ABC-TV’s Ben Bass Of Rookie Blue chats with Dr. Alvin
Ben Bass Click Here To Listen
Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter By Randall Balmer chats with Dr. Alvin
Randall Balmer Click Here To Listen Evangelical Christianity and conservative politics are today seen as inseparable. But when Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and a born-again Christian, won the presidency in 1976, he owed his victory in part to American evangelicals, who responded to his open religiosity and his rejection of the moral bankruptcy of the Nixon Administration. Carter, running as a representative of the New South, articulated a progressive strand of American Christianity that championed liberal ideals, racial equality, and social justice—one that has almost been forgotten since. In Redeemer, acclaimed religious historian Randall Balmer reveals how the rise and fall of Jimmy Carter’s political fortunes mirrored the transformation of American religious politics. From his [...]
I Am Rosa Parks By Brad Meltzer chats with Dr. Alvin
Brad Meltzer-I Am Rosa Parks Click Here To Listen “Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it,” Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a vivacious, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, those who aren’t quite ready for the Who Was biography series. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Rosa Parks dared to stand up for herself and other African Americans by staying seated, and as a result [...]
The Late Starters Orchestra By Ari L. Goldman chats with Dr. Alvin
Ari Goldman Click Here To Listen Ari L. Goldman is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author of three books, including the bestselling The Search for God at Harvard. Goldman arrived at Columbia in 1993, after spending twenty years at the New York Times, most of them as a religion writer. His articles and columns have also appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the Jerusalem Post, and the Columbia Journalism Review. He is the media columnist for the New York Jewish Week. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, and educated at Yeshiva University, Columbia, and Harvard, Goldman’s books include Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today and [...]
The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice By Rebecca Musser chats with Dr. Alvin
Rebecca Musser-Witness Wore Red Click Here To Listen Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, concealing her family's polygamous lifestyle from the "dangerous" outside world. Covered head-to-toe in strict, modest clothing, she received a rigorous education at Alta Academy, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' school headed by Warren Jeffs. Always seeking to be an obedient Priesthood girl, in her teens she became the nineteenth wife of her people's prophet: 85-year-old Rulon Jeffs, Warren's father. Finally sickened by the abuse she suffered and saw around her, she pulled off a daring escape and sought to build a new life and family. <u1:p> The church, however, had a way of pulling her back [...]
Survivor’s Malcolm Freberg Shares New Series: Wayfaring chats with Dr. Alvin
Malcolm Freberg Click Here To Listen “Wayfaring” is a first-of-its-kind docu-series event that follows the host (Freberg) and a film crew on a road trip around the United States. The Kickstarter is Live from June 11th – 25th. The team is set to depart Los Angeles on July 1st and will complete a twenty-day loop of the country, ending back in southern California on July 20th.
Influencing Hemingway: People And Places That Shaped His Life And Work By Nancy W. Sindelar chats with Dr. Alvin
Nancy Sindelar Click Here To Listen Ernest Hemingway embraced adventure and courted glamorous friends while writing articles, novels, and short stories that captivated the world. Hemingway’s personal relationships and experiences influenced the content of his fiction, while the progression of places where the author chose to live and work shaped his style and rituals of writing. Whether revisiting the Italian front in A Farewell to Arms, recounting a Pamplona bull run in The Sun Also Rises, or depicting a Cuban fishing village in The Old Man and the Sea, setting played an important part in Hemingway’s fiction. The author also drew on real people—parents, friends, and fellow writers, among others—to create memorable characters in his [...]
How The Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding The Path To The Middle Class by John Hope Bryant chats with Dr. Alvin
John Hope Bryant Click Here To Listen John Hope Bryant, successful self-made businessman and founder of the nonprofit Operation HOPE, says business and political leaders are ignoring the one force that could truly re-energize the stalled American economy: the poor. If we give poor communities the right tools, policies, and inspiration, he argues, they will be able to lift themselves up into the middle class and become a new generation of customers and entrepreneurs. Raised in poverty-stricken, gang-infested South Central Los Angeles, Bryant saw firsthand how our institutions have abandoned the poor. He details how business loans, home loans, and financial investments have vanished from their communities. After decades of deprivation, the poor lack [...]
Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer By Charles Marsh chats with Dr. Alvin
Charles Marsh Click Here To Listen In the decades since his execution by the Nazis in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor, theologian, and anti-Hitler conspirator, has become one of the most widely read and inspiring Christian thinkers of our time. Now, drawing on extensive new research, Strange Glory offers a definitive account, by turns majestic and intimate, of this modern icon. The scion of a grand family that rarely went to church, Dietrich decided as a thirteen-year-old to become a theologian. By twenty-one, the rather snobbish and awkward young man had already written a dissertation hailed by Karl Barth as a “theological miracle.” But it was only the first step in a lifelong [...]
The Yankee Way: Playing, Coaching And My Life In Baseball By Willie Randolph chats with Dr. Alvin
Willie Randolph Click Here To Listen From a dusty diamond in Brooklyn to the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium, Willie Randolph has always loved the game of baseball, and over the course of his storied career, he has amassed a remarkable list of accomplishments—All-Star second baseman, World Series champion, manager—but, above all, he has been a Yankee. For almost thirty years, Randolph was a part of Yankee lore and mythology, whether playing with the legends Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson and witnessing the infamous Bronx Zoo at its rowdiest, or coaching as the Core Four of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada rose to fame and ushered in a new era of [...]