In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

A centuries-old mystery is the route of Spanish Conquistador Hernando DeSoto  through Alabama, as well as the location of the Battle of Mabila. Archaeologist Ashley Dumas, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of West Alabama, talks with Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, about Marengo County Native American settlements, which also feature Spanish artifacts from the 1500s.

Gorham Bird, Auburn University Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture, and Junshan Liu, Associate Professor of Building Science, talk with Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, about their quest to document the remaining Rosenwald Schools in Alabama.  The schools were a joint project of philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington to build schools to educate African American children in the rural South in the early 1900s.  Many of the schools were still in use until the advent of school integration.

The Alabama Sports and Adventure Hall of Fame inducts its Class of 2022 honorees tonight in Dothan.  Chairman Mike Schmitz, former mayor of Dothan, talks with Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, about the organization's mission to recognize Adventure Sports achievers, especially those who use their sport to support community causes.

"The Exchange" returns to In Focus on Mondays, with business and financial topics for consumers.  Today Joseph Borg, Director of the Alabama Securities Commission, talks with Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, about current investment scams.

Illegal cockfighting is happening in Alabama, and Mobile native Marty Irby,Executive Director of the Animal Wellness Action nonprofit in Washington, D.C., joins Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, to explore the issue.  Irby was a source for the Montgomery Advertiser's Dec. 12, 2021, front page article on cockfighting.

Noted historian and author Dale Cox sat down in June of 2021 with In Focus host Carolyn Hutcheson at the re-enactment of the last battle of the Creek Indian Wars, to discuss his Uchee Indian heritage.  Joining the conversation was frontier re-enactor Tom Garrett.  Both men had ancestors who fought in battles of the 1830s era. This event was held in Troy at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama, as a re-enactment of the 1837 "Battle at Hobdy's Bridge - Thunder on the Three Notch."

Troy University Chair of the Political Science Dept. Professor Michael Slobodchikoff talks with In Focus host Carolyn Hutcheson about his Russian family history.  They survived the Bolshevik Revolution, the Japanese invasion of China, and the 1949 Revolution in China.  This is part two of his interview, with the first segment available at www.npr.org,; Search for In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson - Nov. 10, 2021 program.

On Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, travel journalist Darley Newman, PBS host of "Travels with Darley," talks with Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, about her experiences on Alabama's Civil Rights Trail. Darley has visited Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham for upcoming episodes.
Her two-part series that covers Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham will air onAlabama Public Television Jan. 22, 29, and Feb. 19.

Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama's State Health Officer, talks with Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, about Covid-19 and the widespread Omicron variant.  In this segment, Dr. Harris discusses Covid testing, Omicron's symptoms, and ways to protect children from the virus.

As In Focus returns for the New Year, one possible New Year's Resolution could be to "Kick Covid." Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama's State Health Officer, joins Carolyn Hutcheson, In Focus host, to discuss the latest Omicron developments and how to fight the pandemic. This is part one of a two-part interview, with part two on Jan. 13.