EP 555 In Data We Must Trust

EP 555 In Data We Must Trust

Most decisions we make are by listening to our gut or by talking to a few trusted friends.  There is now, however, a better approach to decision-making, according to our guest, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, author of ‘Don’t Trust Your Gut’ and a former Google data scientist.  Using data to get what we really want in life …

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EP 554 Crisis A Crucible for Leadership

EP 554 Crisis A Crucible for Leadership

As our nation careens from crisis to crisis and trust in institutions fades, Americans are looking for fresh, visionary leadership. As we have seen the courage and exemplary leadership of President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine we know that his development as a leader has been revealed through the unimaginable experience of war. In his new …

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EP 553 Is America on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown?

EP 553 Is America on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown?

Regrettably, it’s a fair question. Sufficed to say, the pandemic, political angst, war and personal setbacks associated with all of the above have battered our collective sense of calm and well-being. Americans have seen loss of friends and family to COVID, been isolated for long stretches and brought closer to financial peril. While all measures …

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EP 552 No More SAT’s to Get Into Harvard? Hmm…Maybe I’ll Try Again

EP 552 No More SAT’s to Get Into Harvard? Hmm…Maybe I’ll Try Again

Dan Golden, the author of the classic book “The Price of Admission’, which documents how the wealthy and well connected have an inside track on getting into elite universities, joins us again to discuss trends in college admissions.  The optional SAT, a by-product of the pandemic, may well become the norm as Harvard has extended …

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EP 551 News Business Changing in Good Ways and Bad

EP 551 News Business Changing in Good Ways and Bad

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, …

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EP 550 Presidents and Their Relationship With the Press

EP 550 Presidents and Their Relationship With the Press

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 …

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EP 549 China’s Influence on American Movie making

EP 549 China’s Influence on American Movie making

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 …

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EP 548 The War on Cancer Restarts: Is It Winnable?

EP 548 The War on Cancer Restarts: Is It Winnable?

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 …

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EP 547 Status Report on Immigration Debate

EP 547 Status Report on Immigration Debate

  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 …

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EP 546 U.S. Navy’s Role as Stabilizing Force in the World May Be in Jeopardy

EP 546 U.S. Navy’s Role as Stabilizing Force in the World May Be in Jeopardy

    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 …

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