Talk Cocktail

The Sports/Entertainment Complex

As we spend more and more of our Holiday time watching sporting events, as the business of sports continues to grow exponentially, the line between sports and entertainment continues to blur. In a nation besieged by seemingly insurmountable economic problems and the further fracturing of interpersonal bonds, sports with its simplicity, clarity and team identity, becomes stronger than ever. Along with all of this has come billions and billion of dollars to the sports/entertainment complex. Yet, how to maintain both the integrity of the business model and the purity and honesty of sport, in light of this kind of money, is an ongoing question. Few have spent more time looking at this issue than David M. Carter, the Executive Director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute and Professor or Sports Business at the USC'S Marshall School of Business. My conversation with David M. Carter, about his book Money Games: Profiting from the Convergence of Sports and Entertainment.

Rebecca Solnit's Atlas of San Francisco

Sometimes we live in places for years, without actually knowing them. To a real extent we live in a kind of "state of mind." Our connection to our City often has many layers of meaning, both personal and geographical. This is as true in a small towns as it is in the beautiful City of San Francisco. National Book Critic Circle Award winner Rebecca Solnit, has created Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, a new kind of atlas of San Francisco, that allows us to see what really makes a place and examines the many layers of meaning inside a City like San Francisco. My conversation with Rebecca Solnit:

Got Milk?

Americans are some of the least healthy people on the planet. Despite great medical care and research and one of the highest standards of living in the world, one in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer and 50 percent of US children are overweight. This crisis in personal health is largely the result of the choices we make AND the foods we eat, especially Milk! Dr. Joseph Keon in his new book Whitewash: The Disturbing Truth About Cow's Milk and Your Health cites ample evidence that milk is unnecessary for human health and in fact, may increased our risk of diseases. My conversation with Dr. Joseph Keon:

Next Generation Democracy

Tip O'Neil's famous maxim that "all politics is local," is as true today as ever. However the methods and techniques of that local political process are entirely different. To take on 21st Century global challenges like climate change, financial markets, housing, health care, banking and so many others, it's going to take a new kind of politics. One, global in thinking, but organized around the open source ideas that are impacting every aspect of our society. Jared Duval, in his book Next Generation Democracy: What the Open-Source Revolution Means for Power, Politics, and Change, lies at the cutting edge of politics, democracy and technology. My conversation with Jared Duval:

A kidnapping from Two Sides

The war in Afghanistan is, by most accounts, not going well. This month the administration will be conducting a full review of our Afghan policy. However any such review, to be effective, must assume a real understanding of what’s happening on the ground...in Afghanistan and in the tribal regions of Pakistan. There is no reason to assume we have that understanding. However, two time Pulitzer Prize winning N.Y. Times correspondent David Rohde, had a unique view inside the Taliban "mini-state" within Pakistan, and of Pakistan's military and their continually turning a blind eye to Taliban activities. Unfortunately, Rohde had to be kidnapped and fear for his life in order to garner this view. He and his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, tell their story in A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides. My conversation with David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill:

Imagination of Unreasonable Men

If you believe that our future will indeed be better then our past, then you must believe in the imaginations of unreasonable men. For it is only ideas and imagination that can reshape the world. That the human mind and human spirit are capable of thinking something up, and in spite of any obstacles, making it happen, is as true for putting a man on the moon as it is for curing disease or starting a business. All are part of the rubric that defines hope and progress for civilization. Bill Shore has been guided by this idea and is the founder and Executive Director of Share of Strength, and is the author of The Imaginations of Unreasonable Men. My conversation with Bill Shore:

Wall Street Grifters

Matt Taibbi is perhaps our most audacious financial journalist. In referring to Goldman Sachs as a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity" he set a new bar in 21st century financial journalism. Now in his book Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America he looks at the winners and losers in the current financial shell game what what impact their actions have had on us, our neighbors and our future. My conversation with Matt Taibbi:

Words & Money

Back in the early 80 it’s estimated that there were over 50 companies that controlled or influenced media in the US. Today that number is less than 6. In spite of the dramatic increase in blogs, the web, 24/7 cable, there is clearly a homogenization of our media. More then the story of how this has happened, the real question is what impact has it had on our democracy and on the proliferation of new ideas, on debate and on the intellectual, creative destruction that is the very essence of a free society. Legendary publsiher Andre Schffrin has been on the barricades of these questions for over fifty years. Now he reexamines all of it in his new book Words & Money. My conversation with Andre Schffrin:

A Leader for ALL times!

Few Presidents, let alone few American, might justify a biography of three volumes and over one million words. Yet Theodore Roosevelt's Presidency and life, demand exactly that. Edmund Morris has captured the person and essence of Theodore Roosevelt in his three volume biography, of which he has just completed the final volume, Colonel Roosevelt. Morris won the Pulitzer Prize for his first volume The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and is the author of what is certainly the definitive biography of Ronald Regan, Dutch. My conversation with Edmund Morris:

The Performance of Politics

Presidential power passes in our nation, as in no other democracy. Our process of electing leaders, what it demands from them to meet our expectations, is grueling. In fact, arguably the skill it takes today to get elected President, may not be the best skills for governing. In 2008 a maelstrom of forces came together to redefine still further how we elect our Presidents. The campaign performances of John McCain and Barack Obama, both defined and reflected back our national psyche. This is is both the narrow and the broader areas examined by Jeffrey Alexander in his new book The Performance of Politics: Obama's Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power. My conversation with Jeffrey Alexander:

Vampires and Angels and God, Oh My!

For over thirty years, Anne Rice has captivated us with her imaginative faction. She has become one of the most beloved novelists of our time. With each new book or series, she not only reinvents herself, but reinvents whole new arenas of fiction. From the Vampire Chronicles, to her Christ the Lord books, to a new series of metaphysical thrillers about the world of angels, including her latest Of Love and Evil, Anne Rice continues to redefine some of the very ideas about faith in America. My conversation with Anne Rice:

All the running he can do....

As Republicans now face the reality of trying to govern and run congress with a rather diverse group of freshman legislators, so two years ago, the Obama administration came to office with real divisions within their coalition. Divisions between true believers, what MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe calls "revivalist" and those with a more practical, Washington based agenda, the so call "survivalists." Amidst these divisions, the country faced problem unequaled since the 1930's, an opposition party set to "no" as its default position on everything, and in spite of it all, the new President accomplished an extraordinary amount. How did this play out and what price did the administration and the nation have to pay?  This is the backdrop for Richard Wolffe's new book Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House. My conversation with Richard Wolffe:

Take two aspirn and see a shrink

What are the limits of the medical establishment? How can prejudice and sometimes just lack of answers from Doctors result in a patient suffering for over twenty years? And how resilient must someone be, to recover and not be angry for loosing two decades? This is the story and the journey of Chloe Atkins. Now a professor in the Law and Society Program at the University of Calgary she is the author of the memoir My Imaginary Illness: A Journey into Uncertainty and Prejudice in Medical Diagnosis. My conversation with Chloe Atkins:

The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

While we talk a lot about dramatic and dynamic change in our society, it’s worth noting that much of that rapid change has happened in the past 50 years. As we look, in particular, at changes for woman, we find that while much has indeed changed in the past 50 years, prior to that, for literally thousands of years, nothing changed. Obviously their is a lot of catching up to do, and that process is still on going. This is detailed in a new book When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by former NY Times Editorial Page editor Gail Collins. My conversation with Gail Collins:

A sixth crisis?

Since the end of WWII, argues Dana Allin, co-author of the book The Sixth Crisis: Iran, Israel, America, and the Rumors of War, there have been five distinct crises that have immersed the US deeper and deeper into the quagmire of the Middle East. Successive American Presidents have made decisions, good and bad, that have further exacerbated the tensions of the region. Today, with two wars still ongoing in the region, the prospect of a nuclear Iran, a world more interconnected and moving more rapidly and with a President and Secretary of State determined to make progress in the region, the stakes could hardly be higher and risks could not be greater. Are we on the verge of a Sixth Crises in the region. My conversation with Dana Allin:

The West Rules....for Now

We study history not just to collect facts and dates, but rather to understand where we came from, to ascertain the patterns of human affairs. This is not just to tell us what to do, but also what to avoid. For it is the task of succeeding generations to try and escape history, that is, to remove from possibility the mistakes of other times. In so doing one improves and that improvement is necessary to growth and civilization. When we look at history, particularly since around the 14th century, we see the steady domination of the West even though both East and West began on a kind of level playing field. What happened and what do those patterns of success and failure tell us about the future?  This is the work of  Stanford historian Ian Morris, as told in his new work, Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future. My conversation with Ian Morris:

Health Care...Solved

As the past year will attest, if we wait for Washington to solve the health care crises, we could be waiting a very long time. Yet in spite of Washington, or maybe because so little gets done there, their are some real world efforts going on at the business and grass roots level that are transforming health care into a cost-efficient, accountable system that actually empowers consumers. John Torinus, the CEO of Serigraph, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is truly at the leading edge of this effort. His commitment, his passion and encyclopedic knowledge of the subject has created a model that companies all over can follow. He's even written a book to share his efforts. My conversation with John Torinus Jr.

Who controls the information highway?

The subject of net neutrality, the idea that everyone should have the same access to the web, is certainly the subject of much debate. But that debate, begs the larger issue. That is, that the history of innovation is the history of the concentration of power and control in the hands of a few. Sometimes even government has been complicit in that effort. From the printing press to the telephone to radio & television, individuals and monolithic enterprises have exercised central control. With the Internet and its lower barriers to entry, how will this historical economic and capitalistic trend play out? This is the central focus of the work of Tim Wu, the man who coined the term "net neutrality," and whose new book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, could well be the tabula rasa of our digital future. My conversation with Tim Wu:

Invisible Capital

What if a great idea, hard work and a good plan simply aren't enough to assure entrepreneurial success? In his book Invisible Capital: How Unseen Forces Shape Entrepreneurial Opportunity, Chris Rabb puts forth specific ways that entrepreneurs can build and grow sustainable business, even amidst the thousands of unseen forces, in our business and cultural landscape, that create the inevitable uneven playing field. By simply reaffirming how success is defined, we have the ability to make sure that tomorrows entrepreneurs not only serve their company, but their community and the broader society. My conversation with Chris Rabb:

"Twisted Sisterhood"

It often appears that the bonds of sisterhood are among the powerful.  In fact, new research suggests that, for many woman,  they are often the most corrosive. When Kelly Valen's essay "My Sorority Pledge? I Swore Off Sisterhood," was published in the New York Times Modern Love column, she was overwhelmed by the response. This wasn't just about the so called "mean girls," this was about woman who had been scared or shaped by the pain inflicted by high school, college or work related sisterhood. Inspired by the response to her article Kelly Valen conduced a unique survey of more than 3,00 woman. She reveals the results in her new book The Twisted Sisterhood: Unraveling the Dark Legacy of Female Friendships. My conversation with Kelly Valen:

Dylan

For any music to be successful, there must be that special bond between performer and listener. Perhaps nowhere has that bond been stronger then in the unique relationship between Bob Dylan and music critic extraordinaire Greil Marcus. For over forty years Dylan has drawn upon and reinvented the landscape of traditional American music, its myths, heroes and villains. Throughout all of it, Greil Marcus has been there to be our ears, to be a unique listener of an unparalleled singer. Marcus' forty years of writing on Dylan has been compiled into a new volume. Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010. My conversation with Greil Marcus:

Frank

It's been the height of the political season and we've talked a great deal about politics and policy. For the next few days we're going to ratchet it back a little, as we look as some of the most influential musical talents of our time. Later in the week we'll look at the work of Bob Dylan and Sir Paul McCartney. Right now, we look upon a man who was a master interpreter of song, and an Academy Award winner. He was a star unlike any other, the greatest vocalist in the history of American music and more profoundly than any other entertainment figure, he would forever change the face of our popular culture. Biographer James Kaplan in his book Frank: The Voice, gives us a Sinatra, warts and all, from the streets of Hoboken to the apex of celebrity. My conversation with James Kaplan:

The world turned upside down

President Obama's trip to India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea is more than a simple diplomatic mission or, as some have changed, an effort to avoid domestic politics. Rather, it is a journey into what the future of a post Iraq, post Afghanistan world might look like, as we confront China, and face new challenges in a world that might look very different than the Mercator Projection we grew up with. Robert D.Kaplan, Atlantic's national correspondent and Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, in his new book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, looks at a 21st century world centered around the Indian Ocean and very different than everything we learned years ago. My conversation with Robert Kaplan:

Hearding Donkeys

It's hard to believe, but just four short years ago, during the 2006 midterm elections, the Democrats made some big gains. In 2008, the Obama campaign, layering on to the grass roots work done by the DNC under Howard Dean, would create a powerful grass roots movement that swept Democrats into power in 2008. Today, the movement seems shattered. The wave that rolled over the country on Tuesday was certainly Republican and impacted not only Congress, but State Houses and State Legislatures in every corner of the country. How did a movement that once seemed unstoppable collapse in a few years? What does it say about our politics, our President and about the Democratic party? The Nation's Ari Berman looks at all of this in his timely new book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics. My conversation with Ari Berman:

Big Girls Don't Cry

The 2008 Presidential election may have changed the political landscape for generations. Hillary Clinton's 18 millions cracks in the glass ceiling, Barack Obama’s transcendence of race and Sara Palin’s emergence as a political force, all shape our politics today. The irony is, that for all the drama and cultural upheaval caused by the election an African-American President, and the splendor of that election night speech in Grant Park, it was perhaps Clinton's loss and Palin's attempt to co-opt it, that may now have the most far reaching impact on our politics and our culture. How did this happen? How did all of the primary campaign's angst and tension between Obama and Clinton supporters lead to John McCain’s spawning of Sara Palin, which has in turn lead directly to this weeks elections and will politics or feminism ever be the same? This is the backdrop for Salon's senior writer, Rebecca Traister's eye opening new book Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women. Even if you were paying close attention, Traister brings us up close and personal with people and ideas we probably missed and should be thinking about. My conversation with Rebecca Traister:

Power!

As the election dust settles and a new Congress comes to town, some members will have power and others will not. We know from our own experience that power requires more than just hard work and intelligence. In politics like anything else, what are the skills we need to succeed, to acquire personal power and to effectively wield that power? Thirty five years ago Michael Korda laid out a predicate for power. Today, Stanford's Jeffrey Pfeffer is the leading thinker on the subject and his new book,  Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't, lays out a 21st Century guide to how power works today. My conversation with Jeffery Pfeffer:

The Fear Election

As Juan Williams' recent comments pointed out and today's election further attests, fear is the dominate impulse in our culture and in our politics. Fear of the other, be it on an elevator, or across the aisle of a plane, dominates our collective national consciousness. Even Jon Stewart realized this in his comments at his rally on Saturday. Journalist Shankar Vedantam, a reporter for the Washington Post and columnist for Slate.com, takes a look at this recent phenomenon and how he believes our Hidden Brain is evolutionarily hard wired to be afraid. How do we get behind this? My conversation with Shankar Vedantam:

Whack-Job Politics

The right wing, paranoid and demagogic impulse in American politics and American democracy has been with us for decades; from Father Coughlin, to Joe McCarthy, to the John Birchers to the Tea Party and Sara Palin. To this paranoia, we've now added what journalist Michael Wolraich, in his new book Blowing Smoke, calls "persecution politics." What is it in our socio/political DNA that makes us so susceptible to the this extreme right narrative?  More importantly, as Tom Friedman pointed out in his column yesterday, while the rest of the world looks to the American model of progress and opportunity, what will our retreat behind this wall of mutual distrust and ignorance bode for our future. My conversation with Michael Wolraich:

The Gun

When it comes to war, sometimes the weapons define the conflict itself. From the musket, the Monitor and the Merrimack to Fat Man and Little Boy, our weapons have defined our views of conflict and often how we view our military preparedness. One such seminal weapon has been the AK47. Designed in Russia, after WWII, originally as the Kalashnikov, it would go on to become one of the most common weapons in the world. A weapon mass produced and designed to inflict maximum harm at close range, it has alternatively been seen as the gun of liberation or oppression. Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent C.J. Chivers, in his new book The Gun, takes a look at a weapon, that probably more then nukes, defined the Cold War and is still part of the battle in Afghanistan and Iraq today. My conversation with C.J. Chivers:

The Poet in the Laboratory

Claude Levi-Strauss, who died a year ago at age 100, was one of the towering intellectuals of the 20th Century. Just as Freud shook up the discipline of psychiatry, so Levi-Strauss revolutionized anthropology. He transformed it from the colonial era study of "exotic" tribes to a discipline consumed with fundamental questions about he nature of humanity and civilization. While he was aggressive in pushing the theories of his time, his ideas and the quality of his work, still resonate today. Patrick Wilcken's, new biography of Levi-Strauss Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory, gives us an evocative journey in the one of the last century's most influential minds. My conversation with Patrick Wilcken:

Homeless to Harvard

Next time you or your kids are feeling underprivileged, take a listen to this remarkable and riveting story of a young woman who triumphed over the circumstances of a truly harrowing childhood. Homeless at 15, Liz Murray took control of her life and ultimately graduated from Harvard. Her memoir Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard is truly a story of transformation, infused with hope and not a drop of self-pity or anger. Her story has already been a Lifetime TV Movie, but Liz Murray's personal telling is all the more powerful. My conversation with Liz Murray:

The Vertical Farm

Imagine a technology that could help in securing the world's food supply, solve environmental crises, lower the need for fossil fuels and help reshape blighted urban landscapes; all in the context one big idea. This is the idea of The Vertical Farm and long time Columbia University microbiology Professor Dr. Dickson Despommier examines it in his new book. As climate change and the growing population of the developing world put new pressures on our food supply and in turn agriculture, the idea of vertical hydroponic and airoponic framing could be the wave of the future. My conversation with Dr. Dickson Despommier:

Lost Peace, Lost Opportunity

In 1989 as the Cold War came to end, we thought we were at "the end of history." We thought the end of the great superpower rivalry would mark a new turning point for peace. Yet today, twenty years later the world is perhaps more dangerous then during the height of the Cold War. How did this happen and what choices did our leaders make to create such a world? In trying to figure this out, it's instructive to embrace the lessons of history. What happened at the end of WWII? After decades of violence and failed international policies, the end of that war should have provided a powerful framework for enduring peace. Instead we entered into the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, Korea, Vietnam, Israel and the Middle East and a host of new problems that we still live with today. What happened. This is the backdrop for The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953,a powerful new work by noted historian and presidential biographer Robert Dallek My conversation with Robert Dallek:

Democracy vs. Capitalism

The current financial crises may have put capitalism under siege and highlighted the tensions between capitalism and American democracy. Yet this is not the first times these forces have been at odds.  The decades after the civil war and the birth of the industrial revolution created massive industries, as we moved  from an agrarian economy to a new, never before tired, capitalistic model. Even then, some thought  that this new form of capitalism would overpower democracy  itself. This period, often refereed to as the Gilded Age, is not only a fascinating story in its own right, but bears profound implications for the issues we face today. Never has the idea of repeating history that we don't learn from been more profound then in prize winning historian H.W. Brands' new book American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900. My conversation with H.W. Brands:

A true citizen of the world

We often hear what sounds like a cliche, that one man can truly make a difference. In this complex, often overwhelming world, it seems more daunting than ever. Yet James Wolfensohn has indeed made a difference in the world. He is not only a hero to the world's poor, but a preeminent global leader in politics, philanthropy, business, the arts, international security and even sports. James Wolfensohn was a prominent international banker, Chairman of Carnegie Hall and of the Kennedy Center; a world class cellist and one time Olympic fencer. He served as President of the World Bank for ten years and became the special envoy for the major powers, in overseeing Israel's disengagement from Gaza. He has written a moving and powerful memoir about his own personal journey. He and I recently had a chance to discuss A Global Life: My Journey Among Rich and Poor, from Sydney to Wall Street to the World Bank:

Is this man crazy or dangerous?

The American experience is filled with demagogues who are often brought on by tough economic times and periods of dramatic change. Fear mongering has long been a stable of our politics and our culture. Father Coughlin, Joseph  McCarthy, Huey Long, the populist James Curely, Robert Depugh and the Minute Men of the 1960’s and the John Birth Society; all tried to ride waves of fear and populist anger and in the end all failed. Today a new name has been added to this motley pantheon. One that not surprising comes out of  Fox News, talk radio and the worst of therapeutic culture. He is Glenn Beck and while unfortunately, like "Lord Valdemort," it gives him power just to speak his name, it’s important that we understand this modern day phenomenon.  I had the experience of meeting and listening to Glenn Beck this past Saturday, and since then having been trying to figure out if I had witnessed, a kind of right wing Oprah, Hitler or Howard Beal,or Joe McCarthy. Dana Milbank, syndicated columnist with the Washington Post, tries to sort all of this out in his new book about Beck, Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America.  My conversation with Dana Milbank:

Will we be swhallow up by a black hold

It is the largest machine ever built by man. It is 16.5 miles long, housed in a circular tunnel 300 feet below the ground. It is the the coldest place in the universe, one degree lower than the temperature of outer space. It is engaged in what is perhaps the most anticipated experiments in the history of science. It is the Large Hadron Collider and physical science will never the name after it peers far deeper into the universe than ever before. Some think, as Dan Brown's story told us, it will swallow us up in a Black Hole. More likely it will change forever the way we see the world. Award winning science writer Amir Aczel, in his new book, Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider takes us on a unique visit deep inside the LHC and tells the story of how it works and how it came to be. My conversation with Amir Aczel:

Waiting for SUPERMAN

Most of you have seen or at least heard about the movie "Waiting for Superman." The award winning documentary, has now spawned a book. A series of essays by cutting edge educational thinkers exploring reforms and how to fix our broken public school system. One of the most astute of these analyses is Jay Mathews, the education columnist for The Washington Post. In the film and in his essay he argues that successful schools begin not with parents, or academic theories, or new building, but with great teachers. My conversation with Jay Matthews about the movie and the book Waiting for "SUPERMAN": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools.

Dreaming in Chinese

For most us when we think about China, it's in the context of 1.3 billion Chinese people as a kind of monolithic nation and culture. We see a growing international power, a competitor and a confusing, almost alien landscape. Perhaps because its culture and language is so different, the only way for a Westerner to try understand it, is from the inside, to be a part of it and not outside looking in. That is precisely what Deborah Fallows did during her three years living in China with her husband, the distinguished journalist James Fallows. Deborah has written a story that is part memoir, part travelogue, part psychological profile.  Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love, And Language should be required reading for anyone visiting or doing business with China. My conversation with Deborah Fallows: