Talk Cocktail

Washington's Scandal Culture

The history of muckraking journalism is very much the history of America. Our founders clearly understood the importance of a free press in a free society. Often times though, the work of the press has not served the interests of those in power and we’ve seen powerful push back as that power is threatened. We all remember The Pentagon Papers, the work of Sinclair Lewis, Walter Winchell, Woodward and Bernstein and today Julian Assange and Wikileaks.  Back in the days of Richard Nixon, another powerful newspaperman, Jack Anderson, would seek to tear down the wall of censorship that surrounded the Nixon administration. As you might expect, Nixon sought to retaliate and in so doing was born new chapters in the scandal culture of Washington. University of Maryland Professor and award winning journalist Mark Feldstein takes us inside a conflict that defined modern political warfare in his book Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture. My conversation with Mark Feldstein: .

Badasses

Football today is big business. But back in the 1970's there were a group of guys that were a combination of castoffs, psychos and geniuses. Newcomers were from schools no one ever heard of and veterans had been cast off by every other "respectable" team. This group was the Oakland Raiders. John Madden was their neurotic and brilliant coach, Al Davis was their eccentric and imperious owner. They were like no other team at the time, and certainly like nothing we see today. Journalist Peter Richmond tell their story in Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders. My conversation with Peter Richmond:

In Praise of Adoption

The subject of adoption has, for too long, been something we've had trouble talking about. While the rate of adoption has been declining here, the acceptance of family diversity has been on the rise. International adoptions are transforming American families, and yet special challenges abound. NPR's Scott Simon has written a powerful new book on the subject of adoptions. Part memoir, part love story, part public policy treatise, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption is a gift to the 1.5 million adoped childen in the U.S. whose bond with their adopted parents is ever bit as powerful as those with birth parents. My conversation with Scott Simon:

The Christian Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy

In his previous book The Family, Jeff Sharlet examined a powerful, secretive group in Washington, D.C spawning a new kind of unaccountable and elitist fundamentalism. Now, in his new book C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy,  Sharlet investigates and writes about a group of Republican politicians who are affiliated with the The Family. They are some of the most powerful members of Congress and they have, until recently, been cloaked in respectability. This group, driven by moral corruption and piety, represents a kind of fundamentalism on steroids that they are trying to use to reshape American politics, the military and foreign policy; all without any democratic accountability. My conversation with Jeff Sharlet:

Money and the decline of America's global leadership

Clearly America's role in the world is changing. The American Century, declared by Henry Luce, seventy years ago, may have long since reached its apex. Many view this as a positive sign of humility and a refreshing lack of nationalistic hubris. We also hear much about our growing national debt, caused in large measure by the military expansionism of the past 9 years. Remember, Bill Clinton left us with a surplus back in 2000. The question now is how are these two ideas related. How is American foreign policy and our role in the world, being shaped or influenced by our economic limitations and is that a good or a bad development?  In his latest work, The Frugal Superpower: America's Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era, Professor Michael Mandelbaum, one of our most astute foreign policy thinkers, takes on these dual questions and what they mean for the future of global leadership. My conversation with Michael Mandelbaum:

America's Great Migration

Every so often a books comes along that reminds us of why narrative history matters. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson has given us such a book in The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. She gives us a deeply personal tale of one of the great underreported stories of the 20th century: the migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North, West and Midwest. To understand this story is to finally come to grips with race, power, politics, religion and class in our contemporary society. My conversation with Isabel Wilkerson:

Somebody Else's Century

T.S. Eliot wrote that "we shall not cease from exploration and  the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began...and know that place again for the first time." And so it is that in this new century as we are compelled to interact more with the East, with China, with Japan and with India, perhaps it will better enable us to understand our own limitations and see ourselves in a global rather than a provincial context. In so doing, we might also redefine both the importance of history, coupled with our ongoing urge to be modern. Author and journalist Patrick Smith in his new work Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World, delves with extraordinary depth, into what it means to maintain ones true and unique identity and culture, amidst the onslaught of Western modernity. My conversation with Patrick Smith:

Share and Share Alike

From our earliest days of pre-school and kindergarten we learn the importance of sharing. Yet somehow, along the way, sharing is replaced by "mine." Ownership and consumption finally rule the day. Even through our recent period of hyper-consumption we still checked books out of the library, we rented video, used Netflix and shopped on Ebay. Arguably, all of these things are forerunners of a whole new collaborative way of looking at our culture. Former Clinton Foundation board member and Oxford and Harvard educated consultant Rachel Botsman, in her book What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, looks at revolutions in what she call Collaborate Consumption. My conversation with Rachel Botsman:

Designer Genes

Last week, on the program, we talked about the ability to sequence your own genome and what that might mean for the future understanding of our own health. Now we are going to look further into the future, at how cutting edge genetic science may literally allow us to speed up and transform our own evolution. In a matter of just a few years we may be able to improve ourselves and our children, duplicate ourselves, improve our genes, in short, to personally guide our genetic destiny. However this does not come without serious ethical, moral and cultural choices. What was once the realm of science fiction, now must be a real part of our national debate. Dr. Steven Potter, in his new book Designer Genes: A New Era in the Evolution of Man takes us to the outer limits of that debate and what might soon be possible. My conversation with Steven Potter:

Your own genome for $1000

Imagine the possibility of having a complete picture of your genes. You would know any predisposition for disease, drugs could be created for you and you alone. Your unique genome would be a part of your medical records, just like your blood pressure or cholesterol level. And what if you could do all of this for $1,000 or less? This is the brave new world that could be just around the corner. But like any advance in medicine it comes with its own set of side effects. Some medical, some ethical and some psychological. Science writer Dr. Kevin Davies takes us deep into this new era of personalized medicine in his new book The $1,000 Genome: The Revolution in DNA Sequencing and the New Era of Personalized Medicine. My conversation with Kevin Davies:

Why is there something?

It's one of the most fundamental, yet controversial questions of our time, or of any time. How did the universe begin? Where did the universe come from and what are the laws of nature that govern the universe? The worlds most esteemed physicist, Stephen Hawking once said that "if we understood all the forces that created the universe, we'd understand the mind of God." Now Hawking and his co-author Leonard Mlodinow have changed that view. They believe that the universe could indeed have created itself from nothing and that surely means that perhaps other universes were formed before the Big Bang and that others still exist.  All of this mind bending physics is the essence of a new book by Mlodinow and Hawking, The Grand Design. My conversation with Leonard Mlodinow:

Why Margaret Thatcher matters

The US has long shared a very special and sometimes symbiotic relationship with Great Britain. Tony Blair, in his new memoir, talks of his close personal relationship with Bill Clinton and his more macabre relationship with George W. Bush. In the 1980's, the policies of US were in fact, shaped in some measure by the relationship between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Reagan's infatuation with Thatcher and her ideas, would shape the US and the world for years to come. Margaret Thatcher was both a pivotal and polarizing leader. She inherited a country that was severely broken and reshaped it in her image. Claire Berlinski, in her new biography, There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters, gives us an insightful portrait of Thatcher, her ideas, and her influence. My conversation with Claire Berlinski:

The truth, the whole truth and nothng but....

The brilliance of language is that it both enables us to communicate effortlessness, transport ideas and create poetry. Yet at the same time it can be used for the basest kind of lies and deception. How do we know which is which and when we are bing lied to as well as when we create our own "tangled web?" Truth detection expert Pamela Meyer, in her new book Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception, gives us a chance to change the odds in our favor in our pursuit of truth. My conversation with Pamela Meyer:

The Dream of a March on Washington

Even though Glen Beck and Sarah Palin tried to soil it, this past weekend marked the forty-seventh anniversary of the March on Washington. The original event marked the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, as a quarter of a million people, black and white, gathered in Washington for what Martin Luther King called "the greatest demonstration of freedom in our nation's history." But the march was, even then, not without its detractors and took place in the context of an expanding Civil Rights movement and an escalating war in Vietnam. At the time many actually believed that such a march could change the course of race relations in America, and in many ways it did. Author and lecturer Charles Euchner, in his new book Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington, has given us a compelling history of that march and given us some contemporary context from which to judge it. My conversation with Charles Euchner:

The only thing we have to fear.....

When FDR said that "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself," he may have been on to something more than just calming a frightened nation. He could not have known that he was going to the heart of a deep contemporary psychological insight about fear and its root causes. While we all experience some level of apprehension, there is a low level current of less noticeable fear that inform everyday choices, disrupt relationships, creates stress and acts as subconscious saboteurs. Harvard Psychotherapist Dr. Srini Pallay, in his book Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear, looks at the cutting edge research in psychology and neuroscience to show how our biggest roadblock to happiness and success is fear. My conversation with Dr. Srnivasan Pillay:

Washington Rules

For over 60 years we have believed in the notion of The American Century. That idea has, over the years, morphed to represent a framework and justification for the seemingly unlimited projection of American power. Even our mistakes are justified in name of some divine right or manifest international destiny to direct the actions of the world. In fact, the U.S. spends more on its military than the entire rest of the world combined. Now former US Army colonel turned academic Andrew Bacevich, in his new book Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent  War, gives us an important critique of the assumptions that have, for too long, guided American policy, regardless of political party. My conversation with Andrew Bacevich:

Ethical Collapse at Hewlett-Packard

If our recent financial meltdown tells us anything, it is that corporate governance matters. Sure there are powerful economic forces always at play, but we see that financial institutions, automakers and even technology companies suffered at the hands of the personal mistakes and questionable character on the part of corporate "deciders." Four years ago, Hewlett Packard, one of the most iconic names in Silicone Valley, was plunged into a tawdry scandal that involved cover up, wiretapping, private investigators, big money and even bigger egos. In many ways it was the canary in the coal mine for what would happen on a far boarder basis. The recent resignation of HP CEO Mark Hurd was, it turns out, less about a sex scandal and more a capstone on four years of corporate turmoil at HP. Award winning business journalist Anthony Bianco in his new book The Big Lie: Spying, Scandal, and Ethical Collapse at Hewlett Packard, gives us a first hand account of a corporate morality tale for our times. My conversation with Anthony Bianco:

California Crackup

The State of California was once a model of governance, creativity and infrastructure. In Joan Didion's words, it was a place where "the dream was teaching the dreamers how to live." Today it is a state in crises. A government and infrastructure arguably beyond repair. A political system paralyzed by partisan gridlock, self interest and the corruption of self serving public employee unions. Yet, when we look at the origins of the crises, it's fair to say that "we have seen the enemy and he is us." Two veteran California journalists, Joe Mathews and Mark Paul take an insightful look at and offer a comprehensive analysis of California's dysfunctional state. My conversation with Joe Mathews and Mark Paul:

The real Pat Tillman story

Pat Tillman's life was never conventional. That unconventional nature led him to become an NFL star and then to be so moved by the events of 9/11 that he gave up his multi-million dollar NFL career to join the Army and go to Iraq and Afghanistan. At some point, as his diary's reveal, he began to detest the war in Iraq and question even the conduct of the war in Afghanistan. And then, on April 22, 2004, he was killed by "friendly fire." Without question the Army, under the direction of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, tried to cover it up and attempted to make Tillman's death something that it was not. What happened next gave rise to the real Pat Tillman story and to the investigative work of best selling author Jon Krakauer. His book Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman is just out in paperback. My conversation with Jon Krakauer:

Why monogamy doesn't work

Suppose everything we've been told about sexual relationships and monogamy was wrong? What if the whole idea of the nuclear family narrative was inconsistent with science and with the origins and nature of human sexuality. These are just some of the bold arguments put forth by Christoper Ryan in his new book Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. The book that has been call "the single most important book about human sexuality since Alfred Kinsey." My conversation with Christopher Ryan:

Defeat and fantasies of betrayal

As the war in Afghanistan goes badly, as evidenced by the recent WikiLeaks documents, no doubt that in a year or so we will be looking for someone to blame. Just as Americans had the need to explain emasculation and defeat in Vietnam through fantasies of home-front betrayal, like images of Jane Fonda and the character of "Hanoi Jane," perhaps our current failures will give rise to a whole new and similar kind of imagery. Certainly anxieties about America's declining global status and deteriorating economy are fueling a populist reaction now, just as they did then. Jerry Lembcke, in his book Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal, gives us provocative analysis of how and why Jane Fonda, the person, become Hanoi Jane the myth and what we might lean from that mythology. My conversation with Jerry Lembcke:

Marriage Equality does work

According to a recent poll, the majority of Americans favor marriage equality. Yesterdays decision by Judge Vaughn Walker, while far from the final word, is yet another step in a ladder climbing inexorably toward the acceptance of marriage equality. In light of Judge Walker's ruling, it seems an ideal time to look at the core institution of same sex marriage in those nations and places where it has been the law for sometime. In doing so, perhaps we can better understand it rationale, its benefits and assuage some of the legitimate fears surrounding this issue. Yale Law Professor William Eskridge, Jr. in his book Gay Marriage: for Better or for Worse?: What We've Learned from the Evidence looks at the empirical data from those places that have long since accepted these ideas. My conversation with Professor Eskridge:

Friend or Foe

Facebook has become ubiquitous in our culture. It has just acquired its 500 millionth member, which represents about twenty-five percent of people, around the world, that use the Internet. Yet unlike Google or Apple, or even Twitter, one constantly wonders about Facebook's real relevance. Questions are also raised about its founder, whose reputation has been less then iconic. How did this company become so ingrained in the culture, who are its principal players and what might its future hold? These are just some of the questions tackled by preeminent technology journalist David Kirkpatrick in his new book The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. My conversation with David Kirkpatrick:

The War Logs

Earlier this week we saw the release of some 92,000 reports that make up a six year archive of classified military documents that offer a raw picture of the war in Afghanistan. While many have said these reports are but punctuation on what we already knew, they paint a portrait far more damaging than anything we have hereto for been told by the administration or by the American military. The documents were released though the controversial website WikiLeaks and released here in the US, exclusively to The New York Times. One of the principal journalists that has been a part of the The New York Times team on this story, is two time Pulitzer Prize winner Eric Schmitt. My conversation with Eric Schmitt:

Once bitten

Imagine, a disease we've known how to prevent and cure for over a century that still infects five-hundred million people every year, killing nearly one million of them. In recent years, malaria has made headlines as the cause-celebe of a wide range of luminaries and philanthropists. But the reality is that millions of dollars are going toward mosquito bed nets that will never be used, funding wars are compromising the work of leading researchers, and many people in the worlds most malarious countries still view the disease as a benign affliction like the common cold or flu. These are the questions that journalist Sonia Shah sets out to tackle in The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years, her look at malaria and its effect on human lives. My conversation with Sonia Shah:

Morning Miracle

When we talk about newspapers today as entities, as brands, as institutions that need to change to reflect new economic and technological realities, we sometimes forget that at core they are and need to continue to be platforms for reporters and great reporting. One such institution that has been such a platform is the venerable Washington Post. Journalist Dave Kindred, in his new book Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life, gives us an up close and personal look at today's 21st century newsroom. My conversation with Dave Kindred:

The Last Gasp

Beyond the debate about capital punishment, is the reality of the various methods used. From 1924 through 1999, for over 75 years, the gas chamber has been a part of this dreadful reality. What is the history of this method of execution, that was for so long, the norm in California. And what is the connection, morally and corporately, between our use of the gas chamber in America and the spreading of the gas chamber throughout the world, even in WWI and WWII. Investigative journalist and historian Scott Christianson breaks it all down in his book The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber. My conversation with Scott Christanson:

Not one of us

The state of Arizona recently passed a law banning human/animal hybrids. This debate, like so much about the discussion of genetics today goes to the heart of what it means to be human. This idea combined with understanding how difficult it is to be a teenager, is at the center of Laurence Gonzales' new novel Lucy. My conversation with Laurence Gonzales

Is altruism possible?

How do we reconcile the fundamental idea of evolution, survival of the fittest, with the idea of altruism? We know that throughout nature, living things often pass up advantages and make sacrifices to help fellow members of their species. Such behavior is however, counter to evolutionary ideas and leads us to wonder if pure selflessness really can and ever exist. Oren Harman, Chair in the Program of Science, Technology and Society at Bar Ilan University in Israel weaves together, in his new work The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness, theses mysteries in the context of the story of one man committed to truth and sacrifice. My conversation with Oren Harman:

Welcome to Utopia?

For those of us who grew up in and around big cities, the idea of small town America is often alien and perplexing. Yet, if we scratch beneath the surface there a poignancy in looking at places still untouched by the ethos of popular culture. Such a place is Utopia, Texas. A town ninety miles west of San Antonio, it has no movie theaters or bookstore and only recently has it gotten internet and cable television. Entertainment Weekly senior writer Karen Valby in her new book Welcome to Utopia: Notes from a Small Town takes us deep inside this place of cowboys and farmers and shows us what happens when the old tensions of small-town life confront a new reality of creative destruction. My conversation with Karen Valby:

Steinbrenner

George Steinbrenner redefined he fundamental relationship between an owner and his team. He was perhaps the best know owner in modern sport. He was twice suspended from the game and yet he was the longest running Yankees owner and also the most financially successful, having turned his original personal investment of just $168,00 into a multi-billion dollar behemoth. Bill Madden, who covered the Yankees for over 30 years as the national baseball correspondent for the New York Daily News, was the first person that the Steinbrenner family allowed to report on George and his controversial and colorful life in his book Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball. My conversation with Bill Madden:

Ayelet Waldman's Red Hook Road

Five years ago Ayelet Waldman ignited a controversy when she wrote in an essay that she loved her husband more then her children. In her subsequent memoir Bad Mother, which has just been released in paperback, she details the fallout of that essay as well as the reality of trying to be a good mother amidst the judgmental juggernaut of her "friends"   Now, in her new novel Red Hook Road, she once again delves into the reality of family, along side the issues of class, music and the pain of loosing a child; and how our sense of place and ritual work to help us heal. My conversation with Ayelet Waldman:

The Life of George Carlin

More often then angry words or spirited debate, comedy and irony are how we better understand our world and its absurdities. Sometimes it is only by ridicule that we can hold people accountable and really change the course of human events. The history of ironic comedy is certainly a rich one. But from a contemporary perspective, few have achieved the success or influence of George Carlin. For almost fifty years Carlin pushed and reestablished the rules of engagement for comedy in America. In so doing, he left us a body of work that arguably defines America in the second half of the 20th Century. Music and cultural journalist James Sullivan, in his new book Seven Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin, lays out the life and work of George Carlin. George Carlin's "7 Dirty Words" routine, followed by my conversation with James Sullivan:

America's Greatest Bridge

There are certain iconic American symbols that could never be replicated today. Yet, they powerfully represent our sense of place, our sense of shared purpose and destiny and essentially tell us where we are. One such powerful symbol is The Golden Gate Bridge. Built as a Public Works project at the depth of the depression, it has come to symbolize both the unique nature of the Bay Area and the special connection between urban and rural Northern California. Kevin Starr, California's most celebrated historian gives us, in his new book Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge, an up close, personal and rich history of The Bridge and its place in the California experience. My conversation with Kevin Starr:

Declaration of politics

During the recent July 4th holiday, amidst the barbecues, mattress sales, and fireworks, there was quite a bit of highfalutin rhetoric about our Founders and an almost sacred revisionism through which we view their efforts. In fact, they had a lot in common with contemporary politicians. In fact, polarization, partisanship and divisiveness were alive and well on July 4, 1776. All the usual players were their; angry populists, elites, grass roots democrats and the strange bedfellows that joined together to achieve an independence that not everyone wanted. William Hogeland, in his book Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776, tells the whole unvarnished story. My conversation with William Hogeland:

Marriages are like fingerprints

Marriages are like fingerprints. No two are alike. Even fewer compare to the unique relationship between Norman Mailer and his sixth and last wife Norris Church Mailer. We get a glimpse inside this tempestuous and thinking marriage in Norris Church Mailer's new book A Ticket to the Circus: A Memoir. And while the book is first and foremost a love story, we get up close and personal with one of the twentieth-century's most dazzling literary personalties.My conversation with Norris Church Mailer:

Capitalism 4.0

When the Chinese write the word crisis they combine two symbols; one stands for danger, the other opportunity. What if the recent and arguably ongoing financial crisis gave us the opportunity to look at our market system in a whole new way? Not only because we have to, but because the times demand it. Perhaps we have moved beyond the early laissez-faire capitalism of the industrial revolution, beyond the post war, post new deal Keynesian religion and now, even beyond the ideas of totally unfettered, deregulated markets. What would that economic world look like? Anatole Kaletsky, editor-at-large for The Times of London and one of the leading lights of economics journalism and analysis, proposes the idea of Capitalism 4.0: The Birth of a New Economy in the Aftermath of Crisis. My conversation with Anatole Kaletsky:

The Upside of Irrationality

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:

The Unspoken Alliance

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  

American Dreams: The US since 1945

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: