How Do We Fix It?

Have you ever been the victim of a con artist? Very often we fall for cons ourselves without being aware of it. We speak with journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova, best-selling author of “The Confidence Game:" Through storytelling and science, she explains the mind of the con artist and what makes the rest of us so susceptible. 
Con artists are everywhere. Since 2008 the number of reported...

Fresh thinking for the New Year: In 2016 we were exposed to a dazzling range of smart, practical ideas from our podcast guests - from climate change and money matters, healthcare reform, to making room for strangers in our lives.  In this show we start with Rebecca Jarvis, Chief Business, Economics and Technology Correspondent for ABC News. One of her smart money resolutions for the New Year is to...

Alan Dershowitz on Trump; what an Islamic fundamentalist learned in an Egyptian jail; plus a tenured professor explained why she quit her job—trigger warning ahead. No doubt about it - the nomination and election of Donald Trump was the biggest, most surprising news story of 2016. At the start of this show we get two fascinating takes on the Trump story from a marketing man and a Harvard Professor...

What we can learn from the best education systems in the world? A lot. We learn about PISA - The Program for International Student Assessment - and why this international test on math, science and reading has disturbing results for U.S. schools. 
 We interviewed British teacher Lucy Crehan, author of the breakthrough book, "Cleverlands", went on a remarkable journey to Finland, Asia and Canada, to...

More than eight years after the financial meltdown, we still have a lot to learn, says our guest, CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar. "The rise of finance has actually kind of eaten the rest of the economy," Rana tells this in this "Fix It" episode. "Finance controls the rest of industry. Finance has become the tail that wags the dog." At the same time, the financial industry remains at ris...

Dr. Michael Shermer is our guest; he's the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American and a regular contributor to Time.com. In his latest book, “The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom,” Dr. Shermer discusses how science, reason, and rational inquiry contribute to human progress and history. He claims that we...

The U.S. spends more than $3 trillion a year on healthcare, or nearly $10,000 a year for every man, woman and child. But are we getting a bang for our buck? In many cases, the answer has to be no. And this goes well beyond the raging debate over Obamacare and whether all Americans should have access to coverage. About a third of money spent on healthcare is now simply wasted or spent on poor decis...

This show is about the benefits adults, especially business owners, can get from playing games. This year's huge success of Pokemon Go helped bring gamification and augmented reality into the mainstream - with many small businesses using the mobile app to raise engagement with consumers. Dan Grech, OfferCraft, tells us how governments, businesses, and even parents use games to boost participation...

Anyone who cares about diversity, feminism and closing the gender gap should be fired up about this show. Author, entrepreneur and - yes provocateur - Sallie Krawcheck is our guest.  Her forthcoming 2017 book is "Own It: The Power of Women at Work."  Sallie is CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, a digital investment platform and wealth management site for women.  For years, she has been well known as...

We recorded this the day after the stunning U.S. Presidential election.  This show is our attempt to explain the reasons for Donald Trump's win. Despite his deeply divisive rhetoric and attacks on Muslims and undocumented Mexican immigrants that deeply offended many voters, Trump emerged victorious. We examine why Trump won the election but also solutions and takeaways from his surprise victory. S...

Almost all of us do a poor job of predicting the future.  This show looks at how we can adapt to the disruption and change the future inevitably brings.  Using examples from business and our personal lives, we consider how to be smarter and more successful."You can't really imagine what it's going to be like should a bad thing happen," says our guest, Mark Earls. "We over-estimate how bad we might...

"There are genuine emotional benefits when we connect with strangers," says our guest, Kio Stark. These fleeting interactions are important interruptions in the steady routine of our lives. "They bring connectedness and belonging."Kio is the author of "When Strangers Meet: How People You Don't Know Can Transform You." Her popular TED Talk has received more than 1,450,000 views. "My own interaction...

Do you believe you can make a difference?  What improvements to the world have been made by nonprofit organizations?  What lessons have been learnt by philanthropists about delivering services and furthering their cause? These and many more questions are answered here by our guest, Jennifer McCrea .  She's a leading global expert on giving and fundraising.  Jennifer works to transform the practice...

The news media have bombarded us with stories about the candidates, the contest and - to a lesser extent - the crucial issues America faces as people vote for the next President. This podcast is about the voters. We went back to four past episodes of "How Do We Fix It?" pulling extracts about how we make decisions and why the information that you and I receive from internet search engines and othe...

“Vision Zero” is the highly ambitious plan put in place two years ago by New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio. The goal: no traffic deaths by 2024.  America's largest city is nowhere near reducing fatal crashes to zero, but great progress has been made since 1990.  "The good news is that we've gone from 701 deaths back then to an average of 245 deaths a year under the de Blasio Administration," says ur...

Electile Dysfunction (is), “a terrible pun plus insightful commentary" is how TV host and wit Seth Myers describes" the new book by Professor Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz became a professor at Harvard Law when he was 25 years old. In his long and distinguished career, Newsweek described Dershowitz as "the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders o...

Too often, migrants and refugees are viewed as "other" - not like us. In recent days Donald Trump Jr. compared the Syrian refugee problem to a bowl of Skittles In this episode, Leonard Doyle of the International Organization for Migration walks us through the worldwide crisis of tens of millions of displaced people, from families fleeing from war and terrorism to young men and women who overstay t...

Get ready for slower economic growth and de-globalization, says investor and writer Ruchir Sharma . Ruchir invited us to his New York office, where he is the head of emerging markets and chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He is also the author of " The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World. " Our interview looks at Ruchir's rules for spot...

On New Year's Eve, journalist and former Parade Editor-in-Chief Janice Kaplan made a promise to herself to be grateful during the coming year and look on the bright side of whatever happens. As we find out in this episode, it made a big difference to her life. Janice discovered that how she feels has less to do with events than with her own attitude and perspective on life. Her recent book "The Gr...

How much do you know about money?  Many of us make simple mistakes that cost us hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year. According to a recent study by The FINRA Investor Education Foundation, only 37% of Americans have high financial literacy. 29% of 18-34 year-olds with a mortgage have been late with a monthly payment and more than one in four people use high-cost forms of borrowing like pa...

From "nap-time activists" and mommy bloggers to a "stroller march" on Washington, Moms Clean Air Force is using creative and highly effective ways to advance their cause to get dangerous pollutants out of the air.  In this "How Do We Fix It?" episode we speak about solutions with the group's National Field Director, Gretchen Dahlkemper, a Pennsylvania mom who became an activist - fired up about th...

Following on from our recent episodes about high schools and  playdates, this week we explore children's learning, technology and play with three "How DO We Fix It?" guests.  Science evangelist Ainissa Ramirez explains why all young kids are fascinated by science.  But school often gets in the way of exploration and curiosity. Ainissa explains how parents and other caregivers can spark interest in...

The obesity rate is 52% in Brownsville, Texas - far higher than the national average.  Nearly one in three residents has diabetes - three times the rate elsewhere.  Brownsville also has a very high rate of poverty where more half the residents are not covered by health insurance. This city and other largely hispanic communities along the U.S. - Mexico border are facing a health emergency. Brownsvi...

Remember when kids were allowed to play, usually without supervision, when did that change? When did play turn into a playdate? Today many parents organize playdates. Play is arranged, supervised and has the parental seal of approval.  "I think we could add more diversity into how our children play with other children,"says our guest, Tamara Mose, Associate Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn Colle...

The release of nearly 19,000 e-mails from the Democratic National Committee rocked party leaders and forced the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. We look at how this happened, why Russia was probably involved and how many other organizations, businesses and government agencies are at risk of cyber break-ins. Adam Levin, co-founder of Credit.com and the online security firm IDT911 ...