Free Forum with Terrence McNally
637 episodes - English - Latest episode: 26 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]
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Episode 588: INFLATION 101: What’s Really Going On?-ROBERT POLLIN
February 08, 2023 00:00 - 54 minutes - 37.4 MBI’m calling this conversation with economist ROBERT POLLIN, INFLATION 101. What’s really going on? The current bout of inflation is global, not domestic. It’s higher in other economies than in the US. It’s primarily due to the global pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And it may already be over. Yet the Fed seems intent on risking recession to fight it with tools that ignore its real causes.
Episode 587: THE FIFTIES: UNDERGROUND HISTORY-Heroes who blazed trails for the ’60s-JAMES GAINES
January 27, 2023 00:00 - 52 minutes - 42.2 MBIn his new book, THE FIFTIES: An Underground History, JAMES GAINES asks: Who laid the groundwork for the ’60s - and then celebrates a few solitary, brave, stubborn individuals who pioneered the radical gay rights, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements. Their courage and genius changed what it was possible to imagine. As early as the mid-1940s, Harry Hay said “Gay is good.” Pauli Murray laid legal paths for Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Black vets of WWII a...
Episode 586: BRANKO MILANOVIC-When capitalism rules the world, how can we shrink inequality and confront climate change?
January 19, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBIn the first two years of the pandemic, globally the top 1% captured nearly double the amount of new wealth as the other 99%. In Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World, BRANKO MILANOVIC says we’re all capitalists now. Liberal capitalism delivers rampant inequality and excess as it fights for hearts and minds with political capitalism, as practiced by China. What are the prospects for a fairer world now that capitalism is the only game in town?
Episode 585: Method to Supreme Court’s Madness-DAHLIA LITHWICK plus LADY JUSTICE: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America
January 04, 2023 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBSince 1988, the GOP has won only one national popular vote but has named 11 of 15 Supreme Court justices. The current 6-3 court is a uniquely powerful tool of Minority rule. Their radical decisions last summer went against the majority of Americans on church and state, guns, environmental protection, the climate crisis, and women’s rights. I talk with DAHLIA LITHWICK - senior legal correspondent at Slate and host of Slate’s Amicus podcast - about that eventful term and some of the b...
Episode 584: Looking ahead to 2023-LYNNE TWIST-LIVING A COMMITTED LIFE: Finding Freedom & Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself
December 28, 2022 00:00 - 54 minutes - 37.6 MBAs we reach the end of one year and the beginning of another, many of us take stock of how we live and what we value. Here’s my conversation with LYNNE TWIST about her new book, LIVING A COMMITTED LIFE: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself. She asks us to consider “a commitment to the common good: to something that takes you out of yourself and into the realm of service.” I think the challenge and opportunity Lynne offers in her work and in her new book ...
Episode 583: SARA DAVIDSON, THE DECEMBER PROJECT - Conversations with Zalman Shachter-Shalomi on the meaning & mystery of life and death
December 22, 2022 00:00 - 58 minutes - 46.8 MBI wish you, your loved ones, and those without loved ones at this time, health, safety, peace, and joy. At this time of reflection, here’s my 2014 conversation with SARA DAVIDSON about her book, THE DECEMBER PROJECT. Sara met every Friday for the last year of his life with 89-year-old Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. What did they talk about? In his words, "When you can feel in your cells that you're coming to the end of your tour of duty, what ...
Episode 582: Taxpayers fund drug research. Corporations reap obscene profits from “our” discoveries. ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK, OWNING THE SUN:A People's History of Monopoly Medicine
December 15, 2022 19:15 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBWhy are medications essential to survival so outrageously expensive? Why are vaccines for a global pandemic a source of huge profits and limited availability? Why does the government allow private companies to patent and monopolize drugs resulting from tax funded research? Here’s my conversation with ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK about the revelations in his book, OWNING THE SUN:A People's History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to COVID-19 Vaccines. You can learn more at zaitchik.com
Episode 581: Who wants a new Constitutional Convention? Sen. RUSS FEINGOLD & PETER PRINDIVILLE-Constitution in Jeopardy
December 02, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 43.2 MBAlthough Thomas Jefferson recommended we redraft our constitution every 19 years, the fact that we could actually face an Article 5 Constitutional Convention - if only a few more states vote for it - scares the hell out of me. It’s also a big problem that the Constitution has only been amended 17 times in 233 years, not once in the last 30. I talk with former Senator and current president of the American Constitution Society, RUSS FEINGOLD, and co-author, Peter Prindiville, about th...
Episode 580: Election Reflections with ROB JOHNSON-Not as bad as feared, not as good as desperately needed
November 12, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBI share election reflections with ROB JOHNSON, President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (ineteconomics.org) and host of the podcast Economics and Beyond. What happened? Who made the difference? How could so many vote for the party of grievance and lies? Why does the “good news” feel so profoundly disappointing? How can we turn things around? Will we deal with the critical challenges we face?
Episode 579: As we await final counts and interpret results-ASTRA TAYLOR (2020) Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone
November 09, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBI can’t get Plato’s Paradox out of my head: Democracy inevitably leads to tyranny. The rich always want to get richer and the poor will follow demagogues who promise to overthrow the rich.I first learned of Plato’s pessimistic prophesy In ASTRA TAYLOR'S documentary WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? and her companion book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone. Here’s our 2020 conversation. We explore democracy’s early roots as well as its current embattled state. Next week I'...
Episode 578: DAVID DALEY, author RATFU_ _ED and UNRIGGED on voter suppression and our upcoming mid-terms
November 02, 2022 00:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBNovember 8th is the last day to vote in the current elections. Our democracy is under threat as is the availability, validity, accuracy, and reliability of voting and vote-counting. Between closing poll sites, purging voter rolls, and putting obstacles in the way of voting by mail, some states are going to great lengths to keep you from voting. I talk with DAVID DALEY, senior fellow at FairVote.org, author of RATF**KED (gerrymandering) and UNRIGGED (electoral reforms) re the good ne...
Episode 577: How do Republicans plan to keep you from voting? - Investigative journalist GREG PALAST (2020)
October 29, 2022 00:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBThe final day to vote - what used to be Election Day - is just over a week away. Here’s my conversation with investigative journalist GREG PALAST recorded prior to election day 2020. He laid out voter suppression efforts - closing poll sites, purging voter rolls, manipulating voting machines, and putting obstacles in the way of voting by mail - that The Trump administration and many state governments used to keep Americans from voting. Yet turnout broke records. Sadly Republican tac...
Episode 576: DAVID CORN, The Stakes of the MidTerms:- AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS: How The Republican Party Went Crazy
October 20, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBIn AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS, DAVID CORN reminds us that Trump and Trumpism is not a radical departure for the Grand Old Party. Picking up the story at the end of World War II, he traces a continuous, long, deep-rooted Republican practice of boosting and weaponizing the rage and derangement of the Right, nurturing and exploiting fear and loathing fueled by paranoia, grievance, and tribalism. John Birch to The Big Lie, Rush Limbaugh to Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones, The Religious Right to t...
Episode 575: We need to be able to work together on climate JOANNA CHIU, CHINA UNBOUND: A New World Disorder.
October 13, 2022 00:00 - 54 minutes - 37.6 MBRecent headlines: Taiwan Politicians Dismiss Musk’s ‘ill-Informed and Belittling’ China Comments. In Global Slowdown, China Holds Sway Over Countries’ Fates. A Dilemma of US-Trained Chinese Scientists: Stay or Leave? US Tries to Hobble China Chip Industry with New Rules. How did we get here? How do we navigate our relationship moving forward? I talk with JOANNA CHIU, a senior journalist for the Toronto Star, who served for years on the ground in China as a correspondent for Europea...
Episode 574: As DeSantis & Abbott pull cruel political stunts-GREG GRANDIN (2019), THE END OF THE MYTH: From the Frontier to the Border Wall
October 05, 2022 00:00 - 59 minutes - 41 MBHere’s my 2019 conversation with GREG GRANDIN about his book, THE END OF THE MYTH: From the Frontier to the Border Wall. Grandin reminds us that patrolling the border has often brought out our worst, and writes, “The border wall is America’s new myth, a monument to the final closing of the frontier…a symbol of a nation that used to believe that it had escaped history, but now finds itself trapped by history, and of a people who used to think they were captains of the future, but now...
Episode 573: Is STEVE LOPEZ of the LATimes really thinking about retirement? - INDEPENDENCE DAY
September 27, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBSTEVE LOPEZ, award-winning columnist at the LATimes and best-selling author (The Soloist), just won a prize from Harvard for political reporting, but I don’t think of him as a “Political Reporter”. He’s a story-teller and the leading characters in his stories are the unsung heroes of Los Angeles. We talk about how he sees his role at the Times and in the community, his current take on Southern California and the state of journalism, and his new book (out 11/1), INDEPENDENCE DAY: Wha...
Episode 572: Climate Week: California’s Clean Energy Jobs Plan - Economist ROBERT POLLIN & Union leader DAVE CAMPBELL
September 22, 2022 00:00 - 59 minutes - 41 MBIt’s Climate Week – the annual gathering of the climate community with the UN General Assembly and the City of New York – which seems a good time to share some good news. Here’s my August 2021 conversation with economist ROBERT POLLIN, and DAVE CAMPBELL, Secretary-Treasurer of Southern California’s United Steelworkers Local 675 (who represent oil-workers) about the California Climate Jobs Plan. Initiated by labor unions, written by Pollin and others, it pursues the state’s ambitious clean e...
Episode 571: Is the press finally up to the climate emergency? MARK HERTSGAARD-COVERING CLIMATE NOW
September 14, 2022 00:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBRecent headlines: Temperatures in Europe Smash Historic Records. Lake Mead Plummets to New Low. Only ‘Rapid Action’ Can Prevent Worst Marine Extinction in 250M Years. UN’s Leading Climate Scientists Call Latest Climate Report Nothing Less Than “Code Red for Humanity.” Here’s my conversation with MARK HERTSGAARD, co-founder/Executive Director of Covering Climate Now. a global journalism initiative to help “news media cover the defining story of our time with the rigor and urgency it ...
Episode 570: (1) BARBARA EHRENREICH (2005), Nickel & Dimed; Bait & Switch; (2) EDUARDO GALEANO (2009), The Open Veins of Latin America; Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone.
September 07, 2022 00:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBBARBARA EHRENREICH, journalist, activist, and author of more than 20 books, died September 1st at 81. In her bestseller NICKEL AND DIMED, she explored the lives of low wage workers. Here’s my 2005 conversation with Barbara, in which we talk about her followup BAIT AND SWITCH, in which she examined the lives of white-collar unemployed. Learn more at barbaraehrenreich.com. In the second half you’ll hear my 2009 conversation with one of Latin America’s most beloved literary figures, ED...
Episode 569: Is the nightmare finally over? GARY GERSTLE, THE RISE & FALL OF THE NEOLIBERAL ORDER
September 01, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBThe self-regulated market cannot respond effectively to the most critical challenges we face – inequality, climate change, an unhealthy relationship with rest of nature, pandemics and public health, social and racial division and tribalism, crippled government, and endangered democracy. So how did this notion dominate for 35+ years? And why is it crashing now? I talk with GARY GERSTLE, Professor of American History Emeritus at University of Cambridge, England, about his book, THE RI...
Episode 568: Back to School-RAFE ESQUITH (2013) REAL TALK FOR REAL TEACHERS
August 26, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBAs schools open around the country, here’s my 2013 converation with RAFE ESQUITH, who for 30 years taught 5th grade at LA’s Hobart Elementary public school. In 2005, PBS aired the documentary, THE HOBART SHAKESPEARIANS, about the full folio Shakespeare productions that his students perform each year. “I don't want my students to be ordinary; I want them to be extraordinary because I know that they are. If a 10-year-old, who doesn't speak English at home, can step in front of you and...
Episode 567: American Heroes-1) HOWARD ZINN (2005), 2) GEORGE McGOVERN (2005) - both born 100 years ago this summer
August 26, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBBoth born 100 years ago this summer, HOWARD ZINN (08/24/1922) and GEORGE McGOVERN (07/19/1922) were men of wisdom and principle who fought for their beliefs and the common good in the public square. Zinn taught at historically Black Spelman College from 1956-63 and Boston University 1964-88. An anti-Vietnam War leader, he wrote 20 books including A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. McGovern was Director of Food for Peace under President Kennedy, South Dakota Senator from 1963-1...
Episode 566: How do we resist Minority Rule? STEVEN HILL, DemocracySOS - 10 STEPS TO REPAIR DEMOCRACY
August 09, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBRepublicans have won the national vote for President only once since 1988, yet they’ve held the White House for 12 of those years and appointed 6 of 9 Supreme Court justices, who have just ruled against the majority of Americans on religion, guns, climate, and women’s rights. Here’s my new conversaiton with STEVEN HILL, author of 10 STEPS TO REPAIR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY and co-founder of FairVote about one of our gravest and most systemic problems, Minority Rule. Learn more at Fairvote...
Episode 565: Two Black Giants-1) BILL RUSSELL (2010), 2) CORNEL WEST (2009)
August 05, 2022 00:00 - 28 seconds - 39.7 MBThe greatest winner in the history of team sports, BILL RUSSELL died this week at 88. Russell’s Celtics won 11 NBA championships in his 13 years. He was voted MVP 5 times by his peers, was the first Black head coach in a major US sport, and his legacy as a man of principle may be even greater than as an athlete. Here’s my 2010 conversation with ARAM GOUDSOUZIAN on his book, KING OF THE COURT: BILL RUSSELL AND THE BASKETBALL REVOLUTION. In the second half, you’ll hear my 2009 convers...
Episode 564: Can we count on the Dems? MICHAEL KAZIN, WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN: A History of the Democratic Party
July 27, 2022 00:00 - 57 minutes - 39.8 MBFormer 60s radical and longtime editor of Dissent, MICHAEL KAZIN, has written a history of the Democratic Party. Acknowledging their challenging mix of constituencies and their messaging and policy failures, he believes they are at their best – and the US is the better for it – when they articulate and deliver on what he terms “moral capitalism” - an economy and a society that works for working and middle class Americans. The high point was the New Deal era of the 1930s-1960s. Can t...
Episode 563: How can progressives win in rural US? CHLOE MAXMIN & CANYON WOODWARD, DIRT ROAD REVIVAL
July 14, 2022 00:00 - 55 minutes - 38 MBWhen the American electoral system was created, over 95% of Americans lived in rural communities. Today fewer than 20% do. The 20 senators from the 10 most populous states - home to half the US population - make up only a fifth of the US Senate. When, the solution to minority rule, exemplified by the Senate filibuster and the radical 6-3 Supreme Court, is to vote - then finding a successful way to connect with, win over, and represent rural voters is more essential than ever. CHLOE...
Episode 562: When the news is fast, furious, stressful-JON KABAT ZINN, COMING TO OUR SENSES: HEALING OURSELVES AND THE WORLD THROUGH MINDFULNESS
July 08, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBWhen the news is fast, furious, and stressful - radically destructive Supreme Court rulings, mass murders, Omicron variants, Russia’s war on Ukraine, inflation, climate crisis, etc. - here’s my 2005 conversation with JON KABAT ZINN, best-selling author of WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE about his book, COMING TO OUR SENSES: HEALING OURSELVES AND THE WORLD THROUGH MINDFULNESS. Kabat-Zinn is as responsible as anyone for mindfulness going mainstream. Over 200 medical centers and clinic...
Episode 561: How did the 60s lead to both 1973 and 2022? KEVIN BOYLE, THE SHATTERING: AMERICA IN THE 1960S
July 02, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MB1973 looms large as we live out the 50th anniversary of the Watergate Hearings and Roe v Wade. Let’s look at the fears and forces in response to ‘60s changes that fueled the long Christo-Authoritarian march to a Supreme Court forcing minority rule on America. In my recent conversation with KEVIN BOYLE about his book THE SHATTERING: America in the ‘60s, he reminds us how generations who’d lived through the Depression and WW II, facing an enemy with nuclear weapons, would cling to a n...
Episode 560: FOR SAMA (2019) Oscar-nominated doc - civilians under Russian fire in the siege of Aleppo, Syria
June 24, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBAs we witness Russia's targeting of civilians in Ukraine, here’s my 2019 conversation with directors Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts of the Oscar-nominated documentary, For Sama, and with Dr. Hamza al-Kateab, who ran the last hospital in East Aleppo. The film takes us inside the long siege by al Assad and the Russians. In the course of the film, Waad al-Kateab falls in love, marries, and has a baby - all as bombs fall around them. You can learn more and watch this remarkable film at...
Episode 559: What if a stroke strikes you or a loved one? JILL BOLTE TAYLOR, MY STROKE OF INSIGHT
June 14, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBFive weeks ago my wife suffered a stroke. She’s fine physically, but has language challenges and some processing issues. She improves every day and our connection is stronger than ever. Daily life is punctuated by moments of joy and others of crushing frustration. I share with you my recent conversation with JILL BOLTE TAYLOR, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, who in 1996 at the age of 37, experienced a stroke that left her unable to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her lif...
Episode 558: PART 2 - Ahead of her time-HAZEL HENDERSON (2013) activist, green economist, global citizen, dies at 89
June 02, 2022 00:00 - 59 minutes - 41.1 MBHere’s part 2 my 2013 conversation with HAZEL HENDERSON – who as a mom in the 70’s who’d never been to college got upset about pollution threatening her young child, became a local NYC activist, and developed into a global expert on economics and sustainability. She’s creator of the television show and website Ethical Markets, and author of 10 books, including Beyond Globalization and Building a Win-Win World. Hazel passed away May 22 at the age of 89.
Episode 557: PART 1 - Ahead of her time-HAZEL HENDERSON (2013) activist, green economist, global citizen, dies at 89
June 01, 2022 07:56 - 59 minutes - 48 MBHere’s part 1 my 2013 conversation with HAZEL HENDERSON – who as a mom in the 70’s who’d never been to college got upset about pollution threatening her young child, became a local activist, and developed into a global expert on economics and sustainability. She’s creator of the television show and website Ethical Markets, and author of 10 books, including Beyond Globalization and Building a Win-Win World. Hazel passed away May 22 at the age of 89.
Episode 556: Why are we addicted to more? LEIDY KLOTZ, SUBTRACT: The Untapped Science of Less
May 26, 2022 00:00 - 56 minutes - 38.8 MBOur homes are full of stuff. Our minds are full of information. Our economies are built on never-ending growth while our planet chokes on pollution. In his book, SUBTRACT: The Untapped Science of Less, LEIDY KLOTZ reminds us that across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: we don’t subtract. What is it in our biology, our psychology, or our culture that leads us to often ignore even the possibility? Could the cultivation of subtraction reveal the p...
Episode 555: After Buffalo-CHIP BERLET (2017), investigator of hate groups, author, Right Wing Populism in America
May 21, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBAfter the latest one-two gut punch of Buffalo NY and Laguna Woods CA, we’ll replay my 2017 conversation with the author of Right Wing Populism in America, CHIP BERLET, who’s been on the domestic hate beat for decades. Congressman Ted Lieu: “Of course we need common sense gun safety measures enacted but we also need to address the misinformation and stoking of grievances that is pushing people to take these heinous actions.”
Episode 554: Are Antibiotics Doomed? DAVID HYUN & ERIN DUFFY on the Crisis No One Talks About
May 12, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBIn 2019, about 1.27M people died directly due to antimicrobial resistance - significantly more than from Covid in two years. When we lose antibiotics, we will be in a different world. Joint and organ replacement and many other surgeries will be a thing of the past. I talk about the growing dangers of antibiotic resistance and the lack of new drugs with DAVID HYUN, MD, who directs the Antibiotic Resistance Project at the Pew Charitable Trust, and ERIN DUFFY, Chief of R&D at CARB-X, t...
Episode 553: LINDA GREENHOUSE (2021) - JUSTICE ON THE BRINK - 12 Months that Transformed the Supreme Court
May 07, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBI realize this conversation with LINDA GREENHOUSE first posted only 6 months ago, but there’s no bigger domestic story right now than the rightwing Supreme Court majority’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade and do away with a woman’s right to an abortion. GREENHOUSE begins her book, JUSTICE ON THE BRINK, shortly before Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, covers McConnell’s cynical and unethical rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett, and then reports on the Court through the end of its term in Ju...
Episode 552: BILL McKIBBEN-THIRD ACT-New Movement to Mobilize Boomers vs Climate Change
April 28, 2022 00:00 - 16 seconds - 39.6 MBI’m excited to replay for you my late 2021 conversation with BILL McKIBBEN, author, and co-founder of the global climate campaign 350.org. In it which he introduces Third Act, the new activist organization he’s founded. While millions of young people are effectively engaging to confront climate change, those over 60 are not yet delivering what the crisis demands, and Third Act is dedicated to changing that.
Episode 551: ELIE MYSTAL, ALLOW ME TO RETORT: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution
April 06, 2022 00:00 - 11 minutes - 39.8 MBELIE MYSTAL, Justice Correspondent for The Nation magazine and a contributor to MSNBC, opens his first book, ALLOW ME TO RETORT: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, with the following words: “Our Constitution is not good. It is a document designed to create a society of enduring white male dominance, hastily edited in the margins to allow for what basic political rights white men could be convinced to share.” The starting point is that far from perfect, this document of comprom...
Episode 550: Can the press or international law influence Putin? MARIA ARMOUDIAN, REPORTING FROM THE DANGER ZONE; LAWYERS BEYOND BORDERS
March 31, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBAs we confront Russia’s war on Ukraine - What is the role of the press or international law? How can either stand up to those who defy and ignore them? MARIA ARMOUDIAN has written three books on the possibilities and limitations of “soft power”: KILL THE MESSENGER: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World; REPORTING FROM THE DANGER ZONE, and LAWYERS BEYOND BORDERS: Advancing International Human Rights through Local Laws and Courts. She is also host/producer of the syndicated radio ...
Episode 549: Will Putin use nukes? JOE CIRINCIONE, author, BOMB SCARE and NUCLEAR NIGHTMARES
March 24, 2022 00:00 - 1 minute - 40.8 MBRussia’s invasion of Ukraine may be failing, but it is also devastating and cruel. The US is unwilling to impose a No Fly zone because Putin has nuclear weapons and no one is certain that he won’t use them. How did we get here? Who else has nukes? Why haven’t we taken steps toward nuclear sanity? I turn to JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, Distinguished Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and former head of the Ploughshares Fund. His books include BOMB SCARE: THE HISTORY AND ...
Episode 548: DAVE PELL writes the excellent daily newsletter, NEXT DRAFT, and now a pandemic book, PLEASE SCREAM INSIDE YOUR HEART
March 18, 2022 00:00 - 58 minutes - 40.1 MBDAVE PELL, the “Internet’s Managing Editor,” has been writing about news, technology, and media since 1999. He just released his first book, PLEASE SCREAM INSIDE YOUR HEART: Breaking News and Nervous Breakdowns in the Year that Wouldn't End, a rollercoaster ride through 2020, leavened with humor and a good dose of perspective taken from the experience of his parents, who survived the Holocaust. You can learn more at NextDraft.com or Pleasescream.com
Episode 547: LARRY KOPALD, The Carbon Underground - We can reverse climate change and restore the soil with regenerative agriculture.
February 28, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBLARRY KOPALD, Co-Founder and President of The Carbon Underground, wants you to know that to successfully confront the climate crisis, it’s not enough to reduce or even halt carbon emissions. We also need to draw down accumulated carbon from the atmosphere. Nothing does that better or more simply than Regenerative Agriculture, by rebuilding soil organic matter. I don’t like talking about “the environment” as some separate entity out there. Our deepest goals in life must include a hea...
Episode 546: Are stories dangerous? JONATHAN GOTTSCHALL, THE STORY PARADOX: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down
February 17, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MB“Change the story to change the world.” If story actually has that power - and I believe it does - then it can change for better or worse. In his new book, THE STORY PARADOX, JONATHAN GOTTSCHALL declares storytelling the best method we’ve ever devised for manipulating each other by circumventing rational thought. As new technologies amplify the effects of disinformation campaigns, conspiracy theories, and fake news, he calls on us to stop asking, “How can we change the world through...
Episode 545: TIM JACKSON, Imagining a just sustainable future-POST GROWTH: Life After Capitalism
February 14, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBIn the words of today’s guest, TIM JACKSON, Director of the UK's Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, "The finite planet we call home is being altered perhaps irreversibly by the massive human activity that parades under the seductive banner of progress.” But how do we replace the current model of not just commerce - but almost of reality - with a new one that is at least as inviting and more effective at fulfilling human and planetary needs? And how do we do it i...
Episode 544: Doing God’s work-GREGORY BOYLE-Homeboy Industries-TATOOS ON THE HEART
February 08, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBWe can always use stories of redemption. Ira Glass says the best story form is the one used in sermons: stories with lessons. Father GREGORY BOYLE has made a point of collecting uniquely powerful stories of life and death, and his work has supplied him with more of those than anyone should know. As of 2010, he had buried 168 of his homies, and filled his first book TATTOOS ON THE HEART with their stories. I read it cover to cover on a plane flight and cried at least a dozen times. F...
Episode 543: Biden Year One in the Bigger Picture-ROBERT JOHNSON-Institute for New Economic Thinking
February 03, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBBiden has been President for just over a year. I last spoke with ROB JOHNSON of the Institute for New Economic Thinking November 5th 2020, two days after the polls closed, though the Presidential race had yet to be called. We’ll talk not so much about how the administration is doing – though that matters and we’ll touch on it – but even more about how society is doing? The US as a society seems broken – if broken means unable to solve critical problems. It’s bigger than politics, bi...
Episode 542: Triumphs & Tragedies of the 60’s Revolution - DAVID & MARGARET TALBOT - BY THE LIGHT OF BURNING DREAMS
January 28, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBIn BY THE LIGHT OF BURNING DREAMS, brother and sister, DAVID & MARGARET TALBOT, tell the story of the 1960s, an era they call the Second American Revolution, through the individual stories of movement leaders, including Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, Russell Means of the American Indian Movement, Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers, Heather Booth and the women behind the (pre-Roe v Wade) Jane Collective abortion network. David ...
Episode 541: RICK HANSON - HARDWIRING HAPPINESS - How to take advantage of the latest brain science
January 20, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBAnxiously entering the third year of a pandemic, and facing other huge challenges - inequality, injustice, endangered democracy, climate change, etc. we need to take care of ourselves. Here’s my 2013 conversation with neuropsychologist RICK HANSON, author of the best-seller BUDDHA’S BRAIN, about his book, HARDWIRING HAPPINESS, where he brings together mindfulness and neuroscience and offers pro-active practices to actually shift your brain’s neural structure – the hardwiring - towar...
Episode 540: Happy New Year!-CHARLES DUHIGG, THE POWER OF HABIT (2012)
January 14, 2022 00:00 - 59 minutes - 48 MBHello, this is Terrence McNally. As we begin the new year, declaring resolutions and setting goals, here’s my 2012 conversation with Charles Duhigg about the ideas in his book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. We also talk about his 2012 NYT Investigative series re Apple's Labor Practices.
Episode 539: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE 1960’s? Capitalism + Media vs Democracy - EDWARD MORGAN
January 14, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.2 MBI’m curious about the meanings and lesson of the ‘60s. Questions and values that emerged in the 1960s are alive in Millennials and younger today, and I believe they stand a chance to build something deeper and more sustainable this time. This week I speak with EDWARD MORGAN. His 2010 book, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE 1960’s?: How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy seeks to explain both what actually happened and what happened to how we remember it, how the mass media shape...