wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Stem Cells and the White House

In August 2001, President George W. Bush effectively banned research on human embryonic stem cells. Since then, Congresswoman Diana DeGette, of Colorado’s First Congressional District, has fought the ban, as well as the general politicization of science and sex by the Bush administration and the religious right. Her new book is Sex, Science, and Stem Cells.

Event: Diana DeGette will be speaking and signing books
Tuesday, August 5 at 7 pm
Upper West Side Barnes & Noble
2289 Broadway (at 82nd Street)

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Underappreciated: Mercè Rodoreda

We continue our Underappreciated summer reading series with a look at Mercè Rodoreda, who wrote The Time of the Doves in exile after Franco's regime began to suppress her native Catalan language and culture. A powerful story of a young shopkeeper living through the Spanish civil war, it’s considered by many to be the best Catalan novel of all time. Author Sandra Cisneros tells us why it should be more widely read.

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The Poetry of José Garcia Villa

Known as the “Pope of Greenwich Village,” Filipino writer José Garcia Villa was the only Asian poet among the literary giants of 1940s New York. John Edwin Cowen and Luis H. Francia discuss Doveglion, the centennial edition of Villa’s collected poetry.

Event: John Edwin Cowen and Luis H. Francia will be speaking and signing books
Wednesday, August 6 at 6 pm
Jefferson Market Library
425 Avenue of the Americas (near West 10th Street)

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Random Rules

It’s quintessentially human to think that success or failure can be attributed to a clear and obvious cause. But Leonard Mlodinow believes that randomness and chance play a more profound role than we like to think. His new book is The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.

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