American Taliban

Are we so walled off that we look at personal exploration and the search for self as an act to be suspicious of? There was a time when students traveled to exotic parts of the world as a way to do what young people do, that is to explore and find themselves. Today, imagine a middle class kids who travels to the Middle East on a spiritual quest and winds up there on the eve of 9/11. This is the backdrop of Pearl Abraham's new novel American Taliban: A Novel.

My conversation with Pearl Abraham:

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Ruth Reichl's amazing mom

Former Gourmet Magazine editor and LA and NY Times Restaurant critic Ruth Reichl has spent time, in many of her memoirs, telling amusing anecdotes about her mother. In her newest memoir For You Mom, Finally she comes to realize that her mother was part of a generation of post-war woman whose frustration and unhappiness provided the predicate for the woman's movement and whose contribution still shapes us today. Like Betty Draper in "Mad Men" and April Wheeler in "Revolutionary Road," Reichl's mother came of age at the worst possible time for woman: They were educated, they had time on their hands, but no place to direct their talents. Reichl's mother wanted to make sure that her daughter had a very different life.

Ruth Reichl tells me more about her mother's story:

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Roots of Steel

It's hard to imagine today that there was a time when the steel industry was booming. When steel workers could comfortably support a family, buy a boat and embrace the American Dream. A time when American icons like the Golden Gate Bridge and Madison Square Garden were proudly built with American steel. Those days are long gone. But what's left is a legacy of stories, of hard work, broken promises and anger, which still impacts our culture and our politics today. Science writer Deborah Rudacille, who grew up in a steel town outside Baltimore, gives us a powerful look inside this boom and bust world, in her new book Roots of Steel: Boom and Bust in an American Mill Town.

My conversation with Deborah Rudacille:

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The Great American University

Of all of the traditional institutions of America that have come under siege of late, perhaps none has held up better than the our great American research universities. However, even they have suffered. The economic crisis, a political culture that often embraces ignorance, international competition and a lack of understanding of their role in our society are all taking aim at The Great American University. Perhaps because of all of this, because we need to nurture this unappreciated national resource, it's more important than ever to embrace and examine these issues. This is what Jonathan R. Cole, the former provost of Columbia University does in his book The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected.

My conversation with Jonathan R. Cole:

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Organizing in the Google Era

How much time do we all spend trying be organized? The onslaught of information, the avalanche of apps, all making us both smarter and more stressed. Years ago Google set out, as it mission, to organize all the information in the world. The man who helped lead that process for Google, as the Chief Information Officer, now turns his attention to personal organization. Douglas Merrill is a leading computer scientists, with a Ph.D in Cognitive Science from Princeton. He now gives us all some organizational help in his book Getting Organized in the Google Era: How to Get Stuff out of Your Head, Find It When You Need It, and Get It Done Right.

My conversation with Douglas Merrill:

Tell Me A Story

Few journalists have been as good at capturing the personalities and zeitgeist of their time as David Maraniss. A multiple Pulitzer Prize winner and award winning biographer of Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, and Roberto Clemente, he has also taken us to modern day Vietnam and to the 1960 Rome Olympics. His work focuses on those important moments in the human condition, when we reveal who we really are. His new book Into the Story: A Writer's Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss, is a kind of sampler of his work that, taken together, accentuates his love of politics, sports and the importance of timeless narrative non-fiction.

My conversation with David Maraniss:

Pulitzer acknowledges the history of the Arms Race

As we enter into the first arms reduction treaty in almost twenty years, it's worth remembering the doomsday scenario that was the Cold War arms race. This years Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction has been awarded to David Hoffman for his book The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy.  In it, he documents not only the Cold War arms race, but the residual impact and the weapons of mass destruction that still imperil the planet.

My conversation with David Hoffman:

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Is that all there is?

Through science, religion and art we have, for centuries, tried to make sense of the universe. In modern times, we've believed that science would answer the great cosmic questions. Relativity and Quantum Mechanics certainly seemed to lead us in that direction. But still physicists have been stymied in trying to find that elusive theory of everything. What if there is no such theory? What if the universe really is random and asymmetric? How does that alter our view of our place in that universe? These are the issues explored by physicist and Dartmouth professor Marcelo Gleiser in his book A Tear at the Edge of Creation: A Radical New Vision for Life in an Imperfect Universe.

My conversation with Marcelo Gleiser:

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The End of Wall Street

Even amidst America's biggest financial crises since the Great Depression, we have but a vague idea of what brought it about and how close the world's financial infrastructure came to the brink of collapse. Even though millions of words have been written and spoken about what happened, it is Roger Lowenstein, in his new book, The End of Wall Street that finally brings together the individuals, stories and lessons to effectively understand what really happened and why.

My conversation with Roger Lowenstein:

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The Sabbath World

Pressures to be productive, sixty to eighty hour work weeks as the norm, technology that tethers us to work 24/7; all of these things might make us long for a day of rest. Historically, the Sabbath provided that fulfillment. Often as a religious observance, but sometimes it was just simply a day of getting outside of ourselves and coming together as part of a community.

This is the backdrop of a new memoir by Judith Shulevitz, The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time. Judith is a literary critic, a former New York Times and Slate columnist and her new book allows a different view of how we spend of leisure time.

My conversation with Judith Shulevitz:

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The Tiger Bubble

In just a few days Tiger Woods returns to the links and to the PGA tour. It's not clear who will be happier, CBS, The PGA, other professional golfers, or the tens of millions of dollars in sponsors that Tiger still carries. Either way, while golf was never the same after Tiger came on the scene, it may never be the same after his absence and return.

A week ago, Jonathan Mahler wrote, as a New York Times Magazine cover story, about the "Tiger Bubble." For those that haven't read it, it's worth a read as The Masters gets underway. For those that have, it's a good reminder what what we'll be seeing in the next few days.

My conversation with Jonathan Mahler:

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160 degrees of Arnold

Can Jerry  Brown or Meg Whitman do any of this?

Guaranteed Employment that Works...

Numbers came out today indicating that Chinese manufacturing is up. Yet today, the last auto factory in California has shut its doors. Employment numbers are seeing their first increase since the start of the recession, but none of it is in manufacturing. Factories across the industrial heartland of America sit idle and decaying. Yet in Cleveland, one company, Lincoln Electric has thrived for more than a century. Lincoln Electric has made a unique promise to its workers, that no permanent employee will be laid off for economic reasons. The workers have also benefited from a unique system of incentives and profit-sharing. The company has expanded around the world, but has never lost sight of its home base of Cleveland.

Journalist Frank Koller, in his book Spark: How Old-Fashioned Values Drive a Twenty-First-Century Corporation: Lessons from Lincoln Electric's Unique Guaranteed Employment Program details the journey inside this multinational company of modern products and old fashions values. The success of Lincoln Electric gives us hope that our economy can do better.

My conversation with Frank Koller about Lincoln Electric:

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