December 12, 2008
Shanley’s new movie "Doubt," based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, is set in 1964 at a Catholic middle school in the Bronx. A nun suspects an improper relationship between and priest and a student. Shanley describes how he came to create this powerful drama that challenges all kinds of belief, religious and otherwise.
Kurt asks Dr. Seth Shostak about how he advised the filmmakers on the set of the new movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still." As the Senior Astronomer for SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Shostak believes that aliens will contact us, and he can’t wait.
Uninvited visitors arrive in a new world, seize the land, and take human lives. Native Americans know this scenario well. Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky looks into the alien invasion narrative and the historical and psychological baggage that comes with it.
What if aliens wiped out the human race and took over Earth? What would they do with human artifacts? Fast forward to 3008 and listen in on a pair of aliens as they get a guided tour of the “Museum of Humans.” Actors: Bob Koherr, Heidi Swedberg, and Tracy McCubbin. Produced by Studio 360's Eric Molinsky.
Sun Ra was from Alabama - or from Saturn - depending on who you ask. He’s not the only musician to ride on the Mothership Connection. As professor Tricia Rose points out, the Afro-futurist urge to escape Earth continues to this day. Produced by Studio 360's Derek John.
A song from 1927 featuring Reverend A.W. Nix, a black preacher. Some consider this the earliest example of Afro-futurism. (Courtesy of Kevin Nutt.)
At MIT, Dava Newman studies how humans move in micro-gravity; we call it outer space. She describes how she went about designing a new spacesuit that’s streamlined for maximum performance. Produced by Erin Davis.
Trenton Doyle Hancock paints strange imaginary worlds, and traces this impulse to his action-figure-obsessed childhood. Studio 360’s David Krasnow caught up with the artist at his show at the James Cohan Gallery.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
