August 03, 2007
Saxophonist Joshua Redman is jazz royalty -- his father was the great saxophonist Dewey Redman. But Joshua is no slouch. 16 years ago, when he was just 22 and fresh out of Harvard, Pat Metheny called him “the most important new musician in 20 years.” Josh’s new album Back East features his father –- and it was inspired by another of the greats of his father’s generation, Sonny Rollins.
Stephen L. Carter is a professor of Constitutional Law at Yale and a commentator on race and religion in America. A few years ago, Carter wrote the very smart and bestselling murder mystery The Emperor of Ocean Park. His new book, New England White, is also a thriller, and revolves around a prominent black family living in a picture-perfect, nearly all-white enclave near an Ivy League university.
Japanese-born artist Takashi Horisaki used to live in New Orleans. He recently returned to the Lower 9th Ward to bring attention to the city’s continuing struggle the best way he knew how: by making a sculpture. It's based on a wind- and water-ravaged shotgun house. Before its demolition in mid-July, the sculptor painstakingly cast the house in latex and trucked the panels to a sculpture park in New York City. We sent two reporters to track the house as it moved north. Jason Rhein was on the ground in New Orleans. WNYC's Jocelyn Gonzales picked up the trail in New York.
Paleontology is a field where history can be rewritten with each new discovery. In a basement in St. Paul, Minnesota, Michael Bahl is something of an amateur paleontologist. He reconstructs the skeletons of mammals that never quite existed. We sent Sarah Lemanczyk to his studio.
Billy Joe Shaver’s country tunes have been favorites of performers like Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, and Elvis. These songs were a huge part of Trey Kay’s childhood. And he says Shaver’s songs could touch the hearts of even the most stoic men -- including Trey's father.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
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National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
