10 Questions With Stan and Susan

James B. Stewart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose new book "DEEP STATE: Trump, the FBI and the Rule of Law"  tries to place in context the myriad events and people who've emerged in the dizzying last three years as part of the storyline that is the Trump presidency.    

Hundreds of cases of serious lung illness linked to vaping--most likely related to cannabis products. Questions about the source of those products. Bigger questions about exactly what's in those products.  It all adds up to a nationwide public health mystery. Peter Hackett is CEO of AiRVapor, a Bay Area company that imports and sells a wide variety of products for the vaping industry.

The story of legendary Delta blues musician Robert Johnson has been told many times. But many of the facts are far from true, and many of the truths are even more amazing when the details are added. Bruce Conforth is a longtime scholar of history and the blues and is co-author of the book "Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson".

Communities around America are up in arms over what's seen as an epidemic of vaping among young people. Some (like San Francisco) are moving to restrict or ban the sales of e-cigarettes and vaping products. But not every health professional thinks this is a good idea. Kevin McGirr is a professor of Community Health Systtems at the UC San Francisco School of Nursing, and he views the vaping debate through the lenses of "harm reduction" and social justice.

Jakob Dylan and Andrew Slater are the men behind the new documentary film "Echo in the Canyon". It's a look at the mid-60's musical scene that many associate with the "California Sound". Dylan and Slater are longtime friends and associates; Dylan the frontman for the rock band The Wallflowers and Slater a music producer, agent, and record label executive.

Duffy Jennings is a San Francisco native who would wind up as a reporter at his hometown newspaper, covering major stories in the turbulent 1970's. He later became the vice president of public relations for the San Francisco Giants and spent many more years in public relations in the Silicon Valley. Now, Jennings is telling his story in a book: "Reporter's Note Book: A San Francisco Chronicle Journalist's Diary of the Shocking Seventies". He talked with us about his life and times.

America's healthcare system needs help. Pretty much everyone can agree on that. But what's the fix? VillageMD is trying to tackle the primary care physician issue. Co-founder and CEO Tim Barry talked with us about how they hope to do it.

He's the guy who wrote Banjo for Dummies, so you'd assume Bay Area banjo whiz Bill Evans would know his way around the banjo. You'd be right! Settle in for a conversation--punctuated with musical examples--about this important American musical instrument.

When longtime technology advocate and investor Roger McNamee began to smell something rotten in the way Facebook was being used to sway people with misinformation and target groups in a divisive way, he spoke out. And that was the beginning of the journey that led McNamee to meet with members of Congress, help found the Center for Humane Technology, and write a book entitled "Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe".

Genetic engineering. CRISPR. GMO’s. How much do any of us really know about these concepts and technologies that are literally changing life as we know it?  Fyodor Urnov has a deep understanding of the technologies and issues involved. He’s currently a visiting researcher at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley.

The craft beer revolution has created legions of people who can speak knowledgeably about a dozen varieties of hops. But what do they know about beer's essential ingredient, malt? Ron Silebrstein is a veteran craft brewer who co-founded Admiral Maltings in Alameda, CA.

Are you and your smartphone spending too much time together? Probably! Catherine Price has written about our phone fixation--and what you can do about it--in her book "How To Break Up With Your Phone".  You can learn more at her website.

Darrell Jobe spent time in prison before entering the packaging industry. Now he's hoping to change the way America deals with two major issues: wasteful packaging and the way we treat people who've been convicted of crimes. He's the founder and president of Vericool.

The West's "new normal": massive and deadly wildfires. Where do we go from here? Can we learn to live with fire in our forests?  Bill Stewart is a forestry specialist at U-C Berkeley and co-director of the U-C Center for Forestry. He joined us to look into the future of fire.

Free food at work: it's gone from a perk offered by a handful of high-tech startups to a fairly common employee benefit. Ali Sabeti is CEO of ZeroCater, the San Francisco-based company that serves as an intermediary between workplaces and food vendors. He joined us for a conversation about food and the way it's consumerd at the office these days.

When Denise Mueller-Korenek goes out for a bike ride, look out. The Southern California woman owns the world record for a motor-paced cyclist after reaching 183.9 MPH on the Bonneville Salt Flats. She talked with Stan and Susan about her journey to the record, and what's next.

Most of the focus on energy storage has been on batteries. But a Bay Area company hopes the future will be full of flywheels.  We talk with Seth Sanders, PhD, the chief scientist and co-founder of Amber Kinetics.

The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Remember that? It passed Congress and was signed by President Trump late in 2017, but the first tax returns Americans will file under the new law won't be submitted until early 2019. Our conversation is with Mark Steber, Senior Vice President and Chief Tax Officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.

Once upon a time, you could find a local music store pretty much anywhere in America. Instruments, sheet music, lessons...the whole package. But like many other retail sectors, music stores have been challenged by massive changes. Alan Rosen is President and CEO of Bay Area music retailer Bananas at Large, and he has a front-row seat for this story.

Who knows what mysteries lie beneasth the surface of the sea? Liz Taylor has made it her life's work to help people find out. She's President and CEO of DOER Marine (Deep Ocean Exploration and Research), a San Francisco Bay Area-based company that designs and builds tools for underwater exploration.

If music is a universal language, who helps us learn it? Stan's by himself for this episode with guest Angela Wellman, a noted trombonist and founder of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music.

This time, Stan flies solo with guest Adam Tooze. He's the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University who's written what may be the most exhaustive treatment yet of the Great Recession--from many angles.

"Fake news". "Enemy of the people". Russian election meddling. Facebook trolls and bogus accounts. Welcome to American politics and journalism, circa 2018. Our guest is longtime Washington journalist and academic (and KCBS Radio Political Analyst) Marc Sandalow.

Uber and Lyft: do they help or hurt traffic and transportation? The debate has raged for years, but a provocative new study pulls together data from a variety of sources to draw some conclusions. Our guest is the author of the study, Bruce Schaller.

A federal agency of which you may have never heard plays a key role in deciding how much Chinese investment money flows into the US--and which companies can attract it. Our guest is former SEC Division of Investment Management Director Norm Champ.

Should we worry about solar storms? Probably! How MUCH should we worry? We talk with a guy who knows: Scott McIntosh, Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research High Altitude Observatory.

Your smartphone knows you by your face. Police departments all over the world are investing in facial recognition systems. Is this technology really ready for prime time? Our guest is James Wayman, Director of the Biometric Identification Research Program at San Jose State University.

Artificial intelligence: how far have we come, where do we stand, and where are we going? Veteran technologist Jerry Kaplan, an adjunct professor at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, answers these big questions and more. 

John Carreyrou is the Wall Street Journal reporter whose dogged pursuit of the Theranos story exposed the truth about the high-flying Silicon Valley blood-testing startup.  He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 17 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan". 

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charlie LeDuff is out with a new book, "Sh*tshow!: The Country's Collapsing...and the Ratings Are Great". He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 16 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan". 

This is not your father's music recording industry. Times have changed, and they keep changing. John Simson has been on the front lines of the industry for over 40 years. Now Program Director for the Business and Entertainment Program at American University, He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 15 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan". 

It all began with a few math lessons for his nephews. Now, Sal Khan's Khan Academy is a household name in the world of education. He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 14 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan". 

Is it possible that a technique now used to treat OCD, Parkinson's disease and other conditions could be the "magic bullet" to deal with the impulsive behavior that leads to overating, excessive drinking, violence and more? Stanford University Medical Center professor Dr. Casey Halpern is leading some fascinating research on new uses for deep-brain stimulation (DBS). He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 13 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".

The former Concord Naval Weapons Station east of San Francisco has a very modern purpose these days: a large piece of the site has become the GoMentum Station. It bills itself as "nation’s largest secure testing facility for autonomous and connected vehicle technology". Contra Costa Transprotation Authority Executive Director Randy Iwasaki  talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 12 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".

Predators are showing up in unlikely places, and a provocative new study suggests it's a phenomenon that's likely to continue. Study co-author Brian Silliman is the Rachel Carson Associate Professor of marine conservation biology professor at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 11 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".  

Millions of Americans now make things, and the so-called "Maker Movement" shows no signs of slowing down. Dale Dougherty has been watching this for many years, as the founder of Make: magazine and now as CEO of the Maker Faire series of events. He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 10 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".

Sleep (or the lack thereof) turns out to be at the center of a whole lot of health issues. DR. Michael Grandner is the Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona. He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 9 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".

Plane crashes. Oil well blowouts. Even Facebook's user-data scandal. Failures are everywhere. Can we see them coming in time to prevent them? Chris Clearfield is the co-author of "MELTDOWN: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It". He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 8 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".

Ed O'Bannon starred for the legendary UCLA Bruins basketball program, won a national championship, and played in the NBA. But he may be better known as the plaintiff in O'Bannon v. NCAA. He joins Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor to discuss his legal battle against college sports,  his hopes for reform, and his new book "Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA" on Episode 6 of "Ten Questions With Stan and Susan".

That person across from you on the train playing a game on a smartphone might be a world-class "athlete". The explosion of Mobile eSports is happening all around us. Andrew Paradise is co-founder of Skillz, a San Francisco-based company that acts as a sort of backbone for this.He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor in Episode 5 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan". 

Is there any space left for a civilized discussion in the American political arena? Conservative commentator Mona Charen has been on the scene since the Reagan White House years and believes the presidency of Donald Trump has brought us to a bad place. She talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor in Episode 4 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan". 

We've all become aware of the dangers of concussions in sports ranging from youth soccer to the NFL. But what happens AFTER that blow to the head?  Pediatric physical therapist Sally Fryer Dietz works with post-concussion cases at Integrative Concussion Therapy in Dallas.  She talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor in Episode 3 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".