Episodes
June 10, 2025
Why Nothing Works - Who killed progress and how to bring it back, Talking with author Marc J. Dunkelman
By pushing power down to the individual concentrating up to power brokers - Mayors, electeds etc it is harder to get big projects done. We have created a vetocracy where one person can stop a project that might have benefited the society as a whole. Individual over Society.
June 9, 2025
America's Antisemitism Problem. Talking with Dr. Arie Perliger, Professor of Security Studies, University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
San Francisco was the site of two Antisemitic incidents in 2024, at UCSF, one of the nation’s leading medical research universities and SF Hillel at San Francisco State University. Antisemitism has spread through America’s universities like a plague.
June 3, 2025
San Francisco's Comeback. Talking with Erica Sandberg.
Mayor Lurie is tackling the problems he inherited from London Breed who was defeated in her re-election bid. So far San Franciscans for the first time in 5 years say that San Francisco is on the right track.
May 30, 2025
Science Cuts will mortgage our Tech Future. Talking with Sean Randolph, Bay Area Council
Science Cuts will hurt the Silicon Valley Tech industry.
May 29, 2025
1925: A Literary Encyclopedia. Talking with author Tom Lutz.
1925 was a major year for American Literature with the publication of Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and Hemingway’s “In Our Time” among many other works. This book is a reference guide to the significant works of 1925.
May 21, 2025
Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War against the West. Talking with Ambassador John J. Sullivan
Ambassador Sullivan served as the Deputy Secretary of State 2017-2019 and Ambassador to Russia 2019 -2022 in both the Trump and Biden Administrations. He played a pivotal role shaping US policy in the Ukraine War.
May 20, 2025
Ambassador William H. Luers. May 15, 1929 - May 10, 2025. An American Diplomat, Patron of the Arts, Museum Director, Author. In Memoriam.
Today’s episode features a profile of the late Ambassador Bill Luers and his book “Uncommon Company”. Bill was a proponent of showcasing American artists and writers to promote our foreign policy goals.
May 14, 2025
Inside the Reagan White House. A front row seat to Presidential Leadership with lessons for today. Talking with author Frank Lavin, Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
A memoir that tracks Frank’s professional development in the White House and shares his personal impressions of the President and First Lady.
May 13, 2025
Russia and US relations: the role of a Citizen Diplomat. Talking with Bill Boerum former Chairman Sister Cities International.
Citizen diplomats try to keep US Russian contacts alive.
May 12, 2025
Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. Talking with co-author Amie Parnes
The tumultuous 2024 presidential campaign based on 150 well informed sources, written as the history unfolded.
May 9, 2025
The Stahl House - a Case Study House. Talking with Shaun Chang of the Hill Place Movie and TV Blog.
Mid Century Modern residential design in Los Angeles is exemplified by the Stahl House Case House Study #22. The optimism, exuberance and prosperity of the 1950s and 60s is evident in the design and still attractive in 2025.
May 7, 2025
Sailing Around the World with Parkinson's Disease. Talking with Ethan Henderson of The Michael J Fox Fdn and Amy Bridge of the Neptune Project.
Working to find a cure for Parkinson’s by fundraising for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Sailing as a physical therapy for people living with Parkinson’s.
May 1, 2025
Spark SF Public Schools. Talking with President Ginny Fang.
SFUSD has over 50,000 students, a budget of $1.2 billion but still struggles to fund key programs. SparkSF, a non profit, was created 10 years ago to mobilize philanthropic and community donations to support our students.
April 30, 2025
US Coercive Diplomacy and the Global Order. Talking with author Dr. Rich Outzen
Is Coercive Diplomacy as efficacious today as it once was ? Or have targets - like Russia - learned to hedge the risks from US economic, military and diplomatic sanctions.
April 28, 2025
TCM Classic Film Festival 2025. Talking with Shaun Chang of The Hill Place TV and Movie Blog.
The annual TCM film festival took place in Los Angeles April 24 - 27. A celebration of classic films and their fans.
April 25, 2025
Canada's Historic Election. Talking with Marci Surkes.
Canada 🇨🇦 holds national elections on Monday April 28. Dominating the campaign and top of mind for every voter are the impact of tariffs on the Canadian economy. Resilience is central to the debate as well as President Trump featuring prominently in the discourse. The Liberals led by Mark Carney wh…
April 22, 2025
The Return of the Strong Gods. Nationalism, Populism and the Future of the West. Talking with author Rusty Reno.
The Postwar consensus, based on Karl Popper’s Open Society and Hayek’s Road to Serfdom is based on secularity, individualism and internationalism, has served to keep the Peace for 80 years since 1945. But it’s coming to an end. What will replace it ?
April 18, 2025
The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck. How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's all Female Concentration Camp. Talking with author Lynne Olson.
How four young French women who were in the Resistance made a huge impact on the all female concentration camp in Germany.
April 14, 2025
The Telepathy Tapes: A British Perspective. Talking with Michael Marshall.
The Telepathy Tapes have been a worldwide podcasting phenomenon. Today’s episode brings a British point of view.
April 9, 2025
Jim: The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn's Comrade. Talking with author, Professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin.
Jim teams up with Huckleberry Finn to raft down the Mississippi to freedom: the runaway slave and irreverent scamp are an unlikely duo. But 140 years after the
publication of Twain’s greatest novel, Jim continues to be misunderstood.
April 7, 2025
Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities. Talking with John King, The San Francisco Chronicle's former urban design critic.
The Ferry Building of San Francisco, like many of its citizens, has faced hard times, lost its purpose but reinvented itself for the 21st Century.
April 3, 2025
The Lost and The Found. A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family and Second Chances. Speaking with author Kevin Fagan.,
Homelessness in San Francisco has a human face. And from time to time, there are success stories when someone is rehabilitated, often with the intense help of family. The Lost and The Found relates two such cases.
April 2, 2025
Canada: A defining moment for our neighbor to the North. Talking to Marci Surkes, former advisor to Justin Trudeau, the outgoing Prime Minister.
Canada 🇨🇦 faces an uncertain future as it looks forward to a General Election April 28, 2025. New Prime Minister Mark Carney stares down a shaky economy and new US tariffs. He has said that the key relationship with America 🇺🇸 is over, causing Canadians even more angst.
March 19, 2025
The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the new Millennium. Talking with author Martin Gurri.
A tsunami has dethroned the elites from being in charge of information flow to the public. Politicians, Government, Universities are no longer the gatekeepers of what is important for the public to know.