First hour: Chuck Collins on his new book, "Born On Third Base"
Second hour: Trying to solve one of the world's great mysteries -- and read ancient books
Chuck Collins was 26 years old when he decided to give away his half-million-dollar family inheritance. He's the grandson of Oscar Mayer, and Chuck felt that he was getting too easy a ride through life. In the several decades since then, Chuck has become a leading voice in debates about equality. That includes taxes, equal opportunity, privilege, and more. His new book is called Born On Third Base, and it's a call to the 1% to see how much their fortune is due to circumstance. It's also a call to the 99% to avoid wealth bashing, and starting looking to create alliances. He's in Rochester on Monday, and he's our guest in the first hour.
Then, for all of ways we use the term "Epicurean," here's something strange: the original works of Epicurus himself have never been found. It's only through letters and quotations that we glimpse his work. But what if a library on a seaside villa contains the lost works of Epicurus -- and dozens of others? When Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in 79 AD, it also buried Herculaneum. That seaside estate contained a library of many scrolls, and the volcanic ash preserved the scrolls... in a manner of speaking. They look like lumps of coal, but top scientists are desperate to find a way to either unspool them without destroying them, or to use new technology to peer inside. What might we find? How could we do it? What other ancient texts are begging to be read, if we can only figure out how? Our guests:
- Brent Seales, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science, and director of the Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments at the University of Kentucky
- Roger Easton, professor of imaging science and director of the Laboratory for Imaging of Historical Artifacts at the Rochester Institute of Technology
- Greg Heyworth, associate professor of English and Textual Science and director of the Lazarus Project at the University of Rochester
