Free Forum with Terrence McNally
637 episodes - English - Latest episode: 25 days ago - ★★★★★ - 28 ratingsFeatures conversations with people who offer pieces of the puzzle of “a world that just might work” -- provocative approaches to business, environment, health, science, politics, media and culture. Guests have included Michael Lewis, Ken Burns, Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, Temple Grandin, Bill Maher, Cornel West, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Norman Lear. [http://terrencemcnally.net]
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Episodes
Episode 638: CHARLES EISENSTEIN (2019), Climate - A New Deeper, Fuller Story - People connect more with nature than policy
April 05, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBI describe the goal of my engagement with what we call the environment as “a healthy relationship with the rest of nature.” In this 2019 conversation, CHARLES EISENSTEIN asks: Have we become too focused on climate change? and reminds us that holding rivers, forests, and creatures as sacred and valuable in their own right, not simply as carbon credits, can engage emotional and psychological connections deeper than any policy prescription. I say we need both. We’re engaged in an exist...
Episode 637: Can we build immunity to mis- & dis-information? ANDY NORMAN & MELANIE TRECEK-KING of the MENTAL IMMUNITY PROJECT
March 27, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBWith social media and AI, bad actors weaponize information, stressing democracy. We have two options: stop the lies or stop people from believing them. The former is near impossible in a free society, but there’s solid evidence the latter is achievable. I talk with two founders of the Mental Immunity Project, ANDY NORMAN, author of MENTAL IMMUNITY, and MELANIE TRECEK-KING, creator of THINKING IS POWER, an online resource that teaches critical thinking to the general public.
Episode 636: Two for the Campaign Ahead: 1) DREW WESTEN (2007), The Political Brain 2) BERNIE HORN (2009), Framing the Future
March 20, 2024 00:00 - 59 minutes - 47.8 MBAs we fasten our seatbelts and plunge into the 2024 campaign, here are two conversations worth a re-listen. From 2007, I talk with DREW WESTEN about the ideas and advice in his influential book, THE POLITICAL BRAIN: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. Westen: Democrats almost always present the best arguments but lose elections to Republicans who have mastered the art of emotion and story-telling. In the second half, my 2009 conversation with BERNIE HORN of the L...
Episode 635: ROB JOHNSON & I talk about the State of the Union - Biden’s speech plus our own take on things
March 14, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBROB JOHNSON is a plain-speaking and passionate critic of an economic, financial, and political system that leaves too many behind. He and I do post-election shows - and we’ll do another this November, but this week we talk about the State of the Union as well as the state of the union. We talk about Biden’s speech and about how the two of us see things - the economy, the election, the two parties, the nation’s mood, how we got here, and how we might move forward. Rob is President of...
Episode 634: TIM DeCHRISTOPHER-Courage & Conviction-Tim served 21 months in prison for civil disobedience protecting public lands
March 07, 2024 00:00 - 57 minutes - 46.3 MBWe know Republicans exercise minority rule in the states, the House, and the Supreme Court. Now Biden is arming Israel without meaningful or effective demands for humanitarian treatment of innocent civilians. Is it time for civil disobedience? Here’s my 2013 conversation with Tim DeChristopher. In a disputed auction of oil leases on pubic lands, Tim bid and won the rights to 22K acres, which he had no plan to pay for or exploit. He was tried on federal felony charges and served 21 m...
Episode 633: ANGUS DEATON, co-author, Deaths of Despair - ECONOMICS IN AMERICA: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality
March 01, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 49 MBANGUS DEATON won the Nobel prize in Economics for work accomplished before he and his wife, economist Ann Case, wrote DEATHS OF DESPAIR and the Future of Capitalism. Pre pandemic, life expectancy in the US was no longer rising, and already falling among adults without 4 years of college, due in large part to alcoholism, drug overdoses, and suicides. In his newest book, ECONOMICS IN AMERICA: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality, Deaton reflects on 25 years of his wr...
Episode 632: 5 BROKEN CAMERAS (2013)-EMAD BURNAT (Palestinian) & GUY DAVIDI (Israeli) co-directors, of the Oscar-nominated doc.
February 22, 2024 00:00 - 58 minutes - 46.9 MBThis week the media offers Academy Award buzz as well as the horrors of Israel’s response to the horrors of October’s attack by Hamas. Here’s my 2013 conversation with Palestinian EMAD BURNAT and Israeli GUY DAVIDI, co-directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary, 5 BROKEN CAMERAS. The film tells the story of Burnat, a Palestinian West Bank farmer, his wife, and four small children. As we track the destruction of each of his cameras, we witness his village’s ancient olive trees bull...
Episode 631: MARGOT SUSCA-HEDGED: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy
February 15, 2024 00:00 - 56 minutes - 45.3 MBWe all know the newspaper business is in trouble. A weekday edition of the LA Times - once a “national” newspaper, along with the NYTimes, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal - now might be 32 pages and another 100 were recently laid off in the newsroom. The culprit is assumed to be the internet, stealing both stories and ads. Not so fast. I talk with MARGOT SUSCA, a former reporter, now a professor of Journalism, about her first book, HEDGED: How Private Investment Funds Helpe...
Episode 630: ROBERT P. JONES-THE HIDDEN ROOTS OF WHITE SUPREMACY and the Path to a Shared American Future
February 02, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBThe last time a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of White voters was in 1964. ROBERT P JONES, President and Founder of the Public Religion Research Insitute (PRRI) and author of THE HIDDEN ROOTS OF WHITE SUPREMACY and the Path to a Shared American Future, writes that “White Christian nationalism has become central to the…Republican Party, two thirds of whom identify as white and Christian.” To find the origins of white supremacy, he says we need to look beyond 1619 t...
Episode 629: JONAH SACHS (2012)-Winning the STORY WARS-Key to persuasion & motivation - and as timely as ever
January 24, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 82.4 MBIn todays fractionalized & polarized world, facts and reality are too often less important than which narrative you embrace or which stories you believe. Here’s my 2012 conversation with JONAH SACHS, Co-Founder of Free Range Studios - the folks behindthe classic Story of Stuff - and author of WINNING THE STORY WARS. Learn how and why narrative works so well and how to use it to your advantage.
Episode 628: CORPORATE BULLSH*T- JOAN WALSH-Six lies they use to hold onto power and hold back progress
January 19, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 49.1 MBThe market – using money in politics to write its own rules - cannot respond effectively to critical challenges we face . JOAN WALSH, formerly at Salon, CNN, and MSNBC and now national affairs correspondent for The Nation, authored CORPORATE BULLSH*T with Nick Hanauer (Pitchfork Economics; Civic Action) & Donald Cohen (The Public Interest). Digging into myths and strategies of the Right, they focus on six big lies used over and over again to hold onto power and hold back progress. T...
Episode 627: DARING DEMOCRACY (2017)-FRANCES MOORE LAPPE (Diet For A Small Planet) & ADAM EICHEN-Pro-democracy activism near the end of Trump’s first year in office
January 11, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBAmerican democracy is under attack in 2024. Last week I talked with SAM DALEY-HARRIS about the life-tested lessons in his book RECLAIMING OUR DEMOCRACY: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy. I recommend the book and the episode. I follow this week with my 2017 conversation with FRANCES MOORE LAPPE and ADAM EICHEN. LAPPE, who published Diet For A Small Planet over 50 years ago and whose work since has consistently updated the best the 60’s had to offer, and EICHEN, who ...
Episode 626: SAM DALEY-HARRIS-Our work for 2024-RECLAIMING OUR DEMOCRACY-Learn to practice transformational advocacy
January 04, 2024 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBWe must up our game in 2024. We sign petitions and make donations, but how many meet with a Congressperson or write a letter to the editor? SAM DALEY-HARRIS, founder of anti-poverty lobby RESULTS and Civic Courage, has a new 2024 edition of RECLAIMING OUR DEMOCRACY: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy. His message: Find and get involved this year with a group that offers a rich structure of support - that coaches you, empowers you, emboldens you, and educates you. To ...
Episode 625: UNLIKELY BROTHERS (2011)-John Prendergast & Michael Mattocks talk about their 25 year Big Brother-Little Brother relationship
December 31, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBDespite the conflicts and injustices in the news, during this season we’re reminded to love and care for our families and neighbors, as well as those we don’t even know. I wish health, happiness, and peace to you and your loved ones. Here’s my 2011 conversation with John Prendergast and Michael Mattocks. As an emotionally wounded 21-year-old, John formed a “Big Brother/Little Brother” relationship with 7-year-old Michael. We talk about the book they wrote together, UNLIKELY BROTHERS...
Episode 624: ZEV YAROSLAVSKY - 40 years of public service - ZEV’S LOS ANGELES: From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power
December 13, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBZEV YAROSLAVSKY, who served on the Los Angeles City Council and LACounty’s Board of Supervisors for a total of 40 years, has written a political memoir, ZEV’S LOS ANGELES: From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power. Our conversation deals more with the memoir than the politics. We talk about Zev’s early years, his family and heritage, his college activism advocating for Russian Jews, and his surprise election to the City Council at the age of 26. Please note, this conversation was rec...
Episode 623: MARSHALL GANZ-Public Narrative - Key to Successful Organizing
December 08, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBWhether trying to influence involvement in foreign wars, fight for social justice, or win an election, effective organizing is crucial. Here’s my 2012 conversation with MARSHALL GANZ, who dropped out of Harvard in 1964 to participate in Freedom Summer, worked for years as one of the lead organizers for United Farm Workers, and helped devise the grass-roots model for Obama’s 2008 campaign. Now a lecturer in public policy at Harvard, I can say without reservation, we need to learn fro...
Episode 622: NELSON LICHTENSTEIN -Labor Is Delivering + Bill Clinton, Fabulous Failure?
November 30, 2023 00:00 - 57 minutes - 39.4 MBI talk with NELSON LICHTENSTEIN, History professor at UC Santa Barbara, and the author of several books on labor in America including State of the Union: A Century of American Labor. First, about the resurgence of unions in America - highlighted by good new contracts at UPS, Kaiser Permanence, and Big Three automakers, as well as successful organizing at newer huge employers like Amazon, Starbucks, and Trader Joes; and second, about his latest book, co-authored with Judith Stein, A ...
Episode 621: MICHIO KAKU-QUANTUM SUPREMACY: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything
November 18, 2023 01:28 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBI speak with theoretical physicist, futurist, and best-selling author, MICHIO KAKU, about his latest book, QUANTUM SUPREMACY: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything, eventually illuminating the deepest mysteries of science and solving some of our biggest problems, including global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease. What is quantum computing? Where do we stand? What are the obstacles? What is the promise? What are the warnings? Learn more at mkaku.org....
Episode 620: NANCY MAC LEAN (2018)-DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS: The Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America - a long march to minority rule
November 10, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBIn the five years since I recorded this conversation with NANCY MAC LEAN about her book, DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, events have confirmed her analysis and her warnings. We now have minority rule, led by Mitch McConnell, Mike Johnson, Donald Trump, and the radical 6-3 Supreme Court. She has been passionately attacked on the Right, and passionately celebrated by those who care about democracy You can learn more her at schola...
Episode 619: JOANNA SCHWARTZ-SHIELDED: How the Police Became Untouchable
November 02, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBResponding to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others, millions marched in 2020 to protest police brutality. Though Floyd’s killers faced charges and were found guilty, we learned that it remains extremely difficult to hold police accountable. Decisions of the Supreme Court, state and local governments, and policy makers have made them all but untouchable. In SHIELDED, UCLA law professor JOANNA SCHWARTZ shares the stories of victims, exposes the ways in whic...
Episode 618: Warnings of the ’08 crash - (1) KEVIN PHILLIPS (April 2008) Bad Money - (2) ROBERT FRANK (July 2007) Falling Behind. Phillips died October 9.
October 27, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBTwo conversations with warnings of the ’08 crash to come. KEVIN PHILLIPS is best known for his 1969 book The Emerging Republican Majority articulating Nixon’s Southern Strategy which nearly 50 years later delivered us Trump. Phillips in time grew disillusioned with the GOP, and wrote books like The Politics of Rich and Poor; Wealth and Democracy; American Theocracy. In April 2008 we talk about Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism...
Episode 617: Are unions making a comeback? STEVEN GREENHOUSE, longtime NYTimes labor correspondent
October 19, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBSTEVEN GREENHOUSE covered labor at the New York Times for 19 years. When we last spoke in the early days of the Biden administration, workers’ share of income had slid to its lowest level since the 1940s and the percentage of workers in unions was the lowest in over a century. But unions are winning these days – winning contracts, winning strikes when necessary, and perhaps most critically in the big picture - winning popular support, especially among young people. He’s author of Be...
Episode 616: MICHAEL LEWIS (2010)-THE BIG SHORT- in which one of the great “explainers” defines a lot of terms.
October 12, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBMICHAEL LEWIS’s new book, GOING INFINITE, the story of Sam Bankman-Fried and the rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX, is the #1 Selling book on Amazon. Here’s my 2010 conversation with Lewis about another #1 best-seller, THE BIG SHORT. In telling the story behind the Oscar nominated film, one of the great “explainers” defines a lot of terms - securitization, derivatives, credit default swaps - you remember. I think it's one of my favorite episodes.
Episode 615: TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY-DANIEL ZIBLATT-Why has American democracy reached the breaking point?
October 04, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBI believe minority rule to be one of the most dangerous challenges facing American society with enormous impact for the fate of the world. I’m excited to engage with Daniel Ziblatt, about his latest book, TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY:Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point, co-authored with Stephen Levitsky. Their previous book, How Democracies Die, was described by The Economist magazine as "the most important book of the Trump era." You can learn more at scholar.harvard.edu/d...
Episode 614: The NOT Great Escape-JONATHAN TAPLIN-THE END OF REALITY: Four Billionaires’ Fantasy of the Metaverse, Mars, Crypto, and Immortality
September 20, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBJONATHAN TAPLIN’s new book THE END OF REALITY picks up where MOVE FAST & BREAK THINGS left off. It documents how - rather than confront and solve the critical challenges we face - some of our wealthiest and most powerful men are plotting their escape - from transparency and regulation with crypto, from real life with the metaverse, from planet earth with colonies on Mars, and from death itself with transhumanism and cyborgs. This fantasy/nightmare is being sold by four billionaires ...
Episode 613: MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS-JONATHAN TAPLIN (2018)-How Facebook, Google & Amazon Cornered Culture & Undermined Democracy
September 15, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBJONATHAN TAPLIN is former tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band, producer of two Martin Scorsese films, MEAN STREETS and THE LAST WALTZ, and Director Emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Next week I’ll talk with him about his new book, THE END OF REALITY: How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, And Crypto. How better to warm up for that than by replaying our 2018 conversation about his earlier book MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS: How Faceboo...
Episode 612: JEFF GOODELL-THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
September 06, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBJuly 2023 was the hottest month in recorded history, June ranks #2. All time high temperatures hit the US, Europe, and China. Phoenix recorded at least 110F for 20 days in a row. I speak with JEFF GOODELL about THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. Biggest takeaway: “The assumption that we will do what we need to do in time and things will go back to normal is a profound misunderstanding of this moment.” CO2 is not like smog. Recent extremes and disaster...
Episode 611: How will Boomers pass the torch? PHILIP BUMP-The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America
August 24, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBThere’s little doubt we face critical challenges and serious doubt about whether we have the vision, the culture, the systems, or the will to successfully deal with them. I’ve been asking lately, “How did we get here?" and focusing a lot on the generations, in particular the Boomers and the 1960’s. I’m excited to speak with PHILIP BUMP, a national columnist for The Washington Post, about his first book, THE AFTERMATH: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America...
Episode 610: Reviving Discarded America—MICHELLE WILDE ANDERSON-Fighting to Save Our Towns
August 10, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBIn her new book THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE TOWN: Reimagining Discarded America, MICHELLE WILDE ANDERSON, Professor at Stanford Law School and Stanford School of Sustainability, explores vicious cycles in Stockton CA, Lawrence MA, Detroit MI, and Josephine County OR - four communities left behind by the modern economy. As local economies shrink, government is underfunded. As government delivers less to citizens, they lose faith in government and in each other. Coming back gets harder and ...
Episode 609: ERWIN CHEMERINSKY-Supreme Court 2023-ethical challenges and radical rulings
July 29, 2023 00:00 - 25 minutes - 17.2 MBI speak with ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, Dean of Berkeley Law School, about the Supreme Court’s recent term. I see ethical challenges and radical rulings - the law of the land interpreted through their religious and moral lenses, overturning legislation and precedent - hardly conservative behavior, stretching and distorting the law in their decision defending arguments, imposing their agenda on the nation with little regard for real world consequences, the common good, or the future. We’ll a...
Episode 608: THOM HARTMANN-The Hidden History of American Democracy’s roots in Native American society
July 21, 2023 00:00 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBI speak with talk show host, THOM HARTMANN, about the newest book in his “hidden history” series. THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. I’d heard the Founders drew inspiration from political systems of Native Americans, to which Hartmann adds, so did Europe’s Enlightenment thinkers. He quotes Thomas Paine: “To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is necessary to have some idea of the natural and primitive state of man; such as it is at this day among the Indians ...
Episode 607: The politics of climate-STAN COX & JOHN FEFFER-Minority rule strikes again
July 13, 2023 00:00 - 59 minutes - 40.5 MBI’ve long believed that to confront challenges like climate change, we need to move public opinion to the point where a majority favor policies that respond effectively and fairly. I’m afraid that’s no longer true. I read with alarm STAN COX’s article MAGA Legislators Increasingly Force Taxpayers to Support Fossil Fuel Industry by, among other things, outlawing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing. Here’s my conversation with STAN COX of the Land Institute and JOHN ...
Episode 606: LESLIE CRUTCHFIELD-How Change Happens: Why Some Movements Succeed While Others Don’t
July 06, 2023 00:00 - 59 minutes - 41 MBRecent Supreme Court rulings doing away with affirmative action and student loan forgiveness while allowing religious bigotry, reinforce the harsh reality of minority rule in today’s United States. While it challenges and handicaps the effectiveness of mass movements for progressive change, it also makes them even more critical. Here’s my 2018 conversation with LESLIE CRUTCHFIELD, Executive Director of Business for Impact at Georgetown University and former managing director at Asho...
Episode 605: You’ve been warned-BRENDAN BALLOU-PLUNDER: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America
June 29, 2023 00:00 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBWith this episode, I’m reminded of when I did my first show on the sub-prime crisis. In PLUNDER, BRENDAN BALLOU, a federal prosecutor, explains how private equity has reshaped American business - from nursing homes to prisons, emergency rooms to apartment buildings - by raising prices, reducing quality, cutting jobs, and shifting resources from productive to unproductive parts of the economy. What’s worse, as of now PEs are legally shielded from liability for the consequences of the...
Episode 604: DANIEL ELLSBERG-Rest in Peace-which he worked for all his life-our 2009 conversation
June 21, 2023 00:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MBWe lost an American hero last week with the death of DANIEL ELLSBERG, whose release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 revealed the cynical realities of the Vietnam War. A president was ignoring the will of the people, Congress, and the courts, promising peace while planning war without end. Ellsberg, a military analyst at the Rand Corporation, risked life in prison to end a war he helped plan, for which Henry Kissinger called him, "the most dangerous man in America." His actions did no...
Episode 603: HECTOR TOBAR-OUR MIGRANT SOULS: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of Latino
June 15, 2023 00:00 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBHECTOR TOBAR was born in Los Angeles, shortly after his parents arrived from Guatemala. He’s a Professor of English and Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and the author of six books, including DEEP DOWN DARK: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and The Miracle That Set Them Free, adapted into the film, The 33 starring Antonio Banderas. We talk about his newest, OUR MIGRANT SOULS: A Meditation on Rac...
Episode 602: TIFFANY SHLAIN - 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week
June 08, 2023 00:00 - 55 minutes - 38.5 MBSurgeon General: “There are ample indicators that social media can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” June’s here. How about a weekly “vacation” from screens? In this 2019 conversation about her book, 24/6, TIFFANY SHLAIN, filmmaker and Internet pioneer - she founded the Webbies (digital Oscars) - offers a strategy her family has employed for a decade - turning off all screens for 24 hours one day a week. She says this pra...
Episode 601: MICKEY HUFF (Director, PROJECT CENSORED) & NOLAN HIGDON-Let’s Agree to Disagree: Critical Thinking, Communication, and Conflict Management
May 29, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 51.1 MBHere’s my conversation with MICKEY HUFF & NOLAN HIGDON. Huff is Director of PROJECT CENSORED. Since 1976, its annual book reports the year’s top-25 news stories ignored, misrepresented, or censored by mainstream media. Huff & Higdon co-authored LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE. Its first lines: In an age defined by divisive discourse and disinformation, democracy hangs in the balance. {This book] seeks to foster constructive dialogue through critical thinking and media literacy. Learn more a...
Episode 600: NAOMI ORESKES & ERIK CONWAY - THE BIG MYTH: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
May 16, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBWhen I talk about the relentless push of Big Business, the Right, and the GOP toward our current crisis of inequality, injustice, minority rule, and an inability to solve problems, I usually start around 1970. Today’s guests go back to the early 20th century. I talk with NAOMI ORESKES and ERIK CONWAY, authors together of the best-selling and Important MERCHANTS OF DOUBT: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, about their new bo...
Episode 599: NOREENA HERTZ (2021) -THE LONELY CENTURY - How do we restore human connection?
May 12, 2023 00:00 - 59 minutes - 40.5 MBI believe human beings want more than anything to feel seen and heard. Last week the US Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health epidemic, as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, raising the risk of premature death by 30%, with higher rates of heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression, dementia, and suicide. Here’s my 2021 conversation with NOREENA HERTZ about her book, THE LONELY CENTURY: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart. You can l...
Episode 598: WALT BOGDANICH-WHEN McKINSEY COMES TO TOWN: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm
May 02, 2023 00:00 - 58 minutes - 39.8 MBI talk with three-time Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times investigative reporter WALT BOGDANICH about his book, WHEN McKINSEY COMES TO TOWN. The company brands itself one of the good guys, but Bogdanich and co-author MIchael Forsythe point out that, shielded by NDAs, McKinsey has so far escaped scrutiny for advising tobacco companies, opioid manufacturers including Purdue, oil companies, and repressive governments. We pull back the curtain on its role in pursuit of the bottom line abov...
Episode 597: SHEILA KUEHL looks back on 20 years in office. She got things done.
April 17, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBSHEILA KUEHL has long been one of my favorite elected officials. A true public servant, she served 8 years in CA’s State Senate, 6 in the State Assembly, and 8 more on LA County’s Board of Supervisors. Kuehl was the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the Legislature, first woman named Speaker pro Tem of the Assembly, and authored 171 bills signed into law. One of my go-to sages re state and local politics, now retired, we look back together at how she was so successful - ...
Episode 596: SAM MYERS, PLANETARY HEALTH: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves - Exhibit A: the pandemic
April 13, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBApril is Earth Month. My environmental goals: a healthy relationship with the rest of nature and an effective reckoning with climate change. Here’s my 2020 conversation with SAM MYERS, Harvard research scientist, Founding Director of the Planetary Health Alliance, and one of the editors of PLANETARY HEALTH: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves. The book offers solutions to the challenging impacts of environmental change on human health by reimagining cities, food, energy systems,...
Episode 595: EUNICE NICHOLS, Co-CEO, CoGenerate - bringing older and younger together to solve problems & bridge divides
April 07, 2023 00:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBWhile we live in the most age-diverse society in human history, with almost equal numbers of people of every age, the US has become an age-segregated nation, with few opportunities for generations to connect. Here’s my conversation with EUNICE NICHOLS, Co-CEO of CoGenerate - the recently chosen new name for what had been called Encore.org. The organization’s focus evolved from seniors’ purposeful second and third acts to cogeneration - bringing older and younger people together to s...
Episode 594: THOMAS FRANK, What’s the Matter w Kansas? & EDGAR CAHN, late serial social justice entrepreneur-Jan 2012 conversation-the year ahead…
March 30, 2023 00:00 - 59 minutes - 41.1 MBI was a virtual attendee last week at an inspiring and humbling memorial for the late EDGAR CAHN, on what would have been his 88th birthday. Cahn, an unsung hero of 20th century America, authored articles and books that intentionally led to national policy, including The War on Poverty (1964) which led to the establishment of Legal Aid, Hunger, U.S.A (1968), Our Brother's Keeper: The Indian in White America (1969), and Time Dollars (1992). He and his late wife, Jean Camper, co-found...
Episode 593: Podcast: KATHRYN PAIGE HARDEN, THE GENETIC LOTTERY: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality - though many want to pretend it doesn’t.
March 22, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBThough most people now accept that genes influence our height, weight, heart health, etc., many get nervous when we apply that same perspective to things like our mental health, intelligence, or educational attainment. Here’s my conversation with KATHRYN PAIGE HARDEN, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas, about the ideas in her first book, THE GENETIC LOTTERY: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, which attempts to reconcile the findings of behavior genetics with her co...
Episode 592: BARBARA FINAMORE (2019)-Can we cooperate on climate?-WILL CHINA SAVE THE PLANET?
March 15, 2023 23:01 - 59 minutes - 48 MBRecently China led negotiations to end longstanding hostilities between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In the US, we’ve seen how even one person willing to oppose the popular consensus can dictate our nation’s response to climate change. Here’s my 2019 conversation with BARBARA FINAMORE about her provocative book, Will China Save the Planet?, which explores China’s big picture, long-term strategy to reap the technological, economic, and political benefits of seizing leadership of the global...
Episode 591: THIRD ACT-Mobilizing Boomers to Defend Democracy & Confront Climate-BOB FULKERSON, Lead National Organizer
March 07, 2023 00:00 - 58 minutes - 39.8 MB10K people a day pass the 60-year mark. There’s no way to make the changes needed to protect our planet and society unless we bring our power into play. Here’s my conversation with BOB FULKERSON, Lead National Organizer for THIRD ACT, the year-old organization founded by BILL McKIBBEN to mobilize Boomers and older to defend democracy and confront the Climate Crisis. Learn more at thirdact.org and join a National Day of Action 3/21/23. Deliver a message to big banks who fund fossil f...
Episode 590: 1) WINIFRED GALLAGHER, Attention, our most valuable resource. 2) TIM RYAN, former Ohio Congressman on meditation
March 03, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBThe world is a crazy place and the battle for our attention has never been more fierce. (1) In 2009’s RAPT: Attention and the Focused Life, WINIFRED GALLAGHER argues that the quality of your life largely depends on what you choose to pay attention to and how you choose to do it. Worth paying attention to. (2) Former Ohio Congressman TIM RYAN - lost 2022 Senate race to Hillbilly Elegy author, election denier J.D.Vance - urges the practice of meditation in A MINDFUL NATION: How a Sim...
Episode 589: ANDREW BACEVICH on Ukraine, defense spending, and Bidding Farewell to the American Century
February 20, 2023 00:00 - 55 minutes - 38.3 MBThe countries, conflicts, and causes change, but has military action and defense spending become the one huge thing that unites both political tribes and parties? So that when one challenges leaders to be more more respectful of other ways of dealing with conflict and more realistic about our goals and how to achieve them - decision-makers and the media assign such common sense thinking to the fringe. We talk today with ANDREW BACEVICH, co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Respo...