the new media is the new message

 I'll be hosting one of my occasional Maple Syrup Editions of Virtually Speaking tonight, discussing the work of one of Canada's most famous thinkers, Marshall McLuhan, with another of our country's great, if,  somewhat lesser-known, scholars and opinionmakers, University of Toronto professor  Dr. Brent Wood, whose "insights into McLuhan have a great deal of validity." ( I think he used to teach a course). We will be focusing on McLuhan, but as herr Dr. Prof. Wood is one of my oldest co-conspirators, I suspect our conversation is apt to be fairly broad. He's also run for office under the Green Party banner and so we may just touch on some Canadian political stuff as well -- I know, I know you're shocked to find gambling here at Rick's hear I might want to publicly discuss Canadian politics, but I think I'm to the point now where I can do so with a minimum of obscene language, blind rage and frustrated sobbing.

As I am starting a new job and will be working Sunday nights for the foreseeable future, this is likely to be the last Maple Syrup Edition of Virtually Speaking for little while.

For those new to the whole thing, you can always tune into Virtually Speaking via the little box on the sidebar.

Virtually Speaking is a live program of in-depth, intelligent conversations with well informed opinion makers in media, policy, politics, science, etc. Produced before a digitally present studio audience in Second Life and Webcast at BlogTalkRadio. Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Subscribe free on iTunes | Calendar |Video |Weekly Updates @ FDL @DKos|Facebook

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Most weeks, the VS Sunday panel draws from Avedon Carol, Chicago Dyke, Cliff Schecter, CS Kendrick,  Culture of Truth, David Dayen, digby, Eve Gittleson,  Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler, Stuart Zechman and  Susie Madrak. From time to time, the make-up of the panel shifts. Also, every 5 weeks or so, one of our regular panelists invites a guest to join them.

Sunday, May 29 | 9 pm eastern | Virtually Speaking Sundays: Maple Syrup Edition |Canadian journalist Kevin Wood and Brent Wood | Marshall McLuhan would be 100 this year: Is the global village getting the right message? Listen HERE live and later on Blog Talk Radio.

Tuesday, May 31 | 9 pm eastern | Virtually Speaking Susie | Susie Madrak | | Activist-journalists and citizen journalists stop by to dish about current events and the impact on working or wanting-to-work people. Watch this space for details.  Listen HERE live and later on Blog Talk Radio.

Thursday, June 2 | 8 pm eastern | Virtually Speaking A-Z | Stuart Zechman and Culture of Truth | This week in liberalism…. an ongoing conversation/rant/exploration. Culture of Truth in for Jay Ackroyd. Listen HERE live on Blog Talk Radio. Beginning Friday, June 3 listen here.

Thursday, June 2 | 10 am eastern | Digby (in for Jay) and Howie Klein discuss how to make activism ‘work.‘ | Virtually Speaking w/ Jay Ackroyd | Listen HERE live and later on Blog Talk Radio.

Coming up:

June 5   Joan McCarter and Eve Gittelson

June 9   Peter Moskos In Defense of Flogging

June 11  Dr. Martin Hoffert and Alan Boyle| The case for public investment in a clean energy revolution

June 12  Susie Madrak, John Amato, Dave Neiwert

June 23 Dan Ellsberg and Glenn Greenwald | WikiLeaks, security and the preservation of democracy

We have Internet Relay Chat (IRC) so you can be part of the virtual studio audience (aka chat room), sharing comments and questions while listening to Virtually Speaking live on BlogTalkRadio. Logs are shared with the show hosts and guests.

1. Connect to http://webchat.freenode.net/
2. Create a log-in name
3. Enter #vspeak into the channel field.
4. NOTE: ‘Relay Rinq’ is not a person but a bridge to IRC chat.
5. Type into the text field along the bottom of the screen.
6. Begin your question with ‘QUESTION’ so it’s easy for the host (and me) to spot.