https://www.itsuptous.org/ 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 …
https://www.amazon.com/Whistleblowers-Honesty-America-Washington-Trump/dp/0300186886 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 …
https://research.unc.edu/2016/07/07/mark-holmes-appointed-new-director-unc-sheps/ 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. …
https://www.amazon.com/Entrenchment-Wealth-Constitution-Democratic-Societies/dp/0300238479 In a democratic society, like ours, how easy or hard is it to upend power and economic disparities, when those who have the most to lose also have the most power? It’s a tricky question which Professor Paul Starr, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, attempts to answer in his new book, ‘Entrenchment’. Let’s be …
https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13485.html If you listen to President Trump this is the best economy in years, perhaps, ever. We have low unemployment numbers and a great uptick on Wall Street. If that’s the case, why does he keep pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in what the Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, says is not such …
https://camd.northeastern.edu/faculty/dan-kennedy/ There are alarming reports from all over the country about the demise of local newspapers and the sprouting up of local ‘news deserts’, where finding out about what’s going on in your town or city is becoming increasingly more difficult. With it comes a lack of accountability on the part of local officials as …
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Politics-Frayed-Republic-After-ebook/dp/B07D6MF4R1 Frustrated and feeling betrayed, Americans have come to loathe politics–assuring more disastrous results. In his well researched book, ‘The Death of Politics’, Peter Wehner reminds us that politics can, and should, be about the noble pursuit of justice. To give up on politics means giving up on making America a more just society. The …
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Human-Shared-Humanity-Create/dp/0393634760 Humans have the capacity to be caring and show empathy toward total strangers, even risk our lives on their behalf, yet, in contrast, we also have the ability to dehumanize others thus opening the door to shocking aggression and brutality. Since our podcast likes to look at trajectory, we were curious in what …
https://www.amazon.com/Theft-Decade-Boomers-Millennials-Economic/dp/1541742362 There may not be a clash of generations with the newly adult Millennial’s squaring off against their baby boomer parents, but when(and if)they wake up to many decisions that the older set has made, there will be some ‘esplaining to do’. By all accounts, Millennials’ must contend with the harsh reality of a tough …
https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Liberty-Americas-Struggle-Religious/dp/0062743147 Religious freedom. Separation of church and state. Constitutional protections to practice your faith as you wish. We take these precepts for granted, even as we still debate the founder’s intent in 21st century America. Yet those notions were radically different from what was practiced around the globe at the time these practices were memorialized …