On January 6, 2021, the day our Capitol was invaded by insurrectionists, QAnon became the most violent manifestation of its most fervent fever dreams and joined with other right wing extremists of all stripes to declare that ‘the storm’ they have long talked about was here. Mike Rothschild a chronicler of the movement since 2018 and author of ‘The Storm Is Upon Us’ tells us we must take this group seriously even though this movement of lost souls and their utterances sound so outrageous and nonsensical to most of us.  Even if we try to ignore them, we must acknowledge that elements of the media and the Republican Party have accepted their existence and put some of their ideas into common use.  As a movement, cult and conspiracy theory of everything it is very hard to understand what’s going on with QAnon unless you have a guide like our guest to give you safe passage in and out of their rabbit holes.  You will be compelled to listen.

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Democrats and Republicans agree on little else, but both seem to buy into the notion that heavy expenditures on capital projects related to infrastructure will reap great dividends for the near and long term.  Who can argue that new roads, bridges, water systems and broadband enhancement are not beneficial?  But are the use of federal dollars, shared across the population, the best way to do it, or should there be more user fees to change the behaviors that often led to the deterioration in the first place? Clifford Winston of the Brooking Institutions, along with Trevor Gallen, wrote an article that caught our attention.  It was titled ‘The Wrong Way to Pay for Infrastructure’ and stated that while we may raise the gross national product by funding infrastructure the package ‘will hurt the economy by initiating a costly and lengthy transition to build new taxpayer-funded infrastructure’.  It’s hard to argue that these projects take much time, often incur substantial overruns and obstacles in siting, so we decided to have a talk with Mr. Winston to explore his contrarian point of view about this topic.  Some of his reforms are intriguing and might next time lead us to a place where such gross negligence and decline might not require another huge infrastructure bill.

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There are short and long term trends as it relates to migration across America.  For years, the south and the southwest have been gaining population while the Midwest and Northeast have been stagnant or losing ground.  And even in places like New York City, some tragic event or spate of bad governance may drive people away, but they are soon replaced by others.  And the factors involved in these moves are both personal and part of a larger story. In the wake of the pandemic many of these considerations have been scrambled.  If you are no longer tethered to an office, but can work remotely, that presents an array of options for you and you can focus on climate, cost of living and other elements of desirability. And while there’s clear evidence that places like Texas and Florida have made themselves havens for attracting businesses in the recent period, perhaps the winners in the next migration cycle will be those who can induce individuals to pick up and leave.  And some smaller cities are doing just that with cash incentives.  It’s a great topic for this podcast and we have a terrific guest, Steve Malanga, the senior editor of City Journal and George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.           

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It’s hard to consider the place we’re in as a country and not wonder if something is lacking in the way we teach civics and United States history.  ( I must have missed the chapter about trying to undo fair and free election results by storming the Capitol.) Waving the flag and spouting platitudes about the country you might wish we are is no substitute for the hard work involved in making this pluralist society work as a functioning democratic republic.  Our Founders knew that our goal of a more perfect union would require much care and continuing evolution, even of the Constitution they gave us(thus the provisions affording us the opportunity to amend it).  At the root of our democratic experiment was the presumption of an informed citizenry capable of making good decisions about leadership and governance.  That requires the teaching of the complexity, richness and nuance of our country’s past and present.  So how are we doing teaching civics and U.S. history in American schools?  We answer that question today with Amber Northern of the Thomas B, Fordham Institute.  She’s the senior vice president for research and unveils the results of an important study they have done on the subject.

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 In the Zoom era, businesses are investing millions into global collaboration technology.  Yet the slickness of Big Tech stands to mask-and perhaps exacerbate the real issue: doing business across borders has less to do with technology and everything to do with being culturally agile.  Instinctively we sense this.  How do you react when put in a new environment where the customs and cues are not well understood?  Americans in the past often assumed the world would bend to our cultural imperatives, but things have changed and we have to embrace ambiguity and develop more humility and resilience in the face of working with people in different cultures.  This is not only a cross border phenomenon but applies in America too when dealing with regional, demographic and age differences.  Paula Caligiuri of Northeastern University is expert in this field and has written the book, ‘Build Your Cultural Agility’.  She challenges us today on the podcast to wake up our lazy brains when experiencing cultural novelty.

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It’s not just as a result of the pandemic that men are having a difficult time engaging with other guys in a bond of friendship.  This trend has been going on for a while and is likely exacerbated by the fact that many friendships are formed in the workplace, which is now undergoing great change.  Single men, who it may seem have more time on their hands to engage with friends, are the loneliest of all.  Women are much better at taking the time and developing the emotional bond with other women and often, in a married situation, they keep the connections in place for the men, too.  This friendship recession is a trend worth exploring because social isolation is toxic and a growing problem in our culture.  We do not join organizations and associations as we did in the past.  We don’t go to places of worship, either.  These were both breeding grounds for friendships.  We look at the impact on our society with Daniel Cox, the founder and director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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A great idea is one thing.  Operationalizing that idea is another.  Haven’t we all had the one big notion that we thought would be a million dollar opportunity?  As you’ll hear in this podcast, I shared mine with our guest.  Yet, like most of us, I never went the extra mile to try to fund it, build it and manage it.  And while America is still the home of the entrepreneur, many of us contemplate the risk involved, the preponderance of failure associated with the effort and let someone else put in the herculean effort involved.  And we stay with our day job.  Steven Hoffman is inherently a risk taker and one who can describe, in detail, what goes into the process of starting from scratch.  He’s the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup incubators and accelerators.  He’s also an angel investor, limited partner of August Capital, serial entrepreneur and the author of ‘Surviving a Startup’.  Listen to the podcast, read the book and then decide if you’re founder material.  In a step by step manner he describes what it takes.  And while much of our economy is powered by women and men starting dynamic new companies in their garages and basements, those are the exceptions.  And that’s what make these people and their stories exceptional.  We’ll share some of them on this podcast.

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I really enjoyed reading this book its an amazing adventure.

Jon K

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Defund the police?  Provide less immunity for their bad acts?  Create a national standard for their training and ways to de-escalate a situation?  Augment the term public safety to include social workers and mental health specialists?  Depending upon who you talk to, all of these matters are part of the concept of ‘police reform’.  The defunding concept is the most controversial and least likely to gain traction as the victories of Joe Biden as president and Eric Adams as the Democratic mayoral stand bearer in New York City, demonstrate.  Both men made it a point to cast that notion aside.  And even communities of color, often in the news because of their tragic interactions with police, want better policing, not necessarily less of it. Our guest, Nila Bala, is the senior staff attorney for the Policing Project at NYU School of Law.  We explores the subtleties and complexities of this topic.

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Dan Glickman has had a very interesting life.  Following his years as a Congressman from Kansas, he became Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Agriculture and later the president of the Motion Picture industry, replacing the legendary Jack Valenti.  In his new book, “Laughing At Myself: My Education in Congress, On the Farm and the Movies’, he offers self deprecation as one of the solutions for the all too serious, and divided, state of our politics today.  In a wide ranging conversation, we explore the history and future of agriculture policy and then turn to another great American export, our culture, as expressed through the creative minds and eyes of moviemakers.  If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the family farm, what’s in the once in five year farm bill and the importance of Big Food in decision-making about agriculture, you’ll find it in a most appetizing way in this podcast.

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