A Renaissance Man For The Modern Age

By Amber Nimocks,

Published March 22, 2011 at 11:47 AM EDT

Leon Botstein is on a mission to make Americans think more. As president of Bard College in New York's Hudson Valley, he pushes science education as well as arts and humanities. This may surprise classical music fans who know him best as the music director and conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. But Botstein clings to a classical view of academics, insisting that knowing something about everything is the best way to create an informed citizenry.

Amber Nimocks

Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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