Sociology

On this edition of ST, we speak with the well-regarded author, essayist, and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman, who has published a number of books and also writes the weekly "Ethicist" column for The New York Times Magazine. Klosterman's latest title, "I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)," is just out in paperback; it's a far-reaching, often funny, and highly entertaining exploration of why we as a society are so attracted to -- yet also, of course, repelled by -- villains both fictional and nonfictional...as well as the very notion of villainy itself.

Farming, as a way of life, has of course been on the decline in this country for a long time now --- and one way in which we can actually see this dwindling livelihood is by noting the disappearing or decaying farm structures throughout America's rural landscape: the houses, barns, and out-buildings that made such a landscape habitable in the first place. Our guest is a photographer whose work tells the stories of these once-loved-but-now-abandoned buildings. Nancy Warner joins us by phone; she's a fine-art and portrait photographer based in San Francisco.

Our guest is John Zogby, founder of the famed Zogby Poll and veteran political/cultural analyst, who did a pair of events here in Tulsa earlier this week and stopped by our studios while he was in town.

On this edition of our show, we welcome Casey Gwinn, who served as the elected City Attorney of San Diego, California, from 1996 to 2004, and who is now the President of the National Family Justice Center Alliance. (He was once named by The American Lawyer magazine as one of the top 45 public lawyers in the U.S. --- and you can view his full bio here.) Mr. Gwinn was in Tulsa yesterday, Wednesday the 9th, to participate in the dedication of --- and the "home warming" party for --- Tulsa's new Family Safety Center.

Whether it's the endless instability of the Middle East or the vexing reality of climate change or understanding Wall Street's complex economics, life today is getting ever-more complex. How will this complexity ultimately affect society? What happens when life becomes literally too complicated for human beings? On this encore edition of ST, we listen back to an interesting discussion with an expert on these matters.

On this encore edition of StudioTulsa, our guest is Dr. Hazel Rose Markus, who is the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and a pioneer in the field of experimental cultural psychology. She's also the co-author of the book, "Clash: Eight Cultural Conflicts That Make Us Who We Are," which examines the basic differences in how human beings relate to the world --- that is, the differences that define how we perceive other cultures and people unlike ourselves.  Dr. Markus is a pioneer in the study of independent and interdependent selves.

On this installment of ST on Health, guest host John Schumann speaks with Jan Figart, an Associate Director and Senior Planner in Maternal and Child Health at the Community Service Council (or CSC) of Tulsa. As such, Figart serves CSC by overseeing the development of community collaboratives, staff support for coalitions, program development, grant writing, program evaluation, and analysis of community trends.

On this installment of ST, we speak with Dr. Hazel Rose Markus, who is the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and a pioneer in the field of experimental cultural psychology.

What does it mean when the recent financial meltdown is fully understood by only one American citizen (or two, at the most) out of every 100 randomly chosen individuals? What should we make of law-makers --- based in Washington, DC, or elsewhere --- who debate nuclear policy when they've never taken a class in physics? What happens when people everywhere become more and more reliant on technology even as they understand less and less of it?

On this "best of" edition of our show, we're listening back to a discussion with the noted sociologist and bestselling author, Arlie Russell Hochschild. The focal point of our interview is Hochschild's latest book, "The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times." You can read a full description of this discussion --- and hear a free, on-demand "stream" of same --- at this link.