When I was teaching a course in African history or African studies at the university, I would usually begin with a discussion to gauge the scope of knowledge students might already have. One icebreaker I employed was to ask students to name the most deadly (to humans) animal in Africa. Over the years, the correct […]

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Called for Life is the title of the book just out recounting the experiences of the first American physician to be treated successfully for Ebola in the United States (see publication details below). The February 3, 2015, blog entry on this site indicated that Dr. Brantly and his wife, Amber, had contracted for a book […]

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John “Stan” Schuchman has shone a light on important but little-studied aspects of the experience of deaf and hard-of-hearing people through his research on deaf people in the Holocaust and in the Hollywood film industry (Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the Film Entertainment Industry).

Stan Schuchman is an emeritus professor of history at Gallaudet University, where […]

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Dr. Kent Brantly, the American physician who recovered from Ebola contracted while treating Liberian patients suffering from the often-fatal disease, has been selected to receive the first CEPA Award for 2015. Dr. Brantly, who was named along with other Ebola fighters as “Time Person of the Year for 2014,” has been a forceful advocate for […]

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Howard Schultz: Exemplar of Ethical Public Communication

The CEO of Starbucks has earned a reputation for communicating enlightened corporate responsibility in several ways. Most recently he has championed a movement to recognize and reward America’s veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together with the Washington Post senior correspondent and associate editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran, […]

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Let’s Be Rational

On November 16, 2014 By

“Can’t we just be rational about this?” Probably you have heard or uttered this admonition before, perhaps more than once. There is an assumption (in fact, the basis for this site and this blog) that we can and ought to be rational, especially when making arguments affecting people in public arenas or dealing with significant […]

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Carmel, Indiana, the rapidly growing suburb on the north side of metropolitan Indianapolis, has lately received a lot of favorable publicity. CNN Money Magazine, for example, recently ranked the city as number one in the nation on its list of “Best Places to Live.” At the same time, Carmel was named number one on a […]

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Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) looks up from his room service breakfast at Kelly (Robert Redford) to announce he knows how the con works: “You’re past-posted.” This is the point in the movie The Sting when Henry Gondorf (Paul Newman) and Kelly/Redford set the hook to reel in their big fish for their big sting. Lonnegan […]

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