America's Unwritten Constitution

Perhaps more than at any other time in the history of the world, democracy is on the march. But the idea that people, individual citizens could engage in the practice of self government wasn't always so. In fact, it was only with the creation of our constitution, launched 225 years ago, that the idea was even appropriately articulated.

But that constitution as brilliant and profound and clever as it was, was not the be all and end all of democracy. It was a starting point from which we would develop laws, establish precedent, and nourish institutions which would provide the foundations of self government. Those things have grown to become, what Akhil Amar, the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale, calls America's Unwritten Constitution.

My conversation with Akhil Amar:

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The New Global Elite

It was Scott Fitzgerald who said that "the rich are different than you and me." Today that difference goes a lot deeper. The very rich are very different! And that difference, that gap, is coming to define the future of America and of democracy.

Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandies got it exactly right when he said "you can have large amounts of money in the hands of the very few, or you can have democracy. You can’t have both."

Thompson Reuters digital editor Chrystia Freeland looks at this growing gap in Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else

My conversation with Chrystia Freeland:

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The Cold War in Movies

This week we mark what was arguably the height of the Cold War, in the 50 anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. That Cold War would, for years, permeate every aspect of our culture. The paranoia and anxiety of the period was perhaps most notably reflected in our films, and the divisions of the of the time were part and parcel of the industry that produced them.

One of our nations most distinguished film critics, J Hoberman looks at this connection between American movies and the Cold War in his new book An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War.

My conversation with J. Hoberman:

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Netflixed

Creative destruction, while it may destroy and reshape individual companies, is an ongoing process. We all remember the earliest days of pay-per-view movies, which begat home video and the VCR, which gave rise to quaint local video stores, which gave us Blockbuster, which gave us Hollywood Video. Then the DVD made those spaces even more abundant. And then Netflix made video rental even easier. No late fees, door to door service and curation.

Now it seems Netflix is under siege. Digital delivery has replaced the DVD rental model and we’ll see how all this plays out.   Taking a look at this emblematic history is journalist Gina Keating, author of the much talked about book Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs

My conversation with Gina Keating:

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Obama v. Roberts

We are reminded every day how polarized our politics have become. The gap between the Republican and Democratic parties is wider than ever. The lack of bipartisanship is not because we have leaders of ill will, but because the gap in ideas and vision has become so wide.

This is reflected in our elections, in our news, in Congress and in the Supreme Court of the United States. Barack Obama, our 44th President and John Roberts, our 17th Chief Justice personify the apex of that divide.

This is the back drop for Jeffrey Toobin's new book The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court.

My conversation with Jeffrey Toobin:

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Strom Thurmond's America and today's GOP

The longest serving US Senator from South Carolina made a career out of what he called “unreconstructed racism.” Arguing in a 1948 presidential campaign speech, that "there are not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation,” but segregation did change, as did Thurmond.

When we look at the Republican party today we see that it has changed greatly in the past 50 years, particularly in the south and sun belt. Many of us attribute much of this to Nixon's “southern strategy.” But it was only after his death that the full complexity emerged about Thurmond’s role in creating what is, for better or worse, today's Republican party.

Joseph Crespino looks at all of this in his new look at Thurmond in Strom Thurmond's America

My conversation with Joseph Crespino:

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Progress in a Networked Age

We are all part of networks. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. All bring people together to share news, opinions and life. But in all this excitement about social networks, are we missing something? Why aren’t we using them to better decipher our collective national temperature and to better understand, appreciate and help each other? Rather than the “long tail” of technology pulling us apart as some claim, perhaps it really is the key to bringing us together. Perhaps only by using networks and crowdsourcing to bring people closer together, can we really see the gulf between us.

Steven B. Johnson, author of WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM, points to the power of these peer networks in his new book Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age.


My conversation with Steven Johnson:

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What's the Matter with White People?

Back in 1980 Ronald Reagan rode into office on the strength of what were then called “Reagan Democrats.” Blue collar, less educated, middle class workers who, until Reagan, were part of the New Deal coalition.

Today, many of these voters are lost to the Democrats. And while President Obama certainly has done better with them than Al Gore or John Kerry, the culture war issues and the societal changes that they reflect, continue to drive a wedge between those voters and the Democratic party.

Joan Walsh, editor at large for Salon.com, and an MSNBC political analyst looks at this changing political landscape in What's the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was.

My conversation with Joan Walsh:

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How Children Succeed

Why is it that poor children seem to do consistently worse academically than middle class kids? On the other hand, why do some wealthy children fail or breakdown while occasionally kids from the mean streets of urban neighborhood, can reach monumental heights of success?

Is it just IQ or temperament, or is there something else? Something that has to do with the innate character and perseverance of the child? Paul Tough, who introduced many to the work of Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone and who is a contributing editor the NY Times Magazine, has spent a year reporting on what makes kids succeed and fail in school and in life. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, is the result of that effort.

My conversation with Paul Tough:

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Change you have to believe in.

Rahm Emanuel, the current Mayor of Chicago and the President's former Chief Of Staff said, during the height of the economic crisis "that you should never let a serious crisis go to waste." Obama did not. And now Time Magazine senior editor Michael Grunwald shows how the Obama administration heeded that advice.

Grunwald argues that the stimulus, that helped to save the US economy, a stimulus that we’re barely talking about in the context of the current election, was one of the most profound pieces of legislation since the New Deal. It is perhaps the 800 billion pound gorilla that is reshaping America..

My conversation with Michael Grunwald about the The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era;

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The Ethicist

Each day we are confronted by some kind of ethical dilemma. As life gets more complicated, as technology and speed often exceed our ability to handle it, ethical questions seem more frequent. Perhaps it's because we are looking for some grounding. Some basic set of core ideas or principles that might provide a true north to help make everything else easier.

No one understands this better than Randy Cohen, who for twelve years was The Ethicist for the NY Times Magazine. Now he teaches us to Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything

My conversation with Randy Cohen:  

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Telegraph Avenue

Set in 2004, in Berkeley, Michael Chabon's new novel, Telegraph Avenue, his first in five years, gives us characters trying to hold back the end of an era; a time when 70's values and ideas are fading into the sunset, and the full onslaught of the 21st Century is coming upon them.

My conversation with Michael Chabon:

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The End of Men

Back in 1966, James Brown first recorded "It's a Man's, Man's World." 1966 was a time of Mad Men, it was the same year that Betty Friedan founded NOW, and three years after the publication of the Feminine Mystique. Today, 46 years later, women are dominating almost every aspect of society; work, education, culture and personal lives.

How did we get here and what does it mean for our future? In a way it’s a perfect storm. The changing nature of work, the move from an industrial to an information based economy, requiring a different set of skills, plus the social revolution of the 60's, the civil rights movement, title IX, and finally the failure, around the world, of patriarchy in all its forms, all played some part.

As a result, have we reached the end of 200,000 years of human history OR is this simply a mid course correction on the road to greater gender equality and the full flourishing of both sexes?  Atlantic senior editor Hanna Rosin brings it all into focus in her bestselling book The End of Men: And the Rise of Women .

My conversation with Hanna Rosin:

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The Twilight War

If there is any one problem that has run through the center of American foreign policy over the past 30 years, through five successive administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, it is the poisoned relationship with Iran

As students yelled “death to the Shah” in 1979, it set in motion a chain of events, an anti Americanism, that has become a part to the DNA of the country itself. Trying to understand it, and treat it has been one of the central pillars of our foreign policy. Yet with each successive treatment, the disease always threatens to burst out and become full blown. This is where we are once again, and why we need take a look as new book by the senior historian for the federal government, David Crist.

My conversation with David Crist about The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran:

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The FBI's War on Student Radicals and Reagan's Rise to Power

As we continue to re-litigate the 60’s, it's worth remembering that the FBI’s war on student radicals, particularly at UC Berkley, was responsible, perhaps more than anything else, for Ronald Reagan’s rise to power.

The activists that were part of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, believed that the FBI was spying on them, had infiltrated them and was trying to embarrass and undermine their efforts. This was all denied at the time

Today we know better. While working as an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, Seth Rosenfeld sued the FBI five times, over 30 years, to obtain confidential records under the Freedom of Information Act. Eventually compelling the FBI to release more than 250,000 pages from their files.

In his remarkable book Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power, he painstakingly recreates the dramatic and unsettling history of how J. Edgar Hoover worked closely with then California Governor Ronald Reagan to undermine student dissent, arrest and expel members of Berkeley's Free Speech Movement, and fire the University of California's president, Clark Kerr.

My conversation with Seth Rosenfeld:

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Why Wall Street Always Wins

To date, there has not been a single prosecution, much less a serious investigation into the events that brought the US economy to its knees. The SEC has not changed the rules, the Senate has repeatedly kowtowed to the big banks and "too big to fail" is still the name of the game.

Are these just random issues, or is Wall Street simply too powerful for any part of the government to take on? Or should it even try?  Former White House and Senate staffer, Jeff Connaughton takes a look at all of this in The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins.

My conversation with Jeff Connaughton:

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Geeks takeover political campaigns

Technology and creative destruction have impacted every aspect of society; from how and what we buy, to the movies we see, how we listen to music, get mail , go shopping, and do virtually everything. It should come as no surprise then, that it’s also changing the way we do politics. The only question is, why has it taken so long, why hasn't it been reported, and how will it impact those who lead us and the kind of democracy we have?

In his new book  The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, journalist Sasha Issenberg reveals the increasingly technical and micro-targeted tactics and strategies being employed by major political campaigns, including those of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

My conversation with Sasha Issenberg:

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What did we know, and when did we know it?

For eleven years U.S. foreign policy and even domestic attitudes about our place in the world, have been shaped by the reaction to the events of 9/11. But that reaction did not take place in a vacuum. In many ways, as we are coming to learn, the Bush administration's reaction was shaped by what they knew, when they knew it and what they did or did not do about it.

Further the mistakes made in the eighteen months after 9/11, created a kind of alternative universe in which policy was shaped not by real events, but by a perception of reality, shaped by repeated mistakes. This is the backdrop for prize winning and best selling author Kurt Eichenwald, in his new work 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars.

My conversation with Kurt Eichenwald:

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