Fordham Conversations

If you have something to say in America, you know that at least in theory you have the right to stand in any public place and say it. But if you want to say it on TV, do you have a right to do it in prime time? A conversation about how the right to free speech plays out in today's media universe, with Fordham communications scholar Phil Napoli.

The stories we tell about ourselves…and the stories that the food we eat tells about us. We talk with Fordham professor Kim Hall about food and culture, and with a Brooklyn mother and daughter about what it’s like being Greek and American at the same time.

You might think that finding an apartment in New York City is tough, but for new immigrants it can be an impossible task. We’ll talk about how immigrants—and their children and grandchildren—fare in the New York housing market.

Everyone knows that New York city is the place where they say “hey babe…take a walk on the wild side?…but nothing’s more wild and wooly than New York City politics. We take a look at what makes the city go with Fordham political scientist Bruce Berg, and we talk to some New Yorkers about what they think of when they think of city politics.

She was a middle-class girl from St. Petersburg, Florida, who became a heroine in the French resistance during World War II. We'll talk about the life of Virginia D'Albert Lake, with historian Judy Barrett Litoff, who edited D'Albert-Lake's diary and memoir for publication by Fordham University Press.

This week on Fordham Conversations, we talk about the American presidency--and how it's changed over time--with Fordham Political Scientist Jeffrey Cohen.

Lions and tigers and...polar bears? We talk about Fordham's new joint program with the Bronx Zoo, teaching teachers how to teach conservation biology. Also, branding global warming using polar bears; and a look at a somewhat different educational effort in New York State's prisons.

The West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn is the city's largest cultural celebration--up to 3 million people show up every year for the carnivale-like celebration--and it's coming up on labor day. This week on Fordham Conversations, we talk about some of New York's West Indian communities.

this week on the show, we say "nyet!" to conventinality, with a discussion of the occult in Russia...also, a look at the links betweenrussian alternative spiritual beliefs, and the space race, and a visit with a boy psychic right here in the northeast.

With back-to-school preparations beginning in earnest and parents frantically buying extra-long sheets for their college students' dorm beds, we talk with Fordham Professor Leonard Cassuto about the state of the university today.

In the last few years, the catholic church has received a fair amount of publicity for its conservative stances on issues like abortion, birth control, and gay marriage, leaving many progressive catholics feeling somewhat abandoned. But that wasn't always the case--remembering the heyday of liberation theology, this week on Fordham Conversations.

If you remember the 1980's TV show "thirtysomething", chances are you either loved it or hated it. We talk with Fordham professor Al Auster about that show and why he says it's still fresh 20 years after the fact. He's one of the authors of an upcoming book about the series.

Hugo Benavides grew up watching Latin American soap operas—telenovelas—on TV in New York and Equador. But he never thought that when he grew up, he’d be studying them. We talk to Benavides about telenovelas, and about the US-Mexico border melodramas called “Narcodramas?.

It's one of New York City's least appreciated waterways, but birds, fish, and now at least one beaver are fans! The Bronx river, by canoe.

We take a fieldtrip, to look at a few of Philadelphia's more than 2700 murals, with Fordham theologian Maureen O'Connell--she's looking at what the murals say about faith.

On this weekend before Independence Day, we look at one very British institutions--the Booker Prize--and what it says about what it means to be British in this day and age.

Apparently, yes. We speak to the author of the new book "Why Classical Music Still Matters", Fordham Professor Lawrence Kramer.

This week on Fordham Conversations, we continue our look at Communism in Harlem during the Great depression. With my guest Mark Naison, we take a closer look at Richard Wright and Paul Robeson's forays into Communism, and we talk about the lingering affects of this little-discussed chapter in American History. (part 2 of 2)

Most of us are familiar with the Harlem Renaissance, but we may not know that around that same time, the Communist Party was gaining a major foothold in the neighborhood and in other African-American areas throughout the country. We'll begin a conversation about race and American communism in the 1930s, with Fordham Historian Mark Naison (part 1 of 2).