Action Speaks! presents panel discussions, radio broadcasts (on WRNI & nationally), and documentaries (on RI PBS) exploring "underappreciated days in history that changed America." This weeks forum is the last of Spring's four programs; stay tuned for four more dates coming this October! Hosted by Marc Levitt at AS220

This, Wednesday May 20, 2009 5PM - 1961: JFK Calls for the Moon!

President Kennedy called for a Moon Landing. President Obama wants a 'Green' Nation. Are solar panels and wind turbines as exciting as 'One Giant Leap for Mankind?' How do we re-energize and re-mobilize America?

"Read More" for info on this week's panelists and support materials!

Featured Guests

Martin J. Collins, PhD, is a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and head of the museum's Oral History Project. Among his author credits are the full length books After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age (Smithsonian/HarperCollins, 2007) and Cold War: Laboratory: RAND, the Air Force, and the American State (Smithsonian Institution, 2002). He is editor of the academic journal History and Technology (Routledge).

Kristen Haring, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of History at Auburn University. Haring's work has been recognized by the Society for the History of Technology, which awarded her the IEEE Life Members' Prize in Electrical History for portions of her book, Ham Radio's Technical Culture (MIT Press, 2007). Haring studies technology as a component of community and culture in the United States.

Paul Di Filippo, a highly prolific science fiction writer, has hundreds of short stories and several full length novels to his name, including: Ciphers, Joe's Liver, Fuzzy Dice, A Mouthful of Tongues, Spondulix and Cosmocopia, with additional titles forthcoming. Di Filippo writes in a wide range of sub-genres, most notably steampunk and cyberpunk. His innovative science fiction writing has earned him consideration as a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Philip K. Dick, Wired Magazine, and World Fantasy awards. The Providence based author is also a regular reviewer for almost all the major print magazines dedicated to science fiction writings.

Bracken Hendricks, is a Senior Fellow with American Progress where he works on issues of climate change and energy independence, environmental protection, infrastructure investment, and economic policy. Hendricks served in the Clinton Administration as a Special Assistant to the Office of V.P. Gore, the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the President's Council on Sustainable Development, and the White House Livable Communities Task Force. Hendricks was the founding Executive Director and is currently a National Steering Committee member of the Apollo Alliance for good jobs and energy independence, a coalition of labor, environmental, business and community leaders. He has been a member of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's Energy Advisory Task Force, the Cornell University Eco-Industrial Round Table, and the Energy Future Coalition to name just a few in a long list of credits. Hendricks is widely published on economic development, climate and energy policy, national security, and progressive political strategy.

Support Materials

NOVA: Sputnik Declassified Documentary on PBS aired Monday, May 18 at 9pm
Did you miss it? - Try Youtube for this hour long program! The world changed on October 4, 1957, when the U.S. public heard the shocking news that the Soviet Union had successfully launched the first satellite, Sputnik I. Why didn't the U.S. beat the Soviets in this first crucial round of the space race? NOVA reveals an astonishing behind-the-scenes story of the politics and personalities that collided over the earliest efforts to get America into space long before the founding of NASA. Anticommunist witch-hunts drove some of the nation's most talented rocketry pioneers out of the country even as we welcomed Wernher von Braun and his former Nazi colleagues. With help from Walt Disney, von Braun's vision of future space travel swiftly captivated U.S. TV watchers. But even as he became the first media star of the space age, von Braun's attempts to build space probes were hobbled by inter-service rivalries. NOVA details the previously untold story of the technological and political missteps that made the U.S. lose out to the Soviets' bleeping electronic basketball.