Double Cooked: Jompy Stove (Kenya) The Jompy Stove is a lightweight and inexpensive stove-top device that rapidly heats water. It sits between a cooking pot and an open flame. Invented by David Osborne, a plumber from Scotland, this incredibly simple technology could save millions who die from drinking contaminated water. Burn after Eating: Rice Husk Bio-power (India) In the state of Bihar in India, an estimated 50,000 villagers are lighting up with...

The export of Western culture has made English a star performer on the world stage. This program discusses the ubiquity of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, explaining their roles in propelling English into preeminence as a language for cross-cultural expression. The success of TV as a medium for disseminating English is also explored, as is the appeal of English in movies and music to audiences in India and Japan. Ebonics as a dialect of American...

Spike Lee's portrait of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina tells the personal stories of members of a community that has survived devastation and is finding new hope and strength as the city rises from the ashes. Three months after the disaster, Lee, cameraman Cliff Charles, and a small crew made the first of eight trips to New Orleans to conduct interviews and shoot footage. Participants include Governor Kathleen Blanco; Mayor Ray Nagin;...

This program explores the characteristics that define a desirable audience, the history of audience ratings, and the ways in which audiences are assessed. Because the mass media is supported largely by selling time and space to marketers, it has evolved into the main delivery vehicle for advertising, in which the company offering a product or service is the true consumer and the attention of the viewer is the product that is being bought. With billions...

"Early in her extraordinary career, Deborah Stone wrote Policy Paradox, a landmark work on politics. Now, in Counting, she revolutionizes how we approach numbers and shows how counting shapes the way we see the world. Most of us think of counting as a skill so basic that we see numbers as objective, indisputable facts. Not so, says Stone. In this playful-yet-probing work, Stone reveals the inescapable link between quantifying and classifying, and...

Movies, magazines, TV, billboards, the Web-the world is filled with captivating photographic images competing for viewers' attention. Not surprisingly, citizens of the Global Village are experiencing a growing need for visual literacy: the ability to read between the lines and extract meaning from that daily bombardment. This program takes a close look at the vital importance of visual language skills, how information overload is shortening the human...

Georgetown computer scientist Cal Newport's Deep Work sparked a movement around the idea that unbroken concentration produces far more value than the electronic busyness that defines the modern work day. But his readers had an urgent follow-up question: What about technology in our personal lives? Digital Minimalism is an indispensable guide for anyone looking to reclaim their life from the alluring diversions of the digital world.

Technological innovations are penetrating ever more deeply into the substance of society-faster, in fact, than people can assimilate them. As ethical dilemmas and unforeseen consequences pile up, will techno-enthusiasts succeed in weaving a net that will ultimately trap us all? Following a concise summary of Technoscience, this disturbing program addresses diverse topics such as virtual reality, cybernetics, eugenics, cloning, parallels between technological...

"From the New York Times-bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas. In this illustrated volume, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences....

The presidential inaugural poet--and unforgettable new voice in American poetry--presents a collection of poems that includes the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States.