Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs

Send a textJoin Professors Jeffrey Sachs and an expert on religious conflict, Richard E. Rubenstein as they discuss Rubenstein’s book, Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages. Rubenstein skillfully guides us through the vivid controversies of the Middle Ages, making the philosophical debates of yesteryear both lively and accessibleTogether, they discuss the riveting events that unfolded - sparking riots, initiating heresy trials, and causing seismic shifts within the Catholic Church.Throughout their discussion, you’ll uncover the origins of the age-old tension between reason and religion, a divide that continues to shape contemporary discourse. Listen in to gain insights into the foundational ideas that underpin modern thought, as we traverse the historical landscape where the clash of ancient wisdom and medieval upheaval set the stage for intellectual revolutions yet to come.The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org. Footnotes:PhilosophyAristotleWhen Jesus Became GodDark AgesAlexander the GreatThe Rise of ChristianityAncient Greek PhilosophyTheologiansPaganismThe Golden AgeToledo School of TranslatorsAristotelianismPlatoThe Double Truth⭐️ Thanks for listening to Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs! 📚 Join the conversation and go deeper into the ideas shaping our world. ➡️ Watch the conversation on YouTube ➡️ Subscribe to the newsletter for episode updates, readings, and behind-the-scenes insights: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS ➡️ Explore past episodes, show notes, and featured books: https://bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎧 Download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. 📣 Love the show? Leave a rating and review - it helps more listeners find the podcast. 🔁 Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or book club who’d enjoy the discussion!

Political and media analyst Norman Solomon and Professor Jeffrey Sachs delve into how the media and politics perpetuate America's

David Daokui Li, a prominent economist and director at Tsinghua University, sheds light on the complexities of Chinese politics and economics. He shares personal stories from the Cultural Revolution, highlighting how education became a beacon of hope during turbulent times. The discussion dives into China’s meritocratic political system and its historical identity, emphasizing the importance of cultural understanding between China and the U.S. Li calls for constructive relations, focusing on cooperation rather than conflict for a better global future.

Send a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Jessica Rawson, one of the world’s most eminent scholars of China, as they discuss Rawson’s book, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China. Listen in to learn about the roots of Chinese civilization through the stories of twelve grand tombs, each helping to reveal a pivotal phase in China’s history. Together, they discuss the political, geographical, technological, and cultural evolution of China. Professor Rawson offers profound and fascinating insights regarding one of the world's great civilizations. With deep insights gleaned from her lifetime of scholarship, and building on the latest archaeological findings, Prof. Rawson sheds light on the deep foundations of China’s unique culture, including the role of ancestor worship, physical geography, and farming systems in shaping China’s civilization. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.⭐️ Thanks for listening to Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs! 📚 Join the conversation and go deeper into the ideas shaping our world. ➡️ Watch the conversation on YouTube ➡️ Subscribe to the newsletter for episode updates, readings, and behind-the-scenes insights: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS ➡️ Explore past episodes, show notes, and featured books: https://bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎧 Download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. 📣 Love the show? Leave a rating and review - it helps more listeners find the podcast. 🔁 Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or book club who’d enjoy the discussion!

Send a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and political scientist Lindsey O’Rourke as they discuss O’Rourke’s remarkable book, Covert Regime Change.  US foreign policy is based heavily on trying to overthrow foreign governments, and O’Rourke’s account is a powerful and deeply scholarly account of America’s frequent resort to secretive regime-change operations. Her book focuses on the Cold War years (1947-1989), but Sachs and O’Rourke bring the issues up to the current day.    O’Rourke’s highly insightful study offers a deep and rare look at the how’s and why’s of US foreign policy.  Together, Sachs and O’Rourke discuss why U.S. covert regime-change operations have rarely succeeded, but have often left a colossal mess in their wake. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Regime ChangeAmerican Involvement in Regime Change Conspiracy TheoriesForeign Electoral InterventionKennan and Containment, 1947Political Assassinations JFK and the Diem CoupList of Coups and Coup AttemptsList of Revolutions and RebellionsJohn Mearsheimer James Rodney SchlesingerFreedom on Information ActObama Attempt to Overthrow Syria ⭐️ Thanks for listening to Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs! 📚 Join the conversation and go deeper into the ideas shaping our world. ➡️ Watch the conversation on YouTube ➡️ Subscribe to the newsletter for episode updates, readings, and behind-the-scenes insights: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS ➡️ Explore past episodes, show notes, and featured books: https://bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎧 Download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. 📣 Love the show? Leave a rating and review - it helps more listeners find the podcast. 🔁 Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or book club who’d enjoy the discussion!

Political scientist John Mearsheimer joins Jeffrey Sachs to discuss his book on the rationality of foreign policy. They analyze historical case studies, including the US invasion of Iraq, and explore the rationality of states in decision-making. The podcast covers topics such as the Ukraine war, NATO expansion, and the role of diplomacy in foreign policy.

Send a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and economist Francisco Rodriguez as they discuss Professor Rodriguez’s newest publication, The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. Prof. Rodriguez is an expert on the use of unilateral economic sanctions - when one country imposes economic costs on another, and shares insights on the US as the main user of such unilateral economic sanctions.Professor Rodriguez offers us a comprehensive assessment of the effects of unilateral sanctions on the living standards in target countries. The effects of sanctions are dramatic: rising poverty, falling living standards, and premature deaths. These consequences go far beyond politics, and hit the civilian population very hard. Professor Sachs and Rodriguez offer a fascinating discussion that sheds light on economic warfare, and how it is deployed in the world today.The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Economic SanctionsCrisis in VenezuelaVenezuela Economy  The Rise and Fall of a PetrostateHugo Chavez History of the Venezuelan Oil Industry US Economy US SanctionsInternational Financial Statistics US Maximum PressureNicolás MaduroUnilateral Sanctions ⭐️ Thanks for listening to Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs! 📚 Join the conversation and go deeper into the ideas shaping our world. ➡️ Watch the conversation on YouTube ➡️ Subscribe to the newsletter for episode updates, readings, and behind-the-scenes insights: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS ➡️ Explore past episodes, show notes, and featured books: https://bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎧 Download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. 📣 Love the show? Leave a rating and review - it helps more listeners find the podcast. 🔁 Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or book club who’d enjoy the discussion!

Send a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and two of the world's leading experts on the economics of wellbeing, Lord Richard Layard and Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve to discuss their newest book, Wellbeing: Science and Policy. Together, they examine how wellbeing can be measured and how it can be promoted today and for future generations.What produces a happy life and a happy society? Layard’s and De Neve’s new book offers a systematic exploration that brings together a fascinating and vast body of research in the past 20 years. This thought provoking conversation explores the new science of wellbeing and how it can improve public policies and our lives. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:World Happiness ReportWellbeingAristotleNicomachean EthicsHappiness as GDPMartin SeligmanSubjective Happiness ScaleAffective Component of HappinessEudaimoniaNobel Prize Winner Daniel KahnemanStoicism Positive Psychology⭐️ Thanks for listening to Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs! 📚 Join the conversation and go deeper into the ideas shaping our world. ➡️ Watch the conversation on YouTube ➡️ Subscribe to the newsletter for episode updates, readings, and behind-the-scenes insights: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS ➡️ Explore past episodes, show notes, and featured books: https://bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎧 Download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. 📣 Love the show? Leave a rating and review - it helps more listeners find the podcast. 🔁 Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or book club who’d enjoy the discussion!

Send a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Bruce Cumings, renowned historian and  expert in East-Asian history, to discuss Cuming’s book, The Korean War. Together, they discuss the factors that led to the Korean War, its brutal trajectory, and its powerful and fateful impacts US foreign policy. The Korean War, though little known or understood today, continues to cast a long shadow on geopolitics and US foreign policy up to this day.  Cumings offers a profound and essential look into a war that is widely misunderstood, forgotten, or willfully ignored, but that still deeply shapes our world.    The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Korean WarWorld War IIAmerican Military in WWII US Second Amendment NSC6838th Parallel Pro-Japanese Collaborators Five Theories of Korean UnificationDean AchesonMarshall Plan SpeechKorean War and Japan’s RecoveryCold WarDeclaration of Neutrality George Kennan ⭐️ Thanks for listening to Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs! 📚 Join the conversation and go deeper into the ideas shaping our world. ➡️ Watch the conversation on YouTube ➡️ Subscribe to the newsletter for episode updates, readings, and behind-the-scenes insights: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS ➡️ Explore past episodes, show notes, and featured books: https://bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎧 Download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. 📣 Love the show? Leave a rating and review - it helps more listeners find the podcast. 🔁 Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or book club who’d enjoy the discussion!

Kim Stanley Robinson, a bestselling science fiction author, joins Jeffrey Sachs to discuss his works on climate change, specifically 'The Ministry for the Future.' They explore how climate crises could lead to global instability, rising sea levels, and potential acts of climate terrorism. The conversation contrasts slow political negotiations with the urgent need for action. Robinson emphasizes the role of literature in imagining possible futures, advocating for collective action and a new economic model that supports both humanity and the environment.