Podcasts about American Life

I hope you're getting fired up for this English lesson because today, we're gonna talk about how Americans kick off the summer. This week, we're kicking off a brand new summer series that I'm calling “This Week in American Life.” Each week this season, I'll be sharing some fun facts and cultural tidbits about how Americans live, eat, and chill during the summer months. And of course, I'll throw in some English learning points, like idioms, slang, and phrasal verbs too. Join my Podcast Learner's Study Group here: https://learn.myhappyenglish.com/transcriptVisit my website for over 3,000 free English lessons: https://www.myhappyenglish.com/

From Amy:Cara Pacific Campbell was the first person who took me up on my offer of a 1:1 Book Writing Mentorship and put her trust in me. I was grateful that someone so vibrant felt drawn to working with me, but looking back, it makes perfect sense. When we are paying attention, we're drawn to our people. Cara and I are both high-performing women who worked way too hard and paid a steep price with our health. As in, our bodies made us quit our careers when our minds thought that we could—had to—power through. Instead, we were sidelined.And why did we think we had to power through? Well... how else would we have any meaningful impact in life? How else did we have value? Which is a societal misperception that has needed addressing for a very long time. What we've been through, many are going through now.Also... we are both people who communicate who we are through our colors of choice. I think of Cara in vibrant yellows and reds.These lively signature colors are very much at odds with what Cara was living with in her battle with chronic Lyme disease.There's a huge silver lining. Cara finally connected to her dreams of work in Peru, tapping into ancient knowledge that now infuses this book. And hey, I taught beginning Spanish for a few years. I've always thought that teaching Spanish was a way station on the journey to something beyond that. This book was one of those meaningful stops on the journey. Oh, and also...Pretty sure that Cara and I are going to host a Writing Revival in Peru someday.Picture yourself there with us. How awesome would that be?Meanwhile, you can actively witness the culmination of her book journey if that's calling to you, or simply take courage from hearing how it came into being. Me? I got to help Cara infuse this book with her witty, deep, infectious wisdom. I feel profoundly proud and grateful to know that I was there at Cara's beginning as an author, and that she was there at my beginning as a book writing mentor. What a beautiful testament to my vision for Courageous Wordsmith.It's a full-circle episode and it feels like that.Enjoy! Cara Pacific Campbell is a top-performing sales leader turned author, coach, and resilience expert. After a medical collapse ended her high-achieving career, she began an unexpected healing journey—one that blends neuroscience, ancient wisdom, and the gritty reality of burnout recovery. Her upcoming book is part memoir, part roadmap for ambitious women ready to succeed without self-destructing. Cara helps high performers reconnect with their power, rewrite their patterns, and rise—on their own terms.Cara's Links:www.linkedin.com/in/carapacificcampbell https://www.instagram.com/carapacificcampbell/ https://www.facebook.com/carapacific Join the book mailing list Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

#187 Podcast Episode:Reinvent While Winning: José Suquet's Story of Listening First and Leading ForwardChairman of the Board & CEO, Pan-American Life Insurance GroupHost: Bart Berkey – Most People Don't... But YOU Do! PodcastFrom escaping Cuba at age two to leading a company that protects over 7 million lives across 22 countries, José Suquet has lived a life built on resilience, purpose, and people-first leadership. In this candid and emotional conversation, José shares how lessons from his seamstress mother, early sales experience, and decades of executive leadership helped him transform Pan-American Life Insurance Group into a values-driven organization.This episode explores what it truly means to lead with humility, listen before speaking, and reinvent while you're still succeeding.1. Most People Don't Listen—But Great Leaders Do“God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason.”By listening first—whether to clients, colleagues, or family—José learned to lead with empathy and clarity. Listening creates understanding, and understanding makes every word and action more impactful.2. You Don't Need to Be Loud to Be StrongCalm consistency and respect leave a longer legacy than control or intimidation. José credits his greatest mentor with showing him that leadership doesn't require volume—it requires alignment, resources, and kindness.3. People Over Policy: The COVID StoryDuring the pandemic, Pan-American Life Insurance Group paid over $300 million in death claims—even when reinsurance contracts excluded pandemics. José made the call: “We do. We cover them. That's who we are.”4. Don't Wait Until It's Ripe to ReinventDrawing from the Sigmoid Curve and Bart's “green banana” analogy, José emphasizes the importance of reinventing during strength—not waiting for decline. “If you sit still, you're not cruising—you're being passed.”5. Sales Isn't Pressure—It's a PromiseJosé sees selling life insurance as delivering on a deeply emotional contract: helping people when they're most vulnerable. “You're not selling a shiny gadget—you're selling a promise.”6. Broke, Not PoorRaised by a single mother who once reigned as Cuba's most beautiful woman before working as a seamstress in the U.S., José absorbed this powerful distinction:“We were broke, not poor. And if you're broke, you can always come back.”7. Title Doesn't Equal WorthWhether visiting the mailroom or the boardroom, José treats everyone with dignity. “At the end, the big guy won't ask if you were CEO or in the mailroom—just if you were a good human being.”

For the first time as a host combination, Ben, Dan, and Cameron sit down to discuss the most controversial topics in personal finance. We begin with identity and how it informs decision-making. Then, we revisit the renting versus buying debate, why this remains a highly controversial topic, the ins and outs of income investing, and understating the fervor of dividend investing. We also unpack FIRE as a branch of self-help; how it informs happiness; and how personality influences one's approach to the FIRE principle. To end, we closely examine Bill Bengen's 4% rule, and the Aftershow encourages us to maintain high podcasting standards while revealing what you can look forward to in our latest Rational Reminder t-shirt release.    Key Points From This Episode:   (0:01:25) Cameron's positive LinkedIn experience regarding insurance.  (0:08:10) How identity informs decision-making.  (0:15:24) Why renting versus buying a home remains a controversial topic.  (0:27:50) Income investing, covered calls, and the fervor of dividend investing. (0:46:34) FIRE: Financial independence, retire early. (0:54:36) Unpacking FIRE as a branch of self-help, and the role of FIRE in happiness.  (1:07:07) How personality and identity inform one's approach to FIRE. (1:10:34) Addressing the 4% rule.  (1:14:16) The Aftershow: Setting and keeping high standards, and Rational Reminder t-shirts.    Links From Today's Episode: Meet with PWL Capital — https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582. Rational Reminder Website — https://rationalreminder.ca/  Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/ Rational Reminder on X — https://x.com/RationalRemindRational Reminder on TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@rationalreminder Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Rational Reminder Email — info@rationalreminder.ca  Rational Reminder Merchandise — https://shop.rationalreminder.ca/ Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/ Cameron Passmore — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Cameron on X — https://x.com/CameronPassmore Cameron on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpassmore/  Dan Bortolotti on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-bortolotti-8a482310/  Episode 358: Eli Beracha: An Academic Perspective on Renting vs. Owning a Home — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/358  Episode 214: Jay Van Bavel: Shared Identities and Decision Making — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/214   Episode 260: Prof. James Choi: Practical Finance — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/260  Episode 273: Professor Samuel Hartzmark: Asset Pricing, Behavioural Finance, and Sustainability Rankings — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/273   Episode 95: Scott Rieckens (Playing with FIRE): Finding Financial Education, Perspective, and Freedom — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/95  Episode 258: Prof. Meir Statman: Financial Decisions for Normal People — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/258   Bonus Episode - Prof. Meir Statman: A Wealth of Well-Being — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/2024/4/18/bonus-episode-prof-meir-statman-a-wealth-of-well-being   Episode 230: Prof. Robert Frank: Success, Luck, and Luxury — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/230   Episode 135: William Bengen: The 5% Rule for Retirement Spending — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/135  Episode 164: Comprehensive Overview: The 4% Rule — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/164   Episode 357: AMA #6 — https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/357  Morgan Housel — https://www.morganhousel.com/   ‘Renting vs. Buying a Home: What People Get Wrong' — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4H9LL7A-nQ   MobLand — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31510819/  Ray Donovan — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2249007/  Animal Kingdom — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5574490/    Books From Today's Episode:    Rich Dad Poor Dad — https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680194    Self Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life — https://www.amazon.com/Self-Help-Inc-Makeover-American/dp/0195337263    Papers From Today's Episode:    'Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government' - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioural-public-policy/article/abs/motivated-numeracy-and-enlightened-selfgovernment/EC9F2410D5562EF10B7A5E2539063806    ‘Nevertheless, They Persist: Cross-country differences in homeownership behavior' — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1051137721000590    ‘Rent or Buy? Inflation Experiences and Homeownership within and across Countries' — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379974645_Rent_or_Buy_Inflation_Experiences_and_Homeownership_within_and_across_Countries     ‘Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares' — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24102112_Dividend_Policy_Growth_and_the_Valuation_Of_Shares    ‘Chapter 3 - Behavioral Household Finance*' — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352239918300046    ‘Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds' — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0304405X93900235     ‘The Dividend Disconnect' — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2876373    ‘A Devil's Bargain: When Generating Income Undermines Investment Returns' — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4580048    ‘The Financialization of Anti-Capitalism? The Case of the “Financial Independence Retire Early” Community' — https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17530350.2021.1891951    ‘High Income Improves Evaluation of Life But Not Emotional Well-Being' — https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1011492107     ‘Income And Emotional Well-Being: A Conflict Resolved' — https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120   

Hey, everyone. Today I wanted to share a special conversation from another Lemonada show: Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. For those who aren’t already familiar with this great podcast, the show started all the way back in 2016 and airs every Sunday. The episode you’re about to hear is a recent one. It’s a great talk between Sam and the broadcast legend Ira Glass, from May 2025. Thirty years. Over 850 episodes. Nine Peabodys. One Pulitzer. And yet somehow, three decades in, This American Life (and its creator, Ira Glass) remains as innovative and timely as ever. We begin with a week in the life of Ira: a typical Monday at This American Life, the rigorous notes process, and how the team selects the stories it wants to tell that Sunday. Then, we unpack Trump’s ongoing threats to slash government funding for public media, Glass’ formative days as a teenage intern at NPR, and the radio mentors who shaped his ideas around narrative. On the back-half, we discuss how his taste and talent eventually converged, what makes a good interview, the guest he most identifies with, the episode he’s most proud of, and, naturally, the future of This American Life. To learn more about Talk Easy, visit talkeasypod.com and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Find Talk Easy on social: @talkeasypod and @samfragoso Follow David on Instagram at @davidduchovny. Stay up to date with Lemonada on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From Amy:When Keri and I recorded this episode in late 2022, I was still editing my second memoir for publication and she was drafting a book that's also now nearing publication. The podcast never got produced at that time, but I happened onto the recording this past winter and it caught my attention. Keri and I are still writing today. I'm starting new books and she's preparing to deliver a TED-x Talk this summer.And this conversation feels like a divinely timed gift from our former selves, and a personal invitation to you if you want it. Because yes, I absolutely am writing for my life. I know Keri still agrees.I had a stage one cancer diagnosis this past month. That's all I care to say about that right now, because this gets to be my story first. For now, I want you to know that I have emerged on the other side, and am currently cancer free with a heightened sense of awareness: One reason I need to survive IS FOR MY WRITING. I need to write this story for me. And I will share it someday.I have wisdom I am still gaining, and knowledge that people will need.I don't need to justify that impulse nor ask permission. I don't need to know now how it turns out. I am healing. I will be creating. I live into my passions.How about you? Keri Mangis is more than just an author and speaker—she's a guide for those seeking deeper meaning and transformation in a chaotic world. With over 20 years of experience as a wholeness advocate and spiritual teacher, Keri understands the frustration of feeling stuck and disconnected. Through her writing and teachings, Keri helps people break free from limiting beliefs to rediscover their true essence and align with their core values. Her spiritual and personal growth studies and certifications have run the gamut over the years from yoga, Ayurveda, energy work, and meditation. Most recently, she has taken on studying Alchemy, Jungian Psychology, archetypes, and rites of passage. She has completed several courses with Sharon Blackie, Michael Meade, and the Center of Applied Jungian Studies. Her writing has appeared in Spirituality and Health Magazine, Star Tribune, Elephant Journal, and others. Her first book, *Embodying Soul: A Return to Wholeness*, received multiple awards, including the 2020 IPA award for Mind, Body & Spirit and the 2020 Readers' Favorite Gold Medal in Non-Fiction Spiritual and Supernatural. She is currently working on her second book, an illuminating exploration of personal and collective transformation that will empower readers to evolve their consciousness for an uncertain future. Keri's Links:BookInstagramFacebookYouTube Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

A fascinating history of one our greatest institutions.

Why does dating feel harder than ever for Gen Z? This episode features a conversation with sociologist and researcher Kelsey Eyre Hammond from the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life to explore new data from their latest report: The State of American Romance. We break down what's fueling Gen Z's “romantic recession”—from the rise of dating apps and shifting gender norms to political polarization and digital disconnection. In this episode: The intersection of dating, politics, and gender expectations Why dating apps aren't the easy fix we thought they were How Gen Z's socialization and values are reshaping romance The intersection of dating, politics, and gender expectations What we can do to support healthier, more authentic connection Read the report from AEI here: The Romantic Recession

From Amy:I am so ridiculously proud of my latest podcast episode with Corinne Bauer of Tiny Art Maui.And I really hope you will listen to it. Everything about this conversation and how it came to be is unexpected. I met Corinne at an art show in a Hawaiian hotel lobby. But when I talk about Shiny Objects and allowing myself to play freely in their presence, this is what I'm talking about.On the surface I was drawn to Corinne's delightful Tiny Art Maui display because, as she herself says, it's so stinking cute. And because I couldn't ignore the synchronicity with my book Tiny Altars, which includes framed dollhouse art in its opening chapter. So I indulged my fascination and asked her about her dainty landscapes and frames and how they came to be. That's the draw of Shiny Objects.But underneath that whimsical façade that allowed us to connect, we quickly discovered the powerful foundational beliefs that Corinne and I both share as Gen X women who came to our artistry later in life. Namely that art is absolutely necessary for our humanity. That we are so much more creative than we give ourselves credit for being. And that we absolutely get to claim our gifts.So just as Corinne came to believe that the world needs Tiny Art Maui, I believe that the world needs to hear this gorgeous, candid, spontaneous podcast conversation. En-JOY.Love, AmyPS—The TED Talk Corinne references in our conversation is HERE. With a steady hand and an eye for intricate detail, watercolor artist, Corinne Bauer creates captivating miniature paintings that invite viewers into tiny worlds of wonder. Each piece, often smaller than a matchbox, celebrates light, color, and the power of special moments captured in time. Based on Maui, Corinne draws endless inspiration from the island's vibrant landscapes, tranquil seascapes, and lush flora. Her process involves using brushes as fine as a needle and holding her breath to achieve extraordinary precision in every stroke. These tiny masterpieces invite the viewer to slow down, lean in, and immerse themselves in the infinite beauty of Hawaii's natural world. Corinne's work has been featured in galleries, artist showcases, and private collections.Follow here:InstagramWebsite Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

It's the 55th anniversary of the killings at Kent State University. In a special encore episode, we're reposting our Kent State episode from 2020.In this episode, we commemorate the anniversary of the tragic events of May 4th, 1970 at Kent State University, where agents of the state murdered 4 students and shot 9 others. Students, who'd been told the war was winding down in Vietnam, erupted in protest at campuses all over  America when Richard Nixon  announced the U.S. invasion of Cambodia on April 30th.  At Kent State, a working-class public school in Northeast  Ohio, protesting students and other burned down an ROTC building, a common target in the Vietnam  protest era, and Ohio Governor James Rhodes, vowing a violent response, mobilized the National Guard and  sent them to Kent.  For two days the students and Guard skirmished, with the paramilitaries hurling tear gas and intimidating students.  On May 4th, the Guard, unprovoked, started shooting into the crowd of students and shot 13, killing 4, from distances beyond 300 feet.  These were extrajudicial killings and a sure sign the state would murder anyone who challenged its interests. The war had come home! Scott and Bob, who's also a historian of the Vietnam War and the 1960s and has published extensively on those subjects, talk about the background to  the protests, the official, violent response, the aftermath at places  like Jackson State, where 2 more students were killed, and the larger context of anti-state protests and their meaning, and lessons.Links//Kent State Tribunal Organization, established by Laurel Krause, sister of one of the students assassinated that day (https://bit.ly/3w2spdR);interview with Alan Canfora, one of the survivors of the shootings (https://bit.ly/3OUyjGq);The Kent State May 4th Poetry Collection; Denise Levertov, “The Day the Audience Walked Out on Me, and Why” (https://bit.ly/3kIVyFv);Governor Rhodes press conference, May 3 (https://bit.ly/37cIk0R);Robert Buzzanco, Vietnam and the Transformation  of American Life (https://bit.ly/3kB21ST).https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcastCheck out our new website: https://greenandredpodcast.org/Support//+Become a recurring donor at  https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast+Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandRFollow Green and Red//Donate to Green and Red Podcast//This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).  “Green and Red Blues” by Moody.  Editing by Scott.

Chasing Justice with Lt. Joe Pangaro – Lt. Joe examines the changes in our immigration practices under President Donald Trump. How Democrats wield power as opposed to how Republicans fail to wield power. How the courts are taking the place of politicians to disrupt the Trump agenda, and how it all affects America. Lt. Joe discusses crime in the country, including both new crimes and

Chasing Justice with Lt. Joe Pangaro – Lt. Joe examines the changes in our immigration practices under President Donald Trump. How Democrats wield power as opposed to how Republicans fail to wield power. How the courts are taking the place of politicians to disrupt the Trump agenda, and how it all affects America. Lt. Joe discusses crime in the country, including both new crimes and

From Amy:I always knew that I loved writing. But I'm not sure I understood—until I went through a major transition, and not by my own choice—that writing is healing. At first it's writing just for me, raw and unwieldy and terrifying, but I always have the sense that this writing is something that, when I'm ready, is meant to be shared. Because stories tell us we're not alone. And they help people find us so that we can be there for each other.Meanwhile, I let myself stay in that first stage of book writing as long as I need to, a stage I call ALLOWING. Allowing it all to be whatever it is. And that allowing makes room for the most powerful stories come through. One of the biggest compliments I ever receive as a writer, and how I know my words have landed, is when people feel inexplicably drawn to tell me THEIR stories. It comes from the deepest parts of them, as a welcome release. I can feel it. Because I've processed my hard things, I'm able to listen to theirs and that helps.And even if we never meet at all, these readers and I, stories of healing help people. Yes, we write for ourselves first, but it doesn't stop there. Memoir is not selfish. It's the most generous thing you can do. Does that make sense? Because if you take nothing else away from this episode, it's that you can write your hardest things, yes, the very worst of them, and you can transform them into beautiful writing. So the next question people ask me is: How?How to you get from that very worst moment of heartbreak to a beautiful completed book? Well...I remember when Nikki Kindred Halvorson's husband was killed by a drunk driver in March 2020, because a mutual friend reached out to let me know what had happened. Nikki would need to work with me, this mutual friend said. She didn't know when, but she wanted to let me know. And she was absolutely right. I felt called to work on this project as Nikki's mentor and editor in due time. Eventually, she reached out.After Allowing, you progress into other stages: Composing, Revision, Editing, and now Sharing. That's where I came in.(Do you see the acronym? ACRES? My shorthand for: If you're transforming a landscape, you do it acre by acre.)There was nothing expected or pretty about the loss of John Erik Halvorson—Nikki's longtime best friend and husband—a tragedy compounded by so many things. Such as the old house they were restoring together, all torn apart. A pandemic. And more.But the process of salvaging stories for a beautiful book? (Or several...) There's nothing like it.So if you're wondering how you do that, write a book about your worst nightmare and feel proud of it and even grateful?Nikki pulls back the curtain in this episode. You'll want to listen.Nikki Kindred Halvorson works as a pediatric speech-language pathologist and is active in historical preservation. She realized a lifelong dream in 2014 when she became caretaker of a great old house with her husband, Erik. Widowed in 2020 at age 32, Nikki has continued to rehab her house and has begun building a new life on the foundation of her old one as she heals. She's currently in the process of realizing another lifelong dream of becoming a published author. Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

Have you ever wondered what it's like to grow up in the suburbs?

Send us a textIn this captivating episode of "Bridging Generations: The Cultural Impact of Baseball in Japanese American Life," hosts Koji and Michelle explore the profound connections between baseball and cultural identity within the Japanese American community. They delve into personal stories, from Koji's admiration for Hideo Nomo to Michelle's son's early baseball antics, highlighting how the sport serves as a bridge between generations. Special guest Jason Murai, president of the Japanese American Baseball Organization, shares insights into the Sansei Baseball League's vital role in fostering cultural identity and community spirit. Through engaging anecdotes and reflections, the episode underscores baseball's enduring impact on Japanese American heritage, resilience, and representation in sports, celebrating figures like Shohei Ohtani who inspire future generations.For more about the Sansei baseball league go to:  https://www.sanseibaseball.com/ To see some of JANM's baseball related programs click on this YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/@janmdotorg/search?query=baseball : For more information about the Japanese American National Museum, please visit our website at www.janm.org. CREDITSThe music was created by Jalen BlankWritten by Koji Steven SakaiHosts: Michelle Malazaki and Koji Steven SakaiEdited and produced by Koji Steven Sakai in conjunction with the Japanese American National Museum

From Amy:As long as I've known Sara Taylor, I've thought of her as a gifted writer who—when she gained momentum—would write volumes I want to read. Which is how she was an early participant in what has become my Circle for Real-Life Writers; I've been an up-close witness. Sara's subject matter and how she frames it fascinates me. If I'm interested in the inner working of stories around generational trauma and healing, Sara's a healing practitioner who delves deep into underlying patterns behind stories AND fearlessly applies these lessons in her own life.Her work is groundbreaking. I really believe that. But writing about such things takes time.So when Sara sent out a newsletter sharing how she gained traction on a writing practice thanks to the website 750words.com, I took note. The previous day, I'd heard a random podcast where a prolific author credited the same unknown-to-me website with her own momentum. This was a welcome synchronicity. For months, I've been looking for a way back into the earliest drafting stage of book writing. It's been a long time since I typed the early free-written content that became my two memoirs, random thoughts I saved in Pages with only the vaguest idea of what my book wanted to be (singular, I thought) in the dark forty-five minutes before I awoke my seven-year-old twins. This followed years to work up a strategy and courage to write, and only after I stole the playroom from my kids where I still write today. Initially Pages worked. Afterwards, I had all these document files to wade through and got bogged down again in subsequent stages.Writing tools have evolved since 2011; I'm a different writer too. As in, I think of myself as a writer. Sara talks about this shift too.There's no one tool to write a book. It's just what works for you. But! Within two days, two women I respect described this site as a game changer. And I was intrigued. Because knowing where you're going to write, with a simple set-up, helps calm down resistance. So I signed up for the website, to try it out for myself. The next thing I did was invite Sara to record this conversation.It's one of many tools, but it might be the one that will get you—finally—writing.Because we want you to have options for your practice too. Sara Taylor, PhD, is a neuroscientist turned generational and existential life coach who helps deep thinkers and creatives break free from inherited patterns and lingering existential unease. With a deep understanding of generational trauma, she works with those who've done extensive personal work—especially around anxiety and depression—but still feel stuck, disconnected, or like life is passing them by. She helps people recognize and shift the hidden influences shaping their lives so they can move beyond dissatisfaction into greater potential, meaning, and momentum.Follow here: IG: @sarabtaylorphd Substack: @sarabtaylorphd Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

Today, laundry takes just a few buttons and a spin cycle—but behind that convenience lies a remarkable story of innovation and perseverance. In this episode, Procter & Gamble's historian and corporate storyteller Shane Meeker takes us on a journey through the evolution of laundry—from the gritty days of 19th-century soapmaking to the revolutionary invention of Tide, the detergent that took 14 years to create. From the company's origins in the 1800s making soap and candles, we uncover how science, storytelling, and even wartime research reshaped household routines. Plus, the unexpected role P&G played in inventing the TV soap opera, and how today's laundry labs continue to evolve with consumer habits. Tide and Downy sponsor this episode. -- Mosheh Oinounou (@mosheh) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. He has 20 years of experience at networks including Fox News, Bloomberg Television and CBS News, where he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and launched the network's 24 hour news channel. He founded the @mosheh Instagram news account in 2020 and the Mo News podcast and newsletter in 2022.

Today's guest is Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He spent two years as a police officer in Baltimore. I asked him to come on and talk about his new book, Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. It's one of my favorite books I've read this year (and it was one of my three book recommendations on Ezra Klein's show last week).Peter spoke with hundreds of police officers and NYC officials to understand and describe exactly how the city's leaders in the early 1990s managed to drive down crime so successfully.We discussed:* How bad did things get in the 1970s?* Why did processing an arrest take so long?* What did Bill Bratton and other key leaders do differently?* How did police get rid of the squeegee men?I've included my reading list at the bottom of this piece. Thanks to Harry Fletcher-Wood for his judicious transcript edits.Subscribe for one new interview a week.Peter, how would you describe yourself?I would say I'm a criminologist: my background is sociology, but I am not in the sociology department. I'm not so big on theory, and sociology has a lot of theory. I was a grad student at Harvard in sociology and worked as a police officer [in Baltimore] and that became my dissertation and first book, Cop in the Hood. I've somewhat banked my career on those 20 months in the police department.Not a lot of sociologists spend a couple of years working a police beat.It's generally frowned upon, both for methodological reasons and issues of bias. But there is also an ideological opposition in a lot of academia to policing. It's seen as going to the dark side and something to be condemned, not understood.Sociologists said crime can't go down unless we fix society first. It's caused by poverty, racism, unemployment, and social and economic factors — they're called the root causes. But they don't seem to have a great impact on crime, as important as they are. When I'm in grad school, murders dropped 30-40% in New York City. At the same time, Mayor Giuliani is slashing social spending, and poverty is increasing. The whole academic field is just wrong. I thought it an interesting field to get into.We're going to talk about your new book, which is called Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. I had a blast reading it. Tell me about the process of writing it.A lot of this is oral history, basically. But supposedly people don't like buying books that are called oral histories. It is told entirely from the perspective of police officers who were on the job at the time. I would not pretend I talked to everyone, because there were 30,000+ cops around, but I spoke to many cops and to all the major players involved in the 1990s crime drop in New York City.I was born in the ‘90s, and I had no idea about a crazy statistic you cite: 25% of the entire national crime decline was attributable to New York City's crime decline.In one year, yeah. One of the things people say to diminish the role of policing is that the crime drop happened everywhere — and it did end up happening almost everywhere. But I think that is partly because what happened in New York City was a lot of hard work, but it wasn't that complicated. It was very easy to propagate, and people came to New York to find out what was going on. You could see results, literally in a matter of months.It happened first in New York City. Really, it happened first in the subways and that's interesting, because if crime goes down in the subways [which, at the time, fell under the separate New York City Transit Police] and not in the rest of the city, you say, “What is going on in the subways that is unique?” It was the exact same strategies and leadership that later transformed the NYPD [New York Police Department].Set the scene: What was the state of crime and disorder in New York in the ‘70s and into the ‘80s?Long story short, it was bad. Crime in New York was a big problem from the late ‘60s up to the mid ‘90s, and the ‘70s is when the people who became the leaders started their careers. So these were defining moments. The city was almost bankrupt in 1975 and laid off 5,000 cops; 3,000 for a long period of time. That was arguably the nadir. It scarred the police department and the city.Eventually, the city got its finances in order and came to the realization that “we've got a big crime problem too.” That crime problem really came to a head with crack cocaine. Robberies peaked in New York City in 1980. There were above 100,000 robberies in 1981, and those are just reported robberies. A lot of people get robbed and just say, “It's not worth it to report,” or, “I'm going to work,” or, “Cops aren't going to do anything.” The number of robberies and car thefts was amazingly high. The trauma, the impact on the city and on urban space, and people's perception of fear, all comes from that. If you're afraid of crime, it's high up on the hierarchy of needs.To some extent, those lessons have been lost or forgotten. Last year there were 16,600 [robberies], which is a huge increase from a few years ago, but we're still talking an 85% reduction compared to the worst years. It supposedly wasn't possible. What I wanted to get into in Back from the Brink was the actual mechanisms of the crime drop. I did about fifty formal interviews and hundreds of informal interviews building the story. By and large, people were telling the same story.In 1975, the city almost goes bankrupt. It's cutting costs everywhere, and it lays off more than 5,000 cops, about 20% of the force, in one day. There's not a new police academy class until 1979, four years later. Talk to me about where the NYPD was at that time.They were retrenched, and the cops were demoralized because “This is how the city treats us?” The actual process of laying off the cops itself was just brutal: they went to work, and were told once they got to work that they were no longer cops. “Give me your badge, give me your gun."The city also was dealing with crime, disorder, and racial unrest. The police department was worried about corruption, which was a legacy of the Knapp Commission [which investigated NYPD corruption] and [Frank] Serpico [a whistleblowing officer]. It's an old police adage, that if you don't work, you can't get in trouble. That became very much the standard way of doing things. Keep your head low, stay out of trouble, and you'll collect your paycheck and go home.You talk about the blackout in 1977, when much of the city lost power and you have widespread looting and arson. 13,000 off-duty cops get called in during the emergency, and only about 5,000 show up, which is a remarkable sign of the state of morale.The person in my book who's talking about that is Louis Anemone. He showed up because his neighbor and friend and partner was there, and he's got to help him. It was very much an in-the-foxholes experience. I contrast that with the more recent blackout, in which the city went and had a big block party instead. That is reflective of the change that happened in the city.In the mid-80s you get the crack cocaine epidemic. Talk to me about how police respond.From a political perspective, that era coincided with David Dinkins as [New York City's first black] mayor. He was universally disliked, to put it mildly, by white and black police officers alike. He was seen as hands off. He was elected in part to improve racial relations in New York City, to mitigate racial strife, but in Crown Heights and Washington Heights, there were riots, and racial relations got worse. He failed at the level he was supposed to be good at. Crime and quality of life were the major issues in that election.Dinkins's approach to the violence is centered around what they called “community policing.” Will you describe how Dinkins and political leaders in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s thought about policing?This is under Ben Ward, the [NYPD] Commissioner at the time. The mayor appoints the police commissioner — and the buck does stop with the mayor — but the mayor is not actively involved in day-to-day operations. That part does go down to the police department.Community policing was seen as an attempt to improve relations between the police and the community. The real goal was to lessen racial strife and unrest between black (and to a lesser extent Hispanic) communities and the NYPD. Going back to the ‘60s, New York had been rocked by continued unrest in neighborhoods like Central Harlem, East New York, and Bushwick. Community policing was seen as saying that police are partly to blame, and we want to improve relations. Some of it was an attempt to get the community more involved in crime fighting.It's tough. It involves a certain rosy view of the community, but that part of the community isn't causing the problems. It avoids the fact there are people who are actively criming and are willing to hurt people who get in their way. Community policing doesn't really address the active criminal element, that is a small part of any community, including high-crime communities.Arrests increased drastically during this era, more than in the ‘90s with broken windows policing. If the idea is to have fewer arrests, it didn't happen in the ‘80s. Some good came out of it, because it did encourage cops to be a bit more active and cops are incentivized by overtime. Arrests were so incredibly time-consuming, which kind of defeated the purpose of community policing. If you made an arrest in that era, there was a good chance you might spend literally 24 hours processing the arrest.Will you describe what goes into that 24 hours?From my experience policing in Baltimore, I knew arrests were time-consuming and paperwork redundant, but I could process a simple arrest in an hour or two. Even a complicated one that involved juveniles and guns and drugs, we're talking six to eight hours.In the ‘80s, Bob Davin, [in the] Transit Police, would say they'd make an arrest, process at the local precinct, search him in front of a desk officer, print him, and then they would have to get a radio car off patrol to drive you down to central booking at 100 Centre Street [New York City Criminal Court]. Then they would fingerprint him. They didn't have the live scan fingerprints machine, it was all ink. It had to be faxed up to Albany and the FBI to see if it hit on any warrant federally and for positive identification of the person. Sometimes it took 12 hours to have the prints come back and the perp would be remanded until that time. Then you'd have to wait for the prosecutor to get their act together and to review all the paperwork. You couldn't consider bail unless the prints came back either positive or negative and then you would have that initial arraignment and the cop could then go home. There are a lot of moving parts, and they moved at a glacial pace.The system often doesn't work 24/7. A lot of this has changed, but some of it was having to wait until 9 am for people to show up to go to work, because it's not a single system. The courts, the jails, and policing all march to their own drummer, and that created a level of inefficiency.So much of the nitty-gritty of what cops actually do is boring, behind-the-scenes stuff: How do we speed up the paperwork? Can we group prisoners together? Can we do some of this at the police station instead of taking it downtown? Is all of this necessary? Can we cooperate with the various prosecutors? There are five different prosecutors in New York City, one for each borough.There's not a great incentive to streamline this. Cops enjoyed the overtime. That's one of the reasons they would make arrests. So during this time, if a cop makes an arrest for drug dealing, that cop is gone and no cop was there to replace him. If it's a minor arrest, there's a good chance in the long run charges will be dropped anyway. And you're taking cops off the street. In that sense, it's lose-lose. But, you have to think, “What's the alternative?”Bob Davin is a fascinating guy. There's a famous picture from 1981 by Martha Cooper of two cops on a subway train. It's graffitied up and they're in their leather jackets and look like cops from the ‘70s. Martha Cooper graciously gave me permission to use the picture, but she said, "You have to indemnify me because I don't have a release form. I don't know who the cops are." I said, "Martha, I do know who the cop is, because he's in my book and he loves the picture.” Bob Davin is the cop on the right.Davin says that things started to get more efficient. They had hub sites in the late ‘80s or ‘90s, so precincts in the north of Manhattan could bring their prisoners there, and you wouldn't have to take a car out of service to go back to Central Booking and deal with traffic. They started collecting prisoners and bringing them en masse on a small school bus, and that would cut into overtime. Then moving to electronic scan fingerprints drastically saves time waiting for those to come back.These improvements were made, but some of them involve collective bargaining with unions, to limit overtime and arrests that are made for the pure purpose of overtime. You want cops making arrests for the right reason and not simply to make money. But boy, there was a lot of money made in arrests.In 1991, you have the infamous Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn. Racial tensions kick off. It's a nightmare for the mayor, there's this sense that he has lost control. The following year, you have this infamous police protest at City Hall where it becomes clear the relationship between the cops and the mayor has totally evaporated. How does all that play into the mayoral race between Dinkins and Giuliani?It was unintentional, but a lot of the blame for Crown Heights falls on the police department. The part of the story that is better known is that there was a procession for a Hasidic rabbi that was led by a police car. He would go to his wife's grave, and he got a little three-car motorcade. At some point, the police look at this and go "Why are we doing this? We're going to change it." The man who made the deal said ‘I"m retiring in a couple weeks, can we just leave it till then? Because I gave him my word." They're like, "Alright, whatever."This motor car procession is then involved in a car crash, and a young child named Gavin Cato is killed, and another girl is severely injured. The volunteer, Jewish-run ambulance shows up and decides they don't have the equipment: they call for a professional city ambulance. Once that ambulance is on the way, they take the mildly-injured Jewish people to the hospital. The rumor starts that the Jewish ambulance abandoned the black children to die.This isn't the first incident. There's long been strife over property and who the landlord is. But this was the spark that set off riots. A young Jewish man was randomly attacked on the street and was killed.As an aside, he also shouldn't have died, but at the hospital they missed internal bleeding.Meanwhile, the police department has no real leadership at the time. One chief is going to retire, another is on vacation, a third doesn't know what he's doing, and basically everyone is afraid to do anything. So police do nothing. They pull back, and you have three days of very anti-Semitic riots. Crowds chanting "Kill the Jews" and marching on the Lubavitch Hasidic Headquarters. Al Sharpton shows up. The riots are blamed on Dinkins, which is partly fair, but a lot of that's on the NYPD. Finally, the mayor and the police commissioner go to see what's going on and they get attacked. It's the only time in New York City history that there's ever been an emergency call from the police commissioner's car. People are throwing rocks at it.It took three days to realise this, but that's when they say “We have to do something here,” and they gather a group of officers who later become many of Bratton's main chiefs at the time [Bill Bratton was Commissioner of the NYPD from 1994-1996, under Giuliani]: Mike Julian, Louis Anemone, Ray Kelly, and [John] Timoney. They end the unrest in a day. They allow people to march, they get the police department to set rules. It still goes on for a bit, but no one gets hurt after that, and that's it.It was a huge, national story at the time, but a lot of the details were not covered. Reporters were taken from their car and beaten and stripped. The significance was downplayed at the time, especially by the New York Times, I would say.That's followed by the Washington Heights riots, which is a different story. A drug dealer was shot and killed by cops. There were rumors, which were proven to be false, that he was executed and unarmed. Then there were three days of rioting there. It wasn't quite as severe, but 53 cops were hurt, 120 stores were set on fire, and Mayor Dinkins paid for the victim's family to go to the Dominican Republic for the funeral. The police perspective again was, “You're picking the wrong side here.”Then there's the so-called Police Riot at City Hall. Nominally, it was about the CCRB, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and setting up an accountability mechanism to control cops. But really it was just an anti-Dinkins protest. It was drunken and unruly. The cops stormed the steps of City Hall. I have the account of one of the cops who was on the top of those steps looking at this mob of cops storming to him, and he's getting worried he's going to be killed in a crush. There were racist chants from off-duty cops in the crowd. It did not reflect well on police officers. But it showed this hatred of David Dinkins, who was seen as siding with criminals and being anti-police. The irony is that Dinkins is the one who ends up hiring all the cops that Giuliani gets credit for.In the “Safe Streets, Safe City” program?Yes. That was because a white tourist, Brian Watkins, was killed in a subway station protecting his parents who were getting robbed. That led to the famous headline [in the New York Post] of “Dave, do something! Crime-ravaged city cries out for help.” He, with City Council President Peter Vallone, Sr., drafted and pushed through this massive hiring of police officers, “Safe Streets, Safe City.”The hiring wasn't fast-tracked. It might be because Dinkins's people didn't really want more cops. But it was a Dinkins push that got a massive hiring of cops. When the first huge class of police officers graduated, Bill Bratton was there and not David Dinkins.Some interviewees in your book talk about how there's physically not enough room in the police academies at this time, so they have to run classes 24/7. You cycle cohorts in and out of the same classroom, because there are too many new cops for the facilities.You have thousands of cops going through it at once. Everyone describes it as quite a chaotic scene. But it would have been hard to do what the NYPD did without those cops. Ray Kelly, who was police commissioner under Dinkins at the end [from 1992 to 1994] before he became police commissioner for 12 years under Bloomberg [from 2002 to 2013] probably could have done something with those cops too, but he never had the chance, because the mayoral leadership at the time was much more limiting in what they wanted cops to do.Crime starts declining slowly in the first few years of the ‘90s under Dinkins, and then in ‘93 Giuliani wins a squeaker of a mayoral election against Dinkins.One of the major issues was the then-notorious “squeegee men” of New York City. These were guys who would go to cars stopped at bridges and tunnel entrances and would rub a squeegee over the windshield asking for money. It was unpleasant, intimidating, and unwanted, and it was seen as one of those things that were just inevitable. Like graffiti on the subway in the ‘80s. Nothing we can do about it because these poor people don't have jobs or housing or whatever.The irony is that Bratton and Giuliani were happy to take credit for that, and it was an issue in the mayoral campaign, but it was solved under David Dinkins and Ray Kelly and Mike Julian with the help of George Kelling [who, with James Wilson, came up with broken windows theory]. But they never got credit for it. One wonders if, had they done that just a few months earlier, it would have shifted the entire campaign and we'd have a different course of history in New York City.It's a great example of a couple of things that several people in your book talk about. One is that disorder is often caused by a very small set of individuals. There's only like 70 squeegee men, yet everybody sees them, because they're posted up at the main tunnel and bridge entrances to Manhattan. And getting them off the streets solves the problem entirely.Another emphasis in the book is how perceptions of crime are central. You quote Jack Maple, the father of Compstat, as saying, “A murder on the subway counts as a multiple murder up on the street, because everybody feels like that's their subway.” The particular locations of crimes really affect public perception.Absolutely. Perception is reality for a lot of these things, because most people aren't victimized by crime. But when people perceive that no one is in control they feel less safe. It's not that this perception is false, it just might not be directly related to an actual criminal act.The other thing I try to show is that it's not just saying, “We've got to get rid of squeegee men. How do you do it?” They had tried before, but this is why you need smart cops and good leadership, because it's a problem-solving technique, and the way to get rid of graffiti is different to the way you get rid of squeegee men.This book is in opposition to those who just say, “We can't police our way out of this problem.” No, we can. We can't police our way out of every problem. But if you define the problem as, we don't want people at intersections with squeegees, of course we can police our way out of the problem, using legal constitutional tools. You need the political will. And then the hard work starts, because you have to figure out how to actually do it.Will you describe how they tackle the squeegee men problem?Mike Julian was behind it. They hired George Kelling, who's known for broken windows. They said, “These people are here to make money. So to just go there and make a few arrests isn't going to solve the problem.” First of all, he had to figure out what legal authority [to use], and he used Traffic Reg 44 [which prohibits pedestrians from soliciting vehicle occupants]. He talked to Norm Siegel of the NYCLU [New York Civil Liberties Union] about this, who did not want this crackdown to happen. But Norman said, “Okay, this is the law, I can't fight that one. You're doing it legally. It's all in the books.” And So that took away that opposition.But the relentless part of it is key. First they filmed people. Then, when it came to enforcement, they warned people. Then they cited people, and anybody that was left they arrested. They did not have to arrest many people, because the key is they did this every four hours. It was that that changed behavior, because even a simple arrest isn't going to necessarily deter someone if it's a productive way to make money. But being out there every four hours for a couple of weeks or months was enough to get people to do something else. What that something else is, we still don't know, but we solved the squeegee problem.So in 93, Giuliani is elected by something like 50,000 votes overall. Just as an aside, in Prince of the City, Fred Siegel describes something I had no idea about. There's a Puerto Rican Democratic Councilman who flips and supports Giuliani. Mayor Eric Adams, who at the time was the head of a nonprofit for black men in law enforcement, calls him a race traitor for doing that and for being married to a white woman. There was a remarkable level of racial vitriol in that race that I totally missed.10 years ago when I started this, I asked if I could interview then-Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams, and he said yes, and the interview kept getting rescheduled, and I said, “Eh, I don't need him.” It's a regret of mine. I should have pursued that, but coulda, woulda, shoulda.Giuliani is elected, and he campaigns very explicitly on a reducing crime and disorder platform. And he hires Bill Bratton. Tell me about Bratton coming on board as NYPD commissioner.Bratton grew up in Boston, was a police officer there, became head of the New York City Transit Police when that was a separate police department. Right before he becomes NYPD Commissioner, he's back in Boston, as the Chief of Police there, and there is a movement among certain people to get Bratton the NYC job. They succeed in that, and Bratton is a very confident man. He very much took a broken windows approach and said, “We are going to focus on crime.” He has a right-hand man by the name of Jack Maple who he knows from the Transit Police. Maple is just a lieutenant in transit, and Bratton makes him the de facto number two man in the police department.Jack Maple passed away in 2001 and I didn't know what I was going to do, because it's hard to interview a man who's no longer alive. Chris Mitchell co-wrote Jack Maple's autobiography called Crime Fighter and he graciously gave me all the micro-cassettes of the original interviews he conducted with Maple around 1998. Everyone has a Jack Maple story. He's probably the most important character in Back from the Brink.Jack Maple comes in, no one really knows who he is, no one respects him because he was just a lieutenant in Transit. He goes around and asks a basic question — this is 1994 — he says, “How many people were shot in New York City in 1993?” And nobody knows. That is the state of crime-fighting in New York City before this era. There might have been 7,000 people shot in New York City in 1990 and we just don't know, even to this day.One citation from your book: in 1993, an average of 16 people were shot every day. Which is just remarkable.And remember, shootings have been declining for two or three years before that! But nobody knew, because they weren't keeping track of shootings, because it's not one of the FBI Uniform Crime Report [which tracks crime data nationally] index crimes. But wouldn't you be curious? It took Jack Maple to be curious, so he made people count, and it was findable, but you had to go through every aggravated assault and see if a gun was involved. You had to go through every murder from the previous year and see if it was a shooting. He did this. So we only have shooting data in New York City going back to 1993. It's just a simple process of caring.The super-short version of Back from the Brink is it was a change in mission statement: “We're going to care about crime.” Because they hadn't before. They cared about corruption, racial unrest, brutality, and scandal. They cared about the clearance rate for robbery a bit. You were supposed to make three arrests for every ten robberies. It didn't matter so much that you were stopping a pattern or arresting the right person, as long as you had three arrests for every ten reported crimes, that was fine.This is a story about people who cared. They're from this city — Bratton wasn't, but most of the rest are. They understood the trauma of violence and the fact that people with families were afraid to go outside, and nobody in the power structure seemed to care. So they made the NYPD care about this. Suddenly, the mid-level police executives, the precinct commanders, had to care. and the meetings weren't about keeping overtime down, instead they were about ”What are you doing to stop this shooting?”Tell listeners a little bit more about Jack Maple, because he's a remarkable character, and folks may not know what a kook he was.I think he was a little less kooky than he liked to present. His public persona was wearing a snazzy cat and spats and dressing like a fictional cartoon detective from his own mind, but he's a working-class guy from Queens who becomes a transit cop.When Bratton takes over, he writes a letter up the chain of command saying this is what we should do. Bratton read it and said, “This guy is smart.” Listening to 80 hours of Jack Maple, everyone correctly says he was a smart guy, but he had a very working-class demeanor and took to the elite lifestyle. He loved hanging out and getting fancy drinks at the Plaza Hotel. He was the idea man of the NYPD. Everyone has a Jack Maple imitation. “You're talking to the Jackster,” he'd say. He had smart people working under him who were supportive of this. But it was very much trying to figure out as they went along, because the city doesn't stop nor does it sleep.He was a bulls***er, but he's the one who came up with the basic outline of the strategy of crime reduction in New York City. He famously wrote it on a napkin at Elaine's, and it said, “First, we need to gather accurate and timely intelligence.” And that was, in essence, CompStat. “Then, we need to deploy our cops to where they need to be.” That was a big thing. He found out that cops weren't working: specialized units weren't working weekends and nights when the actual crime was happening. They had their excuses, but basically they wanted a cushy schedule. He changed that. Then, of course, you have to figure out what you're doing, what the effective tactics are. Then, constant follow up and assessment.You can't give up. You can't say “Problem solved.” A lot of people say it wasn't so much if your plan didn't work, you just needed a Plan B. It was the idea that throwing your hands in the air and saying, “What are you going to do?” that became notoriously unacceptable under Chief Anemone's stern demeanor at CompStat. These were not pleasant meetings. Those are the meetings that both propagated policies that work and held officers accountable. There was some humiliation going on, so CompStat was feared.Lots of folks hear CompStat and think about better tracking of crime locations and incidents. But as you flesh out, the meat on the bones of CompStat was this relentless follow-up. You'd have these weekly meetings early in the morning with all the precinct heads. There were relentless asks from the bosses, “What's going on in your district or in your precinct? Can you explain why this is happening? What are you doing to get these numbers down?” And follow-ups the following week or month. It was constant.CompStat is often thought of as high-tech computer stuff. It wasn't. There was nothing that couldn't have been done with old overhead projectors. It's just that no one had done it before. Billy Gorta says it's a glorified accountability system at a time when nobody knew anything about computers. Everyone now has access to crime maps on a computer. It was about actually gathering accurate, timely data.Bratton was very concerned that these numbers had to be right. It was getting everyone in the same room and saying, “This is what our focus is going to be now.” And getting people to care about crime victims, especially when those crime victims might be unsympathetic because of their demeanor, criminal activity, or a long arrest record. “We're going to care about every shooting, we're going to care about every murder.”Part of it was cracking down on illegal guns. There were hundreds of tactics. The federal prosecutors also played a key role. It was getting this cooperation. Once it started working and Giuliani made it a major part of claiming success as mayor, suddenly everyone wanted to be part of this, and you had other city agencies trying to figure it out. So it was a very positive feedback loop, once it was seen as a success.When Bratton came on the job, he said, “I'm going to bring down crime 15%.” No police commissioner had ever said that before. In the history of policing before 1994, no police commissioner ever promised a double-digit reduction in crime or even talked about it. People said “That's crazy.” It was done, and then year after year. That's the type of confidence that they had. They were surprised it worked as well as it did, but they all had the sense that there's a new captain on this ship, and we're trying new things. It was an age of ideas and experiment.And it was a very short time.That's the other thing that surprised me. Giuliani fired Bratton in the middle of ‘96.It's remarkable. Bratton comes in ‘94, and August 1994 is where you see crime drop off a cliff. You have this massive beginning of the reduction that continues.That inflection point is important for historical knowledge. I don't address alternatives that other people have proposed [to explain the fall in crime] — For example, the reduction in lead [in gasoline, paint, and water pipes] or legalized abortion with Roe v. Wade [proposed by Stephen Dubner].Reasonable people can differ. Back from the Brink focuses on the police part of the equation. Today, almost nobody, except for a few academics, says that police had nothing to do with the crime drop. That August inflection is key, because there is nothing in a lagged time analysis going back 20 years that is going to say that is the magic month where things happened. Yet if you look at what happened in CompStat, that's the month they started getting individual officer data, and noticing that most cops made zero arrests, and said, “Let's get them in the game as well.” And that seemed to be the key; that's when crime fell off the table. The meetings started in April, I believe, but August is really when the massive crime drop began.To your point about the confidence that crime could be driven down double digits year over year, there's a great quote you have from Jack Maple, where he says to a fellow cop, “This is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. As long as we have absolute control, we can absolutely drive this number into the floor.”One detail I enjoyed was that Jack Maple, when he was a transit cop, would camp out under a big refrigerator box with little holes cut out for eyes and sit on the subway platform waiting for crooks.For people who are interested in Jack Maple, it is worth reading his autobiography, Crime Fighter. Mike Daly wrote New York's Finest, which uses the same tapes that I had access to, and he is much more focused on that. He's actually the godfather of Jack Maple's son, who is currently a New York City police officer. But Maple and co were confident, and it turned out they were right.As well as having changes in tactics and approach and accountability across the NYPD, you also have a series of specific location cleanups. You have a specific initiative focused on the Port Authority, which is a cesspool at the time, an initiative in Times Square, the Bryant Park cleanup, and then Giuliani also focuses on organized crime on the Fulton Fish Market, and this open-air market in Harlem.I was struck that there was both this general accountability push in the NYPD through CompStat, and a relentless focus on cleaning up individual places that were hubs of disorder.I'm not certain the crime drop would have happened without reclamation of public spaces and business improvement districts. Bryant Park's a fascinating story because Dan Biederman, who heads the Corporation, said, “People just thought it was like a lost cause, this park can't be saved. The city is in a spiral of decline.” He uses Jane Jacobs' “eyes on the street” theory and then George Kelling and James Q. Wilson's broken windows theory. The park has money — not city money, but from local property owners — and it reopens in 1991 to great acclaim and is still a fabulous place to be. It showed for the first time that public space was worth saving and could be saved. New York City at the time needed that lesson. It's interesting that today, Bryant Park has no permanent police presence and less crime. Back in the ‘80s, Bryant Park had an active police presence and a lot more crime.The first class I ever taught when I started at John Jay College in 2004, I was talking about broken windows. A student in the class named Jeff Marshall, who is in my book, told me about Operation Alternatives at the Port Authority. He had been a Port Authority police officer at the time, and I had not heard of this. People are just unaware of this part of history. It very much has lessons for today, because in policing often there's nothing new under the sun. It's just repackaged, dusted off, and done again. The issue was, how do we make the Port Authority safe for passengers? How do we both help and get rid of people living in the bus terminal? It's a semi-public space, so it makes it difficult. There was a social services element about it, that was Operational Alternatives. A lot of people took advantage of that and got help. But the flip side was, you don't have to take services, but you can't stay here.I interviewed the manager of the bus terminal. He was so proud of what he did. He's a bureaucrat, a high-ranking one, but a port authority manager. He came from the George Washington Bridge, which he loved. And he wonders, what the hell am I going to do with this bus terminal? But the Port Authority cared, because they're a huge organization and that's the only thing with their name on it — They also control JFK Airport and bridges and tunnels and all the airports, but people call the bus terminal Port Authority.They gave him almost unlimited money and power and said, “Fix it please, do what you've got to do,” and he did. It was environmental design, giving police overtime so they'd be part of this, a big part of it was having a social service element so it wasn't just kicking people out with nowhere to go.Some of it was also setting up rules. This also helped Bratton in the subway, because this happened at the same time. The court ruled that you can enforce certain rules in the semi-public spaces. It was not clear until this moment whether it was constitutional or not. To be specific, you have a constitutional right to beg on the street, but you do not have a constitutional right to beg on the subway. That came down to a court decision. Had that not happened, I don't know if in the long run the crime drop would have happened.That court decision comes down to the specific point that it's not a free-speech right on the subway to panhandle, because people can't leave, because you've got them trapped in that space.You can't cross the street to get away from it. But it also recognized that it wasn't pure begging, that there was a gray area between aggressive begging and extortion and robbery.You note that in the early 1990s, one-third of subway commuters said they consciously avoided certain stations because of safety, and two thirds felt coerced to give money by aggressive panhandling.The folks in your book talk a lot about the 80/20 rule applying all over the place. That something like 20% of the people you catch are committing 80% of the crimes.There's a similar dynamic that you talk about on the subways, both in the book and in your commentary over the past couple years about disorder in New York. You say approximately 2,000 people with serious mental illness are at risk for street homelessness, and these people cycle through the cities, streets, subways, jails, and hospitals.What lessons from the ‘90s can be applied today for both helping those people and stopping them being a threat to others?Before the ‘80s and Reagan budget cuts there had been a psychiatric system that could help people. That largely got defunded. [Deinstitutionalization began in New York State earlier, in the 1960s.] We did not solve the problem of mental health or homelessness in the ‘90s, but we solved the problem of behavior. George Kelling [of broken windows theory] emphasized this repeatedly, and people would ignore it. We are not criminalizing homelessness or poverty. We're focusing on behavior that we are trying to change. People who willfully ignore that distinction almost assume that poor people are naturally disorderly or criminal, or that all homeless people are twitching and threatening other people. Even people with mental illness can behave in a public space.Times have changed a bit. I think there are different drugs now that make things arguably a bit worse. I am not a mental health expert, but we do need more involuntary commitment, not just for our sake, but for theirs, people who need help. I pass people daily, often the same person, basically decomposing on a subway stop in the cold. They are offered help by social services, and they say no. They should not be allowed to make that choice because they're literally dying on the street in front of us. Basic humanity demands that we be a little more aggressive in forcing people who are not making rational decisions, because now you have to be an imminent threat to yourself or others. That standard does need to change. But there also need to be mental health beds available for people in this condition.I don't know what the solution is to homelessness or mental health. But I do know the solution to public disorder on the subway and that's, regardless of your mental state or housing status, enforcing legal, constitutional rules, policing behavior. It does not involve locking everybody up. It involves drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It's amazing how much people will comply with those rules.That presents the idea that someone's in charge, it's not a free-for-all. You get that virtuous loop, which New York had achieved in 2014–2016, when crime was at an all-time low in the city. Then the politicians decided public order wasn't worth preserving anymore. These are political choices.I had a similar version of this conversation with a friend who was shocked that there were zero murders on the subway in 2017 and that that number was stable: you had one or two a year for several years in the mid-2010s.It was five or fewer a year from 1997 to 2019, and often one or two. Then you have zero in 2017. There were [ten in 2022]. It coincides perfectly with an order from [Mayor] de Blasio's office and the homeless czar [Director of Homeless Services Steven] Banks [which] told police to stop enforcing subway rules against loitering. The subways became — once again — a de facto homeless shelter. Getting rule-violating homeless people out of the subway in the late ‘80s was such a difficult and major accomplishment at the time, and to be fair it's not as bad as it was.The alternative was that homeless outreach was supposed to offer people services. When they decline, which 95% of people do, you're to leave them be. I would argue again, I don't think that's a more humane stance to take. But it's not just about them, it's about subway riders.There's one story that I think was relevant for you to tell. You were attacked this fall on a subway platform by a guy threatening to kill you. It turns out he's had a number of run-ins with the criminal justice system. Can you tell us where that guy is now?I believe he's in prison now. The only reason I know who it is is because I said, one day I'm going to see his picture in the New York Post because he's going to hurt somebody. Am I 100 percent certain it's Michael Blount who attacked me? No, but I'm willing to call him out by name because I believe it is. He was out of prison for raping a child, and he slashed his ex-girlfriend and pushed her on the subway tracks. And then was on the lam for a while. I look at him and the shape of his face, his height, age, build, complexion, and I go, that's got to be him.I wasn't hurt, but he gave me a sucker punch trying to knock me out and then chased me a bit threatening to kill me, and I believe he wanted to. It's the only time I ever was confronted by a person who I really believe wanted to kill me, and this includes policing in the Eastern District in Baltimore. It was an attempted misdemeanor assault in the long run. But I knew it wasn't about me. It was him. I assume he's going to stay in prison longer for what he did to his ex-girlfriend. But I never thought it would happen to me. I was lucky the punch didn't connect.Peter Moskos's new book is Back from the Brink, Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop.My reading listEssays:Johnny Hirschauer's reporting, including “A Failed 'Solution' to 'America's Mental Health Crisis',“ “Return to the Roots,” and “The Last Institutions.” “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson. ​“It's Time to Talk About America's Disorder Problem,” Charles Lehman.Books:Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, Jill Leovy.​Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life, Fred Siegel.​ Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District, Peter Moskos.​Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, Sam Quinones.​Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

A few months ago I made a decision that changed my life and the trajectory of Tangle for good.I was approached by a producer for a new podcast called “Question Everything,” hosted by Brian Reed (who you might know from the hit podcast S-Town). The producer, Zach St. Louis, told me they were doing a series about the state and future of journalism. They wanted to do an episode about Tangle, which I agreed to enthusiastically, and then Zach came down to the Tangle office and interviewed me for a few hours. During our interview, I mentioned to Zach that we've heard from many readers who said Tangle has helped them with their relationships with people in their family or friend groups with whom they share political disagreements. I even hear from married couples, I said, who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Zach was intrigued by this and ended up tracking down a few of those Tangle readers, including one couple who ended up being at the heart of the episode. A few months after Question Everything published our show, it was picked up by This American Life on NPR, which nearly doubled our readership and helped me make a few big hires at Tangle. It all happened right around the election, and was an incredibly exciting and overwhelming time. Now that the dust has settled a bit, we've decided to republish the original Question Everything episode on our own podcast feed so you all can listen to it (in the event you haven't). And, when you're done, I highly recommend going to listen to all of the Question Everything series — which is a genuinely fascinating exploration of journalism.Isaac & the Tangle teamBy the way: If you are not yet a podcast member, and you want to upgrade your newsletter subscription plan to include a podcast membership (which gets you ad-free podcasts, Friday editions, The Sunday podcast, bonus content), you can do that here. That page is a good resource for managing your Tangle subscription (just make sure you are logged in on the website!)Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to ReadTangle.com to sign up! You can also give the gift of a Tangle podcast subscription by clicking here.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was hosted by Ari Weitzman and Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and Jon Lall. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Hunter Casperson, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Peyton is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. She teaches people how language changes relationship and the brain. She works with audiences internationally to create a compassionate understanding of the effects of relational trauma on the brain, and writes about and teaches people how words change and heal us.Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet. She has 13 collections of poetry, and her work has appeared in O Magazine, A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, American Life in Poetry, on fences, in back alleys, on Carnegie Hall Stage and on hundreds of river rocks she leaves around her town of Placerville, Colorado. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon prize. Devoted to helping others explore creative practice, Rosemerry is also co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process; co-founder of Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal); and co-leader of Soul Writers Circle.In This Episode:Sarah's WebsiteYour Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain's Capacity for Healing, by Sarah PeytonRosemerry's websiteThe Unfolding: Poems, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer---If you'd like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-trauma-therapist--5739761/support.

From Amy:My junior year in high school, we read Thornton Wilder's play Our Town in English class. My senior year, that same English teacher, Carol Ottoson, directed the play and cast me as the Stage Manager. That role, which spends so much time reflecting on details in life and their meaning, had a huge influence on how I see the world, and I'm certain that's rubbed off on me as a writer of creative nonfiction: how I make sense of small details, the things that matter, the people around me, and how they all connect to each other. It seems to me that I would be a different person if not for that experience, and the understanding that I had a voice that carries, and that I can use it for good in the world.So when I went with my husband to a recent production of Our Town at a neighboring high school, I was delighted to run into my old castmate (and previous podcast guest) Cory Busse, himself a writer, whose daughter was now in the show. We both agreed that this play was something special, something that had a huge impact on both of us, and something that holds up across time. So I reached out to our former English teacher, Carol Ottoson, and the three of us recorded a reunion conversation. It's the perfect introduction to my latest podcast season.I am reminded all the time that story is powerful. Connection to each other is powerful. And we have no idea the impact that stories will have on us until long after they're told. Some stories have our attention a moment. But some stories—and some people—make an indelible mark.And if that's not a worthy reason to make our artwork and write our stories and engage in creative play with each other, I'm not sure what is. Carol Ottoson (Otto) retired from teaching, coaching, and directing after 36 years in the classroom, including 24 in the Prior Lake Savage (MN) School District. She continues to sub in the district. She directed theater for thirty years and coached speech for 34 years. Carol and her husband Keith have been married for over 51 years and have two adult children, Heather and Andy, two sons-in-law, Collan and Branden, and two grandsons, Zach and Jameson. Carol and her husband enjoy traveling and are frequently on the road somewhere. Carol also occasionally preaches at her local church (htumc.org). They are a reconciling congregation, and promote inclusivity.Follow Carol on Facebook  or email her directly at ottoem50@aol.com.  Cory Busse was once voted "Sexiest Man Alive" by Cory Busse Magazine whose audience boasts more than zero Cory Busses.Follow "Tales from the Christmas Village," a way to keep the spirit of snark alive in your heart all year long.   Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

It's a new season for Courageous Wordsmith. My first two books are launched and I'm focused on helping Real-Life Writers find their voices. Here's what has my attention, and why.Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats.   Get Amy's Books and Audiobooks Learn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers Work with Amy 1:1

Send us a textAnother beauty from the Bako vault! Bakotunes welcomes Primus bassist and musical visionary, Les Claypool! Enjoy a nice slice of cheesy, gooey, Primus goodness with memories, music and more. Recorded during the band's final Primus in 3D tour (2012). Episode includes music by Primus: "John The Fisherman (live)", "My Name is Mud", "American Life", "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver", and a bonus trailer from the dreaded "XTro" (1982). Sponsored by Chain Cohn Clark - Kern County's leading accident, injury, and workers' compensation law firm. Subscribe to Bakotunes at all podcast outlets and follow our socials!Instagram / More LinksContact: mattomunoz@gmail.com

Sarah Peyton is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. She teaches people how language changes relationship and the brain. She works with audiences internationally to create a compassionate understanding of the effects of relational trauma on the brain, and writes about and teaches people how words change and heal us.Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet. She has 13 collections of poetry, and her work has appeared in O Magazine, A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, American Life in Poetry, on fences, in back alleys, on Carnegie Hall Stage and on hundreds of river rocks she leaves around her town of Placerville, Colorado. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon prize. Devoted to helping others explore creative practice, Rosemerry is also co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process; co-founder of Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal); and co-leader of Soul Writers Circle.In This Episode:Sarah's WebsiteYour Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain's Capacity for Healing, by Sarah PeytonRosemerry's websiteThe Unfolding: Poems, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer---If you'd like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-trauma-therapist--5739761/support.

From Amy:This year, more than ever, I wanted to honor Black History Month, at a time when attempts have been made to erase it. I invited my friend Terry Newby to help me do that. As a white woman in America, I loved literature, but I did not grow up reading many marginalized voices. While I knew the name James Baldwin, I couldn't have told you what he stood for. And now? I know him as a Black man and a gay author. And what else? I've admired him interview clips. He feels important. How do I talk about his contributions, beyond a surface level?I'm no expert in Black literature. I'm still very much learning. But this is knowledge that Terry brings.I'm also not German, and I taught those stories for seventeen years, within a historical context. That was not an accident. I was trained by some excellent literature teachers. I learned about the authors as people within their life circumstances in concert with reading their writing. For our six-hour comprehensive graduation exam, we German majors were required to know all relevant information, literary terminology, authors, character names, themes, and dates for all literary movements and a selection of eighty German canonical works. And were required to figure out what "relevant" meant for ourselves. It was brutal. I read some in the German original, some in translation, and met with fellow German majors to compare notes. We passed, all six of us, which is to say: We graduated, none of us with honors in our major, not even my classmate who graduated Summa Cum Laude. I will always remember how Julie Klassen, our beloved mentor, brought us strawberry tea and donuts for a break three hours in. It was more than perfect. She gave us a powerful lesson, better than acing the test, honestly. We didn't know everything we were asked, but we could prepare, come close enough, and celebrate our exploration of writers.This took place in a language that wasn't even mine until I was fourteen. Let that sink in for a moment. Their voices were truly foreign to me. But they came from a context I needed to learn and these were their authentic voices. What a gift. So what I have, really, is the training to ponder the authors I read. Where do they come from, and what does that bring to their writing?What's there for me to take away from the reading?Please understand, I don't mean that an author intended to include all the meaningful connections that show up in their writing. I firmly believe that things land in creative works that a writer never consciously intended to add, but readers see them, because I have experienced this in my own writing. It's magic, really. It's the fullest expression of what it is to be human, and it's essential. The writer's gifts take on a life of their own. But what the writer does, and must do, is gather the courage to show up and publish the words. And readers make meaning.We, the readers, can ask the questions together and individually and trust that it's going to be a good journey, whatever we find.James Baldwin had courage in spades. I've seen him in those video clips and thought of him as another mentor, albeit not one I know well. And when Terry Newby came into my world, we started having conversations that make us both think deeply, as I once did with my German major peers. (You'll hear this in the interview. I pose some questions where it's clear that I'm formulating. I have no idea where we'll end up. Terry laughs and calls me out and responds with his own surprises. Not all of it makes it into the final product. Terry can attest to that.)It's a creative process we capture, just as Baldwin was known to say unexpected things on the video clips that I've seen and admired.This is actually the antidote to that star-student perfectionism that society trains us to reach for. When we don't have to be the expert, this makes room for us to appreciate the experience of all the interesting, diverse voices around us. Terry and I agree: We must do this NOW.I appreciate how James Baldwin led the way, refusing to be someone that he was not, nor a stereotype of the richly gifted person he was. Baldwin didn't parse words. And because he grounded us so fully in his experience, I can extrapolate. I can learn where I stand and maybe take steps in another direction. And I loved seeing where Terry came from as a writer, with Baldwin as one of his key influences.Thank you to Terry for introducing me to James Baldwin as one of the authors that influenced him most as a writer.We ended with a list of Terry's favorite books for Black History Month, or frankly, whenever you want a good read.Terrance Newby's Recommendations:Another Country, by James BaldwinThe Bluest Eye, by Toni MorrisonInvisible Man, by Ralph EllisonNative Son, by Richard WrightBeloved, by Toni MorrisonThink fast: If you enjoyed this conversation and you're in Minnesota, you can see a play by Terry this Friday, February 28 at 7:00. Landmark Center in St. Paul is staging an encore performance of Little Rock, 1942, by Terrance Newby and James Lundy. Terry not only co-wrote this play, but he's in it. I saw the premiere and I learned so much. Seriously good. Buy your tickets in advance here. Only $10, only one night.Terrance C. Newby is an attorney, novelist, and playwright based in St. Paul, Minnesota. His plays The Cage, The Body Politic, Reunion Forever, and The Piano Teacher have been professionally staged in Twin Cities theaters.Terry's novel, Dangerfield's Promise, was published in April 2022, and has received five-star reviews from the Seattle Book Review, Manhattan Book Review, Chicago Book Review, and the Midwest Book Review, among others. Terry is currently working on a sequel to Dangerfield's Promise.Terry's LinkedIn Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

A century ago, the United States designated its first wilderness area – a place to be forever preserved and protected from human impact. But what does “wilderness” mean in the era of smartphone technology that keeps us constantly connected and human-fueled climate change? And who gets to enjoy these “untrammeled” spaces? These are the questions posed by environmental journalist Marissa Ortega-Welch in her podcast “How Wild.” We talk with Ortega-Welch, an environmental historian, and an outdoor educator about the complex history and future of our wildest landscapes. And we hear from you: What does wilderness mean for you? Guests: Marissa Ortega-Welch, science and environmental journalist, host of the podcast "How Wild" Phoebe Young, professor of environmental history and chair of the history department, University of Colorado Boulder; author, "Camping Grounds: Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement" Aparna Rajagopal, founding partner, The Avarna Group

In his essay, "As Much Truth as One Can Bear," James Baldwin writes, "not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." It's a timeless quote, one that feels as relevant now in 2025 as it did in 1962. On this episode of Access to Excellence Distinguished Professor Keith Clark joins President Gregory Washington to discuss Baldwin's legacy, the powerful lessons found in Black literature, and the importance of bearing witness to the past in order to make a better future.

On this Valentine's Day installment of the 538 Politics podcast, Galen is joined by Daniel Cox and Kelsey Eyre Hammond of the Survey Center on American Life. They discuss the troubled state of American dating life and how the country fell into a “romantic recession.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Amy:Welcome to my 100th Episode! Thank you for celebrating with me.When I launched this podcast as Frau Amy's World on January 1, 2019, Sarah Bamford Seidelmann was my very first guest. As the original name suggests, I was still transitioning out of my teaching career, through the life coach world, into this literary life as a writer and editor of my own unfolding design. My first true-life novel, German Awakening: Tales from an American Life, had come out in October 3, 2018. This book was much more timely than I anticipated, which made me nervous to talk much about it. As a woman who had stood on both sides of the Berlin Wall at seventeen, two years before it unexpectedly fell, and then went on to teach 20th-century German film and literature for most of my career, I saw too many themes from my book echoing out in my own native land concurrent with publication. How on earth would I talk about that? Such a unique problem for memoir writers.But / and / also universal to all human beings living on this planet together. We're longing for language to meet these times.And how did I possibly talk about this life-coaching-meets-narrative-craft world I've been shaping for myself ever since?Indirectly, via my podcast. The podcast helped me get used to the idea of talking about timely topics. I don't really shape this content. The topics present themselves to me. I read something or I cross paths with somebody. I reach out. Almost invariably they say yes. (Though I must say: ONE famous author that I admire sent me an incredibly gracious no thanks! All I could say was: SHE WROTE ME BACK! But also: I ask knowing she can say no, which likewise requires grace on my part.) I've spoken with many gracious guests, and some amazing humans have partnered with me, especially Will Quie, my first editor, and now Brooke Roy.All that collaboration requires me to know where I stand, and where others begin. Which gets to this special 100th episode: Boundaries Make Love Possible, also the title of Sarah's most recent beautiful book. And I've seen Sarah live those words.In saying yes, Sarah was my ideal first guest. Like me, she was a published author (who had graciously blurbed my front cover!) and had left an established career (in her case, as an MD) and gone through Master Coach Training. At the time—and I did look to see—Sarah was the only other Martha Beck Certified Master Life Coach in Minnesota when I graduated. (That name has since changed too. It's now Wayfinder Master Coach Training. Anyway... Sarah is a mentor, a few steps ahead of me in many ways.) The more things change, the more they stay the same, to quote a cliche. I am still a teacher. Sarah is still a healer.America is still changing fast. It's still hard to talk about it.But also... we have come a long way in those six years. As I write this, this podcast is nearing 6400 downloads.Sarah is now known as an artist, and I have always considered myself a working, real-life creative. Which is why it was such an honor to interview Sarah about her most recent workbook that combines Sarah's writing and her distinctive artwork. You really might want to read it. It's lovely and colorful, and I find myself relying on the wisdom inside and quoting sections to friends. Several of them have received Sarah's book from me for birthdays and Christmas. It really is that relevant and timely.I have a few more episodes with Sarah coming up in April to celebrate my second book's second birthday.Meanwhile, inspired by Sarah once more, I'm unveiling new show art. Enjoy!Here's to 100 episodes. And here's to 100 more.Sarah Bamford Seidelmann is a 4th generation physician, accomplished author, artist and shamanic healer. Her celebrated and unconventional work aims to restore the soul. “Sarah Seidelmann is a true medicine woman and everything she creates is good for what ails us.” —Martha Beck, New York Times bestselling author of The Way of Integrity.Boundaries Workbook Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and writing mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Joe William Trotter, Jr., author of Building The Black City: The Transformation of American Life. Building The Black City explores the history of African Americans in cities across America from the colonial era to recent times. He emphasized the agency of African people in building their own infrastructure and institutions despite being dispossessed of their labor. Trotter highlighted the importance of understanding the regional dimensions of black urban life, using New Orleans, Charleston, and Savannah as examples.Joe William Trotter, Jr., is Giant Eagle University Professor of History and Social Justice, Director and Founder of Carnegie Mellon University's Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE), and author of Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram - @diverse_voices_book_review Twitter - @diversebookshay Email: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com  

Imani Perry's latest book, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, is an evocative exploration of what the colour can tell us about being Black in the United States today — and the extraordinary human capacity to find beauty in the face of devastation. Imani speaks to Mattea Roach about tracing blue through history, music, and her own life.If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these episodes:Nalo Hopkinson: How Caribbean folktales inspired her fantastical novel, Blackheart ManTanya Talaga: Searching for her great-great grandmother — a story of family, truth and survival

Research shows we're spending more time alone than ever before. Atlantic writer Derek Thompson says all this "me time" has a profound impact on our relationships and politics. Also, David Bianculli reviews the documentary Without Arrows.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

From Amy:This episode, in which my dear colleague and peer Orla Collins interviewed me in 2023, introduces my 52-card Tiny Altars oracle deck. My books are available through distributors other than me, and I haven't been interested in opening a storefront to sell these decks. I already tried that with my first book and my first products, and I could do that again, but it's not where I want to put my energy. And I only want to focus on what I am truly here to do as a working creative. I could market the cards to someone else, a distributor who could make them available widely. I do believe they're that good. But I don't want to.I grew up watching my sign-painter grandpa make branded gifts for his clients, and his remaining golden yardsticks (two that I use daily) bring me profound joy. So instead, I only sell these cards locally in Minnesota and make them available as gifts to my Courageous Wordsmith clients that I work with personally. Which is an intentionally small group. That doesn't make the cards any less powerful or any less profound or any less beautiful. They are in fact the capstone of my self-appointed curriculum on the path to becoming a working creative, my odyssey while I healed myself from the intensive trauma of my teaching career. Now I do what I want. And so... since for all these many reasons, you can't buy the cards on the Internet, I have held off on releasing this episode until now. And then, recently, I listened to the beautiful gift that my friend Orla gave me.She would not let me deflect my attention away from what I have accomplished with these cards.These cards represent the complete set of my life-coach-meets-narrative-craft questions around which I framed Tiny Altars. The cards in turn shaped the final book revisions. Both are distilled thanks to that process.So here's why I'm sharing this episode now:Because it gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it is to put your creative work into the world, and to remind you that maybe you too feel like hiding as I have, but there's good work that you have to share, however you do. You have choices and agency about how you show up in the world. And furthermore these cards are now, more than ever, at the heart of my work in Courageous Wordsmith, including my recent premiere one-day Writing Revival. So you might want to work with me.And as I say, for those of you without an artist grandfather to model your life on, who still want to be a real-life working creative, it helps to know what it might look like for you.Orla Collins, aka the Irish Orlacle, profoundly understands how constant people-pleasing damages relationships, drains energy, producing anxiety, anger and despair. Originally from Dublin, Orla lives in Toronto with her husband, is mum to four, young adults, and a snuggly goldendoodle. Orla loves a well-made cup of tea, speaks with a soft Irish accent, swears occasionally, while using her experience and humour to help her clients dissolve unhealthy, inherited, people-pleasing patterns, strengthen their intimate relationships, and create peace in their homes.Orla's podcast: Tea with the Irish OrlacleInstagram: @orlacle_coaching Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orla.collins.5811/ Website: www.orlaclecoaching.comSubscribe to Orla's newsletter  Amy Hallberg is the author of Tiny Altars: A Midlife Revival and German Awakening: Tales from an American Life. She is the host of Courageous Wordsmith Podcast and founder of Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life Writers. As an editor and creative mentor, Amy guides writers through their narrative journeys—from inklings to beautiful works, specifically podcasts and books. A lifelong Minnesotan and mother of grown twins, Amy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two cats. Get Amy's Books and AudiobooksLearn about Courageous Wordsmith Circle for Real-Life WritersWork with Amy 1:1

We all have the ability to create. So why do some people feel they need permission in order to move forward with their ideas? Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff discuss how to cast off the need for permission and create value like you were meant to do. Show Notes: Permission means that you can't move forward unless someone else says you can. If you're asking permission, you're giving someone power to exercise over you in certain situations. Some people's first consideration when they have a new idea is to prepare a proposal and get permission to move forward. Some parents give their children free rein to do whatever they want to do. If you have a lot of children, you have to manage, not just parent. Being a parent is like being a business owner in that you're always being watched. If you ignore your surroundings and you aren't tuned in, you can get old without having any wisdom. When you go for the easiest, fastest solution, you're usually going for the worst one. Resources: Creative Careers: Making a Living With Your Ideas by B. Jeffrey Madoff Charlatan by Pope Brock Empire of Deception by Dean Jobb “The Junkification of American Life” by David Brooks Thinking About Your Thinking by Dan Sullivan Learn more about Jeffrey Madoff Dan Sullivan and Strategic Coach®

On January 16th, we hosted an in-person panel in Berkeley, CA to discuss media in the age of Trump, war and resistance, why it matters and how to stand in solidarity with those on the frontlines. The panel featured Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein, Nora Barrows-Friedman with Electronic Intifada and Green and Red Podcast co-host Prof. Robert Buzzanco. Here's the full audio of our panel. -------------------------------------------- * Bio// Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor at The Electronic Intifada and the co-host of the weekly EI Livestream. She has been reporting on Palestine for more than 20 years, and worked with Dennis Bernstein at Flashpoints from 2003-2010. * Bio// Dennis Bernstein is a poet, human rights reporter, host of Flashpoints on KPFA 94.1 Pacifica Radio. He is the author of Notebook 19, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon, and Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom. * Bio//Robert Buzzanco is co-host of the Green and Red Podcast, a professor of history at the University of Houston, and author of Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era, Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life, and American Power, American People.

We are kicking things off with a topic Amy has been fascinated by - the gender divide in American politics and why it's so pronounced among Gen Z.In the past, young voters have reliably supported the Democratic candidate for president, regardless of gender. Just four years ago, a majority of both young men and young women voted for Joe Biden. But in 2024 the picture looked different. A majority of young women did support Kamala Harris. But a majority of young men cast their vote for Donald Trump. In fact, 56% of young men voted for Trump compared to only 4% of young women. None of this was a surprise to Daniel Cox, our guest today. He's been watching this gender divergence unfold for years now, and he says it's happening on so many levels: that gender informs Gen Z's views on a range of issues from social, to culture to, of course, political. So Amy wanted to talk to him about why this is, will it last, and what's making this cohort so different from previous generations.Daniel Cox is Director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Uncoupled, which will focus on the growing gender gap in American society. He also writes the Substack American Storylines. To learn more about The Cook Political Report go to: www.cookpolitical.com/subscribe

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a surprising (or not surprising?) shift in the Church in the U.S. At the inception of the early Church, Christianity's promotion of the value of women is what resulted in flocks of women joining the Church. In fact, throughout history, women have predominated the church in number. That appears to be changing. A recent survey conducted by the Survey Center on American Life found that women are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers. Episode Links The reasons that this shift should not surprise us, particularly when you do a careful study of both the rise of the “nones” - those who have no religious affiliation - and Generation Z. Dr. White has written books about both of these groups: The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated and Meet Generation Z. The vast majority of Gen Z women identify as feminists (whether liberal or conservative) and find the tendencies of some denominations within the Christian faith to be misogynistic. This has been a huge point of contention within the Southern Baptist Convention, who've made the decision to expel churches for allowing women to serve as pastors within the church. Dr. White referenced an article written by Jessica Grose for the New York Times titled “Young Women Are Fleeing Organized Religion. This Was Predictable.” We'd recommend taking the time to read it in full, as it provides a really helpful understanding of the causes for the recent decline. There was also a past podcast episode on the topic of women serving in leadership roles within the life of the church, including serving as pastors. We'd encourage you to listen to CCP7: On Women in Ministry if you haven't already. The survey mentioned earlier also found that sadly, many of these young women are gone for good. As the article says, “Studies consistently show that people who leave religion rarely come back, even if they hold on to some of their formative beliefs and practices.” Churches must respond by shifting their focus, or else they risk losing both the strongest core of volunteers (traditionally always women) and the most consistent financial donors. Women need to see other women serving in leadership and teaching roles. Dr. White wrote a blog on this topic titled “Women as Pastors,” which you can find HERE. Finally, they also discuss how the opposite shift is happening for men - they seem to be increasingly drawn to the church; and surprisingly, to the Orthodox Church. Dr. White mentioned the article titled “Young, single men are leaving traditional churches. They found a more ‘masculine' alternative” that you can read HERE. Men also tend to gravitate toward churches that teach men what it means to be a man in today's culture. Dr. White has delivered several series at Mecklenburg Community Church that you may be interested in checking out. These are Defining Manhood and Man Up For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we hear questions, criticisms, complaints, thoughts, and feedback from our listener community. We respond to your comments about the direction of the podcast, the diversity of Jewish experience, and the increased centrality of Israel of our lives. In this episode we discuss:How has the 18Forty mission evolved in light of changes in the world and in Jewish life?Is there an opposite phenomenon to “gvir culture”?How should we discuss important issues that are contentious and divisive, such as the Haredi draft and the identity of the messiah?Tune in to hear a conversation about how 18Forty might become “a beis medrash for the Jewish People.”Voicemails begin at 19:23References:“Switch To Orthodoxy: Continuity Rather Than Triumph” by Sergey Kadinsky“First-ever Solomon Schechter day school in North America goes Orthodox” by Jackie HajdenbergDonate to 18FortySubscribe on YouTube18Forty Podcast: “Pawel Maciejko: Sabbateanism and the Roots of Secular Judaism”18Forty Podcast: “Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort: How Progressive Activists Rediscovered Traditional Jewish Life”Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy by Samuel C. HeilmanBeyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism by Adam S. FerzigerAuthentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life by Zev EleffModern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History by Zev Eleff18Forty Podcast: “Eli Rubin: Is the Rebbe the Messiah?”Basi Legani, 5711 by the Lubavitcher Rebbe18 Questions, 40 Israeli Thinkers“My Chevruta” by Itzhak David GoldbergBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

Nancy Miller Gomez grew up in Kansas, but currently lives in Santa Cruz, California. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, The Adroit Journal, Shenandoah, New Ohio Review, Rattle, Massachusetts Review, River Styx, American Life in Poetry, Verse Daily, The Hopkins Review, and elsewhere. She received a special mention in the 2023 Pushcart Prize Anthology and her chapbook, Punishment, was published as part of the Rattle chapbook series. She has worked as a waitress, a stable hand, an attorney, and a television producer. She co-founded an organization that provides writing workshops to incarcerated women and men and has taught poetry in Salinas Valley State Prison, the Santa Cruz County Jails and the Juvenile Hall. She has a B.A. from The University of California, San Diego, a J.D. from the University of San Diego and a Master in Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University. She is currently working on a collection of personal essays. Her first full-length poetry manuscript is now available from YesYes Books.

An examination of the Los Angeles Fire Department reveals another understanding of The Mystery. It might be stated as follows: The fundamental truths of American life have been replaced by the aspirational desires of the political class. The needs of the citizens suffer as a result. Mn finally visited by the mysterious drones. Reusse with sports and Johnny Heidt with guitar news. Heard On The Show: 4 juveniles arrested in connection with Edina YMCA attack that left boy seriously injured Trump can still vote after sentencing, but can't own a gun and will have to turn over DNA sample Wildfires latest: New evacuation order issued as Archer Fire sparks in San Fernando Valley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An examination of the Los Angeles Fire Department reveals another understanding of The Mystery. It might be stated as follows: The fundamental truths of American life have been replaced by the aspirational desires of the political class. The needs of the citizens suffer as a result. Mn finally visited by the mysterious drones. Reusse with sports and Johnny Heidt with guitar news. Heard On The Show:4 juveniles arrested in connection with Edina YMCA attack that left boy seriously injuredTrump can still vote after sentencing, but can't own a gun and will have to turn over DNA sampleWildfires latest: New evacuation order issued as Archer Fire sparks in San Fernando Valley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join us on January 16th at 7pm for a panel on Media in the age of war and resistance. The panel will feature Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein, Nora Barrows-Friedman with Electronic Intifada and Green and Red Podcast co-host Prof. Robert Buzzanco. We're living in challenging times with crises around war in the Middle East, renewed McCarthyist attacks on free speech, corporate domination of everyday life and escalating climate disasters. We're also living in a time where large numbers of people have taken to the streets to confront those responsible for these crises. For decades, independent media has told the stories that corporate media has kept hidden. It has shined a light on the elites and corporations making profit from destruction of people and the planet. As we enter another Trump administration, radical independent media will be more important than ever. WHERE: The Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; 1924 Cedar St. , Berkeley CA WHEN: Jan. 16th. Doors open at 7pm. Event begins at 7:15pm Virtual viewing: We'll also be live streaming the event on our Facebook Page RSVP: https://bit.ly/Jan16PanelEvent Join us as we discuss media in the age of war and resistance, why it matters and how to stand in solidarity with those on the frontlines. Bio// Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor at The Electronic Intifada and the co-host of the weekly EI Livestream. She has been reporting on Palestine for more than 20 years, and worked with Dennis Bernstein at Flashpoints from 2003-2010. Bio// Dennis Bernstein is a poet, human rights reporter, host of Flashpoints on KPFA 94.1 Pacifica Radio. He is the author of Notebook 19, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon, and Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom. Bio//Robert Buzzanco is co-host of the Green and Red Podcast, a professor of history at the University of Houston, and author of Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era, Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life, and American Power, American People. Event hosted by the Green and Red Podcast, Aid and Abet, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee, Oil and Gas Action Network and Mt. Diablo Rising Tide

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...HAPPY NEW YEAR! On the eve of New Year's Eve we're talking with Dr. Alexis McCrossen, a author and Professor of History at Southern Methodist University, who is now working on book about the history of New Year's observances in the United States, tentatively titled, Time's Touchstone: New Year's in American Life. She is also the author of Holy Day, Holiday: The American Sunday (Cornell University Press, 2000) and Marking Modern Times: Clocks, Watches and Other Timekeepers in American Life (University of Chicago Press, 2013).  

In his new book Building the Black City: The Transformation of American Life, academic Joe Trotter Jr., explores the role of Black Americans in creating, sustaining, and expanding American cities all over the nation. 

Malcolm Gladwell may be one of the most widely read—and, with his Revisionist History podcast, listened to—journalists of our time. A New Yorker magazine staff writer and the author of seven New York Times bestsellers, including The Tipping Point (2000), Blink (2005), and Outliers (2008), he has myriad awards and honors to his name. But this impressive trajectory has never been some planned-out or preordained journey; in fact, as Gladwell says on this episode of Time Sensitive, he has never been one to try to overly plan for or divine the future—of his career, of his life, or of anything, really. “Expectations are a burden and wherever possible should be abandoned,” he says. Gladwell's radical receptiveness is perhaps what has led him to become one of today's most prolific and eclectic writers, reporting on topics ranging from office design and french fries, to dog fighting and Steve Jobs, to automobile engineers and marijuana. Across all of his writing, Gladwell exhibits a rare sleight-of-hand ability to take certain intellectual or academic subjects and leap-frog them into popular culture, and, in doing so, make seemingly esoteric phenomena entertaining and widely accessible.On the episode—recorded in the Pushkin Industries outpost in Hudson, New York—Gladwell talks about the disappearance of what he calls “the critical enterprise in America”; and how A.I. is complicating his famous “10,000-Hour Rule.”Special thanks to our Season 10 presenting sponsor, L'École, School of Jewelry Arts.Show notes:Malcolm Gladwell[4:36] Revenge of the Tipping Point[5:06] The Tipping Point[13:43] Unsafe at Any Speed[22:52] Anand Giridharadas[24:00] Revisionist History[25:39] Blink[31:07] The Holocaust in American Life[43:16] “10,000-Hour Rule”[43:16] Outliers[56:06] The Bomber Mafia (Podcast Mini Series)[56:06] Pushkin Industries[59:56] John Grisham[1:06:56] The Bomber Mafia  (Book)

&y and &ers Lee read Leon Trotsky's predictions about the glorious future of a 1930s Soviet America, in which tipping and chewing gum have been abolished. For the full episode support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifada

It's News Day Tuesday! Sam and Emma speak with Richard Beck, senior writer at n + 1 Magazine, to discuss his recent book Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Trump's tariffs, Trump's cabinet drama, Trump's legal woes, Biden's gift to Trump, deaths under Texas' abortion ban, Missouri's ban on trans care for minors, Charlotte's airport workers' strike, bird flu, and Mississippi's runoff election, before diving a little deeper into Biden's plan to expand Medicare and Medicaid to include weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Trump's tariff plan, and problems in the Trump cabinet. Richard Beck then joins, jumping right into his particular perspective for the war on terror as a teenager at the time of 9/11, unpacking the bipartisan normalization of the shift to a domestic surveillance state backing a globalized project of enforced American hegemony, and looking at how the Democratic Party (under Obama), in particular, worked to simultaneously present the Bush administration as an aberration, while bureaucratizing, rationalizing, and, ultimately, reinforcing the exact project that was supposedly so absurd. After briefly touching on the window Occupy provided to the Obama administration's blatant rejection of a progressive movement outside of the political establishment, Beck steps back, diving into the overwhelming media backlash to any sort of critical lens on US hegemony, with a direct line between the “owning the libs” politics of today and the Limbaughian obsession with making fun of the progressive identifiers of the nineties and aughts, alongside a direct tie-in to the bipartisan militarization of American society, be it tanks in police departments, an influx of Humvees on the street, or the catapulting of “SpecOps”-esque comic movies to the forefront of US culture, and how those elements worked to further legitimize the amoral (and often actively immoral) maintenance of US hegemony across the globe. Wrapping up, Richard, Sam, and Emma briefly touch on the particular role of oil in the War on Terror, and why it fails to actually explain the quest for American hegemony in an age of dwindling capitalist expansion, tackling the major role of the US plays well outside of petroleum reserves in an effort, more than anything else, to simply protect its impunity at the top of the global liberal order. And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma touch on future coverage of the Longshoremen's strike, before diving into the continuing death and devastation coming from Texas' abortion ban, and reflecting on Tim Pool's desire to make every victim of rape a subject of public criticism if they want an abortion. They also tackle some backlash to Trump naming a pro-vaccination doctor to the position of Surgeon General, plus, you IMs! Follow Richard on Twitter: https://x.com/richard__beck Check out Richard's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677393/homeland-by-richard-beck/ Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!: https://nationcruise.com/mr/ Check out StrikeAid here!; https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 20% off your purchase! Check out today's sponsors: Delete Me: Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan by texting MAJORITY to 64000. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation Dawn's Early Light The post Reshaping American Life – Dr. Kevin Roberts, 11/19/24 (3243) first appeared on Issues, Etc..

Rachel Maddow looks at how the politicization of abortion has imperiled the health of women in the United States, making all aspects of reproductive health more dangerous, and showing real-world tragic outcomes, and how Donald Trump's continued kowtowing to anti-abortion activists threatens to solidify these harmful conditions.

America is caught in a vicious cycle of trying to alleviate traffic by expanding and building more highways, only for them to clog right up with more cars. How do you beat the traffic? Guest: David Zipper, Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative who writes about transportation policy. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Public.com+Public Investing: All investing involves risk. Brokerage services for US listed securities, options and bonds in a self-directed brokerage account are offered by Public Investing, member FINRA & SIPC. Not investment advice. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash Account where funds from this account are automatically deposited into partner banks where they earn interest and are eligible for FDIC insurance; Public Investing is not a bank.Cryptocurrency trading services are offered by Bakkt Crypto Solutions, LLC (NMLS ID 1828849), which is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the NYSDFS. Cryptocurrency is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and has the potential for loss of the entire amount of an investment. Cryptocurrency holdings are not protected by the FDIC or SIPC. . See public.com/#disclosures-main for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices