Knox Pods

Dr. John Nolt introduces the themes of his book A Land Imperiled: The Declining Health of the Southern Appalachian Bioregion . The environment of Southern Appalachia is a collection of complex, interrelated systems that needs care and protection to function in full health. A Land Imperiled is a symptom-by-symptom look at several ecological issues threatening the health of the southern high country...

In the summer of 1920, 35 states had ratified the 19th Amendment, 12 had rejected it or refused to vote, and one last state was needed or the amendment might die. After a seven-decade crusade, it all came down to Tennessee; it was the moment of truth for the suffragists, and also for their antagonists, the "Antis." The political freedom of half of the nation was at stake. In The Woman's Hour , Ela...

Is the problem of fake news a new one? Is it the fault of the media, or are we all guilty? In our Truth and Consequences Symposium , panelists from the University of Tennessee's College of Communication and Information look at the history of fake news, the impact of corporate news media consolidation, and the consumption of news through social media. The panelists are Dr. Catherine Luther, Dr. Amb...

Dr. Oleg Manaev evaluates the book The Man without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladmir Putin by Masha Gessen in this podcast. I'm really impressed by how Gessen's book flows on multiple tracks, tracing Putin's life back to boyhood, the story of his hometown of St. Petersburg, his KGB experience, and finally the last quarter-century of Russian history," Manaev said. "Even though many interpretatio...

Dr. Victor Erik Ray discusses the categories of racist ideas explained in Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi. “Stamped from the Beginning is a transformational piece of historical scholarship," Ray said. “This work provides a critical and necessary backdrop for understanding the stunning staying power of racism and the current predicamen...

Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City details the crisis in affordable urban housing experienced here in Knoxville. Discussing the problem are four members of the Knoxville Homeless Coalition: Gabe Cline-Snell, Volunteer Ministry Center's Chief Clinical Services Officer; Misty Goodwin, Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee's Homeward Bound Program; Bruce Spa...

Why do some monuments provoke such powerful emotions while others are forgettable? "Monumental Issues: Thinking about Monuments in Public Spaces" is a presentation by Dr. Jeffrey H. Jackson with additional material by Dr. Ellen K. Daugherty. It provides a broader context for debates about historical monuments and the role these markers play in local communities today. Looking at monuments as both...

Dr. Diane Kelly is the Director of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has numerous research publications and awards, including the Karen Spärck-Jones Award from the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group and the Association for Information Science and Technology Research Award. For the Knox County Public Library’s Truth and Co...

New York Times best-selling author and journalist Wendell Potter has covered Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court. After a long career in health insurance public relations, he had a crisis of conscience and blew the whistle on a corrupt industry in his book Deadly Spin . His latest book is Nation on the Take . For the Knox County Public Library’s Truth and Consequences Symposium on July...

Stephanie Welch found bad news and good news in the book Toward the Healthy City: People, Places, and the Politics of Urban Planning by Jason Corburn. With “healthy city planning” based on participatory action, coalition building, and ongoing monitoring, Corburn hopes to address health disparities caused by the built environment and the policies that shape it. Welch was Community Development and P...

Jack Neely is Executive Director of the Knoxville History Project and one of Knoxville’s most popular writers. As part of the library's Truth and Consequences Symposium , he reviews the development of newspaper journalism in Knoxville and looks back at major news events in East Tennessee. Sponsored by the Jane L. Pettway Foundation and the Knox County Public Library Foundation. 

"How intelligent are non-human animals? Do they have self-awareness? Do they have deep relationships with one another in ways that echo our own relationships? These kinds of questions have been asked by humans for centuries," says Dr. Todd Freeberg , Professor of Psychology and adjunct scholar in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. He reviews  Beyond Words: How Animals...

John Rawls warns against a political life dominated by dogmatic fanaticism or apathetic resignation. The  University of Tennessee Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy  and the Knox County Public Library invite you to participate in a study of his book,  Justice as Fairness: A restatement . Each podcast episode is in a discussion format facilitated by a University of Tennessee faculty membe...

John Rawls warns against a political life dominated by dogmatic fanaticism or apathetic resignation. The  University of Tennessee Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy  and the Knox County Public Library invite you to participate in a study of his book,  Justice as Fairness: A restatement . Each podcast episode is in a discussion format facilitated by a University of Tennessee faculty membe...

John Rawls warns against a political life dominated by dogmatic fanaticism or apathetic resignation. The  University of Tennessee Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy  and the Knox County Public Library invite you to participate in a study of his book,  Justice as Fairness: A restatement . Each podcast episode is in a discussion format facilitated by a University of Tennessee faculty membe...

John Rawls warns against a political life dominated by dogmatic fanaticism or apathetic resignation. The  University of Tennessee Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy  and the Knox County Public Library invite you to participate in a study of his book,  Justice as Fairness: A restatement . Each podcast episode is in a discussion format facilitated by a University of Tennessee faculty membe...

John Rawls warns against a political life dominated by dogmatic fanaticism or apathetic resignation. The University of Tennessee Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy and the Knox County Public Library invite you to participate in a study of his book, Justice as Fairness: A restatement . Each podcast episode is in a discussion format facilitated by a University of Tennessee faculty member w...

Kim Trent, Executive Director of Knox Heritage, surveys the trends of preservation and how they're playing out in Knoxville in this discussion of  Past and Future City: How Historic Preservation is Reviving America’s Communities  by Stephanie Meeks and Kevin C. Murphy. “Stephanie Meeks makes a compelling case for creating great cities through historic preservation and she shares strategies that ca...

Dr. Rebecca Klenk shares her appreciation of Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay. "Provocative, gut wrenching and hilarious, Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist is a strikingly insightful collection of essays on life and popular culture for our times," Klenk said. "Engaging everything from The Hunger Games to rape culture to competitive scrabble to her favorite color (pink) to trigger warnings with verve and...

Friends of the Knox County Public Library , Union Ave Books , the Knox County Public Library, and the East Tennessee Historical Society present an evening with award-winning author Nathaniel Philbrick discussing his book  Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution . (Recorded May 16, 2017. The audio quality improves about three minutes into this r...

Dr. Michelle Commander and panelists Tatia Harris, Andrew Swafford, and Renee Kesler respond to the neo-slave narrative Kindred by science fiction writer Octavia Butler.  Kindred follows Dana Franklin, a Black woman of 1970s California, who is transported back in time to the plantation of her ancestors, a white slaveowner and the freeborn woman he buys. Dana struggles to survive the brutality and...

Sam Venable shares anecdotes and some personal reactions to Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and a Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance in this episode of the Books Sandwiched In podcast (edited from his January 25 remarks). This compelling memoir looks at the struggles, attitudes and dysfunction in an economically declining area of America. Vance was born in rural eastern Kentucky, but grew up l...

Dr. Stuart Brotman discusses Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World by Timothy Garton Ash in this episode of Books Sandwiched In. Ash offers a deeper understanding of issues such as corporate control of communication, influence of money, role of whistle blowers, possible threats to national security, and more.  "Today, there is a great power struggle over the shape, terms and limits of...

Jackie Clay and Ronni Chandler discuss the education reforms proposed in the book Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Race and Poverty in Schools and Classrooms by H. Richard Milner. "Both poverty and race are impacting the educational experiences of our most vulnerable and marginalized students who depend on school for so much more than academic success," Chandler said. Clay is an instructor with the...

Tammy Kaousias discusses the book Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman, which details the struggle and increasingly intense backlash against the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Kaousias says “this struggle is going on right now, and each one of us is a living participant and creator of this historical struggle.” Kaousias was appointed to the Knox County Ele...