Talk Cocktail

Some people try and predict the future, others simply invent it and still others make those inventions possible. If it’s true that it is entrepreneurs that drive the future, then there are no more important players then the men who coach, invest and are the allies of those entrepreneurs. One of the stars and pioneers of this field is William H. Draper III. For more than forty years he has been a linchpin of the Silicon Valley, where he has turned others entrepreneurial vision, into tomorrow's reality. In this new book The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, he takes an insightful look at how innovation, investment and individuals truly change the world.  My conversation with William H. Draper III:

Long before Martin Luther King efforts, before the Civil Rights Act, or Brown vs. Board of Education, much of the intellectual heft of the effort to achieve racial equality was carried by one man. An aggressive young attorney for the NAACP who fought tirelessly to combat racism, who evolved in his own views and upon whose shoulders rested much of the legal bedrock of the Civil Rights movement. Look before he moved to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall would seek to find a legal as well as a moral reason for justice. Professor Michael G. Long, gives us a unique insight into this amazing man in Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall/ My conversation with Michael Long:

The war in Afghanistan is now America's longest war. The 2014 completion of mission still remains years into the future. Yet after all of this, there still seems to be a lack of clarity about our objectives and and about how we might achieve them. We seemed to have broken the momentum of the Taliban. The people don’t seem to want to live under Taliban rule, but neither do they want American rule. There seems to be no "what’s next." We say we don’t want to “nation build”, bet we’re supporting and helping to build up a corrupt and irrelevant central government. Like Vietnam, we say we want to win the hearts and minds of the people, yet what price does this objective have on the warrior ethos we expect of our military?  In short, how do we exit Afghanistan, with clear goals, honestly obtained and most of all what can we learn that really can help us fight the next war? Bing West, a former Marine combat veteran, a former assistant Secretary of Defense and brilliant chronicler of war, shares his insights into Afghanistan in The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan. My conversation with Bing West:

We know from watching Wisconsin and the events in neighboring states, that public sector unions have become political whipping posts for Republican politicians, especially Governors. But where Wisconsin’s Gov. Walker may have overreached and seems politically tone deaf and Arnold Schwarzenegger was to timid here in California; New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie may have found the sweat spot, as the pitch perfect spokesmen to an electorate fed up with the rising salaries and perks of public employees and their unions. In so doing, he may actually have a chance to move his state forward, reduce deficits, and engage in endless bloody battles, while becoming more popular in the process. Is he a model for other politicians, or just a big bully who knows how to craft a message?  All of this is part of the Cover Story in this past Sunday's N.Y Times Magazine, by one of the best political reporters in America, Matt Bai. Matt is the new Chief Political Correspondent for The Magazine. My conversation with Matt Bai about Gov. Chris Christie:

It was Grocho Marx who said he’d "never belong to any club that would have him as a member." In that joke he was articulating the perceived superiority of being an outsider. The often romantic notion that to belong was a kind of bourgeoisie idea that went against the grain of individualism and self expression. Two idea that are inherent in the American strain of DNA. A strain which Tocqueville believed left open the potential for "crass individualism and middling values." These idea have been reinforced throughout American history, but perhaps never more aggressively then in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s; as we would try and break out from the conformity of the war and the great depression. Grace Elizabeth Hale, gets to the heart of the issue in her new work A Nation of Outsiders: How the White Middle Class Fell in Love with Rebellion in Postwar America. My conversation with Grace Elizabeth Hale:

Modern communications technology enables us to leap great distances in a single bound. It allows us to telecommute, to stay connected and even to run a business half way around the world. But does any of this enhance creativity? Does it help generate new ideas? The fact is, our greatest natural resource has been the coming together of people and ideas in the worlds great cities. While we often associate cities with blight and poverty, our cities have been the incubators of the future. They are places where people are healthier, more creative, more environmentally correct and more in touch. There is a profound reason that two-thirds of the world live on the three percent of the land, that are our cities. Harvard economist Edward Glaeser celebrates this in his new work Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. My conversation with Edward Glaeser:

It would seem that the remarkable events that are taking place in the Middle East may have finally placed 9/11 into some kind of historical context. The underpinnings of the Iraq war, the war in Afghanistan and the overall war on terror, may be morphing into a new, smarter and more careful use of American power. If this is true, then where does Osama Bin Laden fit into the equation? Is he still relevant, does his presence still matter and should he even be a focus of American and Western efforts? Michael Scheuer, counterterrorism analyst and former chief of the CIA's bin Laden Unit thinks he still does matter. My conversation with Michael Scheuer:

Most of us have been watching recently as democracies are trying to unfurl around the world; often with the help of twitter, in place of tanks. But imagine a country for whom radio is at the cutting edge of communications. A country with its owns problems and issues, yet prides itself on its Gross Domestic Happiness. Then imagine, being immersed in and even stuck in a career in American media, and then being uprooted and dropped down into the primitive but potent culture of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. That’s exactly what Lisa Napoli did and she tells her story in her memoir Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth. My conversation with Lisa Napoli:

The world is a dramatically changing place. Recent events in Egypt and Tunisia show that tweets and can sometimes have the power of tanks. We see that soft power has a lower barrier to entry, but as in Iran, it can still be overtaken by repression. Non State ctors play a larger and larger role in the power dynamic of the world. Some for good and some for evil. If America is to continue to try and sit astride the world, how do we and our leaders adapt to these changing dynamics as power shifts, becomes more diffuse, and far more complex in its expression. Joseph Nye, one of our leading foreign policy experts, former dean of the JFK School of Government at Harvard, former State Department and National Security Council official, has been following these changing dynamics for over 30 years. He explains the latest developments in his new book The Future of Power My conversation with Joseph Nye:

Over the past 60 years millions and millions of words have been written abut the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians. The net result of most of those words has been to perpetuate the conflict. Yet if we focus on one story, a very personal story, of one man, truly dedicated to healing and to peace, we learn a great deal more. In January of 2009, Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish experienced something that would destroy most men. Something that would unleash the worst of human impulses. Dr. Abeelaish was a rarity, a Gazan, who was at home among Israelis. That is until Israeli shells recklessly killed three of his daughters and his nieces. Yet he transcended that, and in so doing perhaps became a symbol of the humanity of man and for the hope that still, to this day, drives people to seek peace. He writes about his experiences in his memoir I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. My conversation with Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish:

The world of education reform is moving at perhaps its fastest rate in decades. Social Entrepreneurship, public/private partnerships, and an ever growing body of knowledge about what works in transforming schools and creating educational success, creates unique opportunities. The very notion that it is schools that can transcend broader public policy issues and transform whole communities out of a traditionally endless cycle of poverty, is a new paradigm. Nowhere has all of this been proven with greater skill, certainty and results then with Teach for America. In twenty years Teach for America has arguably reshaped our old, tried notions of education and what can be accomplished. Wendy Kopp, the Founder and CEO of Teach for America has written A Chance to Make History: to mark that twentieth anniversary. My conversation with Wendy Kopp:

Many think of the late 1960’s and early 70’s as the source of the great cultural shifts from the post WWII traditions, to the more individualistic world of today. In fact, for woman those changes happened long before. The approval of the birth control pill in 1959 and the publication of Betty Fridan's "Feminine Mystique" in 1963 were the real watersheds. Certainly we've seen in the fictional lives of April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road and Betty Draper in Mad Men, the essence of the stirrings of that time. Friedan was certainly not the first feminist of her time, nor did she provide a manifesto for change. Rather, she gave voice the the feelings and ideas of a whole generation of middle class woman. Those ideas would reshape the fabric of our social landscape for years to come and are arguably the antecedents of some of the issues we're still grappling with today. Best selling author and Professor Stephanie Coontz takes us back to the time of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s. My conversation with Stephanie Coontz:

Young women today are succeeding at geometric rates. The number of young women graduating from colleges, from law schools and graduate schools is far out stripping young men. Women are succeeding in a remarkable range of careers, including politics and corporate boardrooms, heretofore places built with the proverbial glass ceiling. Yet paralleling all of this is a culture that is encouraging young girls to wrap themselves up in the pink accouterments of ultra-girlie, princess culture and then to later enter a cultural of extreme sexualization. How can all of these facts be true at the same time? What’s happening they creates this apparent contradiction in the lives of young women? Journalist and best selling author Peggy Orenstein tries to put all of this in perspective in her new book Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. My conversation with Peggy Orenstein:

One only has to look at the range of reactions to the Egyptian crises to understand the scope of foreign policy ideology. From the cautious, measured reaction of the White House to the lunatic rantings of Glen Beck, each reflects a particular school of thought, a kind of theoretical paradigm through which to see the world. Imagine if this applied to an invasion from Zombies. If the Zombies showed up tomorrow, what would our official national position be on the undead? What might be the social, political and foreign policy considerations and most of all how would the Zombie threat effect Israel? This is the fundamental idea behind Tuft's foreign policy Professor Dan Drezner’s new book Theories of International Politics and Zombies My conversation with Dan Drezner:

As each day goes by, we take another step towards recovery from the financial crisis that almost took down America's and the world's economies. Now, with time, we have the luxury of thinking about what really happened and why. The recent report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, put in place by the President and approved by Congress, is a step in that direction. Although the report and analysis was divided along partisan lines, its 500+ pages of facts have not been disputed and gives us a sold basis to continue discussing what happened and how we might avoid such crises in the future. Byron Georgiou was a member of that commission, and talks to me about the recently released Financial Crisis Inquiry Report .

Among all the problems that young people need worry about today, perhaps the one that will haunt them the longest are the issues of Global Warming and Climate Change. Environmental writer, Mark Hertsgaard, in his new book Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, describes the future for roughly two billion young people around the globe, under the age of twenty-five, who will be coping with ever-worsening climate change for the rest of their lives. My conversation with Mark Hertsgaard.

Most of us have played the game Mad Libs, in which you take a basic sentence structure and fill it in with silly or random words. While the game is meant to be fun and often frivolous, it contains within it some fundamental information about sentences. Sentences which are, after all, the infrastructure upon which we hang our words, ideas and understanding. Some would even argue that a great sentence might be a little like pornography. We know one when we see it, but do we really understand what gives it excitement and power? Stanley Fish, in addition to being the author of twelve books, a law professor and NY Times columnist, is a sentence connoisseur.  His latest work is How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One. My conversation with Professor Stanley Fish:

This past week, as we've watched events unfold in Egypt, we couldn’t help but be moved by some of he powerful photographic images, some of violence and even death. In fact, iconic images of death, images such as those from Vietnam, 9/11 and Dallas, to name a few, are images that will be with us forever, they are in fact seared into our collective consciousness. Powerful and emotional as these image are, what impact do they have on our rational view of events? Do they enhance or distract? Do they provide facts, or sometimes distract from the real story and context. These questions are tackled by Barbie Zelizer in her book About to Die: How News Images Move the Public. Zelizer is the Chair of Communication and the Director of the Scholars Program in Culture and Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. My conversation with Barbie Zelizer:

Back in the 60’s and early 70’s we harbored a fantasy about a gender neutral world. We thought that, if only we gave dolls to boys and guns to girls, we could turn back the clock on culturalization and achieve a kind of equality in the battle of the sexes. Modern science, about 35 years of research, and common sense have now prevailed and we know that none of this is true. Our gender differences are not only hard wired into us by evolutionary and neurological biology, but those differences also provide a diversity and difference that enhances our relationships and the work we do. If only we could figure out a way to get along! This is the work of Dr. Luann Brizendine who has served on the medical faculty of both Harvard and UCSF. This the author of the bestselling "The Female Brain." Now she turns her attention to The Male Brain. My conversation with Dr. Louann Brizendine:

As we wake up each morning to a new geopolitical crises, in countries we usually don’t think about very often, it's more important then ever to understand how the world works. We talk about globalization and a border-less world, yet their are more nation states and political borders then ever before. Here at home we hear criticism of trans-national corporations, yet where do we think that the jobs will come from, to move much of the world out of poverty. While we look for the proverbial magic bullet or individual that will solve all of our problems, the fact is, the world is far to complex a place for that. To face our problems today will require openness, acceptance, pragmatism and vision. Few people bring more of those qualities then Parag Khanna, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of  How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance. My conversation with Parag Khanna:

If the first rule of medicine is “do no harm,” the second rule might very well be "do not over diagnose." If all of our gleaming technology is now able to monitor even the most minute changes in our physical condition, can respondeding to those changes  do more harm then good. In short, does the holy grail of preventative medicine really prevent disease or just spark unwanted treatment and often harmful consequences? This is the question posed by Dr. Gilbert Welch, professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and the co-author of Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health. My conversation with Dr. Welch:

Today I took a journey to the outer edges of physics and cosmology. A world of precise mathematics but striking imagination. A world where not one, but many universes may exist. A world of theory, but also a world of deeps laws. A place where everything is different, but the goal is to find out how everything is, in fact, the same. It’s a world in which renowned physicist and mathematician Brian Greene lives. In his new work The Hidden Reality, he takes us all there. My conversation with Brian Greene:

When the green revolution took place in Iran last year many of us saw every tweet of the revolutionaries. But, while it may have moved us, what impact did it actually have on the scene? To what extent has social networking aided the recent democratic revolutions in Tunisia and what is it’s impact today in Egypt? As the Internet spreads though China, Russia and even Lebanon, what impact is it having? Is it empowering democratic forces or is it providing a kind of organizing force for dictators and the forces of repression? Is the Internet a catalyst for social change for these fledgling forces of freedom, or a kind of glue actually holding authoritarian regimes together? For too long we’ve allowed conventional wisdom to dictate the discussion here. But the facts just may be somewhat different. Journalist and Evgeny Morozov takes us to place that exposes the dark side of the Internet freedom in his new work The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. My conversation with Evgeny Morozov:

Tuesday night, the President talked a great deal about the future. About what the world might look like for the next generation. For most of us, speculating about the future is just that; idle speculation based on opinion and intuition. For George Friedman, founder and CEO of Stratfor, the future is his reality. George Friedman spends his life thinking about he future. His previous book The Next 100 Years took us to a 30,000 ft. view of the coming century. Now, in The Next Decade , he comes down to earth, to look at what’s changing on the ground as he views a future within our grasp. My conversation with George Friedman.

Last night the President spoke of the ways in which our economic world is changing. In fact, that change is taking place inside of and impacting on the natural world. What should our understanding and response be to those changes? 2010 was a year in which natural disasters took place at an alarming and unprecedented rate. In his new book The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World, ecologist and MacArthur and Guggenheim fellow Carl Safina takes us on a journey through the intricacy and interconnectedness of our economic world, our social institutions and the natural world which surrounds us. My conversation with Carl Safina:

It’s safe to say that the one thing that the left and the right both have in common, with respect to the role of religion in public life, is that they are both wrong. The defining mythology of separation of church and state was never what progressives thought it was and the Christian influence and power that the right fantasizes about, was never all it was cracked up to me. The truth and the history is far more complex, nuanced and some would argue troubling. David Sehat, in his new book The Myth of American Religious Freedom takes us through the history. My conversation with David Sehat:

Last week the President proved once again that words and speeches matter. That they have the potential to move people and even reset a debate. While many of us remember, or have studied great speeches, few rise to the level of JFK's Inaugural Address. That speech, given 50 years ago today, truly changed a nation. It was a speech that would define a new, post war generation of leadership and arguably would set the stage for the 60’s and 70’s.  Historian and journalist Thurston Clarke has captured that moment in his his book Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America. My conversation with Thurston Clarke:

Discussion never seems to end about the rise and growth of China. On this program alone, we've talked about everything from outsourcing to immigration. About food, foreign policy, spectacle, sport and how Americans are falling behind. If any one theme has emerged it is that while we all may have shared goals and aspirations, there are indeed profound cultural differences. Perhaps nowhere is that difference felt or seen or more controversial, then in the realm of parenting; specifically in how Western mothers vs. Chinese mothers raise their children. Time vs. money, sleepovers vs. success, play dates vs. practice drills, choice vs. conformity. These are just a few of the issues that separate the Chinese Way from the Western Way of parenting. On this very day in which we mark the 50 anniversary of JFK's Inauguration, we’re reminded of a quote by Jackie Kennedy who said simply, "if we bungle raising our children, I don't think whatever else we do matters very much.” What’s not so simple, is how we do that. Amy Chua has not only written her new book about how Chinese mothers practice parenting, but she has lived it, raising her own two daughters her own way. Her new book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, is about the way that Chua has lived, practiced and adapted the Chinese model of  parenting and her own personal journey in that effort. My conversation with Amy Chua:

It has been an almost universal truth since Horace Greeley first uttered the worlds "go West young man," that the West offers opportunity and fortune. Today, all that has changed. For many, particularly the children of immigrants from China and India, the decision to go East has been the road to riches. Back in 2008, New York Times and International Herald Tribune columnist Anand Giridharadas did exactly that. He headed to India, to find what he saw as the frontier of the future. My conversation with Anand Giridharadas about his book India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking.

Imagine, you go though life for almost seventy years with a good name, a stellar reputation and then one day that good name is gone. Instead, they give you a number. They reclassify you as something less then what you thought you were. It probably wouldn't feel very good. Yet this is exactly what happened to the planet Pluto, as Mike Brown led the charge to take away Pluto's good name.  Dr. Michel Brown brags How He Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. My conversation with astronomer and Cal Tech Professor Dr. Mike Brown.

This has been an amazing month for speeches and anniversaries of speeches. Last week the current President of the United States gave perhaps his greatest speech to date. On Thursday we will mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, and yesterday we also marked the 50th anniversary of perhaps the most important farewell address ever given by any President, including Washington. Dwight David Eisenhower, whose place in history is still evolving, warned us about an all to pervasive Military Industrial Complex; an idea that is still relevant and still part of our collective political consciousness. Journalist James Ledbetter, in his book Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex, gives us the definitive analysis of that speech and it's place in history. My conversation with James Ledbetter:

In spite of all the trouble inherent in our most intimate relationships, we still keep trying! Why is it that our quest for attachment seemingly has a life of its own? Woody Allen once said, that it’s because "we all need the eggs.” The truth, is both a lot more complicated and also a lot simpler. We are simply hardwired, by millions of years of evolution, to seek intimate attachment. But how and why is the question for modern science.  Dr. Amir Levine, in his book Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love,distills years of "attachment theory" and helps us to understand the science of intimate human relationships. My conversation with Dr. Amir Levine:

As the events of the past week have shown, a nation or a house divided against itself cannot stand. While it's really easy to see why dramatic economic and social changes cause people to cling to old fashion tribal ideas, its also easy to see, especially now, that we must reach out to better understand each other, to respect each other and most of all bring compassion to our daily discourse. The truth is, people have been preaching compassion for centuries. It has been part of the religious and secular cannon for thousands of years. Yet today, religion itself is part of the problem. How then do we reaffirm compassion in the wake of violence, fear, ignorance and rapid change? Religious scholar Karen Armstrong, in her new book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, argues that we need a new Charter for Compassion; that we need to lay out, codify and reaffirm the core principals of a compassionate life. My conversation with Karen Armstrong:

Everywhere we turn today we see a kind of cynicism about all of our institutions. From Governance, to business to banking and education, we have lost faith in how things work and why. We fear change yet damn the status quo. We know something is wrong, yet practically speaking, we know we must integrate change and modernity into how we see the world. How do we begin to get a handle on this? We know that its not as simple as a set of rules, or even a change of leaders. Professor Barry Schwartz argues that the answer lies in what he calls Practical Wisdom. Something in short supply these days. My conversation with Barry Schwartz:

We continue our series of conversations about technology with the remarkable Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of WIRED Magazine. Like it or not, in the 21st Century, much of how we view the world, is a product of how we view technology and whether we see it simply as some collection of man made gadgets, or as a fundamental by product of human development. Do we see it as something as organic as evolution itself or simply a neutral forces, until shaped by the hands of man? Is technology a force unto itself, one to be reckoned with or simply understood? In his new book What Technology Wants, Kelly presents on unconventional view of technology, as if it were an almost autonomous system. My conversation with Kevin Kelly:

Much as the printing press and later the telegraph & telephone transformed the speed and transmission of information, so the Internet may be even more profound. In fact, it may very well be the biggest transformation in human connectivity since the invention of language itself. The question today, is that while we live and work amidst the impact of this transformation, there is so much we do not know, in real time, about its challenges and its long term impact on our economies, our governance, our laws and our business. Are we more efficient today, or merely more stressed? Are we better managers or just better jugglers? Do we control our new found connectivity, or does it control us? These are just some of the questions asked by William Davidow in his groundbreaking book OVERCONNECTED: The Promise and Threat of the Internet. My conversation with William H. Davidow:

Today millions of people are truly living part of their lives in a virtual world. People are playing games, building communities, making friends and even making real money. Literary billions of dollars are paid in exchange for virtual goods. But what if something goes wrong? What are the rules, the laws, the codes of conduct that govern these worlds? Rutgers University law professor Greg Lastowka, in Virtual Justice: The New Laws of Online Worlds, lays out the problems posed and explains how the government and courts might respond and asks important questions about law, artifice and technology. My conversation with Greg Lastowka:

Before congress thinks about tampering with the new health care laws, they need to take a close look at what former Cigna PR Executive Wendell Potter says about what's really going on inside the insurance industry. He was the very well respected former head of Corporate Communications for Cigna until his conscience led him to turn on his former colleagues and testify before congressional committees about what he viewed as the health-insurance industry's "duplicitous" behavior. He openly talks about how insurers would have no problems with "dumping the sick" to protect the stock price above all else. Now, Wendell Potter, in his book Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, gives us a true profile in courage. My conversation with Wendell Potter:

Everybody wants to be happy as we go into the New Year. Shopping and gift giving alone may not have done trick. New Years resolutions may simply not be enough to make us happy. So what does make us happy? Is it wealth, youth, beauty, or intelligence. Dan Buettner, author of the bestseller THE BLUE ZONES, says we have the keys within us. For his new work, Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way, Buettner circled the globe, traveling to four continents, to study the world's happiest populations and has spotted several common principles. What can we learn from this journey? My conversation with Dan Buettner

In just a few days time, hundreds of millions of you will be setting those New Years Resolutions. But so few of them will be kept. Why is it so hard to keep even the simplest of goals, even while brain science prove that by setting Hard Goals and executing them correctly, we can accomplish great things? According to leadership and success expert Mark Murphy, by redefining how our brain focuses on our goals, we can truly change what we are capable achieving. My conversation with Mark Murphy: