Host David Stewart interviews Bloomington author Elsa Marston, known locally also as Elsa Marston Harik. Elsa has written non-fiction, and fiction, about the Middle East, an area of the world in which she has lived and visited since the 1950s. Her most recent book, Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories About Teens in the Middle East is published by …

Will Murphy interviews Christian Freitag, executive director of the Sycamore Land Trust. Christian has done research on national parks management and National Fire Policy and on biodiversity. He is a an environmental columnist for WFIU and was at one time a senior law clerk for the Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Colin Allen interviews Dr. Dwain Illman, the Volinteers in Medicine (VIM) free health clinic medical director. Dr. Illman served for three years as medical director of a mission hospital in Zimbabwe and from 1976 to 2003 has worked in emergency medicine in Bloomington Hospital. His compassion for the medically underserved has led him to take short medical mission trips to …

Host Tom Healy spends an hour with local author James Alexander Thom, renowned for his works of historical fiction. Thom talks about his latest book, “The Saint Patrick’s Brigade” and the revisions he made to the recent paperback edition. Thom describes his motivations for writing historical fiction and the rewards of inspiring his readers. He also comments on his writing …

Host Dave Stewart interviews Professor David Hakken, of the School of Informatics, in the group of Social Informatics, here at Indiana University. David Hakken carried out two anthropological studies of class, culture, and worker education in Sheffield, England; one, nine years before, and the second, one year after the miners’ strike (1984-1985), arguably the watershed event in working class activism …

Host Colin Allen discusses the Middle East with Abdulkader Sinno, a professor in the departments of Political Science and Near Eastern Languages and Culture at Indiana University. In the first part of the program, Sinno talks about the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the prospects for American and NATO success against the Taliban. In the second section, the …

Host Dave Stewart interviews Indiana University Professor of Folklore Hasan El-Shamy. Dr. El-Shamy discusses how the Narrative is composed of motifs, and can be classified into Tale Types. Some tale types are long-lasting and universal. These tale types are indicative of a common thread of humanity, and are useful reminders to all that we share a common existence. We discuss …

Host Dave Stewart interviews Professor Bill Head of the Department of Criminal Justice at Indiana University, who teaches a course entitled “Crime in the Movies.” From “Scarface”(both versions) to “Batman” to “The Shawshank Redemption”, they discuss how crime is portrayed in the movies, and how the depiction of crime onscreen has changed over time. Each semester Professor Head takes his …

Host Robert Shull talks with Eddie Tabash about the relationship between morality, religion, and law. Mr. Tabash, a Los Angeles lawyer, took time out from his four university speaking tour to air his views and objectives on WFHB. He gave numerous reasons for believing that the foundation of morality is not religion, but human experience. He maintains that laws should …

Longtime host Andy Mahler returns to Interchange for our annual year-in-review program with Bloomington Alternative editor Steve Higgs and Branches Magazine publisher Tom Healy. These three newshounds talk about the newsworthy events of the past year and reflect on the profound changes that have occurred and those that await in the year ahead.