Media Studies

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we welcome Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian comedian, media critic, TV host...and former surgeon and doctor. He came to widespread attention as the host of "El-Bernameg" ("The Show"), a popular satirical news program in Egypt, which aired from 2011 to 2014. (His work on this program, which grw out of the Arab Spring, led to Youssef's being widely compared to the American satirist Jon Stewart.) Youssef joins us to discuss the development of his career thus far, which now includes a new children's book: "The Magical Reality of Nadia."

It's well-known that Americans today -- in so many cases, if not in most cases -- inhabit completely different worlds when it comes to acquiring news and daily information. But do we also have completely different understandings of our country's history? On this edition of ST, we're discussing the official report of the "1776 Commission." This report was released by the Trump Administration on Monday of this week...and then removed from the White House website two days later by the newly-incumbent Biden Administration.

Our guest is Emily Contois, Assistant Professor of Media Studies here at The University of Tulsa. Her new book, which she tells us about, is "Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture." It is, per Library Journal, "a fascinating work of cultural studies that makes evident the continued power and threat of explicitly gendered food production and consumption in the 21st century. [This book is] recommended broadly for students and scholars of fields related to gender, culture, and consumption." And please note that Prof.

Our guest is Jared Yates Sexton, whose writing has included books and articles on politics, culture, and social justice, as well as works of fiction; he's an associate professor of creative writing at Georgia Southern University. He joins us to discuss his new book, which argues that the idea of "American exceptionalism" is not only false -- but it's been false since the country was founded.

Our guest is Clarissa Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, who joins us to talk about her new autobiography. As noted of this work by a critic with Booklist: "Ward details her often harrowing career in this page-turning memoir.... Readers will come away with at least a basic understanding of multiple international conflicts. This is a wonderful addition to the list of recent titles about women working in war-torn lands." And further, from Publishers Weekly: "[An] insightful memoir....

Our guest on ST is Bina Venkataraman, a journalist and former adviser in the Obama administration who has helped communities and businesses prepare for climate change. She tells us about her book, "The Optimist's Telescope," which is now out in paperback. This work explores why we as human beings tend NOT to think ahead -- and what can be done to change that.

Our guest is the widely celebrated novelist and nonfiction writer Nicholson Baker, whose new book is an engrossing mash-up of history, journalism, and memoir. The book is called "Baseless," and it's focused on the modern-day Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. Baker's gripping and typically candid account carefully documents what it feels like to try to write about major historical events in a world of pervasive redactions, witheld records, widespead cover-ups, and glacially slow governmental responses.

Our guest is Colin Dickey, a writer perhaps best known for his popular nonfiction book from a years ago, "Ghostland." Dickey is a regular contributor to The LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly; he also co-edited The Morbid Anatomy Anthology.

Tulsa's John Hope Franklin Center will soon present the 11th Annual Reconciliation in America National Symposium, from May 27th through June 2nd. Given the pandemic, the symposium this year will happen online, and it will carry the theme of "Reconciliation and Technology: Neutral Resources for Social Good." This theme, per the John Hope Franklin Center website, "unites us as change agents, researchers of effective practices, and peacemakers in the intentional journey of reconciliation.

Our guest on ST is Randy Krehbiel, who's been a reporter for The Tulsa World since 1979 and now covers political and governmental affairs for that paper. He joins us to discuss his new book, "Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre." In this deeply-researched work, Krehbiel studies local newspaper accounts in order to understand the mindset and motivations of Tulsa's citizens (both black and white) at the time of this tragedy.

Our guest on ST is James Poniewozik, the chief TV critic at The New York Times. He joins us to discuss his widely hailed new book, "Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America." As was noted of this incisive work of cultural criticism and American history in the pages of Bookforum: "The smartest, most original, most unexpectedly definitive account of the rise of Trump and Trumpism we've had so far.

On this edition of Found@TU, which is our monthly interview podcast series in which University of Tulsa faculty discuss their research and why it matters, our guest is Dr. Elana Newman. She is the McFarlin Professor of Psychology and Research Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, and she joins us to discuss her in-depth research on journalism and trauma. Dr.

Our guest is E.R. Ramzipoor, a writer based in California. She studied political science at UC-Berkeley, where she researched underground literature in resistance movements -- and her newly published first novel, which she tells us about, grew directly out of this research.

On this edition of ST, we learn about "Pulitzer Prize Photographs," a moving and far-ranging show on view through July 14th at Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum (and on loan from the Newseum in Washington, DC). Per the Gilcrease wesbite, this exhibtion "brings history to life with the most comprehensive collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs ever assembled, with images of every prize-winning entry dating back to 1942, when the award was first presented.

Our guest is Dr. Jennifer Airey, an associate professor of English at TU and the editor of Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. Her work connects the politics of the 17th and 18th centuries with British popular and literary culture. Our far-reaching conversation with Dr. Airey explores themes of propaganda, sexual violence, war trauma, women's believability, and even zombies -- with all of the above based on her research into Mary Shelley, 18th century playwrights, and related women writers and their experiences. For more about Dr.

Our guest is Christina Dalcher, whose new novel, her first, is an equally engrossing and unsettling thriller called "Vox." Per a critic writing for Vanity Fair: "Dalcher's debut novel, set in a recognizable near future and sure to beg comparisons to Margaret Atwood's dystopian 'The Handmaid's Tale,' asks: if the number of words you could speak each day was suddenly and severely limited, what would you do to be heard?

The author and journalist Mark Whitaker is our guest on StudioTulsa. A former managing editor of CNN Worldwide, and a previous Washington bureau chief for NBC News, Whitaker has a new book out, which he tells us about. It's an "expansive, prodigiously researched, and masterfully told history" (Kirkus Reviews) called "Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance." As was noted in an appreciation of this book in USA Today: "Pittsburgh was one of the country's citadels of black aspiration in music, sports, business, and culture.

"To have great poets," as Walt Whitman once noted, "there must also be great audiences." And great cities, it would seem, likewise require great bookstores. On this edition of ST, we learn all about Magic City Books -- an indie bookstore owned and operated by the non-profit Tulsa Literary Coalition (or TLC) -- which will soon, at long last, open for business in downtown Tulsa. Indeed, after a series of construction-related delays, Magic City Books will open on Monday the 20th at 9pm...with Mayor G.T.

(Note: This show first aired back in February.) On this edition of our show, a discussion with Sue Klebold, whose 17-year-old son, Dylan, was of course one of the two teenage boys who committed suicide ­after their murderous attack on Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999. Klebold has a new book out about this incident -- and more to the point, about the behaviors that she did and did not see in her son in the months and years leading up to that terrible April day.

On this edition of our show, a discussion with Sue Klebold, whose 17-year-old son, Dylan, was of course one of the two teenage boys who committed suicide ­after their murderous attack on Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999. Klebold has a new book out about this incident -- and more to the point, about the behaviors that she did and did not see in her son in the months and years leading up to that terrible April day.

Turkey has been a vital U.S. ally for many years, but is that going to change in the Age of Trump? And for that matter, what do -- or don't -- Presidents Trump and Erdogan have in common? On this edition of ST, we speak with Mahir Zeynalov, a noted Turkish journalist, media analyst, and press-freedom advocate. Zeynalov is now based in Washington, DC, as he was deported from his homeland in 2014 by the Turkish Interior Ministry; he is well-known for his writing, which appears in Al Arabiya, The Huffington Post, and other publications.

Our guest today is John M. Coward, an associate professor of communication here at the University of Tulsa, who tells us about his new book, "Indians Illustrated: The Image of Native Americans in the Pictorial Press," just out from the University of Illinois Press. As noted of this book at the UIP website: "In the second half of the nineteenth century, Americans swarmed to take in a raft of new illustrated journals and papers.

On this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, we speak with Bret Stetka, a health, science, and medical writer who works as an Editorial Director for Medscape by WebMD, and who is also a contributor to both Scientific American and Shots (the NPR Health blog). Stetka talks about how and why he decided, after completing his med-school training, to pursue medical journalism rather than, say, some sort of doctoring or medical research.

On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with Laleh Mehran, a Denver-based multi-disciplinary artist who moved to the United States from Iran when she was a child in the 1970s. Her art work explores cultures and locations, ideas and identities, patterns and shapes -- and it seems especially focused on issues of technology, geography, and media. Her striking pieces have been shown/installed over the years -- both individually and in group shows -- in Holland, Germany, Italy, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere.

On this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, an interesting chat with Katie Plohocky, who is one of the founders of the locally based Healthy Community Store Initiative. This organization, as noted at its tulsarealgoodfood.org website, was formed "to address the food desert problem in Tulsa, Oklahoma....

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with two University of Tulsa faculty members about an exciting Woody Guthrie symposium -- entitled "Standing at the Crossroads of American Cultural Life" -- that will happen at TU's Lorton Performance Center on Saturday the 30th. Our guests are Dr. Randall Fuller, the Chapman Professor of English, and Dr. Brian Hosmer, the Barnard Associate Professor of Western American History.

Just who are the Koch brothers -- and when, and why, did they decide to spend billions of dollars in order to change the direction of American politics? On this installment of our show, a conversation with the well-respected political reporter Jane Mayer, who is a staff writer for The New Yorker as well as the author of an acclaimed new book, "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right." It's a book that is, per The Washington Post, "deeply researched and studded with detail....

On this presentation of ST, our guest by phone is Tavis Smiley, the renowned broadcaster, author, political commentator, publisher, and columnist. Tomorrow night, Thursday the 28th, Smiley will be given the Tulsa Library Trust's 2016 Sankofa Freedom Award during a free-to-the-public ceremony at the Rudisill Regional Library in North Tulsa. (The library is located at 1520 N.

As noted at Wikipedia: "Public diplomacy...broadly speaking, is the communication with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence. There is no one definition of public diplomacy, and...definitions vary and continue to change over time. It is practiced through a variety of instruments and methods, ranging from personal contact and media interviews to the Internet and educational exchanges." On this installment of ST, we explore this hard-to-pin-down idea with a scholarly expert on such. Our guest is Dr.