Chapter & Chatter Cafe - CCLD's Video Podcast
Chapter & Chatter Cafe is Camden County Library District’s (CCLD) video podcast access point that connects cardholders and Camden County residents with CCLD services, facilities, and staff. Enjoy a mixture of current events from a historical standpoint and learn more about what our libraries have to offer, from services to resources to upcoming events.
Join CCLD Director Jim Pasley and talk radio host Kevin “KB” Burns in person or watch our live stream from our YouTube channel for our monthly broadcast of CCLD’s Chapter & Chatter Cafe.
Would you like to join us in person? We invite you to the Camdenton Library to pull up a comfy chair, grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage, explore the world of books, delve into our rich history and current events, and celebrate the vibrant communities that make up the Camden County Library District. The doors will open at 7:30 am, and the show will start at 8 am. If you have any questions on the current topic under discussion, we will provide notecards before the show for you to jot and share with us.
Disclaimer: These podcasts are intended to be free of political affiliation and are provided as a basis for you to further your knowledge on these topics.
Chapter 8: Venezuela
Thursday, September 19, 2024
In chapter eight of our Chapter & Chatter Cafe, Jim and Coli discuss the latest happenings in Venezuela. Watch and then visit the library to conduct your own research and form your own opinion.
Chapter & Chatter Reading Recommendations
- Things are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela by William Neuman
- The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil by Dan Kovalik
- Hugo Chavez by Cristina Marcano
- Axis of Unity: Venezuela, Iran & the Threat to America by Sean Goforth
Chapter 8 Script & PowerPoint Slides
- Chapter & Chatter Cafe Chapter 8: Venezuela (Script)
- Chapter & Chatter Cafe Chapter 8: Venezuela (PowerPoint Slides)
Chapter 7: 1904 World's Fair & Olympics
Thursday, August 15, 2024
In chapter seven of CCLD’s Chapter & Chatter Cafe, Jim and KB travel back to what we would consider a simpler time and enjoy the sights and sounds that would have attracted 20 million people to the St. Louis area in 1904. What are we talking about? The 1904 World’s Fair and 1904 Olympics.
Officially known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the 1904 World’s Fair was held in what we know as Forest Park in St. Louis. While most buildings were built with staff, a combination of plaster of Paris and hemp, two buildings remain from the fair: the Aviary at the St. Louis Zoo and the Art Museum (formerly known as the Art Palace).
The Fair boasted exhibits from fifty foreign countries and forty-three of the forty-five states, the Observation Wheel that stood 265 feet above the fair with 36 train cars (yes, you read that right, train cars) that held 60 people each and took 15 minutes to go around, and used 10,000 laborers to turn 1,200 acres of swamps and thickets into a stunning attraction.
During the eight months that the fair was open, between August 29 and September 3, 1904, the second Olympic games since their 1,500-year hiatus were held in St. Louis. Most of the Olympic events were held on Francis Field, the stadium on the campus of Washington University.
Watch the latest episode to learn more and then visit one of our libraries to conduct your own research.
Topics Include:
- 1904 World’s Fair
- 1904 Olympics
Chapter & Chatter Reading Recommendations
- Inside the World’s Fair of 1904: Exploring the Louisana Purchase Exposition by Elana V. Fox
- Meet Me in St. Louis: A Trip to the 1904 World’s Fair by Robert Jackson
- The World’s Greatest Fair (DVD)
- St. Louis: The 1904 World’s Fair by Joe Sonderman
- St. Louis Olympics 1904 by George R. Matthews
- The Wildest Race Ever: The Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon by Meghan McCarthy
- America’s First Olympics: The St. Louis Games of 1904 by George R. Matthews
Chapter 7 Script & PowerPoint Slides
Chapter 6: China & Taiwan
Thursday, July 18, 2024
In chapter six of CCLD’s Chapter & Chatter Cafe Jim and KB sit down and discuss the history of China & Taiwan.
As a little background, Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese military and political leader who led the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) for five decades and was head of state of the Chinese Nationalist government between 1928 and 1949.
In 1946, a civil war broke out between the Kuomintang Party and the Communists, and in 1949 the Communists were victorious thus establishing the People’s Republic of China. Chiang and the remaining Kuomingtang forces fled to Taiwan where Chiang established a government in exile, The Republic of China and he led that for the next 25 years, until his death on April 5, 1975. Under Chiang’s rule, Taiwan was a part of the United Nations until 1972, when its seat was formally lost to the People’s Republic of China (Mao Zedong & eventually Xi Jinping).
Watch the latest episode to learn more and then visit one of our libraries to conduct your own research.
Topics Include:
- China
- Taiwan
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Chinese Nationalist Party
- Kuomintang Party
- Republic of China
- People’s Republic of China
- Mao Zedong
- Xi Jinping
- Chinese Communist Part
Chapter & Chatter’s Reading Recommendations
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Qing Dynasty
- Taiwan
- Korean War
- The People’s Republic of China
- The Chinese Communist Party
- Mao Zedong
- Xi Jinping
Chapter 6 Script & PowerPoint Slides
Chapter 5: History of Education
Thursday, June 6, 2024
In chapter five of CCLD’s Chapter & Chatter Cafe Jim and KB sit down and discuss the history of education.
From the 1650s to the 1850s, America produced several generations of highly skilled and literate men and women who laid the foundation for a nation dedicated to the principles of freedom and self-government.
Children who grew up at this time were not educated in formal classrooms, rather they learned how to read, write, and figure sums at the knees of their mothers, and then as they grew older, especially boys, their education was rounded out by their fathers in the fields and barns.
At this time parents believed that it was their responsibility to not only teach them how to make a living, but also how to live.
Watch the latest episode to learn more and then visit one of our libraries to conduct your own research.
Topics Include:
- Education at home
- The government’s role in early education
- Government’s role in education today
- Where and how most early Americans received their education
Chapter & Chatter’s Reading Recommendations
- The Educated Child: A Parent’s Guide by William J. Bennett
- The Natural Laws of Children: Why Children Thrive When We Understand How Their Brains are Wired by Celine Alvarez
- Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn — And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
- How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough
- Every Child Ready for School: Helping Adults Inspire Young Children to Learn by Dorothy Stoltz
- You, Raising Your Child: The Owner’s Manual from First Breath to First Grade by Michael F. Roizen
- The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind by Justin Driver
- Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom by Kerry McDonald
Chapter 5 Script & PowerPoint Slides + Bonus Material
- Chapter & Chatter Cafe Chapter 5: History of Education (Script)
- Chapter & Chatter Cafe Chapter 5: History of Education (PowerPoint Slides)
- When Benjamin Franklin Shocked Himself While Attempting to Electrocute a Turkey by Timothy J. Jorgensen – Smithsonian Magazine – November 22, 2021
Chapter 4: The Federalist Papers
Thursday, May 9, 2024
In chapter four of CCLD’s Chapter & Chatter Cafe Jim and KB sit down to discuss the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers’ role in forming our government. Are we holding to those ideas today? Watch the discussion and then visit any of our libraries to conduct your own research.
Topics Include:
- Madison’s determination to avoid the fate of those “ancient and modern confederacies” (Ancient Greece & Athens)
- Shay’s Rebellion
- Who were the writers of the Federalist Papers and how many were written
- Who were the writers of the Anti-Federalist Papers and what role did they play
- What is the role of the Bill of Rights
- Understanding why the “necessary and proper” clause is used so much
Chapter & Chatter’s Reading Recommendations
- James Madison
- Thomas Jefferson
- Alexander Hamilton
- Shay’s Rebellion (Daniel Shay)
- The US Constitution
- The Federalist Papers
- The Anti-Federalist Papers
- John Jay
- Samuel Bryan
- Melancton Smith
- Richard Henry Lee
- Robert Yates
- George Clinton
- Patrick Henry
- The Bill of Rights
Chapter 4 Script & PowerPoint Slides
Chapter 3: Israel & Hamas
Thursday, April 25, 2024
In chapter three of CCLD’s Chapter & Chatter Cafe Jim and KB sit down to discuss the latest news on the unrest between Israel and Hamas. They also dive a little deeper into the history of this region.
Topics Include:
- Two branches of Israel — Sunni & Shia
- Gaza Strip
- Iran
- Palestine
- Hamas
- Hezbollah
- Fatahs
- Houthis
Chapter & Chatter Reading Recommendations
- Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of Mossad by Thomas Gordon
- The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter that Transformed the Middle East by Abraham Ravinovich
- Sharon: The Life of a Leader by Gilad Sharon
- The Anti-Israel Agenda: Inside the Political War on the Jewish State by Alex Ryvchin
- Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch
- Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas
- Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef
- Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore by Jay Sekulow
- The Brotherhood: America’s Next Great Enemy by Erick Stakelbeck
- The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of Settlements, 1967 – 1977 by Gershom Gorenberg
Chapter 3 Script & Powerpoint Slides
Chapter 2: Russia & Ukraine
Thursday, April 11, 2024
In chapter two of CCLD’s Chapter & Chatter Cafe Jim and KB sit down and discuss the history of Russia and Ukraine.
Topics Included:
- Background information on the recent Russian & Ukrainian conflict
- Who is the UN Security Council
- Difference between Russia and the Soviet Union
- Ukraine’s history from being a Slavic state to their autonomous state for over 100 years to being mostly absorbed by the Russian Empire in the 18th century
- Ukraine famine — Holodomor — starting early in the 20th century
- Ukraine’s independence from Russia in 1991
Chapter & Chatter Cafe Reading Recommendations
- Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum
- The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire by Brian Crozier
- Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? Understanding Historical Change by Robert W. Strayer
- War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine by Mikhail Zygar’
- Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine by Mark Galeotti
- United Nations and How it Works by David Cushman Coyle
- The Five Permanent Members of the Security Council: Responsibilities and Roles by Ida Walker
- United Nations: A History by Stanley Meisier
Keywords to further your search: Vladimir Putin, Joseph Stalin, The United Nations, The UN Security Council, Crimea, Ukraine, Kyivan Russia, Vikings, Czarist Russia, the Soviet Union, the Romanov Dynasty, and the Holodomor
Chapter 2 Script & PowerPoint Slides
- Chapter & Chatter Cafe Chapter 2 – Russia & Ukraine
- Chapter & Chatter Cafe Chapter 2 – Russia & Ukraine PowerPoint Slides
Note: The Painting Event at the Stoutland Library will happen on Friday, April 26, 2024, not April 16. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Chapter 1: Immigration
Thursday, March 28, 2024
In this premiere episode, CCLD Director Jim Pasley and talk radio host, Kevin “KB” Burns discuss the history of immigration.
Some of the topics covered include:
- 1795 Naturalization law
- 1798 Alien Enemies Act, Friends Act, & the Alien Sedition Act signed into law by John Adams
- 1875 exclusion law banning prostitutes and convicts from entering the United States
- The years between 1860 and 1915, when Congress decided immigrants should pass a medical exam and have no criminal record before being able to immigrate to the United States
Chapter & Chatter Cafe Recommendations
- The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845 – 1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith
- Germans to America: 300 Years of Immigration, 1683 to 1983
- Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America by Kerby A. Miller
- Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami
- Destination America by Charles Wills
Chapter Script & PowerPoint Slides