Story Archives of 'Sociology'

In July of 1969, gay men and women fought back against police raids at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, an event often called the birth of the gay rights movement. Four decades later, many activists say enormous progress has been made, but others feel full equality is still far away. We’ll see where the gay rights movement stands today.

Guests

• Dudley Clendinen, former national reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times and author of several books including Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America
• Irene Monroe, Baptist minister, coordinator of the African-American roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific School of Religion, and gay rights blogger at the Huffington Post

We'll also hear from

• Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst and a board member at the Transgender Law and Policy Institute

County jails from Colorado to Florida are facing mounting deficits. Some are releasing inmates early and others are considering closing specific jails altogether. One Ohio jail is cutting costs by asking inmates to pick up a shovel, plant some seeds, and work for their food.

Prison gardens are nothing new. Inmates at the San Francisco County Jail have been gardening since 1982. Their produce goes to local farmers’ markets and community centers. But in Sandusky County, Ohio the tomatoes, green beans, and carrots don’t travel further than the jail’s kitchen. In order to help cut costs, Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer came up with the idea of converting an acre and a half of unused outdoor space into a garden.

(Photo by Shelley&Dave via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Few of us admit to being spiteful, but it does have a way of popping up when battling our way through traffic or waiting in a loooong line at the supermarket.

The minute we think someone else is going to get the jump on us, we’ll go out of our way to thwart them, even if it doesn’t really help our own situation. It’s that “If I can’t have it, then no one should” attitude. And we’re born with it. Research shows that young children will sacrifice a piece of candy for themselves if it looks like another kid is going to get more than them. But why do we do act this way? It doesn’t follow the science of natural selection. Or does it? Science reporter John Whitfield wrote about spite for New Scientist, and he joins us live from London to answer these questions.

John Whitfield's website

Whitfield's blog

(Photo courtesy of Jer Kunz via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Most of today's Word of Mouth was pre-empted by NPR's airing of President Obama’s remarks on the bankruptcy of General Motors, along with GM President Fritz Henderson.

After months in downward slide, GM’s bankruptcy comes as no shock. The company was struggling well before the current recession struck. Author and political satirist P.J. O'Rourke says that if we want to understand what doomed the American automobile, we should give up on economics and turn to melodrama.

In the 1950’s, cars like GM's Chevrolet were symbols of freedom and adventure. Now, P.J. believes, the romance has turned to tragedy. Americans have fallen out of love with our cars. He's just released a collection of essays, Driving Like Crazy, about our fixation with lead sleds and muscle cars - a fixation on the wane in the age of the Prius. P.J. O'Rourke joins Word of Mouth on the phone from his home in New Hampshire.

Wall Street Journal: The End of the Affair

(Photo by Frank Stahlberg via Flickr/Creative Commons)

It’s breathtaking to think about how much has changed in the 21st century. Modern communication has shrunk our world. The Internet has democratized media and decentralized power. Blogs and social networking connect us to the lives and ideas of others, and are revolutionizing journalism. Right?

Not so fast.

Don’t belive the hype, says entrepreneur and media critic Andrew Keen. Andrew made waves in 2007 with his book The Cult of the Amateur. The book proposed that giving everyone access to a wide audience may not be the best thing for society.

Then, at a series of conferences in Europe, Andrew grabbed audiences by the lapels and shook hard. The Internet isn’t leveling the playing field, he exclaimed. On the contrary, companies like Google are consolidating power and creating a huge divide between the haves and have-nots. He compares Silicon Valley giants to the robber barons and monopolists of the mid-nineteenth century. And he joins us to explain his critique of Web 2.0 and the next phase of the Web, called "the stream" by some.

(Photo by Thomas Hawk via Flickr/Creative Commons)