(BLOOMINGTON) – A new public affairs series from WTIU, the Indiana University Office of the Vice Provost for Research, and the Indiana University Media School will explore some of the most challenging issues facing Hoosiers today.
Indiana Matters premieres April 25 at 8 p.m. on WTIU and Facebook Live. This series will cover subjects such as opioid abuse, addiction, aging and Alzheimer’s, affordable health care, and more. Each episode will be centered around one topic and will include a panel of experts and thinkers who will consider the topic in depth.
The first episode of Indiana Matters will focus on environmental change. Guests include Dr. Shahzeen Attari, Pierre-Andre Jacinthe, Janet McCabe, and Jim Poyser. The panel will take questions from host Bruce Kopp and a public audience about climate change in Indiana.
Four episodes are planned for the first season of Indiana Matters. In addition to its broadcast on WTIU, the series will air on other PBS affiliate stations in Indiana including WFYI in Indianapolis, WNIT in South Bend, and Lakeshore Public Television in Merrillville. Check local listings for air dates and times.
Hoosiers are invited to submit their questions and ideas for future shows on the Indiana Matters website wtiu.org/indianamatters.
Indiana Matters is made possible with production support from The Herald-Times.
About the Host
For more than 37 years, Bruce Kopp worked in television news, mainly at WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis. For 25 years, he served as an anchor on the top-rated local morning news broadcast. In his broadcast news career, Kopp served as a field reporter covering business news, technology, consumer news, education, and stories focused on people making a difference in their communities. In addition to hosting Indiana Matters, Kopp currently teaches Broadcast News J343 at the Media School at Indiana University Bloomington.
About the Guests
Dr. Shahzeen Attari, a faculty member of the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University since 2011, focuses on human behavior and resource use. Attari and her lab work on a range of research topics that span perceptions, motivations, and biases of how people understand complex systems and use natural resources. Her work has strong links to both cognitive science and environmental science and has been published in top journals such
as the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Her research has also been summarized in a variety of venues, including the New York Times, The Economist, and BBC.
Pierre-Andre Jacinthe is Professor and Director of the Center for Earth and Environmental Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. His areas of research include nitrogen dynamics and water quality; soil-atmosphere exchange of trace gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O); biogeochemistry of restored wetlands; soil erosion and the global carbon cycle; carbon sequestration; conservation tillage and soil processes.
Janet McCabe is Assistant Director for Policy and Implementation at the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Law at the McKinney School of Law at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. From 2013 to 2017, she was assistant administrator for the Office and Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she shaped and implemented Clean Air Act standards, including the mercury and air toxics standards, the clean power plan and ozone standards.
Jim Poyser is Executive Director of Earth Charter Indiana. Jim Poyser left his two-decade career in journalism because of his urgency regarding climate change and the future of our children and our children’s children. He was trained by the Climate Reality Project and has presented to over 10,000 people, including live presentations, radio interviews, sermons, and a TEDx talk. His climate change game show, The Ain’t Too Late Show, advances his mission of bringing humor to the heavy subject of climate change.
