Jon Marshall, Medill School of Journalism professor at Northwestern University and author of ‘Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis’ for a second episode of our podcast focusing on the state of the new media industry as it morphs in response to the digital times.  The two most disturbing trends are news deserts, the growing number of locations across the country, that have no local newspapers and the proliferation of uncurated sites on the internet, in particular, which contain content that is anything but objective.  The difficulty in the case of the latter is determining the reliability of that content.  It requires a great deal of media literacy, which is lacking in any curriculum in our schools.  We discuss waning effectiveness of the newspaper business model, the new approaches, like non-profit media organizations sprouting up, and some new ways of making local media more profitable so that it can serve citizens and, literally, play a role in preserving our democracy.

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Clearly, Donald Trump’s relationship with the press was a contentious one as he continually called into the question their legitimacy and the accuracy of their reporting. Often he shorthanded the relationship with the simple handle of ‘fake news’. While many factors went in to making this back and forth particularly destructive in relation to previous norms, the fact that it came at a time when social media allowed the President to circumvent the traditional media made the interaction fraught for exacerbating political polarization. However, we must go back throughout our history to see that many previous presidents also had their skirmishes with the press to the point where things like the Sedition Act and the Espionage Act were invoked against member of the press. The political ideology of a President is less a factor in these divides than the ability of the President to have a good working relationship with the press and an understanding of its role in covering the White House. A good recent example of that was the relationship Ronald Reagan maintained with the press corps. As the power of the Presidency grows it is important to understand the role of the press and John Marshall, a professor at Northwestern University, breaks it down for us in his book ‘Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis’ and on today’s podcast.

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In many ways, America won the 20th century by making movies that created a demand for all things American–our lifestyle, our values, our possessions and democracy itself.  The impact of film was not lost on China which wants to dominate the 21st century.  In fact they went to school on our film industry back in 2008 and have been building their own in order to inculcate Chinese values with the intent of bringing pride to their own people and exporting their politics and values to others around the globe.  While we have not seen much of their output in the US yet, they have become major customers of our product–to a point.  It must conform to standards and sensitivities in their increasingly controlled society.  And American film companies have grown increasingly reliant on their huge market of moviegoers to increase profits or determine whether a film is worth the budget it may require in the first place.  China’s power to affect Hollywood decisions is increasingly worrisome given the fact that our values as political entities are at odds.  Examples of their heavy hand have altered some of our films already in ways you may never have considered. We discuss this fascinating topic with Erich Schwartzel, author of ‘Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy’.

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The longest war in the modern era, longer than the Cold War(though that is resuming), has been the war on cancer. Cancer is an elusive enemy since it comes in so many forms that to think of it as one disease misrepresents what scientists are facing. And while President Richard Nixon declared this war on December 23rd, 1971 it is disturbing that in 2022 we are using many of the same tools to fight it. We bombard tumors with radiation, slice apart the distorted cells with varying impacts and deluge cancers with highly toxic chemotherapies. To be sure there are new tools that are being used like immunotherapies that harness our own immune system to fight cancer and targeted therapies that zero in on molecules in a cance, but no one advance has proven yet to be a silver bullet in this war. Joining us today is Dr. Charles Fuchs who oversaw the development of the Smilow Cancer Center at Yale University and was previously professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He, along with Dr. Abbe Gluck, a professor of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, edited a new book entitled ‘A New Deal for Cancer’, describing the kind of effort required to reboot the moonshot effort against cancer, as put forward by President Biden, so that the estimable enemy of mankind can be conquered over the next 50 years.

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Why is a nation of immigrants so divided over the issue?  Is it really about the worry that there are not enough jobs for Americans?  In fact, with the number of Americans retiring, plus those lost to the COVID pandemic and the 10,000,000 unfilled jobs in America, we need workers.  Is it really about safety and security?  It’s clear that while some news outlets portray immigrants, particularly from Central America, as  ‘invaders’, the vast majority are here to work or reunite with families and become contributing members of their community.  And while we have had legislation for immigration reform agreed to by members of both parties, years go by and nothing gets done.  Perhaps, there is just too much political capital that politicians get from weaponizing the issue, instead of addressing it.  Today on our podcast Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, and author of ‘Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants’ shares his reasoned approach to the issue.  He is a sought after commentator by all media outlets because he attempts to approach the topic in a clear headed way.  You will want to hear his thoughts.

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The waters around the world have been calm for the last seventy five years because America’s Navy has played a crucial role in keeping them open and navigable for countries to trade and build prosperity for a greater percentage of the population worldwide than ever before.  Before the applause dies down about that positive role, we need to be sanguine about the fact that there loom factors that threaten both global trade and peace on the blue waters.  That’s the thesis of our guest, Gregg Easterbrook, author of his new book, ‘The Blue Age’.  Most concerning is the growing naval arms race that is underway.  In 1990, China launched about 3 percent of the world’s new ships.  It is now building 40 percent of the world’s shipping.  At the same time there is a question as to whether America can maintain its ‘forward placement of American power’ around the globe.  Easterbrook explains concepts like intermodal transport which only become important to us when we recognize its critical role in maintaining a functioning supply chain.  He makes critically valuable contributions to our understanding of how what’s happening on the open waters has such direct bearing on our lives here on land.

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We see so much material about espionage on television or in novels, we begin to think that we understand the game.  It’s called spytainment. As entertaining as it all is, this spy craft trade is hard and dangerous work and it has become even more difficult as the digital revolution makes information more abundant, but also manipulable.  There’s now artificial intelligence, quantum computing, social media and the Internet reshaping politics and societies.  America’s intelligence agencies are many and not fully coordinated.  Oversight from Congress is not sophisticated and generally interests the public only when there are abuses or failures, as in the run up to the 2003 Iraq War.  As cyber threats mount, we will depend on good intelligence to block their impact on critical infrastructure.  And these agencies that like to do their work in a clandestine fashion now must share more of the intelligence gathering duties with citizens who have technology at their fingertips that might actually provide great value.  As in all fields, things are changing dramatically in this realm and it makes this moment in history perilous.  Amy Zegart, a Stanford professor and author of ‘Spies, Lies and Algorithms’, joins us to explain what will be required of spy craft to ensure our safety going forward.

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Men and women both need to listen to this podcast.  Our societal conditioning has put it in all of our heads that men somehow are more authoritative and competent and have the right to let women know that it’s still their club and admission comes with a steep price.  Every woman has a story of being underestimated, overlooked, challenged and patronized in the workplace and, often, in social settings.  Maybe she tried to speak up at a meeting, only to be talked over by her male colleagues.  Despite the progress we’ve made toward the goal of equality, we still fail, more often than we might realize, to take women as seriously as men.  Some men reading this may be rolling their eyes.  Please listen to our guest Mary Ann Sieghart, author of the book ‘The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men, and What We Can Do About It’.  If you argue with the premise, Ms. Sieghart has empirical data to back up her points and a keen sense of what is so difficult to unlodge from our subconscious–that men still dominate the society, based more on confidence than competence.  In fact, women are excelling today in ways that often leave men in the dust.  It’s a must listen.  I know what she has to say will resonate with any fair minded person.

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On March 3, 2015 the U.S. Census Bureau told us an important fact and that is by 2044 America would become a majority-minority country. Whites would still be the largest group by size but would be outnumbered in combination by African- Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and others. Politically, this was welcome news to Democrats, yet provoked anxiety and gloom on the part of the GOP. Much of the backlash we see regarding the 2020 election hinges on many working class whites feeling that the country is slipping away from them, just as their economic fortunes have taken a hit by offshoring and de-industrialization. In his book ‘Majority Minority’ Justin Gest describes the issues at play and ways that we can re-build a common good which will redefine a national identity that is more inclusive and stops ‘othering’ so many in this diverse society of ours.

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Pope Francis has done much to bring the world’s attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East.  In the wake of the Iraq War and the rise of the Islamic State, more concern will be needed to offer safe passage for many Christians in places like Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Gaza who find themselves in dire circumstances as both Muslims and Jews threaten their status and their lives.  Some argue that the West doesn’t seem to care about the Middle East’s Christians.  Perhaps the attention to Islamic extremism has per-empted concern for Christians or that the growing secularization in the West leaves this issue for fundamentalist Christians alone to put in the spotlight.  Thankfully, our guest, Janine di Giovanni, author of ‘The Vanishing: Faith, Loss and the Twilight of Christianity in the Land of the Prophets’ gives us a clear picture of what is happening there.  While circumstances are different from country to country, the threat to the religion are clear, present and growing.  Interestingly, for their own political reasons, some of the dictators in the region, like Saddam Hussein, protected these ‘others’ more resolutely than current regimes.  It’s a complicated story but Ms. di Giovanni breaks it down for us.

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