Television

On this edition of ST, we're talking about food, glorious food -- and in particular, American food. What does the phrase "American cuisine" actually refer to? And what do we mean when we say that a certain dish has been "Americanized"? Is there a national menu that we all share in this vast nation? And what will food in the USA be like in the future?

On this edition of ST, we look into the upcoming Tulsa Chautauqua 2021, a virtual festival happening next week (June 8th through the 12th) on the theme of "20th Century Visionaries: Catalysts for Change." For this series of events -- which will be presented this year in an online-only format -- five different scholar/performers will offer entertaining and educational presentations and workshops on the lives of Gene Rodenberry, Gertrude Bell, Marshall McLuhan, Marie Curie, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

(Note: This interview first aired last year.) Our guest is Emily Contois, Assistant Professor of Media Studies here at The University of Tulsa. Her recently published 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.

On this edition of ST, we remember Roger Mudd, the late political correspondent and probing television news anchor/reporter. Active in American TV journalism for more than three decades, he died last week at age 93. We spoke with Mudd in 2008, and we replay that discussion on today's show.

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."

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....

Lots of time at home these days...for so many of us...as we continue to shelter in place, for the safety of ourselves and everyone else, in the Age of Coronavirus. On this installment of ST, we have tips regarding books to read as well as videos to watch during these days of prolonged self-isolation. Our guests are Rebecca Howard with the Tulsa City-County Library and Chuck Foxen with the Circle Cinema.

Our guest is the Colorado-based writer and writing instructor, Joanna Howard. She grew up in the Sooner State, and her newly published memoir, "Rerun Era," looks back on her childhood amid the environmentally and economically damaged rural flatlands of Northeastern Oklahoma. The book interweaves her personal memories, her family's larger story and dynamics, and the various TV shows that they all came together to watch (and bond over) in the late 1970s and early '80s.

Our gust is Craig Johnson, author of the beloved and best-selling "Longmire" series of mystery novels. His newest book, "Land of Wolves," is the 15th novel to feature the Wyoming-based protagonist, Sheriff Walt Longmire. (These novels are also the basis, of course, for a popular TV series on Netflix.) Mr. Johnson will appear at a ticketed reading/signing event here in Tulsa on Thursday the 26th at the IDL Ballroom.

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.

StudioTulsa today offers another edition of the popular Museum Confidential podcast, which is co-created twice a month by our own Scott Gregory with Jeff Martin of Philbrook Museum of Art. Recently, Scott and Jeff trekked down to the Big Easy to offer a "live & onstage" presentation of Museum Confidential as part of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) annual meeting. Their guest was Don Wildman, host of the long-running Travel Channel show, "Mysteries at the Museum."

Our guest is Sarah Archer, a writer and curator who contributes to Slate, The Atlantic, Architectural Digest, and other publications. She tells us about her book, "Midcentury Christmas," which explores what Archer thinks of as the turning-point of Christmas in America -- i.e., the years just after WWII. This was an era when when new technologies, changing social and economic roles, and off-the-charts prosperity altered everything about American life -- including the Yuletide season.

Our guest is Gary Schyman, an award-winning composer of film, TV, and video game music -- including the "Bioshock" series of video games and the more recent "Torn" virtual reality game. Schyman is currently visiting the TU campus, working with film scoring and computer gaming students. He tells us about how his career began in the television scoring industry, working on classic 1980s shows like "Magnum P.I." and "The A-Team." He also speaks about his far-ranging experiences scoring films and video games, working with various studios and orchestras.

Our guest is Anthony Salvanto, the Director of Elections and Surveys at CBS News. He currently conducts all polling across the nation, states, and congressional races, and heads the CBS Decision Desk that projects outcomes for various elections.

On this installment of our show, an in-depth discussion with the novelist Tom Perrotta, whose books include "Election" and "Little Children" (both of which were made into well-regarded films). Perrotta has a new novel out, titled "Mrs. Fletcher," and he tells us about it on today's program. As was noted of this book in a front-page appreciation in The New York Times Book Review: "[This book], Perrotta's seventh novel and first since 2011's "The Leftovers," operates and succeeds in ways that will be pleasingly familiar to his admirers.

(Note: This interview originally aired in October of last year.) Our guest is Alex Prud'homme, who is Julia Child's great-nephew as well as the co-author of her autobiography, "My Life in France" (which was adapted into the hit movie, "Julie & Julia"). Prud'homme joins us to discuss his book, "The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act." In this work, per a critic for Booklist, "Prud'homme deftly chronicles the years after Julia Child left France and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

"Come along now, Watson! The game is afoot!" On this edition of StudioTulsa, we're discussing none other than Sherlock Holmes with the writer and editor Michael Sims, who is the author of (among other books) "The Story of Charlotte's Web," which both The Washington Post and The Boston Globe chose as a Best Book of the Year.

On this installment of StudioTulsa, we offer a discussion with the widely acclaimed American writer Dennis Lehane, who's well-known for his bestselling novels in the crime/mystery/thriller genre, among them "Darkness, Take My Hand," "Sacred," "Gone Baby Gone," "Mystic River," "Shutter Island," "Live by Night," and "World Gone By." Lehane has also written for "The Wire" and "Boardwalk Empire," two popular TV series that aired in recent years on HBO, and several of his novels have been adapted into award-winning films.

Do you happen to know, among your circle of friends and relatives and colleagues, a "pack rat" or two -- i.e., people who just can't seem to throw things away? On this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, we offer a discussion of compulsive hoarding, which is an anxiety disorder affecting a great many Americans that makes it quite difficult for someone to discard with possessions, regardless of the actual value of those possessions.

On our show today, a conversation with Micah Fitzerman-Blue, a writer and producer now living in Los Angeles who grew up in Tulsa and attended Holland Hall School (and later, Harvard University). He's probably best known as a writer and producer for the award-winning Amazon television show, "Transparent," starring Jeffrey Tambor and Gaby Hoffmann -- and his first feature film, "The Motel Life," appeared in 2013 and starred Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch, and Kris Kristopherson, winning both Best Screenplay and the Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.

Our guest on this edition of ST is Sandra Postel, a well-respected expert on freshwater conservation who's also the founder of the Global Water Policy Project. She co-created Change the Course, a national freshwater conservation and restoration campaign, and in 2010, she was appointed a Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, where she still serves as the Society's leading water expert.

On this installment of ST, we learn about the charmingly off-the-wall and/or downright ghoulish cartoons of Charles Addams, whose distictive, humorous drawings graced the pages of The New Yorker (and other magazines) for many years, and were the basis, of course, for "The Addams Family" (of TV and movie fame). More than 50 works by Addams are now on display at the Zarrow Center for Art and Education in downtown Tulsa; "Charles Addams: Family and Friends" will be on view through September 27th.

On this presentation of ST, we chat with Joe Randazzo, a former editor of The Onion and former creative director of adultswim.com who now writes for the Comedy Central program called @midnight.

On this edition of AT, an interesting and far-reaching chat with Dan and Cheryl Foliart -- a husband-and-wife team who are, respectively, a Hollywood composer and a music executive, and who are both currently visiting TU as J. Donald Feagin Guest Artists.

On this edition of ST, we welcome back Karen York, Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art here in Tulsa. York tells us about two interesting exhibits at the museum that will close this coming weekend; the last day to view each show is Sunday the 1st.

On this edition of ST, we present a chat with the prolific and award-winning contemporary American playwright, Lee Blessing, who's working on the University of Tulsa campus this week with students and faculty in TU's Department of Theatre and Musical Theatre.