Episodes
Tuesday Jun 29, 2010
The Upside of Irrationality
Tuesday Jun 29, 2010
Tuesday Jun 29, 2010
How many times have we made decisions just to keep our options open? How often have we acted irrationality, yet convinced ourselves that it was part of a larger, rational plan? It's often said that in the Radio and Television business, the ideal program delivers unpredictable events in very predictable surroundings. Human nature is such that we do want it both ways; uncertainty and adventure. Duke University Professor Dan Ariely, in his new book The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home, explains how irrational behavior influences every part of our lives and how our irrational behavior is both systematic and predictable. My conversation with Dan Ariely:
Monday Jun 28, 2010
The Unspoken Alliance
Monday Jun 28, 2010
Monday Jun 28, 2010
As the World Cup pulls our attention to South Africa and its history, it's worth noting the once secret alliance between Israel's booming arms industry and the apartheid regime that formerly ruled S. Africa. It was a regime that was controlled by a group of Afrikaner nationalists who had enthusiastically supported Hitler during WWII. In 1967, as both states became international pariahs, their covert military relationship blossomed. Sasha Polakow-Suransky, a senior editor at Foreign Affairs, with a doctorate in modern history from Oxford, lays it all out in his book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa. My conversation with Sasha Polakow-Suransky
Monday Jun 28, 2010
American Dreams: The US since 1945
Monday Jun 28, 2010
Monday Jun 28, 2010
At the close of WWII America was a very different county. In a mere 65 years we have been transformed, perhaps even overtaken by events.Whether we have shaped these events, or the events have shaped us is an open question. Clearly the political and cultural shifts have, in many ways, redefined the American proposition and reshaped what it means to be at home in the world. Noted historian H.W. Brands, in his new work American Dreams: The United States Since 1945, brings a rich historical context for the times we live in and takes us through every major step along the way. My conversation with H.W. Brands:
Friday Jun 25, 2010
Is the Internet making us stupid?
Friday Jun 25, 2010
Friday Jun 25, 2010
Thursday Jun 24, 2010
Murder, Corruption and Scandal as L.A. comes of age
Thursday Jun 24, 2010
Thursday Jun 24, 2010
Wednesday Jun 23, 2010
A History of American hubris
Wednesday Jun 23, 2010
Wednesday Jun 23, 2010
Monday Jun 21, 2010
Urban Renewal in Cold War New York
Monday Jun 21, 2010
Monday Jun 21, 2010
Thursday Jun 17, 2010
The Promise
Thursday Jun 17, 2010
Thursday Jun 17, 2010
Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
She looks just like you
Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
The Rational Optimist
Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
Tuesday Jun 15, 2010
What's a nice girl like you, doing in a place like this
Tuesday Jun 15, 2010
Tuesday Jun 15, 2010
After graduating from Smith College, Piper Kerman fell in with a bad relationship and a hard-partying, drug dealing crowd. Ten years after she left it all behind, her past came back to haunt her. In her memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, she tells the powerful, heartfelt story of her 15 months in federal prison, of the women she met and befriended and of the idea and power of community, even behind bars. My conversation with Piper Kerman:
Monday Jun 14, 2010
Why work isn't working
Monday Jun 14, 2010
Monday Jun 14, 2010
How many of you are energized about going to work each day? If you are not, you are in the company of 75% of employees around the world who feel disengaged at work. As the recession has increased pressures for productivity, as twelve and fourteen hour days become the norm, as technology tethers us to work 24/7, it's no wonder that job satisfaction is waning. Yet, if we are to stay competitive, if we are to provide the creative energy to solves tomorrows problems, something has to change. Tony Schwartz, founder of The Energy Project and long time journalist, in his new book The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance,gives us a primer on what we can do to take back control of our work life and at the same time increase job satisfaction and performance. My conversation with Tony Schwartz:
Thursday Jun 10, 2010
imadness
Thursday Jun 10, 2010
Thursday Jun 10, 2010
Monday Jun 07, 2010
Freedom Summer
Monday Jun 07, 2010
Monday Jun 07, 2010
Sunday Jun 06, 2010
America's economic battles
Sunday Jun 06, 2010
Sunday Jun 06, 2010
Thursday Jun 03, 2010
What if a gorilla walked into the room?
Thursday Jun 03, 2010
Thursday Jun 03, 2010
Wednesday Jun 02, 2010
Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis
Wednesday Jun 02, 2010
Wednesday Jun 02, 2010
Even with respect to our most benign domestic issues, it seems impossible for most people to see both sides of an issue. With respect to perhaps the world's most contentious issue, the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the ability to see both sides is near impossible and has been so for over 60 years. Journalist and historian Kai Bird has done the rare thing of not only seeing both sides, but living on both sides in the Middle East. Kai Bird came of age amidst the Arab/Israeli conflict. He thought he fully understood the catastrophe and plight of the Palestinians until he married a Jewish woman, whose parents were holocaust survivors. In his book Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978, he tries to make sense of the intersection of the catastrophes of two cultures, in a region that never seems to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. My conversation with Kai Bird:
Tuesday Jun 01, 2010
Last Call
Tuesday Jun 01, 2010
Tuesday Jun 01, 2010
Tuesday Jun 01, 2010
Secrets of the Middle Aged Brain
Tuesday Jun 01, 2010
Tuesday Jun 01, 2010