Junot Díaz on 'The Colbert Report'

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:55:21 GMT

The Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at MIT made an appearance on the Comedy Central show on March 25, 2013.

Junot Díaz on 'Moyers & Company'

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:54:32 GMT

MIT Professor of Writing Junot Díaz sat down with journalist Bill Moyers on "Moyers and Company."

Chris Hayes and Ta-Nahisi Coates: "Election Year 2012 and the Twilight of the Elites"

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:30:13 GMT

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks with journalist and MSNBC host Chris Hayes about his new book, Twilight Of The Elites.

Junot Diaz Book Reading

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 07:05:35 GMT

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and MIT Professor of Writing, Junot Díaz, reads from his new book This is How You Lose Her.

Fiction Writer Junot Díaz: 2012 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:52:12 GMT

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and writing professor receives unrestricted $500,000 prize.

"Adapting Journalism to the Web" with Jay Rosen and Ethan Zuckerman

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:02:41 GMT

How can professional reporters and editors help to assure that quality journalism will be recognized and valued in our brave new digital world?

Telling the Stories of Science: Panel 2

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:30:08 GMT

Fifty Years Ahead: Imagining Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing, and Molecular Biology in 2062
Stata Center 32-141, March 24, 2012

Angela Belcher, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT
Seth Lloyd, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT
Phillip Sharp, Institute Professor, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT

Hosted by Marcia Bartusiak

The Street Just Out of Sight

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:32:57 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 25

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:31:01 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 24

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:02:42 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 23

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:33:35 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 22

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:29:39 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 21

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:24:57 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 20

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:59:25 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 18

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:50:39 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 17

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:58:50 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 16

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:43:06 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 15

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:39:02 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 14

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:31:11 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 13

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:00:40 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 12

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:53:22 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 11

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:43:04 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 8

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:36:11 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 10

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:11:30 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 9

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:06:05 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 7

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:00:26 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 6

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:46:41 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 5

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:26:35 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 4

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:59:12 GMT

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 2

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:10:24 GMT

October 29, 2011 Academic Writing Symposium

Academic Writing Symposium, Chapter 1

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:31:15 GMT

October 29, 2011 Academic Writing Symposium

No One Writes Alone: Peer Review in the Classroom, A Guide For Students

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:34:40 GMT

No One Writes Alone: Peer Review in the Classroom, A Guide For Instructors

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:32:34 GMT

Basics of Manuscript Writing

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:16:35 GMT

Presented by Dr. Sonal Jhaveri
Dr. Sonal Jhaveri of the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT talks about Manuscript Writing for scientists: the do's and do not's of how to write a scientific paper or grant proposal. Dr. Jhaveri makes the distinction between popular science writing (for newspapers, books, and magazines) and scientific writing, which is "A precise, concise, objective report of research data according to the scientific method." Jhaveri speaks about how the formulaic model of scientific writing belies the importance of the reporting aspects of how to present data to your audience. Good writing, rather, takes a long time, must ""incubate,"" so to speak, and can't be done overnight.

Jhaveri discusses where to get started with scientific writing and how to get good feedback from colleagues along the way (note: go to someone whom you know is a good writer, not just someone you admire!) Techniques ranging from word choice to sentence structure to different ways of titling your paper are also discussed.

The Art of Science Communication

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

10/14/2010 5:30 PM 46Alan Alda, Actor and WriterDescription: You wouldn't know that Alan Alda felt nervous in advance of addressing this audience of neuroscientists. In his trademark style, Alda chats up the crowd like an old friend, sharing anecdotes involving one of his great pursuits: "I love to talk to scientists," he says. When he is not on stage or in a film, Alda works to advance the public understanding of science. For more than a decade, he has served as a kind of super talent for Scientific American Frontiers on PBS, helping develop a unique kind of program. Meeting scientists around the world, Alda would pose a series of unscripted questions, the more na've the better. "An amazing thing happened on their end: the real 'them' came out. They weren't lecturing me, but connecting with me and trying to get me to understand. These conversation modes brought out not only their own personalities, but the science through their personalities." Whether climbing a forbidden stairway in the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or squatting at the rim of a crater on the suspiciously steaming Vesuvius volcano, Alda always managed to engage his scientist confederate in lively and instructive interactions. In this "wonderful system," says Alda, the "scientist would warm up to me and the science would come out in a way that was understandable." He relates a revelatory incident, where a scientist inadvertently turned away from him during taping and addressed the camera instead. Her tone became instantly dry and the information "unintelligible." This episode "changed the course of my life," says Alda, leading him to pursue his own research on how spontaneous social communication can simply vanish in certain circumstances. If scientists could readily summon the capacity for everyday, natural communication, Alda suggests, imagine how much more effective they might be. He shows "before and after" videos of young engineers with whom he has worked on improvisation exercises. Post"Alda, they appear to express themselves with greater warmth. "Understanding and reading faces and speaking in a tone of voice that carries emotion and meaning above and beyond words" is critical, says Alda. He hopes that researchers at places like the McGovern Institute can help unravel the neurological basis for the kind of communication "that makes us human," work that someday may help "scientists all overto speak in their own voices." About the Speaker(s): Alan Alda is an actor, director and writer. He has won numerous EMMY and Golden Globe Awards, and has also been nominated for the Tony and Academy Awards. Alda is probably best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. He served for nine years as host of the PBS series, Scientific American Frontiers,, and of the 2009 series, The Human Spark. In 2007, Alda's second book, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, became an instant bestseller. His first book, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, and Other Things I've Learned was published in 2005. Alda received his B.S. degree in English from Fordham College of Fordham University.Host(s): School of Science, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT

The Perfect Oyster

Wed, 19 May 2010 17:40:53 GMT

The definition of a "perfect oyster" depends a lot on whether you're a fisherman or a conservationist. But can conservation efforts create an environment that will preserve everyone's perfect oyster?

Denialism: Media in the Age of Disinformation

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:00:00 GMT

04/27/2010 7:00 PM MuseumMichael Specter, Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Chris Mooney, Discover Blogger and Knight Fellow ; Shannon Brownlee, Instructor, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice; Shankar Vedantam, National Science Writer, The Washington PostDescription: A few hundred years after the Enlightenment, western civilization is rushing back to the Dark Ages. The causes are debatable, but, argue these science journalists, the public increasingly rejects the findings of science, from climate change to evolution, and is turning away from rationality and reason in general. "People are afraid of anything that will hammer away at their preconceived notions," says Michael Specter. He points to the fanatic opposition in some quarters to genetically engineered foods, and the worship of organic products. Almost everything we eat is the result of genetic modification, he notes, and "organics kill people, too." It doesn't make sense to think that returning to "the old ways" will keep us healthy and supply the world with food. "We're hurting ourselves in lots of ways," says Specter, when people insist on believing what they want. Human nature plays a big part in feeding denialism, believes Chris Mooney. "We all ... argue against information that contradicts our existing worldview." The unfortunate evolution of media in the digital age is feeding our inherent "confirmation bias," and today "Americans with different political leanings construct different realities." We must "give up" on the idea that truth triumphs and society advances as more people become critical thinkers. Concludes Mooney, "We have to work with the media and brains we have, and seek realistic change." Shannon Brownlee had an "epiphany" a decade ago when she realized that prostate cancer tests did not lead to a lower risk of dying, as researchers suggested, but instead to potentially harmful treatment. Her "awakening" led her to perceive "how much of medicine we take on faith." Brownlee's journalistic beat now involves the frequent occurrence of "bad science" in medicine. She believes we are not all that far removed from the days when medicine was based on "four humors of disease" and bleeding was the key remedy. Health care, on which Americans spend more than anything else, depends on "the perception of science as its underpinning"_ a terrible delusion, she implies. To contend with denialism, says Shankar Vedentam, we need a more nuanced view, one that recognizes its different shapes: One type rejects events from the past for which we have evidence, and another kind "says I'm not willing to trust projections of what will happen in the future." Climate change falls in the latter category, as people "are being asked to trust data rather than their intuitions." Some summers feel cold, and some winters feel hot, for instance. Also, he says, partisanship now holds sway in all aspects of life, with people swearing loyalty to particular positions in unrelated areas, and to fellow members of their "team." Given indifference to facts, good information "paradoxically, horrifyingly can amplify the effects of bad information," believes Vedentam. Just look at the explosive growth of the Obama birther movement, in spite of ample evidence that the president was indeed born in Hawaii. Panelists see no easy antidote to this large"scale retreat from reason. Specter recommends that schools teach statistics, and Brownlee concurs that kids "should know what a big denominator and small numerator means." Vendantam argues for a nonpartisan approach to such issues as climate change, and Mooney thinks hard scientists and social scientists should be "in better dialog" to craft an effective approach to the big scientific and policy questions of our time. About the Speaker(s): Michael Specter has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998. His most recent book, Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, was published on October 29, 2009. Specter writes often about science, technology, and public health. Specter came to The New Yorker from The New York Times, where he had been a roving foreign correspondent based in Rome. Earlier, Specter worked at The Washington Post, where, from 1985 to 1991, he covered local news, before becoming the paper's national science reporter and, later, the newspaper's New York bureau chief. In 1996 he won the Overseas Press Club's Citation for Excellence for his reporting from Chechnya. He has twice received the Global Health Council's annual Excellence in Media Award, first for a 2001 article about AIDS, and second for his 2004 article "The Devastation," about the ethics of testing H.I.V. vaccines in Africa. He also received the 2002 AAAS Science Journalism Award, for his article, "Rethinking the Brain," about the scientific basis of how we learn. Chris Mooney is a science and political journalist and commentator and the author of three books, including the The Republican War on Science, and Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, co"authored by Sheril Kirshenbaum. They also write "The Intersection" blog together for Discover blogs. Moponey has also been a visiting associate in the Center for Collaborative History at Princeton University. For the summer of 2010, he is a Templeton"Cambridge Fellow in Science and Religion. He is also a contributing editor to Science Progress and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect magazine. Mooney's 2005 article for Seed magazine on the Dover evolution trial was included in the volume Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006. In 2006, Chris won the "Preserving Core Values in Science" award from the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. His 2009 article for The Nation, "Unpopular Science" (co"authored with Sheril Kirshenbaum) will be included in Best American Science Writing 2010. Shannon Brownlee is a writer and essayist whose book, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, was named the best economics book of 2007 by New York Times economics correspondent, David Leonhardt, and is being used by legislators and policy makers to craft health care reform legislation. A former senior editor at U.S. News & World Report, her work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including the Atlantic Monthly, Discover, Glamour, More, Mother Jones, New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Slate, and Time, among others. In 2008"2009, Brownlee served as a visiting scholar at the National Institutes of Health, and is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Scholar. In 2010, Brownlee received two awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors: the June Roth Award for Medical Journalism, and the ASJA's award for Reporting on a Significant Topic. Other honors include the Association of Health Care Journalists Award for Excellence, the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting, the National Association of Science Writers Science"in"Society Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. She holds an M.S. in Marine Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Shankar Vedantam writes about science and human behavior. He authored the weekly Department of Human Behavior column in The Washington Post from 2006 to 2009. He is the winner of several journalism awards and was a 2009"2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He previously worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Knight"Ridder's Washington Bureau, and New York Newsday. Vedantam has a master's degree in journalism from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering. He is interested in the history of conflict over the theory of evolution, the changes over time of religious theories concerning the creation of the universe, and the effects of religious faith on health. He has written about the interplay between neuroscience and spirituality, an area he would like to explore further. Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

Applied Humanities: Transforming Humanities Education

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:00:00 GMT

04/23/2010 10:00 AM e14"633William Uricchio, Professor of Comparative Media Studies; ; Peter Donaldson, Ann Fetter Friedlaender Professor of Humanities and Head of the Literature Faculty, MIT. Director, Shakespeare Interactive Archive; Kurt Fendt; Scot Osterweil; Rehka Murthy; Matt Weise, Singapore"MIT GAMBIT Game Lab Producer; Description: In the first of four panels celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Comparative Media Studies (CMS) program at MIT, panelists reflect on the wide range of projects and media studies offspring that have emerged from this innovative program. Major CMS themes include the development of community, creation of a deeper understanding of collaboration, working across disciplines, participatory culture, and collective intelligence. Panelists discuss the MIT approach to applied humanities, and share insights on education, game design, public media and visual information. William Uricchio moderates. Scot Osterweil brings his background as a theatre major to the effort of game design, citing the need to engage the user, not just create games that are based on reciting facts-just as an actor has to engage in audience in something deeper than lines of a script. Kurt Fendt's background teaching German language and literature, combined with work with many German artists has informed his current approach to working in digital media. He is concerned with how to engage students in the process of actively creating media, not just using it. Peter Donaldson cites Shakespeare's works as multi format productions whose performances can travel across cultures and time as well as across media. Rekha Murthy finds that her real life experience coupled with her CMS education has enabled her to have a broader understanding of the world, and channel it into her work in public radio in new ways. As public broadcasting morphs into public media, significant identity questions emerge that require deeper thinking to sort out the huge challenges in her field. Today she values the contextualization and opportunities for reflection that CMS has afforded. Matthew Weise who attended film school before CMS admits to always struggling with the notion of the humanities. He comes to terms with a definition that "humanities are things that make me feel more human" and provide inspiration to want to apply his full self to the task at hand. He finds himself happily enriched in ways he doesn't fully understand. About the Speaker(s): Kurt Fendt is Director of HyperStudio, MIT's Center for Digital Humanities, which explores the potential of new media technologies for the enhancement of research and education. He is Research Director in the Comparative Media Studies Graduate Program (CMS) and teaches a range of upper"level courses in the German Studies Program in Foreign Languages and Literatures. Fendt has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Cologne, the Technical University of Aachen (both Germany), and the University of Klagenfurt, Austria; in 2001 he was Visiting Scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute in Sankt Augustin, Germany. He is co"Principal Investigator of the d'Arbeloff"funded Metamedia project, co"Director of Berliner sehen, a collaborative hypermedia learning environment for German Studies, the on"line collaboration space for educators "Berliner sehen Exchange", and co"author of the French interactive narrative "A la rencontre de Philippe" (CD"ROM version). Since 2005, he has been organizing the MIT Short Film Festival. Before coming to MIT in 1993, Fendt was Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Bern in Switzerland, where he established the Media Learning Center for the Humanities and earned his Ph.D. in modern German literature with a thesis on hypertext and text theory in 1993 after having completed his MA at the Ludwig"Maximilians"University in Munich, Germany. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Comparative Media Studies

MIT Communications Forum: The Gutenberg Parenthesis — Oral Tradition and Digital Technologies

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Should we view the last 500 years or so of Western culture as a strange interlude, defined by printed page and other artifacts that once dominated the landscape but are now fading in relevance?

How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

03/09/2010 6:30 PM 32"141Sasa StanisicDescription: From the publisher: "Heralded as a "sorcerer of narrative" (Foreign Policy) with an instinct for "poetic and intoxicating language" (Freie Presse), twenty"nine"year"old Sa_a Stani_i_ bounded onto the international literary scene to great fanfare and acclaim. How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone-the tale of a boy who experiences the war in Bosnia and finds the secret to survival in language and stories-was the only debut novel to be short"listed for the top literary prize when it was published in Germany, and indeed every page of this glittering, exuberant tale thrums with the joy of storytelling." Stani_i_ reads a few passages from the book in Saxonian, and then explains the story line in English. At 35:00, Stani_i_ takes questions from Kurt Fendt. At 43:05 he reads three newer pieces in English. At 51:38 Stani_i_ takes audience questions. About the Speaker(s): Sa_a Stani_i_ is the 2010 Max Kade Writer in Residence in Foreign Languages and Literatures at MIT, Sa_a Stani_i_ was born in Visegrad, a small town in eastern Bosnia in 1978. In 1992, at the age of 14, he witnessed the Bosnia War, as Serb troops laid siege to his hometown. He fled with his family to southern Germany a few weeks after the occupation. Stani_i_ attended the Heidelberg International Comprehensive School. He later studied at the University of Heidelberg and was a teaching assistant at Bucknell University. How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, a semiautobiographical work, is his debut novel. co"sponsored by the DAAD and the MIT European Club Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Libraries

The Art of Science Television

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

10/15/2009 4:15 PM 10"250Paula S. Apsell, Senior Executive Producer, PBS"NOVA, and Director of Science Unit, WGBHDescription: Paula Apsell, NOVA's senior executive producer laments the sad state of science journalism and discusses how NOVA is more essential than ever. In a world where the public understanding of science is diminishing, she makes a strong case for NOVA's tradition of depth and substance, tackling the most pressing issues in science, in a thoughtful and visually complex manner. Apsell brings clips from some recent NOVA programs to illustrate the role of television's most prestigious science documentary series in the vast television and web content landscape. She provides insights into the editorial processes of topic selection, treatment, and production standards. In a world of decreasing attention spans, Apsell considers the challenges of providing meaningful science content, keeping it interesting, while not leaving the audience behind. About the Speaker(s): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/about/apse.html Paula S. Apsell got her start in broadcasting at WGBH Boston, where she was hired fresh out of Brandeis University to type the public broadcaster's daily television program logs-a job that Apsell notes is now, mercifully, automated. Within a year, she found her way to WGBH Radio, where she developed the award"winning children's drama series The Spider's Web, and later became a radio news producer. But her real interest lay in television and science. In 1975, she joined NOVA, a fledgling WGBH"produced national series that would set the standard for science programming on television. Apsell produced a number of critically acclaimed NOVA episodes before joining Dr. Timothy Johnson at WCVB, the ABC affiliate in Boston, as senior producer for medical programming. In 1983, she spent a year studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Knight Fellow, then called the Vannevar Bush Fellowship in the Public Understanding of Science. She returned to WGBH in 1984 to become executive producer of NOVA, guiding the series into today's highly competitive, multi"media environment. In addition to the programs in the regular NOVA television schedule, Apsell has overseen the production of many award"winning WGBH Science Unit .Paula Apsell has served on the boards of several organizations, including the Earthwatch Institute, Hebrew College (Brookline, Massachusetts) and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. She is a trustee of the International Documentary Association.Host(s): School of Science, Department of Physics

(Speakers and Signers) George Prochnik: Reclaiming Silence for the Silenced

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 08:48:50 GMT

A dialog (in speech and sign) between artists, designers, scientists, students, speakers, and signers. Participants touch on the range of human experience including deafness, and on acoustical engineering, especially resonance and sonic vibrations. All presentations are interpreted in American Sign Language. At the center of the conference is a specially-built raised floor, designed to be activated with low-frequency vibration. By sitting, standing, lying on the floor, hearing and deaf participants are able to experience sound through their bodies. During the conference, presenters use the floor as a vehicle for tactile communication.

The Future of Science Journalism

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT

04/28/2009 7:00 PM MuseumJill Abramson, Managing Editor, The New York Times; Andrew Revkin; Ivan Oransky; Evan Hadingham, Senior Science Editor, NOVA; Phil Hilts; Cristine RussellDescription: Susan Hockfield states that science journalism "is now, and in the decades ahead, absolutely indispensable." As we confront global warming and health pandemics, science reporting must be sustained, Hockfield says, "in its rightful place, at the top of the profession and in the thick of the national conversation." But dismal economic times throw doubt on this aspiration, as these journalists attest. At the nation's flagship newspaper, The New York Times, there's a relentless commitment to high"quality journalism, whether print or digital, Jill Abramson maintains. "The fact that people have come to expect news on the web to be free has certainly challenged journalism's business model," she acknowledges, but The Times is better positioned than other publications to weather the changes. Indeed, "decades from now, the quality newspapers left may not be on paper, but journalism will continue to thrive," Abramson asserts. In particular, this means ramping up science coverage, whether examining climate science or common medical treatments and health policy. Abramson draws a clear distinction between science blogs, which are "often for the deeply engaged," and "coverage pitched to the intelligent general reader." Penetrating reporting with great breadth comes at a steep price: the paper must support reporters who dig deep into protected government files, are on perilous assignments, or must take a year to glean all dimensions of a complex story. She asks, "How do we prevent the collective muscle of investigative journalism from being gutted?" Whatever the answer (and one solution may involve nonprofit funding), Abramson sees a robust, continuing appetite for "trustworthy information on the world we live in." Cristine Russell sees a "best of times, worst of times" scenario for science journalism, with a glut of opportunities beyond print to chat and blog about science, or more frequently, health and fitness, and deep cutbacks in print science departments. Andrew Revkin admits the days when The Times could bring in $1 billion a year in ad revenue are gone forever, and hopes its staff "won't be in a museum of recently extinct journalists." But holes in science coverage mean "scientists have a greater responsibility to take the bull by the hornsand engage more fully in a conversation with society." Ivan Oransky characterizes some online science sites as a kind of "curation," with "a lot of people covering single events periodically." He cites Twitter as a positive example of "democratizing coverage," getting a new generation "to get back into science." Evan Hadingham suggests we might be "in a golden age of popular science communication on TV." Yet, in a 500"channel world, public TV science producers face "the ghettoization of science," worried about how to mix serious science with entertainment. About the Speaker(s): Jill Abramson was appointed managing editor in 2003 after serving as Washington bureau chief. She joined the newspaper in 1997. Previously, she was an editor and investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal. She is a graduate of Harvard College and co"author of two books: Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas and Where They Are Now.Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

Media in Transition 6: The Future of Publishing

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Nostalgia, anxiety and optimism mix in this panel devoted to imagining what lies ahead for the book, as publishing professionals and others discuss the impact of digital technology on the business.

Words for the Web with Neal Kane

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:25:26 GMT

Neal Kane, President of Libretto, Inc. shares pointers on best practices for web writing. Neal is widely regarded as one of New England's leading business writers and messaging strategists.

MIT IAP Science Journalism Panel 4 of 5: Trisha Gura

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:39:53 GMT

Talk by Trisha Gura, freelance science and medical journalist and author of the book, "Lying in Weight" (http://www.trishagura.com/). Part 4 of 5 of the IAP Science Journalism panel organized by the MIT careers office. NOTE: Part 5 is the question and answer session and was too big to upload to TechTV. It's on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9163888269488575753

MIT IAP Science Journalism Panel 3 of 5: Karen Weintraub

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:34:44 GMT

Talk by Karen Weintraub, deputy editor of health and science at the Boston Globe. Part 3 of 5 of the IAP Science Journalism Panel organized by the MIT careers office.

MIT IAP Science Journalism Panel 2 of 5: Jonathan Fildes

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:30:19 GMT

Talk by Jonathan Fildes, BBC News Science and Technology reporter. Part 2 of 5 of the MIT IAP Science Journalism Panel.

MIT IAP Science Journalism Panel 1 of 5: Intro

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:27:33 GMT

Introductory remarks to the 2009 IAP Science Journalism Panel at MIT, organized by the MIT Careers Office. Part 1 of 5.

Neil Gaiman, part 2

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:29:11 GMT

Bestselling author, screenwriter and comics luminary Neil Gaiman, interviewed by Henry Jenkins as part of the Julius Schwartz Memorial Lecture in 2008.

The lecture was hosted by the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT, and was founded to honor the memory of longtime DC Comics editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz, whose contributions to our culture include co-founding the first science fiction fanzine in 1932, the first science fiction literary agency in 1934, and the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939.

Schwartz went on to launch a career in comics that would last for well over 42 years, during which time he helped launch the Silver Age of Comics, introduced the idea of parallel universes, and had a hand in the reinvention of such characters as Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom.

Watch the first part of the interview at http://mitne.ws/UqGkTB

An interview with Neil Gaiman

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:35:34 GMT

The bestselling author, screenwriter and comics luminary was interviewed by Henry Jenkins as part of the Julius Schwartz Memorial Lecture in 2008.

Celebrating James Marshall and Humor in Children's Books

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

11/18/2008 7:00 PM 32"123Roger Sutton, Editor in Chief, The Horn Book; Susan Meddaugh, author/illustrator; David Wiesner, author/illustrator; Anita Silvey, book reviewer; Susan Moynihan, librarianDescription: Friends, colleagues and fans unite in loving praise of a children's author who, though renowned, never got his due. James Marshall was writer/illustrator of the George and Martha and The Cut"Ups book series (he also illustrated Miss Nelson and The Stupids series, among many others). He died at age 50 in 1992, never having received the coveted children's picture book honor, The Caldecott Medal. These panelists do their best to redress the injustice. Susan Meddaugh of Martha Speaks fame, remembers Marshall from her days as a book designer. She has fond memories of him "trying his stories out on us as he went from office to office" at Houghton Mifflin, and credits him with launching her freelance career when he found her an apartment in Charlestown, MA for an improbable $75 a month. Meddaugh celebrates Marshall's ability to "establish characters instantly," and the way in which "Jim didn't have to find originality, he just was. Every part of his personality came thru in his books." "My appreciation for his work leapt exponentially," saysDavid Wiesner (The Three Pigs, Tueday) "after I began reading his books to my kids." There'd be "the big smile, laughing and total connection." When Wiesner repeatedly paused to marvel at how Marshall's words and pictures came together, his children would have to remind him to get on with the story. Wiesner finds much to admire in the George and Martha books: "They're so concise; there's nothing extraneous going on." He enjoys their "beautifully minimalistic art," as well as the "ornate, almost dense" illustrations of the Stupids. Says Wiesner, "He's one of the few people I think about when I'm doing a book: How can I take what I'm doing and keep it to its essence and not fill it up?" The beauty of Jim's work, he says, is that "it looks like it was created in the moment." Anita Silvey has been reading, editing and reviewing children's books for years, and had the pleasure of accompanying Marshall on book tours. Silvey has recently been exploring Marshall's notebooks and studying his working style. He often pursued several ideas at a time, and his beginning sketches and text have a lot of detail. "There's a long evolutionary process, with thumbnail sketches" and rewriting "and all of a sudden, he circles one word, the perfect word..." Yet his final sketch had "a lightness of touch," the appearance of spontaneity. Silvey recalls, "I once saw Jim sketch an entire book out on a cocktail napkin. He could do a quick, creative thing, then he went to work." That's why his books "are so timeless." Roger Sutton notes how Marshall respected his audience: he never talked down to kids, and trusted them to pick up on things. Even sarcastic adult humor was OK. Librarian Susan Moynihan says that the kids to whom she reads get Marshall's humor without requiring adult filtering, and they also get his "message of kindness." In Marshall's books, "nobody was made fun of." About the Speaker(s): Roger Sutton has served as editor of the children's book resource,The Horn Book, since 1996. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and a children's and young adult librarian. He is also the author of Hearing Us Out: Voices from the Gay and Lesbian Community. Sutton received his M.A. in Library Science from the University of Chicago in 1982, and a B.A. from Pitzer College in 1978.Host(s): Office of the President, Office of Government and Community Relations

MIT Communications Forum: Prime Time in Transition

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Fear not, fans of character-based TV fiction: reality shows will not obliterate tales featuring "transactions between human beings — the Jane Austen end of things," as John Romano puts it.

The Writing of Fantasy

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:00:00 GMT

11/14/2007 7:00 PM 32"123Susan Cooper, Author; Gregory Maguire, Author; Roger Sutton, Editor in Chief, The Horn Book; Dr. Robert M. Randolph, Chaplain to the InstituteDescription: Sometimes the world gives off a glare "that's hard to look at directly," says Susan Cooper, and for her, making sense of things means engaging in fantasy -- "a way of getting to the truth without looking at the real." Cooper and her fellow writer Gregory Maguire admit to working out personally difficult questions, and often cosmic conflicts, in their books of fantasy for children and adults. Maguire, author of Wicked, says he was bothered by the build"up to the first Gulf War, which fed into his novel for grownups about a children's character (the Wicked Witch of the West). He calls fantasy "escapism plus something else." Says Maguire, "When I sense I'm approaching a story that's going to have to be told in a fantastic way, it is usually because it's about something so upsetting to me that I wouldn't trust myself to write about it in a naturalistic way, whether it be corruption of government in any particular decade of my life, or whether it be stress that can exist within children between the need to believe in magic and the injunction to believe in God..." Says Cooper, "You're talking to yourself really. So many of us say, 'I don't write for children,' and we don't; we are published for children, read by children. You deal with your own passions, emotions, problems, by having them flow into a piece of writing that needs that particular emotion." When moderator Roger Sutton wonders about "this human impulse to make things up that are impossible," Cooper responds about her desire to tell "deep truths," cloaked in extraordinary features. Fantasy offers the freedom "to think bigger" while offering the protagonist something to identify with. Says Cooper, "There's a reason why a lot of us start from the real world and go into magic, the way I tend to doIt's partly that you want your reader to retain a sense of reality, but you're going through fantasy to truth. It's that indirect approach that's going to get you somewhere." Maguire believes that the origins of his fantasy literature, while connecting with the tradition of myths and legends, spring from "the wet ground of the subconscious." As a child he was dreaming and play acting in the dirt alley next to his home. This nourished a more deliberate engagement with fantasy as he got older. "One of the reasons one bothers to write as well as read fantasy is to continue to strengthen the muscle of the imagination, the muscle that in fact can consider that things can be different, things in the hard world in which we live, our hard lives." About the Speaker(s): Roger Sutton has served as editor of the children's book resource,The Horn Book, since 1996. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and a children's and young adult librarian. He is also the author of Hearing Us Out: Voices from the Gay and Lesbian Community. Sutton received his M.A. in Library Science from the University of Chicago in 1982, and a B.A. from Pitzer College in 1978. Susan Cooper has been writing for more than 30 years. At Oxford University, where she earned an M.A. in English, she was the first woman to edit the university newspaper. After graduation, she worked as a reporter on London's Sunday Times. She wrote her first books, Mandrake and Over Sea, Under Stone during this period. She arrived in the U.S. in 1963, and after writing two books for adults, set out on her famous children's fantasy series, The Dark is Rising in the 1970s. She published other novels, including The Boggart and its successor, in the 1990s, and a book, Victory was published in 2006. She has also written a number of picture books for children. Gregory Maguire is the author of the novels Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and many other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are revisionist retellings of classic children's stories. Wicked was turned into a hit Broadway musical of the same name. Maguire received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co"director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979"1985. In 1987 he co"founded Children's Literature New England. Maguire's most recent novel is What"the"Dickens:The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy. Host(s): Office of the President, Office of Government and Community Relations

World in Motion

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:07:23 GMT

Documentary by the students in the Graduate Program in Science Writing, featuring Peko Hosoi's Robo Snails, and robotic swimmers.

A Reading by Jamaica Kincaid

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:00:00 GMT

04/04/2007 6:30 PM 6-120Jamaica Kincaid, Writer, Visiting Professor, Harvard Univ.Description: Many writers long to see their work appear in The New Yorker. Miraculously, Jamaica Kincaid got her start in print generating -Talk of the Town" pieces for the magazine, back in the (good old) days when those pieces ran without bylines. Kincaid, who celebrates times -when the sheer doing of something was enough," reads some of her -TOT" pieces and other examples of her early work, offering tips and asides to aspiring writers in her audience. She admits having wanted to write differently from anyone else at the magazine, -a vanity or arrogance of youth." Her piece about a book reception for economist Milton Friedman consists entirely of an inventory of the costs of the event to her and other participants (all rigorously fact-checked, Kincaid notes). She felt hostile to Friedman, because he was in those days an advisor -to a cruel government in Chile," and Kincaid wanted to express this but 'didn't want to just say it." When -Mr. Shawn published it, it was amazing to me." Her submissions to The New Yorker during the '70s just preceded the period of celebrity culture, Kincaid says. It was a time when -rich people in America wanted to be known for working, doing something other than being rich, and they would get jobs or something like that." She reads a long story, -Biography of a Dress," that is based in large part on her early life in Antigua. Episodes from her girlhood, which in other hands might lean toward the nostalgic, are framed by a searingly honest and unsentimental adult voice. Kincaid utterly renounces the notion that dredging up and fictionalizing past events offers some release to her. Instead, once she puts memory into writing, -I've dispensed with it and it is no longer of any literary interest to me." -My Brother," Kincaid's account of her brother's death from HIV, demonstrates her take-no-prisoners approach to biographical writing. She first acknowledges to the audience, -The most ridiculous thing -- I think why didn't somebody tell me that having somebody die is so hard, that it's just an amazing pain." She wrote the first part of the book while he was alive, and then couldn't continue, having what Kincaid describes as a -biological response to his death." As difficult and extreme as her reaction was to his suffering, Kincaid was nevertheless committed to telling the story, in clear and brutal terms. -I rule out the memoir. It caramelizes and beautifies things. I wouldn't want to know how to make a beautiful thing. Implied in memoir is forgiveness that I don't feel. I never forgive and I never forget, and I'm never cathartic." About the Speaker(s): Jamaica Kincaid recently edited The Best American Travel Writing of 2005; published Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas (2004) and Mr. Potter (2003). Other works include The Autobiography of My Mother(1995), Lucy (1990) and Annie John (1985). She won the Prix Femina Etranger for her novel My Brother in 2000, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989, a PEN/Faulkner Award nomination and the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts for her first collection of short stories, At the Bottom of the River (1983). Kincaid was a New Yorker staff writer from 1976 until 1995 and has been publishing fiction and nonfiction since the mid-1970s. Her work has also appeared in Ingenue Magazine and The Village Voice. In 2004 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Literature Section

The Craft of Science Fiction

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:00:00 GMT

11/16/2006 BartosJoe Haldeman, Adjunct Professor of Writing, MITDescription: Joe Haldeman provides a sneak preview of an upcoming novel whose story plays out in MIT's past, present and distant future. In his conversation with Henry Jenkins, Haldeman admits that he has -a lot of fun with the sociology of being in this joint." He also discusses the history of his genre, and his own literary approach. -The thing about science fiction," says Haldeman, -is that it's a form of writing but it's also a way of looking at things _ a mode of thought." Early sci-fi writers sought to educate young people, and direct them toward careers as scientists or engineers. Not all of the writing was stellar. Some of the -old stuff can be ugly stuff," he says. Haldeman can't read the Foundation trilogy now _ -My eyes lock," the writing's so bad. But some of the stories from the 1930s inspired the scientists on both sides of World War 2, those behind radar, the atom bomb and Germany's V1 and V2 rockets. Today, as fewer people read novels, Haldeman says, science fiction has become less important. -The idea that science fiction can educate isn't there anymore." Haldeman revels in the real world of science, especially at the far edges of research where astonishing discoveries are made. -I get more damn ideas out of popular science magazines," like Scientific American. An article in Sky and Telescope, and a visit to a Boston science museum exhibit on preserved human bodies inspired a new story on non-carbon based life forms that live in a different timescale from humans. Haldeman is determined to get both the science and fiction right, and he writes things he'd like to read. -I get so bored with cardboard charactersessentially giving a lesson." He's a big fan of Ernest Hemingway. As a Vietnam veteran who has written a number of war stories, he admits that -writing about war is the first natural, emotional thing to do," but he resists getting too analytical about his work. Today, Haldeman views science as under attack: -Religion is out of hand on a lot of different levels, and science fiction is a tool against religion," he says. -Science fiction is a tool for rationalism, for a rational approach to solving life's problems." About the Speaker(s): Joe Haldeman is a four-time Nebula Award winner for his science fiction, which includes The Forever War, "Old Twentieth and many other books. He was a Visiting Professor in MIT's Writing Department in 1983-84, and has also taught at the University of Iowa, Michigan State (Clarion), Clarion West Seattle, SUNY Buffalo, Princeton, University of North Dakota, Kent State, and the University of North Florida. Haldeman has a B. S. in Astronomy from the University of Maryland and did graduate work there in math/computer science. He earned an M.F.A. at the Iowa Writers Workshop in 1975. His next novel, The Accidental Time Machine, will come out from Ace in 2007.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Communications Forum

Television's Great Writer

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 04:00:00 GMT

04/20/2006 5:00 PM BartosDavid Milch, Creator, Executive Producer and Writer, DEADWOOD, HBODescription: This talk, by one of television's most dark-minded auteurs, may inspire some viewers to upgrade their cable service to HBO, or at least to rent DVDs of his classic police dramas. David Milch, in the flesh, proves as provocative as some of his finest creations. In the course of a conversation with David Thorburn, (a former Yale colleague), Milch touches on previous works, like NYPD Bluee and Hill Street Blues, delves into Deadwood, his new, alternative Western series, and reveals astonishing pieces of his own biography. Prodded to reflect on some of his twisted but charismatic TV characters, Milch says, "My old man used to beat me pretty good. And I adored him. He wound up taking his own life." That's for starters. Milch goes on to describe his surgeon father's gangland relatives; his father's suicide in front of his brother and mother; and where he'd learned that his father had died (at a "pitch" meeting). It should not surprise, then, that Milch deeply understands "the torment some souls are exposed to." He has suffered bouts of heroin and alcohol addiction, and describes himself as an obsessive-compulsive who doesn't let his hands touch anything while writing, and so dictates his TV scripts. His town of Deadwood incorporates real and fictional characters, whose language is salted with obscenity. Traditionalists have objected. Milch, after researching 19th century American history, feels that the classic American movie Western was a product of the Hayes production code, which prohibited profanity in deed and word. In his Deadwood, there is no rule of law, and "the metrics of speech are important" in reflecting this. After 9/11, Milch determined never again to set a series in contemporary times. He says the popular media "assaulted the collective sensibility" with fear-mongering images, a deliberate "habituation of the viewing public to the shaping of human experience in distorted forms." The war in Iraq was presented like a three-week miniseries, with a beginning, middle and end -- "an infantile drama, being staged to narcotize the American public." Milch believes the American viewing public, addicted to TV, can't grapple with moral problems present in the real world. So, he says, "I'm doing what I can to tell stories which engage those issues in ways that can engage the imagination so people don't feel threatened by it." About the Speaker(s): David Milch graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Yale, where he won the Tinker Prize for highest achievement in English. He then earned an M.F.A.from the Writer's Workshop at Iowa University. He left a teaching career at Yale to write for Hill Street Blues. He served as Executive Story Editor and subsequently as Executive Producer. In 1987, he created Beverly Hills Buntz, and in 1989, Milch served as Executive Producer of the ABC series Capital News, starring Lloyd Bridges. In 1992, Milch co-created the history-making police drama NYPD Blue. Milch took home Emmyså for Best Writing in a Drama for the 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 seasons. Milch created another police drama, Brooklyn South, co-authored, along with NYPD Blue producer Bill Clark, True Blue: The Real Stories Behind NYPD Blue, and served as creative consultant for Steven Bochco's Murder One and Total Security. Since forming Redboard Productions, Milch co-created Big Apple, a one-hour drama set in New York City's FBI field office. Host(s): Office of the Provost, Communications Forum

Narratives of Science

Sat, 07 May 2005 04:00:00 GMT

Robert Kanigel poses the central question of this panel: "The storytelling express is leaving the station. Do we want to jump aboard, or under some circumstances, stay where we are?"

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