Lawrence Wright

Journalism and The Middle East

Join KUT’s Rebecca McInroy along with Lawrence Wright, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” and Jamal Khashoggi of The Washington Post, to talk about how identities, relationships, imaginations, and policies are shaped and understood through various media lenses, to illuminate what truths are hidden by the facts.

Special thanks for making this even possible go to The University of Texas Department of Middle Eastern Studies and Karin Wilkins.

Texas Standard: April 17, 2018

The Commander is Chief wields a lot of power over U-S military action, but where do those powers begin and end? We’ll explore. Also, it’s been almost 10 years since Hurricane Ike devastated Galveston. But the city still hasn’t rebuilt much of the housing many depend on. And it’s been exactly 5 years since a fire and explosion at a Central Texas fertilizer plant killed 15 people and destroyed a large part of a small city. What’s been done to prevent another catastrophe like West, Texas? Also, Pulitzer prize-winning author Lawrence Wright’s new book hits shelves today. “God Save Texas” is all about the state he calls home, including what he describes as AM and FM Texas. Plus we’ll hear the argument for why it seems Texas lawmakers could have been drunk when writing the liquor laws. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

V&B: The New Pornography of Violence

It’s not an easy discussion, but rather a necessary one. Pornography of Violence refers to the depiction of violent behavior—as in pictures, still or video—in a sensational manner so as to arouse excitement, or a quick intense emotional reaction. During our conversation with NPR’s  John Burnett  and Pulitzer prize winning author and screenwriter Lawrence Wright , we discuss the exponential increase in the violent imagery of war, from Al Queda to Los Zetas, and what impact it has on our idea of war and peace.