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  WORLDSTREAMS WORLD TALK SCHEDULE

Fred Alan Wolf
Physicist, Writer
Air Date: Wed 8.4.2010 - 10:00-11:00 PM
Hosts: Said & Dari

Fred Alan Wolf is a physicist, writer, and lecturer who earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at UCLA in 1963. He continues to write, lecture throughout the world, and conduct research on the relationship of quantum physics to consciousness. He is the National Book Award Winning author of Taking the Quantum Leap. He is a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars.

Dr. Wolf has taught at the University of London, the University of Paris, the Hahn-Meitner Institute for Nuclear Physics in Berlin, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and San Diego State University in the United States. His work in quantum physics and consciousness is well known through his popular and scientific writing. He is the author of eleven books.

Former professor of physics at San Diego State University for twelve years, Dr. Wolf lectures, researches, and teaches worldwide. Dr. Wolf has also appeared as the resident physicist on The Discovery Channel's The Know Zone and on many radio talkshows and television shows across the United States and abroad.

Visit Fred's website.

Mose Allison
Musician. Composer
Air Date: Wed 8.11.2010 - 10:00-11:00 PM
Hosts: Said & Dari

Mose Allison continues to write and perform all over the world. His songs have been covered by Van Morrison, John Mayall, The Who, The Clash, Eric Clapton, the Yardbirds, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt to name a few. Van Morrison recorded a tribute album, Tell Me Something, The Songs of Mose Allison, on Verve Records, and rockers like Pete Townshend, Bonnie Raitt, Ray Davies and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones have frequently cited Mose Allison as a major influence.

His most recent Grammy nomination was for one of his two newest recordings, Mose Chronicles, Live in London, Vol. I on Blue Note Records. Mose Chronicles, Vol II was released a year later. British born director Paul Bernays produced a one hour documentary on Mose entitled, Mose Allison: Ever Since I Stole the Blues, for the BBC. Blue Note has also re-released a collection of past recordings, Mose Allison, Jazz Profiles. His music has often been featured in films, and he can be seen performing in the movie, The Score, starring Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando.

As one writer recently said: “Mose is now at the peak of his performing career. Although maybe this last statement is not quite true as he seems to continue to improve on perfection.”

Visit Mose Allison's website.

Brooklyn Rider
String Quartet
Air Date: Wed 8.18.2010 - 10:00-11:00 PM
Hosts: Said & Dari

The genre defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider deftly employs creative programming and exciting collaborations to illuminate music in fresh ways and invite their audiences into a shared experience. Uniquely capable of addressing a wide and inclusive range of music, they are as willing to explore the world of Haydn and Debussy as they are in the music of our time. They have performed in venues as varied as Joe's Pub in NYC, the Todai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan, and the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

Exploring new creative possibilities through collaborative programs is also an integral part of their work. Some recent special guests include Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, Syrian/Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad, traditional and technology-based Japanese shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki, Irish fiddle player Martin Hayes. A long-standing relationship between Brooklyn Rider and Persian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor resulted in the critically acclaimed 2008 recording, Silent City, on the World Village/Harmonia Mundi label.

Much of Brooklyn Rider's desire to extend the borders of conventional string quartet programming has been through their longstanding participation in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. As individual members of the ensemble, they have performed throughout the world, recorded three albums for Sony Classical, and have reached audiences through a series of educational initiatives, family concerts and media broadcasts.

Visit Brooklyn Rider's website.

Greg Petsko
Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry
Air Date: Wed 8.25.2010 - 10:00-11:00 PM
Hosts: Said & Dari

Biochemist Gregory Petsko makes a convincing argument that, in the next 50 years, we'll see an epidemic of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's, as the world population ages. His solution: more research into the brain and its functions.

Gregory Petsko's biography, on his Brandeis faculty homepage, might seem intimidatingly abstruse to the non-biochemist -- he studies "the structural basis for efficient enzymic catalysis of proton and hydride transfer; the role of the metal ions in bridged bimetalloenzyme active sites; direct visualization of proteins in action by time-resolved protein crystallography; the evolution of new enzyme activities from old ones; and the biology of the quiescent state in eukaryotic cells."

But for someone so deeply in touch with the minutest parts of our bodies, Petsko is also a wide-ranging mind, concerned about larger health policy issues. The effect of mass population shifts -- such as our current trend toward a senior-citizen society -- maps onto his world of tiny proteins to create a compeling new worldview.

Visit Gregory Petsko's website.

Sonia Shah
Investigative Journalist, Author
Air Date: Wed 9.1.2010 - 10:00-11:00 PM
Hosts: Said & Dari

Sonia Shah is an investigative journalist and author of critically acclaimed and prize-winning books on science, human rights, and international politics.

Her latest book, The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years is based on five years of original reportage in Cameroon, Malawi, Panama and elsewhere. Her 2006 drug industry exposé, The Body Hunters: Testing New Drugs on the World's Poorest Patients has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as "a tautly argued study…a trenchant exposé…meticulously researched and packed with documentary evidence," and as "important [and] powerful" by The New England Journal of Medicine.

Her 2004 book, Crude: The Story of Oil (Seven Stories), was described as "brilliant" and "beautifully written" by The Guardian and "required reading" by The Nation, and has been widely translated, from Japanese, Greek, and Italian to Bahasa Indonesia. Her "raw and powerful" 1997 collection, Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire, still in print after more than 10 years, continues to be required reading at colleges and universities across the country.

Visit Sonia Shah's website.

Barbara Slavin
Journalist, Author
Air Date: Wed 9.8.2010 - 10:00-11:00 PM
Hosts: Said & Dari

Barbara Slavin is an expert on U.S. foreign policy and the author of a 2007 book on Iran entitled Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation. She was assistant managing editor for World and National Security at The Washington Times from July 2008 through December 2009.

Before joining The Times in July 2008, she served for 12 years as senior diplomatic reporter for USA TODAY where she covered such key issues as the U.S.-led war on terrorism and in Iraq, policy toward "rogue" states and the Arab-Israeli conflict. She accompanied three secretaries of state on their official travels and also reported from Iran, Libya, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

She has lived in Russia, China, Japan and Egypt, is a regular commentator on U.S. foreign policy on National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System and C-Span.

Visit Barbara Slavin's website.

Dominique Browning
Journalist, Author
Air Date: Wed 9.15.2010 - 10:00-11:00 PM
Hosts: Said & Dari

Dominique Browning is a writer, editor and consultant in the newspaper and magazine fields. She has worked with and written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, O, the Oprah magazine, Departures, Food &Wine, Travel & Leisure, Body + Soul, Wired and On Topic, among others. She writes a monthly column about environmental issues for the Environmental Defense Fund website. Until November 2007, Browning was the editor-in-chief of House & Garden.

She went on to break the glass ceiling at Newsweek, becoming the first woman at any newsmagazine to be appointed an assistant managing editor. Browning left journalism for several years to be a founding partner of Edison Schools, a company set up to privately manage public schools. She went to Mirabella magazine as editor-in-chief before joining Conde Nast.

Dominique is the author of three books: Around the House and In the Garden: a Memoir of Heartbreak, Healing, and Home Improvement; Paths of Desire: the Passion of a Suburban Gardener; and Slow Love: How I Lost my Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness.

She is also a classically trained pianist, and performed with Wesleyan’s Javanese Gamelan orchestra.

Visit Dominique Browning's website.