How has information and communications technology changed the world of commerce and industry? This wide-ranging film tells a remarkable story of our times. Impact on work: In the 1970s office work was done with typewriters and paper and correcting fluid. Computers were giant devices in air-conditioned rooms. Then in the 1980s computers got smaller and began to appear on people's desks. Whole industries and professions vanished. Simon Steele, a sub-editor...

Consumer capitalism dominates our economy, our politics, and our culture, even though a growing body of research suggests it may be well past its sell-by date. In Consumerism and the Limits to Imagination, media scholar Justin Lewis makes a compelling case that consumer capitalism can no longer deliver on its promise of enhancing quality of life, and argues that changing direction will require changing our media system and our cultural environment....

A festival favorite LGBT short film from Spain about a group of boys spying on their neighbors. The heat's bearing down on the high-rise rooftops of the suburbs. Every day at the same time, five boys climb to the top of one of them to stare at the house next door. Like clockwork, a woman appears, removes her clothes and proceeds to sunbathe in the nude. But this day something's different. On the roof next door, a naked man seeks relief from the heat...

Johnson relates the story of people who take us out of the dark and into the light. Hear about Edison’s light bulb, which he didn’t actually invent, and learn how an 18th-century ship’s skipper discovered a source of illumination by putting a kid inside a whale’s head. See how a French scientist accidentally discovered how to create neon light, leading to a revolution in advertising. Dispelling the myth of the individual “eureka” moment,...

Dirty water has killed more humans than all the wars of history combined, but in the last 150 years, a series of radical ideas, extraordinary innovations and unsung heroes have changed our world. Johnson plunges into a sewer to understand what made a maverick engineer decide to lift the city of Chicago with screw jacks in order to build America’s first sewer system. He talks about John Leal, who deliberately “poisoned” the water supply of 200,000...

Imagine a world without the power to capture or transmit sound. Journey with Johnson to the Arcy sur Cure caves in northern France, where he finds the first traces of the desire to record sound — 10,000 years ago. He also learns about the difference that radio made in the civil rights movement and discovers that telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell thought that the best use for his invention was long-distance jam sessions. During an ultrasound...

Dirty water has killed more humans than all the wars of history combined, but in the last 150 years, a series of radical ideas, extraordinary innovations and unsung heroes have changed our world. Johnson plunges into a sewer to understand what made a maverick engineer decide to lift the city of Chicago with screw jacks in order to build America’s first sewer system. He talks about John Leal, who deliberately “poisoned” the water supply of 200,000...

Through an intimate and artistic lens, MILK brings a universal perspective on the politics, commercialization and controversies surrounding birth and infant feeding over the canvas of stunningly beautiful visuals and poignant voices from around the globe. Inspiring, informative, provocative and sensitive, MILK celebrates bringing a new life into this world with a strong call to action and reflection.

This program highlights blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, social networking websites, and video sharing websites. It also shows how libraries across the country are using these technologies to reach out to new customers and improve their services. Helene Blowers, Director of Digital Services for Columbus Metropolitan Library, is interviewed in the program and she discusses why libraries need to become familiar with and use these new technologies....

Over the past sixteen years, an extraordinary group of musicians has come together to celebrate the universal power of music. Named for the ancient trade route linking Asia, Africa, and Europe, the Silk Road Ensemble, an international collective created by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, exemplifies music's ability to blur international boundaries, blend disparate cultures, and inspire hope for artists and audiences. "A first-rate music film capturing...