Campbell Conversations

  The Syracuse University Men's Basketball Team is off to a good start this season, in its first season in the ACC.  The team is 9-0 and ranked 4th in the nation after defeating Binghamton University on Saturday.  On this week's edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Mike Hopkins, SU associate head coach.  Hopkins discusses how athletics and academics mix in big-time college sports, the recipes for success as a player and a coach, and how some aspects of the system might be improved. 

Kent Syverud arrives in Upstate New York in January to become Syracuse University's next Chancellor.  Intense speculation has surrounded the transition--will there be a change of course from Nancy Cantor's signature commitment to the City of Syracuse and the Upstate region?  Will the university focus more on improving its rankings and increasing its endowment?  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with the incoming chancellor about his future learning curve at SU, and his experiences as dean of the law schools at Vanderbilt and Washington Universities, as well a

  The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption is already making waves in Albany, as the media and the public react to what's coming out at its public hearings.  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with the Commission's Co-chair, Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick, about the Commission's work and its possible impact on the state's politics.  He also addresses the charge that the Governor Andrew Cuomo is meddling in the Commission's affairs.

A powerful new documentary about the war in Afghanistan, The Hornet’s Nest, features a father and son team embedded for two years with American forward units.  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks with filmmaker Mike Boettcher, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning war correspondent, and David Salzberg, the film’s co-director and producer, about the making of the film—and how it has affected them, the soldiers, and their families. 

Some of the most difficult-to-enforce provisions from the New York SAFE Act will soon come online.  On this week’s edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Oswego County Sheriff Reuel Todd, who recently joined a constitutional challenge to the law filed by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.  Find out why the county’s top cop thinks the law misses its target, and why the controversies surroundi

Voters in the state will be faced with several ballot propositions this November 5th.  The proposition capturing the most attention—and controversy—is the proposal to expand casino gambling, which will appear as Proposition 1.  On October 16th, the Campbell Public Affairs Institute of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs sponsored a debate on this referendum.  The debate was held in the Maxwell Auditorium on the Syracuse University

In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher talks with Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking, which inspired the movie of the same name.  Sister Helen relates her advocacy efforts to end the death penalty in the twenty years since the book's publication, and how work

One could argue that the most energetic opposition to the Democratic candidates for Syracuse City offices this November is coming from a third party, the Greens.

In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks to the Green Party candidates for mayor, city council, and board of education, and explores their collective vision for a new set of city policies and a new way of governance.

This week on the Campbell Conversations, economist Richard Wolff argues that our economic recovery has so far been a “fiction,” unless you’re in the top one percent, and he further claims that this problem reflects something much more fundamentally wrong with our modern system of capitalism.  He finds a solution to the problem in a reconsideration of the way we govern the workplace.  Wolff is the author of books such as Democracy at Work, and C

What's the problem with Congress?  Why can't it find compromises on the most basic issues?  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher explores those questions with Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the co-author of "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional Syst

How could we craft a more community-friendly plan for arts and culture in the Central New York region, and how could that help revitalize the quality of life and the economy in the area?  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Steve Butler, the executive director of CNYArts, discusses his organization's efforts to create such a plan through its Engage CNY initiative.

In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, James Haywood Rolling, Jr., an expert on arts education and the author of Swarm Intelligence, draws on theories of group behavior in the animal world in order to argue for new ways of nurturing creativity in the education of our children.  Find out what a flock of birds has to tell us about individual artistic creation.

In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, we continue with the forum we first presented last week--a discussion among the three candidates vying for the Democratic Party line in the upcoming city of Syracuse mayoral election. Participating in the forum are Mayor Stephanie Miner, Common Councilor Pat Hogan and Alfonso Davis. The topic for this week's debate, moderated by host Grant Reeher, concerns public policy questions that bear on the city's future.

The three candidates vying for the Democratic Party line in the upcoming City of Syracuse mayoral election could only agree to two public forums.  What follows is one of them.  On this week’s edition of the Campbell Conversations, we present the first segment of a two-part series—the second part airing next Sunday, September 1.  The topic for this week, moderated by host Grant Reeher, is the political process and executive leadership.

The three candidates in the Democratic primary race for mayor of Syracuse squared off during a forum on WRVO's Campbell Conversations on Tuesday. Incumbent Stephanie Miner will face Common Councilor Pat Hogan, and challenger Alfonso Davis, to see who gets on the Democratic party line in November.

Primary day is September 10 this year. In Syracuse, three Democrats will face off in a primary for mayor. Common Councilor Pat Hogan and Alfonso Davis are challenging incumbent Mayor Stephanie Miner. As of now, there is no Republican candidate on the ballot, so whoever wins the primary is likely to win the general election in November. 

(Editor's note: Common Councilor Jean Kessner was invited to participate in the panel, but was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict)

  How has Upstate New York been coping with the problem of hunger?  How have the challenges changed in recent years?  And how does the concern for proper nutrition fit with the need to feed people who are going hungry?  On this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher discusses these questions with Kathleen Stress, the executive director of the Food Bank of Central New York.  Some of the answers might surprise you.

Community Colleges have a uniquely important set of educational roles to fill in their communities.  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with the new President of Onondaga Community College, Casey Crabill.  They discuss how the diversity of community college missions fit together, and her priorities in moving the institution forward from an already strong base.

(Note: This interview originally aired April 14, 2013)

One of the many controversial aspects of the post 9-11 war effort is the government’s use of military commissions rather than traditional criminal courts to try suspected terrorists. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks with Jess Bravin, the Supreme Court correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

While the state-level negotiations on the casinos were taking place, another separate process was marking a much longer history of native and non-native relationships—The Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign.  On this week’s edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks with Onondaga Nation Faithkeeper Oren Lyons and the Renewal Campaign’s Project Coordinator Andy Mager, about the campaign’s aims, and the importance of recognizing and honoring the past in order to improve the future. 

Syracuse is one of the nation's destination cities for refugee immigrants. More than 7,000 have come to the area since 2001.  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher talks with Jai Subedi, a refugee from Bhutan who arrived here in 2008 and Gregg Tripoli, the executive director of the Onondaga Historical Association, which has created a new exhibit at the Onondaga Historical Museum on the immigrant and refugee experience.

The effort to pass the Women's Equality Act raised long-standing conflicts over reproductive rights, and the increased regulation of various business practices.  On this week's edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher discusses the political and policy issues raised by the legislative package with Betty DeFazio from Planned Parenthood of Syracuse and Rochester, and New York State Assemblyman Al Stirpe.

On this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Chris Fowler of the organization Syracuse First returns to the program to discuss how the buy local movement has evolved and strengthened since he spoke to Grant Reeher two years ago.  How does it fit into the broader set of concerns for sustainability, and for local business development?  And where does it need to go from here?

Bob Frye is the producer and director of a new documentary on the nuclear arms race and disarmament. Frye is a former producer for ABC News.  In this conversation with Grant Reeher, he discusses his personal motivations for the film and whether we've lost touch with the dangers posed by nuclear arsenals.

Sister Simone Campbell has become a political rock star for her support of the Affordable Care Act, and for her leadership of the "Nuns on the Bus" campaign last summer.  Speaking with Grant Reeher, Campbell describes how religious commitment, service, and politics are inseparably linked in her life and in her faith, and what the Catholic Church must do to thrive in a democratic culture.

What function do staged plays serve in our society? A critical one for civilization itself, argues Tim Bond in this week's edition of the Campbell Conversations.

When it comes to health, what does the region do well, and what does it do poorly? What are the next frontiers in making the community healthier? In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Onondaga County Health Commissioner Cynthia Morrow reflects on recent statistics about the county's health, discusses different approaches that communities and government can take toward improving health, and speculates about possible futures.

Younger citizens may be more active in volunteer and service efforts than previous generations, but many remain profoundly uninterested and disengaged from anything they regard as political. One organization trying to combat that is ICivics, created by former Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, to provide online, interactive educational resources for middle school students. On this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Gene Koo, executive director of ICivics, outlines the challenges to civic engagement and how the organization is trying to address them.