Episodes
Aug. 4, 2021
Did Critical Race Theory trigger school expulsion ? In conversation with Sam Stanton, Reporter at the Sacramento Bee.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) and teaching it in public schools has been banned in 30 states. California may have just entered the fray with the filing of a federal discrimination lawsuit by the parents of a Latino former stude…
Aug. 4, 2021
My Hometown: Quito, Ecuador. Talking with Fabian Borrero.
Quito is the capital of Ecuador and a city of three million people. My family and I lived there for three years. In today's episode, part of our continuing Hometown series where a local resident gives us their perspective on…
July 28, 2021
My Hometown: Barcelona. Talking with Fariba Rezvani and Miguel Valls.
In our continuing series of global cities viewed through the eyes of local residents, we feature Barcelona and Fariba Rezvani and Miguel Valls, the Co-Chairs of the San Francisco Barcelona Sister City Committee. Spain's seco…
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 27, 2021
Collateral Damage: the mysterious deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Kilgallen and the ties that bind them to the JFK assassination and Bobby Kennedy. In conversation with author Mark Shaw.
Linking the 1962 death of Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe and the 1965 death of ace investigative reporter Dorothy Kilgallen with the assassination of JFK might seem like a stretch at first blush. But that is exactly what inve…
July 21, 2021
The California Recall State of Play: In conversation with Laurel Rosenhall political reporter with CalMatters.
California's recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom is set for September 14, 2021. Over 40 candidates are on the ballot. But the unfolding Delta variant Covid resurgence could prove to be a wild card in what was once regar…
July 20, 2021
Social Media Profiles: the real, the fake and the extreme. In conversation with Professor Chris Bail of Duke University
Chris Bail's new book " Breaking the Social Prism - How to make our platforms less Polarizing," analyzes how we got to this crisis point and steps to defuse the situation. The echo chambers, social prisms that distort users …
July 15, 2021
San Francisco's 49 Mile Drive or the 49 Mile Scenic Route ? Heather Knight of The San Francisco Chronicle does a re-make.
The classic 49 Mile Drive through San Francisco's picturesque neighborhoods and iconic landmarks has not been revamped since 1939 when it was created for the SF World's Fair and it as auto centric. Enter Heather Knight, repo…
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…
July 9, 2021
My Hometown: Auckland, New Zealand. Talking with Michael Duggan
Auckland is New Zealand's largest and most affluent city with a population of 1.65 million. It is also the largest city in Polynesia. Rated one of the world's most livable cities, it has also become a very desirable place fo…
July 7, 2021
Money Matters: The poor and naive meet the rich and dangerous. In conversation with author Brian Finney
Money Matters is a story of two sisters on two different trajectories of life, money, men and personal values. The plot plays out against the seedier side of life in Southern California with major themes of Surveillance Tech…
June 30, 2021
Productive Intuition: Connecting to the Subtle. Talking with author AdaPia d'Errico
It's hard to know who to trust in a world of fake news and online relationships. So trusting yourself and listening to your own intuition is more critical than ever. Particularly as ever pervasive Artificial Intelligence sup…
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 25, 2021
Unlocking Longevity: In conversation with Professor Anil Bhushan of UCSF
Professor Bhushan is a founder of Deciduous Therapeutics, a San Francisco based biotech startup. Its' mission is to positively impact the human health span by developing novel medicines to activate our immune systems to elim…
June 24, 2021
Finding My Roots: Talking to Tim Early
After many years searching, I have found my paternal grand father's ancestors through a patrilineal DNA test. The Y chromosome only passes to the male line and often these ancestors share the same surnames centuries later. L…
June 17, 2021
Her Three Lives: In conversation withi author Cate Holohan
Gabriel Garcia Marquez the great novelist famously said that every human being has three lives: the public, the private and the secret. Cate Holohan's latest domestic thriller manipulates that complex trifecta of life's inte…
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 11, 2021
Elon Musk reads books: What makes him tick ?
Elon Musk is worth $152 billion, but he still finds time to read in his quest for knowledge. In today's episode we will discuss some of the books that have inspired him to reach for the stars and especially to caution us abo…
June 9, 2021
Baseball Card Mania: the Big Business of Trading Sports Cards. Talking with Ryan Fagan MLB journalist with the Sporting News.
Baseball cards and sports cards generally are not just a youngster's pastime. Investing in culture assets like baseball cards especially is becoming an alternative asset class. A 1952 Mickey Mantle card, for instance, sold …
June 5, 2021
A Good Mother: an interview with author Lara Bazelon.
A Good Mother is Lara Bazelon's debut legal thriller novel. A Law Professor at University of San Francisco, School of Law, Lara was formerly a Public Defender in Los Angeles and brings a practitioner's experience to this cou…
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 …
May 28, 2021
Los Angeles: A big, hot mess. Talking with Dan Walters, veteran California journalist.
Los Angeles, the nation's second largest city has an unemployment rate of 11.7% versus 5.4% for San Francisco. Poverty and homelessness are on the rise yet politicians utter the same old bromides. Dan Walters with almost 60 …
May 27, 2021
The Israel Hamas Conflict. A conversation with Professor Ron Hassner, UC Berkeley.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has entered an uneasy stand off with an Egyptian brokered cease fire. The US, EU and other countries have pledged billions in aid to re-build, but will the underlying tensions change ? P…
May 22, 2021
Reviving California's Gold Mines : An Interview with Ben Mossman, CEO of Rise Gold Corp.
Rise Gold Corp is in the process of re-opening a historic underground gold mine, the Idaho-Maryland mine, first opened in 1863. At its' peak production in the early 1940s it employed 1000 people and was the second biggest go…