KGOU Sunday Radio Matinee

Public radio has many great programs that produce just a few episodes a year: Intelligence Squared U.S., America Abroad, and KGOU's student-produced show Assignment: Radio. This is where you'll find these and other limited-run programs. 

Sunday, April 20, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Intelligence Squared U.S. - Is Russia A Marginal Power?

In the past year, Russia has been a decisive player in several events on the international stage — often to the chagrin of the Obama administration. It gave asylum to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, blocked United Nations efforts to impose sanctions against the Syrian government and sent troops into Ukraine.

Two teams of journalists and analysts faced last month to debate the motion "Russia is a marginal power." One side argued that the country is squandering its full potential and its relationship with other world powers under Putin. The other side argued that, even if Russia isn't the most well-liked country in the world, it still has significant economic, political and military might that can't be ignored.

The debate from Intelligence-Squared U.S. took place Oxford-style, with the audience voting on which team swayed them the most. In these events, the team that sways the most people by the end of the debate is declared the winner. 

Find out which side swayed the audience this Sunday on KGOU's Sunday Radio Matinee. 

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Sunday, April 13, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Assignment: Radio – The One-On-One Interview

It’s the latest episode of the Spring 2014 season for Assignment: Radio. This week we explore people's passions with a series of one-on-one interviews. 

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Sunday, April 6, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

The Really Big Questions: What Is This Thing Called Love?

Romantic love was invented by troubadours during the Middle Ages. You might have heard that before.  Until recently, that view was widely held by anthropologists, sociologists, and historians: Love is a western cultural construct. 

Now, most researchers believe love is a cultural universal. Literature, music, and artifacts from everywhere and every time show humans falling in love. But why do we fall in love? Why does love cause us transcendent joy? Why is it devastating when our relationships fall apart?

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Sunday, March 30, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Assignment: Radio – Story #2

Assignment: Radio is KGOU's student-produced public affairs program focusing on issues and events on the University of Oklahoma campus.

Each semester since Fall 2004, the staff of KGOU has helped a small group of University of Oklahoma students produce programs on topics ranging from OU's connection with Iraq to the university's alcoholic beverage policy to an entire show taking a behind-the-scenes look at OU football game day.

This week our Spring 2014 student reporters show off their research skills on stories that explore online learning and shopping local.

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Sunday, March 23, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

IQ2: “Snowden Was Justified”

Has Edward Snowden done the U.S. a great service? There is no doubt that his release of highly classified stolen documents has sparked an important public debate, even forcing what could be a major presidential overhaul of the NSA’s surveillance programs. But have his actions—which include the downloading of an estimated 1.7 million files –tipped off our enemies and endangered national security? Is Snowden a whistleblower, or is he a criminal? Intelligence Squared US puts these questions to their debate panel and audience on this week's installment of KGOU's Sunday Radio Matinee. 

Arguing For the motion:
Ben Wizner, Legal adviser to Edward Snowden & Attorney, ACLU

Daniel Ellsberg, Fmr. U.S. Military Analyst & Pentagon Papers Whistleblower

Arguing Against The Motion:
Andrew C. McCarthy, Former Federal Prosecutor & Contributing Editor, National Review 

Ambassador R. James Woolsey, Former Director, CIA & Chairman, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

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Sunday, March 16, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

America Abroad: Women's Rights After The Arab Spring 

The revolutions of the Arab Spring promised greater freedoms for the people of the Middle East. But while some freedoms have been gained, stability has been lost. In many cases, it's become more dangerous, especially for women. On this episode of America Abroad we visit Egypt where under the newly adopted constitution, women are supposed to have equality in "all civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights”.  We hear from Turkey where women are feeling the effects of newly empowered religious conservative parties as well as from women in Kuwait about their day to day lives.

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Sunday, March 9, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Assignment: Radio - Story #1 "Events"

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Sunday, March 2, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Assignment: Radio's "Best of 2013" + The Plan: New Orleans

Join us this week as recall the best works from last year's Assignment Radio student reporters. 

The hour concludes with The Plan's tribute to New Orleans - the epicenter of Mardi Gras/Carnival-related celebrations this weekend.

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Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

IQ2: Obamacare Is Now Beyond Rescue

With the disastrous launch of the HealthCare.gov website, critics of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” were given more fuel for the fire. Is this political hot potato's inevitability once again at stake? And is the medical community really on board with the law, or resisting (rewriting?) it from the sidelines? Intelligence Squared's John Donvan moderates this timely debate. 

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Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Story of the Century: Lincoln's Assassination

On the day before President’s Day, this week’s Sunday Radio Matinee feature is a timely broadcast which takes listeners back in time to 1865 to re-live the biggest news event of the 19th Century - Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The Newseum's Patty Rhule takes host Sam Litzinger on a tour through the Manhunt exhibit and explains the roles of the telegraph and photography in capturing this most riveting story. Plus, find out why the ghost of John Wilkes Booth is rumored to call the Newseum home.

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Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Say It Plain: A Century of African American Oratory

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech is often broadcast to mark Black History Month. King was a remarkable orator, and the speech certainly marked a turning point in American history.

Nevertheless, King was hardly alone. He was nurtured in a centuries-old African American tradition of spoken narrative and oral persuasion. Like black speakers before and after him, King testified to how America betrayed its founding ideals through slavery, segregation and racial bigotry. King and scores of other black orators sounded the charge against Jim Crow and stung the moral conscience of America. Many powered their messages with relentless optimism that one day change would come. They reminded Americans of how good they could be. Others offered a different version of utopia: conflict and a separate nation free of whites.

Say It Plain: A Century of African American Oratory highlights a selection of landmark sermons, speeches and broadcasts by African American orators over the past century. From Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey, to Fannie Lou Hamer and Malcolm X, to Shirley Chisholm and Julian Bond, you will hear the stirring words of African American figures as they call for action on civil rights and the unmet promise of democracy. 

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Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

State Of The Re-Union: Reconciliation Way

Tulsa, Oklahoma sits at a crossroads of American identities. In a special episode of State Of The Re-Union with Al Letson, we travel to the middle of Middle America to see what happens when these identities collide. We explore one of the country’s deadliest race riots, a story that has been mostly suppressed for 90 years; visit a lovingly-crafted museum dedicated to spreading poetry to rural Oklahoma; and—in two special stories produced by This Land Press—visit a couple of churches, one struggling mightily to integrate and the other building a shrine for undocumented immigrants in a state with some of the harshest immigration laws.

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Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Civil Rights in America: Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall and Beyond

Hosted by Charles Dutton, this one-hour special examines the relevance and meaning of civil rights in the 21st century and the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and the efforts of women, other people of color, and the LGBT community to expand our traditional definitions of equality. Civil Rights In America… features first-person narratives culled from hundreds of hours of never-before-broadcast video and audio footage to provide a rich, detailed history of the nation during an important and tumultuous period.

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Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee:

America Abroad: Syria and the Responsibility to Protect

At the start of a new year, Syria remains in the grip of violent political upheaval, with no clear resolution in sight. Rivalries among rebel militias and reports of a growing al Qaeda presence only strengthen the hand of the dictator, President Bashir al Assad. Any political leverage gained by regime opponents in two years of fighting, are being squandered. Hopes for Geneva peace talks planned for late January are fading, even as the death toll pushes past 100,000 and refugees now number in the millions. At the start of a new year, the question of whether or how the US should intervene is even more urgent.

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Sunday, Jan. 13, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee

Intelligence Squared: “Don’t Eat Anything With A Face”

According to a 2009 poll, around 1% of American adults reported eating no animal products. In 2011 that number rose to 2.5%--more than double, but still dwarfed by the 48% who reported eating meat, fish or poultry at all of their meals. In this country, most of us are blessed with an abundance of food and food choices. So taking into account our health, the environment and ethical concerns, which diet is best? Are we or aren't we meant to be carnivores? John Donvan hosts this latest debate from Intelligence Squared US.

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Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee: Teenage Diaries Revisited

More than 16 years ago, Joe Richman of Radio Diaries gave a group of young people tape recorders to report on their own lives for the NPR series, Teenage Diaries.

Since that time, many listeners have asked, "Where are they now?"

In this one-hour special, some of those diarists return to chronicle their grown-up lives in Teenage Diaries Revisited.

Joe Richman checked back in with...

Josh, still struggling with Tourette's as an adult.

Melissa, who was a teen mom and is now the mom of a teenager.

& Juan, a Mexican immigrant who is now a father and husband, but still undocumented.

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Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013 ~ 12 p.m.
Sunday Radio Matinee
Capitol Steps – New Year’s
Help roast 2013 to a crisp with the Capitol Steps and our annual year-in-review awards ceremony. It's all in the hour-long special, "Politics Takes a Holiday!" This year will feature all-new awards, such as:

• "Best Moment in Senator Ted Cruz's 21-hour Filibuster"
• "Most 'icky' Tweet from Carlos Danger"
• "Best Thigh-Reducing Exercises to do While Waiting for Healthcare.gov" and, of course
• "Best Reason to Spy On the American Public — Because You Can!"

It's been a great year for job creation...although of course many of the jobs created were for comedians! So, go ahead, tweet it on Twitter (but please, please don't attach any photos!!!) Here's a preview.

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Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

This Land Radio: Fork in the Road (Episode 10)

On this final (as in no more) episode of This Land Radio, we go left or we go right. John Hood stands at the vertex and sells us a Coors. Pantoja buys a one way ticket. Sarah says yes to rattlesnake. Ed Gungor gets derailed. And JD McPherson jumps, wiggles, and hopes it will be okay.

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Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013 ~ Noon-1 p.m.

Sunday Radio Matinee: The Mandela Tapes

In this timely program from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC), you'll hear Nelson Mandela as you've never heard him before. It’s a program that draws on 50 hours of recorded conversations with Mandela, held for many years in Johannesburg by archivists at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.

The man chosen to record Mandela's life story was Rick Stengel, a young reporter working in South Africa for Rolling Stone magazine. From 1992 to 1996, Stengel shadowed Mandela, using his small cassette machine to record the stories which would help in the writing of Mandela's autobiography, 'Long Walk to Freedom'. 

The two other key voices in the documentary are the current managing editor of Time Magazine Rick Stengel and freelance radio producer Robin Benger.

IDEAS on CBC Radio was the first radio program anywhere in the world to be given full access to these remarkable recordings. This documentary originally aired on the CBC in May of this year.