"To discover to the world something which deeply concerns it, and of which it was previously ignorant; to prove to it that it had been mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow creatures..." John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"
Friday, June 2, 2023
Living and Dying by the Myth of Rugged Individualism: A Conversation with Alissa Quart
Thursday, May 18, 2023
Flying Green, Climate Justice, and Higher Prices
And yet, the airline industry has committed to at least making the effort towards zero emissions by 2050. Like so much of what must save us from the ravages of climate change, technology lies at the heart of the solution. Along with it, the forces of the market, of innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, and scientists, must move with the same vision that the Wright brothers took to create the idea of flying itself.
Telling this modern story is renowned British journalist Christopher de Bellaigue, a historian, and journalist, known for his reporting and books on the Middle East and environmental and ethical issues. His latest is Flying Green: On The Frontiers of a New Aviation.
Friday, May 12, 2023
The Era of Social Media Journalism Is Over: A Conversation with Ben Smith
In this podcast, Ben Smith, former founding editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, former media columnist for The New York Times, and author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion Dollar Race to Go Viral, discusses the rise and fall of new media like Gawker and BuzzFeed, the impact and consequences of megaplatforms like Facebook and Twitter, and the shifting landscape of contemporary journalism.
Smith examines the fluctuating trust in legacy news brands and the growing power of individual voices over faceless institutions, drawing parallels to developments in Hollywood, sports, and politics. Smith highlights the recent decline in both social media’s influence, and as a destination for news and information, and how this has led to more readers visiting homepages directly. He also emphasizes that conservative media outlets appear to have derived the most valuable insights from the social media era, adapting their strategies to thrive in the changing landscape.
Looking ahead, Smith suggests that journalism must help beleaguered consumers navigate the vast information landscape by providing context and a clear voice. He speculates that this may involve a return to some of the principles of print journalism — concision and an editorial perspective — while adapting to the digital era’s demands.
A Conversation with Hernan Diaz about his Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel "Trust"
Last year, I had the opportunity to talk with Diaz about the book, his perspective on the Gilded Age, the persistent myths surrounding wealth, and the impact of these narratives on society as a whole. We also explored how the affluent can essentially "buy" their own reality amidst the enigmatic allure of money. Diaz's novel TRUST couldn't be more relevant to our current times. .
Thursday, April 27, 2023
The Value of Killing Time: A Conversation with Sheila Liming
This era allowed for unstructured, agenda-free time spent with friends, which now seems like a quaint memory. Nowadays, we hang out less frequently and with fewer friends, often while multitasking or participating in structured activities.
The once-common late-night dorm room hangouts have become nostalgic. Are we losing something valuable by giving up this unstructured time? Sheila Liming explores the potential disconnect between socializing and our ever-growing to-do lists in Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time.
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Cyber Weapons and a New Arms Race… Without Firing a Shot: A Conversation with Nicole Perlroth
The US — a hacker’s favorite playground — is a ticking time bomb, with 80 percent of its crucial systems tied to the internet and in private hands, with ZERO government control.
Join me in my WhoWhatWhy podcast for a conversation with New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth. We are diving deep into her book This is How They Tell Me The World Ends, freshly updated with new revelations.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Science Is Simply Curiosity Writ Large: A conversation with Dr. Suzy Sheehy
Dr. Suzie Sheehy, a physicist, science communicator, and academic has devoted her life to exploring the mysteries of our universe. In her groundbreaking new book, "The Matter of Everything," she delves into the incredible history of physics and the groundbreaking discoveries that have paved the way for the world we live in today.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
How the Police Became Untouchable: A conversation with Joanna Schwartz
UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz, an expert in police accountability and public interest lawyering, has has studies the depths of police misconduct and details it in her new work Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Dissecting the Silicon Valley Bank Debacle: A conversation with Dean Baker and Brad DeLong
To help us put all of this into proper perspective, we are joined on this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast by two distinguished economists, J. Bradford DeLong and Dean Baker.
DeLong served as deputy undersecretary of the treasury in the Clinton administration and is currently a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the author of the substack Grasping Reality and the recently published book Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century.
Baker co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His areas of research include housing and macroeconomics, intellectual property, Social Security, Medicare, and European labor markets. He has been credited as one of the first economists to have identified the 2007–08 United States housing bubble, and, in 2006, Baker predicted that “plunging housing investment will likely push the economy into recession.”
Together, they discuss the venture-capitalist libertarian overreaction to the event, as well as the way it has been massively misrepresented by all of the press, including the mainstream press.
They detail the differences between this event and the 2008–09 banking crisis, the power of contagion and rumor in the digital and social media age, and what actually transpired during the 36 hours the bank was shut down by the FDIC.
We discuss what this means for both small and regional banks, and for the “too big to fail” banks, which are now suddenly in favor.
While the whole story could be forgotten in a matter of weeks, the implications and downstream effects will be with us for quite some time.
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Spies in Hollywood: A conversation with Jonathan Gill
Well, during the Cold War, it turns out the studios were infiltrated with spies. One of those was a producer/director turned double agent named Boris Morros, and Jonathan Gill tells his story in Hollywood Double Agent: The True Tale of Boris Morros, Film Producer Turned Cold War Spy.
My conversation with Jonathan Gill:
Friday, February 24, 2023
A Real Life "Succession" Drama: The Story of Sumner and Shari Redstone
Monday, February 13, 2023
Joe Biden Fought To Get To The White House. Is He the President We Need Now?: My conversation with Chris Whipple
My conversation with Chris Whipple:
Thursday, February 9, 2023
We Have No Democracy Without Good Citizens: My conversation with Richard Haass
The fact is that none of these problems can be solved without a thriving, healthy democracy to address their root causes and work together to find bipartisan solutions.
Maybe that's why one of our most distinguished foreign policy experts has turned his attention inward, from understanding the world to trying to better understand the future of our place in it.
Richard Haass takes all this on in his new book, The Bill of Obligations: The ten habits of good citizens.
My conversation with Richard Haass:
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
We Each Have the Personal Answer to Our Larger Divisions: A Conversation with Pico Iyer
Perhaps the answer lies in our human desire to try and understand to make sense of the world. In science or mathematics, there is often one right answer.
In man's understanding of the world and of each other, that does not happen. So we strive, we seek and we hope to find peace. To come to terms with some answer that explains it all. But life, physical and spiritual and even social and political is not like physics. There is no one answer
This is where I begin my conversation with Pico Iyer.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Citizenship Is Just A Commodity: A Conversation with Atossa Abrahamian
In this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast, journalist Atossa Abrahamian, senior editor of The Nation and author of the 2015 book The Cosmopolites, delves into the world of “global citizens.”
She explains how multiple passports are becoming more popular as a status symbol, and a plan B for those who want to live in several countries. Some nations are turning citizenship into a business, selling economic citizenship (tax havens) as a product, and offering citizenship to the wealthy, while making it more difficult for the poor to obtain it.
Abrahamian warns that this commodification of citizenship may weaken its value and lead to criminal dangers.
Friday, January 13, 2023
In Spite of Many Problem, Flying is Safer Than Ever...Why?: A conversation with John Nance
In spite of deregulation, airline and air traffic control systems in need of updates, pilot shortages, airport overcrowding and even a pandemic, flying has never been safer.
What’s the secret sauce that makes this the case? Why, when safety in other industries from hospitals to construction to automobiles, seems so difficult to achieve, how has the airline industry been so successful and what can we all learn from their efforts?
I explore this with John Nance. John has written about all of these issues in his non fiction work and incorporated much of it in his prolific fiction. He is also an aviation analyst for ABC News and a familiar face on Good Morning America.
My conversation with John Nance:
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Another New Year, and More Promises to Sweat: A conversation with Bill Hayes
This is the subject of the new work "Sweat," by Bill Hayes.
My conversation with Bill Hayes: