America Trends

One headline reads ‘these pensions plans are at risk of going broke’.  Another exclaims ‘pension plans for millions of Americans on the brink of collapse’.  Clearly, many older Americans are worried about the solvency of pensions earned many years back.  Companies go belly up in the meantime.  Not enough money is set aside.  Or projections … Continue reading EP 282 Can America Meet Its Pension Obligations?

As opioids lose favor, more chronic pain sufferers are turning to medical marijuana and CBD supplement products to combat their pain.  And given the fact that the federal government still considers marijuana a Schedule 1 drug, the benefits, side effects and impacts of medical marijuana have not been rigorously studied by the Food and Drug … Continue reading EP 281 Do We Know Enough About Medical Marijuana?

There are stories aplenty about the cyber crime of our era: ransomware hackers making demands of cities and towns throughout America.  In exchange for cryptocurrency, the hackers will unencrypted data needed to run your municipality.  You’re the mayor: what do you do?  Taxes can’t be collected, bills can’t be paid, payrolls can’t be met in … Continue reading 2 SPECIAL EDITION Ransomware Demands Plaguing American Cities

      In the new book, ‘The Long Southern Strategy’, professors Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields brilliantly unpack what was generally considered a 1960’s strategy by the Republican Party in the Nixon era to win over disaffected white voters in the previously Democratic stronghold of the American South.  To usher in this profound realignment … Continue reading EP 280 How Chasing White Voters in The South Changed American Politics

  In 2016, a group of armed, divinely inspired libertarian protesters led by Amman Bundy occupied the Malheur(translated: Bad Luck) National Wildlife Refuge in the high desert of eastern Oregon.  Encamped in the shadowlands of the republic, they insisted that the Federal government had no right to own public land.  Were they heroes or villians?  … Continue reading EP 279 What a Standoff in the West Tells Us About the Politics of Our Time

  ‘The Fifth Domain’ is a term the Pentagon uses for cyberspace, following the progression of locations for battle–land, sea, air and space.  The key issue in cyberspace, like all of warfare, relates to the calculations about offensive and defensive capabilities among the actors and the readiness to deploy a country’s take down capabilities of … Continue reading EP 278 Will the Next War Start in the Fifth Domain?

  Honesty requires that I admit to what a bloody mess mess my generation, the baby boomers, is leaving the many generations that follow.  As if a despoiled and roiling planet isn’t enough, add to their burdens a swelling, and unsustainable, level of national debt.  And, yet, mum’s the word.  Nobody talks about the $20 … Continue reading EP 277 Young People Say It’s Up To Us to Grapple With the National Debt

  The concept of a whistleblower is a unique American innovation, meant to check corrupt power and help us give protection and sanctity to our ideals in practice, not just in theory.  Whistleblowing is a cousin to civil disobedience, but is done within the system through long established tradition and laws.  We’re all getting a … Continue reading 1 SPECIAL EDITION Whistleblowers

  Healthcare delivery and cost concerns are top of mind in our political debate.  Nowhere is that concern greater than in rural America. If you live in remote places in the heartland and the South, the likelihood that the hospital closest to your home may be shuttered or downsized is growing greater each year.  Twenty … Continue reading EP 276 An Emergency In Rural America

 In a democratic society, like ours, how easy or hard is it to upend power and economic disparities, when those who have the most to lose also have the most power?  It’s a tricky question which Professor Paul Starr, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, attempts to answer in his new book, ‘Entrenchment’.  Let’s be honest, … Continue reading EP 275 How Does a Society Dislodge Entrenched Interests?

  If you listen to President Trump this is the best economy in years, perhaps, ever. We have low unemployment numbers and a great uptick on Wall Street.  If that’s the case, why does he keep pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in what the Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, says is not such a … Continue reading EP 274 Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?

There are alarming reports from all over the country about the demise of local newspapers and the sprouting up of local ‘news deserts’, where finding out about what’s going on in your town or city is becoming increasingly more difficult.  With it comes a lack of accountability on the part of local officials as there’s … Continue reading EP273 Where Will We Get Our News Going Forward?

Frustrated and feeling betrayed, Americans have come to loathe politics–assuring more disastrous results. In his well researched book, ‘The Death of Politics’, Peter Wehner reminds us that politics can, and should, be about the noble pursuit of justice. To give up on politics means giving up on making America a more just society. The sense … Continue reading EP 272 The Death Of Politics

  Humans have the capacity to be caring and show empathy toward total strangers, even risk our lives on their behalf, yet, in contrast, we also have the ability to dehumanize others thus opening the door to shocking aggression and brutality.  Since our podcast likes to look at trajectory, we were curious in what direction … Continue reading EP 271 Are We Becoming Less Human?

 There may not be a clash of generations with the newly adult Millennial’s squaring off against their baby boomer parents, but when(and if)they wake up to many decisions that the older set has made, there will be some ‘esplaining to do’.  By all accounts, Millennials’ must contend with the harsh reality of a tough job … Continue reading EP 270 How Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials’ Economic Future

 Religious freedom. Separation of church and state.  Constitutional protections to practice your faith as you wish.  We take these precepts for granted, even as we still debate the founder’s intent in 21st century America. Yet those notions were radically different from what was practiced around the globe at the time these practices were memorialized in … Continue reading EP 269 Can America Hang on to Its Greatest Invention?

:           National rates of obesity in American youth and adults remain high and yet many societal messages tell us that you should be ashamed of being larger than certain standards suggest.  Studies bear out that this form of discrimination hinders many people’s chances in this society and can result in some … Continue reading EP 268 Why Does an Overweight Society Still Discriminate Against Overweight People?

 They are located on the third floor of the Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.  Having grown over the years from about a dozen people to hundreds today, when they were first empowered by President Harry Truman to take over a major role in developing foreign policy , the National Security Council(NSC) has its fingerprints … Continue reading EP 267 White House Warriors Have Taken Over Foreign Policy: Is That a Good Thing?

 Private prisons have been a controversial topic over the recent years, but some thought that they had been all but set aside as an option for incarceration at the end of the Obama Administration.  However, the Trump Administration didn’t feel as unkindly toward them and the talk of their demise has been exaggerated.  It’s a … Continue reading EP 266 Do Private Prisons Have a Role in Our Society?

      Being on this earth at this time represents a unique opportunity–and a special challenge.  As you’ll learn in this podcast, it’s the first time in history that six generations have shared the planet.  And while we talk about many divides and schisms–race, ethnicity, gender orientation–what has happened to the generation gap?  It … Continue reading EP 265 Can Baby Boomers and Millennial’s Co-Exist?