Our guest on ST is Dr. William D. Adams, who became the 10th Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) last year. The NEH -- along with the National Endowment for the Arts -- is now marking its 50th anniversary, and thus Dr. Adams is making appearances all over the nation to celebrate the NEH's accomplishments while also explaining its goals, purposes, and various initiatives. Indeed, he's now here in Tulsa as part of the 2015 Oklahoma Arts Conference (which is happening through Thursday the 22nd). Dr. Adams was president of Colby College (in Maine) from 2000 until his retirement in 2014; he's also been on the faculty at Stanford, and has enjoyed a long and varied career in higher education. (He started his in work in academia as a philosophy professor.) Dr. Adams says that a nationwide -- and federally supported -- commitment to the humanities is as important now as ever, and that this importance stems from the fact that embracing the humanities both sustains our citizenship and makes it possible in the first place. Also on today's show, commentator Janet Pearson is wondering about how and why seasonal change always affects us as human beings.
A Conversation with Dr. William D. Adams, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities
