Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Aired 10/28/12I haven't done a lot about the election on this show. I've been talking more about the foundational issues that underlie the situation we find ourselves in -- an age of very imperfect politics, government, finance, and business. Our democracy and our governance are dominated by a handful of billionaires, and a number of multimillionaires and their corporations who do not share the interests of the larger society.But In early September I read a piece by Tom Hayden at Truthout.com. Over the next several days, it appeared all over the progressive blogosphere - Saving Obama, Saving Ourselves. I immediately contacted Tom to come on and talk about the election.Among other things, he reminds us of the accomplishments of the first Obama administration in light of the actual political and economic circumstances he faced. He also looks at history of previous social movements. How did they interact with the political process in pursuit of their goals? And what did they gain and sacrifice in the process?HAYDEN: "History will show that the first term was better than most progressives now think...By their nature, the achievements of social movements are lesser versions of original visions...If Obama loses, it will be unfair to blame the left, but they will be blamed nonetheless. As a consequence they will become more marginal, far less able to connect with the progressive constituencies and mass movements with vital stakes in Obama's re-election."http://tomhayden.com

At 24, I worked for George McGovern’s 1972 Presidential effort, managing the campaign in what was then the 52nd Assembly District in Los Angeles County. This was the most conservative Democratic district in California and likely favored both Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace over the nominee. In 2005, I had the opportunity to interview him for an hour with the release of the documentary, One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern. GEORGE McGOVERN was a decorated World War II bomber pilot (his wartime exploits were at the center of of Steven Ambrose’s The Wild Blue) and professor at Dakota Wesleyan Univeristy. After running the Food for Peace Program under John Kennedy, he represented South Dakota for two terms in the House and three terms in the Senate. His opposition to the Vietnam War fueled a grassroots campaign that won him the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, only to lose to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the great landslides in US history. Many members of Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President later served jail time for Watergate-connected crimes.In 1997, Bill Clinton named him the US Permanent Representative to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, and in 2000 Clinton awarded him the nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Freedom. He has written nine books including Terry: My Daughter’s Life and Death Struggle with Alcoholism (about his daughter who died in 1994), The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition, and Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith.

Aired 10/14/12I'll be talking with NADER about the critical ideas in his wonderful new book, THE 17 SOLUTIONS: Bold Ideas for Our American Future. Learn more about RALPH NADER and SEVENTEEN SOLUTIONS at http://nader.org/ Some of the 17 solutions:* Reforming the tax system* Making our communities more self-reliant* Reclaiming science and technology for the people* Getting corporations off welfare* Creating national charters for large corporations* Reducing our bloated military budget* Organizing congressional watchdog groups* Enlisting the enlightened super-rich* Use government procurement to spur innovationRALPH NADER was recently named by the Atlantic as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history, one of only four living people to be so honored. The son of immigrants from Lebanon, he has launched two major presidential campaigns and founded or organized more than one hundred civic organizations. His groups have made an impact on tax reform, atomic power regulation, the tobacco industry, clean air and water, food safety, access to health care, civil rights, congressional ethics, and much more. He is the author of eleven books, including UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED; THE GOOD FIGHT; THE SEVENTEEN TRADITIONS; and his latest, THE SEVENTEEN SOLUTIONS: BOLD IDEAS FOR OUR AMERICAN FUTURE.

Aired 9/30/12When Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth was published in 1991, Gloria Steinem hailed it as "a smart, angry, insightful book, and a clarion call to freedom," recommendingm "Every woman should read it." The New York Times called it one of the most important books of the 20th century. Over the intervening two decades, Wolf continued to write about the role of women in our culture, but she also took on broader political issues in books such as The End of America and Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. In her newest book, VAGINA: A NEW BIOGRAPHY, she returns to the feminine and the personal. Drawing on cutting-edge neurobiological research, she makes the bold claim that there is a direct link between a woman's experience of her vagina and her experience of her very sense of self. Heralded by Publishers Weekly as one of the best science books of the year, the book is also receiving more than its share of critical reviews. I'll talk with Wolf -- No stranger to controversy -- about the good, the bad, and the surprising - in her research, her synthesis, and in responses to her new work.http://naomiwolf.org

Aired 09/23/12This radio show aims to offer "pieces of the puzzle of a world that just might work." I hope that if you listen a few times, you begin to imagine a future of revolutionary and evolutionary success. My hope is rooted in this vision: Reality is not dead, mechanical, or separate; in fact, it is alive, evolving, and composed of interdependent systems. I believe this worldview has been shared by indigenous peoples for millennia, revealed by science since early in the 20th century, and obvious every time we walk outside or look into the eyes of another living creature.This vision inspires the annual Bioneers conference that takes place each fall (this year October 19-21) in San Rafael, just north of San Francisco. I'll be talking with Bioneers founder and co-director, KEN AUSUBEL, and one of this year's speakers, ELLEN BROWN, President of the Public Banking Institute and author of WEB OF DEBT.Human creativity focused on problem solving can explode the narrative of despair. For the most part the solutions to our problems already exist. Bioneers focuses on strategies to help us realize these solutions by restoring community, justice and democracy. Other speakers this year include BILL McKIBBEN, PAUL HAWKEN, ETHAN NADELMANN, GABOR MATE, and LA's own JODIE EVANS and ANDY LIPKIS. http://www.bioneers.orghttp://www.webofdebt.comhttp://publicbankinginstitute.org

Aired 09/16/12Last week I interviewed longtime reporters Don Barlett and James Steele regarding their new book, THE BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN DREAM, looking at the relentless economic, financial, and governmental process over the last 40 years to enrich the largest corporations and richest individuals at the expense of the middle class. This week I'll talk with another wise and experienced Pulitzer prize winner with a long term perspective, HEDRICK SMITH, about his newest book, WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN DREAM?I don't think it's a coincidence nor do I think it's redundant to turn so soon to the same questions being pursued by another savvy journalist. HEDRICK SMITH had already won a Pulitzer by 1973, the year that the post-WWII boom for the middle class began to wane. Real wages for all Americans had risen pretty consistently from the war years, and have done so almost not at all ever since. I point this out to highlight the fact that Smith has witnessed first-hand the rise and long fall of the middle class and brings that experience to this book and this conversation.http://americawhatwentwrong.org/http://barlettandsteele.com/

Aired 09/09/12Let's suppose, for a moment, there was a country where the people in charge charted a course that eliminated millions of good-paying jobs. Suppose they gave away several million more jobs to other nations. Finally, imagine that the people running this country implemented economic policies that enabled those at the very top to grow ever richer while most others grew poorer. You wouldn't want to live in such a place, would you? Too bad. You already do.Those are the words of this week's guests,DON BARLETT and JIM STEELE.These are some of the consequences of failed U.S. government policies that have been building over the last three decades - the same policies that people in Washington today are intent on keeping or expanding...Most significant of all, the American dream of the last half-century has been revoked for millions of people - a dream rooted in a secure job, a home in the suburbs, the option for families to live on one income rather than two, a better life than your parents had and a still better life for your children. Barlett and Steele wrote these words in 1992. They are the first words of their Pulitzer Prize winning series of articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which led to the #1 best-selling book, America: What Went Wrong. They put their finger on things and connected dots that really established a lens through which to view the next 20 years. The point of view of the 99% movement is basically the one Barlett and Steele described and predicted at the birth of the Clinton era.http://americawhatwentwrong.orghttp://barlettandsteele.com

Aired 09/02/12When I first met TERRY TAMMINEN, he was living on a houseboat in the Marina and filling a position he'd founded as the first Santa Monica Baykeeper. No too long before that, he had been running a pool services company. And not too long after, he was Secretary of the California EPA. Tamminen has reinvented himself successfully in several very different worlds -- business, government, non-profit, foundation, from the grassroots to the halls of power. All of this for a long time now to achieve a sound and healthy relationship between society and the environment. He pursues that consistent vision with whatever works. We'll talk about the ideas in his book, CRACKING THE CARBON CODE: The Key to Sustainable Profits in the New Economy - which is very much a plan of action for companies who figure out that reducing carbon emissions reduces waste and is therefore good for the bottom line. He'll tell stories of companies that have made or saved money by cutting carbon. How has he been able to move things forward through politics and government in an era when so little seems to get done? Bottom line, are we moving fast enough? If not, how do we integrate all these different players to accelerate movement in the right direction?http://seventhgenerationadvisors.org

Aired 08/26/12Humans are not alone in being creatures of habit, but can we do anything about it?Brain science has learned a lot about habits over the last few years. On the one hand, that gives corporations new power with which to manipulate us, but it also gives us greater power over our own behavior. What is a habit? Are habits positive - a sign of cultivation and industry, or negative, a sign of weakness and mindlessness? Or are they neutral, their value up to us?Today's guest, CHARLES DUHIGG an award-winning reporter for the New York Times, has written the best-selling THE POWER OF HABIT: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. He tells us that at its most basic level, a habit is a simple neurological loop: a cue (my mouth feels gross), a routine (I should brush my teeth), and a reward (ahhh, minty fresh!). Backing out of the driveway, replying to emails, running before work - many of our most basic daily actions are not, in fact, the products of well considered decision-making, but outgrowths of habits we often don't even realize exist. We'll talk about what a habit is, how they are formed, and how we can put what we've learned about habits into practice, so that we are at least somewhat their masters rather than their slaves.We will also discuss Duhigg's investigative New York Times series on Apple, including their labor practices and why they don't manufacture in the U.S.http://charlesduhigg.com/

Aired 08/05/12ROB MANNING is the Chief Engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. MANNING has been designing, testing and operating robotic spacecraft and rovers for 30 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. In the 1990's Rob was chief engineer for Mars Pathfinder, the first to send a rover to Mars. He also led flight system engineering for the Rover Entry, Descent and Landing teams. Rob is in the Aviation Week Magazine Space Laureate Hall of Fame in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We talk just hours before the rover Curiosity landed on Mars. Using a never-before-tried landing system called a "sky crane," the degree of difficulty of this landing is enormous. After parachuting to within one mile of the surface, the sky crane fires thrusters to lower itself to hover over the surface. While hovering, Curiosity is lowered to the ground on cables. Once the cables are released, the sky crane jets to a safe distance before crashing to the ground, leaving the rover to explore the planet's surface. We'll talk with Manning about the aims as well as the challenges of this mission.