EP 670 Abortion Rights Take Center Stage in American Politics
By revisiting her mother’s central role in helping write and push through the first anti-abortion bill in America in New York State, our guest Felicia Kornbluh , author of “A Woman’s Life is a Human Life” has a unique perspective on where the fight for reproductive rights goes from here, now that it falls to states once again. In our wide ranging conversation we discuss a unique twist to her mother’s story as a leader in the movement against sterilization abuse lived right down the hall from her mother, yet their two women’s health crusades never intersected. She feels that this was a mistake and the women’s rights movement today needs to represent a broader coalition, encompassing more issues. It comes at a time when even the Equal Rights Amendment, never passed, is once again being discussed and, perhaps, revived.
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It’s fitting that we post this podcast on the 4th of July, as we ask what we can do for our country at a time when it is facing numerous challenges within and without. Ted Hollander has been leading a one man crusade through his Step Forward America! effort for a National Service program which has both a mandatory and voluntary component to it. We have all heard about the fine work of the Peace Corps, Americares, Teach for America and other service programs, as well as the New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps back in the day. Mr. Hollander, author of the book, “Bachelors of Citizenship: A Common Corps for a Citizen Corps.” has developed a three legged stool, as he calls it, of an education focusing on civics, media literacy and others lessons designed to foster good citizenship, three months of national service basic training, and a voluntary one or two years of civilian or military national service. There are new proponents of this type of work joining the effort as Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland is proposing his own version of a service opportunity for young people in his state. It’s a re-emerging trend in America…and one that is sorely needed.
Extremists come in many forms. Some carry a weapon. Others carry around a myth that can be just as harmful. While in their previous best-selling book “Merchants of Doubt” Naomi Oreskes and our guest, Erik Conway, explained how four physicists laid the groundwork for climate change denial by arguing against government regulation, in their new book “The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market,” explains how so many bought into the notion that a pure, unadulterated and a barely regulated free market would be in the public’s interest. While the authors acknowledge that markets do some things well, like setting prices and rewarding work, true market fundamentalism, as has been practiced in recent years, was designed to persuade Americans that business should be left alone. In effect, government should play a minuscule role in making certain the playing field, and work and safety conditions, were regulated, lest it muck up the process. This type of laissez fair capitalism goes far beyond Adam Smith’s concept of the invisible hand. It also has led to things like inaction on climate change, an opioid scourge and near banking collapse in 2008-09. With market fundamentalism comes many external costs which society must contend with.
To hear a great historian of America’s early history come to the realization that America’s victory over the British in the Revolutionary War was second to its defeat of the scourge of smallpox at the time is pretty stunning. Then he makes a compelling case that the virus had to be conquered in order to have the capacity to beat such an estimable force. It all makes sense and reminds us that when a society has its health, like an individual, it can perform at its best. The real question is whether given our performance as a nation, did we learn that lesson even as the science of medicine should have brought us a much better result than what we evidenced during the recent COVID-19 pandemic? So much of it has to do with Americans’ sense of individual liberty and shared responsibility. In our conversation with Andrew Wehrman, author of “The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution”, we will return to debates and divides that regrettably remain in our body politic to this day, thus affecting the health of bodies throughout our country.
The term feminist has been maligned by both the right and the left, for different reasons, even though the concept of equality for women is a generally accepted principle and one that many women, no matter their politics, fought to insure. The ideas of feminism were first articulated by women personally involved in the American Revolution. In her book, “Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyonce”, our guest Elizabeth Cobbs introduces us to women who exemplified the activism and struggles throughout our history to be afforded the opportunity to learn, speak, compete, lobby, vote, have equal treatment under the law, and physical safety. This latter point as evidenced by the Me#Too movement in still a work in progress. And there is a new groundswell to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, now many decades dormant. Given the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and limits placed on women’s health in many states, the struggles of women in our society still go on. With women achieving in fields and endeavors previously closed to them it is a good time to look at how we got here and what’s ahead for feminism.
The pandemic was an economic catastrophe the likes of which CEO’s running America’s biggest companies had never seen or prepared for. There was no playbook and the shock was even greater given the fact that it seemed that the good times would roll on unimpeded as cheap money(zero percent interest rates)sparked tremendous growth. But as we all know, as in life, business has good and bad cycles and nothing lasts forever. So what did company leadership learn from this and what are the ramifications of what happened–good and bad–that can be seen in today’s economy? All of this leads to a great conversation with Liz Hoffman, a longtime Wall Street Journal senior reporter, who is now at semafor.com as its business and finance editor. Her book “Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World’s Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink,” is our starting point as she analyzes key decisions that had to be made during the pandemic and how American business came out the other side. It’s clear that issues like supply chains, just in time inventory and the value of labor have all been impacted tremendously at this moment and well into the future. It’s a must listen.
We have addressed the issue of the overreach of our current make-up of the US Supreme Court, but not in a way as comprehensive as the deep dive we take in this podcast. We look at the history of overreach on the Court(hint: this isn’t the first time)and we explore the far-reaching implications of what this Court did last session, overturning Roe v.Wade, making new gun laws in states more difficult to pass Constitutional muster and hobbling the EPA from addressing climate change. And they have just started, according to our guest, Michael Waldman, the president and CEO of the highly respected Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute and the author of the new book, “Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America.” He reminds us that this court session will deal with race, given two cases on affirmative action and voting rights, which are sure to bring further attention to the legitimacy of the Court as to whether its rulings are steeped in law or political preferences. And we even touch on reforms that may be possible to restore confidence in the Court.
That’s right. The long held practice of degree inflation is coming to an end in America. With three state governments–Maryland, Utah and Pennsylvania–declaring that experience, military service, technical preparation and apprenticeships will count more than having a bachelor’s degree for many positions in government, this movement of busting through the paper ceiling is real. And this requirement is now being eliminated by many in the private sector, too.Companies like General Motors, Bank of America, Google, Apple. IBM and Accenture are major players embracing the skills-based hiring model. Given that 63 percent of Americans ages 25 and up do not have a bachelor’s degree, this movement is going to open up tremendous opportunity for minority candidates and many who live in rural areas. The path to prosperity just got wider and more inclusive and, by most accounts, it is just starting. Cristian Siera, Director of Strategic Corporate Partnerships at Opportunity@Work(
Healthcare is the number one cause of bankruptcy in America. Nearly 30 million Americans have no insurance and those who do face staggering increases each year. We all interact with the healthcare system and to a person I do not come across anyone who thinks it’s a good model. And while we might have the most advanced technologies and very capable medical professionals, they are hamstrung by bureaucracy, out of control costs and demands from intermediaries that often have little to do with the care they want to provide. And whether you call the health care system you interact with for profit or non-profit, they all continue to get bigger and more focused on the bottom line than on patient care. Dr. Ricardo Nuila is the author of “The People’s Hospital” and practices medicine at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Texas. It is a ‘safety net’ hospital funded through property taxes by Harris County and serves a majority of patients who have no health insurance. Doctors are allowed to be doctors and not focus on the business of medicine. We discuss what is wrong with America healthcare(more accurately described as sick care)and at its root is the private health insurance model which encourages differentiated care depending on your wealth and status in our society. He offers a different perspective and some policy solutions. Won’t we ever engage as a country on this vital issue?
While the belief is that all young people are in lockstep with liberal ideas, many flirting with socialism, the truth is that the enthusiasm of young people on the right is better financed and has some charismatic leaders who are working diligently to get those ideas to their age cohort who feel marginalized by the changes going on in our society. This movement is not just taking place among those who are ending their academic careers after high school. There is an active recruitment effort by many well known groups like the NRA to bring young people into the fold early on. Leaders of the effort include Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA and Candace Owens a media favorite who has abandoned the ’emotionally abusive’ Democratic Party and evinces the passion of a convert to the conservative cause. Award-winning journalist, Kyle Spencer, spent five years researching and following this movement and reports what she found in her book, “Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America’s Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power.”