Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Responding to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others, millions marched in 2020 to protest police brutality. Though Floyd’s killers faced charges and were found guilty, we learned that it remains extremely difficult to hold police accountable. Decisions of the Supreme Court, state and local governments, and policy makers have made them all but untouchable. In SHIELDED, UCL...

Two conversations with warnings of the ’08 crash to come. KEVIN PHILLIPS is best known for his 1969 book The Emerging Republican Majority articulating Nixon’s Southern Strategy which nearly 50 years later delivered us Trump. Phillips in time grew disillusioned with the GOP, and wrote books like The Politics of Rich and Poor; Wealth and Democracy; American Theocracy. In April 2008 we talk about Bad...

STEVEN GREENHOUSE covered labor at the New York Times for 19 years. When we last spoke in the early days of the Biden administration, workers’ share of income had slid to its lowest level since the 1940s and the percentage of workers in unions was the lowest in over a century. But unions are winning these days – winning contracts, winning strikes when necessary, and perhaps most critically in the...

MICHAEL LEWIS’s new book, GOING INFINITE, the story of Sam Bankman-Fried and the rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX, is the #1 Selling book on Amazon. Here’s my 2010 conversation with Lewis about another #1 best-seller, THE BIG SHORT. In telling the story behind the Oscar nominated film, one of the great “explainers” defines a lot of terms - securitization, derivatives, credit default swaps - yo...

I believe minority rule to be one of the most dangerous challenges facing American society with enormous impact for the fate of the world. I’m excited to engage with Daniel Ziblatt, about his latest book, TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point , co-authored with Stephen Levitsky. Their previous book, How Democracies Die , was described by The Economist magazine...

JONATHAN TAPLIN’s new book THE END OF REALITY picks up where MOVE FAST & BREAK THINGS left off. It documents how - rather than confront and solve the critical challenges we face - some of our wealthiest and most powerful men are plotting their escape - from transparency and regulation with crypto, from real life with the metaverse, from planet earth with colonies on Mars, and from death itself...

JONATHAN TAPLIN is former tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band, producer of two Martin Scorsese films, MEAN STREETS and THE LAST WALTZ, and Director Emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Next week I’ll talk with him about his new book, THE END OF REALITY: How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, And Crypto . How better to warm up for that than by replay...

July 2023 was the hottest month in recorded history, June ranks #2. All time high temperatures hit the US, Europe, and China. Phoenix recorded at least 110F for 20 days in a row. I speak with JEFF GOODELL about THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet . Biggest takeaway: “The assumption that we will do what we need to do in time and things will go back to normal is a profo...

There’s little doubt we face critical challenges and serious doubt about whether we have the vision, the culture, the systems, or the will to successfully deal with them. I’ve been asking lately, “How did we get here?" and focusing a lot on the generations, in particular the Boomers and the 1960’s. I’m excited to speak with PHILIP BUMP, a national columnist for The Washington Post , about his firs...

In her new book THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE TOWN: Reimagining Discarded America, MICHELLE WILDE ANDERSON, Professor at Stanford Law School and Stanford School of Sustainability, explores vicious cycles in Stockton CA, Lawrence MA, Detroit MI, and Josephine County OR - four communities left behind by the modern economy. As local economies shrink, government is underfunded. As government delivers less to...

I speak with ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, Dean of Berkeley Law School, about the Supreme Court’s recent term. I see ethical challenges and radical rulings - the law of the land interpreted through their religious and moral lenses, overturning legislation and precedent - hardly conservative behavior, stretching and distorting the law in their decision defending arguments, imposing their agenda on the nation...

I speak with talk show host, THOM HARTMANN, about the newest book in his “hidden history” series. THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. I’d heard the Founders drew inspiration from political systems of Native Americans, to which Hartmann adds, so did Europe’s Enlightenment thinkers. He quotes Thomas Paine: “To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is necessary to have some idea...

I’ve long believed that to confront challenges like climate change, we need to move public opinion to the point where a majority favor policies that respond effectively and fairly. I’m afraid that’s no longer true. I read with alarm STAN COX’s article MAGA Legislators Increasingly Force Taxpayers to Support Fossil Fuel Industry by, among other things, outlawing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Gove...

Recent Supreme Court rulings doing away with affirmative action and student loan forgiveness while allowing religious bigotry, reinforce the harsh reality of minority rule in today’s United States. While it challenges and handicaps the effectiveness of mass movements for progressive change, it also makes them even more critical. Here’s my 2018 conversation with LESLIE CRUTCHFIELD, Executive Direct...

With this episode, I’m reminded of when I did my first show on the sub-prime crisis. In PLUNDER, BRENDAN BALLOU, a federal prosecutor, explains how private equity has reshaped American business - from nursing homes to prisons, emergency rooms to apartment buildings - by raising prices, reducing quality, cutting jobs, and shifting resources from productive to unproductive parts of the economy. What...

We lost an American hero last week with the death of DANIEL ELLSBERG, whose release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 revealed the cynical realities of the Vietnam War. A president was ignoring the will of the people, Congress, and the courts, promising peace while planning war without end. Ellsberg, a military analyst at the Rand Corporation, risked life in prison to end a war he helped plan, for wh...

HECTOR TOBAR was born in Los Angeles, shortly after his parents arrived from Guatemala. He’s a Professor of English and Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and the author of six books, including DEEP DOWN DARK : The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and The Miracle That Set Them Free , adapted into the film, The 33 st...

Surgeon General: “There are ample indicators that social media can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” June’s here. How about a weekly “vacation” from screens? In this 2019 conversation about her book, 24/6, TIFFANY SHLAIN, filmmaker and Internet pioneer - she founded the Webbies (digital Oscars) -  offers a strategy her family has employe...

Here’s my conversation with MICKEY HUFF & NOLAN HIGDON. Huff is Director of PROJECT CENSORED. Since 1976, its annual book reports the year’s top-25 news stories ignored, misrepresented, or censored by mainstream media. Huff & Higdon co-authored LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE. Its first lines: In an age defined by divisive discourse and disinformation, democracy hangs in the balance. {This book] s...

When I talk about the relentless push of Big Business, the Right, and the GOP toward our current crisis of inequality, injustice, minority rule, and an inability to solve problems, I usually start around 1970. Today’s guests go back to the early 20th century. I talk with NAOMI ORESKES and ERIK CONWAY, authors together of the best-selling and Important MERCHANTS OF DOUBT: How a Handful of Scientist...

I believe human beings want more than anything to feel seen and heard. Last week the US Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health epidemic, as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, raising the risk of premature death by 30%, with higher rates of heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression, dementia, and suicide. Here’s my 2021 conversation with NOREENA HERTZ about her book, THE LON...

I talk with three-time Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times investigative reporter WALT BOGDANICH about his book, WHEN McKINSEY COMES TO TOWN. The company brands itself one of the good guys, but Bogdanich and co-author MIchael Forsythe point out that, shielded by NDAs, McKinsey has so far escaped scrutiny for advising tobacco companies, opioid manufacturers including Purdue, oil companies, and repressi...

SHEILA KUEHL has long been one of my favorite elected officials. A true public servant, she served 8 years in CA’s State Senate, 6 in the State Assembly, and 8 more on LA County’s Board of Supervisors. Kuehl was the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the Legislature, first woman named Speaker pro Tem of the Assembly, and authored 171 bills signed into law. One of my go-to sages re state...

April is Earth Month. My environmental goals: a healthy relationship with the rest of nature and an effective reckoning with climate change. Here’s my 2020 conversation with SAM MYERS, Harvard research scientist, Founding Director of the Planetary Health Alliance, and one of the editors of PLANETARY HEALTH: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves. The book offers solutions to the challenging  impac...

While we live in the most age-diverse society in human history, with almost equal numbers of people of every age, the US has become an age-segregated nation, with few opportunities for generations to connect. Here’s my conversation with EUNICE NICHOLS, Co-CEO of CoGenerate - the recently chosen new name for what had been called Encore.org . The organization’s focus evolved from seniors’ purposeful...