Free Forum with Terrence McNally

On a national level and in many states, when politics and elections are played fair and square, Republicans lose. So they turn to gerrymandering, voter suppression, the refusal to act on Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, etc And it works. In this 2018 conversation, DAVID FARIS says “Enough.” We talk about the ideas in his book: IT’S TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics.

In TIGHTROPE, the Pulitzer Prize winning husband-wife team of Nick Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn tell the story of how the town in which Nick grew up was devastated by the loss of well-paying jobs, how policy failures on education, healthcare, and criminal justice led ultimately to his childhood friends’ deaths of despair, how this is a national phenomenon and finally how we can end this crisis in working class America.

Since 1991 STEPHAN SCHWARTZ has been following trends shaping the future, and has tracked the rise of fascist and identitarian politics and the Theocratic Right. His new book 8 LAWS OF CHANGE: How to Be an Agent of Personal and Social Transformation, based on years of research, shows how nonviolent compassionate life-affirming change can be achieved. I've subscribed to his Schwartzreport email digest for years - 4 articles each day well worth reading.

In Homewreckers, AARON GLANTZ tells how a group of Wall Street bankers and private equity — including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, as well as Trump confidants and funders — transferred billions of dollars in wealth to themselves from millions of individual homeowners after the real estate crash of the Great Recession. Many of them are now working to weaken the safeguards put in place to prevent it from happening again.

The virus is spreading, Brexit looms, democracy in America is being abused. Let’s take a break this week. First, here’s my 2012 conversation with film director Roco Belic about his documentary, HAPPY. It features science and stories from around the world. What did he learn? What can we use? In the second half, you’ll hear my 2005 conversation with US teacher of the year Rafe Esquith, who taught fifth grade in LA for over thirty years, about the Hobart Shakepearians - members of his classes who performed a Shakespeare play in its entirety every year.

In his newest book, The Age of Illusions, ANDREW BACEVICH takes us from 1989’s seemingly ultimate victory in the Cold War to the current troubling and chaotic moment. He attempts to explain how we ended up with outsized inequality, permanent war, moral confusion, an increasingly angry and alienated population, and Donald Trump. We also talk about current events including the confrontation with Iran.

I talk with HEDRICK SMITH, Pulitzer-winning former New York Times reporter and Emmy-winning producer/correspondent, about THE DEMOCRACY REBELLION, his PBS documentary on grassroots movements who are winning political reform victories, state by state. Six states, six successful campaigns take on Citizens United, gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc. Learn more at reclaimtheamericandream.org Check here for PBS airdates.

I talk with PAULA DANIELS, Co-Founder, Chief of What’s Next, and Chair of the Board of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, about what it takes to pull together elements of politics, government, business, entrepreneurism, science, and more to move the needle on a huge and complex system. The Center uses the power of procurement to create a food system that prioritizes the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment. As its’s goals and standards are adopted by a growing national network of major food purchasers such as school districts, the program exerts growing leverage on the larger food system in America. You can learn more at GoodFoodPurchasing.org

Reza Aslan, an author and scholar of religions, discusses his book 'Zealot,' diving into Jesus’ life in first-century Palestine as a radical against Roman rule. He reexamines Jesus as a 'failed messiah' whose grassroots message transformed into a state religion post-Constantine. The conversation touches on the historical significance of figures like John the Baptist, the socio-economic context shaping Jesus' teachings, and the complexities that arise in the comparison of divine metaphors in Christianity and Islam.

In 1964, the original 7 UP - in which children talked about their hopes and dreams - was broadcast as a one-off special in the UK. Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter; Gorillas in the Mist), took over as director on 14 UP and has returned to interview these same 14 individuals every seven years since. Roger Ebert, A few months before his death, wrote of the series, “It is a mystery, this business of life. I can't think of any cinematic undertaking that allows us to realize that more deeply.” 63 UP is in theatres.