Our podcast takes an unconventional look at whether the physical barrier that is being proposed to divide the United States from Mexico might be re-examined and found to have any aesthetic or redeeming value from an architectural standpoint. Ronald Rael an associate professor of Architecture at Berkeley lobs ‘an artistic and intellectual hand grenade’ …
Esteemed economist, Laurence Kotlikoff, can hold two seemingly contradictory views at one time. While he believes that the fiscal gap of the U.S. federal government–sum of all obligations on our books–is about 15 times the published number of $20 trillion, he’s not shy about trying to help individual Americans ‘Get What’s Yours’ from the complex …
Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson Fellow, Economic & Social Policy Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, got much attention for his commencement address at Harvard University(you know the place where he dropped out) suggesting that America needed to adopt a ‘universal basic income'(UBI) for its citizens. While the concept is being floated in different parts of the world, …
Out of sight, out of mind. Do you give much, if any, thought to the waste stream and how we’re doing as a society to recycle and re-use plastics, glass and other materials as the byproducts of our voracious appetite for consumption? CJ May has given lots of thought to the subject as one who …
Michael Patrick Lynch suggests that in the sub-title of his book, ‘The Internet of Us’. Now the director of the Humanities at the University of Connecticut and the man who leads the university’s Humility and Conviction in Public Life Project sets about to determine if our society is now capable of finding common reality. He …
The concept of American exceptionalism is often associated with a patriotic sense that our country is better than the rest–and politicians on the left and right both throw the term around. Yet there are a number of other interpretations of that phrase. Some say our founding made us destined to be unique among all the …
Mob historian, Daniel Simone, a prolific author who co-write with Henry Hill ‘The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World’ and, most recently, ‘The Pierre Hotel Affair’, describes the changes in organized crime approaches in the 21st century. They are certainly not gone and will never be forgotten in the …
In just 45 words, the American people were afforded the opportunity to tell its government what speech was protected from the overreach and restrictions inherent in all forms of government at the time. And still, to this day, we have one of the only written and durable protections of this type in the world, including …
Today, more than seven million men between the ages of 25 and 54 in America are out of the labor force. That can’t be good. In fact, it’s an awful trend. It creates a ripple effect–no jobs means fewer families are formed, fewer homes are purchased and more diseases of despair plague so many. …
Policy wonks joke that all Americans want from health care reform is unlimited care, from the doctor of their choosing, with no waits for treatment, at no cost. Oh, yes, and that doctors can undo all of the bad decisions we’ve made along the way about diet and exercise. Dr. Elaina George, author of ‘Big …