Promoting Humanities in a Math and Science World
Listen to Alabama politicians talk about education and you’ll hear about workforce development. They say schools should focus on math and science to help industry grow. There’s less emphasis on music or literature. That concerns Jon Parrish Peede.
The Mississippi native became chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities earlier this year. WBHM’s Andrew Yeager spoke with Peede during his visits to Birmingham last week.
Interview Highlights
Promoting humanities in a culture that seems to value computer programers over historians:
“English majors and music majors have the highest statistical acceptance rate to medical school for example. You realize the humanities are not the most lucrative in the first job out of college possibly and generally. But one thing I love about the humanities is that they are preparing you for the second job, the third job, the fourth job, for a career…It is those core skills, those critical reasoning skills that are embedded in the humanities, this is what the employers want.”
Responding to President Trump’s plans to wind down and eliminate the agency:
“The president said that it’s not a domestic spending priority. Having said that I talk to the White House often and no one is derogatory about the arts or humanities. That’s where the White House’s budget was. That went before Congress and last year the House and the Senate said we actually believe in the work of the NEH. And so last year when the president signed the omnibus bill into law, it was our largest budget in five years…Members of Congress in the House and the Senate understand from the citizens in their states that the work we do at public libraries, museums, with school teachers, that this is a value to them.”
On being a Southerner leading the organization:
“I was just in the Badlands of South Dakota and I was with the Lakota educators. In South Dakota they felt somebody from a rural state that matters to them. I was meeting with a House of Representatives member from Maine. She feels the same way. So I think in many ways, being from Mississippi becomes a stand-in for rural states across America.”
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
Nonprofit erases millions in medical debt across Gulf South, says it’s ‘Band-Aid’ for real issue
Undue Medical Debt has paid off more than $299 million in medical debts in Alabama. Now, the nonprofit warns that the issue could soon get worse.
Roy Wood Jr. on his father, his son and his new book
Actor, comedian and writer Roy Wood Jr. is out with a new book -- "The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir." He writes about his experience growing up in Birmingham, losing his dad as a teenager and all the lessons he learned from various father figures throughout his career.
Auburn fires coach Hugh Freeze following 12th loss in his last 15 SEC games
The 56-year-old Freeze failed to fix Auburn’s offensive issues in three years on the Plains, scoring 24 or fewer points in 17 of his 22 league games. He also ended up on the wrong end of too many close matchups, including twice this season thanks partly to questionable calls.
In a ‘disheartening’ era, the nation’s former top mining regulator speaks out
Joe Pizarchik, who led the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement from 2009 to 2017, says Alabama’s move in the wake of a fatal 2024 home explosion increases risks to residents living atop “gassy” coal mines.
