While we often catastrophize about the perils of AI, if we walk on the sunny side of the street, could it be that the tools available with the new technology may help us to save our broken politics and governance? Our guest, Beth Simone Noveck, not only thinks that these tools can be beneficial, if …
Energy transition is accelerating and solar power itself is having a moment after a turbulent adaption over recent decades. And while Big Oil still gets subsidies, the efficiencies that have occurred in bringing solar online are allowing this renewable, and others like wind, to prove their viability in the energy marketplace. Clearly, federal policy with …
Steve Hirsch, a thirty- year veteran of the CIA who held senior positions spanning counterterrorism, intelligence analysis, public affairs and organizational transformation, now retired, is working to help people like you and me understand how the agency operates, particularly given the many changes that have taken place since 9-11. Our discussion is serious and protracted …
While we are in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has suddenly changed the way that deaths are attributed to measles. At one point, Pennsylvania health officials had a death toll at 4 measles-associated deaths, while the CDC counted none. Those numbers have changed and …
Since the pandemic made work at home a thing, it has become routine for many office workers in our country. Finally, studies are revealing that while many truly appreciate the flexibility, there are downsides when it comes to productivity, social isolation and team building. While attempts to get employees to return-to-office (RTO) are often met …
Description: I recently moderated a discussion titled ‘Democracy on the Edge: Election 2026 Key Issues Forum’ sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the Waterbury campus of the University of Connecticut. This podcast is a reprise of that event featuring: Brody Mullins, former Wall Street Journal reporter addressing issues of campaign finance Dave Daley, …
The University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation, under the direction of Steven Kull, has been out surveying people in 11 competitive states and 28 competitive U.S. House districts in advance of the midterm elections. Perhaps, surprisingly, on key issues like fixing Social Security’s impending fiscal crisis, which would require recipients to accept up to …
Labor unions taught many activist groups how to organize to improve working conditions and how to push back against strong corporations. For the last fifty years or so, union strength has eroded and corporate America has had a stranglehold on the politics of this nation. We’ve seen the results–jobs shipped overseas, inferior quality coming back …
About one-fifth of the adult population in America experiences mental illness in any given year, yet less than half of them receive treatment. Often, our approach is to prevent disaster rather than foster positive outcomes for the patient. And media coverage exaggerates the danger involved in dealing with most people who experience serious mental illness, …
I know what you’re thinking, you don’t want one more podcast on AI. However, it’s developing at a breakneck speed, with the full encouragement of the federal government, to move fast and break things. Is it the human race that actually is in peril? Astrophysicists, like Stephen Hawking, have warned us that AI and its …