Make a decision!

What happens in our brain when we try to make decisions? Why is decision making effortless for some and others struggle just to decide what to eat for breakfast?  In his book How We Decide, the brilliant writer and blogger Jonah Lehrer explains that our best decisions don't involve a choice between reason and emotion, but are in fact the perfect blend of both.

My conversation with Jonah Lehrer:

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The Empathic Civilization

The health care debate is but one example of the difficulty of enacting any kind of social or political change.  The Supreme Court saw to it last week that corporate money will continue to define our political agenda.  The only good news was that the outpouring of support and relief for Haiti still shows a deep well of human compassion, in spite of a year in which Ayn Rand was resurrected and selfishness was once again put up as a virtue.

With the institutions of democracy broken, globalization increasing, climate change continuing and increasing energy demands, it seems we need to find whole new ways of addressing critical problems.  Author, scholar and public intellectual Jeremy Rifkin, in his new book The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis contends that we are at a seminal turning point in human history and that the coming decades could well determine our future survival on this planet.

My conversation with Jeremy Rifkin:

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Making decisions in a Dangerous World

Of the twenty most costly catastrophes since 1970, more than half have occurred since 2001.  Is the world simply going to fast and is the rapidity of events the reason for bad decisions?  We live in a time when we have more information when we make decisions. Neuroscience and brain research have given us powerful new tools to help us decide.  The pain of the past eighteen months is said to have given us a kind of reset, to allow us to take more reasoned actions.  Does any of this matter?  Or is there something at the intersection of economics, psychology, public policy and finance that is simply dysfunctional?  Thirty top scholars, innovators and Nobel laureates takes on these issues in a The Irrational Economist: Making Decisions in a Dangerous World edited by Wharton Risk Center Managing Director Erwann Michel-Kerjan.

My conversation with Erwann Michel-Kerjan:

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The Globalization of Mental Illness

Just as American culture is homogenizing the world, with respect to everything from movies to junk food, so to is it globalizing the human mind itself. In his new book Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche,science writer Ethan Watters  shows that we are not only changing the way the world understands and treats mental illness, but that we are actually trying to redefine the symptoms of others to fit into our own pharmacologically driven solutions.  Good for big pharma, bad for diversity and human compassion.

My conversation with Ethan Watters:

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The science of compassion

The outpouring of aid and support for Haiti has been overwhelming.  It should make us wonder if we are somehow hardwired to be compassionate, empathic and altruistic. Over the past year, amidst the financial crisis, the ideas of Ayn Rand and the supposed virtues of selfishness have gained new converts.  Yet more and more science tells us that compassion, far from being weak, is the very quality that has enabled the successful evolution of our species and will ultimately determine our fate.

The Greater Good Science Center, led by renown psychologist Dacher Keltner and based at UC Berkley, has been in the vanguard of this movement. The Center has, for the first time, published its writings in a new book entitled The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness.

My conversation with Dacher Keltner:

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The responsibility of command

In the entire history of the US, only forty-four men have known exactly what it feels like to have the full weight of the nations security on their shoulders. Even fewer have assumed that mantel in a time of war.  As Barack Obama took office, the terrorist threat swirled around him. A year later, the failed Christmas day attack refocused Obama and the country on the threat of domestic terrorism.  Suddenly it wasn't just policy papers or briefings, but lives hung in the balance. N.Y. Times White House correspondent Peter Baker writes about this as the cover story in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

My conversation with Peter Baker:

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A good talk spoiled...

Texting, twittering, email, all have replaced true conversation. Pharmaceuticals have replaced talk therapy, shouting has replaced dialogue in our political discourse and snarkiness has replaced analysis and discussion.  In virtually every area of our culture conversation is under siege.  What is the price we're paying for this shorting of attention span, for the loss of the true exchange of personal narrative?  Do we even still know how to converse? Have we lost the art of conversation. Daniel Menaker's new book A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation gives us cause to worry, but some hope.

My conversation with Daniel Menaker:

The Element of Passion

In an economy where over ten percent of the population is unemployed, it might be easier if people pursued any job. Ken Robinson points out that this is but a short term solution to the individual and to the economy.  In his new book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Robinson explains that it is only by pursuing that which we are passionate about, that we can really change and reshape the fundamentals of work, employment and education in the twenty-first century and truly reap the rewards of building our economy on true human potential.

My conversation with Sir Ken Robinson:

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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:

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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 that serve a similar purpose.  Yet Janine Wedel tries hard to make something sinister about this common practice.

My conversation with Jeanie Wedel:

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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:

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If you can't solve a problem, there is a lot of money to be made in prolonging it

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:

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Thank You

Since January of 2009 It has been my singular pleasure to put 262 posts up on this site. Interviews and conversations and links covering every aspect of this momentous year.  From the inauguration of our 44th President, to issues of politics, economics, pop culture, the environment, the arts, technology and so much more.  I have tried to make the interviews I have done a sort of drift net for catching ideas and knowledge and stretching it out through time and space in ever-widening spools.  The fact that just about everything else swims into the net, legal questions and sartorial questions and culinary questions and agricultural questions and calendrical questions and epistemological questions, is all part of the excitement and entertainment of the process of dialog.

It’s easy to see that our ideas of community, culture, perhaps even our notions of what constitutes a country, not to mention how we communicate, do business, read, think and see, are being transformed by the vast networks of ideas and information that are cascading in upon us.

E.O. Wilson coined the term “consilience.” Wilson believed that "a balanced perspective cannot be acquired by studying disciplines in pieces, but through the pursuit of the consilience among them."  This is the dream that everything we are leaning will fit together into a single overarching vision.  That it will enable us to comprehend all of our ancient, modern and post modern philosophies, all our arts and sciences, all our experiments, and all of our innermost feelings that drive us to try to look ahead. It’s the guiding principal of the work I've tried to do. To enable each listener to act as a mirror, each with a unique angle of vision to catch the narrative and creative energy from the pull of what is said.

Particularly with respect to journalism, "the power of the spoken word still exists as a medium of revelation.  Long after the burning bush burned out and the pillar of smoke dispersed, words were still the messengers."  Today, these spoken words are like the stars in the sky. You are never sure if their sources are still on fire somewhere far away or have gone cold long ago.

My goal continues to make sure that the cacophony of these selected voices continues to be heard….that the fire never grows cold and that the effort to find ourselves inside a sea of competing voices goes on and on and on....


I thank all of you who have listened to and shared these conversations. Your support has been both comforting and inspiring.  As we enter this new year, this new decade, I'd love to hear more feedback from all of you as to what you like, what you'd like to hear and see more of and how I can better improve this experience.


Thanks and have a great New Year.

The unbalanced work/life balance

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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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Why we need a new Enlightenment

More than at any other time since the Enlightenment, we fear science as much as we embrace it. Our technical and scientific capabilities have brought the world to a turning point, in which accomplishments clash with expectations, resulting in a kind of cultural schizophrenia.  We expect miracles, but have lost faith in the scientists, doctors and other experts capable of producing them.  From this contradiction emerges what New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter has written about in his book Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. The rejection of reality in favor of a more easily acceptable lie.  It  is a dangerous phenomenon, a contagious one, one fueled by the fear of change.  Where we once celebrated scientific achievement, we now live in a world where denialists wage a war against progress.

My conversation with Michael Specter:

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