Do we have more in common than divides us? Thought-provoking conversations on the street & with special guests from the arts.
Episodes
Sunday Jul 19, 2015
Sunday Jul 19, 2015
Broadcast on 18 July 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Hour 2: In-Depth Arts Interview with Edan Lepucki
This week as her special guest from the arts Ruth Copland is pleased to be interviewing best-selling author Edan Lepucki. Edan’s debut novel California is one of the most pre-ordered debut novels in the history of publisher Hachette, and graced the New York Times best-seller list as well as many media best books of the summer lists and Huffington Post’s 30 books you need to read in 2014. A post-apocalyptic story, described by Sarah Stone of the San Francisco Chronicle as depicting the “moment-by-moment reality of a painful possible future, the price we may have to pay for our passionate devotion to all of the wrong things”, California has recently been released as a paperback after its hardback success. A graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Edan’s fiction and nonfiction have been published in Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s, among others. She is a staff writer for the literary website The Millions and is the founder and co-director of Writing Workshops Los Angeles, which describes itself as ‘a private writing school for the brave, enthusiastic and talented’. In 2009 she won the James D. Phelan Award, and in March of 2011, she won second place in the 3 Quarks Daily Arts and Literature Prize for her essay, “Reading and Race: On Slavery in Fiction”. Her second novel, Woman No. 17, will be published in the Spring of 2017.
For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Sunday Jul 19, 2015
Sunday Jul 19, 2015
Broadcast on 18 July 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Hour 1: Out And About – Conversations with People on the Street about Questions That Matter: Do Good Manners Still Matter?
This week we consider ‘Do Good Manners Still Matter?’ There are a lot of books on etiquette, on which fork to use when, and how to write the perfect thank you note. However, Lucinda Holdforth in her book Why Manners Matter: The case for civilised behaviour in a barbarous world defines manners a bit differently. She defines manners as a set of small sacrifices we make for other people stating “these individual gestures, seemingly so small, add up to the not inconsiderable achievement of a civil society. Our small sacrifices amount to something big.” Have you ever thought of manners as being important enough to contribute to a civil society, perhaps even leading to the need for fewer laws? Manners in many ways give dignity to ourselves and others but are we losing the impetus to express gratitude, be polite, and respect each other? And if we are does that matter?
What do you think? Ruth Copland gets the views of people on the street for our Out and About feature.
For more info on the show and to hear past shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Sunday Jul 12, 2015
Sunday Jul 12, 2015
Broadcast on 11 July 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Hour 2: In-Depth Arts Interview with Tom Killion
*Photo by Klea McKenna
This week as her special guest from the arts Ruth Copland is pleased to be interviewing Tom Killion, woodcut and letterpress artist and founder of Quail Press. If you enjoy the interview you can meet Tom in person at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Monday July 13th at 7:30 PM. Born and raised in Mill Valley, California, on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, Tom was inspired from an early age to create landscape prints using linoleum and wood, strongly influenced by the traditional Japanese Ukiyo-ë style of Hokusai and Hiroshige. He studied History at UC Santa Cruz, where he was introduced to fine book printing by William Everson and Jack Stauffacher, and in 1975, he produced his first illustrated book on UCSC's Cowell Press. After traveling extensively in Europe and Africa, Killion returned to Santa Cruz, California in 1977 and founded his own Quail Press, where he published his second book, "Fortress Marin". Since his first illustrated book in 1975, Tom has continued producing extensively illustrated books including 28 Views of Mount Tamalpais, The Coast of California, and Walls: A Journey Across Three Continents, which draws on his experiences working as administrator of a medical relief program in a camp for Ethiopian refugees in Sudan, and traveling with nationalist rebels in war-torn Eritrea. Along with publishing fine art letterpress books, Tom holds a PhD in African history from Stanford University and has taught at Bowdoin College, Maine and San Francisco State University, in addition to being a Fulbright scholar at Asmara University in Eritrea. He has collaborated with Pulitzer-prize-winning poet Gary Snyder on three books - The High Sierra of California, Tamalpais Walking and the recently released California’s Wild Edge: The Coast in Poetry, History and Prints. Tom is currently working on landscape prints including trees capes, coastal and mountain views at his studio located on Inverness Ridge near Point Reyes, California.
For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Sunday Jul 12, 2015
Sunday Jul 12, 2015
Broadcast on 11 July 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Hour 1: Out And About – Conversations with People on the Street about Questions That Matter: Justice: Retribution or Restitution?
This week we consider ‘Justice: Retribution or Restitution?’ Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of satisfying abstract legal principles or simply punishing the offender. Would you like to see a process that also tries to heal the damage done and prevent such a crime reoccurring? Or do you think punishment is the only goal of justice? In retributive justice, crime is seen as an offence against the state whereas in restorative justice the crime is seen as a violation of people and relationships. Do you think about crime in this way at all or do you think of it primarily as about breaking laws? The reasons for crimes being committed in most cases are quite complex. As a community do you think we should be thinking of justice as also addressing the reasons for crimes being committed as part of justice? Do you feel there needs to be a constancy of punishment so everyone is punished pretty much in the same way for the same crime? Or do you think it’s appropriate for offenses to be treated on an individual basis?
What do you think? Ruth Copland gets the views of people on the street for our Out and About feature.
For more info on the show and to hear past shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Sunday Jun 28, 2015
Sunday Jun 28, 2015
Broadcast on 27 June 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Hour 2: In-Depth Arts Interview with Kathryn Tickell
This week as her special guest from the arts Ruth Copland is pleased to be interviewing Kathryn Tickell, Northumbrian piper, fiddler, composer, recording artist and educator. Kathryn is the recipient of the Queen’s Medal for Music for outstanding contribution to British music, the Musician of the Year in BBC Radio 2's Folk Awards, and very recently the Order of The British Empire (or OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to folk music. Kathryn is widely acclaimed as the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes. She works collaboratively across many genres, which makes her work contemporary and vibrant. She has released 15 of her own albums and has also recorded and performed with The Chieftains, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Jon Lord, Evelyn Glennie, Liverpool Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Sting - for whom she has played on four albums, and many others. Her amazing career began as a young girl of nine when she picked up a set of Northumbrian smallpipes, inspired by her family and by the music of an older generation of traditional musicians. By the age of 16 she had released her first album and was named the official piper for the Lord Mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. At 18 she turned professional and began a busy touring schedule and career which has gone from strength to strength. She has been the subject of TV documentaries, composed music for theatre, presented radio programmes for the BBC and TV programmes on musical composition and toured throughout the world both solo and with The Kathryn Tickell Band and The Side.
For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Sunday Jun 28, 2015
Sunday Jun 28, 2015
Broadcast on 27 June 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Hour 1: Out And About – Conversations with People on the Street about Questions That Matter: Do We Have More In Common Than Divides Us?
This week we consider ‘Do We Have More In Common Than Divides Us?’ Do you feel, thinking of the human race, that we have more in common than divides us? We want to be safe. We want to be happy. We want the best for our children. We want to feel our potential is fulfilled. We want to be loved. Do you think these things create a sense of national or even global community? When you meet people do you tend to focus on how they differ from you or what you have in common? Do you think that difference is generally thought of as a bad thing or an interesting thing? How do you perceive difference? Do you like it or does it unsettle you? The opening of the United States Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”. We tend to think about this in terms of rights and privileges - that we all deserve the same opportunities and respect - obviously important things - but how it would be if we thought about it more in terms of all men, or all people, being created equal in terms of our humanity? If we defined ourselves by our human-ness rather than by our gender or religion or ethnicity? Would this help us to feel more commonality?
What do you think? Ruth Copland gets the views of people on the street for our Out and About feature.
For more info on the show and to hear past shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Sunday Jun 21, 2015
Sunday Jun 21, 2015
Broadcast on 20 June 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
In-Depth Arts Interview with Joy Fowler
This week as her special guest from the arts Ruth Copland is pleased to be interviewing Santa Cruz resident Karen Joy Fowler, internationally best-selling and award-winning author of six novels and three short story collections. Consistently loved by critics and readers alike, most of Karen’s titles have been New York Times Notable Books and named to many best-of-year lists. Her work traverses science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction but often defies genre categorisation. The San Francisco Chronicle comments Karen has “An astonishing narrative voice, at once lyric and ironic, satiric and nostalgic…Fowler can tell stories that engage and enchant.” Her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves won the PEN/Faulkner Award as well as the California Book Award for fiction 2013, and was shortlisted for the British Man Booker Prize the first year it was open to Americans. The Jane Austen Book Club spent 19 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was made into a major motion picture. Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and her debut novel, Sarah Canary, was a New York Times Notable Book, as was her second novel, The Sweetheart Season. In addition, Sarah Canary won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, and was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize. Karen’s short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection What I Didn’t See won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. Born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, Karen and her husband, who have two grown children and five grandchildren, now live in Santa Cruz. Karen holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in South Asian studies and she is the co-founder of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego). In recognition of her prominent literary status, Marian Wood Books/Putnam is re-issuing Karen’s short story collection Black Glass: Short Fiction available from June 22nd.
For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Sunday Jun 21, 2015
Sunday Jun 21, 2015
Broadcast on 20 June 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Out And About – Conversations with People on the Street about Questions That Matter: Can Forgiveness Combat Hate?
This week we consider ‘Can Forgiveness Combat Hate?’ Media outlets around the world have been featuring the tragic events in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine black people have been killed in a shooting in a church where the suspect, a young white man, opened fire during a bible meeting. On the one side we have a senseless, racially motivated act of killing and on the other side we have extraordinary acts of love and forgiveness on the part of some of the victims’ family members, rising above the killer’s seeming intent to foment racial hatred. Can forgiveness combat hate? Some people feel it’s naive to respond in this fashion. Do you see forgiveness as an act of strength or weakness? Whilst in no way being an act of condoning such a terrible atrocity or a simplification of the reasons behind it, can forgiveness be an act of of healing that stops hate spreading?
What do you think? Ruth Copland gets the views of people on the street for our Out and About feature.
For more info on the show and to hear past shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Monday Jun 15, 2015
Monday Jun 15, 2015
Broadcast on 13 June 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
In-Depth Arts Interview with Trash McSweeney
This week as her special guest from the arts Ruth Copland is pleased to be interviewing Trash McSweeney singer, song-writer and creator of the five-piece orchestral art band The Red Paintings, which was officially born at the dawn of the millennium. The Red Paintings will playing on June 22nd in our very own Santa Cruz Catalyst Club. After suffering a near-fatal seizure, visionary performer Trash McSweeney now sees colour in music and seeks to share with the world the ideas he has seen and felt. Originally from Australia, Trash is based in London and Los Angeles and is currently in the middle of a world tour in support of the release of The Red Paintings album ‘The Revolution Is Never Coming’. Trash originates all The Red Paintings musical and staging concepts and the band is known for its unique and compelling live performances featuring theatrical and art elements. Band members are costumed elaborately with themes ranging from geishas to aliens to sea creatures. The Red Paintings are renowned for inviting artists local to their shows to come and paint living and blank canvasses during the musical performance to reflect their feelings about the music. The band’s multimedia performances stimulate the senses and the mind and appeal to baroque-pop steam-punks, metal-heads, indie-rock fanatics, and beyond. The album ‘The Revolution Is Never Coming’ was 5 years in the making and features a 35-piece orchestra, 22-piece choir, harp players, French horn, Theremin and more across 13 tracks of biting, futuristic alternative rock. The album was recorded and mixed in world-class studios around the globe and the two singles released from the album have charted in the UK, Europe, America and Australia. The innovative Alice in Wonderland-themed music video for the single "Streets Fell Into My Window" picked up a wide range of awards at festivals worldwide. The band has a dedicated following and the album The Revolution Is Never Coming was largely funded by donations from fans all over the world. The album’s producer, Bryan Carlstrom, stated: “In my entire 30 year career I’ve not mixed such a diverse, colorful and emotionally dynamic album such as this, it’s like a 21st century War of the Worlds.”
For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Monday Jun 15, 2015
Monday Jun 15, 2015
Broadcast on 13 June 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.
'It's A Question Of Balance' is a two hour show which balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.
Check out podcasts of the different topics and arts guests at www.itsaquestionofbalance.com
Out And About – Conversations with People on the Street about Questions That Matter: Does Your Age Define You?
This week we consider ‘Does Your Age Define You?’ Have you had an experience where you felt like you were perceived or treated in a different way just because of your age - whatever that age might have been? Do make judgements about people based on their age? What do you think you will know about someone when you know their age that you didn’t know about them before? There are old people who are not wise and young people who are not full of life and vibrancy. Why do you think we don’t just judge people on their individual merits? George Eliot said ‘It is never too late to become what you might have been.’ Do you subscribe to this or do you think you have to achieve certain things by a certain age or not try? Does your age define you?
What do you think? Ruth Copland gets the views of people on the street for our Out and About feature.