Patt Morrison for Friday, March 25, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Friday, March 25, 2011

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 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

1:21 – 1:30

L.A. city unions reach landmark agreement, take to the streets on Saturday to rally organized labor

 

Guests:

ALL UNCONFIRMED

Alice Goff, president of AFSCME Local 3090

Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against the Machine & an organized labor advocate

James P. Hoffa, president, International Brotherhood of Teamsters

 

 

1:41 – 1:58:30

Should physical book & e-book sales be protected from the elusive danger of library e-book checkouts?

When a library buys a book, it buys it once.  This was the case for e-books as well.  Now, HarperCollins is making its e-books expire for libraries after 26 checkouts.  In other words, it’s treating an e-book like an e-subscription to a magazine, such that the library never actually owns the book outright.  And libraries are outraged; some are even boycotting all HarperCollins books, which include those by Anne Rice, Sarah Palin, and Michael Crichton.  Libraries claim that, as demand for e-books skyrockets, they cannot afford to re-buy e-books.  HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, claims that this move is necessary to protect e-book retail sales, physical book sales, and brick-and-mortar bookstores.  Do you think that all publishers should take this move to protect book sales?  Or do you side with libraries, which are already pinched for money as state budgets are slashed across the country?  Would you like to see the price of e-books be kept from going too low or do you see e-books as a natural progression that should not be tampered with?

 

NOTE: ~3/21/11 LAT article (since Murdoch owns HarperCollins): Murdoch’s new #2, named Chase Carey, motto: "everyone pays." He’s demanding “subscription payments, whether at the wholesale level from cable TV operators or local TV stations, or at the retail level from individuals paying for iPad newspaper subscriptions” (LAT). Treating an e-book as like an e-subscription to a magazine, such that you never really own it outright the way you own a printed book, fits this pattern.

 

Guests:

Michael Johnson, chief potential officer, Full Potential Associates, a strategic consulting firm that specializes in the blend between technology, publishing, and education

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Deb Czarnik, Library Manager for Technical Services and Collection Development, Lee County Library System in Florida

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2:06 – 2:30

All we do is win: The American (in)equality mentality

William Dean Howells once said, “Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.” However, inequality seems to be a non-issue in the U.S. Or is it? A new study finds Americans are all kinds of confused about the reality of inequality in this nation—our social strata is similar to that of Russia, although we think it’s more like the equitable Sweden, and we’d ideally like it to look like a kibbutz. Do Americans care? And why or why not? Some say Americans are just more comfortable with the idea of the wealthy. Others like Allan Greenspan argue inequality isn’t ‘real’ because consumption is still possible even at low income levels. A third posits that the American identity claims equality as part of its identity, and thus Americans ignore all instances of inequity. At the end of the day, are Americans living with a lottery mentality, believing that despite limited access to quality education and jobs, they too could hit the jack-pot? Or are we aware of how the gap between the very rich and the very poor continues to widen?

 

Guests:

NOT CONFIRMED:

Chrystia Freeland, global editor-at-large at Thomson Reuters

 

Leslie McCall, sociology professor and fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

• She is finishing a book on American attitudes about income inequality, economic opportunity and redistribution.

 

 

 

2:30 – 2:58:30

It’s your funeral: Choosing Burial Practices

“I’m not dead yet.” Aside from being a famous quote from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this idea speaks to the conundrum many people encounter as they choose their funeral today. There are many funeral choices: you can be buried in an environmentally friendly way, frozen in time, burnt into ashes, or embalmed. These choices reflect the social and cultural environment of the times: in what other era could you find a “green burial” of a wealthy patron? Keith Eggener studies the history of the American cemetery, and discusses the interaction between the dead and living as we think about our last resting place.

 

Guests:

Keith Eggener, associate professor of American Art and Architecture at the University of Missouri. His book, Cemeteries, was just published as a Library of Congress Visual Sourcebook in Architecture, Design and Engineering.
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Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org