Talk Cocktail

Globalization = Good

Nothing in the current recession should lead us to think that globalization will be slowing.  In fact, the free flow of money in international markets is as much a cure as a cause of the recent economic crises.  In Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed, Gregg Easterbrook, contributing editor to The Atlantic, thinks we have yet to see the real impact of globalization.  He contends that the world is about to become far more globally linked and that it will lead to great economic prosperity, knowledge and freedom.  However, even Easterbrook acknowledges that these changes will be unsettling, cause dislocation and give everyone one hell of a headache. My conversation with  Gregg Easterbrook:

The best and the brightest

Janine Wedel is getting lots of attention for her book Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market. But is the attention justified?  Has she simply taken the fundamental idea that there is a core group of talented and smart people, on both sides of the political equation,  that move between government and the private sector and works hard to move their agenda's forward. From Kennedy's Harvard mafia to Reagan's California kitchen cabinet to Clinton's DLC advisor's to Obama's own search for the best and the brightest, there is absolutely nothing new about these practices.  Advisors come and go with Presidents and administrations.  We change administrations and we change advisors and cabinet members.  In turn, the old advisors  become a kind of shadow government.  Think of the British system and their permanent shadow government.  We don't have this, we have businesses and think tanks instead.  Yet Janine Wedel tries hard to make something sinister about this common practice.My conversation with Jeanie Wedel:

The Price of everything, the value of nothing

Both Oscar Wilde and later Arthur Miller talked about those who knew "the price of everything, and the value of nothing."  In today's technologically driven desire for the "perfect market" this is perhaps more profound than ever.  But is faith in the "perfect market" and in prices a real way of valuing the world?  Are we taking into account the real costs of the things we consume? Does the current financial crises indicate that we have to recalibrate the relationship between markets and the underlying economy and do we need a new way to value the world's worth.  These are the ambitious and provocative ideas taken up by activist and academic Raj Patel in his new book The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy.  My conversation with Raj Patel:

If you can't solve the problem, make a bigger problem

A new year and a new decade, but many of the same old problems.  In trying to face the complexity of problems and issues facing us in the 21st Century, sometimes we just can't figure out what problem we are solving.  We get so caught up in our assessment or spin on the problem, that we loose site of what we're really trying to accomplish.  Business professor Ian Mitroff, in his book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely argues that by focusing on the wrong problem, we usually make matters worse. My conversation with Ian Mitroff:

Work and the outsourced life

Imagine how different so many aspects of our society and our economy would be if the whole idea of retirement and a "life plan" were ripped asunder. Timothy Ferriss argues that there is a new way to live, one more suitable for unpredictable economic times and one that provides for present-tense, day by day "luxury lifestyle design." Timothy Ferriss, one of Fast Company's "Most Innovate Business People," lays out the predicate for The 4-Hour Workweek.  My conversation with Timothy Ferriss:

and Polar Bears....oh my

As the world dithers and debates what to do about climate change, polar bears have become the poster children for all aspect of the debate. Recently, the Interior Department made a controversial proposal to designate more than 200,000 square miles of land in Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears, while still allowing oil and gas exploration to continue in the region. In his new book On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear, marine conservationist and the foremost painter of marine animals in the world, Richard Ellis steps up to offer an impassioned and moving statement on behalf of polar bears, their habitat and all they stand for. Ellis maintains that the extinction of the polar bear is not inevitable, but that in oder to save them, we need to take critical action to prevent their habitat form melting away. My conversation with Richard Ellis:

A Fiery Peace

Neil Sheehan is the embodiment of why good journalism is both necessary and relevant.  In his new book A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon, he shows us once again, as he did In A Bright Shining Lie, that the great movements of history turn on the character and actions of individuals.  He tells us a story of how we avoided Armageddon during the Cold War and in so doing he helps to instruct us in the importance of appreciating the military and some of its best and brightest, while making sure that we are not overtaken by an overzealous military juggernaut. With balance, insight and an appreciation for history, Sheehan tells us a vivid story for our times and for all times. My conversation with Neil Sheehan:

The Naked City

While those that love cities often claim to love their authenticity,  we still want them to have the latest trendy cafe, boutiques, and galleries that are often at odds with the very authenticity we claim to want.  How do we reconcile this desire for convenience and modernity with diversity, quirkiness and and a genuine urban landscape?  This is what Sharon Zukin shows us in Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places.   She looks at what gives neighborhoods a sense of place, but also why that very sense often prices them out of the market for all but the elite. How does authenticity become exclusivity?My conversation with Sharon Zukin

Pandemic

According to the Center for Disease control, we are in the midst of an Influenza pandemic that begin in April of this year.  Flu activity is now widespread in 48 states Perhaps this is a good time to look at the last great Influenza pandemic in 1918 that took a global death toll of 21 million people.  The disease was all the more horrifying because it attacked not just he very young and very old, but also healthy young adults. It was also an pandemic which changed the face of modern American medicine. John Barry tells the story in is book The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history.  My conversation with John Barry:

I'm from the government and I'm here to help....

As government attempts huge undertakings in healthcare, the environment, and the economy, how can we make sure that these often exciting plans will be followed through with effective execution.  We have landed men on the moon, administered the Marshall Plan, created the Interstate Highway System and achieved victory in World War II.  Yet today we look at government through the lens of Vietnam, The Iraq war,  Hurricane Katrina and Challenger.  What happened?  How has government lost it's mojo? William Eggers, Global Director for Deloitte's public sector industry research program looks at this dilemma in his new work If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government.  My conversation with William Eggers:

Understanding Obama

Many biographers have told and retold Barack Obama's story.  Yet we are still left wondering what makes Obama tick.  What accounts for his remarkable poise, self confidence, his sense of narrative and of his long view of history?  How as he developed a governing style that is both radical and at the same time classically conservative?  How can we separate the natural political mythology that must surround anyone who would be President, from the psychological reality that defines that President.  Award winning journalist Sasha Abramsky interviewed close to one hundred of Obama's current and former friends, colleagues, classmates, teachers, staff, mentors, sports buddies, fellow Chicago activists, media consultants, editors and even his next-door neighbors. Each has filled in a piece of the mosaic to creates Abmsky's whole picture Inside Obama's Brain.  My conversation with Sasha Abramsky:

Whatever it takes

As you might have seen on 60 minutes, this past Sunday night, educational visionary Geoffrey Canada asked what it would take to change the lives of poor children--not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a ninety-seven-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in their lives--their schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents.  In his book Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America, New York Times Magazine contributing editor Paul Tough gives us an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but also of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds to create one of the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.  My conversation with Paul Tough:

Vietnam...still...

Be it Bosnia, Iraq, or Afghanistan, whenever there is a US military commitment, the specter of Vietnam still haunts us.  As the President set about determining his Afghan policy, books about Vietnam were flying off the selves in Washington.  The long national nightmare of Vietnam still influences Americas policy makers.  Thirty-four years after the fall, we still seek to understand what really happened in Vietnam, what were the military and political mistakes and even successes, and what are the real as opposed to the perceived lessons. Lewis Sorley, former soldier, third generation West Point graduate and confidante of Gen. Patraeus, in his new book A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam, gives us a very revisionist view of that war and how it ended.  My conversation with Lewis Sorley:

Fundamental failure

Religion, more specifically faith, has like almost everything else in our society become polarized.  The irony is that the very discussion about things which should define tolerance, has become itself intolerant.  How do we reconcile this and how can faith, doubt and even uncertainty become mainstream again.  How can we push back against the forces of religious and political extremism in a way that renews individual freedom. Frank Schaeffer is a man who has seen these issues from all sides. From the evangelical extremes of his father, one of the founders of the religious right, as well as from the vantage point of his owns doubts and questioning.  My conversation with Frank Schaeffer about his new book Patience with God: Faith for People Who Dont Like Religion (or Atheism)

Is sports the only way out?

Now a hit motion picture, Michael Lewis's the The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game takes us inside the heart and soul of football and enables us to have a kind of understanding that goes beyond Friday night lights.   Just as Lewis has taken us behind the scenes and into he worlds of baseball (Moneyball), finance (Liars' Poker), the silicon valley (The New, New Thing), he now reveals another side of football in  the story of Michael Oher.  Oher, a homeless and athletically gifted Memphis ghetto kid, is taken in by a rich white southern family who turns his life around through football and Oher's unique ability to play a very special position.  In so doing Lewis also reopens the old nature vs. nurture debate, as he sharpens our understanding of talent and the extreme rewards of Americas game.  My conversation with Michale Lewis:

Is this China's Century?

For over two hundred years we've lived in a Western centric world.  Modernity and progress have been defined as being Western.  Today China stands astride the world and the question is whether China becomes subsumed in Western hegemony or will the West bend to a new way, a new approach, a new paradigm of politics, business, culture and innovation?  These are just some of the questions raised by China expert and journalist Martin Jacques in his book When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.    My Conversation with Martins Jacques:

The morning of Joe Biden

For better or worse, Dick Cheney redefined the role of the modern Vice President.  By creating his own executive branch inside the Bush White House, he wielded power and influence that often usurped the President he served.  Today Joe Biden inherits that office and himself has extraordinary power and influence, but he achieves it in a wholly different way; by partnering rather than competing with his President.  His influence in the area of US foreign policy is profound and might be felt in the President's Af/Pack speech tomorrow night.  The idea of Joe Biden as "the second most powerful Vice President in history" is the cover story of this week's New York Times Magazine by contributing editor James Traub. My conversation with James Traub:

How the world might change

As we Americans celebrate a small group of European settlers who landed on our shores, it's worthwhile to stop and look at the impact of another group of settlers who landed on the the cape that is now South Africa in 1652.  They were noble in their mission, but within decades a small group that broke off set in motion centuries of conquest, war and oppression.  The Dutch settlers of South Africa convinced themselves that whey were God's chosen people, destined to rule over the masses of the continent.  By 1948, the Purified National Party came to control the South African government and Apartheid came into being.  It was a system of segregation marked by horrors second only to those of Hitler's Germany.  This system became the law of the land.  Now humanitarian and historian Dominique Lapierre in his book A Rainbow in the Night: The Tumultuous Birth of South Africa tells the story of this violent history and the heroes that changed it  If only such heroes existed today in the Middle East.  My conversation with Dominque Lapierre:

Fourty-Six years and still searching for the truth (Part 2)

Forty-six years after the murder of John F. Kennedy new information continues to come to light.  The link between a secret coup planned by JFK and Robert Kennedy against Cuba and their personal war against Mafia all culminated in a perfect storm, as Kennedy's Cuban exile aid, who would go on to become one the Watergate burglars, Bernard Barker, sells out the JFK coup plan to long-time mob bosses Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello. If it sounds hard to believe, historian Lamar Waldron lays it all out in 944 pages of painstaking detail in his book Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination.  My two part conversation with Lamar Waldron: Part Two

Fourty-Six years and still searchng for the truth (Part 1)

Forty-six years after the murder of John F. Kennedy new information continues to come to light.  The link between a secret coup planned by JFK and Robert Kennedy against Cuba and their personal war against Mafia all culminated in a perfect storm, as Kennedy's Cuban exile aid, who would go on to become one the Watergate burglars, Bernard Barker, sells out the JFK coup plan to long-time mob bosses Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello. If it sounds hard to believe, historian Lamar Waldron lays it all out in 944 pages of painstaking detail in his book Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination.  My two part conversation with Lamar Waldron: Part One:

Tales from a Rock 'n' Roll Life

In a business as transient a journalism it is remarkable that Robert Hilburn was the pop music critic for the Los Angels Times for 35 years! During that time he witnessed most of rock 'n' roll's seminal moments and interviewed virtually every major pop figure of the period. In his new memoir Corn Flakes with John Lennon: And Other Tales from a Rock 'n' Roll Life, he gives us a totally unique account of the symbiotic relationship between critic and artist and reflects on the ways in which he has changed and been changed by the subjects he's covered.     My conversation with Robert Hilburn:

Literary Catholics II

We've had two guests recently whose conversion to Catholicism is both surprising and literary.  Both came to their faith late in life, yet from very different places. First Anne Rice who, long before "Twilight"  first introduced us to vampires now turns her attention to Angel Time as the "personification" of her new found faith. Next, Mary Karr, who jump started a renaissance in memoir with "The Liars' Club" and then "Cherry" talks, in her latest memoir Lit, about her apocalyptic childhood and outlaw adolescence and how she overcame her feral upbringing to become an esteemed poet and professor and found the Catholic faith. My conversations with Anne Rice.

Literary Catholics

We've had two guests recently whose conversion to Catholicism is both surprising and literary.  Both came to their faith late in life, yet from very different places. First Anne Rice who, long before "Twilight"  first introduced us to vampires now turns her attention to Angel Time as the "personification" of her new found faith. Next, Mary Karr, who jump started a renaissance in memoir with "The Liars' Club" and then "Cherry" talks, in her latest memoir Lit, about her apocalyptic childhood and outlaw adolescence and how she overcame her feral upbringing to become an esteemed poet and professor and found the Catholic faith. My conversations with Mary Karr

Why we miss Morry Ivins

As a journalist she was ahead of her time.  As a columnist she was the last of a dying breed.  She was one of the most provocative, courageous and influential journalists in American history.  Presidents and senators call her for advice; her column ran in 400 newspapers; her books were bestsellers.  Yet, despite her fame, few people really knew Molly Ivins.  Now Bill Minutaglio, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas,  gives us the comprehensive definitive biography of Molly in his book Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life.   My conversation with Bill Minutaglio:

Tear down this country.......

While Mad Men and even Barack Obama remind us of the idealism of the 60's, it is in fact the 80's, the Reagan years, that shape most of what we are struggling with today.  From our post cold war diplomacy, the state of the Republican Party and the very heart of our culture wars, Ronald Reagan and the 80's shaped American life for the past 30 years. Historian and McGill University Profession Gil Troy in his two new works Living in the Eighties and The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction tells the story of the Reagan era in our politics, religion, crime, music, the city and the free market. My conversation with Gil Troy:

Tear Down This Wall....

Regardless of the scope of their contribution, many iconic leaders are often reduced to a single sound byte or single speech: "We have nothing to fer but fear itself", "Ask not what your country can do for you...", and for Ronald Reagan "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"  This November marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the end of the Cold War.  In his new book X, Time magazine deputy managing editor Romesh Ratnesar deconsturcts the speech and the remarkable events that brought it about. 

Ultimately, Ratnesar argues that Reagan's speech offers lessons for the political problems of today.  That it should reminds us that historically, thing that once seemed immutable DO change. My conversation with Romesh Ratnesar:

Miracle on the Hudson

Ten months ago, when "Sully" Sullenberger landed his plan on the chilly waters of the Hudson river, we celebrated his cool, his skill as a pilot as well as the coordination of the flight crew and the rescuers. But there was another character in this story.  That is the A320 Airbus that Sullenbuerger flew and the advanced generation of aircraft that it represented. Taking a look at this aircraft, the job of piloting and of the totality of what happened that day, is one of our most distinguished journalists, William Langewiesche, in his new book Fly by Wire: The Geese, the Glide, the Miracle on the Hudson. My conversation with William Langewiesche:

Right Here on Our Stage Tonight!

Before the advent of cable, i Pods, Satellite or the Internet, we got all of our home entertainment from just three television networks.  And each Sunday night, for 23 years, we gathered around the cathode ray hearth to watch an awkward host name Ed Sullivan serve as our entertainment gatekeeper.  Now journalist, entertainment critic, and humor columnist Gerald Nachman, in his book Right Here on Our Stage Tonight!: Ed Sullivan's America, has given us a new look at The Ed Sullivan Show and exposed it to a whole new generation.  My conversation with Gerald Nachman:

A story of sruvival

By any account it was one of the most gruesome and heinous crimes of our times.  On April 14, 1989 Ramon Salcido went on a killing sprees in Sonoma, California, shooting and killing his wife, her two younger sisters and his wife's mother.  Then he slashed the throats of his three young daughters, leaving them for dead in the county dump.  Miraculously, one of the daughters, tiny, three year old Carmina Salcido was still alive.  Astonishingly, that was only the beginning of Carmina's troubles.  She's written about her life in her new memoir Not Lost Forever: My Story of Survival.   My conversation with Carmina Salcido:

Smart on Crime

Kamala Harris may be the next Attorney General of the state of California. She is currently the District Attorney of San Francisco and named by Newsweek one of the "20 Most Powerful Women in America."  In her new book Smart on Crime she argues that our current system for fighting crime and protecting the public is simply not working.  We spend $200 billion annually fighting crime and there are over two million people currently incarcerated in America.  Are we getting value for our dollars? The way Harris sees it, if we are going to be really effective, we must attack small problem long before they become big problem. My conversation with Kamala Harris.

Nothing Was The Same

Kay Redfield Jamison, in her best selling THE UNQUIET MIND, was a guide in understanding the nature of depression, bipolar disorder and the chemistry of the brain.  Now, in her memoir Nothing Was the Same, she turns her attention to understanding the psychology and physiology of grief and grieving.  In these troubled times, and as baby boomers age and face the tragedies of love and loss and suddenly being along in the world, Jamison's work provides powerful insights.  My conversation with Kay Redfield Jamison:

GOOGLED

It is the behemoth of the digital age.  It has steamrolled over traditional media companies and yet it's run by engineers who strive to be at the cutting of technology.  It is a distributor as well as a creator of content.  The company is Google and we get our first look inside what really makes it tick in Ken Auletta's new book Googled: The End of the World As We Know It. Auletta is one of the most astute media journalists, a long time columnist for The New Yorker, he now turns his attention to nothing less than the future of media.   My conversation with Ken Auletta:

One year and counting...

One year ago this week we concluded one of the most trans formative Presidential campaigns of all times.  A campaign and an election that will forever change the paradigm of American politics.  One of the most astute chroniclers of that campaign was The New Yorker's Rick Hertzberg.  In his new book Obamanos!: The Rise of a New Political Era gives us his insights into the birth of this new political epoch.   My conversation with Rick Hertzberg:

How Poker Explains the World

Invented in China, refined in France, for almost two hundred years, poker has been the favorite American pastime.   In his new book Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, poker journalist James McManus, illustrates the connections between poker, politics and our national identity.  In an age where the heart of capitalism is questioned, poker serves as an iconic example of our romance with market democracy. My conversation with James McManus:

Tokyo Vice

You may have recently seen Jake Adelstein on 60 Minutes, expounding as one of the worlds most knowledgeable voices on the Yakuza and the Japanese underworld.  In his new book Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japanhe pulls back the curtain on the most sordid elements of Japanese society.  Very few Americans have ever come close to discovering what really goes on in Japan's most closed society.  Adelstein's is a dark journey through the underworld of Tokyo vice and the Yakuza, as told by the only American journalist every to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club.  My conversation with Jake Adelstein:

Social Networks are contagious

The work of Nicholas Christakis, physician, scientist and sociologist at Harvard has been cited in over two thousand media outlets in the past two years.  He is shining new light on how social networks drive and shave every aspect of ours lives.  He offers us a whole new understanding of these social networks and show how they influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics and more.  In his new book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives he explains why emotions are contagious, and how such networked behavior spreads.  Time magazine named Nicholas Christaks one of the "100 Most Influential People" in 2009. My conversation with Dr. Nicholas Christakis:

Prime Minister Kim Campbell / Global Secuirty Institute

Be it Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton, Al Gore or Tony Blair, we are seeing many former national leaders devote their post political years to great causes and making the world a better place. Canada's first female Prime Minister Kim Campbell is such a leader.  Devoting her time to many causes including the Global Security Institute and the nuclear non-proliferation. My conversation with The Right Honorable Kim Campbell:

Deepak Copra

Long one of the worlds most powerful advocates for the connection between health and consciousness, Deepak Chopra now takes the process a step farther, as he makes the case that the body is actually a reflection of the mind, "a symbol in flesh and blood of everything you think and feel."  In his new book Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You Chopra walks us through a discussion of how energy affects spiritual and physical health and also explains how the expression of genes can be altered by lifestyle changes.  My conversation with Deepak Chopra:

Who is Ayn Rand?

Know primarily for her bestselling books THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED, Ayn Rand is one of the 20th century's most controversial and scandalous figures. A champion of unfettered capitalism, she redefined what it means to be a libertarian and reshaped the very definition of conservatism.  Undergoing a resurgence of interest, because of her anti government views, University of Virgina History Professor Jennifer Burns, in her new book Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, gives us a full spectrum view of Rand's  philosophy and life.  My conversation with Jennifer Burns:

Egos, Ambitions and World Trade

Though often maligned and misunderstood, the World Trade Organization, sits at the center of the global trading system and is arguable a key to successful global capitalism.  However, some argue that it actually threatens international politics and further exacerbates the differences between rich and poor.  Today, amidst our financial crises, is the WTO actually helping or hurting global trade?  Paul Blustein, Journalist in Resident at Brookings and for twenty years a business and economics writer for the Washington Post, in his new book Misadventures of the Most Favored Nations: Clashing Egos, Inflated Ambitions, and the Great Shambles of the World Trade System, helps to explain it all.  My conversation with Paul Blustein.