“Poets don’t write first of all in English or American so much as each in an idiom peculiar to himself.”

That was the first principle of poet James Merrill. The mid-century Golden Boy of American poetry. While the wild-eyed, wild- haired beat poets and bards of pop song took Walt Whitman’s style to the edge of meaning to howl about the condition of American society, Merrill looked into his own world and with great lyrical precision forged that “idiom peculiar to himself.” Merrill was born into the Aristocracy of Money. His father co-founded Merrill Lynch. It was a world of beauty and refinement, with Merrill himself the most beautiful and refined thing in it.

It was also a gay world in which the closet door was just on the verge of being opened. What his eye fell on he wrote about, from emerald rings to Ouija boards. Golden boy, silver voice.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

J. D. McClatchy, editor, “Collected Poems: James Merrill”, and editor, “Yale Review”;

Rachel Jacoff, editor, “The Poets’ Dante,” essays by Merrill and other poets on Dante.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

It is easy enough to hear the voice of God in the words of The King James Bible. It may not be the literal word of God — but it sounds like it should be. The translation of the Bible in the reign of King James is more than a translation of our culture’s sacred texts. It was the decisive weapon in Britain’s wars of religion. It is the defining document of the English language: sets rules of rhetoric and usage. It is also the defining document of England’s imperial age. Colonizers taught those they colonized to speak English by the King James supreme language.

That’s a powerful impact for a work designed by a committee. The story of the King James Version is a tale of scholars at work, and clergymen playing at politics. Translating the word and inventing God’s voice.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Alister McGrath, professor of historical theology at Oxford University and author of “In the Beginning”;

Willis R. Barnstone, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biblical and Literary Studies at Indiana University.

Important birthday coming up. Exactly 400 years ago modern man was born.

That’s when Hamlet, Prince of Denmark was first performed. Intentionally or not … probably not … William Shakespeare created a character who seems to suffer as many of the curses of contemporary life as its possible for one rich kid to have. Problems with a stepfather. Hamlet’s got’em. Low self-esteem based on living in the shadow of powerful father … and as for unresolved oedipal feelings — puh-leeze. Between the real Oedipus and Freud you won’t find a more Oedipally challenged individual than the Prince.

The dilemmas and desires of Hamlet pose new challenges to each generation of actors … and are a constant source of re-newed inquiry for academics. To think of College dropout/mother-fixated/ — and after 400 years still the Prince.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Simon Russell Beale, performing the role of “Hamlet” in the U.S. for the Royal National Theatre;

Stephen Greenblatt, preeminent Shakespeare scholar, Harvard University professor, and author of, “Hamlet in Purgatory.”

It’s everywhere you look. It’s on all the time. Extra! Extra!

News is a constant presence in the cultural mix. People can’t seem to get enough of it. Yet the more omnispresent news is the lower the esteem in which journalists are held. That’s because not everything that calls itself news is actually a product of journalism. Defining journalism is not easy. Journalism is a process: a way of sifting through information for facts and then summarizing those facts with words pictures and sound. Journalism is a relationship between reporters and those who take in their stories. Journalism is a moral force in a free society.

That’s a lot of weight for ordinary working stiffs to carry into the office every day. In the world of never-ending deadlines, today’s lead story is A return to First Principles for the Fourth Estate.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Bill Kovach, chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists and co-author of “The Elements of Journalism”;

Matthew Storin, editor-in-chief of the Boston Globe

Belle Adler, a former CNN producer and current assistant professor of journalism at Northeastern University.

Want an MIT education but don’t have the SAT’s to get in?

At least one sector of the e-world is still hot, Net Schools. Will long and short e-mails replace fat and slim envelopes for hopeful high-school seniors?
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Dick Yue, Associate Dean of Engineering and Professor of Hydrodynamics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;

Greg Jarboe, Vice President of Marketing, WebCT l – the leading provider of e-learning systems, based in Lynnfield, MA.

The Galapagos Islands. The name conjures up images that are an eco-tourist’s dream: unique flora and fauna in a pristine setting that has great weather!

That’s today. A hundred and sixty years, ago Herman Melville called the Galapagos “evilly enchanted. The chief sound of life here is a hiss” And Charles Darwin’s first impression was equally bleak: “The Country was what we might image the cultivated parts of the infernal regions to be. ” Darwin changed his tune when he closely examined the wildlife he found there, and changed the course of intellectual history as well. The Galapagos, wild, windswept chunks of lava continue to be a place where we see nature the way we want to see it. Scientists living there see it as the place where evolutionary theory is proved.

Creationists living there consider it the place where God’s master plan is revealed. A story of science and of evolution and evolutionary debates still unfolding.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Edward J. Larson, author, “Evolution’s Workshop: God, Science and the Galapagos Islands”

Heidi Snell, photographer, artist, Darwin Station, Galapagos;

Howard Snell, head of ecological restoration and monitoring, Darwin Station, Galapagos.

Paradigm is defined by the dictionary as an example that serves as a pattern or model.

The short, sad life of Shirley Wilder is a paradigm of what happens to children born into the hardest hard-core poverty. By the time the 12 year old Wilder turned up in Manhattan’s family court just before Christmas in 1972 the world had essentially abandoned her – as a homeless child in New York City her hope of being taken in and sent to a foster home which could provide her a place to live like – well, like a child was pretty much extinguished. She was not a Catholic or Jewish and agencies representing these two faiths ran most of the cities foster care homes. Shirley Wilder’s life provides another kind of paradigm. This one is legal.

The case based on it is a paradigm of how a dedicated, tenacious lawyer can change the system – even if it takes more than two decades to see the case through. By studying paradigms we learn about the structures of our society.
9Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Nina Bernstein, New York Times reporter and author, “The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care”.

The U.S.-China standoff: It was all just a question of semantics. Sorrow or regret were the English words involved, yihan or daoqian the Chinese words.

And underlying the word games was the concept of Kow-Tow one Chinese word that requires no special translation into English. There may have been other issues behind the 10 day semantic debate: The sale of new American military equipment to Taiwan, the Bush administration’s decision to press ahead with National Missile Defense system, the Chinese military flexing its political muscles.

Whether a Question of Semantics or a smokescreen for something more important, the incident demonstrates the need for a new diplomatic language between the two countries. U.S.- China diplomacy is here.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Elizabeth Rosenthal, co-chief of the Beijing Bureau of the New York Times from Beijing

Robert Ross, professor of political science and a China specialist at Boston College

Jonathan Mirsky, writer, broadcaster, and former East Asia editor for the Times of London.

Once upon a time adoption was a matter of discretion, something not to be spoken about, in some views a stigma.

To adopt was a married couples acknowledgement of a failure to conceive, to place a child for adoption was a mother’s acknowledgement of the fact of illegitimacy or the simple inability to care for her child … Not any more, adoption is out of the closet. It’s a new world with new family groupings: Single parents, gay couples and rainbow alliances. It’s also a hard world, with orphanages in the countries of the former Soviet Empire, Latin America and China overflowing. It should be a simple matter to match up people who simply want to give love to a child with kids in need of a home but it’s not.

Bureaucracy frequently inept, often corrupt stands in the way along with vague laws that vary from country to country. Yet more and more people are venturing overseas to bring a child into their home.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Adam Pertman, author of “Adoption Nation”

Elizabeth Bartholet, author of “Nobody’s Children” and “Family Bonds”;

Janis Cooke Newman, author of “The Russian Word for Snow.”

The post-colonial post cold-war world has been a place where dictators rule and civil wars rage.

In many of those countries torture and disappearance are the norm. But when the dictator finally falls or the civil war is over, picking up the pieces of a shattered society is not easy. The first step is for people to tell each other the truth: the truth about crimes committed by the regime against its citizens, the truth about crimes committed by citizens against one another. More and more, nations that endure these hard times are starting the process of rebuilding with a truth commission.

Chile, Argentina, South Africa and now Yugoslavia are some of the countries to hold truth commissions. Some have been successful in starting a reconciliation process – others have simply swept the past under the rug.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)

Guests:

Priscilla Hayner, author of “Unspeakable Truths” and program director for the International Center for Transitional Justice

Yasmine Sooka, commissioner on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission;

Paul Van Zyl, Columbia law professor and the former Executive Secretary of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.