Free Forum with Terrence McNally

I talk with BILL McKIBBEN ( The New Yorker) , co-founder of both the global climate campaign, 350.org , and ThirdAct.org , for folks 60 & above. I did publish an episode with Bill in the fall, but then I was invited to talk with him in front of an audience for LiveTalksLA. This is that new conversation, including a bit of audience Q&A. In these dark times, Bill’s new book, HERE COMES THE S...

Here’s my 2012 conversation with PAUL GILDING, former head of Greenpeace International, about his book, THE GREAT DISRUPTION: Why the Climate Crisis will Bring on the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World.  GILDING said it was time to stop worrying about climate change and brace for impact. According to him, the coming decades would see loss, suffering, and conflict as our planetary overdra...

As one year ends and another begins, many pause to look backward and forward. We’ll do that on a deep historical scale with today’s guest, PETER TURCHIN, author of END TIMES. In 2010, when Nature magazine asked for a ten-year forecast, he predicted that America was in a spiral of social disintegration that would lead to collapse of the political order. “Political breakdown, from the Roman Empire t...

As we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, here’s my 2006 conversation with RICHARD DAWKINS on his best-seller, THE GOD DELUSION. I consider myself spiritual, thank the universe daily, and feel myself blessed, but I don’t see an entity directing this unfolding pageant. I invite you to listen with an open mind and spirit. Dawkins and I begin with questions and end with awe. Learn more at richarddawkin...

This is Ike Wilson episode # 2. Questions about Hegseth, Venezuela, US cities are bigger than when we spoke in October. We make time to discuss other concerns I have about the US military - morale, Christian nationalism, lack of success despite unlimited resources. With 33 years in the field and teaching at West Point, Columbia, Yale, Arizona State, and National War College, Wilson is former Direc...

This week when we give thanks, let me say how grateful I am to have these conversations about a world that just might work and that folks take the time to listen, learn, and share. CHUCK COLLINS says a lot of people tell him, “…nothing a billionaire does harms my life.” In response, he wrote BURNED BY BILLIONAIRES: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet . Collins direct...

With family gatherings upcoming over the holidays and emergence of AI everywhere we look, here’s my 2011 episode with Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, about her book ALONE TOGETHER Why We Expect More from Technology, Less from Each Other. At that point, Sherry had already been studying the relationships between people and technology for decades, and...

I’m not an environmentalist, but rather someone who works to move society toward a healthy relationship with the rest of nature. The notion that we are separate makes no sense to me. So I was drawn to this week’s guest, MELANIE CHALLENGER, who writes on the relationship of humans to the living world. She does field research - including in the Arctic and Antarctica, is an award-winning poet, has wr...

DEBORAH TANNEN, best known for YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND: Women and Men in Conversation, 4 years on the NYTimes bestseller list, 8 months at #1. This conversation is about 2 later books: First, I ONLY SAY THIS BECAUSE I LOVE YOU on why we have so much trouble communicating within families - could be helpful with Thanksgiving coming up. The second, THE ARGUMENT CULTURE focuses on public discourse....

The stock market keeps rising, driven almost entirely by the “magnificent seven” tech giants. No one tries to deny we’re fueling AI and crypto bubbles. Great time to talk with author, producer, and New York Times journalist, ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, about his new best-seller, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at LiveTalsLA. Sor...

Following the largest single day of protest in American history, here’s first, my 2004 conversation with THOMAS FRANK about his ground-breaking classic, WHAT’ S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? Frank examines the GOP’s success building  unnatural alliances between Midwest and Wall Street, workers and bosses, populists and right-wingers. In the second half, you’ll hear my 2010 conversation with PAUL LOEB ab...

Trump has ordered troops to LA, DC, Chicago, and Portland. Americans are on the brink of using lethal force against other Americans. Our military are killing people at sea in the Caribbean with no constitutional basis.  I turn to retired U.S. Army Colonel, IKE WILSON, for an expert take on Trump’s actions. What’s legal? How will the military respond? How does this play out? In addition to years in...

These are dark times in the United States, and due to this country’s power and influence, dark times for the planet. This show is about a world that just might work – so we talk a lot about problems and crises as we look for solutions. I’m always on the lookout for good news and inspirations. MARTIN GOODMAN has written a book, MY HEAD FOR A TREE, about the Bishnoi, an Indian religion whose 3+ mill...

Here’s my 2017 conversation with ROBERT WRIGHT on his best-seller WHY BUDDHISM IS TRUE. Wright has been asking big questions for nearly four decades in books like THE MORAL ANIMAL, NON-ZERO, and THE  EVOLUTION OF GOD. On Substack, he’s persuasively critical  of much of what happens in Washington under either party. Why in the fall of Trump’s first year, first term, did he put out WHY BUDDHISM IS T...

In 1969, my senior year at Harvard, anti-war activists took over University Hall and their brutal removal by state troopers led to a month-long strike. Today’s guest, longtime activist and organizer, MICHAEL ANSARA, was chair of the strike committee. We’ll talk about his new memoir, THE HARD WORK OF HOPE, the parallels between the late ‘60s and the current day, and lessons learned that might help...

Here’s my 2020 conversation with psychiatrist & author ROBERT JAY LIFTON whose work led him into some of history’s darkest corners - Hiroshima survivors, Nazi doctors, torture at Abu Ghraib. I turned to him as the pandemic raged and the BLM  protests were in full bloom. We talk about his book LOSING REALITY: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry . Lifton wrote...

I talk with BILL McKIBBEN ( The New Yorker) , co-founder of both the global climate campaign, 350.org , and, in 2021, ThirdAct for folks 60 & above. In these dark times, his new book, HERE COMES THE SUN offers hope – not with happy talk but with a clear declaration of facts: Solar and wind are no longer alternative fuels. They are the cheapest as well as the cleanest. (So cheapest also in exte...

First half: This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Here’s my 2006 conversation with Douglas Brinkley about his book The Great Deluge , in which he investigates the failures of government at every level, and traces the character flaws, inexperience, and ulterior motives that allowed the disaster to devastate the Gulf Coast. Second half: As school year begins, here’s my 2005 c...

What happens when the President plays mob boss - “How much can I get away with? Who’s going to stop me?” I talk with American legal scholar ROBERT POST of Yale Law School about the rule of law, the American legal system, free speech, academic freedom, public morality, and the Supreme Court’s weakness in the age of Trump. You can learn more at law.yale.edu/robert-c-post Robert Post 2025 Transcript

A bittersweet truth about having recorded these conversations for 25 years is how many of my guests are no longer with us. I went back through my files and found at least 60 - Sixty human beings worthy, willing, and able to share an hour with me. Here’s my 2003 conversation with ROBERT FULLER, who crusaded for the dignity of all and against what he defined as “rankism” - the dismissal of society’s...

In just the last two decades, we’ve experienced a global financial crash, a pandemic, multiple wars, and a climate crisis with repeated natural disasters. I talk with LIZZIE WADE about the ideas in APOCALYPSE: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures . If a society enters a cataclysm - climate crisis, war, plague, etc. - behaving one way and emerges behaving another, she def...

A couple of weeks ago I recorded myself reading a speech I originally gave June 9, 1989 -  36 years ago - at my 20th college reunion, Harvard class of 1969. Ours was the year of the University Hall takeover and the campus strike. In ’89, I was fully involved in the entertainment industry. In the speech, I asked how we were living up to our youthful ideals. I don’t know if my words affected anyone...

As we reel and resist Trump’s careless breakdown of government, society and the economy, I speak with CHRIS HUGHES, a co-founder of Facebook, who left the company in 2007 and called for META’s breakup in 2019. In the first 45 minutes, we talk about the current state of tech and then dive into his new book, MARKETCRAFTERS : The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy . How do we prepare to...

In Trump’s tax bill, 60% of cuts go to the top 20% (income: $217K+). More than a third to top 5% ($460K+) Households earning less than $51K  will see income drop next year. Top 0.1% will get an average boost of $390K. Time for one of my favorite episodes: my January 2010 conversation with Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett about their groundbreaking book, The Spirit Level. Based on 30 years of r...

When I decided to speak with TIM JACKSON about his new book, THE CARE ECONOMY, I had second thoughts. What could be further from our current reality in the US than a care economy? Would talking about it seem naïve? But as Robert Reich makes clear, “We need to demonstrate not just against Trump but also for the America we want,” and this episode is part of my attempt to imagine and flesh out such a...