NPR

Essential Pittsburgh

    • Alberta Sbaragia

      What's on the Horizon for the European Union?

      On Monday, François Hollande became the first French Socialist candidate elected president since 1981. He campaigned for higher  government spending and taxation. Does this signal a new economic approach to Europe’s financial problems?  What might happen to austerity? And what is the Socialist economic approach? Dr. Alberta Sbragia, University of Pittsburgh Vice Provost and former Director of the European Studies Center and the European Union Center of Excellence addresses these questions, and talks about the future of the EU.
    • Tickets or EZ Pass?

      EZ Pass Takes Over the Turnpike

      We’re headed into the summer season which will mean more people hitting the road, especially the Pennsylvania turnpike. The first section of the turnpike opened in 1940 and extended from the Pittsburgh suburb of Irwin to Carlisle. It’s a toll road that could become costlier without an EZ Pass transponder. Plans are underway to convert the turnpike to all-electronic tolling. We’ll talk about what this could mean for motorists with Turnpike Spokesman Carl DeFebo. And Essential Public Radio Morning Edition host Josh Raulerson joins us for his Wednesday literary feature, Speaking Volumes.
    • Edgar Allen Poe

      Bringing Poe to Life

      The Raven, a movie starring John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, takes the macabre stories of Poe and brings them to life with a series of ghastly crimes that he must solve. Kevin Ewert, Associate Professor of Theater at University of Pittsburgh Bradford, recently staged his own recreation of Poe’s stories in a kind of haunted house of literature at the Seneca building in Bradford. He talks about his thoughts on the way The Raven movie was staged and getting to the heart of a tale in ways that are compelling for an audience.