1. Kids
EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT SPACE University of Arizona / Modified jul 30, 2025 6:38 p.m.

Is television watching us? "TV's American Dream: U.S. Television after the Great Recession"

Also on Arizona Spotlight: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins to peer through space and time; and memories of growing up unsupervised in the 1950s. by Mark McLemore

Observatory Sky hero Starting later in 2025, Rubin Observatory's decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will generate an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse record of the Universe.
RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/DOE/NSF/AURA/H. Stockebrand

Arizona Spotlight

July 31, 2025

NPR
(Download MP3)

Featured on the July 31st, 2025 edition of ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT with host Mark McLemore:

  • The University of Arizona-backed Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun to reveal its first images of deep space. Tony Perkins tells how scientists are using this new tool to map the heavens, and create “The Legacy Survey of Space and Time”.

Observatory Cerro Pachón hero The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is located on Cerro Pachón in Chile.
RubinObs/NSF/DOE/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/W. O'Mullane

Observatory Telescope hero The Simonyi Survey Telescope inside NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory during the First Look Observing Campaign.
RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)

  • The definition of the phrase “the American dream” has slowly transformed over time, and a new book explores the many ways it has been reflected on television. Mark talks with UA Professor Barbara Selznick about “TV’s American Dream: U.S. Television after the Great Recession”, and the evolution of some of the most popular TV series of the 21st century.
Barbara Selznick Studio unsized VIEW LARGER Dr. Barbara Selznick, author of "TV's American Dream: U.S. Television after the Great Recession", in the AZPM Radio Studio.
AZPM / Zoe Juliano
TV's American Dream unsized VIEW LARGER "TV's American Dream: U.S. Television after the Great Recession" by Dr. Barbara Selznick.
  • And, from Archive Tucson, the oral history project of the U of A Libraries Special Collections, listen to some memories of what it was like to grow up in Tucson in the late 1950s, when children were given more time and space to explore the world around them.

archive tucson logo hero “Archive Tucson” is an oral history project of Special Collections at the University of Arizona Libraries. You can find many stories from Tucson's past at archivetucson.com.
courtesy Special Collections

Special Collections Library hero The Special Collections wing of the University of Arizona Libraries.
AZPM / Tony Paniagua

Arizona Spotlight
Arizona Spotlight airs every Thursday at 8:30 am and 6:00 pm and every Friday at 8:00 pm on NPR 89.1 FM / 1550 AM. You can subscribe to our podcast on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, or the NPR App. See more from Arizona Spotlight.

Webpage by Zoe Juliano.

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