Off for the Summer

1st Show was a Ton of Fun!!!!!!

The maiden voyage of PUYD-The Radio Show was a lot of fun. We talked about the big Tea Bag Parties across America, gun control in America and on college campuses, free speech on campus and even got in some discussion of the new first pooch. Please consider tuning in next week, Wednesday, April 22nd from Noon to 2pm. Just click above to listen live.

COMING TO COLLEGE RADIO!!!

Well the manager of CCSUs college radio station has gone and done it. She invited me to do a weekly show. Two hours of live radio every Wednesday from noon to 2pm is going to be quite a challenge. The maiden voyage of the new show, which will be co-hosted by a student of mine, is Wednesday, April 14th. If you are in the Hartford/West Hartford/ New Britain area, you can listen on WFCS-107.7FM, otherwise you can listen live on the web.

Two hours a week of intelligent discussion of politics that is also entertaining to a general audience is, in my opinion, IMPOSSIBLE! So if you tune in don't be surprized to hear us alternate between boring analysis and irreverant humor for a while until we find our sweet spot.

Everybody who gets nostalgic for their colleges days should tune in so I can show you why I never left college - it's toooo much fun!

Talkin' Politics over Lunch on Friday

At Noon on Friday, January 23rd, I will be offering my take on the latest developments in politics at the national, state, and local level, and taking questions from all callers who join me during the 90-minute program by calling 646-595-2836.

The live webcast can be listened to by phone at 646-595-2836 or on the web at blogtalkradio.com/Jerold-Duquette

During the program listeners can call in at 646-595-2836 or submit written comments/questions at a chat room on my BlogTalkRadio.com show page, or the Masslive.com politics forum. I will monitor the chat room and the politics forum during the program.

Interview with Pollster John Zogby

This 24 minute interview with preeminent pollster John Zogby does not begin until 32 minutes into the recording. I apologize for my technical incompetence.

Mr. Zogby was frank and informative. Anyone interested in the role of pollsters in our politics will be informed and entertained by the interview.

December 18th Show

This show was aired from the home office. I intended to discuss three things; The definition of "politics," and columns by Michael Gerson and David Brooks. Because I didn't prepare the commentary ahead of time, I only managed to accomplish (to some degree at least) my first two objectives. I will try to return to the topic of brooks' column in a later show.

I also indicated the distinct possibility that there will be no program on Christmas or New Year's morning.

December 11th Show

The tail of Blagojevich continues to unravel, but I used this show to talk about the reaction to the scandal rather than the scandal itself. Are you suffering from PP or PKD? What are these things? If you don't know, tune in to this show.

December 4th Show

In this show I made extended comments on Barak Obama's opportunities to improve the intellectual honesty of the American political conversation as well as what I consider to be a central factor in the frustrating anti-intellectualism of American politics; namely the conflation (intentional and otherwise) of the notion of "fact" and "truth."

I also had time to comment on a George Will column in this morning's newspaper. Will is, in my view, one of the best conservative intellectuals in the mass media and I very often benefit intellectually from his work. Just last week I read his column on Stanley Fish's new book "Save the world on your own time," which I found very thought provoking. I quickly obtained a copy of Fish's book and am presently reading it. The book is about the job of college professors and academic freedom. When I read Will's column on this my initial reaction was that Will was missing Fish's point. Now that I am hip deep in Fish's point, I'm not sure exactly what it is. When I'm done, however, I hope to write about my interpretation of Fish's thesis with Will's critique in mind.

Both extended commentaries in this show were the subjects of blog posts. Click HERE for the blog on Obama's press conference and HERE for the "Just the Facts" essay.

November 20th Show

On today's show I commented on the press coverage of Obama's ongoing efforts to staff his administration, the potential government bailout of the "big three" American auto makers, and the practice of "burrowing," which is the transfer of political appointees to civil service status prior to the start of a new administration to protect them from being fired my the new administration.

In addition, I reflected on the impact of "narrowcasting" in the mass media. I considered the potential pitfalls of an electorate that has no shared source of civic information and analysis as well as the implications of more and more narrowcasting on the profession of journalism.

Finally, I introduced listeners to the Longmeadow forum, an internet community forum, briefly and discussed the type of characters and conversations such fora tend to produce. In this segment I also recommended a web site to listeners that had a very well written essay about debating "charitably" called metablog, and admitted that my own conduct on the Longmeadow forum sometimes fails to meet my standards of civil and productive dialogue.

Thanks for listening and please feel free to email me with questions, comments or suggestions.

The first show!!!!!

Well, the first show had a couple of technical glitches, but generally seems to have gone well. MOST NOTICEABLE WAS THE 18 SECOND GAP AT THE BEGINNING.

While I did not comment on any specific news stories or published opinions in this first show, when I do in the future, I will include links to these sources here in the blog entry that will accompany each show.

Please keep listening and consider calling in to the show as I tape it at (646) 595-2836.