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Life & Times Transcript
5/18/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- His work with rats offers hope for humans. Is stem cell research paying off? Dr. Hans Keirstead>> The moment Christopher Reeve died, the first moment that I received the call, it was quite soon after his death. The first thought in my head was we didn't get there fast enough. Val Zavala>> And then, they set out to bring theater to a wider audience and ended up with the audience on stage. We profile Los Angeles's Cornerstone Theater. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> After years of controversy and legal delays, state money for stem cell research is beginning to flow and universities and hospitals are building up their programs. But in Orange County at UC Irvine, they've been doing stem cell research for years and, as Roger Cooper tells us, it's paying off. Roger Cooper>> In this animation, it's easy to see. There is something wrong with this rat. Because of spinal cord injury, the rat is partially paralyzed, dragging its rear legs. But after treatment with stem cells, remarkable change. The simulation shows results achieved in real lab rats, a breakthrough first accomplished at UC Irvine. The question now is, if rats can be made to walk again, can humans? Dr. Hans Keirstead>> It works in rats. Let's hope it works in humans. Roger Cooper>> Causing rats to walk again is just one aspect of the research into human embryonic stem cells. UCI is now a major center for investigation in stem cells, cells that have the ability to grow into any kind of tissue in the body. Dr. Hans Keirstead>> In my laboratory, I've got thirty-two researchers. Roger Cooper>> Hans Keirstead is the neurobiologist who injected stem cells into rats. Dr. Hans Keirstead>> I started my career here at UCI trying to find new ways, new angles, to approach spinal cord injury. Roger Cooper>> Spinal injury blocks signals from the rat's brain to its feet. In essence, Keirstead grew stem cells that could reconnect the broken wiring or axons. Dr. Hans Keirstead>> I found that, after spinal cord injury, the encasement that allows axons or wires of the spinal cord to conduct electricity is removed, so I designed a therapy that involved replacing the cell type that put the wrapping on the wires of the spinal cord. In effect, what we have done is restore the ability of the injured spinal cord to conduct electricity above and below the injury site. Roger Cooper>> His findings are dramatic, but could the stem cell therapy work on people who were paralyzed? Keirstead would like to find out through human trials, but that puts him on a collision course with the Bush administration. President Bush has steadfastly refused to allow federal funding of such research because human embryos are destroyed. Researcher Peter Donovan says that's why much of the stem cell research here at UCI is done with money from Proposition 71. Proposition 71 is the three billion dollar bond measure that California voters approved in 2004. It supports research that the federal government will not. Peter Donovan>> The federal restrictions are meant that we can't do certain work using equipment that was bought by the federal government in a lab space that's partly funded by the federal government. It's meant that we've had to duplicate equipment, duplicate lab space at enormous costs. Roger Cooper>> Donovan and Keirstead understand the views of stem cell critics who are opposed to using cells from human embryos, but Donovan points out -- Peter Donovan>> Those embryos typically will either remain in frozen storage forever or will eventually be destroyed, so we feel that that is a good and moral use of those embryos. Dr. Hans Keirstead>> Why throw away? Why discard this wonderful tissue that we've been provided with, a beautiful, wonderful cell with tremendous potential, the fertilized egg? Why destroy that thing if it is in excess? Why not use it and try to better situations that are causing misery for thousands and tens of thousands of humans? Roger Cooper>> Keirstead says that working in a research environment where all federal equipment must be avoided can be a challenge and an annoyance. Do you ever sit at your microscope and think the president of the United States doesn't want me to do this? Dr. Hans Keirstead>> (Laughter) I sit at my microscope a lot and I think about politics a great deal. I have to be very much in tune with federal policies so that the pencil in my pocket is not purchased with NIH funds, with federal dollars, if I write in my stem cell notebook. The repercussions for me is jail and a million dollar fine. That's tremendous. I'm very, very much aware of federal policy. Roger Cooper>> But now that the Proposition 71 money has started to arrive from the state, California is rapidly becoming the place to be for stem cell research. Peter Donovan>> It's allowing the funding of young people to get into this field. I mean, those are the people, in twenty years time, who will be doing this work and will have moved it forward. Roger Cooper>> The late actor, Christopher Reeve, stayed in close contact with this team of stem cell researchers at UCI and often visited the Reeve-Irvine Spinal Cord Center on campus that bears his name. Dr. Hans Keirstead>> The moment Christopher Reeve died, the first moment that I received the call, was quite soon after his death. The first thought in my head was we didn't get there fast enough and I still feel bad over that. Roger Cooper>> Keirstead has been concentrating on methods to repair injured spinal cords since he was a post-doctoral Fellow at Cambridge University. He wanted to harness the ability of embryonic stem cells to become whatever type of cell is needed. It proved to be the key. After joining the faculty at UCI, he successfully used those cells to get a rat walking around. Dr. Hans Keirstead>> Christopher never wanted to be the first, but he wanted to be amongst the first. I feel bad that the research field, the political arena, wasn't fast enough to move so that we could have provided a treatment for that man. Roger Cooper>> However long it takes, Donovan says that stem cell potential is enormous. Peter Donovan>> And I think that what we can do with these cells is almost just held back by imagination, certainly to make specialized cell types to treat heart disease, to treat disorders of the brain or muscle or whatever body system. Dr. Hans Keirstead>> Every hundred years, one or two major advancements happen in medical science and stem cells are one of them, without a doubt. This is a field that affects every single human disease, every single human ailment. Roger Cooper>> But that will take time and that means attracting the next generation of scientists. Keirstead does that by breaking the lab code stereotype of a scientist. He flies helicopters, plays beach volleyball and has shown up in the pages of the magazine, Men's Vogue. What's a nice scientist like you doing turning up in Men's Vogue? Dr. Hans Keirstead>> (Laughter) Men's Vogue falls into a category for me of public outreach. Show people what it's like to be a scientist. You know, we're not a bunch of crazy freaks hanging around laboratories, but we're people who are excited and are having fun and are doing meaningful research. Roger Cooper>> Peter Donovan agrees. Peter Donovan>> With these cells, you have to look after them every day, so there are no weekends off. To get a break now and again, you know, you'd go crazy otherwise. It's very important to have a life outside of science. Roger Cooper>> It's estimated that, in the United States alone, there are a quarter million people with some degree of spinal cord injury, almost forty percent from car accidents. All the more reason Keirstead wants to begin human trials as soon as it is safe to do so. At UC Irvine in Orange County, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> Well, it looks as though the Los Angeles Times will once again be owned by an out-of-towner. The Chicago-based Tribune Company is selling it to a Chicago-based real estate tycoon. Many Angelenos would like to see the Times owned by someone local, but does local ownership really make a difference to good journalism? For a lively conversation, we brought three people together around our Kitchen Table. David Lehrer is President of CommUnity Advocates, Inc. Joining him are Jay Harris, professor of journalism at USC's Annenberg School for Communication where he specializes in journalism and democracy, and Henry Weinstein, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Los Angeles Times known for his integrity and outspokenness. The Kitchen Table is made possible by Ralph Tornberg. David Lehrer>> For a hundred twenty years, the Los Angeles Times was locally owned and had constancy of leadership and then all of a sudden, a few years ago, it's owned by a corporation in Chicago. How does that change what we read every day in the newspaper? Jay Harris>> Well, actually, I think the one hundred twenty year tradition of local ownership demonstrates quite clearly that local ownership can be a good or a bad thing. If one goes back to the ownership by the Chandler family in the 1950s, in the 1940s, in the 1930s, going back, there's not a lot to be proud of there from the journalistic standpoint. On the other hand, we can see a period from the time when it was Otis Chandler who then ran the paper of improvement and excellence. So in the end, it is, I believe, the values of the owner, whether they put profit and business values ahead of the public trust responsibilities of the newspaper or vice versa that matters most. David Lehrer>> Henry, from the inside -- and you've been through the period from the good Chandlers and then the Chicago Tribune owning it -- what do you think? Henry Weinstein>> I think most of the people working at the paper would prefer to have a local owner because they feel that a local owner has a greater stake in the community, that a local owner is more likely to be responsive to some of the concerns of the community, you know, such as the importance of improving the schools, having the public hospital perform well. But as we also can see, as Jay said, there were bad times in an earlier era. You know, all you have to do is look at Santa Barbara and you can see what an odious local owner can do to a newspaper. David Lehrer>> Now the Los Angeles Times has really performed a unique function in Los Angeles over, let's say, the past sixty years. Do you think that is going to be changing now? Do you think that, because of the cuts that have taken place and seem to be on the boards coming up, that the Times' ability to deliver a quality product is going to be effected? Henry Weinstein>> Well, we're definitely in a struggle to maintain the role that we've had. The quality of the work has stayed very good over the past several years despite cuts, but we could be approaching a tipping point if we have more cuts. If you shrink the size of the news hole, then you're not performing your essential role which is to, you know, tell your readers about the most important events affecting their lives and to dig in and expose problems that people didn't know about. The fact is, that covering a war in Iraq well, you know, exposing problems at Martin Luther King Hospital, that takes boots on the ground. You know, elves don't manufacture this work. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and it costs money. Good journalism is labor-intensive. David Lehrer>> As a dispassionate observer, you're not of the Times as somebody who's experienced the newspapers. Do you see a change in the quality? Jay Harris>> I don't think you've seen one yet of consequence, but I wouldn't expect to because the erosion of institutional capacity takes time. It takes time to be visible and, actually, frequently the first places it will happen are the places you're least likely to see. For many decades, we did not see the Latino community represented in the pages of the Los Angeles Times. That could happen again because of cuts. The more nuanced parts of political coverage of the watchdog function of government. It starts to erode and I would have to say, given recent history in the newspaper business, that the odds, sadly, are more likely than not that we will see it here in Los Angeles at the Times. Henry Weinstein>> What's particularly distressing about this -- I mean, there are many things about this -- but one, to walk around town, you would think talking to some people that this was a failing institution. In fact, this is an institution that is succeeding much better than many American businesses. It's had a profit margin of about twenty percent or it might be in the teens this year. The fact is, that's more than double the amount of money that Wal-Mart makes. I think what's particularly frustrating -- David Lehrer>> -- wait. Let's repeat that. The Los Angeles Times makes now -- Henry Weinstein>> -- a profit margin twice as much as Wal-Mart does, yes, absolutely. David Lehrer>> So notwithstanding that return on investment, there's an effort to pare down things even more. Henry Weinstein>> Right. What's sad is that there are people that would like to own this newspaper that have said they would take an eight to ten percent margin. I can tell you, this newspaper, if you had an owner with an eight to ten percent margin, would be a much better newspaper than it is now. We could expand our coverage in enormous numbers of areas and dramatically increase our capability on the Web. One of the tragedies I really see about this is that we now have more readers overall than we ever had before. When you take both the people that subscribe to the paper and if you look at how many people are reading this on the Web, which is many, many, many more. The problem that all newspapers are facing now, and we're among them, is that we've lost advertising from the paper and have not made up the advertising on the Internet yet. David Lehrer>> So what would your prescription be to assure a quality newspaper for the citizens of Los Angeles? Jay Harris>> I think that the citizens of Los Angeles have to care much more about their paper than they do and have some understanding of what the paper owes to them and owes to the city and, as has been the case with much social change in other areas, the citizens will get as much as they demand and will get as little as they are willing to take. David Lehrer>> And your prescription? Henry Weinstein>> Something important to remember is that, you know, some great journalism and some highly relevant journalism does not affect the bottom line whatsoever. You take a look at the Martin Luther King series, which was a fabulous series exposing deep-seated problems at the most important public hospital in the poorest part of our community. You know, it performed a great public service, got a Pulitzer Prize. That doesn't help the bottom line in and of itself. The fact is, that some good public service journalism and highly relevant journalism does not simply immediately, you know, bump up your bottom line. We have not done a good enough job of going out and telling our story and talking about what we do. I think we need to be out in the community much more. I mean, obviously, we can't as reporters, you know, engage in political campaigns or something like that, but I do think that journalists all over the country need to be more engaged in waging a campaign about the importance of the First Amendment and what it provides to people in a democratic society because, one thing you know, in dictatorships, the first thing they do is shut down a free press. David Lehrer>> Right. Well, on that optimistic note, thank you, Henry, and thank you, Jay, for joining us today. Jay Harris>> Thanks for having us. Henry Weinstein>> Thank you. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> You don't have to take out your credit card and pay eighty dollars for a theater ticket these days. Here in Los Angeles, we're lucky. We have something called the Cornerstone Theater and, as Vicki Curry tells us, it gives people a feel for the stage from the stage. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> A group of people are gathered in downtown Los Angeles. They come from different neighborhoods and range in age and ethnicity, but they have one thing in common. They're all here to put on a play. Bill Rauch>> "So tonight is our first time to begin to work toward how the play is going to end." Vicki Curry>> This is the Cornerstone Theater Company doing the same thing it's done for two decades, taking live theater to different communities and casting local residents to work with the company. Bill Rauch>> We make plays that involve usually first-time artists alongside professional members of our ensemble and the plays are always set in or somehow about the community that we're collaborating with and that we're performing for. Vicki Curry>> Bill Rauch is the Artistic Director of Cornerstone. Since 1986, the company has staged over fifty plays across the country. Bill Rauch>> We wanted to do something that was not about doing work in kind of the cultural palaces, if you will, of theater around the country, but to deliberately go into, you know, the church basements or the social hall or, you know, the community space, and create the highest level, most innovative professional theater we could in very unusual community settings. Vicki Curry>> Cornerstone has built a national reputation for reaching non-traditional theater audiences. It's a far cry from how it first began. It all started when Rauch, his co-founder, Alison Carey and a group of college friends from Harvard, talked about working in theater after graduation. Bill Rauch>> We had read a very damning statistic that only two percent of the American population went to professional theater on any kind of a regular basis, so we were freaked out that we would, even if we were lucky enough to be successful, end up performing for a very, very tiny minority of the American people. Vicki Curry>> They wanted to perform for people who normally didn't go to theater and decided to involve them to make their productions more exciting. They begged family and friends for donations and hit the road. Bill Rauch>> We got in the van and we drove around the country and went to various small towns around the country, rural communities, and put on plays with people who lived there. We just picked regions of the country that we were interested in. Sometimes just places that we knew very little about. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> They went from North Dakota to Texas, Oregon to Maine, and plenty of other places in between. Bill Rauch>> We would just move into a town and go out and meet people and it was always about -- and still is -- about building relationships with one person at a time and sometimes it takes incredible perseverance. Sometimes people just pour out of the woodwork. Vicki Curry>> Cornerstone originally intended to stage classic plays, but in working with the communities, they soon realized their audiences might not relate to the classics. Bill Rauch>> It was not until we were doing "Hamlet" in North Dakota that it suddenly dawned on us that we could make the theatrical experience even more immediate by adapting the text. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> The company spent four years on the road staging plays in twelve towns. It then created what would become a trademark of Cornerstone: the Bridge Show. Bill Rauch>> We brought people together from all twelve of those communities and we created a new show that went on a national tour back to everybody's hometown. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> In 1992 after five years of traveling, Cornerstone Theater Company was ready to settle down. The members felt they would have more impact if they moved to a big city. Bill Rauch>> Because we could work with communities that were incredibly different in terms of culture, language, socio-economics, any number of factors, but were geographically very close to each other and we could work with these different communities and then encourage them to come together. Vicki Curry>> But the company members couldn't decide which city. Alison Carey pushed for Los Angeles. Bill Rauch>> She wanted Los Angeles because of how much Los Angeles was the United States of the twenty-first century. The complexity of the landscape of Los Angeles, all of that was daunting and really enticing at the same time. Vicki Curry>> Cornerstone's first local production was with the Angeles Plaza Senior Housing Project. Bill Rauch>> Our auditions were on the Monday after the Friday of the Los Angeles uprising, and it was a very grim confirmation that we'd come to the right city just in terms of anything that we might offer as artists in terms of building bridges between and within communities. It felt like, okay, we're where we need to be. Vicki Curry>> After two more projects with other communities, Cornerstone put on its first Los Angeles Bridge show. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> Several other projects and Bridge shows followed. The Central Avenue Chalk Circle with residents of Watts. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> Broken Hearts with different B.H. neighborhoods like Boyle Heights and Beverly Hills. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters with representatives from ten communities of faith. [Film Clip] Bill Rauch>> And now we don't even conceive of doing a community collaboration without thinking about how is it leading to a Bridge show? How is it part of a cycle? And we try to think about the work very holistically that way. We've even done a Bridge show that bridges previous Bridge shows. Vicki Curry>> As Cornerstone's reputation has grown, so have the opportunities. Large established theaters began asking the company to stage productions, but the members hesitated. They wondered if they'd be selling out, compromising their mission of community-based theater. They decided it wasn't a problem. [Film Clip] Bill Rauch>> It was very exciting actually because the community collaborators in the piece and community-based audience members who had never set foot in that theater felt ownership of that theater because it was their story happening on that stage. Vicki Curry>> Cornerstone's status has also led the company into education. It now teaches other theater professionals how to stage community plays. Bill Rauch>> We're influencing the field not only with our immediate circle and not only with people who happen to live in a community, but with theatre professionals from all over the country who want to learn how we do what we do, to take it back into their own communities. Vicki Curry>> It's been twenty years since a bunch of kids created Cornerstone Theater Company. They never dreamed they would come this far. Bill Rauch>> We were blessed with an idea that really inspired people from the very beginning, so I think we are around and we're as strong as we are twenty years later because of the mission and we're all here to serve this mission of bringing people together through theater. People who would otherwise never meet suddenly are creating something together and it does change peoples' lives. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> Cornerstone's next production is called "Beyond the Beyond: the Gay Future World". For details, you can go to their website at cornerstonetheater.org. And this note, co-founder Bill Rauch will be leaving. He's joining Oregon's Shakespeare Festival. The new artistic director is Michael John Garcés. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. See you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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