From MSU Today: Award-winning and best-selling author Jeannette Walls visited East Lansing as special guest in the 2006 One Book/One Community program, which encourages the East Lansing and Michigan State University community to read the same book over a six-week period and to come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. Although dozens of similar programs have been sponsored nationwide, this is one of the very few that brings together a city and a university. The book selection this year is Walls’ The Glass Castle.

Walls talks about the inspiration for Glass Castle, her feelings on the One Book program and about her day job as MSNBC gossip columnist. She also gives her views on the future of her beloved field of journalism.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 14 Minutes 8 mb mp3

From MSU Today: Jim Detjen leads MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, the nation’s leading center for the study of environmental journalism.

Detjen joined the MSU Journalism School faculty in January 1995 as the Knight Chair in Journalism, the nation’s only endowed chair in environmental reporting. Prior to joining MSU’s faculty, he spent 21 years as a professional newspaper reporter and editor.

Detjen tells us what environmental journalism is and about the Knight Center’s mission of research, teaching and outreach in the field. Jim also gives us his views on the state of modern journalism and the opportunities it presents.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 17 Minutes 10 mb mp3

From MSU Today: MSU Provost Kim Wilcox tells us what a provost is and does at a major research university like MSU. He talks about the state of State, academically, and tells us what’s on his mind as another academic year approaches. He details MSU’s Boldness By Design initiative and recalls how MSU helped shape him when he came to East Lansing from his native Sault Ste Marie in the early 1970s.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 25 Minutes 14 mb mp3

When Tom Crosslin and Rollie Rhom moved to 34 acres near Vandalia, Michigan in 1997, they wanted to be left alone. Four years later, they would find themselves in the cross hairs of police snipers. LA CityBeat editor Dean Kuipers’ new book, Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke, tells the tale of how the domain became a haven for the leaders of the pro-pot movement and a lightning rod for officials sworn to enforce the law.

Hosted by Bill Castanier and Scott Westerman.

Hear the Show 18 Minutes 8mb mp3

From MSU Today: David Plank is a senior researcher with MSU’s Education Policy Center.

Plank tells us about the mission of the center to bring research to bear on education policy debates in Michigan. He assesses the state of education in Michigan, endorses the state’s new curriculum standards, analyzes the impact of No Child Left Behind and talks about the perilous funding plight of many of the state’s urban school districts.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 12 Minutes 7 mb mp3

From MSU Today: This fall marks George Blaha’s 29th season as the play-by-play announcer for Spartan football. Blaha just wrapped up his 30th consecutive season as the television and radio play-by-play voice of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. With the retirement of Detroit Tigers’ legend Ernie Harwell in 2002 after 42 seasons with the ballclub, the “Voice of the Pistons” is the longest tenured play-by-play broadcaster in the state.

George tells us how he always knew he wanted to be a broadcaster and about how he got into the business. He reveals how he first landed the Spartans and Pistons play-by-play jobs and reminisces about some his most memorable moments behind the microphone calling Spartan football and Pistons basketball. And George gives his advice to the young aspiring George Blahas of tomorrow.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 21 Minutes 12 mb mp3

As the longest serving state capitol correspondent in Michigan history, Tim Skubick continues to run at a pace that would tire his younger counterparts. The syndicated columnist, author and host of the award winning Off The Record program discusses his MSU beginnings, his life as a journalist and his impressions of the upcoming Michigan gubernatorial election.

Hosted by Bill Castanier and Scott Westerman.

Hear the Show 20 Minutes 8mb mp3

From MSU Today: The Land Policy Institute at MSU seeks to bring science to bear on pressing land use issues.

The institute is led by Dr. Soji Adelaja, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Land Policy.

Dr. Adelaja talks about the huge issue that is land policy and how it has become more important over the last several decades. He talks about MSU’s comprehensive, collaborative and inclusive approach to land use policy. And he tells us about a couple of the institute’s most popular programs, the Citizen Planner and Picture Michigan Tomorrow.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 24 Minutes 14 mb mp3