Category Archives: public affairs

Moyers & Company for 1/20

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KLRU added Bill Moyers’ new show Moyers & Company to our Friday night public affairs lineup last week.  If you want to watch Moyers & Company online, you can go to billmoyers.com

On Friday, January 20th at 8 pm on Moyers & Company, the discussion continues about how money dominates politics.  For years, high-ranking administration officials have spun through the revolving door between the White House and American big business. But how have they influenced the regulation of industries from which they came — and American democracy as a result? This weekend, continuing our sharp multi-episode focus on the intersection of money and politics, Moyers & Company explores the tight connection between Wall Street and the White House with David Stockman, former budget director for President.

Currently a businessman who says he was “taken to the woodshed” for telling the truth about the administration’s tax policies, Stockman speaks candidly with Bill Moyers about how money dominates politics, distorting free markets and endangering democracy.  “As a result,” Stockman says, “we have neither capitalism nor democracy. We have crony capitalism.”

Stockman shares details on how the courtship of politics and high finance have turned our economy into a private club that rewards the super-rich and corporations, leaving average Americans wondering how it could happen and who’s really in charge.

“We now have an entitled class of Wall Street financiers and of corporate CEOs who believe the government is there to do… whatever it takes in order to keep the game going and their stock price moving upward,” Stockman tells Moyers.

Also on the show, Moyers talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and columnist Gretchen Morgenson on how money and political clout enable industries to escape regulation and enrich executives at the top.  Morgenson warned of Wall Street’s culpability in the widening income gap back in 2007 on Bill Moyers Journal.

Spark: Can Women Change Politics? 1/31

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Can Women Change Politics? The Life and Politics of Ann Richards

January 31 at 6:30 pm @ The Moody
Buy tickets at klru.org/spark

Texas Governor, mother and larger-than-life personality, Ann Richards had a lasting impact on the nation’s political landscape. Only the second woman to be elected governor in Texas, she possessed a strong will, and a determined spirit. Actress Holland Taylor, University of Texas Documentarian Paul Stekler, and Dallas Morning News Reporter Wayne Slater share their experiences portraying, documenting and covering Ann Richards throughout her life.

Holland Taylor, an Emmy-winning actress, has enjoyed a long and varied career, with respected roles on stage, in movies and on television. Fans will recognize her work from The Practice, The Truman Show, Romancing the Stone, Two and a Half Men and The L Word. Her play, Ann, about Governor Ann Richards, had its launch in May 2010 at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston and was also performed at Austin’s Paramount Theatre.

Paul Stekler’s documentaries about American politics have won numerous national honors including multiple Emmys, Peabodys and du-Pont-Columbia Journalism awards. His documentary work inncludes George Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire, Vote for Me: Politics in America, Last Man Standing: Politics Texas Style and Frontline’s The Choice 2008. He is currently the Chair of the Radio-Television-Film Department at The University of Texas. He’s currently working on a film about New Orleans five years after Katrina, Getting Back to Abnormal.

Wayne Slater, Senior Political Writer for The Dallas Morning News, previously served as Austin bureau chief for The News covering national and state politics. He is a Fellow at the LBJ School’s Center for Politics and Governance at the University of Texas. He is a frequent guest on numerous network television shows and is co-author of two books Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential and The Architect: Karl Rove and the Dream Absolute Power.

Be sure to join us on January 31st, for an insightful discussion about the role of women in politics as Holland Taylor, Paul Stekler, and Wayne Slater share their ideas on how women can play a valuable and influential part in the political world.

Women, War & Peace: War Redefined 11/8

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Watch Women, War & Peace Trailer on PBS. See more from Women War and Peace.

Women, War & Peace, a new five-hour series airing at 9pm Tuesdays through October and November, is a comprehensive global media initiative on women’s strategic role in global conflict.  Women, War & Peace challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain and places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security. Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard, the series reveals that the majority of today’s conflicts are not fought by nations and their armies, but rather by gangs, insurgent groups, and warlords armed with small arms and improvised weapons.  Women have become primary targets in these conflicts and though they are suffering unprecedented casualties they are simultaneously emerging as critical partners in brokering peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict.  With depth and complexity, Women, War & Peace spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan, and Colombia to Liberia.

November 8 – War Redefined

War Redefined, the capstone of Women, War & Peace, reframes our understanding of modern warfare through incisive interviews with leading thinkers, Secretaries of State, and seasoned survivors of war and peace-making. Their insights reveal how the post-Cold War proliferation of small arms has changed the landscape of war, so that in many conflicts today it is more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier. Simultaneously, they describe how women are changing the rules of engagement in conflict hotspots all over the world. War Redefined includes probing conversations with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her female predecessors, Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright; Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee; Bosnian war crimes investigator Fadila Memisevic; Zainab Salbi, Founder of Women for Women International; globalization expert Moises Naim; and Cynthia Enloe of Clark University, among others. Narrated by Geena Davis. Produced and Written by Peter Bull. Co-produced by Nina Chaudry.

In the Studio: John Hodgman tapes Overheard 11/8

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Please join KLRU’s Overheard with Evan Smith for an interview with John Hodgman.

DATE: November 8
TIME: 4 p.m. (Doors open at 3:30 p.m.)
LOCATION: KLRU’s Studio 6A (map).
The event is free but an RSVP is required. RSVP now

John Hodgman works as a PC in commercials, appears on The Daily Show as the program’s Resident Expert, maintains a startling number of online sites and also writes books. He’s in Austin to publicize his latest book, That Is All, described by the publisher as a guide to COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE. (Yes, the caps are theirs.) The book is described by us as laugh-out-loud funny but otherwise completely indescribable. Join us in the studio to hear what Hodgman has to say.

Overheard with Evan Smith is now in its second season of great conversation with fascinating people, always on the news and always with a sense of humor. The show features in-depth interviews with a mix of guests from politics, the arts, literature, journalism, business, sports and more, and reaches PBS stations from California to Florida. We hope you’ll be there for the second season of this exciting program.

In the Studio: Len Downie, Jr. tapes Overheard 11/1

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Please join KLRU’s Overheard with Evan Smith for an interview with Len Downie, Jr.

DATE: November 1
TIME: 1 p.m. (Doors open at 12:30 p.m.)
LOCATION: KLRU’s Studio 6A
RSVP: The event is free but an RSVP is required. RSVP now

For seventeen years, Downie served as executive editor of The Washington Post, succeeding Ben Bradlee in that position. The paper won 25 Pulitzer
Prizes during his time in that position. Downie began his 44-year career with the paper as an intern in 1964, holding a wide variety of positions and helping to supervise the Post’s coverage of Watergate as deputy metro editor. He now teaches journalism at Arizona State University. In addition to his work as a journalist, Downie has published five books, including four works of non-fiction and one novel.

Join us for Overheard with Evan Smith’s second season of great conversation with fascinating people, always on the news and always with a sense of humor. The show features in-depth interviews with a mix of guests from politics, the arts, literature, journalism, business, sports and more, and reaches PBS stations from California to Florida. We hope you’ll be there for the second season of this exciting program.

Women, War & Peace: The War We Are Living 11/1

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Women, War & Peace, a new five-hour series airing at 9pm Tuesdays through October and November, is a comprehensive global media initiative on women’s strategic role in global conflict.  A co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films, Women, War & Peace challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain and places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security. Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard, the series reveals that the majority of today’s conflicts are not fought by nations and their armies, but rather by gangs, insurgent groups, and warlords armed with small arms and improvised weapons.  Women have become primary targets in these conflicts and though they are suffering unprecedented casualties they are simultaneously emerging as critical partners in brokering peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict.  With depth and complexity, Women, War & Peace spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan, and Colombia to Liberia.

November 1 – The War We Are Living

If you ask Colombia’s city-dwellers and governing political class, they’ll tell you the country’s forty-year-old civil war is over. But The War We Are Living reveals the “other” Colombia, in rural areas far away from the capitol, where the war is all too real – and now the battle is over gold. In Cauca, a mountainous region in Colombia’s Pacific southwest, two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women are fighting to hold onto the gold-rich land that has sustained their community through small-scale mining for centuries. Clemencia Carabali and Francia Marquez are part of a powerful network of female leaders, who found that in wartime women can organize more freely than men. As they defy paramilitary death threats and insist on staying on their land, Carabali and Marquez are standing up for a generation of Colombians who have been terrorized and forcibly displaced as a deliberate strategy of war. If they lose the battle, they and thousands of their neighbors will join Colombia’s four million people – most of them women and children – who have been uprooted from their homes and livelihoods. Narrated by Alfre Woodard. Written by Pamela Hogan and Oriana Zill de Granados. Produced by Oriana Zill de Granados.

Spark: Why Can't We Be Friends? 11/14

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Why Can’t We Be Friends? Fostering Civility in Political Dialogue

November 14 at 6:30 pm at The Moody
Buy tickets here

In a world of fragmented media with a thousand choices for news, information and opinion, citizens can now chose to see, hear and read only what supports their position. With the media saturated culture of today, it is more important now than ever to learn how to take part in civil discourse. Mark McKinnon from Public Strategies, Matthew Dowd from Vianovo, Inc., and William Galston from the University of Maryland, discuss how to foster civility among Americans when political polarization is the norm.

Matthew Dowd has helped shape strategies and campaigns for CEOs, corporations, governments, candidates and presidents. Dowd was Chief Campaign Strategist for President George W. Bush and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and was on the staff of a Democratic Senator and two Democratic Representatives. He has counseled scores of high-profile organizations – from AT&T to the NBA – on marketing, advertising, research, public issues, and advocacy. He is an analyst for ABC News, columnist for The National Journal and author of The New York Times bestseller Applebee’s America.

Mark McKinnon has been helping solve complex strategic challenges for causes, companies and candidates, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong and Bono. McKinnon has helped engineer five winning presidential primary and general elections. He has been awarded more than 30 Pollie and Telly awards, honoring the nation’s best political and public affairs advertising. He is co-founder of No Labels, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting more bipartisanship and civility in politics.

William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a Senior Fellow, and is a College Park Professor at the University of Maryland. From 1993 until 1995 Galston served as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy. Galston is the author of eight books and more than 100 articles in the fields of political theory, public policy, and American politics. His most recent books are Liberal Pluralism, The Practice of Liberal Pluralism and Public Matters.

Be sure to join us November 14th, for an insightful discussion about  fostering civility in a politically polarized society as Mark McKinnon, Matthew Dowd, and William Galston share their ideas on how we can better understand the benefits to creating an environment for civil discourse.

Women, War & Peace: Peace Unveiled 10/25

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Women, War & Peace, a new five-hour series airing at 9pm Tuesdays through October and November, is a comprehensive global media initiative on women’s strategic role in global conflict.  A co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films, Women, War & Peace challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain and places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security. Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard, the series reveals that the majority of today’s conflicts are not fought by nations and their armies, but rather by gangs, insurgent groups, and warlords armed with small arms and improvised weapons.  Women have become primary targets in these conflicts and though they are suffering unprecedented casualties they are simultaneously emerging as critical partners in brokering peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict.  With depth and complexity, Women, War & Peace spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan, and Colombia to Liberia.

October 25 – Peace Unveiled

When the U.S. troop surge was announced in late 2009, women in Afghanistan knew that the ground was being laid for peace talks with the Taliban. Peace Unveiled follows three women who immediately began to organize to make sure that women have a seat at the negotiating table. One is a savvy parliamentarian who participated in writing the Afghan constitution that guarantees equality for women; another, a former midwife who is one of the last women’s rights advocates alive in Kandahar; and the third, a young activist who lives in a traditional family in Kabul. Convinced that the Taliban will have demands that jeopardize women’s hard-earned gains, they maneuver against formidable odds to have their voices heard in a peace jirga and high peace council. We go behind Kabul’s closed doors as the women’s case is made to U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, General David Petraeus and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who promises the women that “peace and justice can’t come at the cost of women and women’s lives.” But will this promise be kept?  Narrated by Tilda Swinton. Directed by Gini Reticker. Written by Abigail E. Disney. Produced by Claudia Rizzi.

Women, War & Peace: I Came to Testify 10/11

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Women, War & Peace, a new five-hour series airing at 9pm Tuesdays through October and November, is a comprehensive global media initiative on women’s strategic role in global conflict.  A co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films, Women, War & Peace challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain and places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security. Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard, the series reveals that the majority of today’s conflicts are not fought by nations and their armies, but rather by gangs, insurgent groups, and warlords armed with small arms and improvised weapons.  Women have become primary targets in these conflicts and though they are suffering unprecedented casualties they are simultaneously emerging as critical partners in brokering peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict.  With depth and complexity, Women, War & Peace spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan, and Colombia to Liberia.

October 11 – I Came to Testify

When the Balkans exploded into war in the 1990s, reports that tens of thousands of women were being systematically raped as a tactic of ethnic cleansing captured the international spotlight. I Came to Testify is the moving story of how a group of 16 women who had been imprisoned by Serb-led forces in the Bosnian town of Foca broke history’s great silence – and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law. Now, as Bosnia is once again in the headlines with the capture of Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic, the women agree to speak for the first time since then, on condition that we keep their identities hidden for their protection. “Witness 99,” who was held at gunpoint for a month with dozens of other women in a sports hall in the center of town remembers: “We were treated like animals. But that was the goal: to kill a woman’s dignity.” Their remarkable courage resulted in a triumphant verdict that led to new international laws about sexual violence in war. Returning to Bosnia 16 years after the end of the conflict, I Came to Testify also explores the chasm between this seismic legal shift and the post-war justice experienced by most of Bosnia’s women war survivors. Narrated by Matt Damon. Produced and Written by Pamela Hogan.

Spark: What Are The Costs? 10/19

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What Are The Costs? Increasing the Value of Healthcare

October 19 at 6:30 pm @ The Moody
Buy tickets here

As Americans continue to grapple with rising healthcare costs, professionals around the nation are exploring the most effective and efficient models of providing high quality healthcare at a lower cost to all. Dr. J. James Rohack and Dr. William Sage discuss the emerging healthcare models in Texas and the nation.

J. James Rohack MD, senior staff cardiologist at Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, is actively involved in patient care and serves as the director of the Center for Healthcare Policy. He is also medical director for system improvement of the Scott & White Health Plan and a professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Rohack served as president of the American Medical Association in 2009-2010 and was the spokesperson for the AMA during the national debate on American healthcare reform.

William M. Sage, MD, JD, is Vice Provost for Health Affairs and James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence at the University of Texas at Austin. He also serves on the Fellows Council of the Hastings Center on bioethics and the editorial board of Health Affairs. In 1993, he headed four working groups of the Clinton administration’s Task Force on Health Care Reform. His edited books include Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System and Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care.

Be sure to join us on October 19th, for an insightful discussion about the increasing value of healthcare as Dr. Rohack and Dr. Sage share their ideas on how we can better understand the challenges of developing an effective and efficient plan for our country.