The ebay ecosystem has fundamentally changed commerce, ushering in the concept of “temporary ownership”. That’s the central thesis of FutureShop: How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell, and Get the Things We Really Want (Penguin Press, 2006) Author Dan Nissanoff, co-founder of Portero and PartMiner explores the concept and talks about facilitators, liquidity, buyer due dilligence and how ebay is changing our buying habits.

Link: www.auctionculture.com

Hosted by Bill Castanier, Jeff Smith and Scott Westerman

Hear the Show 32 Minutes 16mb mp3

Free Radio Berkeley and KBLT – Los Angeles are two of the more storied Pirate Radio operations of the late 20th century. Stephen Dunifer and Sue Carpenter flaunted Federal regulations and, for a time, ran their own radio stations without a license. Pirates still flourish in some corners of the country, but like this short lived Ypsilanti station, the FCC is often quick to pull the plug. In an age when just about anybody can stream over the Internet, un-licensed broadcasting is becoming a rare commodity. Not so on the Mississippi River. Jason Duncan and Matthew Britcher have launched an unlicensed FM station and believe that the Iraq War will protect them from the Government’s wrath.

Sound implausable? Here’s the story of Power Hits 103.3 FM.

Hosted by Scott Westerman

Hear the Show 18 Minutes 8mb mp3

From MSU Today: The next step in Michigan State University’s commitment to leading the development of a bio-based economy across the state is the establishment of its Office of Bio-based Technologies. Steven G. Pueppke, assistant vice president for research and graduate studies and professor of plant pathology, will serve as the first director.

The new office will marshal MSU research and resources to help foster connections with public and private sector initiatives designed to expand Michigan’s bioeconomic sector.

Pueppke, also director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, is an MSU alumnus who joined the university Jan. 1.

Hosted by Russ White

Hear the Show 9 Minutes 5mb mp3

From MSU Today: A wide-ranging discussion on technology’s role in education with MSU University Distinguished Professor of Education Yong Zhao. Zhao discusses a new MSU partnership that will establish a pioneering research-based institute providing online Chinese language courses for K-12 and adult learners.

He also comments on Michigan’s new high school curriculum requirements and the role technology can play in the education of today’s kids if the adults will let it.

At MSU, Zhao also leads the Center for Teaching and Technology and the U.S.-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 23 Minutes 13mb mp3

From MSU Today: René Weber is an assistant professor of both communication and telecommunication, information studies and media at MSU. He and his colleagues made international news last fall when MSU released research results where René and his colleagues – using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI – showed that playing violent video games leads to brain activity pattern that may be characteristic for aggressive thoughts.

Specifically, he is interested in cognitive and emotional effects of television and new technology media, especially new generation video games.

Weber is developing and applying both traditional social scientific and neuro-scientific methodology in order to study media effects on humans and discusses his various projects in this area.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 25 Minutes 14mb mp3

From MSU Today: Donald “Del” Laverdure, director of the Michigan State University College of Law indigenous law program, discusses the outcomes from his recent indigenous justice systems conference at MSU and the state of Native American life in the U. S. today.

Laverdure, a citizen of the Crow Nation, is chief justice of the Crow Nation and an appellate judge of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

He is considered an expert in taxation of indigenous peoples, tribal court systems, indigenous identity and treaty rights of indigenous people.

MSU’s College of Law has the only formal American Indian law program in Michigan. The program consists of both practical training from MSU Law’s Indigenous Law & Policy Center and several elective courses on indigenous law.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 13 Minutes 7mb mp3

From MSU Today: For the second time in three years, a team from Michigan State University has been crowned national debate champions.

MSU’s top two-person debate team of Ryan Burke and Casey Harrigan won the 60th annual National Debate Tournament. The event was hosted this year by Northwestern University, and the final 6-1 decision came over Wake Forest.

Both students are senior international relations majors in MSU’s James Madison College. Burke is from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Harrigan is from Holland, Mich.

The topic all teams debated was whether the United States should apply economic pressure on China over political and human rights issues.

Burke and Harrigan were undefeated through the preliminaries, so advanced as the number 1 seed. The MSU team had previously defeated a team from Berkeley in the quarterfinals and one from Wayne State in the semifinals.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 13 Minutes 7mb mp3

Gary Topolewski, Michigan State University alum and the advertising executive behind the Hockeytown slogan, is one of three industry veterans who recently opened the Evil Genius ad agency in the Detroit area. He joins us to talk about how to get your message across in an age where we Tivo skip commercials and are more fickle than ever about brand loyalty.

Kristen Case is an MSU Telecom Junior who cut through the clutter of 800 other applicants to earn an internship on the David Letterman show. She tells us how she did it and shares the trials and tribulations of surviving on a student stipend in the Big Apple.

Hosted by Bill Castanier, Jeff Smith and Scott Westerman.

Hear the Show 36 Minutes 18mb mp3

NPR veteran Lisa Phillips puts a face on some of the most famous voices in public radio in her new book Public Radio: Behind the Voices. She has worked at six public radio stations in five states and now teaches journalism at the State University of New York. She has received numerous awards for her reporting including the Edward Murrow award.

Her new book contains 43 profiles on some of the stars of NPR including Nic Harcourt, Susan Stamberg, Daniel Schorr and Garrison Keillor. Publisher’s Weekly called it “an intimate connection with public radio hosts.”

Hosted by Bill Castanier and Scott Westerman

Hear the Show 20 Minutes 10mb mp3

We go to the front lines of the biofuel movement with Andrew Couch, the founder and president of Deep Fried Rides. It’s a company that converts conventional diesel cars and trucks to run on vegetable oil using Justin Carven’s Grease Car kit. But Andrew’s interest in biotech goes well beyond grease cars. He’s the West Tennessee coordinator for the Clean Cities initiative and spends a lot of time on the road promoting biodiesel and ethanol. He talks about the pros and cons or renewables and the growing popularity of biofuels .

Hosted by Scott Westerman.

Hear the Show 23 Minutes 11mb mp3