Patt Morrison for Wednesday, 12/30/09

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

 

1:06 – 1:30

The life of a dissident inside Iran

Reports are emerging from Iran that the government is starting to push back against a wave of protests by gradually locking up anyone and everyone associated with the opposition movement, from reformist politicians to journalists.  There are even whispers that the regime will soon arrest Mir-Hossein Moussavi himself, the loser of June’s disputed presidential election and the symbolic leader of the opposition.  What are the ambitions of the Iranian political opposition and how do its leaders feel about nuclear weapons, relations with the West and religious radicalism?  Patt talks to one woman who lived the dissident’s life in Iran for some perspective.

 

Guests:

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, former member of the Iranian Parliament and reforming politician; visiting scholar at the Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston

CALL HER:

• Haghighatojoo served in the Iranian Parliament from 2000 – 2004 and was the first to resign when the anti-reform Guardian Council banned more than 2000 reforming candidates from that year’s parliamentary election.
• She was president of the Student Movement Caucus in Tehran.
• Before she entered politics she was a professor of psychology at the National University of Iran; here in the U.S. she’s served as a visiting scholar at the Center for International Studies at MIT and a fellow in the Women & Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

 

 

1:30 - 1:58:30

Interesting Times: George Packer looks back on the decade

Before the clock strikes midnight, New Yorker staff writer George Packer looks back at the last decade, starting with September 11th and ending with Obama’s inauguration. Focusing on Iraq, American complacency and his conviction that wars should have a humanitarian bent, Packer highlights the events that created the themes of this decade and the foundation they’ve laid for the next.

 

Guest:

George Packer, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of “Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade”

CALL HIM:

 

2:06 – 2:19

Why you can’t remember if you took your Ginkgo Biloba

According to a new study in the December issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association Ginkgo Biloba, an herbal supplement often credited as being able to improve, prevent or delay the cognitive impairment associated with aging, does not actually make any difference in preventing or delaying memory loss or Alzheimers. Is good old Ginkgo B just one of many falsely hyped vitamins… wait… what were we talking about?

 

Guest:

Dr. Steven T. Dekosky, Dean of University of Virginia School of Medicine and Study Investigator for the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory Study

CALL HIM:

 

 

2:21 – 2:30

OPEN

 

 

2:30 – 2:58:30

The American public has spoken: college football needs playoffs, not bowls!

As college football’s “Bowl Season” descends on a football mad country, the debate around the dinner table will reach beyond a national championship for Alabama or Texas, or even the mediocre records of USC and UCLA—instead the Bowl games brings back the debate over a true playoff system for college football, in place of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).  A new Quinnipiac poll has Americans favoring a NCAA basketball-style tournament for college football, and there’s even some sentiment about Congress getting involved to mandate a change.  Would you rather watch college football playoffs then the Rose Bowl?

 

Guests:

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute

CALL HIM:

• Quinnipiac released a poll yesterday showing that Americans who identify themselves as college football fans say 63 – 26 percent that the current Bowl Championship Series should be scrapped in place of a playoff system similar to the NCAA basketball tournament.

 

Petros Papadakis, host of the nationally syndicated “Petros & Money Show” on Fox Sports Radio, heard in L.A. on KLAC AM 570; former tailback & team captain of the USC Trojans football team

CALL HIM: 

• Petros is not a fan of a playoff system for college football.

 

 

 

Jonathan Serviss

Producer, Patt Morrison Program

Southern California Public Radio

NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles

89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3-KPCV-FM

626.585.7821, office

415.497.2131, mobile

jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org

www.scpr.org