Spectrum

Donald Wiggins is an attorney and an advocate for prison reform, expanding voting rights, and restorative justice. He is working to get prisoners the right to vote, not only in his home state of Ohio but across the nation. If prisoners can vote, they will have a voice in bettering the conditions of the correctional institutions in which they are incarcerated, according to Wiggins. He claims that most prisons are old and generally need major upgrades to correct what he calls deplorable conditions. He gives an example of an Ohio prison that has had brown and smelly water for prisoners to use because the system supplying water is antiquated. Wiggins also presses for changes in the criminal justice system which would restore inmates to some dignity and help them upon their release to prevent recidivism. Wiggins is currently in private law practice but continues his history of advocacy. Over his career, he has been associated with several political action groups.

Journalist, reporter, and morning news co-anchor Matt Barnes has found his career sweet spot in Columbus, Ohio. It also just happens to be his hometown. After graduating from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and leaving his four years of work at WOUB Public Media, Barnes, in 2008, was convinced his life work would be in sports broadcasting. He headed to his first professional job in Augusta, Georgia at WRDW-TV where he covered local sports and the Master’s golf tournament. In 2010, Matt returned to WCMH4 in Columbus as a sports reporter and anchor, a position he relished for 6 years. Then an opportunity presented itself to change his broadcast focus. In 2016, Matt gave up the sports microphone and instead jumped to be the morning co-anchor of NBC4 Today. He has been there for the past six years. When asked about whether he wants to move to a bigger market, Barnes shared that he already has turned down some notable offers but for now, he loves broadcasting in Columbus, the city he

Hidden in the archives of the Library of Congress were two memoirs of an American reporter, Herbert Corey who covered the World War I from its start in 1914 up through the Paris Peace Conference in 1919-1920. He was the American reporter who covered the war the longest, from a full three-years before participation by the United States. The memoirs were discovered by two authors, historians and journalists, John M. Hamilton, and Peter Finn. They decided to edit the memoirs, annotate them with notes and footnotes and put the memoirs in perspective for a 21st Century audience. Herbert Corey’s Great War: A memoir of WWI by the American Who Saw if All was released in June 2022 by the LSU Press. It contains first-hand accounts of Corey’s adventures covering both sides of the war from the German frontlines to the trenches of the allies. He covered the angst and travails of the foot-soldiers and the war lives of non-combatants. He viewed the war from nine European countries as he traveled for the Associated New

While surveys show that many people are regretting getting degrees in journalism and communication, Meryl Gottlieb, Senior Partner Manager, Business Development at Insider believes just the opposite. She says that the diversity of media and multiple and innovative ways to tell stories has never made journalism more diverse and open to creativity. Gottlieb, a 2016 graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, is excited about new delivery systems for stories and completely new formats that are on the horizon for storytelling. Although the media landscape is changing so quickly, she finds that the rapidity of change to be both challenging and exhilarating. Gottlieb recently was the first speaker at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication in the Joe Berman Lecture Series on the Future of Media. She talked with nearly 300 students, faculty, and staff about the “power of the pivot.” She says that to survive and thrive in the media world, one must be able to change course qui

Beverly Jones is an executive coach, author, attorney, and host of WOUB’s popular podcast “Jazzed About Work.” Jones also is a long-time veteran of fighting for women’s rights since the 1960’s. She talks with WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast host Tom Hodson about today’s conditions facing women, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent anti-abortion ruling. She also discusses whether advocacy strategies employed by women and feminists in the 1960’s and 1970’s are still applicable today or whether technology and social media have changed the way advocacy must be conducted. They also chat about what comes next in the fight for women’s rights and the rights of various minority groups in this country. Jones spent the bulk of her professional career as an attorney in Washington, D.C. and since leaving her practice, she has concentrated on career counseling and executive coaching. She also is the author of two books: Find Your Happy at Work: 50 Ways to Get Unstuck, Move Past Boredom, and Discover Fulfillment a

In this episode of the Spectrum Podcast, Walt Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, emphasizes the importance of investigative reporting while explaining his new book: When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm. Bogdanich and his co-author Michael Forsythe have unveiled the secrets behind one of the world’s most powerful consulting firms, McKinsey and Company. They show how the firms tentacles ensnare and entangle almost all aspects of American life from our largest cities to our smallest town. For example, the firm has worked with companies to promote opioids while at the same time representing the Food and Drug Administration assigned to regulate the industry. McKinsey also represented cigarette manufacturers long after cigarettes were targeted as a major health hazard. Until Bogdanich and Forsythe started digging, the company had been cloaked in secrecy since its inception in 1926. No one knew the firm’s clients or their fees until

Marlon Primes served more than 30 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Ohio before recently joining the law firm of Brennan Manna Diamond handling complex civil litigation. Primes has risen to the heights of the legal profession while at the same time, giving back to his community. He stresses the importance of the rule of law in a democracy and orderly society. He notes that no one should be above the law. His sterling legal career reflects that dedication. He has been active in both work for the legal profession and community improvement work. Primes is the Past President of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association ("CMBA"). It is one of the largest associations of lawyers and judges in Ohio. He was the first African American attorney to serve as president of the CMBA and the first government attorney to do so. He also served as national Vice President of the National Bar Association, which is the nation’s oldest and largest association of African American lawyers and judge

The Rust Belt of the Midwest is transitioning to the Tech Belt of the heartland and that story is being told by author, CNBC contributor, and media entrepreneur Rebecca Fannin. Her latest book, “Silicon Heartland” paints the picture of “fly-over country” emerging from the depression of the collapsing Rust Belt industries to a new entrepreneurial spirit with high-tech companies. Fannin views this transition with a seasoned journalistic eye. Her career has spanned from New York to Silicon Valley to Asia. She has been a guest on the BBC, Fox News, and NPR. Her writing has ranged from three previous books to articles for the Harvard Business Review, Inc., Fast Company, and Forbes. She also has been a guest speaker at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, the Brookings Institution, and the Asia Society. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fannin explored her homeland, the Midwest. She tells the story of Midwestern rebirth that everyone else has ignored. Hear her talk about her journeys and the many interviews she h

Chris Witherspoon has become a powerful entertainment journalist who has interviewed top-level celebrities throughout his career. He also appears as a regular on MSNBC, the TODAY show, the Wendy Williams Show, and NBC’s Nightly News giving his insights on entertainment news. But his latest project shows his entrepreneurial side. He has created PopViewers, a website and an app. According to its website, https://popviewers.com/, “PopViewers is the platform that helps you find what to watch next, invites you to react to the TV shows and movies you’ve watched, and encourages you to share the experience with fellow content-lovers.” Witherspoon’s intent is to give the common person a voice in content creation and the direction of entertainment media…just like the established critics. PopViewers democratizes public opinion about media content. He also wants to give a forum for diverse voices to be heard about media produced by major media companies and register those diverse opinions. You can see more about Po

Philip Elliott, Washington Correspondent for TIME, says the mid-term elections have become a toss-up as to whether the Democrats will lose power in both the House and the Senate. He explains that across the nation surprise Democratic wins in special elections, the rise in President Joseph Biden’s popularity, and the abortion issue have turned the tides from a sure Republican victory in November to races that have become much closer. Elliott, the author of TIME’s newsletter “The D.C. Brief”, spent August traveling the country to feel the pulse of real voters in the heartland. Two issues stood out above all others, he says. The reversal of Roe v. Wade has put abortion front and center as the primary issue followed closely by people fearing for democracy and the stability of our country. Elliott notes that the abortion issue is expected to bring Republican, Independent, and Democratic voters to the polls to express anger over women’s reproductive rights being eroded. He also noted that other groups fear fut

A new limited podcast series has been released by WOUB Public Media. “Who Lies Beneath: The Asylum” tells the true-life stories of people who were buried in numbered graves at an abandoned mental health facility. Host and creator Cheri Russo describes to Spectrum host Tom Hodson how she and a team of experts identified those buried in certain graves and fleshed out their lives through the help of voice actors. It is her hope to bring dignity and respect to those who were abandoned by their families and reduced to numbers upon their deaths at what was once called a “Lunatic Asylum.” She talks about how women were often institutionalized and abandoned for problems like postpartum depression and other childbearing issues. Men, who were veterans, were often put in the asylum for what we now call post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). Through the help of a library archivist, a medical historian, a counsellor and others, the lives and situations of these individuals have been reconstructed. It is the desire o

A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted after the killing of 10 blacks in Buffalo in a racially motivated shooting spree indicates that 75 percent of Black Americans “are worried that they or someone they love will be attacked because of their race.” In addition, after the attack, “only 10 percent think the problem of racism will improve in their lifetime, while a 53 majority think it will get worse.” The Poll also found that a “70 percent majority of Black Americans think at least half of White Americans hold white supremacist beliefs” and 75 percent say, “white supremacists are a major threat to Black Americans.” Such is the state of race relations in America. Considering this rise in racism, racial violence, and escalating fear, WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast reached out to two Black women professionals to get their unique perspectives. We talked with Dr. Janice Collins, an author, scholar, teacher, and journalist. Dr. Collins is the author of “250 Years and Still A Slave.” She also is a multicultural

The terms “comic storytelling” and “journalism” may sound a bit discordant to the average news consumer. Yet, “comic storytelling in journalism” is rapidly becoming a growing trend to get younger eyes on the news products of mainstream media. It is the marriage of drawn images and text to tell serious stories in a series of drawn panels similar to a comic strip. Hannah Good and Rachel Orr of the “Washington Post” are strong proponents and practitioners of this form of journalistic storytelling. Good is a journalist and a comic artist and Orr is art director and comics editor. Good curates Gender and Identity coverage and Orr leads the visual identity and social strategy for Gender and Identity. Currently, they help contributors tell their personal stories through graphic images and text in 10 panels. Good and Orr also are working with other groups at the “Washington Post” to expand this graphic form of storytelling to other topics. This form of storytelling brings younger eyes to news products. It attra

Veteran comedian Lewis Black is on the road with his “Off the Rails” tour. While traveling, he took some time to have a conversation with Spectrum’s guest host Emily Votaw of WOUB. They talked about his philosophy of comedy, the importance of education in our society and his work with the Kurt Vonnegut Library and Museum. Even though he is known for his outrageous ranting humor on stage, he also professed some cautious optimism that the human condition can improve. He will perform in Cincinnati at the Taft Theater on April 21 and in Akron at the Goodyear Theater on April 22.

Given the current controversy over the incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars, WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast wanted to get the perspectives on the issue from two notable black women. Recently, we met with journalist, scholar, and author Dr. Janice Collins and path-setting jurist Judge Gayle Williams Byers for their perspectives They examine the issue from multiple aspects including race. The two women have a wide-ranging conversation on topics from role modeling to the impact on the public perception of black men and violence. They share opinions that have been given to them from both black men and women about the incident including the impact this incident may have on black children. Dr. Collins and Judge Byers also note the disparaging treatment given to Smith by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and note how different it was from past white men like director Roman Polanski and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Ken Burns has been a documentary filmmaker for 45 years and his latest series is a four-hour PBS special about Benjamin Franklin airing on PBS Stations April 4 and 5. He discusses, with guest host Emily Votaw, the complexities and brilliance of Franklin and the many different venues in which he excelled. Some call Franklin a genius of his age. Burns describes how he traverses the complexities and nuances of history for his films and how he ferrets out stories and facts previously untold. Burns also explains how he has given voices, in his films, to marginalized groups of people and tells historic stories often through the eyes and emotions of “ordinary people” and not just major historical figures.

Policymakers, leaders, and corporate heads need to look at the world through a “population lens,” according to Dr. Jennifer Sciubba, an international expert on political demography and demographic security. Sciubba is an author, associate professor at Rhodes College and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. Her latest book, is “8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape the World.” In it, she differentiates between the 20th Century which was a century of population growth and the 21st Century which is a century of differential growth. She claims in the first two decades of this century we have a rising differential in populations with undeveloped countries with poorer populations growing much faster than aging developed countries. Sciubba states that 98 percent of the world’s population growth is now centered in underdeveloped countries causing an even greater disparity between the economic haves and have-nots of the world. She thinks leaders should view these growth d

Since the Supreme Court of the United States eliminated much of the 1960’s Voting Rights Act in 2013, many states have added restrictions to voting and some are considered draconian. This is especially true after the 2020 Presidential Election and former President Donald Trump and his followers spreading theories that he really won the election, according to Dr. Katherine Jellison, an award-winning history professor and author at Ohio University. Most changes impact women more than men, says Dr. Jellison. Although states like Georgia, Texas, and Florida have led the way in massive changes restricting a person’s opportunities to vote, other states have been eroding those rights as well. Dr. Jellison says “Voter ID” requirements may seem, at first blush, innocuous. However, they discriminate against women who have changed their names because of marriage and discriminate against the elderly and certain minority groups who might not have drivers’ licenses. Also, she asserts that limiting hours of voting and

While other news media are fading in popularity, local television news programming is gaining popularity across the country. Newspaper staffs have been gutted and cable and network news have been staggering but local news is hiring more people and is becoming more popular than ever, according to Lesley Van Ness, Director of Talent Acquisition at Gray Television. Gray television currently owns 113 local television stations across the country including WOIO Television in Cleveland, OH. Ian Rubin, TV and Digital News Director at WOIO, says audiences are demanding more out of local television news than in the past. They want faster news that is multi-platformed and available on mobile devices in an instant. The assertions of Van Ness and Rubin are supported by the latest findings by the Pew Research Center. Local television stations in 2020 dedicated 6.2 hours of local news coverage in a day, according to Pew. This was an increase from 2019. Staffing for local television news operations also have increased w

In just over a decade, America will face a shortage of up to 124,000 doctors and 200,000 nurses will need to be hired each year, according to the American Hospital Association. Overall, there will be a 3.2 million shortage of healthcare workers by 2026, according to a white paper presented by https://www.mercer.com/. Some of this is attributable to “COVID burnout” by healthcare workers but we also are facing a crisis of both our population getting older and healthcare workers quitting the profession, says Dr. Kenneth Johnson. Dr. Johnson is the Dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and chief medical officer at Ohio University. Dr. Johnson also serves as chair of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans. Dr. Johnson says we have known about this looming crisis for years but as a country, we have failed to adequately address it. COVID also has exacerbated this situation. Some 30 percent of healthcare workers are considering leaving the profession and almost 60 percent have reported impacts t