America Trends

In 2018, marriage rates in America began falling to their lowest rates since the government kept those statistics dating back to 1867. And, yet, divorce rates, too, have been dropping for the better part of a decade. So what are we to make of these trends? Perhaps, the unions that are forming are fewer in … Continue reading EP 374 Marriage American Style in the Wake of the Pandemic

The 20th Century was the American Century. However, there are many signs that the world in this period is moving away from our influence and gravitating to the diverse, technocratically advanced countries of Asia. Much of this started with Japan and its re-birth after WWII and China’s modernization after Mao. However, given the the much … Continue reading EP 373 The Future is Asian

James Madison, the architect of the written Constitution, said that our nation’s founders developed limits on debt that would be ‘clearly visible to the eye of the ordinary politician’. That was then and this is now. While we lived by that well-defined principle for the first 200 years of existence, America has begun to pile … Continue reading EP 372 America: A Debtor Nation

Many of us can remember when downtown was the bustling hub of activity in our communities. As the song of the same name suggested ‘you could forget all your troubles, forget all your cares’. However, as highways cut through central business districts and people began to use their cars to shops at malls on the … Continue reading EP 371 Downtowns and Public Spaces: What Works in Revitalizing Them?

Have you been binge watching like so many in our society in this stay at home moment? Do you have a favorite service or did you sign up for free trials? And do you churn, by that we mean stay with a service for several months, drop it and return when there’s something that catches … Continue reading EP 370 Video Streaming Services Multiply as Business Booms

To imagine that what started out as a spitballing exercise on California’s Highway 17 by two newly acquainted business associates could be turned into a media giant eclipsing the size of The Walt Disney Company in the span of a few decades is almost as fantastical as Disney’s creative works. And yet, it happened. Place … Continue reading EP 369 Netflix Co-Founder Discusses How It Began and Its Improbable (Unimaginable)Success

Most climate scientists say we have dragged our feet too long on addressing the harms that are, and will be, caused by climate change. Yet, for many, forest wildfires, powerful hurricanes and two 100 years storms in the space of five years, is not evidence enough to convince them that its effects are potentially devastating … Continue reading EP 368 The Green New Deal: Too Much Too Soon or Not Enough at All?

Today’s ways of working are not working–even for professionals in ‘good’ jobs. Responding to global competition and pressure from financial markets, companies are asking employees to do more with less, even as new technologies normalize 24/7 expectations. In their book ‘Overload’, Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen document, with a study in the IT department of … Continue reading EP 367 Workplace Pressures Put Employees on Overload

They came with their sleeves rolled up, ready to make some noise in numbers unimagined in the past. We’re talking about the new women members of Congress making up a group that author, Jennifer Steinhauer, calls ‘The Firsts’. This history-making class includes the youngest woman ever to serve; the first two Muslim women; the first … Continue reading EP 366 A Class Like No Other: The Women Entering Congress in 2019

According to our guest, Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor and her co-author, attorney Harvey A. Silverglate, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. In their book ‘Conviction Machine’, they focus on the federal courts, but Ms. Powell makes it clear that there is abuse rampant on all levels as proprietorial overreach is rampant everywhere. More … Continue reading EP 365 Are Federal and State Prosecutors Out of Control?

Just as New York City has been the epicenter of the coronavirus scourge, West Virginia and to be more precise, the little town of Kermit, in many ways, has been the epicenter of the opioid crisis. We can’t forget that this has been the primary public health concern in the United States prior to COVID-19. … Continue reading EP 364 How Did Coal Country Become America’s Opioid Epicenter?

Today’s Major League Baseball lives and dies by its ‘new school’ numbers.  Over the last few decades, newly established statistics and on-field measurable have become so influential that they have infiltrated front offices, baseball operations departments, player development and scouting and have significantly changed the game’s landscape.  These measures now rely less and less on … Continue reading EP 363 Can Baseball’s New School and Old School Co-Exist?

Dr. Stanley Plotkin developed the rubella vaccine for what was commonly called the German measles at the Wistar Institute back in the 1960’s.  It helped to eradicate the disease in the United States and has become the R in what is known as the MMR vaccine.  He also worked on vaccines for anthrax, polio, rabies … Continue reading Special Edition 10 Godfather of Vaccines Discusses Race to Protect Against Covid-19

At the end of 2019 and the early part of 2020, the record number of CEO’s of major companies in America leaving their posts clearly represented a trend. In fact, one business journal described it as a ‘great exodus’ of newsworthy proportions. Did they know something we didn’t know about what was ahead? Or after … Continue reading EP 362 Why the Great CEO Exodus in America?

By any measure, politicians throughout our history have played fast and loose with the electoral process, trying to make it easier for some and harder for others to vote.  It took the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution to unrig practices put in place to deny the vote to African Americans.  Yet, the … Continue reading EP 361 Can America’s Electoral Process be Unrigged?

In the recent period, we have seen people taking to the streets in large numbers to protest police brutality and racial injustice. As a nation born in rebellion against unjust authority, and having codified the right to same in our First Amendment, there is a long history of such protest. Some of it is the … Continue reading Special Edition #9 Is Nonviolent Protest Effective in Pursuing Political Ends?

Some might argue that James Madison was one of the most original thinkers among the founders. From his fertile mind came concepts like separation of powers, the encouragement of a marketplace of religious ideas and federalism. And while many focus on the contentious relationship of the executive and legislative branches of our government as one … Continue reading EP 360 The Divided States of America

Get ready to hear something that strays from convention in so many ways. There’s a reason that Irshad Manji was the recipient of Oprah Winfrey’s first Chutzpah Award for boldness. She guides us in how to do the right thing in the face of fear and to retain our principles in the face of contentious … Continue reading EP 359 Can We Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars?

A demographer we recently did a podcast with reminded us that every child born from 1985 on is more valuable than those born before, due to the declining birth rate in America. When we stare into the eyes of a beautiful newborn baby in America, we are gazing upon nothing less than our future as … Continue reading EP 358 Why is Daycare So Expensive–and Important?

If history is a guide, the answer is no.  Even as far back as 1796, and a number of very close elections subsequently, we have seen where the perspicacious Founders of our country left us without a fruitful mechanism for deciding disputed presidential elections.  Just take the case of the 2000 election, with a time … Continue reading EP 357 Is America Prepared for a Presidential Election Crises