America Trends

The title of this episode is one of the most misunderstood aspects of intimate partner violence which runs rampant in our society and virtually every other. The World Health Organization deems it a ‘global epidemic’, fueled in our society by guns in the home and many reasons to keep it locked in silence. The perpetrator, … Continue reading EP 264 Why Doesn’t She Just Leave Him?

  Even if Democrats often seem to drive the policy agenda forward in American politics, the Republicans long game strategy of chipping away at those gains has been remarkably(or appallingly)successful, depending upon how you look at it.  How do they do it? Caroline Fredrickson, author of ‘The Democracy Fix’ explains, in detail, the conservative strategy of … Continue reading EP 263 Why Are Republicans So Much Better at the Game of Politics Than Democrats?

Have you seen anyone wearing a mink stole lately? What was once so fashionable is now considered cruel and uncivil. Will eating the meat of an animal fall into this category twenty to 30 years from now? I wouldn’t bet against it. Perhaps we move in this direction because of the impact of meat harvesting … Continue reading EP 262 Is Animal Rights the Next Great Battle for Justice?

 If the fog of political misdirection could ever clear, perhaps we could have an adult conversation about the true goings on on our southern border.  Unlikely. Except in this podcast, scholar Pia Orrenius, of the more conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, clearly explains that our greatest imperative going forward is to ensure enough … Continue reading EP 261 The US Needs More Workers, Not a Wall

 Did you realize that seventy percent of the businesses in America are family run?  As we approach an inflection point where many in the baby boom generation are ready to hand those businesses off to the next generation, we thought it would be a good time to explore the complications that exist when emotion and … Continue reading EP 260 Someday All This Will Be Yours: The Challenges of Family Businesses in America

 Could an international institution, based on moral principles and ethical standards, handle a crisis any worse than has the Catholic Church and child sexual abuse?  I’m waiting. It’s gone on for decades and church protection has generally superseded child protection. With cover-up and denial no longer working, in a different moment in time, finally the … Continue reading EP 259 Can The Church Put an End To Child Sex Abuse?

 Did you ever know someone who, about every 15 to 20 years, decides that the old house has too many problems, so they just build a new one.  That’s been my MO for years. And it’s worked for me, as I’m not the most handy around the house. However, Mike Berners-Lee tells us that won’t … Continue reading EP 258 There Is No Planet B

The suicide rate among white teens, between 10 and 17, was up 70 percent between 2006 and 2016 and while black teens kill themselves less often than white youth, the 77 percent increase was even higher.  And a study of pediatric hospitals recently found admissions of patients ages 5 to 17 for suicidal thoughts and … Continue reading EP 257 Teen Suicides Are Soaring As America Mourns

Or, at least, that’s the ‘conventional’ wisdom.  Perhaps, however, these quiet, leafy, homogeneous places have more to offer than meets the eye.  Our guest, Amanda Kolson Hurley, author of ‘Radical Suburbs’ will challenge your thinking about suburbs and open our eyes to today’s suburbs which are more diverse, interesting and challenged than we might consider.  … Continue reading EP 256 American Suburbs: A Radical Idea Turned Conventional

 It is a provocative question and it’s being discussed by serious historians.  Is the polarization in America the antecedent to a physical conflict that pits the red versus the blue, rather the blue and gray?  First people look for a correlation between 1859 and the current era. A State Department official, Keith Mines, was reported … Continue reading EP 255 Is America on the Brink of a Second Civil War?

 As a child, mathematics was Cathy O’Neil’s passion: ‘math provided a neat refuge from the messiness of the real world’.  After teaching for a time, she began to apply her math wizardry for players on Wall Street and saw first hand how dangerous mathematical models, or as she titles her book, ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’ … Continue reading EP 254 Beware of the Weapons of Math Destruction

  Rebecca Costa is an amazing woman.  She is a sociobiologist and a futurist.  She proclaims that a faith in science and empiricism will pay off in conquering many of the world’s challenges if we trust it and follow its dictates.  Of course, human beings can be rational, at times, but often rely on emotions(and biases)in … Continue reading EP 253 Science Can Conquer All

  As John Lennon once said in song ‘you may call me a dreamer’.  Well, Italian neurosurgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero has been called that and worse with his long pronounced intention to do a head transplant.  You read that correctly. Not a facial transplant…a head transplant. While some may say it’s a true medical moonshot, others … Continue reading EP 252 Is a Head Transplant Really Possible?

 Conspiracy theories are as old as politics.  But, according to Russell Muirhead, the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College and Nancy Rosenblum, the Senator Joseph Clark Research Professor of Ethics is Politics and Government at Harvard University, in their new book, ‘A Lot of People Are Saying’, there is a new … Continue reading EP 251 The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy

  For many in America they are at different stages of the ‘woke’ process.  Recognizing the social changes afoot, they are sympathetic to them, but don’t want to become totally removed from the places from which they come.  Yet, those places may seem lost in time. Debra Gwartney, like our last guest, Darrell West, struggle with … Continue reading EP 250 I Am a Stranger Here

This episode, along with the next we will post, examine how hard it is to go home when the politics of the times are as rancorous as they are.  Given the transient American culture, many of one generation leave home both physically and culturally. Returning to that place can be unsettling and dissonant, as American … Continue reading EP 249 Divided Politics, Divided Nation

Let that headline sink in for just a moment.  Differences in the performance on math, reading and science tests between disadvantaged and advantaged U.S. students have remained essentially unchanged for nearly half a century.  And in that time period, we established a federal Department of Education, saw funding changes meant to address the problem throughout … Continue reading EP 248 Student Achievement Gap Fails to Close Over the Last 50 Years

Just as millions of baby boomers are reaching their golden years, the state of retirement for many in America is something of a disaster.  The pension process has collapsed, union protections for most in the private sector have evaporated, the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation, set up to protect benefits hard earned, is itself in financial … Continue reading EP 247 Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality

  History has given us a guide to removing unpopular, unable or unfit chief executives.  And, despite all the chatter about impeachment, it’s only one method. And come to think of it, it’s never been successfully carried out to its final conclusion–that being a conviction in the U.S. Senate and removal of the sitting President from … Continue reading EP 246 How To Get Rid Of A President

Imagine a day when you will be outlawed from driving.  According to Samuel Schwartz, also known as ‘Gridlock Sam’, when he was New York City’s Traffic Commissioner, it would be for your own good.  The carnage we have left on the roads as drivers is startling when you compare it to world wars and other … Continue reading EP 245 No One at the Wheel