Illinois Wesleyan University
Professor of History at Illinois Wesleyan University. He lectures on the music of the 1960s, and teaches a travel course called "The Beatles and Their World," which takes students to England to retrace The Beatles' early history.
50 Years Since "Beatlemania" in the U.S. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was already at the top of the charts in the United States just 50 years ago today—when the Beatles boarded a plane from London. But they were still unaware they were about to cause a musical revolution in this country. As the Beatles’ plane was landing in New York City, word came back from the cockpit: “Tell the boys there’s a big crowd waiting to greet them.” Two days later, they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the rest is history. We talk to Professor Michael Weis about the impact the Beatles have had 50 years later.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?