How Do We Fix It?

Angry rhetoric, narrow partisanship, and leaders who appeal only to their base are all reasons why American politics is in urgent need of reform. By  huge majorities , the public has a  negative view  of Congress and believes the system is broken. Our guest, 29-year-old  Nick Troiano,  Executive Director of  Unite America , is a  leading voice  of the reform...

From dating to switching jobs and managing retirement. We all manage risk. Want to get better at it? The best way to learn is to ask some of the real experts: Magicians, gamblers, big-wave surfers, horse breeders, and prostitutes. That's what economist, journalist and risk advisor  Allison Schrager  did. She's our guest in this episode. For people faced with risky decisions every da...

Are you depressed when you read the news? The media's rampant negativity, with a daily emphasis on outrage and crisis, is a form of mental pollution that misinforms the public, harms democracy, and leads a distorted view of the world. "You Are What You Read" , by Jodie Jackson, is a call for reform. Written by a non-journalist, the book looks at the psychological impact of reading endles...

At a time of information overload, social media silos and political paralysis, how can all of us be better communicators? In this 200th episode, Richard and Jim share lessons they've learned about listening, asking questions and interviewing guests during nearly four years of "How Do We Fix It?" It's been a fun run, and many more episodes are being planned in the weeks and months come. This week,...

Novelist and journalist John Lanchester's new book "The Wall", imagines a world dealing with catastrophic climate change. Fear of rising sea levels and desperate migrants fleeing from uninhabitable lands have led to the building of a giant concrete wall around an entire island nation that is very much like the U.K. In the novel, Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect h...

Isolation and loneliness have reached  epidemic levels , resulting in a profound loss of social capital. Despite mass communications, the spread of technology and social media, a  recent survey  found 47% of Americans often felt alone, meaningful connections to others. In this second episode with the author of the new book, " Love Your Enemies ", social scientist and president of th...

This podcast is an urgent, radical, yet practical response to the crisis of political polarization that is tearing America apart. Instead of mere tolerance and civility, we discuss how and why we should love our enemies. A response is needed to our culture of contempt, where many think of those who they disagree with as bad people. Millions are organizing their social lives and curating their...

Monsanto's controversial Roundup herbicide is the world's  top-selling weed killer . But tens of billions of dollars in sales and profits are at stake because of questions about the safety of  glyphosate , the product's key ingredient.  Does Roundup cause cancer? Is it linked to cases of  non-Hodgkin Lymphoma ? Are GMO crops allies or enemies in the fight for a more sustainable...

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn't waste any time getting started in Congress. The first-term Democrat boldly proposed The Green New Deal, one of the most ambitious policy proposals in decades. Precise details are fuzzy, but the broad strokes suggest that the  Green New Deal  calls on the federal government to ban virtually all fossil fuels, replace most cars and airplan...

Migration is an emotional, super-charged issue, sparking fierce debates, angry protests and influencing election results around the world. From President Trump's demand for a border wall to the long controversy over Brexit, migration is seen by many as a threat. But movement of people across borders is inevitable, and has always played a major role in economic growth and technological innovat...

The climate change debate is heating up.  Record numbers  of people no longer see extreme climate as a distant  threat, but as a crisis that is unfolding right now. According to a  Yale survey,  "the proportion of Americans who are very worried about global warming has more than tripled since its lowest point in 2011."  Despite opposition by activist groups, supp...

The American worker is in crisis. Wages have stagnated for several decades. Despite nearly a decade of continuous economic growth and falling unemployment (as defined by official statistics), the percentage of Americans in the workforce is still well below normal levels. For the first time in modern memory, life expectancy has started to fall, as substance abuse and obesity rates rise.  Our g...

Life as a teenager is proving traumatic for Facebook. The social media juggernaut  turned 15  this month. The company has gone from being universally celebrated for changing the way we communicate, to a troubled adolescent with serious questions about its entire business model.  Critics say Facebook ignored hate speech on its site and played down destructive actions by internet trol...

The public's faith in journalism is at the lowest point in living memory. A recent Gallup poll for the  Knight Foundation  found that most U.S. adults said they personally have lost trust in the news media in recent years. More than 9 in 10 Republicans feel this way.  The recent uproar over the rush to judgement and media coverage of the  Covington Catholic story  is the l...

The longest-ever federal government shutdown and the flawed Presidency of Donald Trump are symptoms of something far deeper: Dysfunction in Washington. In this episode,  Philip K. Howard  attacks the failed ideologies of Republicans and Democrats, and calls for a radical simplification of government to re-empower Americans in their daily choices. Americans are a practical people, he says...

The terrible bloodshed in Syria, Yemen, and other countries at war capture global headlines. But the vast majority of killings in countries around the world are neither the result of warfare nor terrorism.  Homicides by gangs, organized crime groups, paramilitary death squads, and ordinary people are the most common cause of violent deaths. More people have died in Mexico in recent years than...

With a simple Facebook post saying that she wanted to end partisan gerrymandering,  Katie Fahey  sparked the beginnings of an extraordinary grassroots campaign. Katie is in her late 20's. With neither connections nor deep pockets, she started  Voters Not Politicians  to change Michigan's State Constitution.  Hundreds of thousands of signatures were collected,. The mov...

In a year of crazy politics, disdain for the views of experts, and deep partisan divisions, we look beyond anger and fear stoked by cable TV, talk radio and social media to learn eight deeper lessons of where we are today and in what direction we are headed. Here are the eight “Fix It” takeaways as we head into 2019. Warning: Some are hopeful! 1. “Women just aren’t going to take it anymore.” We di...

America is facing a reading crisis. According to a  government survey  the number of adults who read for pleasure has fallen by more than 30% in less than 15 years.  Another recent study  found that Americans watch an average of three hours of TV a day, compared to less than half-an-hour spent reading. "Reading is seeing the world through someone else's eyes", says Professor&nb...

The high stakes show-down between the U.S. and China on tariffs, trade and cyber security threatens to disrupt the global economy.  Growing tensions  were temporarily put on pause during a recent meeting at the Group of 20 summit between President Trump and China's leader Xi Jinping. But many long-term challenges remain. Relations with China are the most important foreign policy issue. T...

What you think is true doesn't necessarily line up with reality. From the heated debate over gun violence deaths to our views about violent crime and global poverty, many of us have serious perception gaps.  Democracy can be damaged when public opinion is out-of-step with the facts. The opioid epidemic is often in the headlines and was recently declared a public health emergency. But did you...

The opioid and heroin epidemic has caused massive destruction suffering and pain.  After rising for many decades, America’s life expectancy rate has dropped for the past two years in a row. Nearly 50 thousand Americans last year were the victims of  opioid overdose  deaths-- twice the rate  of other wealthy nations. But now, because of impressive initiatives to tackle the crisi...

Artificial intelligence will lead to sweeping changes in our society, economy and relationship with work. China has suddenly caught up with The United States and will exercise much greater technological power in the future. "We will not have to do routine jobs anymore," says our guest,  Kai-Fu-Lee.  "AI will take over in the next 15 to 20 years all the routine jobs that we have and...

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we speak with best-selling author and "immersive journalist"  A.J. Jacobs  about his extraordinary gratitude project and brand new book,  "Thanks a Thousand". He decided to say "thank you" to every single person involved in producing his morning cup of coffee. "It turned out to be thousands of people," A.J. tells us. "I thanked the barista, the lid des...

What are the most inspiring, exasperating, unique, important, and first-in-our-lifetime results from the Midterm Elections? In this special edition, Jim and Richard give their Quick Fixes take on how American voted. We discuss: Donald Trump's turnout gift, why the economy played a far larger role than election analysts admit; the serious problems that now face both Republicans and Democrats, the i...