truly embodies the words of Robert Frost: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."My conversation with Wes Moore:
Friday, May 21, 2010
The Other Wes Moore
truly embodies the words of Robert Frost: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."My conversation with Wes Moore:
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr.
,tells the story of the stalking of King and the search for his assassin.My conversation with Hampton Sides:
Monday, May 17, 2010
Listening to Van Morrison
Intense, idiosyncratic, diverse, elusive. These are just a few of the words that have been used to describe singer/songwriter Van Morrison. One our our most astute cultural critics, Greil Marcus, in his new book When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison
examines Morrison's particular and peculiar genius. Marcus says that Morrison willfully resists simple categorization; that his greatest songs are at one moment his own, at another covers of those by others.My conversation with Greil Marcus about listening to Van Morrison:
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Wrong Stuff
Ours is a materialistic culture with an insatiable appetite for stuff, but at what point does that appetite cross the line and reach unhealthy levels? Researchers estimate that more than six million hoarders live in the United States. And whether we're savers, collectors, or compulsive cleaners, none of us is free of the impulses that drive hoarders to extremes. But exactly how, when, and why do these otherwise normal impulses and experiences develop into hoarding? Dr. Randy Frost in his new book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things
explains.My conversation with Dr. Randy Frost:
Monday, May 10, 2010
Social Entrepreneurship
, who social entrepreneurs are, how they organize and succeed and what challenges they face in the world today.My conversation with David Bornstein:
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The things we fear most
John Lennon said that "life is what happens while were busy making other plans." History tells us that things are the way they are, until they're not. Pulitzer prize winning journalist and bestselling author Anna Quindlen's new novel Every Last One, takes this idea into the heart of the American family. People often think that family protects them from the omnipresent danger of the outside world. But what happens when the violence comes from within? Anna Quindlen gives us a new way to look at family and perhaps a metaphor for our larger American family.My conversation with Anna Quindlen:
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The Great Reset
As Michael Lewis explained to us yesterday, there is no question we've just been through the worst economic crises since the great depression. As we begin to recover, we all wonder what will be different? What lessons will we take away? It should be clear by now that enough has changed that we can't solve everything just by regulating Wall Street. We will each have to find ways to reform ourselves and our values to reflect the changing economy, strained resources and a new emphasis on what constitutes real value. All of this is what bestselling author, public intellectual and economic development expert Richard Florida calls The Great Reset
.My conversation with Richard Florida:
Monday, May 3, 2010
Climate Change and energy policy explained correctly
There was time when we looked to and trusted science to provide answers to the most pressing questions facing mankind. Today, science like so much else in America, has become politicized and ignorance has been elevated as a political philosophy. Dr. Burton Richter, a Nobel Prize winning American physicist, who lead the Stanford Linear Accelerator and is one of the leaders of the revolution in particle physics, takes on the huge task of trying to educate us about climate change and energy. His book Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st Century
provides an understandable explanation of the situation, including realistic and actionable approaches to addressing the problems. Sometimes it takes a great mind to give us the simplicity we need to understand complex topics.My conversation with Dr. Burton Richter:
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Who really influences writers?
Usually we look at how great writers influence our language and culture. Emily Dickenson turned this notion upside down. It was in fact her household staff that influenced her writing and altered her sensibility. Just as cultural diversity shaped Dickenson, as we find more and more cultural and ethnic diversity in our society, it's worth wondering how this multiculturalism will influence contemporary writers? Also, as more technology and and a growing service sector give writers more time to write, what impact will that have? Aife Murray, in her new book Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson's Life and Language gives us stories about 19th century literary and social history that just might have some parallels in the 21st.My conversation with Aife Murray:
Friday, April 30, 2010
The hell with governing....
The 2012 presidential election is still 30 months away. But Republican challengers to the President already think that holding public office may be a liability. Are we heading into a campaign that's not at all about policy, or ideas or governing, but about anger at a changing society, played out in a multilayered media landscape. Matt Bai, contributing editor to the The New York Times Magazine, and one of our most astute political observers, thinks this might be happening. My conversation with Matt Bai about his article in The Magazine this Sunday:
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Does Reality Matter?
has assembled 19 serious writers, including L'enfant terrible James Frey, to give their views on this genre that seems to have such a hold on so many.My conversation with Anna David:
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Palestinian experience
Sometimes it is through art and literature that we are better able to understand the complex issues of our time. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than in the Middle East, where reality, truth and history are often blurred beyond distinction. A place where over sixty years of conflict have brutalized the human condition. Susan Abulhawa, the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, and herself the daughter of Palestinian refugees, tells us, in her new novel Mornings in Jenin
, the story of one Palestinian family's struggle and survival. It's a story shaped by loss, by fear and ultimately forgiveness.My conversation with Susan Abulhawa
Friday, April 23, 2010
The Bridge
Perhaps only now are we coming to realize that the election of Barack Obama was, to quote Joe Biden "a big F...ing deal." Not only did we elect an African-American President, but for only the second time in the nations history we elected a non Protestant to occupy the office. How did this happen? What nerve did Obama touch in the American psyche. Today, although it might not have been the intent of the Founders, Presidents represent a kind of national Rorschach test, on whom we project our dreams, our fears and our hopes. In our media driven culture, the individual narrative of the candidate becomes the central arc of our politics.David Remnick, the Pulitzer Prize winning editor of The New Yorker, in his new book The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama,
has deconstructed the Obama narrative and given us a new narrative of the man and the President.My conversation with David Remnick:
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The opposite of sibling rivalry
My converation with Beth Whitehouse:
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