In conversation with Harry S. Ashmore, Zelman Cowen, of the University of Melbourne Law School, observes that so-called wastelands in the mass media appear even where non-commercial broadcasting is government sponsored, and questions whether it is proper to spend public money to satisfy the tastes of a culturally sophisticated minority. Original recording date in the USA, Aug. 28, 1963

The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) brought together many of the most capable and distinguished minds of the times to discuss vital issues facing American society of the day. Political and academic leaders, scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, journalists, theologians, labour and community leaders focused on topics such as peace and war, democracy, dissent, community action, ecology and the environment, elections and the electoral process, immigration, international relations, law and order, the media, race and ethnicity, and religion. Prominent participants included Senator Alan Cranston, Upton Sinclair, Milton Friedman, Mortimer Adler, Cesar Chavez, Aldous Huxley, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Sander Vanocur, and Gunner Myrdal among many others.