January 9, 2003 Episode Thirty:  Yet Another Thing

We looked back over the past 29 episodes and revisit several topics that we wanted to discuss further:  science education, radio plays, monogamy and lost languages.  

Turns out there is water on the moon.  As a nine-year-old, Carl asked a professor from the local university who gave a lecture at his school if such a thing were possible and was scolded for insisting it could be true.  Carl is now vindicated and we reflect on how such an incident illustrates the problems with science as it is presented in our culture.

Is the radio play a lost art or a future treasure for radio?  We imagine how and why bringing back the radio play would enrich our world.

Being married, we consider monogamy an important part of our relationship (yes, we recognize that marriage does not necessarily equal monogamy), but being postmoderns, we wonder what grounding to use to justify our belief in monogamy.  Turns out, we found some solid ground to stand upon.

Finally, last week, Pattie's lost voice led us to a fuller understanding of the importance of human languages and the sadness of losing those languages.  We clarify our sorrow and contemplate how the world might be a better place without prejudice, oppression and imperialism.

  

CARL: The holiday season is over. A new year has begun. Students have returned to school. At this time of the year it is not unusual to look back over the previous year with an eye for what might have been missed, what needs to be reconsidered. This is the 30th episode of "First Person, Plural" and the first episode of the new semester. As we discussed in Episode 16, much to our surprise, we have discovered that one hour a week is often not enough to discuss everything we'd like to discuss about a given topic. As things were happening around us and we thought more about certain topics, we had the urge to explore some issues further. We revisited several issues in that episode. As we have continued to produce our show, we have continued to wish we could discuss more on many of the topics we've raised. So, as we did with Episode 16, in this episode, we have decided to revisit a few topics. Last summer, we went out to the Centre of the Universe, which is the interpretive centre at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, and howled at the moon with science educator and sometime singer/songwriter Don Enright. We looked at how science education and culture interacted. This experience sparked a memory of our own childhood science educations and specifically the ways in which creative expression and scientific exploration are often stifled in kids. Scientific knowledge is often constructed as something any curious person can pursue. As a practical matter, however, scientific knowledge is often contingent upon status in which those afforded the status of "scientist" make assertions that are regarded as "scientific facts." History has proven that such assertions can become nonsense in a hurry as paradigm shifts and new discoveries change scientific thinking on a regular basis. Why people often forget this is a matter of culture, not science. On Halloween, we aired a satirical radio play that we produced. We reflect upon why radio plays are no longer a popular form of radio and why it might be a good thing to bring them back. Along the way we explore exactly what radio and television offer and what they lack as media. During our discussion about sex toys, we left out a discussion about monogamy, a rather obvious omission for a married couple. This is especially true of us because we often dismiss or reject the moral language on which many of the pro-monogamy arguments are grounded. Can a pragmatic case be made for monogamy? Can a couple discuss this without arguing? Well no, but as it turns out, the argument need not last that long. Last week we touched upon why having a voice is an important aspect of cultural production and how much is lost when diversity of voices is contained. We explore this further as we look at how language is a repository for knowledge. What exactly do we lose when a language becomes extinct? Today, we look back on four issues that we raised during previous episodes about which we had to say just a few more words: science education, radio plays, monogamy, and lost languages. This week's episode is entitled "Yet another thing…"   copyright by Pattie Thomas and Carl Wilkerson 2002

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