Light On Light Through

Welcome to Episode 46 of Light On Light Through , in which I offer a modest proposal for greatly improving our political process:  why not work for the best candidates in each of the two parties, so as to give Americans the best possible choice in the general election.  I go over my choices - just Ron Paul for the Republican nomination - Gore, Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, Gravel for the Democratic no...

Welcome to Episode 45 of Light On Light Through in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sputnik - the first artificial satellite to circle the Earth.  We look and the triumphs and the tragedies, and in particular, why we have moved so little and so slowly into space since then... RealSpace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet Also in this podcast: an invitatio...

Welcome to Lig ht On Lig ht Thr ough Episode 44, An Interview with Obama Girl Producer Ben Relles ... We cover everything in this powerful, revealing 20-minute interview ... how Ben and the team at BarelyPolitical.com came up with the idea for Obama Girl ... how Amber Lee Ettinger was chosen to be Obama Girl ... the role of songwriter singer Leah Kauffman ... Barack Obama and his campaign's reacti...

Welcome to Light On Light Through podcast Episode 43, Violence and Videogames: The Truth , where I examine the two main types of "scientific evidence" that purport to show that violence in videogames leads to violence in the real world - and explain why they show nothing of the sort.  The experiments measure violence "profiles" based on results of tests, not violence in the real world.  The survey...

Welcome to Episode 42 of Light On Light Through in which I replay the Sloan Ranger's 20-minute interview with me on WGNU Radio this past Tuesday, about the media's misreporting of Ron Paul's 2008 election campaign.  I discussed four examples of ABC's misreporting (and worse) with Lloyd Sloan - aka the Sloan Ranger - and he had an example or two from other media.   We discussed the problem of media...

Welcome to Episode 41 of Light On Light Through - a conversation with Mark Shanahan about Sedition - the new play by David Wiltse, in which Shanahan is currently performing ... We talk about the uniquely powerful medium of theater ... the importance of a play about freedom of speech in this day and age ... the response of the audiences to Sedition in its first week in Westport, CT ... the effect t...

  Welcome to Episode 40 of Light On Light Through in which we focus on a very unwelcome development: the media disenfranchising of Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul.  I admire his unflinching support of the Constitution (including the First Amendment), do not agree with every one of his positions, but whether we agree with any candidate's positions or not, we should be alarmed when a majo...

Welcome to this special Episode 39 of Li ght On Lig ht Thr ough - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The View from New York ... from the moment I left the bookstore a few minutes after midnight on Saturday I knew this was something as special as everyone had anticipated ... kids were sitting in front of the bookstore, delving into their copies (tell that to the myopic New York Times and all the...

Welcome to Harry Potter and the iPhone ... Lig ht On Lig ht Thr ough , Episode 38 ... in which we consider the two biggest draws of the Summer of 2007 ... Harry Potter and the iPhone ... makes sense: what the iPhone does is magic ... and consistent with my anthropotropic theory of media evolution - as new technologies evolve, they become increasingly human, and do more things we imagine and yearn...

Welcome to Episode 37 of Light On Light Through - - - > A Conversation with Robert J. Sawyer ... my good friend for more than a decade ... my predecessor as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America (and I served as his Vice President) ... Rob is winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and more awards, almost as numerous as stars in the universe ... he's...

Welcome to Episode 36 of Ligh t On Li ght Thr ough ... in which we consider five questions that arise from the breathtaking Season 3 finale of Lost ... 1 . how far in the future was the action in Los Angeles? ... 2 . who's in the coffin? ... 3 . who's waiting for Kate? ... 4 . who is Naomi's boss? ... 5 . is Mikhail immortal? ... Plus flashes  ... more Lost ... still significant: inexplicable coin...

Welcome to Li ght On Li ght Thr ough Episode 35 ... my exclusive predictions for the season finales this week of 24 , Heroes , and Lost !  I'll say no more ... you've got to listen to the podcast (most of these predictions have not appeared on my blogs before).  Email yours to me at PaulLevinson@LightonLightthrough.com  - if I receive them before the shows, and you're right, I'll mention your name...

Welcome to Harry Potter and the Refutation of Illiteracy or Episode 34 of Li ght On Li ght Thr ough in which we consider how the extraordinary success of J. K. Rowling's novels refutes the view of some academics and critics that television, the Internet, and even texting on cell phones are making the world illiterate... Plus flashes  ... devoted entirely to the shabby treatment the Ron Paul for Pr...

Welcome to Light On Light Through , Episode 33 - Memo To Networks: Tell Us Which Candidates Are Raising Their Hands! - in the Presidential debates that you're televising, that is ... when you ask a question that requires a show of hands - such as, do any of you not believe in evolution? - how about telling us who raised their hands?  (Brownback, Huckabee, and Tancredo did in Thursday's Republican...

With gas at the pump going for over $3.00 a gallon here in the New York City area, I thought it would be a good time to revisit me and my Prius, which was the subject of the very first episode of Light On Light Through back in October... Welcome to Episode 32 of Light On Light Through ... My Sweet Prius, Part II ... in a nutshell: I'm delighted with the mileage - about 40 mpg - even though it's le...

Welcome to Episode 31 of Light On Light Through ... in which we discuss what it means when a Presidential candidate's favorite book is I .F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates ... It means John Edwards loves history and philosophy, has intellectual daring, is concerned about what can go wrong in a democracy, is an opponent of censorship, and a friend of diversity and tolerance ... When was the last tim...

Four Imus Fallacies ... Welcome to Episode 30 of Light On Light Through in which we consider four fallacies that have been bandied about the media regarding the firing of Imus from his television and radio shows, which was well-deserved ... the language of rap ... the Duke lacrosse players ... Anne Coulter, Rosie O'Donnell, and other celebrities who traffic in insult ... the First Amendment ... I'...

The Tudors and Rome: Golden Ages on Television ... Welcome to Light On Light Through Episode 29, in which we consider how the revolution in television which began with The Sopranos has given us captivating new windows onto history, first with HBO's Rome and now with Showtime's The Tudors ... afraid to portray neither complex ideas nor sex, these programs make enjoyabe contributions to our understa...

Welcome to Galactica Dylan ... Episode 28 of L i gh t O n L i g h t T h r o u gh ... Battlestar Galactica started brilliantly this season, faded in the middle, but concluded last Sunday with more than one astonishing twist ... including Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" ... but if BSG takes place in the past, how could this be ... and if takes place in the future, how did one of the most cove...

Cops Cracking Down on Journalists ... Again! Welcome to Episode 27 of Light On Light Through ... While Josh Wolf sits in prison in California, New York City police are pursuing their own war against journalists ... arresting two Columbia University journalism students this past Thursday for videotaping police cars from a public sidewalk ... I call upon Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly...

Welcome to The Four Phils ... Episode 26 of Li ght On Li ght Through ... in which I interview actor and screenwriter Mark Shanahan about how he came to write and star in the Edgar-award nominated radioplay of The Chronology Protection Case based on my novelette of the same name ... my fictional NYPD forensic detective Dr. Phil D'Amato is the hero of this story ... and Mark and I talk about his and...

Free Josh Wolf ... Episode 25 of Light On Light Through ... there's not much light in the California prison that holds Josh Wolf ... his crime?  refusing to turn over videotapes of a violent demonstration that he was using to make a documentary ... Josh Wolf, 24, another victim of Congress's refusal to enact a Federal shield law to protect journalists who do the people of America's work ... detail...

Welcome to Episode 24 of Light On Light Through ... Gore Back On Center Stage ... he won the popular vote for President of the United States in 2000 ... he was nominated last month for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in alerting the world to the dangers of global warming ... and his movie An Inconvenient Truth won the Oscar last week for best documentary ... we examine the contributions of Al G...

Welcome to Dummy in the HOV Lane ... Episode 23 of Light On Light Through ... in which we semi-seriously consider the case of man who was pulled over on Long Island, NY for driving with a dummy passenger in the HOV lane ... why would a sleeping person, a quiet person, a dullard-type dummy be ok, but not this life-like dummy?  How about a dog, a chimp, or a snake plant? Plus flashes ... lowly bacte...

Welcome to Episode 22 of Li ght On Light Thr ough ... Lost: Anatomy of a Loss ... in which we look at what went wrong with this tv series which galvanized audiences with its experimental story telling and viral marketing the first season, put people to sleep or got them frustrated in the second season, and now, despite a good resumption this February, is struggling to stay afloat... Plus flashes ....