BOONE - Each week Philosophy and Religion professor, Dr. Conrad Ostwalt, can bee seen outside the confines of I.G. Greer and possibly on the screen of your television, computer, or mobile device.
Dr. Ostwalt leads a double life as professor and host of "Religion in Life," a weekly half-hour interview program designed to explore the relationship between religion and culture on the less-than-a-year-old AppTV.
AppTV, for those who are unfamiliar, is an Appalachian student produced television station featuring original and acquired programs. The station provides the full spectrum of professional experience to students interested in working in public, production, or commercial television.
Michael Fields, General Manager of AppTV, conceived of the idea for "Religion in Life" and approached the Philosophy & Religion department with his idea. "I called the chair of the department with my idea and he immediately said 'I think you should meet 'Ozzie.' When we met I thought, 'this is just perfect.' I think that if you're going to have a group of studio based talking head shows, you have to make sure that there are enough topics and enough people in the area to be able to provide guests for the show. Philosophy and Religion seems endless to me.' Ozzie agreed, so that was the decision." Thus, "Religion in Life" was born.
Like all AppTV original programming, "Religion in Life" is produced by students, but the topics, guests, and questions derive from the mind of Dr. Ostwalt. The program generally consists of community activists and leaders, university professors and sometimes even students. The show has covered topics such as religion and music, politics, art and film.
In spite of the potentially controversial subject matter, Dr. Ostwalt emphasizes the shows neutrality: "The program aims to put forth information about what is going on in the world in terms of religion without making value judgments." According to Michael Fields, Dr. Ostwalt "understood that this was not just to be a show that was academic without having some appreciation of the real world."
New episodes of "Religion in Life," air weekly on Sunday at 6:30 am, 10:30 am, and 6:00 pm on Charter Cable 198 in Watauga, Avery, and Johnson Counties or 23.3 on Appalachian's campus. Previous episodes can be seen on Saturdays at 12:30 am and 10:30 am. The Program is also available to livestream at apptv.com where archived episodes from Season One and Two can also be found.
Season Three debuted on Sunday, January 17.