For the past two weeks, Dean of the Faculty Michael Mastanduno has been hosting an ongoing radio show on Sirius XM called “The Briefing Powered by Dartmouth College,” which airs weekly and offers history, facts and expert perspectives on current events, the College and SiriusXM announced on March 18.
Mastanduno said he was part of the team working with SiriusXM radio to develop the show and one of several faculty members who expressed interest. Mastanduno said that the show is also an opportunity to give the College a stronger presence in nationwide discussions.
“What we really want to get out of it is to let people outside of Dartmouth see the breadth of intellectual curiosity of things that go on here,” he said.
The first show was broadcast on March 21, and Mastanduno said that a wide variety of topics have been discussed in the two weeks since. During the first show, Mastanduno and a copyright expert discussed the controversy surrounding Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines” (2013), which has been accused of sharing certain qualities with Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give it Up.” Mastanduno said that the copyright issue was complicated but led to enjoyable discussion.
Mastanduno also invited government professor Linda Fowler to the show to discuss the foreign policy relationship between President Barack Obama and Congress.
At another time during the show, Mastanduno and a guest discussed Michael Graves’ architecture.
Mastandano said the show hopes to provide background and insight into topics that people might have heard about but did not have time to explore in depth.
“The idea is not to be narrowly focused, but to really span the arts and humanities, social sciences, politics, current events, science, even music and theatre, and to use the talent we have on campus to illuminate things that are going on out in the wider world,” Mastanduno said.
Mastanduno said that while some of the material that the broadcast covers may relate to his background in international relations and foreign policy, it is his priority that they go beyond his area of expertise to reach across faculty and curricula.
“It’s been great for me because I’m learning about a lot of things that I usually wouldn’t have the time or take the time to learn about,” he said.
The 99 Rock program director, Kevin Patterson ’17, said that though students are not involved with the show, Dartmouth College Radio provides the studio space for the broadcast.
“The reach of Dartmouth broadcasting continues to grow,” he said. “As it does so, the world outside of our small college can become familiar with the ways of thought of a leading academic institution.”
President and chief content officer at SiriusXM Scott Greenstein said he believes that colleges in general, and Ivy League institutions in particular, are well-known brands in the United States. As a result, they have the opportunity to provide insight on important current and historical events, he said.
Greenstein said that he believes history repeats itself and that much can be gained from studying the past, as the radio program seeks to do, and compared it to modern situations to avoid making similar mistakes.
“There can be a lot of lessons learned as you look at the past and where they were and what happened,” he said.
Greenstein said that he was drawn to Dartmouth because of its emphasis on undergraduate education, which he thought would be more general and more accessible than a broadcast based around a graduate program.
In particular, Greenstein said he sees Mastanduno as someone who is very familiar with the arts and sciences at Dartmouth, as well as an expert in international relations and foreign policy.
Greenstein said he hopes that listeners will gain important knowledge from “The Briefing.”
“A more educated U.S.A. will be more able to judge events, elections, candidates and other things from a more informed view,” he said.
The scope of SiriusXM, which reaches around 28 million subscribers and around 50 million listeners, would also provide the College with more national impact, Greenstein said.
“The Briefing” airs on SiriusXM Insight, a channel similar to National Public Radio, that airs conversations about timely topics and features experts and special guests, senior vice president of communications at SiriusXM Patrick Reilly wrote in an email.
Mastanduno said that he believes SiriusXM wanted to collaborate with the College because its producers saw it as a place that epitomizes learning in the liberal arts.
Mastanduno said that “The Briefing” is the College’s first venture with SiriusXM, and that he hopes the College can become involved in more radio shows in the future.
