Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body. With the enormous growth in awareness and practice of mindfulness and meditation have come widespread claims of benefits. Best-selling author Daniel Goleman and neuroscientist Richard Davidson, both longtime meditators, examined the scientific research to find out what is true and what is not.

PAUL HAWKEN (The Ecology of Commerce; Natural Capitalism; Blessed Unrest) has a new research project and a new best-selling book - DRAWDOWN. Based on rigorous scientific and economic analysis and review, it ranks the 80 most impactful solutions with which Hawken is confident we can reverse global warming. Plus it offers 20 additional very promising solutions for which there isn’t yet enough data to rank them. (drawdown.org, paulhawken.com)

RANDY OLSON, marine biologist turned filmmaker, author of DON’T BE SUCH A SCIENTIST and HOUSTON, WE HAVE A NARRATIVE says we’re all receiving a firehose of information and can no longer deal with all the separate bits, so we look for higher levels of organization. We look for narratives. Get on board if you want to impact society. PS His Narrative Index predicted Trump’s victory.http://www.randyolsonproductions.com/

JOHN NICHOLS, is National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation and Associate Editor of The Capital Times in Madison, so his beat includes the nation’s capital as well Wisconsin’s. His latest book, HORSEMEN OF THE TRUMPOCALYPSE: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America, reports on over 40 players on Team Trump. My biggest question for Nichols: What needs to happen so that Wisconsin and the rest of the Rust Belt dumps Trump in 2018 and 2020?

(1) ERWIN CHEMERINSKY and I talk about legal issues raised by Trump administration. How far is this Supreme Court going to go in weakening separation between church and state? Is Trump violating the law by making money - including taxpayer's money - from his businesses? Who's going to enforce that law? How bad is it that he belittles and scapegoats the judiciary? Is it too early to think about impeachment? We've only got a half hour, but we cover a lot. (recorded July 26, 2017)(2) In fall 2009, MATTHEW HOH, Marine Iraq war vet, resigned from the Foreign Service in Afghanistan because he couldn't participate in the occupation. American families, Hoh said in his letter of resignation, "must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can be made any more."

With his latest book, WHY BUDDHISM IS TRUE (#4 NYT Best-seller), ROBERT WRIGHT, who’s been asking big questions for at least three decades, asks another: What can mindfulness offer people trying to make sense and justice of contemporary politics, culture, and economics? We talk evolutionary psychology, confronting cognitive delusions, tribalism, and Trump.

The Republican party's beliefs and policies – while passionately hailed by millions - are no longer those of the majority of Americans, and so the only way they can dominate government as they do - White House, both houses of Congress, Supreme Court, and the vast majority of state legislatures and governorships - is by gerrymandering legislative districts and making it harder for millions to vote. Trump’s Election Integrity Commission aims to take it to the next level in 2018 and 2020. I talk about this with Ari Berman, author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America.

Naomi Klein (No Logo; Shock Doctrine; This Changes Everything) makes it very clear that even successful resistance is not enough. We must seize this moment to pursue nothing less than the world we long for - successfully confronting climate change and inequality while rebuilding our sense of human community. In addition to No, we need to offer a compelling, inviting, and just Yes. She offers the example of The Leap Manifesto, that she helped hatch in Canada, which commits to building a society in which we care for the earth and each other.

I turn to constitutional scholar ERWIN CHEMERINSKY to talk about legal issues raised by the Trump administration. How far is this Supreme Court going to go in weakening the separation between church and state? Is Trump violating the law by making money - including taxpayer’s money - from his businesses and properties? Who’s going to enforce that law? How bad is it that he belittles and scapegoats the judiciary? Is it too early to think about impeachment? We’ve only got a half hour, but we cover a lot.

Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist and author David Cay Johnston has covered Donald Trump off and on for 27 years. In THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP, he profiles the many ways Trump has gotten wealthy by bilking others, colluding with criminals, evading prosecution, and romancing the press. Johnston is the founder/editor-in-chief of nonprofit news service DCReport.org, that reports "what the President and Congress do, not what they say."