Spectrum

In an era when young men often feel “entitled” in sexual matters and sexual assaults on college campuses are rising, Dr. Andrew Smiler tries in his new book, Dating and Sex: A Guide for the 21st Century Boy, to aim straight talk to young teenage boys. He tries to establish personal responsibility early in a boy’s development. He felt that no one was talking directly to teen boys about relationship...

As the presidential polls tighten and September nears an end, SPECTRUM gets a political update from a non-partisan expert on American politics and elections. Kyle Kondik, author of a new book – The Bellwether: Why Ohio Picks the President (published by the Ohio University Press) -- speaks about what each candidate needs to do to win in the last month of the campaign. Kondik noted the unique nature...

Dr. Amina Hassan, an independent historian and award-winning public radio documentarian, recently authored a new book Loren Miller—Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist, published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Loren Miller was an attorney who also practiced journalism and owned his own newspaper, the California Eagle, one of the longest running African American newspapers in the west. He als...

There are only two black women in the nation who hold statewide elective executive offices, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Spectrum wants to know why. Although there are numerous women of color elected to state and federal legislative offices, the numbers don’t translate to statewide executive offices, according to Dr. Kira Sanbonmatsu, senior schola...

Why do powerful and famous men sexually act-out, often repeatedly, in ways that most people find inappropriate and that are risky to their careers and families? Why do they risk it all? We see headlines and inevitably ask those questions. SPECTRUM spoke with two experts to try to find the reasons. Dr. Steven Gold is a psychology professor at Nova Southern University and is the founder of the highl...

Paul Chimera, a 1971 Ohio University journalism graduate, is a writer, teacher, journalist and one of the world’s foremost experts on the Spanish artist Salvador Dali. In March, Chimera’s latest book about Dali was published – Dali and His Doctor: The Surreal Friendship Between Salvador Dali and Dr. Edmund Klein. Chimera became interested in this friendship after the widow of Dr. Klein contacted C...

Pauline Frederick was a broadcasting pioneer. She was the first woman to be heard as a reporter for network radio in the late 1940’s as she covered the Nuremburg trials of Nazi war criminals. She was the first woman reporter to appear on network television covering the 1952 political conventions and her career in broadcasting spanned over three decades. She covered the founding of the United Natio...

Christopher Anderson is the executive director of a national organization called MaleSurvior – an organization dedicated to assisting and advocating for men who have suffered some form of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse of males is a major issue and it often is under-reported, according to Anderson He notes that, at least, one out of every six American males are sexually abused before they reach the ag...

Sonja Williams has always loved music and that led her to award-winning public radio shows. She now is a professor in the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film at Howard University and just penned her first book. She has amassed an amazing body of work in broadcast and print since receiving her master’s degree in Communication from at Ohio University. During her career Williams has received th...

Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, founding Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Dr. Rober S. Litwak, Vice President for Scholars and Director of International Security Studies at the Wilson Center give their assessments of the multi-national nuclear agreement with Iran -- on its one-year anniversary. The agreement, according to Litwak, is meeting its...

The winning presidential candidate has won Ohio in 28 of the past 30 elections – stretching back to 1896, according to Kyle Kondik, the author of a new book The Bellwether: Why Ohio Picks the President. Ohio is not only a “swing state” but better than all other states in predicting the final outcome of presidential elections. In short, how Ohio votes overwhelmingly tells you how the nation has vot...

A black woman who is a mother of a teenage son, a former prosecutor and a current judge, a Muslim immigrant, and a gay man of Nepalese heritage each have their own daily struggles confronting escalating fear, hate and racism in American. All three tell their extremely personal stories to Spectrum. All three people have different perspectives but all have similar and sometimes shocking stories of b...

On this episode of "Spectrum", Tom Hodson talks with Ira Flatow, the host and executive editor of Science Friday on NPR. Flatow’s career dates back to 1969 and he has spent over four decades as an award winning television and radio host of science oriented programming. He also is an author of several books. Recently, he talked with us about science and making it understandable to the average citiz...

Wesley Lowery covers Black Lives Matter, law enforcement and justice for the Washington Post. He has become a national expert on police shootings. The Washington Post, for the first time in history, is keeping statistics on police shootings in the U.S. As of today, 522 citizens have been shot and killed by police in 2016. Of that group, 128 people were blacks, according to Lowery. That is about on...

Sean Peoples is an award-winning international film producer who documents strong and compelling personal stories and weaves them with major global issues and policy questions. It is a unique form of storytelling. Until recently, Peoples was a multimedia producer/program associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where he spent 9.5 years. He is now a producer at Think Out Lo...

On this episode of Spectrum, we’re talking with Gwen Ifill, Moderator and Managing Editor of Washington Week on PBS and co-anchor and co-managing editor for PBS NewsHour. She also is an author. She talks about her career, race and politics. Before coming to PBS, Ifill worked at a number of stellar news outlets, including the Boston Herald American, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NBC...

Martin Walker, a noted journalist and author, says that nothing is going to move quickly in the United Kingdom after the recent Brexit vote to leave the European Union. He does not think that any official action will take place until at least September when a new Prime Minister is sworn into office. Walker also reminded Americans that the British popular vote is “not necessarily binding.” Parliame...

A Jewish Bible scholar and an African American pastor joined in an intellectual and spiritual journey of faith and scholarly inquiry. The result is they say they uncovered the truth about one of the most coveted prayers in the Christian world – the “Lord’s Prayer” and its Hebrew origins. On this episode of Spectrum, Tom Hodson talks with world renowned Jewish scholar, Nehemiah Gordon, about his di...

Comic Paula Poundstone, a regular panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” spent 30 minutes with Tom Hodson stating her opinions on multiple topics from computers, to writing, to her style of comedy, to unusual dog breeds. Besides being a Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me regular, Poundstone had a role in last year’s Pixar movie “Inside Out.” She also is currently writing her second book to be publis...

Ira Glass, the award-winning creator and host of This American Life, will be in Athens at 7:30 p.m. March 12th at Templeton Blackburn Memorial Auditorium to present “An Evening with Ira Glass: Reinventing Radio.” Recently, he chatted with WOUB’s Tom Hodson about creating radio content, audio storytelling and the mechanics of putting together a weekly national radio program. He talked about the ear...

Ken Ehrlich is a master of music media and his brilliant 50 year career was honored recently by the Scripps College of Communication with this year’s Hall of Fame Award. He graduated in 1964 with a degree in Journalism. He met his wife while a student at Ohio University while he was playing cocktail piano at a local tavern on Court Street called the Lantern. After working in Chicago during his ear...

Susan Reimer, a 1973 alumna of the Ohio University School of Journalism, had a career full of variety and a career that paved new paths until her retirement in June 2015 after 36 years with the Baltimore Sun. She spent her career writing local news, sports, a twice-a-week column about being a mother and family life, a nationally syndicated column about politics and national affairs, a book, and fe...