The Infinite Mind
Encyclopedia
The Infinite Mind public radio series
The Infinite Mind was a one-hour, national, weekly public radio series that aired from 1998 to 2008. It was independently produced and distributed by the Peabody Award-winning Lichtenstein Creative Media. The program was hosted by Dr. Fred Goodwin, the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, and later by best selling author Dr. Peter Kramer (Dr. Goodwin served as guest host on various shows during this time). Public radio's John HockenberryJohn Hockenberry
John Charles Hockenberry is an American journalist and author. A four-time Emmy Award winner and three-time Peabody Award winner, Hockenberry has worked in media since 1980....
provided weekly commentary.
The program examined all aspects of neuroscience, mental health, and the mind. With nearly one million listeners weekly and 30 major journalism honors, including a U.N. Media Award for a program on "War," five National Headliner Awards, and three Gracie Awards, and nearly one million listeners weekly, "The Infinite Mind" was public radio's most honored and listened to health and science program. According to the show's producers, "The Infinite Mind" looked at "how the brain works, and why it sometimes does not, covering mental health, neuroscience and the mind/body connection from scientific, cultural and policy perspectives." The series was a non-profit production with a staff of 10, including three producers, and was reportedly budgeted for approximately $20,000 per episode. Major underwriters included the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the MacArthur Foundation, William P. Grant Foundation, and federally regulated unrestricted educational grants from Eli Lilly & Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. According to the New York Times, the program went from 168 public radio stations in 2001, with an average audience of about 500,000, to 240 stations and twice that many listeners in 2008. Because it was syndicated, it ran at different times in each market. Lichtenstein Creative Media's president Bill Lichtenstein was the show's creator and executive producer and June Peoples served as show producer.
The Infinite Mind: Topics and Guests
In the decade starting 1998, the program was widely hailed for helping create a national dialog on the science and art of the human mind, neuroscience, mental health and the mind/body connection. The series aired major one hour comprehensive programs on such topics as Autism (1998); Hoarding and Clutter (1999), Bullying (2003), Aspergers' Syndrome (2004); Alzheimer's (2001); Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (2000); Depression in the Brain (2004); Gambling (2003); Mental Health and Immigrants (2001); Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (2001); Schizoaffective Disorder (2006); and Teen Suicide (1999).In the two months following the September 11th attacks, the "The Infinite Mind" produced a series of five programs on the mental health impact of the terrorism, which were first national programs to examine the mental health impact of 9/11, as well as two live "State of Mind" broadcasts that featured guests Tipper Gore, Rosalynn Carter, Al Franken, Judy Collins, David Straithairn, Surgeon General David Satcher and Marian Wright Edelman, among others. For the broadcasts, producers did groundbreaking primary research http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-82748302.html with the American Psychological Association into the of extent PTSD and trauma nationally following the September 11th attacks.
The program featured the leading experts in the field of neuroscience, mental health and the mind, including Dr. Steven Hyman, immediate past Director, National Institute of Mental Health; Steven Pinker, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT; Dr. Bernard Arons, National Institute of Mental Health; Dr. Robert J. Ursano, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences; Dr. David Clark, Director of the Center for Suicide Research and Prevention at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago; Ira Katz, Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Norman Rosenthal, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Georgetown Medical School ; Dr. Trey Sunderland, Chief, Geriatric Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health; Dr. Robert Pynoos, UCLA Department of Psychiatry; Connie Lieber, President, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression; Charles Curie, Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Mary Guardino, Founder and Executive Director, Freedom From Fear; Dr. Jan Fawcett, Rush Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center; Dr. Tom Wehr, Chief, Biological Rhythms in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health; Dr. Peter Jensen, Director, Center for the Advancement of Children’s Mental Health, Columbia University; Dr. Nancy Andreasen, University of Iowa; Dr. Herbert Meltzer, Vanderbilt Medical Center; Dr. Lee Cohen, Harvard University; and Janice and Dr. Demetri Papalos, authors of “The Bipolar Child”; and Dr. Alexander Glassman, Chief of Clinical Pharmacology, New York Psychiatric Institute.
In addition to world-leading scientific researchers and medical professionals, The Infinite Mind featured subjects of interest to a broad listening audience with celebrity guests including author John Updike; actors including Carey Fisher; Stanley Tucci; Anthony Edwards; Mercedes Ruehl; Margot Kidder and David Straithairn; comedians Richard Lewis and Lewis Black; the Firesign Theater; author William Styron and his wife Rose Styron; baseball batting champ Wade Boggs; former First Lady Rosalynn Carter; documentary filmmaker Ric Burns; television pioneer Norman Lear; business journalist James Cramer; Tipper Gore; Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman; and live performances and discussions with musicians including Aimee Mann, Jessye Norman, Judy Collins, Suzanne Vega, Janis Ian, Laurie Anderson, Cowboy Junkies, Loudon Wainwright III, Philip Glass, and Emanuel Ax, and the casts of the Broadway hits “Avenue Q” and “Wicked.”
The Infinite Mind and Virtual Reality/Second Life
Lichtenstein Creative Media was a pioneer of the social uses of the on-line 3-D virtual world, Second Life. For "The Infinite Mind," Lichtenstein Creative Media produced the first ever concert and live radio broadcasts from Second Life in August 2006, with singer Suzanne Vega, author Kurt Vonnegut who appeared in avatar form, Internet visionary Howard Reingold, and design guru John Maeda.Fred Goodwin and The Infinite Mind
On May May 9, 2008, Slate.com posted an article about an episode of "The Infinite Mind" during which the show discussed medications for depression, and the participants on the program had previously been involved with research projects that had received funding from pharmaceutical companies, although not disclosed in the program. At the same time, every one of the experts on the program, including Dr. Goodwin, had recently been interviewed by such programs and outlets as PBS's News Hour, NPR, New York Times and CNN discussing mental health issues, yet none of these reports cited the experts pharmaceutical ties. (For example, see CNN's report on the shooting at Northern Illinois University which featured Dr. Nada Stotland and Dr. Fred Goodwin, who were both on The Infinite Mind episode cited by Slate, yet CNN did not mention any of the drug company research ties.) ]On November 21, 2008, the New York Times reported that the staff of Senator Charles Grassley
Chuck Grassley
Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley is the senior United States Senator from Iowa . A member of Republican Party, he previously served in the served in the United States House of Representatives and the Iowa state legislature...
had "uncovered" the fact that host Dr. Fred Goodwin had received "at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers, income not mentioned on the program," largely speaking fees for talks to clinicians. Dr. Goodwin told the New York Times that The Infinite Mind's Executive Producer, Bill Lichtenstein, was aware of his activities, while Lichtenstein said he had not been informed. However, in 2005, recognizing that Dr. Goodwin's involvement with some drug companies might be seen to be in conflict with his role as host, he and Lichtenstein agreed that he would assume the role of guest host, involved only with programs that did not relate to treatment issues. Dr. Peter Kramer served as regular host during this time. When Dr. Goodwin resumed his role as host in 2008, he was no longer involved in pharmaceutical speaking activities.
A week after the New York Times story appeared, the public radio series, "On the Media," ran a story attacking Lichtenstein, citing an anonymous source affiliated with the program had confirmed Goodwin had informed producers. However, three months later, on March 12, 2008, "On the Media" stated that, aside from the corroboration given by the anonymous source, they had no evidence Lichtenstein or the show's producers knew about Goodwin's fees and carried a full on-air retraction. "On the Media's" host, Brooke Gladstone, apologized for what she called the "lapse of journalistic judgment" in the report, which relied on an unnamed source to corroborate Goodwin's contention that Lichtenstein was aware of the speaking fees.
In a follow-up report, The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch wrote: "After the funding was revealed publicly, Goodwin attempted to claim that he had informed the show's producer, Bill Lichtenstein, of his financial ties to drugmakers (a claim initially echoed by National Public Radio's 'On the Media' show). Now Lichtenstein is claiming vindication, and NPR has issued a retraction and public apology for its claim that Lichtenstein knew.