- Social:
Colorado State University, Pueblo
Professor of History at Colorado State University, Pueblo, and author of Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America
PROFILE
Jonathan Rees
Guest
FROM Jonathan Rees
Design and Architecture
Changing the rules for HFC's Americans have the biggest fridges in the world . Not only that, the U.S. outstrips the rest of the world in the use of air-conditioning. Now developing countries like India and China are catching up. But there is an environmental cost. Last week, negotiators for nearly 200 countries agreed to limit the use of HFCs, or hydrofluorocarbons, the greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning. Do we need to reign in our addiction to keep things chill? Or is there a clean alternative to HFCs?
To the Point
Online Learning: Past, Present and Future Two years ago at Stanford, a Massive Open Online Course attracted 160,000 students. MOOC's looked like the future of higher educatio n. The Internet would make college available to millions now going without it. Traditional college professors began to fear for their jobs. New research shows that MOOC's have not lived up to their promise, with very few students completing their courses. But, with millions invested, online learning is not going away. We hear how it's changing.
Recommended
Bookworm
George Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo (Part I) Lincoln in the Bardo dramatizes a grieving President Lincoln as he visits the grave of his beloved son Willie, who died at age eleven. In the novel, the buried dead believe they're not dead -- "they're sick and refer to their coffins as "sick boxes."
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
How do Trump supporters feel about the Paris Accord? Globally and around the U.S., there are strong opinions whether or not the Paris Climate Accord is a good idea. The American exit is either a horrifying abdication of American leadership or a forceful and long overdue statement about U.S. sovereignty.
Design and Architecture
Securing Public Spaces, Super Wealthy Asians Vehicles are increasingly being used as weapons, as seen in the London Bridge attack over the weekend and in New York’s Times Square last month. The Compton-based company Calpipe is designing security bollards to help make public spaces safer. And novelist Kevin Kwan satirizes the “crazy rich” Asian jet set and their luxurious tastes in his latest book, “Rich People Problems.”
The Business
In 'Speechless,' Scott Silveri combines comedy, family & disability Scott Silveri has written and produced sitcoms for more than 20 years. In all that time, he never encountered a TV family that looked anything like the one he grew up in -- with a mom, a dad...and a brother with cerebral palsy. He changed that with his show Speechless on ABC. Silveri tells us about looking to his own past for stories, and why he was determined to make a family comedy and not just a "disability show."