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"

Monday, January 25, 2021

Armed Members of Congress. Bloodshed in the Capitol. Talk of Secession. We've Seen It Before

For some of us, a sense of history is the only thing that gets us through each day. As divided as we are, as angry as we are, as exhausted ...

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

The Hispanic Republican Vote

The great baseball manager Casey Stengel famously said that he never makes predictions, especially about the future. That also might be good...

Friday, January 8, 2021

Time for America to create a New Origin Story

If you follow business, you know that part of the lure of every company is its founding story or myth. How the founders came together, over...

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Understanding Goodfellas and the Trump Henchman

When we think of the past four years of the Trump administration, the analogies to The Godfather come immediately to mind. The reality trul...

Saturday, December 26, 2020

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

There is no more significant issue than race in America. If perplexed our founders, it flies in the face of the notion of American exception...

Friday, December 18, 2020

The Collapse of America's Founding Mythology

Every company has its foundational myth. From the beginning, it becomes the basis of the company’s culture, its marketing, and really its D...

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Broke is the definition of every aspect of American medicine today

Regardless of whether you are for single-payer health insurance, fee for service, a hybridized French system, or the Affordable Care Act, wh...

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork

Every company has its foundational myth. Usually carved out of air by its founder. It becomes the basis of its culture, its marketing and i...

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

The Saudi Enigma - How Will Biden Deal With It?

There was a time when we looked upon Saudi Arabia as the gas station to the world. Certainly to the US. At the time it generated fear and a ...

Monday, November 23, 2020

Does America Need to Find Its First Principles? A conversation with Tom Ricks

The past four years, really right up to this moment, have been a test for the American republic. Over and over we’ve heard it asked, “can ou...

Monday, November 16, 2020

A Dolly Parton Moment

During our last great cultural and political upheaval in the 60s, music provided the soundtrack. Rock stars were not in Silicon Valley, but ...

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Biden..We Hardly Knew Ye

With the election just hours away, think about how many Presidents we’ve watched grow into the office. Clinton, Bush and Obama. Earlier JFK ...

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Is Socialism Coming To America?

Bernie Sanders an avowed Democratic socialist, never a member of the Democratic party, ran two failed presidential campaigns, and yet he has...

Friday, October 23, 2020

Are We So Divided that Secession Is The Only Answer?

There was a time when there were things that united us. Through most of the 20th century for example, they were things that had nothing to d...

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Jimmy Carter: A Good and Decent Presidency

Before his massive failure with the Covid crises, someone remarked that Donald Trump may not turn out to be the worst President we ever had,...

Monday, October 12, 2020

Is White Collar Corruption the New Normal?

Fitzgerald got it right. The rich are different. Even in the way they commit crimes. Law and order phrases are shouted from rooftops with re...

Monday, October 5, 2020

Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry: Advice for Times Like This Week/Month/Year

The world has been through tough times before. Wars, depression, the threat of Armageddon, and racial hatred are all nothing new. And yet s...

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Should Donald Trump Make Us Rethink the Reagan Legacy For the Worse?

Day after day people ask “how we got here?” In fact we don’t need a time machine. All we need do is to look back at the political history of...

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Science and Politics are Now Linked

If you picked up the New York Times one day last week, you would have discovered that about half of the stories on the front page were direc...

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

The Curse of the US/Britain Special Relationship

Back on the 4th of July I saw a hat that said, "Make America Great Britain Again." A good laugh, even more so when superimposed o...

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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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