Thoughtcast


ThoughtCast is a podcast and public radio interview program with authors and academics. The interviews are conducted by Jenny Attiyeh, a former public radio and TV reporter from Manhattan and elsewhere whose previous work focused on covering the arts and ideas. ThoughtCast aims to offer a "bridge between the publications and pursuits of the intellectual world and a curious, informed, mainstream audience."

Guests

ThoughtCast has a strong New England emphasis, with a majority of the interviewees being Harvard professors. Guests have included Lisa Randall, a Harvard theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate Amartya Sen; Alan Dershowitz; Sam Huntington of Clash of Civilizations; public radio program directors; biographers Megan Marshall and Carol Bundy; philosopher Simon Blackburn; David Weinberger; and others.
In summer 2008, ThoughtCast introduced video to its lineup. The video includes interviews with Scottish historian Niall Ferguson on the "American Empire", Internet gurus on neologisms gleaned from life online, and Joshua Micah Marshall, the creator of Talking Points Memo. A conversation on Steve Reich's Different Trains with the Borromeo String Quartet was also picked up by New Hampshire Public Radio. The program examines how Reich, in this challenging composition, compares the train trips he took as a child to the very different train trips Jews were forced to take during the Holocaust.

Distribution

ThoughtCast is released on its website and iTunes. The program is also available through the Public Radio Exchange. WGBH, an arts and culture public radio station in Boston, has broadcast many ThoughtCast interviews, and has featured the program on its Forum Network.