Charlotte Talks

Wednesday December 1, 2010 | CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman

This fall has been a contentious one for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system, as well as for its board and for its Superintendent, Dr. Peter Gorman. After a long fall of debate, the system decided to close or move several schools throughout the district to ease the budget woes that the system faces in the coming school year. On this edition of Charlotte Talks, we’ll sit down with Dr. Gorman to talk about the process and the decisions that were made regarding school closure, and what further actions are being taken to cut spending at CMS.

Guest
Peter Gorman – Superintendent of Schools, CMS

• Charlotte Talks  |  CMS Changes: Reporters Roundtable
• CMS Superintendent website

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Tuesday November 30, 2010 | The 2020 Workplace

Our guest for today envisions the workplace in the next decade to be a place unrecognizable from its current incarnation, using workplace tools like “microfeedback” and methods like “reverse mentoring”, practices companies will need to use to remain relevant. We’ll talk about “The 2020 Workplace” and what some experts say is the future for the most innovative companies.

Guests
Jeanne Meister – Co-author of The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today

• Amazon  |  The 2020 Workplace by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd

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Friday November 19, 2010 | Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer

Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer worked with the CIA to investigate the Taliban in Afghanistan a few years before 9/11. He wrote an extremely controversial book about that experience called Operation Dark Heart. The book reveals how Lt. Colonel Shaffer’s unit reported information about four of the 9/11 hijackers a year before the tragedy, but they were ignored by the Dept. of Defense.  Lt. Colonel Shaffer alleges that the Pentagon bought all 10,000 copies of the first run of his book and burned them. Mr. Shaffer is now retired from the military and free to tell his story. A censored version was then released and he’s retired from the military so he can speak about what he says really happened that the DoD doesn’t want us to know.

Guest
Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer – Lt. Colonel, US Army Reserves

• Operation Dark Heart website

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Thursday Nov. 18 | Bret Stephens: Peace in the Middle East?

One of our nation’s top writers on foreign affairs and the Middle East joins us. Bret Stephens is the Deputy Editorial Page Editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal as well as a regular panelist on Fox News’ “Journal Editorial Report.” He joins us to discuss Israel, hopes for peace and whether those hopes have any chance of coming to fruition.

Guest
Bret Stephens – Deputy Editorial Page Editor, The Wall Street Journal, Principal Columnist on Foreign Affairs “Global View”
Kathryn Johnson – Assoc. Professor, Islamic Studies at UNC Charlotte

• The Wall Street Journal  |  Global View by Bret Stephens

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Wednesday November 17 | Charlotte: Evolution of a New South City

Much has been written about Charlotte’s ascent from small southern town to big banking city, but none so far have focused on how Charlotte has become a city with global connections while still maintaining its identity as a New South City. We’ll talk with the editors of a new book called Charlotte, NC: The Global Evolution of a New South City. We’ll find out how Southern culture and world-wide business combined to create the Charlotte that we know now and how the two sides of Charlotte’s “personality” depend on each other.

Guests
William Graves – Co-editor, Charlotte, NC: The Global Evolution of a New South Cityand Assoc. Professor of Geography and Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte
Heather A. Smith – Co-editor, Charlotte, NC: The Global Evolution of a New South Cityand Assoc. Professor of Geography and Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte and Director of the Urban Studies minor at UNC Charlotte

• Amazon  |  Charlotte, NC: The Global Evolution of a New South City
• Event |  Smith and Graves speak Nov. 17th at Levine Museum of the New South. Details here and at 704-333-1887

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November 16, 2010 | Midterm Election Wrap-Up

The midterm elections were predicted to bring about huge shifts in power on both the national and state levels and that has turned out to be true. Just before the election several of our political experts made some predictions and now we ask them back to find out which ones came true and what happens now. We look ahead at the massive political shift and the changes it will likely bring in political discourse and legislation in the Carolinas and beyond.

Guests
Dr. Scott Huffmon – Associate Professor, Political Science at Winthrop University
Dr. Michael Bitzer – Director, History and Politics at Catawba College

• Charlotte Talks  |  Mid-term Election Preview
• WFAE  |  Local and State Election Coverage

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Monday November 15 | Scott Avett: Musician & Visual Artist

Scott Avett has been busy. Not only is the banjo-playing member of the nationally successful local band, The Avett Brothers, but he’s also carving out a career for himself in the visual art world. Scott’s been painting for years, and even studied art when he was a student at East Carolina University in the late 90’s. Now he’s getting attention for his art as well as his music, and we’ll talk about both, on the next Charlotte Talks.
Photo credit: Mike and Lindsey at The Crackerfarm

Guest
Scott Avett – Visual Artist and Musician, one of The Avett Brothers (the older)

• Gallery of Scott Avett’s work
• The Avett Brothers website
• Charlotte Talks  |  Our 2005 show with The Avett Brothers (w/ live performance)
• Charlotte Talks  |  Dolph Ramseur (manages The Avett Brothers)
• Scott Avett speaks about The Search for Truth in Art and Faith at the Center For Faith and the Arts in Salisbury, Nov. 22, 7pm. Info at 704-647-0999 orfaithart@bellsouth.net

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Friday November 12 | Immigrant Influence on American Food

America is often described as a melting pot and that depiction of our country is never more true than what is in that actual melting pot – the food we eat. From the country’s founding, our food has been greatly influenced by the people who have come to live in America. Whether it’s Italian spices, Asian cooking methods or new fruits and vegetables grown or imported here, immigrants continue to change what we eat and how we cook. Noted food critic and award winning writer, Molly O’Neill has been traveling the country to dine with people in different regions who cook different foods. She is traveling to the area to dine with 50 other folks and talk about her new book One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking. Pull up a chair and sit in while we talk about food across America on Charlotte Talks.
*Ellis Island dinner image courtesy Molly O’Neill

Guests
Molly O’Neill – Author, One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking
Dan Huntley – BBQ expert and Caterer, Outdoor Feast Catering
Peter Reinhart – Chef on Assignment, Johnson and Wales University

• WFAEats (WFAE’s brand spankin’ new Food Blog!)
• One Big Table (Molly O’Neill’s website)
• Smoke Southern Barbeque (Dan Huntley’s restaurant)
• Amazon  |  Extreme Barbecue by Dan Huntley
• Events  |  Book signings, dinners and events with Molly O’Neill

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Thursday November 11, 2010 | Homelessness

The problem of homelessness around the US is one that has been both longstanding and hard to fix. A sluggish US Economy doesn’t help the problem, and yet, there are innovative and persistent organizations putting forth efforts to help cities around the country decrease the level of homelessness in their community. We’ll be joined by a former White House Homeless “Czar” and a local expert on homelessness to find out what’s happening to stop or decrease homelessness in Charlotte and around the nation.

Guests
Philip Mangano – President and CEO, The American Roundtable to Abolish Homelessness and Fmr. Exec. Director, US Interagency Council on Homelessness
Caroline Chambre – Director, Moore Place and the Homeless to Homes Program at the Urban Ministry Center of Charlotte

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Wednesday November 10, 2010 | The “Inquisition”

In 1968 a few young men at East Mecklenburg High School began publishing a magazine out of a shed in one of their backyards. They called it the Inquisition and those boys made what some folks say is history. The liberal content of the paper – promoting civil rights, opposing the Vietnam War and more – caught the attention, and the ire of much of Charlotte’s authority figures. What happened next became fodder for legend. It was the first case in America where the free press and the first amendment came in conflict with simple zoning laws. Our guests today argue that the court case involving the Inquisition and its editors help blaze a trail for the entire southern underground press movement. We talk with two of the original editors of Inquisition and a writer researching their story.

Guests
Suzanne Sink – English Instructor, Author of an essay on the Inquisition story
Lynwood Sawyer – Former Editor/Writer, Inquisition
Russell Schwarz – Former Editor/Writer, Inquisition

• View the last issue of Inquisition (1969). Includes an interview with Jimi Hendrix (one of his last – after his performance at Charlotte’s Coliseum.)
• Read Suzanne Sink’s paper Fueling the Southern Underground Movement: Inquisition v. The City of Charlotte
• See images from various issues of Inquisition

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