: While total bankruptcy petitions nationwide by consumers and
businesses are well below Great Recession levels, most analysts agree
that there is a trend upward.  We dig into the numbers and the reasons
with Samuel Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy
Institute, the nation’s largest association of bankruptcy
professionals.  In many ways, this podcast is a primer on bankruptcy. 
Who knew its tenets rest in the Constitution?  As a nation of
entrepreneurs and risk takers, it makes sense that the roll the dice
spirit can lead to financial problems that require opportunities for a
‘fresh start’.  We give you important information on debt and the
protections available to you. A key piece of information relates to
which debt is dischargeable in bankruptcy and which is not. At the same
time, we learn about new legislation meant to help certain groups–small
businesses, family farmers and veterans–as they need work outs to move
forward. It’s an important podcast as we all amass debt to pay for an
education, a home, a new car or that dream business possibility.  We
found the person who has the broadest understanding of the issue in the
country for this discussion.

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One headline reads ‘these pensions plans are at risk of going broke’. 
Another exclaims ‘pension plans for millions of Americans on the brink
of collapse’.  Clearly, many older Americans are worried about the
solvency of pensions earned many years back.  Companies go belly up in
the meantime.  Not enough money is set aside.  Or projections as to the
rate of return were too rosy.  Or the number of present day workers just
isn’t enough for retirees who stayed on the job for many years and are
living much longer in retirement. It’s a particularly dire situation for
a number of multi-employer pensions for various trades who came
together because the companies involved were rather small.  But, you
might say, don’t we have a quasi-governmental back-up, the Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corporation(PBGC), to insure that these obligations
will be met?  Well, that entity is in distress, too.  The federal
government must act.  But will it?  We turn to Joshua Gotbaum, of the
Brookings Institution who once ran the PBGC for the answers.

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As opioids lose favor, more chronic pain sufferers are turning to
medical marijuana and CBD supplement products to combat their pain.  And
given the fact that the federal government still considers marijuana a
Schedule 1 drug, the benefits, side effects and impacts of medical
marijuana have not been rigorously studied by the Food and Drug
Administration.  In fact, the FDA has only approved it for the treatment
of two rare and severe forms of epilepsy.  Given its federal
designation by drug enforcement, the same as heroin, LSD and ecstasy,
researchers need special licenses to study it.  It all seems so odd
since 33 states have legalized its use and developed their own varying
standards.  Seth Ginsberg, co-founder of Global Healthy Living
Foundation, believes we need a reality check and national standards to
protect consumers.  In a study his organization did they found that 57
percent of arthritis patients have reported trying marijuana for medical
purposes.  It looks like cannabidiol(CBD)products are out of the bag,
pack or whatever container you now find them in.  Shouldn’t we as a
nation admit it and make it safe? Listen in.

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There are stories aplenty about the cyber crime of our era: ransomware hackers making demands of cities and towns throughout America.  In exchange for cryptocurrency, the hackers will unencrypted data needed to run your municipality.  You’re the mayor: what do you do?  Taxes can’t be collected, bills can’t be paid, payrolls can’t be met in this environment.  Then, there are impacts on essential services like fire, EMS and police.  The whole issue has many implications and we explore them, in depth, with Dr. Frederick Scholl the Cybersecurity Program Director and Professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.  It’s a crime for which often there is no retribution.  Some hackers say they have been able to retire already having made so much money from their attacks and having gone undetected.  While we discuss why this is affecting so many public agencies, we also look at computer protection hygiene which must be practiced to avoid falling victim to this growing trend in your personal life and business.  Sadly, even if towns and cities get their data back after shelling out what often is insurance money, they find that some data has been corrupted and is unusable when retrieved..  We also share the example of New Bedford, Massachusetts where the cybersecurity world watched in awe as they smartly dealt with the issue when forced to confront it.

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      In the new book, ‘The Long Southern Strategy’, professors Angie
Maxwell and Todd Shields brilliantly unpack what was generally
considered a 1960’s strategy by the Republican Party in the Nixon era to
win over disaffected white voters in the previously Democratic
stronghold of the American South.  To usher in this profound realignment
the GOP abandoned its past support for civil rights and used racially
coded language to capitalize on southern white angst.  What their
research points out is that, in addition to race, this strategy
strengthened its hold on the region by defining women’s role in
society(coded family values) and fundamentalist theology.  And that
theology, once left to issues like prayer in schools and abortion, now
sweeps across a range of secular issues.  Angie Maxwell joins us to walk
us through the history and explains Donald Trump’s election in the
context of this appeal to white, southern voters.  And we explore
whether he’s nationalizing the strategy.  It’s a compelling book and a
great listen.

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  In 2016, a group of armed, divinely inspired libertarian protesters
led by Amman Bundy occupied the Malheur(translated: Bad Luck) National
Wildlife Refuge in the high desert of eastern Oregon.  Encamped in the
shadowlands of the republic, they insisted that the Federal government
had no right to own public land.  Were they heroes or villians?  The
answer to that question depends on your interpretation(or
misinterpretation) of the Constitution and your sense as to whether a
nation, built on abstract principles like America, has a being anyway. 
Sharing the expansive stage are a host of others who lay their own claim
to the American promise of liberty.  Among them are Native Americans,
public-land ranchers, militia members, environmentalists and Black Lives
Matter activists.  Inn many ways, this conflict is a parable of our
populist moment and unpacking this story may help us to better
understand our current political crisis.  To guide us through this most
tangled web of ideas and protestations is Anthony McCann, author of
‘Shadowlands’.    This one requires thought and attention. 

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  ‘The Fifth Domain’ is a term the Pentagon uses for cyberspace,
following the progression of locations for battle–land, sea, air and
space.  The key issue in cyberspace, like all of warfare, relates to the
calculations about offensive and defensive capabilities among the
actors and the readiness to deploy a country’s take down capabilities of
vital digital assets.  To some, they would rather see a cyber war,
presuming no one will die.  Tell that to a country that loses its
electric grid and finds itself back in the proverbial Stone Age.  There
is little doubt among policy planners that a substantial cyber attack
can well be the precursor to the next major, hot conflict.  Richard A.
Clarke and Robert K. Knake, two experts in national security, wrote
their first book together, Cyber War, about a decade ago and now they
update their thinking on where things stand today in cyberspace.  While
we keep reading about a disjointed response from America and attacks
that get through and affect our daily lives, these two experts suggest
the defenses being built are getting stronger.  No better way to update
yourself on this vitally important topic than by listening to this
podcast.

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  Honesty requires that I admit to what a bloody mess mess my
generation, the baby boomers, is leaving the many generations that
follow.  As if a despoiled and roiling planet isn’t enough, add to their
burdens a swelling, and unsustainable, level of national debt.  And,
yet, mum’s the word.  Nobody talks about the $20 trillion public debt or
the $200 trillion dollar fiscal gap.  The enormity of the numbers are a
paralytic to any meaningful conversation.  So we just change the
subject and focus on the outrage of the day.  A group of millennials and
generation Z leaders have caught up with the implications of the
problem and are determined to sound the alarm for others in their cohort
as part of Up To Us.  Through this conversation with Hilary Allen,
community manager of a competition this group runs, you will find out
what’s on their minds and how they want to make this issue a part of the
national conversation–finally.

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  The concept of a whistleblower is a unique American innovation, meant
to check corrupt power and help us give protection and sanctity to our
ideals in practice, not just in theory.  Whistleblowing is a cousin to
civil disobedience, but is done within the system through long
established tradition and laws.  We’re all getting a lesson in the
protections and reprisals that await a whistleblower as we are now
subsumed in, perhaps, the most significant episode of whistleblowing in
American history, in that it involves the President. While you often
hear that whistleblowers, particularly in the public sector, are truth
tellers, it may be surprising to find that often their complaints are
dismissed and they face reprisal for coming forward.  We are in a period
with more reported cases of whistleblowing as power is concentrated in
fewer hands.  However, the treatment of the whistleblower’s concerns in
the national political crisis we now face may determine the willingness
of others to come forward in the future.  This timely podcast emerges
along with the recent release of Allison Stanger’s book ‘Whistleblowers:
Honesty in America From Washington to Trump’.  We will pay particular
attention to the special circumstances surrounding whistleblowing in the
context of national security and intelligence.              

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  Healthcare delivery and cost concerns are top of mind in our political
debate.  Nowhere is that concern greater than in rural America. If you
live in remote places in the heartland and the South, the likelihood
that the hospital closest to your home may be shuttered or downsized is
growing greater each year.  Twenty one percent of rural hospitals are at
a high risk of closing, according to one report.  That equates to 430
hospitals across 43 states that employ nearly 150,000 people.  These
places attend to emergencies when a local farmer, let’s say, has a heart
attack and rapid response time is critical.  They also represent the
heartbeat of many communities as the largest employer, supporter of
local organizations and driver of economic activity.  And many in rural
America have significant chronic health problems, such as diabetes and
obesity.  Mark Holmes, PhD, a professor at the University of North
Carolina and director of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services
Research, joins us to explain how this all came about and some possible
ways forward in dealing with a healthcare crisis.

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