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:

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"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:

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Remote Control Politics

 Hollywood Reporter takes note of a study that shows Republicans and Democrats have very different viewing habits:

Doug Mataconis in Below the Beltway reports:

The top scoring shows on each list are no surprise, of course. That Glenn Beck is hugely popular among Republicans and Keith Olberman is similarly popular among Democrats but not vice versa. What’s more surprising, really, is that there’s no correlation at all among the Top 15 shows in either list. It’s as stark a difference as you see in reports about viewing habits among African-Americans versus those for the population as a whole, although that particular disparity has become less apparent since the advent of shows like American Idol, which have broad cross- racial appeal.  What explains the apparent disparity in viewing habits based on (self-reported) political ideology then?

One theory is that the disparity is a reflection of demographic differences. People who self-identify as Democrats tend to skew younger, urban, and college educated. The types of television shows that they’d be attracted to would reflect that demography. Combine that with the fact that cable television gives people so many more choices than those that existed even thirty years ago, and the difference seems easy to explain:

What has changed is the explosion on cable that has allowed networks to appeal to more specific viewpoints, from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart to Fox News’ Glenn Beck. Moreover, if you’re a liberal viewer in a major city (which typically correlates with higher education) and you have such titles as Mad Men and Dexter to watch each week, are you going to also be interested in seeing a paint-by-numbers crime procedural on broadcast or a laugh-track-boosted sitcom? On the scripted side, at least, the explosion of complex dramas on cable may have ceded some of the broadcast ground to what one might label Republican tastes.

In other words, this phenomenon is just a reflection of the fragmentation of broadcast media, as is the fact that the only telecasts that make the list of the most watched television broadcasts anymore are Super Bowl broadcasts. There are more choices out there and they’re expanding every day. People are going to watch what appeals to them whether that’s on the basis of demography, education, ethnicity, or political ideology.

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:

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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:

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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:

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Herding 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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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Lost Peace, Lost Opportunities

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:

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Capitalism vs. Democracy

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:

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A 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:

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Is this man really dangerous or just crazy?

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:

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