Marc’s Blog

You may have heard Marc interview Roger Kamenetz in the past.  He's best known for two of his books, The Jew in The Lotus and Stalking Elijah.  His newest book is all about interpreting dreams in the context of spirituality.  It's called The History of Last Night's Dream.

It's crazy to think that we all spend about a third of our lives asleep, and who knows how much of that time dreaming, but most of us give it so little thought during the other two thirds of our lives, when we're awake.  I rarely remember my dreams past the moment I wake up, but if anyone has had any interesting experiences with dreams lately, we'd love to hear about it.

-Justin

Of all the people in the world who love to spout off about politics, few make a living doing it.  Even fewer get paid to do it in The New York Times twice a week.  This Paul Krugman must be a pretty smart guy.

He certainly has a lot to say.  Click here to see his work for The NY Times, and also a link to Krugman on The Colbert Report!  Click here for his own page with an extremely extensive archive of his writing.  There is even an official Krugman site with tons of archives, other people's writing about Krugman, and much more.  Click here for that.

Lastly, for a review of his new book, The Conscience of a Liberal, on salon.com, click here.

And, of course, tune in at noon today to here Paul Krugman on The Marc Steiner Show, then share your thoughts right here.

-Justin

Pronunciation:

\ˈim-ˌpas, im-ˈ\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

French, from in- + passer to pass

Date:

1851

1 a: a predicament affording no obvious escape b: deadlock2: an impassable road or way : cul-de-sac

Thanks to Webster's for the above definition.  Impasse is the word of choice for the contract dispute between the Baltimore Teachers Union and the Baltimore City Public School System.  If you are not a teacher or school administrator, you might be wondering what is such a big deal about some planning time that it is stalling the entire contract negotiation process, leaving teachers working without contracts.

I'm sure that our two guests today, BCPSS CEO Andres Alonso, and BTU President Marietta English can shed some light on the issue for you.  We'd love to hear thoughts from parents, students, teachers, and school administrators about how they view this dispute, and how the impasse is effecting them.  Call 410-662-8780 during the show at noon today, or leave your thoughts here on the blog!

Poll: Who should have their way in this situation?

-Justin

If this picture triggers horrible flashbacks to your school cafeteria lunch days, I'm sorry.  If this picture looks like your lunch today, I'm also sorry.  If this picture is making you hungry and you're offended by the first two sentences, I'm sorry, as well.

I never had cafeterias in my elementary schools, so I always had to bring lunch to school.  So, I don't have memories of frozen peas, carrots, corn, processed meat, cheese, white bread, boxes of milk, and whatever the hell is in the top right corner of that tray.  Jello?  Probably...

The contradiction between people's desires to raise healthy kids and the food we feed kids, whether in school or at home, is one of those things you might not ever think about, but once you do, it's hard not to wonder what on earth we're doing.  If we want kids to be healthy, why are school lunches notoriously unhealthy?  Why are kids menus full of fried, greasy, fatty foods like pizza, french fries, and chicken nuggets?  Why do we assume these are the types of foods that kids naturally like?

At 1pm today, we'll talk about some different approaches to feeding kids, again, both in and out of school.  For some interesting ideas, check out The Food Studies Institute, started by one of our guests today, Antonia Demas.

If you're a parent, what have your experiences been when it comes to feeding your kids?  Are you happy with the food that they're given in school?

-Justin

The Dalai Lama is in DC this week receiving the Congressional Gold Medal Award.  Bush will become the first US President to appear publicly with the Dalai Lama, which is kind of funny in a twisted way, but not to the Chinese government.

Thomas Laird is going to be in DC for the occasion, and while he's there, he's making a trip up to Baltimore to join us in the studio at 1pm today.  He has spent years living in Asia and written extensively about Tibet.  His book The Story of Tibet is an oral history of the country as told to him by the Dalai Lama himself over the course of many visits to Dharamsala.

Funny side note:  there is a small community of Tibetan Monks in East Baltimore, including one who fled Tibet with the Dalai Lama.  We were hoping to have him and some of the others also join us for the show today, but they're all in DC with His Holiness.

-Justin

It's my pleasure to announce that Ed Jones will be joining us in the studio today.  I think his work speaks for itself.  If you haven't read him, yet, check out The Known World, Lost in the City, or All Aunt Hagar's Children.  And listen to what he has to say today.

-Justin

Are slots coming to Maryland?  The Governor hopes so, because he needs to raise some money to cover the state's budget deficit, and the less he has to raise taxes, the happier we all are.  Slots have been a politically divisive issue for years, though, and bringing them here is far from a done deal, yet.

Marc has been covering slots and gambling, discussing how, when, if, why, and where they might find a home in Maryland as long as he's been on the air, and today the debate continues.  We're joined by Ron Wineholt from the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, Aaron Meisner from Stop Slots Maryland, and James Karmel, a history professor from Harford Community College with a new book on the way called Gambling on the American Dream: Atlantic City and the Casino Era.

-Justin

Before Rob Gifford got his current job as NPR London Bureau Chief, he spent six years as NPR's Beijing correspondent.  While there, he made the 3,000 mile journey from east to west along China's Route 312.  Then he wrote a book about it, China Road.  Rob joins us via ISDN from London today to tell us all about his exotic roadtrip, his time in China, and to share some observations about China's present and future role as growing world superpower.

While you're listening, you can go to Rob's site to see some pictures from China, like the one below, taken by Patrick Fraser.  Click here to go right to the pics.

-Justin

-Justin

Whether or not you agree with Robert Kaplan's politcal opinions and worldview, which are undoubtedly controversial, a couple points are hard to argue.

He's highly influential, not only through his prolific writing, which includes a dozen books and twenty years worth of features and op-eds in everything from the NY Times to The Washington Post to military journals to The Atlantic Monthly, where he serves as correspondent, but also through the role he has played as advisor to the US government and military.

He's a great writer, always conveying a wealth of information in a way that is both literary in style and readable.  He does a great job of combining on-the-ground reporting, history, politics, travel writing, and literary references with his own forward-thinking analysis.

That said, you can decide for yourself what you think of Kaplan's opinions.  Click here for an archive of his articles for The Atlantic Monthly.  His most recent book is Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts.  I would strongly recommend one of his earlier books, Balkan Ghosts, an in depth look at the tumultuous Balkans.

Leave your comments here to let us know what you think of today's interview and any of Kaplan's writing that you may have read.

-Justin