[Aired on Wednesday, February 22nd.] On today's ST, we speak with the sharp and ever-colorful Sister Helen Prejean, 72, who gave a free-to-the-public lecture here at TU last night in the Lorton Performance Center. A longtime and deeply committed critic of capital punishment in America, Sister Helen made a few recent appearances in Tulsa --- last night, today on our show, and elsewhere --- in order to promote Tulsa Opera's new production, "Dead Man Walking," which will open on Saturday the 25th at the Tulsa PAC. This operatic yet accessible work, much like the award-winning, likewise-titled motion picture of 1996, tells the story of how Sisten Helen, a Catholic nun from Louisiana, became the spiritual adviser to one Patrick Sonnier, a convicted murderer, and thereafter witnessed his execution. "Dead Man Walking" was originally an autobiographical book by Sister Helen, who talks about this exciting new opera --- and about the status quo of the death-penalty issue today --- on this edition of our show.
Rich Fisher is celebrating his 40th year of service to Public Radio Tulsa. Since 2000, he has been the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and previously served as the host of the public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which ran from 1992-2021. Prior to that, he served as music director, a program host and operations director for the station.