Independent Commentary Episodes
Dec. 22, 2021
Single in America: Talking with Harry Bruinius, New York Bureau Chief, The Christian Science Monitor
40 % of American adults between the ages of 25 and 54 are single according to the Pew Research Center. That represents a 30% increase since 1990. What implications does this new trend portend for American society ? --- Send …
Dec. 9, 2021
Radio Meets Podcasting: the Future. Talking with James Cridland, Editor of Podnews
Radio and Podcasting seem to be natural allies. In this episode Radio Futurologist James Cridland discusses the future of these two audio mediums, the Power of Voice and the Power of Listening. --- Send in a voice message: h…
Dec. 2, 2021
The Curse of Student Loans
America's student loan iceberg totals $1.7 Trillion, with one in six Americans -46million- carrying some student debt. The median loan amount is $17,000. But 6% have debt in excess of $100,000 as high cost graduate programs,…
Nov. 3, 2021
San Francisco's Major Image Problem. In conversation with Sam Singer, of Singer Associates, Public Relations. Specialist in Crisis Management.
San Francisco's city government has been described as dysfunctional by the influential news magazine, The Economist. And other global newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph and The Dail…
Oct. 1, 2021
U.S. white male life expectancy drops 2.2 years in 2020 and 2021.; 3 plus years for blacks and latinos. Why ?
Covid 19 fueled a 2.2 year decrease in US white male life expectancy and over 3 years for black and latino men. That was the largest drop in 75 years. While other Western European countries saw a drop also, the US decline wa…
Sept. 24, 2021
Men Give Up on College: We Don't Need No Education.
Male College enrolment in 2020 was 40.5% male and 59.5% female. Since the mid-1980s women have earned more bachelors degrees than men. The good news is that women have excelled in higher education. But men have become disill…
July 27, 2021
The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) : Talking with Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer and Institute Fellow of SETI.
Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, SETI seeks to explore, understand and explain the prevalence of life in the Universe. Its' Allen Telescope Array located 300 miles North of San Francisco, is the ears of S…
July 13, 2021
Life Science Breakthroughs: Talking with Dr. Regis Kelly, UC San Francisco
Reg Kelly discusses the QB3 Life Science incubator, a new mega incubator at UC Berkeley to open in October 2021 and groundbreaking research taking place in the San Francisco Bay Area in the field of BioTechnology. And most i…
June 26, 2021
Gavin Newsom's Public Health Crisis: A conversation with California Healthline's Angela Hart
While California has 68% of its population vaccinated, Governor Newsom can hardly run victory laps around the State Capitol. Multiple health crises loom including underfunded public health, single payer insurance, Medicaid f…
June 14, 2021
The Group of 7 Summit: What did it achieve ? A conversation with Trevin Stratton, Chief Economist and SVP of Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
The Group of 7, the US, Canada, France, Japan, UK, Germany and Italy met in Cornwall, England for three days to co-ordinate economic policies post pandemic, agree a new infrastructure investment plan and discuss the rise of …
June 1, 2021
Pandemic Baby Bust continues the downward trend of US population decline. In conversation with Professor Phillip Levine of Wellesley College
US births in 2020 were actually down by 400,000 by year end 2020 due to the pandemic lockdowns. Professor Levine and his team have identified a correlation between unemployment and the US birth rate: for each 1% increase in …
April 16, 2021
Leaving California: Allison Pullins and Neal Richardson discuss their decision to relocate to North Carolina.
A young family weighs a difficult decision to leave San Francisco and move to North Carolina. Mixed emotions confront Allison and Neal as they decide to leave their adopted home in San Francisco for North Carolina. A wistful…
March 26, 2021
Asian American Violence and Hate: An interview with US Civil Rights Commissioner Michael Yaki
Since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic one year ago, Asian Americans have faced racist violence at a much higher rate than in previous years. In New York City for instance, hate crimes against Asian Americans have jumped 1…
March 25, 2021
Hate Studies Institute, Gonzaga University. In conversation with Kristine Hoover, Director
Spokane, Washington is the site of the Gonzaga University campus and the Institute of Hate Studies. Located not far from the Idaho panhandle where White Supremacist groups and ideology have flourished, the Institute is on th…
Feb. 18, 2021
Black History Month: In conversation with Jonathan Speed
February is Black History Month when we celebrate and acknowledge the many accomplishments of African Americans throughout the history of the United States. In today's episode, successful Venture Capitalist Jonathan Speed, a…