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COVER STORY
Democracy
Kurt Andersen and former secretary of state Madeleine
Albright look at how art influences democracy and how democracy feeds
creative expression. This program is part of public radio's special coverage,
"Whose Democracy Is It?"
 Jefferson's
Dome
We all know Thomas Jefferson as the author of the
Declaration of Independence. But he was also the architect of some of
our country's best political buildings. Architecture critic Karrie Jacobs
explores how Jefferson's embrace of the dome shaped American political
space. With production assistance from Sean Tubbs.
See an interactive tour of Jefferson's Academical
Village
Go to the Empire State Plaza site
Go to a site on the history of state capitol buildings
 Mumbo
Jumbo
What happens when people in power attempt to suppress
an outburst of cultural energy? That's the conflict at the center of Ishmael
Reed's comic novel Mumbo Jumbo. Reed and the Jazz scholar Robert O'Meally
talk about how Jazz terrified politicians who saw the music as a virus
sweeping the nation, mixing up races and classes. Produced by Jonathan
Mitchell.
Go to the Circle Association's Ishmael Reed site
Learn more about Reed's latest book
Go to Columbia's Center for Jazz Studies website
 Let
the People Decide
With Arnold Schwarzennegger's
election, we may be increasingly comfortable choosing our leaders from
the ranks of pop culture and entertainment. At the same time museum curators
and television producers are letting us vote to guide things they used
to do on their own. Jake Warga looks at the merging of entertainment culture
and democracy, and wonders whether he really wants art made through a
popularity contest. Produced with support from Hearing Voices.
Listen
to the The Most Wanted Song
Listen
to The Most Unwanted Song
Go to the Mulatta Records website
Go to the Dia Center's Komar & Melamid page
Go to the Seattle Art Museum website
Go to the American Idol website
Read about Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone
 Billy
Collins/Walt Whitman
Billy Collins just completed his term as Poet Laureate
of the United States. Collins reads from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself
and talks about the challenge of writing poetry about big things like
democracy. Produced by David Krasnow.
Read the full text of Whitman's Song of Myself, 16
Go to the Big Snap Billy Collins site
SPECIAL GUEST
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright is a foreign policy expert appointed
by President Clinton as American Ambassador to the United Nations, and
then as Secretary of State. Born in Czechoslovakia, she and her family
came as refugees from the Communist government, and she grew up in Denver.
Her new memoir, Madame Secretary, recounts her life and her years as the
highest ranking woman ever to serve in US government.
Read and listen to more about Madeleine Albright's
memoir
Go to the Albright Group's website
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Commentary
Mr. Smithocracy
Read
the full text
Channeling
President Clinton
Anna Deavere Smith is a playwright and professor.
She also plays the national security advisor on the NBC's The West Wing.
In 1996 she interviewed Bill Clinton, George Bush the elder, and others
who were shaping the election; and then she performed selections of
those interviews verbatim, exactly as she heard them. Anna Deavere Smith
talks with Kurt and samples her mimicry of President Clinton.
Listen
to Anna Deavere Smith
impersonate Madeleine Albright
Read
more about Anna Deavere Smith
Go
to The West Wing's website
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