Many claim that, as Americans, we increasingly define ourselves by what we own. Is this the natural result of living in our mass market, consumer culture? How much are we the victims of years of manipulation by the advertising industry? Is there such a thing as responsible advertising, or even responsible consuming? Adman-turned-instructor Jelly Helm (VCU) joins us to discuss the effect of advertising on the American psyche and the practices that led him to leave the industry.

Second Week (June 6 – 15) Histories of Hate and Reconciliation

Does religion have a role to play in racial reconciliation? Religion Professor Charles Marsh (UVA) thinks so. His recent book, The Last Days: A Son's Story of Sin and Segregation at the Dawn of a New South describes his youth in the segregated South and how his Baptist upbringing influenced his belief that a shared faith in God is key to overcoming racial barriers. Also featured: While American GIs were fighting to stem the spread of Nazism and its antiSemitic beliefs, some top-ranking officers in the U.S. Army were writing memos warning of the national security risk posed by Jewish immigrants to this country. Historian Joseph Bendersky (VCU), author of The Jewish Threat: Anti-Semitic Politics of the U.S. Army, argues that such documents are evidence of anti-Semitism rampant in the officer corps from the turn of the 20th century up through the 1950s. Those attitudes, he says, influenced U.S. foreign policy decisions.

Third Week (June 16 – 22) The Sub-atomic World

It's stronger than steel and could one day help create computers 1 billion times faster than those in use today. It's the nanotube. And scientists make it by shooting a laser into small rods of graphite and other metals. But just what happens when laser hits metal? Scientists will need a better understanding before the process can have widespread use. Physicist Brian Holloway (W&M) posits some theories. Also featured: Physicist Carlos Salgado (NSU) offers a peek at the strange behavior of the smallest known unit of matter, the quark.

Fourth Week (June 23 – 29) Take This Job and Love It

Before you take a job, figure out whether you'll be entering a healthy workplace. Management professor Pamela Hopkins (Mary Washington) and psychologist Paul Stepanovich (ODU) offer a list of vital signs prospective employees should check. Their tips are garnered from studying several businesses they've identified as "healthy workplaces." Also featured: During the 20th century, the governments of the U.S. and many other industrialized nations have enacted laws to improve working conditions for women. Such rules have included working hour restrictions, mandated maternity benefits and equal protection provisions. Despite their good intentions, these measures haven't always proven economically beneficial. Economist Yana van der Meulen Rodgers (W&M) discusses the positive and negative repercussions of workplace protections for women.

Fifth Week (June 30 – July 6) Flying Blind

Literature professor Geoffrey Morley-Mower (JMU) spent 31 years as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, serving in India, the Middle East, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland and Cyprus. Morley-Mower talks about his adventures in his book Flying Blind, where he describes flying as an "intoxicating and dangerous freedom to move through the blue air in three directions at once." When World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939, he was stationed in India where the British continued to live in splendor, waited upon by armies of servants, as if nothing had happened. Morley-Mower found himself flying biplanes of ancient vintage over the most exotic frontier in the world, keeping order among tribes that had not changed since the invasion of India by Mahmud of Ghazni in the Middle Ages.