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Wen Stephenson
Wen Stephenson

Wen Stephenson is On Point’s senior producer. He came to WBUR and public radio from The Boston Globe, where he was the editor of the paper’s widely read Sunday “Ideas” section, directing coverage of political, cultural, and intellectual developments driving the news.

Before joining the Globe, Stephenson served on the editorial staff of PBS’s Frontline, where he was managing editor of the series’ Web edition from 2001 to 2004. And from 1994 to 2001, he was an editor at The Atlantic Monthly, serving five years as editorial director of new media and shaping the magazine’s acclaimed digital edition and online journal, Atlantic Unbound.

Stephenson has written for The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The American Prospect, and other publications. Although his family hails from Texas, he was born and raised in Southern California. After graduating from Harvard University in 1990, he traveled widely in Asia, did graduate work in English at the University of Chicago, then left the ivory tower for journalism.

Wen lives near Boston with his wife and their two children.

On Point Today
Hour 2
The Christmas Revels
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 Christmas Revels

The Christmas Revels invade our studio for old Wessex carols, a Somerset Wassail, and Thomas Hardy’s “Under the Greenwood Tree.”

Comments [1]
 
Hour 1
Hope in Hard Times
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 hope1

Theologian Martin Marty and physician Jerome Groopman join us for a conversation about hope in turbulent times — where we find it, and how we hold on.

Comments [13]

Recent Shows
Cures, Quacks, and Medicine Men
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Frontier Medicine

A new look at frontier medicine, and the wildest tonics of the old Wild West.

Comments [11]
 
Caroline Kennedy’s Senate Bid
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, listens to a reporter's question during a news conference at City Hall in Buffalo, N.Y. on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008. Kennedy is campaigning for the open Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.  (AP Photo/Don Heupel)

Caroline Kennedy reaches for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. We look at the politics, the history, at Caroline, and the national mythology, all in play.

Comments [29]
On Point Blog
Here, for the holidays…
By Eileen Imada

One of the great pleasures of directing On Point is that I hear just about every show we produce. And around the holidays, I listen back to some of our best shows to rebroadcast while the staff takes a well-deserved break. This year we’ve reached deep into our archives for some gems of the past [...]

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Canon Wars, Cont.
By John Wihbey

Jay Parini, Middlebury College professor and jack-of-all-literary trades, makes the case in our second hour today for America’s thirteen “representative” books in his new tome “The Promised Land.” Of course, the idea of a great list or “canon” of hallowed must-reads is a controversial one, having its roots in now age-old academic wars. It’s fraught with huge [...]

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How Much to Pay the College Prez?
By John Wihbey

Today’s second hour looks at how the financial crisis is hitting higher education. And as belts tighten, it’s perhaps inevitable that executive compensation – the big payouts to people at the top – will come under scrutiny in academia as it has on Wall Street and in Detroit. In fact, officials at Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University [...]

More » | Comments [5]