Word of Mouth

There’s not a ton to look at in Los Alamos, New Mexico these days, but one of the most terrifying and iconic series of pictures in the history of the human race were once taken there, a little over 65 years ago, when a group of pioneer scientists photographed the world’s first atomic bomb test. They captured a speck of light, that turned into a snow-globe burning hotter than the surface of the sun, that turned into a mushroom cloud, now a universal symbol of epic destruction.  

With some notable exceptions of course, when you’re the local newspapers op-ed page, you’re liable to see a deliberate balance of material from both sides of the political aisle.  What you won’t see apparently, is a representative proportion of writers by gender… except for a few female dominated subjects, a surprising majority of op eds are written by men.

Produced with Emma Ruddock

Here on Word of Mouth, we’re always trying to bring you the story, the angle, or the artist you’ve never heard… but because it takes buzz to make buzz, we rarely get to highlight the work of someone who’s work has yet to be discovered at all.  Last week our intern Emma Ruddock brought seventeen year-old singer-songwriter Tim Scott to our studio, and right away we recognized a rare talent in the shy high-schooler from Milford, New Hampshire.

Scott Solksy is the Executive Director of a brand new event, The Granite State Music Festival. And he's in studio to tell us what to expect from the event, which takes place this weekend. 

The cost of attending Stanford? Between $200,000 and half a million dollars. 

The cost of building a custom search engine? A few thousand bucks.

Produced with Emma Ruddock

Produced with Emma Ruddock

Produced with Emma Ruddock

Summer time is book season, with seemingly every media outlet weighing in with lists of recommended beach reads. Audiobooks don’t get nearly as much play, though they are a staple for many, whether as the soundtrack to a road trips, a daily commute, or even an alternative to listening to the radio at home.

While we were prepping for today's segment on audio books, we couldn’t help but wonder about whether we could pass as audio book producers…perhaps even elevating a book of dubious quality by getting just the right people to read it. So, we took dramatic  stab at an excerpt from the hottest book around, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L.

For U.S. defense officials, knowledge is power. It’s clear, in-depth and actionable intelligence that makes the difference in keeping the country safe. So officials at the pentagon and in homeland security are gathering huge amounts of raw data. And who, who can help them sort through thousands of hours of video to find and stop these existential threats? Most of us don’t associate the cast of Jersey Shore with U.S.

Part 1: Is "Liking" Free Speech?/The Legacy of Limmer

Monitoring police stops by smartphone. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the city’s use of so-called “stop and frisk” searches by police.  Critics say the subjects of stop and frisks are disproportionately African-American and Latino men, which they call evidence of racial profiling. Today two New York City Council members said they’re introducing a measure to create an independent inspector general to oversee the N.Y.P.D.  to review policies and conduct.

Smartphones make it relatively easy to record and monitor suspected law-breaking in real time, but what about crimes in the pre-smartphone era? Word of mouth producer Rebecca Lavoie tagged along with an unusual gumshoe…one who scours old buildings for evidence of architectural crimes.