University of the Air

What are the indicators of life and how will we look for them as we continue to explore Mars and beyond?

Meet 17th-century rabbi, scholar, diplomat, and publisher Manasseh ben Israel and learn why a man hailed as a world celebrity died in poverty. Professor Steven Nadler is the author of "Menasseh ben Israel, Rabbi of Amsterdam."

During the long course of Native Americans displacement from their ancestral lands, Wisconsin’s Ho-Chunk took various steps to resist it—some of the successful. Historian Stephen Kantrowitz tells how many Ho-Chunk found ways to return to Wisconsin and remain via ways legal and illegal. We’ll hear how some Ho-Chunk who were forced to live farthest from their homeland had a turn of luck that those exiling them would envy. And we’ll discover how some of the Ho-Chunk who returned to Wisconsin were able to put land ownership to their advantage.

A century of excavations at Harappa in the Punjab reveal a world of details about daily life and cultural interaction at the dawn of civilization.

Explore John Bascom, the colorful President of the University of Wisconsin from 1874-1887 who championed women’s rights, worker’s rights, temperance, the pursuit of truth, and a notion that would go on to earn fame as “The Wisconsin Idea.”

In this hour, we sample the rapidly changing, turbulent sixties, from JFK to LBJ, from Martin Luther King to the Black Panthers, from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones, from hippies to Reagan conservatives.

The Caribbean triangle trade of sugar, molasses, and rum was a big part of the colonial economy. Not so well known was the salt industry, which flourished in large measure because of slave labor. Mary Prince was one of the slaves who worked in the salt ponds of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Cherene Sherrard-Johnson will give us the background of the Caribbean salt trade and tell us about the remarkable account that Mary Prince left about her experiences as a slave working and traveling through the Caribbean in the early years of the nineteenth century.

David Walker, Maria Stewart, and Frederick Douglass were revolutionary black abolitionists in the 19 th century who raised their voices to try to end slavery. Professor Christy Clark Pujara introduces these figures and their turbulent times. Two graduates of the UW Odyssey Project (Tosumba Welch and Molinda Henry) read eloquent passages from the writings of abolitionists.

During the Cold War, words flew furiously between the United States and its adversaries and the propaganda industry worked overtime. Truths, half-truths, and lies filled the airwaves between the United States and Russia in particular. We’ll look at the ways in which broadcasting served the purposes of both countries in shaping the opinions of listeners and the extent to which they interfered with each other’s messages. And we'll answer the question: Whatever happened to the Voice of America?

Ancient monsters include a chimera with the heads of a snake, lion, and she-goat, a one-eyed cannibal, and venomous women whose gaze turns viewers into stone. Classics professor Will Brockliss links horrific creations of ancient Greece and Rome to our own fascination with monsters ranging from Godzilla to the Alien.

His upbringing was unlikely to produce a writer with an international reputation. His education was limited and traumatic. But Hans Christian Andersen became known throughout Europe for stories such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Snow Queen. How was he able to turn simple ideas into stories for the ages? And were those stories, so popular in Disney films, really for children? Andersen expert Scott Mellor will tell us about the breaks, good and bad, that elevated Andersen to the ranks of celebrated authors.

We take a look at the US Constitution from the standpoint of America's founding father of the Supreme Court.

It's a record that many a songwriter would envy--2000 songs recorded, many of them covered by prominent performers including Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, James Taylor, Alison Kraus and the Everly Brothers. Boudleaux and Felice Bryant had a major impact on country and popular music. Bill and Bobbie Malone will tell us how an unlikely couple developed into a songwriting powerhouse.

Dexter Gordon’s widow, Maxine Gordon, explores her award-winning biography Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon.

Madison Bach Musicians director Trevor Stephenson will take us back to the 18th century origins of some of our Christmas musical traditions.