StudioTulsa on 89.5-1

On this edition of our show, we welcome back Husain Haqqani, who served as Pakistan's ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2011. He's giving a free-to-the-public address tonight (Thursday the 28th) at 7:30pm in the Lorton Performance Center on the TU campus. Haqqani (who also addressed the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations last night) currently serves as Professor of the Practice of International Relations at Boston University; he's also a Senior Fellow and the Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute.

If you're something of a daredevil, and further, if you've ever wondered what it'd be like to climb to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge --- or wander amid the catacombs beneath Paris, or maybe just take an up-close look at a "ghost station" within the far-reaching New York City subway system --- you might be a latent "urban explorer." Our guest on ST is an active explorer of this sort; Moses Gates, who joins us by phone, is also an urban planner, a licensed New York City tour guide, and an assistant professor of demography at the Pratt Institute.

Today on ST we speak by phone with Benjamin Lytal, who grew up in Tulsa and now resides in Chicago, and who has written for The Wall Street Journal, The London Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Sun, The Believer, McSweeney's, and other publications. Lytal's first novel, "A Map of Tulsa," has just been published, and he'll be doing a free reading/signing in connection with this book tonight (Tuesday the 26th) at the Harwelden Mansion here in Tulsa at 7pm.

On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

(Please note: This program originally aired last year.) On this installment of our show, better living through savvy verb deployment. Our guest is Constance Hale, the bestselling author of "Sin and Syntax" and other books on language, writing, and word choice. A veteran journalist and teacher, Hale has a new book out called "Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing." It's a work in four chapters, each as informative as it is entertaining, and it's that rare example of a "how to" book on English usage that's genuinely accessible from start to finish.

(Please note: This interview originally aired in November of last year.) On this installment of ST, a fascinating book about culture, cuisine, customs, cutlery, crockery, and civilization itself.

Our guest for this edition of ST is Tanya Paul, the Ruth G. Hardman Curator of European Art at the Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa, who tells us about "Aphrodite and the Gods of Love." It's a terrific new show that will be on view at Philbrook through May 26th.

Our guest is Richard Soudriette, who's the President of the Center for Diplomacy and Democracy, which is based in Colorado Springs. He also served as founding President of IFES, or the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, from 1988 to 2007. Under Mr. Soudriette's leadership, IFES grew into one of the premier organizations offering technical assistance around the globe in matters related to elections, civil society, rule of law, and governance. Thus he's played a key role in launching networks of elections officials in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.

On this edition of ST, with Spring Break now in effect, we're discussing some new changes and enhancements at that ever-popular Spring Break destination known as the Tulsa Zoo. For openers, the Robert J. LaFortune WildLIFE Trek, formerly known as the North American Living Museum, was unveiled to the public on Saturday the 16th; it's a four-building complex that houses everything from grizzly bears to naked mole rats to albino alligators. Also, there's a new exhibit on display in the zoo's African Plains section that features three highly endangered African Painted Dogs.

Our guest on this edition of ST is Daniel Hege, who's been on our show before, and who's widely seen as one of America's finest young conductors; Hege served for eleven seasons as the Music Director of the Syracuse Symphony before becoming the Music Director of the Wichita Symphony, where he's been based since 2010. He will be the Guest Conductor for the next concert to be performed by the Tulsa Symphony, which begins tomorrow night (Saturday the 16th) at 7:30pm in the Chapman Music Hall of the Tulsa PAC.