Fantasy Colbert League, January 31-February 3, 2011

Hello, Zoners! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Are you all refreshed and ready for a new week of shows? I sure am, and this week Stephen’s serving up a really diverse menu, including a philosopher ruminating on classics, an immunologist who’s a crusader for childhood vaccines, and a gamer who believes that playing can make us happy…and save the world. What fun!

Monday, 1/30: Samer Shehata, Dr. Paul Offit

Samer Shehata:
A most timely visit on a sobering subject. Samer Shehata, an Egyptian-born scholar who teaches at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Georgetown, visits the Report as his native country endures a period of turmoil: thousands are demonstrating in the streets; the government has cut off access to the internet and social networking sites, and perhaps even cell phone texting; and Mubarak is changing certain ministers in his government without really relenting on the larger issues. So I am eager to hear what Shehata has to say about this troubled situation.

Shehata has his PhD from Princeton University, and he specializes in issues of class in Egyptian society, but he also has ventured onto the political stage to help shape public opinion. By chance, he got his position at the School of Foreign Service in 2001, so when 9/11 occurred, he served as a go-to person for many media outlets, and has continued in that role. He received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to look at Islamist participation in elections in Egypt and other Middle Eastern Nations. You can listen to an audio of an interview he gave about another one of his projects: a comparative study of two textile factories in Egypt.

Dr. Paul Offit:
With autism on the rise, doctors, researchers, and of course parents are eager to solve the mystery of this terrible disease. Perhaps the most heated debate has raged around vaccines. Doctors almost unanimously agree they do not contribute to autism, but parents remain fearful and many have chosen not to vaccinate their children. This has resulted in the resurgence of illnesses (like measles) that had almost entirely disappeared. One of the staunchest defenders of inoculating kids is pediatrician and immunologist Dr. Paul Offit, head of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the issue is so contentious that he has received numerous death threats.

Dr. Offit has written numerous books and articles refuting the connection between autism and vaccines, including Autism’s False Prophets, but his most recent publication, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, goes beyond autism to trace the entire history of immunization and its naysayers. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Offit created a vaccine against rotavirus, a gastrointestinal disease that can kill thousands in a single day. He’s a favorite with media, and here are interviews with Matt Lauer and NPR. You can also follow him on Twitter, where he has announced his Report visit.

Fract: No Benefits: Dr. Offit is often accused of financially benefitting from his rotavirus vaccine, but he has sold off all rights and no longer gets profits from its sales. FYI, needless to say, one of his loudest opponents is the celebrity Jennie McCarthy.

Tuesday, 2/1: Leslie Dach, Michael Lewis

Leslie Dach:
Leslie Dach is Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations for Wal-Mart—and since one of his duties is “reputation management,” his job can’t be easy. In 2007, The New Yorker examined Wal-Mart’s efforts to improve its PR and how people like Dach—with “liberal credentials”—are integral to the company’s plans. Dach has been active in the Democratic party, particularly during the Clinton administration; was a lobbyist for environmental groups (including the Audubon Society), and serves on the board of directors of the United Negro College Fund and the World Resources Institute.

Michael Lewis:
Author and financial journalist Michael Lewis has written several bestselling books including Moneyball, about the Oakland A’s baseball team, and most notably, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, which inspired the Oscar-winning Sandra Bullock movie. Although Lewis got his BA in art history–a subject we know is of much interest to Stephen these days–he eventually decided to pursue a Masters degree in the London School of Economics in order to enter the financial industry. Lewis got his wish when he found a job with Salomon Brothers, but ultimately found he didn’t like the ways things worked in that sector and left it in order to write; his first book, Liar’s Poker, focuses that period in his life.

Lewis’s newest book, which came out in 2010, is The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine about the recent financial collapse, in particular why the housing and money market bubble burst. It stayed on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list for 28 weeks, and was critiqued on the Huffington Post. At the time of the book’s release, Lewis made an appearance on The Daily Show for what was his second visit. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, has published in the New York Times, and written for Bloomberg.com.

Fract: Michael Lewis is married to former MTV personality Tabitha Soren.

Wednesday, 2/2: Sean Dorrance Kelley

Sean Dorrance Kelly is a professor of philosophy at Harvard and cowriter, with Hubert Dreyfus, of All Things Shining, about religion, literature, culture, and what the authors call our “passionate engagement with and responsiveness to the world” in this modern, secular age. The book touches on writers and philosophers from Homer and Dante to David Foster Wallace, which means it really covers a wide swath of history. Here’s a short video from the publisher, Simon & Schuser, explaining the book.

Kelly is also known for his interpretations of French and German works on phenomenology, and he has received numerous grants, including from the Guggenheim foundation and the National Endowment of the Humanities. I’m not sure how much I agree with what seems to be Kelly’s spiritual take on the classics, but I am excited about this conversation, because the topics it deals with are so Stephen-perfect.

Fract: He tweets with a great sense of humor. One of my favorites: “Now writing about Moby Dick and the Super Bowl. Because, you know, the intersection of football fans and Melville lovers is so enormous.”

Thursday, 2/3: Jane McGonigal:

She’s got game—and says that’s a GOOD thing. Jane McGonigal is the author of Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, which Publishers Weekly called “addictive” (like the games themselves, I imagine) in their starred review. McGonigal argues that games aren’t escapism: through playing we can actually develop practical strategies to solve real-life problems. I’m eager to see how this will resonate with “Dungeons and Dragons” aficionado Stephen.

She also designs alternate reality games, and has appeared on numerous award and “best of” lists in the New York Times, Brand Week, and the International Game Developers Association. She also got the #1 Spot on the Annual List of Top Ten Sexy Geeks from Violet Blue. Here is her new “secret site” and a video in which she puts forward her game-friendly case.

Fract: Practicing what she preaches: McGonigal, who has a PhD in performance studies from Berkeley, says she started a game called Cookie Rolling “to help me get through the anxiety, depression, and loneliness often associated with writing a dissertation.” She correctly points out that anyone who has written a thesis understands exactly what she means—but dancing worked better for me.

Enjoy the shows, and don’t forget to let me know who you’re most excited to see!