Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Aired: 03/16/14 We all deal day to day with a lot of questions and a lot of fears - around work, money, health, politcs, relationships. And at some point, we will all deal with the final fears and the final questions - fear of death and questions about what it means and what if anything comes after. At his request, today's guest, SARA DAVIDSON met every Friday for two years with 89-year-old RABBI...

Aired: 03/09/14 Last summer author and scholar of religions REZA ASLAN came out with a book that utilized a great deal of historical research to give readers a sense of the man, Jesus of Nazareth. ASLAN had taken on a similar task seven years earlier with his first book NO GOD BUT GOD, in which he tells the story of Mohammed. But the problem for some folks this time around is that Reza Aslan is a...

Aired: 2/2/14 I am going to take a hiatus from this show in a few weeks, for the first time in 17 years. I need to focus on some other projects, including a book I'm writing, and won't be able to afford the time to produce and host this show probono. In anticipation of this upcoming break, I will be the guest this week and SARA DAVIDSON, best-selling author of Loose Change and Leap, whose new book...

Aired: 1/26/14 As we begin a new year, let's look at where we are in the big picture. What are the most critical issues facing the US and the world? How do you see things moving in those areas? How are things getting worse or better? What should we be keeping our eyes on in the year to come? My guest this week will be HAZEL HENDERSON, who's been asking these sorts of questions for at least the las...

Aired: 01/19/14 I don't have to tell you how many messages, interruptions and distractions you are inundated with every day. Add to that the stress placed on so many of us by the many roles we play everyday - parent, partner, friend, worker, citizen. The very critical skill or quality of attention is under siege. DANIEL GOLEMAN, the psychologist, journalist, and best-selling author who wrote the b...

Aired: 1/13/14 According to NOREENA HERTZ, we to make up to 10,000 trivial decisions every single day, 227 just about food. Caffeinated or decaf? Small, medium, large or extra large? Colombian, Ecuadorian, Ethiopian? Hazelnut, vanilla or unflavored? Cream or milk? Sugar or sweetener? If you make the wrong choice when it comes to your coffee, it doesn't matter very much. But make the wrong choice w...

Aired: 12/29/13 My guest this week is RICK HANSON, neuropsychologist, and author of the best-seller BUDDHA'S BRAIN. We're going to talk about his latest book, HARDWIRING HAPPINESS, where he brings together mindfulness and neuroscience and offers pro-active practices to actually shift the brain's neural structure - the hardwiring - toward calm, contentment, and confidence. This time of year can be...

Aired: 12/22/13 As we approach the end of another year, let's step back and look at where we are in the big picture. What do you think are the most critical issues facing the US and the world? How do you see things moving in those areas? How are things getting worse or better? What should we be keeping our eyes on in the year to come? My guest for this conversation will be HAZEL HENDERSON, a woman...

Aired: 12/8/13 What do you think are the biggest solvable problems facing humanity? Justice and inequality? Violence and war? Climate change and pollution? Today we're going to focus on one that I believe underlies all of those: Population. The last book from today's guest, ALAN WEISMAN, was thought-provoking, award-winning, and best-selling. THE WORLD WITHOUT US, which was made into a powerful do...

Aired: 12/1/13 What do you know about hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" of natural gas? Probably depends on who you're listening to. The fossil fuel industry tells you it's the biggest energy development of the century, which promises America energy independence for the US and a huge boost to our economy with benefits to local economies. Many of the communities themselves tell a different story -...

Aired: 11/24/13 After its recent IPO, Twitter is valued at nearly $25Billion. Now what is Twitter? Millions of tweets created and shared by users plus some ads. But how many users get a piece of that $25Billion? Well, none. Where would Facebook be without Friends? What would Twitter, Amazon, Yelp, and any network whose value is based on our data, be without us - sharing photos and feelings, making...

Aired: 11/17/13 The gap between rich and poor is huge and growing...legislative stalemate paralyzes the country...corporations fight federal regulations...the influence of money in politics is greater than ever...new inventions speed the pace of daily life. Sound familiar? Those headlines from the early 1900s set the scene for Doris Kearns Goodwin's new book The Bully Pulpit-a history of the first...

Aired: 11/10/13 THE SQUARE Sundance Audience Award Winning Documentary re Egypt’s revolution(s) JEHANE NOUJAIM, Director KARIM AMER, Producer KHALID ABDALLA, Participant

Aired: 11/4/13 Nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what lasts here on Earth. After 3.8 billion years of R&D on this planet, failures are fossils. What surrounds us in the natural world is what has succeeded...

Aired: 10/06/13 What do you feel when at sporting events or other public gatherings crowds join in a call to "support the troops?" If you're like me, I always have some misgivings. On the simplest level, the gesture seems pretty meaningless. What am I or anyone else in that crowd actually doing to support the troops? And when they add some clichéd phrases about fighting for our freedoms, a voice i...

Aired 092913 A new documentary film opened Friday 9/27 in 23 cities, including Los Angeles, starring former Labor Secretary in the Clinton Administration, Berkeley professor, best-selling author, and frequent guest on this program, Robert Reich. Titled INEQUALITY FOR ALL, can it do for this "inconvenient truth" what the original did for climate change? My first guest this week will be the film's d...

Aired: 09/22/13 Standing on an island off the Alaskan coast, PHILIP CAPUTO marveled that Inupiat Eskimo schoolchildren pledge allegiance to the same flag as the children of Cuban immigrants in Key West, six thousand miles away. And a question began to take shape: How does the United States, peopled by every race on earth, remain united? CAPUTO resolved to drive from the nation's southernmost point...

Are you doing more sharing these days? In a virtual sense, most of us would probably answer yes. Sharing political petitions, photos shot with our mobile phones, and of course, cute cat stuff. But what about sharing in the real world - are you doing more of that? Well, as a society the answer again is yes. Whether bike sharing, which is rolling out in 500 cities, car-sharing, even Hertz is getting...

Aired: 8/12/13 This week we’re going to talk about happiness. So let’s start with a true-false test. I’ll tell you a supposed fact about happiness, and you decide whether you think it’s true or false. 1. Unexpected pleasures are the most rewarding. True or false? 2. Novelty in a relationship has similar effects on our brain as a high from drugs. True or false? 3. Daily hassles impact our well-bein...

Some estimate China will surpass the US to become the leading economic superpower by 2016. On the other hand, July 19th Paul Krugman wrote, "China is in big trouble. ...The country's whole way of doing business, the economic system that has driven three decades of incredible growth, has reached its limits. You could say that the Chinese model is about to hit its Great Wall..." This week's guests,...

Aired: 07/28/13 I sometimes say that in a past life I worked in the entertainment industry, comedy in particular. I co-wrote and co-produced novelty records THE HOMECOMING QUEEN'S GOT A GUN, I LIKE EM BIG AND STUPID and EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY all performed by Julie Brown. I directed comic music videos for some of these songs, and ended up co-writing and co-producing the film EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY. I'...

Aired: 7/21/13 This week we'll spend the hour with RAFE ESQUITH, who's been teaching fifth graders in LA's Hobart Elementary public school for nearly thirty years. Now a teacher of teachers, he recently returned from doing that in China. I first learned of Rafe's work in 2005, when POV the PBS film series pitched me a documentary, THE HOBART SHAKESPEARIANS, about the full Shakespeare productions t...

A friend tells the story of striking up a conversation with a hip looking man in his late 20s-early 30s in a movie line on the west side of LA shortly before the 2004 election between George Bush and John Kerry. He asked the young man who he planned to vote for, he answered that he hadn't made up his mind. My friend said to him, "Two words. Supreme Court." To which the young man replied, "Oh, are...

What would you do? BLM is holding a oil and gas lease auction where pristine Utah land is up for bid. What would you do? You're asked if you're there for the auction? Asked if you are a bidder? What would you do? You end up with a paddle, you bid, you win 12 leases in a row before the auction is halted. You are arrested, charged with felonies, and offered plea deals if you will apologize? What wou...

This week, in the second of a two-part series (Part One with CARL HART author of HIGH PRICE: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery that Challenges Everything You Know about Drugs and Society) I'll be joined by DOUG FINE to talk about the accelerating movement to change the rules on marijuana. According to Fine, as the economy continues to limp along for most Americans and California cities...