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1/25/2008

On the air:
Rice's School of Humanities to co-produce national radio programs

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News Staff

Rice University's School of Humanities has entered an agreement to co-produce a series of nationally broadcast segments for Public Radio International's (PRI) "Fair Game," a move that promises to bolster the school's growing national reputation.

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"Fair Game," an hourlong news and entertainment program, focuses on the issues that impact the country. The segments Rice co-produces will highlight pathbreaking humanistic research and scholarship that is relevant to Americans.

"The program will give insight into how rich and complex American culture is," said Gary Wihl, humanities dean, "by bringing to light the great ideas that are being produced in this country, the ideas that explain how our political and legal culture came to be."

Rice's first installment of segments -- four weeklong series of programs -- is planned to tackle issues of democracy that are relevant to the upcoming presidential election. But instead of surface-level talk about campaigns and candidates, the program will explore the bigger issues and their driving forces, including the role of religion in politics, how democracy struggles with ideals of justice and competing philosophies of liberty.

Dean Wihl and the producers of Fair Game will form an advisory board -- comprised of a broad range of distinguished scholars from universities, think tanks and the media -- to shape questions and themes for the segments.

The idea for the program stemmed from a conversation amongst the School of Humanities advisory board. The members were discussing how to increase the visibility of humanities research and give scholars the opportunity to bring their ideas to the public at large.

The radio medium fits perfectly with those goals.

"The whole field of humanities is alive and in motion," Wihl said. "Its disciplines provide the framework and background for many things that are taken for granted. The ideas for the Constitution, citizenship and commerce evolved from the very type of work that this program will showcase."

The "Fair Game" segments Rice co-produces are being underwritten by Humanities Advisory Board members Mike Yuen '89 and Robert Tudor '82. Tudor also serves on Rice's Board of Trustees.

Hosted by Faith Salie, "Fair Game" is a weekday evening program that covers the important stories of the day, interviews newsmakers and celebrities, and features live music. As the host, Salie ties it all together using insightful satire and humor to tease out what it all means.

"At Fair Game, we pore over books, blogs, journals, magazines, newspapers, television, music and films to find fecund topics," Salie said. "But in working with Rice, we’ll meet thinkers we otherwise would never have encountered."

Like Wihl, Salie sees the need to make humanistic scholarship and research accessible to Americans.
 
"Once Americans graduate from college -- if they attend college at all -- the quotidian responsibilities of job and family pretty much preclude their staying in touch with the latest or most stimulating ideas coming out of academia," Salie said. "It doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate humanistic scholarship; rather, they don’t have a forum for it. This project endeavors to address that lack of accessibility."

An avowed lover of learning, Salie hopes to express a respect for the material while illuminating the topics in a more casual manner.

"As a Rhodes Scholar with an impressive background in entertainment, Faith is an ideal person to host the segment," Wihl said. " She understands the academic world and she can convey scholarly work in an engaging and enjoyable way."

Salie is fully immersed in "Fair Game," her first foray into public radio, as co-creator, host, writer and producer. She is also a monthly contributor to O, the Oprah Magazine on the topic of ethics.

Before "Fair Game," Salie was a star of Bravo's critically acclaimed improvisational sitcom, "Significant Others," and had parts in "Sex and the City" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." A former pop-culture pundit on a variety of VH-1 shows, Salie has regularly performed as a stand-up comedian at the Hollywood Improv. She received her bachelors from Harvard University and masters at Oxford University.

PRI is public radio's leading source for innovative programming, providing diverse voices and global perspectives for the public airwaves. Through partnerships with BBC World Service and station-based and independent producers, the Minneapolis-based network provides more than 400 hours of programming each week, content that is broadcast and streamed online by more than 780 PRI affiliates nationwide, which reach 29 million listeners per week. For more information on PRI, its programs and services, visit www.pri.org.