Talk Cocktail

As passion runs high on the extremes, so does apathy about this election, about democracy, and about any kind of participation in our civic life. This raises the question: Whose responsibility is it to ensure our civic participation? In this WhoWhatWhy podcast , I examine the reasons for diminished engagement in American democracy with Yale political scientist Kevin J. Elliott. Elliott argues in h...

In my latest Califonria Sun podcast Sara Fenske Bahat, the former interim chief executive of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, explores the interplay between art, politics, and institutional responsibility. Bahat explains the museum’s mission and history leading up to a crisis involving pro-Palestinian protests, questions of free speech, and accusations of antisemitism that ultimate...

Markos Kounalakis ,  has written recently in Washington Monthly about what he sees as California's underrepresentation in key decision-making bodies in Congress. Kounalakis is a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, a Senior Fellow at the Center on Media, Data, and Society at Central European University, and a nationally-syndicated foreign affairs columnist who also happens...

From the food we eat to the clothes we wear, everything today is an opportunity for battle in the nation's culture wars. But nowhere is that battle being more fiercely fought than in our public schools where the far right is fighting for control of school boards, as if it were the White House. In his new book, " They Came for the Schools ", investigative reporter Mike Hixenbaugh takes us to Southl...

When did giving the weather report become a political act worthy of death threats? For years, we got mad at TV weather forecasters if it rained on our picnic when they predicted a clear day. Today, just explaining the “why” behind the weather can get you fired — or even murdered.  In this recent WhoWhatWhy podcast I talk with Chris Gloninger, former chief meteorologist at KCCI-TV in Iowa, who face...

The decision this week in the Purdue Pharma case emphasizes how the bankruptcy system protects some and fails others, and how the rich and powerful manipulate it to their advantage while perpetuating race, gender, and financial inequality. My guest Melissa Jacoby (author of " UNJUST DEBTS: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal ") is a legal scholar focused on bankruptcy and debt. Ja...

The Battle of Seattle, the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization, marked a major turning point not just for an anti-globalization movement, but for the way we would come to see the world between that protest and the rise of the populist right in 2015. The direct line between those protests and the election of Donald Trump 16 years later is indelible. It's a story full of enduring less...

The Supreme Court has been eroding democracy for decades. In my recent WhoWhatWhy conversation with Joshua Douglas ( The Court v. The Voters : The Troubling Story of How the Supreme Court Has Undermined Voting Rights) he reveals that since the 1970s, the US Supreme Court has been actively destabilizing democracy in the United States. Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.subst...

In this week’s TalkCocktail podcast, Nicholas Kristof , long-time NY Times journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, talks to me about his new memoir, "Chasing Hope." He takes me on a deeply personal journey through a career spanning more than four decades. Kristof's unwavering commitment to exposing injustice and giving voice to the voiceless has taken him to the far corners of the globe, fr...

In a world where the specter of nationalism looms large and the future of democracy hangs in the balance, nowhere is the current rightward shift more evident than in the recently held European Union elections, and in France, where the upcoming national elections may amplify the global surge to the far right. On this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast, I talk with Elvire Camus, editor-in-chief of Le Monde ’...

Like every social construct, espeically those impacting women, the divorce landscape is changing. and as usual, California is setting the path. After all, California was the first state to introduce no-fault divorce in 1970 under then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, and celebrity divorces make lots of headlines. My guest on this California Sun podcast, Lauren Petkin, has been practicing family law in Los Ange...

Cecillia Lunaparra wants to change the world at 22. A senior at UC Berkeley, she was just elected to the Berkeley City Council at that age, making her the youngest and first undergraduate to hold the office. She's not new to activism and making a difference in her community She tells me in this week’s California Sun podcast that she thinks that the young people protesting on campus today may be at...

There is still hope for local news. Over the years, the Pulitzer Prize for “breaking news reporting” has typically been awarded to major legacy media brands. However, this year a hyperlocal online publication, the Santa Cruz Lookout , received the prestigious honor for its coverage of the once-in-a-century floods that devastated Santa Cruz in January 2023. On this week’s California Sun podcast I t...

Like a shark, if we don't keep moving forward, we die. James Pethokoukis , a renowned economic policy expert, shares insights from his groundbreaking work, " The Conservative Futurist." Pethokoukis presents a captivating vision of a future where technological advancements and environmental preservation harmoniously coexist. Where the  intersection of technology, culture, and politics, and discover...

In "The Guarantee," Natalie Foster argues that our current economic system is failing too many Americans, despite signs of growth. As millennials and Gen Z build wealth amidst the greatest transfer of wealth in history, stubborn pockets of economic stagnation persist. Foster explores what it would take to create an economy that works for everyone, questioning whether the government should guarante...

Can elections be predicted like hurricanes or sporting events? American University professor Allan Lichtman believes so, and he has the track record to prove it. Using his unique “13 Keys to the White House” system, Lichtman has, according to him, correctly predicted the outcome of 10 out of the last 10 presidential elections. In this episode of my WhoWhatWhy podcast, we talk with Lichtman to unpa...

On this WhoWhatWhy podcast, we explore the potential for a total reimagining of our beleaguered American democracy. Joining me is Maxwell Stearns, a professor of law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. An esteemed author of numerous articles and books on the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and legal economics, Stearns’s latest work is Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means...

On this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast, I sit down with the lead author of that report, military sociologist Marek N. Posard, to examine these alarming threats and what we can do to counter them. Imagine a small, seemingly innocuous hack on a local water treatment plant. A carefully timed disinformation campaign, powered by the latest in artificial intelligence. The physical security of our voting mach...

Climate change is not just threatening our planet, but also our minds. In my WhoWhatWhy podcast, I examine the hidden mental health crisis triggered by climate change with neuroscientist-turned-environmental-journalist Clayton Page Aldern. Aldern takes us on an eye-opening journey through cutting-edge research, exposing the ways our changing environment is physically altering our brains and behavi...

Max Podemski is an urban planner, writer, and illustrator who currently serves as a transportation planner for the city of Los Angeles. In his new book, “ A Paradise of Small Houses, ” he traces the evolution of American housing types, from the Philadelphia row house and Chicago workers cottage to the California bungalow. Podemski argues, in my recent California Sun podcast, that California’s rich...

In today's digital era, the unseen threads of algorithms intricately weave through our daily lives. They significantly mold our preferences, decisions, and worldviews. At the core of our modern digital experiences, algorithms curate almost every aspect of our online existence—from the articles we read to the music that we listen to and even the social interactions we engage in. This pervasive infl...

Between the shimmer of America’s coastlines an inferno of anger and disillusionment consumes the heartland. This week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast explores this social and political divide with Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman, guided by their book, White Rural Rage. Armed with journalistic insight and scholarly acumen, Schaller and Waldman unpack the reality of white rural America’s turmoil. They argue that...

Much of today's climate change conversation centers on the future—on potential sea walls, climate refugees, economic shifts, and geopolitical changes. However, the reality is that the impacts of climate change are unfolding every single day, in every corner of America. The discussion shouldn't just be about the future; but about the present. While many of us have faith in technology's ability to m...

Eleven years ago today, the Boston Marathon bombing shocked America, leaving an indelible mark on the nation's history. However, this tragic event is not the only unsolved mystery connected to the Tsarnaev brothers, who were responsible for the bombing. On September 11, 2011, three men were brutally murdered in Waltham, Massachusetts, in a crime that remains unsolved to this day. The older Tsarnae...

Thank you for listening to the Talk Cocktail Podcast. I count on word of mouth to grow the Podcast. Please share with a friend Sports gambling is a multi-billion-dollar business, with 38 states legalizing sports betting. The story of Shohei Ohtani's interpreter reminds us that sports and betting can still be a dangerous mix. And yet, Las Vegas, the betting and sports capital, was the home of this...