Jeff Schechtman's "Talk Cocktail"

"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"

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair on the Wacko for Wasilla

Todd Purdum, in the current Vanity Fair, has the latest must read on the Wacko from Wasilla. Andrew Sullivan, as always with Palin, sums ...

The gonzo version of the Middle East

James Hider Middle Bureau Chief for The Times of London and author The Spiders of Allah: Travels of an Unbeliever on the Frontline of Holy...

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

On the other side of the border...

When we do talk about the issue of immigration, it's usually thorough the prism of preconception, politics and polemics. There is anothe...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Under the bridge..

Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg, in their book Righteous Dopefiend, take us up close and personal into the world of homelessness and dr...

Friday, June 19, 2009

Leonard Bernstein - A political life

From his conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. But always twinkling within tha...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

There's something happening here.... (fixed)

Events in Iran are moving quickly, and any attempt by Westerners to fully understand the complexity and the dizzying array of actors and ins...

The Hidden Side of Hunger in America

Amidst the housing meltdown, rising energy costs and an increasingly dysfunctional health care system, America's poor are also battling ...

Monday, June 8, 2009

Womenomics, a new workplace paradigm

Woman are earning more college degrees and more graduate degrees. Research has repeatedly shown that those companies that employ more woman...

Good Mother / Bad Mother

Four years ago Ayelet Waldman sparked a controversy, and was forced to defend herself, when she wrote in a N.Y. Times essay that "she ...

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Who is Hugo Chavez and other tales of American failure

The rise of Venezuela’s left-wing President, Hugo Chavez, is a lesson in what can happen when the U.S. disses an entire continent. Who is ...

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

David Brooks on why the bailout of GM won't work.

David Brooks nails everything wrong with the GM Bailout. Money quote: For the elemental facts about the Obama restructuring plan are these...

Monday, June 1, 2009

Bill Clinton's emerirtus years

For almost twenty years Bill Clinton has been a part of the American political landscape. Now in his emeritus years, its a bittersweet stor...

To live and die in Pakistan

If Pakistan is the central front in the war on terror, why don't we know more about it? For years we have read and listened to reportin...

Friday, May 29, 2009

JOHN FEINSTEIN on Tiger vs. Rocco 2008

The 2008 US Open produced one of the most unexpected and dramatic showdowns not only in Golf, but in sports history. Tiger Woods, the champ...

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Work/life balance and your money

David Leonhardt, in the New York Times, looks at new survey on work/life balance and which careers provide the highest economic penalty for...

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Sleeping with the enemy...

Again, a marriage becomes the template to examine the socio-political storms swirling around the society. While previously we looked at mar...

The times they are a changing...and most politicians missed it.

Matt Bai, one of the country's most astute political observers and reporters talks, in his recent N.Y. Time magazine story, about how p...

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The future of journalism

If you want to understand the future of journalism, watch this tour of TPM (Talking Points Memo). This is the newsroom of the future, with a...

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Two writers, two couples and two marriages that reflect the past 40 years of our history

Maybe it really is Obama: Or perhaps our time really is beginning to defuse the culture wars. It seems to be a meme of the moment to objec...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Dr. Sherwin Nuland explains why bedside manner still matters in the health care debate

To often our health care reform conversations don’t involve the real lives of Doctors and the real dynamics of the Doctor/Patient relationsh...

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About

Jeff Schechtman: Napa, California, United States; I grew up during the Kennedy Presidency. It was a time when the best and the brightest sat center stage in the nation's psyche. I've always remembered the story, that at an arts gala at the White House, Kennedy looked around the room and proclaimed it "the greatest gathering of talent since Thomas Jefferson dined alone." Without the benefit of such trappings, I've had the opportunity, for the past nineteen years, to have a seat at an international banquet of ideas and history. My radio program provided me a unique opportunity to "travel" around the world and speak to thousands of the most imaginative thinkers and leaders in the arenas of politics, religion, journalism, business, popular culture, academics, science, economics, history, and medicine. During these years, I have taken many people with me on this journey. It has been a momentous time. The trauma of politics, the onslaught of technology, the insights of science, and the changes in the human condition make this a period almost unequaled in history. I'm excited that technology has now made it possible for me to take more of you along with me on this journey.

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