Tag: West Virginia Public Radio Presents

The Science of Smart

Until recently, we didn’t know much about the best ways to learn. Now that’s changing. Over recent decades, experts working in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience have opened new windows into how the brain works, and how we can learn to learn better. In this American RadioWorks program, we look at some of the big ideas coming out of brain science. We meet the researchers who are unlocking the secrets of how the brain acquires and holds on to knowledge. And we introduce listeners to the teachers and students who are trying to apply that knowledge in the real world.

Listen to this new documentary series from American RadioWorks, on West Virginia Public Radio beginning Monday, September 8th at 8 p.m.

Why Does Music Move Us?

The Really Big Questions–Why Does Music Move us Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio
 

Edit | Remove

Music exists in every culture. Does that mean it offers an evolutionary advantage? What drives humans to make music? And why does music get so deeply embedded into our lives? We’ll delve deeper into what music can teach us about the human brain – with musicians and researchers including:

  • Jazz guitarist Pat Martino who lost his memory after neurosurgery and re taught himself how to play.
  • Neuroscience researcher Psyche Loui at Wesleyan University who studies chills and strongly emotional responses to intense anesthetic experiences like music.
  • Petr Janata from the Center for the Mind and the Brain at U.C. Davis who is interested in how we “groove” to music, the pleasurable urge to move that’s elicited by music.
  • Steven Pinker, linguist and evolutionary psychologist who is famous for the line that music is not an evolutionary adaptation but “auditory cheesecake.

Learn more about what music can teach us Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio.

Hawaii: The Legacy of Sugar

For many Americans, Hawaii is a tropical playground, the place of surf, sun and dream vacations. Behind the tourist façade, though, is one of the most unique multicultural states in the nation, one still dealing with the complicated legacy of the circumstances under which it become part of this country. And so much of how Hawaii is now comes back to one game-changing element: sugar. For decades, long before it was a tourist’s paradise, what Hawaii did was grow sugar. That was not only its economic driver, it was a force that remade the place. In this episode of State of the Re:Union, we’ll explore the way contemporary Hawaii is still navigating the legacy of the sugar plantations now in the 21st century.

Tune in for this a different look at Hawaii Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public radio.

Are You Happily Confused?

Do you feel happy today? How about happily disgusted? Maybe sadly surprised, or sadly disgusted? Human emotions are complex. But at least they’re the common language that unites us all – except when they don’t. A tribe in Namibia might interpret our expression of fear as one of wonderment. And people with autism don’t feel the emotions that others do.

So if you’re now delightfully but curiously perplexed, tune in Thursday night at 9 p.m and discover the evolutionary reason for laughter … how a computer can diagnose emotional disorders that doctors miss … and why the world’s most famous autistic animal behaviorist has insight into the emotional needs of cattle.

Shake it – a modern Polaroid love story

Can you hear it? Click, whir, wait, shake – ahhhh! 

Listen Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio, Shake it- a modern Polaroid love story.

Taking a Polaroid picture is a totally sensory experience. But it is more than just the sensation of a snapshot; there is something special and social about seeing, giving & receiving that white-framed photo.

Taking and sharing instant digital photos these days is second nature. But what is it about that white-framed, square pic that survives in our digital lives (hello, Instagram)?  Does it make moments more special? Do the vintage-y filters make our art history?  Or our history art?  Why has the Polaroid design so clearly marked current digital photography apps and photography memes?  This nostalgic devotion is simply amazing – and Polaroid is seeing a recent resurgence in popularity, even as a Polaroid Museum opens in Las Vegas in Spring, 2014.

We look at these human and visual connections in “Shake It”, an hour-long public media documentary. We weave personal narrative with interviews with experts and enthusiasts in the world of art and film, Polaroid history & digital photography, technology and design. “Shake it” has rich and diverse music, sound effects and sound beds – including shutter clicks, a vintage Eames Studio ad for Polaroid, a pop music parody and more.

Hear vox pop and short interviews with Polaroid photographers and enthusiasts, such as polaroidsf.com . We talk with Christopher Bonanos , author of  “Instant: The Story of Polaroid.” And with Dave Bias, who created savepolaroid.com and now is Vice President of The Impossible Project , a company that saved hundreds of thousands of vintage Polaroid cameras from extinction. And we sit with Gus Van Sant , noted film director and Polaroid photographer, to talk about how he used Polaroid photos in his creative process.

BackStory: Memorials in America

BackStory with the American History Guys Monumental Disagreements: Memorials in America Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio
 

Edit | Remove

This is a country awash in monuments. They are the centerpieces of traffic circles, street corners and, of course, the National Mall. We have erected them to Rosie the Riveter and Confederate generals. Yet our ambivalence towards these monuments is as old as our enthusiasm for them. Case in point: The Washington Monument. Ever wonder why there isn’t actually a image of Washington on it?

In this Memorial Day episode of BackStory, we take on national remembrance. By looking at some of our country’s most iconic monuments, the Guys ask what—and whom—Americans choose to remember. They discover that memorials often tell us more about their creators than what or whom they memorialize.

Listen Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio.

Exit mobile version