The Open Mind (TV series)
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The Open Mind is a nationally broadcast public affairs interview program. It is the longest running program in the history of American public television and was first broadcast in May 1956.[1] Its creator, Richard Heffner, engaged in a "thoughtful excursion into the world of ideas" across politics, media, technology, the arts and realms of civic life, and was host until his death on December 17, 2013.[2] Alexander Heffner, Richard Heffner's grandson, took over as the program's host in 2014.[3]
History
The Open Mind was conceived to elicit meaningful insights into the challenges that society faces in contemporary areas of public concern. The program's title is attributed to a quote of Barnard College dean Virginia Gildersleeve (1877–1965), "Have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out."[4] The theme music chosen by Heffner, "World Without Time," is by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra from their LP Adventures in Time.
In 2023, the producer of The Open Mind released a special series of conversations with elected officials over meals in their home states, Breaking Bread with Alexander, that premiered on Bloomberg TV and are now available on The Open Mind.[5][6] Season 2 launched on July 4, 2024 and was released on Bloomberg Originals and The Open Mind.[7]
Guests
Thousands of guests have appeared on the program, including:
- Civil rights and human rights leaders - Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Elie Wiesel, Gloria Steinem
- Politicians - John Thune, Doug Burgum, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, John Fetterman, Michele Lujan Grisham, Shelley Moore Capito, Eugene McCarthy, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Lugar, Dianne Feinstein, Ernesto Zedillo, Omar Saif Ghobash
- Authors and journalists - William F. Buckley, Salman Rushdie, James Patterson, Judy Blume, Isaac Asimov, Robert Caro, Neil Postman, William Safire, Carrie Sheffield, Frank Bruni, Jean Guerrero, Isobel Yeung
- Economists - Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan, Paul Krugman, Peter G. Peterson
- Doctors - Jonas Salk, Bill Frist, Thomas Frieden, Laurie Glimcher, Nora Volkow
- Jurists and lawyers - Thurgood Marshall, Stephen Breyer, Robert Bork, Martha Minow, Judith Kaye
- Academics - Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Keith Whittington, Zeynep Tufekci, James Hansen
- Technologists - Mitchell Baker, Biz Stone, Blake Irving, Sue Gardner
- Historians - John Hope Franklin, Michael Ledeen, Richard Brookhiser, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
- Religious figures - Jonathan Sacks, John I. Jenkins, J. Bryan Hehir, Thomas Gumbleton
- University presidents - Michael S. Roth, Vartan Gregorian, Elizabeth Bradley, Mitch Daniels
- Actors and filmmakers - J.B. Smoove, Robert Redford, Joe Weisberg, Norman Lear, Oliver Stone
- Musicians - Macy Gray, Moby, Aloe Blacc, 9th Wonder, Shabaka Hutchings, Ottmar Liebert[8]
See also
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "Richard Heffner, Historian, Teacher, Pioneer of Public Television, is Dead at 88", Rutgers University, December 19, 2013.
- ↑ Cohen, Noam, "'Open Mind' Host Continues Grandfather’s Vision for New Generation", The New York Times, September 28, 2014.
- ↑ Heffner, Richard, The Closing of the American Mind (interview/video/transcript; 1st min's of 29), interview with Allan Bloom, 1987.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Official Website, Archive.
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External links
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- The Open Mind archive at Internet Archive.
- Pages with script errors
- 1956 American television series debuts
- 1950s American television talk shows
- 1960s American television talk shows
- 1970s American television talk shows
- 1980s American television talk shows
- 1990s American television talk shows
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- Black-and-white American television shows
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- PBS original programming