming one of our newest curators as Dr. David Blackburn joins us as an assistant curator on the herpetology team in the Academy’s research division. An explorer of biodiversity, Dr. Blackburn studies the evolution and diversity of amphibians, especially frogs on continental Africa. Nearly 90% of the 6,800 known species of amphibians are frogs. Their diversity and distribution make them prime research subjects for investigating larger questions about the history and movement of life within Africa and the origins and evolution of natural variation. His research involves both extensive use of museum collections and field expeditions. His passion for the people and wildlife of Africa has taken him to diverse habitats in many African countries, most recently in the mountains of Burundi and soon to the desert oases of North Africa. ---- David C. Blackburn is Assistant Curator of Herpetology research at the California Academy of Sciences. Blackburn's research include deep-time historical biogeography and phylogeography of continental Africa, with study of biodiversity in diverse habitats including mountains, tropical forests, and Saharan oases; evolution of morphological diversity in amphibians, including morphological novelty, developmental and functional morphology, and patterns of ecomorphological change; and systematics of frogs from sub-Saharan Africa, with descriptions of new species and estimation of phylogenetic relationships using molecular and morphological data.

The scale of government secrecy and surveillance has surpassed all previous boundaries—especially in the national security arena, where the budgets, size and scope of intelligence agencies have ballooned since 9/11. Unprecedented secrecy is largely evading traditional oversight mechanisms, leaving policy makers, the media, and the public in the dark. What impact are secret governmental operations having on our democratic processes, and are the decisions that are being made behind closed doors helping or harming our national security? What tools are available to penetrate this secrecy, foster a new culture of government accountability, and impose enforceable constraints on intrusive surveillance of innocent Americans? These questions will be explored by a distinguished panel consisting of high-profile government whistleblowers, key plaintiffs and litigators from headline Freedom of Information Act cases, and expert journalists who have followed the evolution of the national security state for years. Each will offer insights informed by their own direct encounters with national security secrecy and surveillance.

James Dyson, Inventor & Chief Engineer of Dyson talks with WIRED's Shoshana Berger about engineering, entrepreneurship, and the economy. Complete video available for free at http://fora.tv/2012/05/01/WIRED_Business_Conference_Inventing_Sucks A graduate of London's Royal College of Art, James Dyson was drawn to engineering principles from an early age. The company he founded in 1993 creates products—like bagless vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans, and high-speed hand dryers—that work in completely new ways. Dyson now employs 3,600 people and has sales of over $1.5 billion. James Dyson, whose first invention was a high-speed landing craft, describes his process as "Edisonian." In 1979, during a visit to a local sawmill, he noticed how large cyclones removed sawdust from the air. Frustrated with his vacuum cleaner's habit of losing suction as the bag filled, he went home and rigged it with a crude cardboard cyclone. Over 5,000 prototypes later, the Dyson DCO1 vacuum cleaner was launched and became a sensation. Today, Dyson is the market leader in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. James Dyson continues to work alongside his team of engineers and scientists, developing new technologies to solve everyday problems.

As we use the tools of science to explore the nature of humanity, we are learning more and more about how our brains function and what motivates our behavior, built-in biases and blind spots. These fresh insights are interesting scientifically, but they also evoke significant questions about our lived experience. These perspectives challenge our basic assumptions of who we are, both as individuals and as a society. Complete video available for free at http://fora.tv/2012/03/24/Being_Human_Perception_Sensations Beau Lotto is founder of Lottolab, a hybrid art studio and science lab. With glowing, interactive sculpture - and good, old-fashioned peer-reviewed research - he's illuminating the mysteries of the brain's visual system. V.S. Ramachandran is a neurologist best known for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and psychophysics. He is currently the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. He is also the author of several books including Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind (1998) and The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientists Quest for What Makes Us Human (2010).