Episodes
Thursday May 27, 2010
Paradise Beneath Her Feet
Thursday May 27, 2010
Thursday May 27, 2010
Wednesday May 26, 2010
Power Crazy
Wednesday May 26, 2010
Wednesday May 26, 2010
Tuesday May 25, 2010
Black Swans: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Tuesday May 25, 2010
Tuesday May 25, 2010
Nassim Nicholas Taleb has redefined how we see the world. An options trader and scholar turned philosopher, he is one of the very people who predicted the financial crisis. In doing so, he devised the concept of "Black Swan Events" to describe unexpected shocks to our collective system. In his new, paperback version of The Black Swan, he outlines what's still wrong with our economic system, why we are unequipped to handle the world's problems and why many of our experts, in his view, know less than cab drivers. Taleb's is an iconoclastic, provocative, idiosyncratic view of our world. But it's one we can't afford to ignore. My conversation with Nassim Nicholas Taleb:
Monday May 24, 2010
A Rumour of War
Monday May 24, 2010
Monday May 24, 2010
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.Sometimes in America, there is a desperate need for war, an atavistic desire for violence. This trend has repeated itself thought our history. In 1890 there was clearly this need for war. Teddy Roosevelt embodied that need. He was ready to go to war against Spain, but according to his letters, any nation would do. He felt the need to cope with much change and reaffirm a nation that some argued was going soft. Sound familiar? Newsweek editor-at-large Evan Thomas, in this new book The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 spent years researching what happened in the 1890's and what lessons we might learn today. My conversation with Evan Thomas:
Saturday May 22, 2010
A lopsided Napa political race
Saturday May 22, 2010
Saturday May 22, 2010
Most political races, or at least the ideal ones, are between two candidates with different views, but with equal ability to articulate those views to the voters. Sometimes though, there are races which are like mismatched prizefights and a referee should shop them in the second round. Here in Napa we have such a race. It's a race for County Supervisor that pits a dynamic former police chief, with good, sound ideas, against a twelve year incumbent who serves only by virtue of Forrest Gump like likeability and the special interests he serves. For a good shock to the political system listen as these two answer a few questions at a recent forum.
Friday May 21, 2010
The Other Wes Moore
Friday May 21, 2010
Friday May 21, 2010
Tuesday May 18, 2010
The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr.
Tuesday May 18, 2010
Tuesday May 18, 2010
Monday May 17, 2010
Listening to Van Morrison
Monday May 17, 2010
Monday May 17, 2010
Intense, idiosyncratic, diverse, elusive. These are just a few of the words that have been used to describe singer/songwriter Van Morrison. One our our most astute cultural critics, Greil Marcus, in his new book When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison examines Morrison's particular and peculiar genius. Marcus says that Morrison willfully resists simple categorization; that his greatest songs are at one moment his own, at another covers of those by others. My conversation with Greil Marcus about listening to Van Morrison:
Wednesday May 12, 2010
The Wrong Stuff
Wednesday May 12, 2010
Wednesday May 12, 2010
Ours is a materialistic culture with an insatiable appetite for stuff, but at what point does that appetite cross the line and reach unhealthy levels? Researchers estimate that more than six million hoarders live in the United States. And whether we're savers, collectors, or compulsive cleaners, none of us is free of the impulses that drive hoarders to extremes. But exactly how, when, and why do these otherwise normal impulses and experiences develop into hoarding? Dr. Randy Frost in his new book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things explains. My conversation with Dr. Randy Frost:
Monday May 10, 2010
Social Entrepreneurship
Monday May 10, 2010
Monday May 10, 2010
Thursday May 06, 2010
The things we fear most
Thursday May 06, 2010
Thursday May 06, 2010
John Lennon said that "life is what happens while were busy making other plans." History tells us that things are the way they are, until they're not. Pulitzer prize winning journalist and bestselling author Anna Quindlen's new novel Every Last One, takes this idea into the heart of the American family. People often think that family protects them from the omnipresent danger of the outside world. But what happens when the violence comes from within? Anna Quindlen gives us a new way to look at family and perhaps a metaphor for our larger American family. My conversation with Anna Quindlen:
Wednesday May 05, 2010
The Great Reset
Wednesday May 05, 2010
Wednesday May 05, 2010
As Michael Lewis explained to us yesterday, there is no question we've just been through the worst economic crises since the great depression. As we begin to recover, we all wonder what will be different? What lessons will we take away? It should be clear by now that enough has changed that we can't solve everything just by regulating Wall Street. We will each have to find ways to reform ourselves and our values to reflect the changing economy, strained resources and a new emphasis on what constitutes real value. All of this is what bestselling author, public intellectual and economic development expert Richard Florida calls The Great Reset. My conversation with Richard Florida:
Tuesday May 04, 2010
The Big Short
Tuesday May 04, 2010
Tuesday May 04, 2010
It was John Adams who said "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." What Adams missed is that facts can be interpreted differently by different people. Bias, fed by money, greed, delusion and even by too much information, can cloud and shape those facts. In many ways that's what happened in the recent collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market and of Wall Street itself. Twenty one years ago Michael Lewis wrote about the wreckage of Wall Street in his memoir Liar's Poker. Little did he know then that he was writing about the beginning of an era that may now finally be ending. In his new look at Wall Street and the recent financial crisis The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,he paints a powerful narrative of smart and fearless men, some of whom see things as they are and ask why, and others who never ask why not. My conversation with Michael Lewis:
Monday May 03, 2010
Climate change and energy..the real deal
Monday May 03, 2010
Monday May 03, 2010
There was time when we looked to and trusted science to provide answers to the most pressing questions facing mankind. Today, science like so much else in America, has become politicized and ignorance has been elevated as a political philosophy. Dr. Burton Richter, a Nobel Prize winning American physicist, who lead the Stanford Linear Accelerator and is one of the leaders of the revolution in particle physics, takes on the huge task of trying to educate us about climate change and energy. His book Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st Century provides an understandable explanation of the situation, including realistic and actionable approaches to addressing the problems. Sometimes it takes a great mind to give us the simplicity we need to understand complex topics. My conversation with Dr. Burton Richter:
Saturday May 01, 2010
Maid as Muse
Saturday May 01, 2010
Saturday May 01, 2010
Usually we look at how great writers influence our language and culture. Emily Dickenson turned this notion upside down. It was in fact her household staff that influenced her writing and altered her sensibility. Just as cultural diversity shaped Dickenson, as we find more and more cultural and ethnic diversity in our society, it's worth wondering how this multiculturalism will influence contemporary writers? Also, as more technology and and a growing service sector give writers more time to write, what impact will that have? Aife Murray, in her new book Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson's Life and Language gives us stories about 19th century literary and social history that just might have some parallels in the 21st. My conversation with Aife Murray:
Friday Apr 30, 2010
To hell with governing
Friday Apr 30, 2010
Friday Apr 30, 2010
The 2012 presidential election is still 30 months away. But Republican challengers to the President already think that holding public office may be a liability. Are we heading into a campaign that's not at all about policy, or ideas or governing, but about anger at a changing society, played out in a multilayered media landscape. Matt Bai, contributing editor to the The New York Times Magazine, and one of our most astute political observers, thinks this might be happening. My conversation with Matt Bai about his article in The Magazine this Sunday: