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"

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Eighty Years Ago, Paperback Books Were Considered "Creative Destruction"

Today when we think about the publishing industry, we usually think about the ways that it is changing to accommodate the dig...

Is Water the Sine Qua Non of "red" and "blue" America?

I’m often the first to criticize the way in which we are too quick to put things in political terms. Too often the rush to label “red” or “...

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Are you ever surprised that you are being lied to?

To about the same degree that Captain Renault was “shocked, just shocked” to find gambling going on Casablanca, that’s how shocked many of u...

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Big Science and The Launch of the Military Industrial Complex

We all remember Ben Franklin flying his kite, or Alexander Graham Bell calling for Watson, even Jonas Salk working quietly in his laboratory...

Friday, July 10, 2015

Primates of Park Avenue

We have always studied other cultures so that perhaps we could better understand our own. The realm of cultural anthropology has provided us...

Monday, July 6, 2015

A kid with a dream - Jerry Weintraub R.I.P.

Jerry Weintraub spent more than five decades in show business. As a promoter, manager, movie and Broadway producer, his success was unpar...

Sunday, July 5, 2015

How to Keep Listening When the World Wants a Fight

Listen to any of the Republican candidates and it’s clear that the culture war issues that have driven so much political debates over the pa...

Friday, June 26, 2015

Nixon's the One

Most of us know the legendary story of the group of blind men who touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different pa...

Monday, June 22, 2015

Charles and Ray Eames and the technology of timelessness

Long before Steve Jobs and Jony Ives bridged the divide between design and technology, before Target began selling Michael Graves tea kettl...

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Before Jobs, Musk, Hewlett & Packard, or Ford...there were The Wright Brothers

We live today in what many consider the age of technology. Everyday there are new apps, new ways in which incumbency is disrupted. But ver...

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

A Russian Spy, A Double Agent, The FBI and Hooters Parking Lot

Today boys want to grow up to be professional athletes, or tech billionaires. But there was time when being a secret agent seemed like just...

Never bet against Elon Musk's vision of the futrue

There is always someone that leads us into the future. Someone whose vision and entrepreneurship combine to make the next big idea, the nex...

Friday, June 12, 2015

Would the real Alex Vause please stand up

Many of you, I’m sure, think you’d love the idea of seeing your life portrayed in movies or television. But imagine if you knew nothing abo...

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

How the law is shaping families and how new kinds of families are shaping the law

In the world of families, all eyes are on same sex marriage. In the Courts, in Statehouses, and in the political arena. But on the ground,...

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Buckley and Mailer: The Difficult Friendship

Today we have talking heads and pundits. But back in the second half of the 20th Century we had writers and public intellectuals, whose ide...

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Who cares what Jefferson would do?

If we have problems in America, the solution is usually simple, check with the Founding Fathers. Can’t figure out modern health care, check...

Monday, June 1, 2015

The fall of the house of CrackBerry

Many years ago, Harvard Business School perfected something called the “case study method.” A new educational innovation that presented th...

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

One Nation Under God...and Corporation

It was Churchill who reminded us that history is written by the victors. Well this is as true of religious history as it is of military, po...

Sunday, May 24, 2015

The Brain and the Gut...together again

We all remember the youthful spiritual song Dem Bones, about the ankle bone being connected to the shin bone, the thigh bone being connected...

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Can a Well-Tuned Brain keep up with the modern world?

Everyday it seem the world speeds up. The advances of technology, the need to make faster decisions, multitasking and a sometimes dizzyin...

View web version

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.

View my complete profile

Powered by Blogger.