Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Re-working Sales, Corporate, and Estate Taxes on A Lively Experiment


Panel
Dyana Koelsch – moderator
Rob Horowitz – GoLocalProv.com columnist
Dave Layman – Corporate Communication Consultant
Maureen Moakley – URI Political Science Professor
Mike Stenhouse – CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Topics

  • Modifying state taxes 
  • Restructuring the state personnel system 
  • The General Treasurer’s mid-term report 
  • Rhode Island’s same-sex marriage legislation 
  • A bipartisan immigration proposal

-  -  -  -
A Lively Experiment airs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn (36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; in RI on Cox 808; Verizon 478; Full Channel 109; in MA on Comcast 294 or 312.

Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experiment are generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.

On Facebook? So are we! "Like" A Lively Experiment on Facebook.

Rhode Island PBS Carries Spanish Channel V-me

Over-the-air channel-surfers in Rhode Island PBS broadcast area may have noticed a new channel in the neighborhood. Vme (pronounced veh-meh), the first national Spanish-language television network presented by public television stations, is now carried by WSBE Rhode Island PBS on digital 36.3. WSBE is the first and only public television station in the region to carry Vme for its audiences.

Local cable companies will add WSBE's third channel to their line-ups over the next several weeks. Cox cable subscribers in Rhode Island will find Vme on channel 813, beginning February 20. On February 28, Comcast in Massachusetts will start carrying Vme on channel 293 for most of its Massachusetts coverage area, and on channel 313 in Martha's Vineyard, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Plymouth.

Vme’s mission is to entertain, educate, and inspire families in Spanish with a contemporary mix of original productions, exclusive premieres, acquisitions, and popular public television programs specially adapted for American Latinos. Vme provides a clear programming alternative to mainstream Spanish-language media, and the uncluttered ad environment typical of public television, for corporations and organizations looking to connect with the national Hispanic community through sophisticated TV and web content, educational programs, and grassroots events.

Similar to English-language public television programming, Vme presents several programming blocks with relevant and educational content that engages, entertains, and inspires the audience:
 • Latino-focused lifestyle content: health, parenting, travel, food, home, design, and self-improvement programs
 • Prime time drama series
 • News and current affairs
 • Nature documentaries from BBC, National Geographic and PBS
 • Latin films and TV miniseries
 • Original music series, arts and pop culture specials
• Educational preschool programs in Spanish (40 hours a week), including Plaza Sesamo (Spanish Sesame Street).



Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Black History Month 2013 on Rhode Island PBS

This February, WSBE Rhode Island PBS will commemorate Black History Month by presenting a series of insightful documentaries on Thursday nights from 8 to 11 p.m. on Learn (36.2) and at 9 p.m. on Rhode Island PBS (36.1). 



February 7 and 14 at 8 p.m.: For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots - This two-part story, presented over two weeks, is an inspiring, definitive and unprecedented look at the largely untold history of African-American participation in America's armed forces, from the earliest days of the Revolutionary War to the conflict in Afghanistan. Ten years in the making, the four-hour mini-series examines why, despite enormous injustice, these men and women fought so valiantly for freedoms they did not enjoy. Introduced by General Colin Powell and hosted by Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry, the film uses letters, diaries, speeches, journalistic accounts, historical text and military records to document and acknowledge the profound sacrifices and largely ignored of African-American service men and women. The films also include dramatic readings by an all-star roster of actors, including Morgan Freeman, Mel Gibson, Bill Cosby, Susan Sarandon, Lou Gossett Jr., John Travolta, Ossie Davis, Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, Sam Elliot, Delroy Lindo, Isaac Hayes, John Goodman, Ice-T and many others.

February 7 at 10 p.m. – AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange: "A Lot Like You" – This documentary takes audiences on a personal journey into the most vulnerable corners of a family history spanning generations and continents. Filmmaker Eliaichi Kimaro is a mixed-race, first-generation American with a Tanzanian father and Korean mother. When her retired father moves back to Tanzania, Eliaichi begins a project that evocatively examines the intricate fabric of multiracial identity, and grapples with the complex ties that children have to the cultures of their parents. This layered documentary starts with a familiar exploration of mixed-race identity, but brings the discussion to surprising levels of personal and political self-awareness.

February 14 at 10 p.m. – AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange: "Dear Mandela" – Destroyed homes, threats at gun point and high court action, this battle by three young people is a testimony to people power. When the South African government promises to 'eradicate the slums' and begins to evict shack dwellers far outside the city, three friends who live in Durban's vast shanty towns refuse to be moved. DEAR MANDELA follows their journey from the shacks to the highest court in the land as they invoke Nelson Mandela's example and become leaders in a growing social movement. 

February 21 at 8 p.m.: Slavery By Another Name - This documentary challenges one of America's most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. This documentary tells a harrowing story of how in the South, even as chattel slavery came to an end, new forms of involuntary servitude, including convict leasing, debt slavery, and peonage, took its place with shocking force -- brutalizing and ultimately circumscribing the lives of hundreds of thousands of African Americans well into the 20th century. It was a system in which men, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of masters. The program spans eight decades, from 1865 to 1945, revealing the interlocking forces in both the South and the North that enabled this "neoslavery" to begin and persist. Using archival photographs and dramatic re-enactments, filmed on location in Alabama and Georgia, it tells the forgotten stories of both victims and perpetrators of neoslavery and includes interviews with their descendants living today. The program also features interviews with Douglas Blackmon, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Slavery by Another Name," and with leading scholars of this period.

February 21 at 9:30 p.m.: Unforgettable Hampton Family This 30-minute documentary explores how Deacon Clark Hampton, a son of slaves, lifted his twelve children out of poverty by making them into successful musicians.

February 21 at 10 p.m.: Underground Railroad: The William Still Story – This is the dramatic story of William Still, one of the most important yet largely unheralded individuals of the Underground Railroad. Still was determined to get as many runaways as he could to "Freedom’s Land,” smuggling them across the US border to Canada.  Although bounty hunters could legally abduct former slaves living in the so-called free northern states, Canada provided sanctuary for fugitive slaves. William Still was the director of a complex network of abolitionists, sympathizers, and safe houses that stretched from Philadelphia to what is now Southern Ontario.  Still kept meticulous records of the many escapes slaves who passed through the Philadelphia "station."  In his fourteen years in the service of the Underground Railroad, he helped nearly eight hundred former slaves to escape. 

February 28 at 8 p.m.: Roads to Memphis: American Experience -- "We were never concerned with who killed Martin Luther King but what killed Martin Luther King," says Andrew Young, former aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in ROADS TO MEMPHIS. From Emmy Award-winning director Stephen Ives, this film tells the wildly disparate yet fatefully entwined stories of an assassin, James Earl Ray, and his target, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., against the backdrop of the seething and turbulent forces in American society that led these two men to their violent and tragic collision in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. ROADS TO MEMPHIS features eyewitness testimony from King's inner circle and the officials involved in Ray's capture and prosecution, and Hampton Sides, author of the upcoming book, "Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin."

February 28 at 9:30 p.m.: Soundtrack for a Revolution: American ExperienceThe story of the American civil rights movement is told through its powerful music -- the freedom songs that protesters sang on picket lines, in mass meetings, in police wagons, and in jail cells as they fought for justice and equality. A unique mix of historical documentary and contemporary musical performance, the film features new performances by top artists including John Legend, Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, and The Roots; riveting archival footage; and interviews with civil rights foot soldiers and leaders, including Congressman John Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Julian Bond, Andrew Young and dozens more.



Rhode Island PBS: Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.

February 7: Meet Mary Pleasant – This one-hour unique 'performance documentary' takes a colorful look at the unsung and daring 19th-century African-American activist and entrepreneur Mary Ellen Pleasant, now called 'The Mother of Civil Rights in California.' Pleasant, born a slave, was a 19th-century Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks combined, and she changed modern day civil rights law. The film interweaves an acclaimed one-woman enactment with photo montages and expert commentary, punctuated by live re-enactments and song. Acclaimed actress Ruby Dee narrates. The film has won both national and international film festival awards.

February 14: The Evolution of the Nation of Islam - This documentary chronicles the creation, rise and evolution of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam - a movement that challenged black Americans to reclaim their lost identity. As Americans, both black and white, sacrificed life and property to end segregation Elijah Muhammad preached a unique brand of separation with a do-for-self philosophy. While Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali exemplified the uncompromising stance that the Nation of Islam maintained, the movement headed for an abrupt change. Upon the death of Elijah, his son Wallace Muhammad became the new leader and ushered in a new thinking. Through honest dialogue with the original high-ranking members of the Nation of Islam we get an in-depth look at life after Elijah Muhammad.

February 21: Black Kungfu Experience - introduces kungfu's African-American pioneers, men who challenged convention and overturned preconceived notions while mastering the ancient art. The four martial artists profiled include Ron Van Clief, an ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran who starred in more than 40 kungfu films and earned the nickname "Black Dragon" from Bruce Lee. Their compelling stories illustrate how kungfu began as - and remains - a unique crucible of the black experience. In particular, kungfu's themes of the underdog triumphing against the odds resonated in black communities across the United States.

February 28: Colored Frames - reflects on the last 50 years in African-American art by exploring the influences, inspirations and experiences of black artists. Beginning at the height of the civil rights era and leading up to the present, it provides a truthful, unflinching look at often-ignored artists and their progeny. Impressionistic video collages showcase the wide variety, both thematically and stylistically, of contemporary pieces of black artists working in the genres of illustration, abstraction and surrealism, among others. The film also chronicles the black artist's struggle for visibility and acceptance in mainstream art society as well as their experiences challenging assumptions about what constitutes "blackness," even within their own community.

*  *  *  *  *

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on Cox 808; Verizon 478; Full Channel 109; and Comcast 294 or 312.


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Four Mayors Address Issues Facing RI Cities & Towns


Panel
Dyana Koelsch – moderator
Mayor Scott Avedesian – Mayor of Warwick
Mayor Allan Fung – Mayor of Cranston
Mayor Daniel McKee – Mayor of Cumberland
Mayor Angel Taveras – Mayor of Providence

Topic
Four municipal leaders address issues facing Rhode Island's cities and towns, from property taxes to pension reform.

-  -  -  -
A Lively Experiment airs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn (36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on Cox 808; Verizon 478; Full Channel 109; and Comcast 294 or 312.

Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experiment are generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.

On Facebook? So are we! "Like" A Lively Experiment on Facebook.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

New Season "Pioneers of Television" Features Funny Ladies, Primetime Soaps, Superheroes, and Miniseries

Pioneers of Television returns to Rhode Island PBS for a third season featuring new stories about the visionaries who shaped a fledgling medium with their creativity, foresight, and wisdom. The four one-hour episodes will air on Thursdays, January 31 through February 21, at 8 p.m., with re-broadcasts on Saturdays at noon.

The celebrities in Pioneers of Television were the stars of the small screen in the early years of television, and much of the nation came to a halt whenever their shows aired. They strolled, sprinted, fought, laughed, cried, and loved through worlds that took viewers to places past, present and future. As the originators of these innovative television formats, they provided an essential escape for millions of viewers who eagerly waited to watch them each week.

Funny Ladies


 This episode includes the first standup comediennes to appear on television, including Joan Rivers and the late Phyllis Diller (whose final interview was for this episode). Funny Ladies also looks at Lucille Ball’s breakthrough on I Love Lucy and the sitcom stars who followed, including Mary Tyler Moore, Betty White, and Marla Gibbs. Also, television’s most beloved variety star, Carol Burnett, reveals the behind-the-scenes story of her long running show. The episode also includes interviews with contemporary actresses Tina Fey and Margaret Cho. Narrated by Ryan Seacrest, Pioneers of Television Funny Ladies airs on 1/31/2013.

Primetime Soaps 


Dallas and Dynasty kicked off the nighttime soap frenzy in the late 1970s, a phenomenon that continued through the last season of Knots Landing in 1993. The episode offers surprising new details about the legendary “Who Shot J.R.” episode of Dallas, and reveals the backstage personalities that shaped Dynasty and Knots Landing. Interviewees in this episode include Larry Hagman, Joan Collins, Linda Evans, Diahann Carroll, Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Michele Lee, Joan Van Ark and Donna Mills. Narrated by Ryan Seacrest, this episode of Pioneers of Television airs on 2/7/2013.


Superheroes 

Superheroes crosses many eras: Superman in the 1950s, Batman in the ’60s, Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk in the ’70s, and The Greatest American Hero in the ’80s. The episode features in-depth interviews with Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Lynda Carter, Lou Ferrigno, William Katt and others. It also includes comments from The Greatest American Hero creator Robert Culp, recorded just days before he passed away. Narrated by Ryan Seacrest, Superheroes airs on Pioneers of Television on 2/14/2013.



Miniseries 

Miniseries still rank among the top-rated programs in television history, and Roots, based on Alex Haley’s novel, is the biggest. Roots was shown over eight consecutive nights in 1977, and attracted more viewers than any other television drama before. Interviewed about that groundbreaking series are LeVar Burton, Louis Gossett Jr., Leslie Uggams, Ben Vereen, John Amos, Georg Stanford Brown, and Ed Asner. This episode also considers the very first miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man as stars Peter Strauss and Susan Blakely offer fresh insights. And all of the key stars from the landmark miniseries The Thorn Birds appear, providing surprising commentary about the romance seen by more viewers than any other in TV history. New interviews with Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, and Bryan Brown mark the 30th anniversary of one of television’s biggest events. Narrated by Ryan Seacrest, this episode of the Pioneers of Television season airs on 2/21/2013.

~*~*~

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable services: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable services: Comcast 819HD, Verizon 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on cable: Cox 808, Verizon 478, Full Channel 109, Comcast 294 or 312.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Business Leaders Discuss State Economy on A Lively Experiment (1/18/13)


Panel
Dyana Koelsch – moderator
Giovanni Feroce – Alex and Ani CEO
John Hazen White, Jr. – Taco, Inc. president
Max Winograd – NuLabel Technologies founder and president
Laurie White – Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce president

Topic
Four local business leaders offer their views on the Rhode Island economy and business climate.

-  -  -  -
A Lively Experiment airs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn (36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on Cox 808; Verizon 478; Full Channel 109; and Comcast 294 or 312.

Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experiment are generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.

On Facebook? So are we! "Like" A Lively Experiment on Facebook.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Downton Abbey, Season 3 premieres on Friday, on Rhode Island PBS


 

The Great War is over and a long-awaited engagement is on, but all is not tranquil at Downton Abbey as wrenching social changes, romantic intrigues, and personal crises grip the majestic English country estate for a third thrilling season.

With the return of its all-star cast plus guest star Academy Award®-winner Shirley MacLaine, Downton Abbey, Season 3 airs over seven Fridays at 9 p.m. on Rhode Island PBS, from January 18 through March 1, 2013.

MacLaine plays Martha Levinson, the very American mother of Cora, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern). Years earlier, Cora rescued Downton Abbey with her New World riches by marrying Robert, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville). Now, New World and Old World are about to clash as Cora’s mother locks horns with Robert’s redoubtable mother, Lady Violet, played by Dame Maggie Smith.

Season 2 closes with the reluctant heir to Downton, Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), proposing to the eldest of Lord and Lady Grantham’s daughters, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery). Meanwhile, Mary’s youngest sister, Sybil (Jessica Brown-Findlay), has eloped to Ireland with the political-minded chauffeur, Branson (Allen Leech), and is expecting a child.

What else is in store? Downton’s impeccable butler, Carson (Jim Carter), breaks in a new footman, who happens to be the nephew of the scheming lady’s maid O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran). Following Matthew and Mary’s engagement, Robert sticks to his duty to maintain Downton more firmly than ever — even as other great houses are crippled psychologically and financially in the wake of WWI.

In this changing landscape nothing is assured, and could it be that even the war-weary Crawleys must fight a new battle to safeguard their beloved Downton? Join us on Friday nights to follow the exciting answers. Need a recap of Seasons 1 and 2? Watch it below.



WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable services: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable services: Comcast 819HD, Verizon 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on cable: Cox 808, Verizon 478, Full Channel 109, Comcast 294 or 312.

NOVA in January: Volcanoes, Neanderthals, and Drones

Rhode Island PBS presents three new NOVA episodes in January. NOVA airs on Mondays at 9 p.m. (with rebroadcast the following Thursdays at 4 a.m.)

January 14 - Doomsday Volcanoes

In April, 2010 the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano turned much of Europe into an ash-strewn no-fly zone, stranding millions of travelers. But was Eyjafjallajökull just the start?

Now, an even more threatening Icelandic volcano, Katla, has begun to swell and grumble. Two more giants, Hekla and Laki, could erupt without warning. Iceland is a ticking time bomb: When it blows, the consequences could be global.

As CGI takes us inside these geological monsters, we meet atmospheric scientists who are working to understand just how devastating an eruption could be—not just for air travel but for the global food supply and for Earth's climate. Could we be plunged into years of cold and famine? What can we do to prepare for the disaster to come?


January 21 - Decoding Neanderthals

More than 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans—people physically identical to us today—left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundred of thousands of years.

So what happened when the first modern humans encountered the Neanderthals? Did we make love or war?

That question has tantalized generations of scholars and seized the popular imagination. Then, in 2010, a team led by geneticist Svante Paabo announced stunning news. Not only had they reconstructed much of the Neanderthal genome—an extraordinary technical feat that would have seemed impossible only a decade ago—but their analysis showed that "we" modern humans had interbred with Neanderthals, leaving a small but consistent signature of Neanderthal genes behind in everyone outside Africa today.

In Decoding Neanderthals, NOVA explores the implications of this exciting discovery. In the traditional view, Neanderthals differed from us in behavior and capabilities as well as anatomy. But were they really mentally inferior, as inexpressive and clumsy as the cartoon caveman they inspired?

NOVA explores a range of intriguing new evidence for Neanderthal self-expression and language, all pointing to the fact that we may have seriously underestimated our mysterious, long-vanished human cousins.


January 28 - Rise of the Drones
Drones. These unmanned flying robots–some as large as jumbo jets, others as small as birds–do things straight out of science fiction. Much of what it takes to get these robotic airplanes to fly, sense, and kill has remained secret.

But now, with rare access to drone engineers and those who fly them for the U.S. military, NOVA reveals the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful as we see how a remotely-piloted drone strike looks and feels from inside the command center.

From cameras that can capture every detail of an entire city at a glance to swarming robots that can make decisions on their own, to giant air frames that can stay aloft for days on end, drones are changing our relationship to war, surveillance, and each other.

And it's just the beginning. Discover the cutting edge technologies that are propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history as NOVA gets ready for Rise of the Drones.

*****

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable services: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable services: Comcast 819HD, Verizon 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on cable: Cox 808, Verizon 478, Full Channel 109, Comcast 294 or 312.

Friday, January 11, 2013

A Lively Experiment for week of January 11


Panel
Dyana Koelsch – moderator
Ian Donnis - political reporter, Rhode Island Public Radio
Ted Nesi – political and economics reporter, WPRI.com
David Scharfenberg – news editor, Providence Phoenix
Mark Murphy – editor, Providence Business News

Topics
Four local journalists preview this year’s General Assembly session, including:
  • the state budget
  • same-sex marriage legislation 
  • pension reform
  • elimination of "Master Lever" straight ticket voting from the ballot and 
  • the new state Board of Education

A Lively Experiment airs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn (36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; on Cox 808; Verizon 478; Full Channel 109; and Comcast 294 or 312.

Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experiment are generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.

On Facebook? So are we! "Like" A Lively Experiment on Facebook.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Abolitionists: American Experience

Radicals. Agitators. Troublemakers. Liberators. Called by many names, abolitionist allies Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, and Angelina Grimké turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation. Rhode Island PBS airs the three-part The Abolitionists: American Experience on Thursdays at 9 p.m., January 17, 24, and 31.

Men and women, black and white, Northerners and Southerners, poor and wealthy, these passionate antislavery activists fought body and soul in the most important civil rights crusade in American history. What began as a pacifist movement fueled by persuasion and prayer became a fiery and furious struggle that forever changed the nation.
Bringing to life the intertwined stories of Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimké, Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Brown, The Abolitionists takes place during some of the most violent and contentious decades in American history, amid white-hot religious passions that set souls on fire, and bitter debates over the meaning of the Constitution and the nature of race. The documentary reveals how the movement shaped history by exposing the fatal flaw of a republic founded on liberty for some and bondage for others, setting the nation on a collision course. In the face of personal risks -- beatings, imprisonment, even death -- abolitionists held fast to their cause, laying the civil rights groundwork for the future and raising weighty constitutional and moral questions that are with us still.

Part One (Thursday, January 17 at 9 p.m.)
The opening hour of The Abolitionists features the documentary's five principal characters, whose intertwined lives and shared beliefs came together to form a powerful movement that forever changed the nation.
In the 1820s and 30s, Frederick Douglass was a young slave growing up in Maryland who became hopeful when he heard about abolitionists and their push to end slavery.
William Lloyd Garrison found his life's purpose in the crusade against slavery, founding the newspaper The Liberator in 1831. The paper would become a powerful voice for the movement.
Angelina Grimké, the outspoken daughter of a wealthy Charleston, South Carolina plantation family, abandoned her life of privilege and moved to the North in 1829, where she would become a persuasive and authentic public speaker against slavery.
In 1833, Harriet Beecher Stowe witnessed the brutality of slavery in her first trip to the South. The searing memory of what she saw changed her forever and impacted her greatest work,Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Multiple business failures coupled with the murder of an antislavery activist in 1837 galvanized John Brown, and he devoted the rest of his life to the cause.
By 1840, the growing abolitionist movement these activists helped create had fragmented; increasing violence had raised doubts as to the efficacy of its pacifist tactics.
Part Two  (Thursday, January 24 at 9 p.m.)
In 1838, Frederick Douglass escaped slavery, eventually joining William Lloyd Garrison in the antislavery movement. In the North, Douglass became a powerful orator, and reached tens of thousands more with the 1845 publication of his autobiography. When threatened with capture by his former owner, Douglass fled to England, where he experienced life as a free man for the first time. Returning to the U.S. in 1847, he launched his own antislavery paper, The North Star, out of Rochester, New York, causing a rift with his mentor Garrison. Later that year, John Brown met with Douglass in Springfield, Massachusetts, and revealed his radical plan to raise an army, supply them with arms, and free the slaves. Douglass did not share Brown's enthusiasm for such violent tactics.
In 1852, following the tragic death of her own young son and moved by the plight of slave families being torn apart by the Fugitive Slave Law, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. An instant best seller that became wildly successful as a play, this influential fictional story helped change the hearts and minds of millions of Americans by depicting slavery through the eyes of its victims.
In the spring of 1854, fugitive slave Anthony Burns was held in Boston's city jail, where he became a focal point for both pro- and antislavery advocates. Angry Bostonians attempted to free him, but President Franklin Pierce, an ardent Southern sympathizer, sent in the military to escort him to a ship in the harbor and eventually back to enslavement.
All the attempts at compromise and resolution had only deepened the divide between North and South, touching off a crisis that was about to careen out of control.
Part Three  (Thursday, January 31 at 9 p.m.)
By 1854, the battle over admitting new territories to the Union had reached a fever pitch. Kansas was the front line of a bloody battle between pro-slavery and free-soil contingents. In 1859, John Brown summoned Frederick Douglass to a secret meeting in Chambersburg, PA, and revealed his plan to capture the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, VA, and start a revolution; Douglass refused to join him. Brown went ahead with the raid, and was injured and captured. Before being executed, he managed to turn himself into a public figure and a martyr for the cause.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. As Southern states seceded from the Union, the country continued its descent into chaos, and by the following spring, the Civil War had begun. What was almost universally expected to be a quick and bloodless conflict dragged on. On the 22nd of September 1862, news broke that Lincoln would sign the Emancipation Proclamation. For Lincoln, the carnage was unendurable unless it could be given over to a higher purpose.
On New Years Day 1863, Bostonians gathered at two celebrations: William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe attended a concert at the Music Hall; Frederick Douglass was at Tremont Temple. Near midnight, the crowds erupted with joy when the announcement came that Lincoln has emancipated the slaves in rebel territory. Not only were slaves free, but African American men could now enlist in the Union forces. Two of Douglass' sons went to war; and even William Lloyd Garrison, the "ultra peace man," allowed his first born to sign up.
In December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, banning slavery in all the states -- forever. For almost four decades, the abolitionists had dedicated their lives to this moment. It is a triumph of perseverance, of steadfastness, and in the logic and moral power of a movement that had never wavered.   

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Keep the Tissues Handy for 'Call the Midwife' Holiday Special

Rhode Island PBS airs a special holiday episode of the critically acclaimed British drama Call the Midwife on Tuesday, January 8 at 10 p.m., with rebroadcast on Friday, January 11 at 1 p.m.

In this special, Nurse Jenny Lee and newly married Chummy are hard at work during their first Christmas in Nonnatus House. As nurses and nuns minister to an abandoned newborn and search for the mother, and Jenny tries to find the children of an elderly vagrant, Chummy plans an ambitious nativity play. In true Chummy fashion, mishaps ensue.

PBS announced a second season of Call the Midwife, coming to Rhode Island PBS later this year. Call The Midwife stars Jessica Raine as Jenny Lee, Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne, Pam Ferris as Sister Evangelina, Miranda Hart* (see additional story below) as Chummy, Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan, Helen George as Trixie Franklin, Bryony Hannah as Cynthia Miller, Laura Main as Sister Bernadette, Cliff Parisi as Fred and Vanessa Redgrave as the voice of mature Jennifer.



 ************


Miranda Hart (Call the Midwife) in her own series! If you like Chummy in Call the Midwife, check out her own comedy series, Miranda, on Tuesday nights at 9:30 p.m. on Rhode Island PBS. It doesn't matter what Miranda attempts in life, whether it's dating or simply dealing with her overbearing mother, she always seems to fall flat, quite literally.

 For information about Miranda and to view clips, visit the BBC Web site.