Last month’s announcement that the U.S. and Cuba will restore diplomatic relations sparked waves of speculation about what the thaw means for diplomacy, trade, and tourism. On today’s show: what normalized relations mean for Cuba’s internet infrastructure.
And we usher in awards season by going off the red carpet. We’ll celebrate some of the best films of 2014 that were not nominated for a Golden Globe.
Plus, we kick off a new series on offbeat college courses, The Uncommon Core. Today: Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond.
Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.
Cuban Internet
- Last month’s announcement that the U.S. and Cuba will restore diplomatic relations sparked a barrage of speculation. We asked Rob Fleischman, Chief Technology Officer at Xero-Cole, to talk about what this might mean for the internet in Cuba.
The Uncommon Core: Invented Languages
- The Uncommon Core is a series that examines unusual college courses being taught in schools across the country. In this episode, we hear from a professor who found a way to turn a love of sci-fi into a collegiate-level learning opportunity.
- You can find out more at this link: The Uncommon Core | Invented Languages: Klingon & Beyond!
Weird Course Names
- Rob Stephenson is an associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Georgia. He wrote about weird course names in an op-ed for the L.A. Times, “Can’t Tell a Course by Its Title.”
Sleeper Films of 2014
- We duck out of the spotlight to look at 2014’s “sleepers”, films that aren’t Golden Globe nominees, but are worthy of your attention nonetheless. Amy Diaz, editor of New Hampshire’s weekly paper The Hippo, shares her picks.
- You can watch trailers of Amy's picks at this link: Sleeper Films of 2014
Library Of Congress Preserves A Treasure Trove... Underground
- A giant facility in Culpeper, Virginia, is collecting and preserving the largest assortment of audio, video and film recordings on the planet. So, what happens when you take a former cold war bunker and fill it with such a rich collection? Rebecca Sheir journeyed to this special branch of the Library of Congress to find out.
- You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.