How Do We Fix It?

Much of the West has just lived through one of the worst June heatwaves in decades. Many states could be in a drought all this summer. From California and Arizona to the mountain West, dangerous heatwaves are almost becoming the norm. The threat of more devastating wildfires prompted calls for reforms  of the nation's fire management policies, and are a clear sign that the impacts of climate...

" Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone " was a 2008 newspaper column that turned into a national campaign to help parents raise their children with less anxiety while pushing back against our culture that has become obsessed with kids' fragility. Our guest,  Lenore Skenazy , founded  free-range kids  in the years after she first described making the decision to le...

America's remarkable experiment in a pluralist democracy is under threat from  toxic polarization . In this episode, we discuss two current nationwide campaigns to tackle this crisis head-on, America Talks , on Saturday-Sunday, June 12-13, is a  powerful conversation event  that invites thousands of Americans to connect one-on-one on video across our political divides. By...

The word “peacebuilding” evokes a story we’ve all heard over and over: Violence breaks out, foreign nations react, peacekeepers and million-dollar donors come rushing in, warring parties sign a peace agreement, and, sadly, within months the situation is back to where it started—sometimes worse.  But peace can grow in the most unlikely circumstances. What are some strategie...

"We should be humble all the time," says  Veronique de Rugy  of her study of economics. "There's always something I realize that I didn't understand."   In this episode, we discuss the rigorous questions economists need to ask themselves when analyzing the likely impacts of public policies: Questions rarely asked by politicians and others in the public square. We look at t...

It's tempting to believe that our current moment is the most urgent of all. Yet despite the catastrophic pandemic, and threats from other urgent problems, humankind has faced worse calamities in the past— from global wars and plagues to economic collapse. In this episode, we look at age-old lessons from philosophy and discover how ancient wisdom can be our guide in modern times. Bes...

She lived in Seattle and covered science, climate change, and the environment for NPR for more than a decade. Most of her friends and colleagues were liberals or progressives. Then in 2018, journalist  Ashley Ahearn  made a big jump, moving with her husband to one of the most conservative counties in rural Washington State.   What did this public radio reporter learn from her d...

Too often in our fierce and narrow political debates, we suffer from a poverty of imagination. Seeing a crisis through a narrow lens of "us versus them" is a barrier to creative solutions and vital changes needed to save lives, protect the planet, and grow prosperity. In this episode we discuss the enormous power and potential of framing: mental models that enable us to see patterns, predict how t...

In the months after George Floyd’s murder, colleges, universities, non-profits, and large corporations across the country  embraced anti-racism and diversity training  as a way to promote inclusion and racial justice. But do these programs actually work to change minds and achieve their goals? Our guest, associate professor of History at Carleton College,  Amna K...

What’s the greatest crisis facing America today? — Racism and hate crimes, exploding government debt, climate change, or the mess at the border? It may be none of these.  America and many other countries are trapped in  high conflict . Both sides are paralyzed by fear and anger as they demonize the other. The national narrative of "us versus them" is a threat to democracy and stops...

We’ve made it to our 300th weekly episode! While it’s easy to congratulate ourselves for being among the few podcasts to produce this many shows, Jim and Richard are most proud of our extraordinary range of guests. During our first six years together, we've often highlighted out-of-the-box thinkers, who share ideas that are too rarely discussed: People who s...

Recent mass shootings and the explosion of rage outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6 are reminders of threats posed to us all by anger, fear and loathing. On social media and in the hyper-partisan ways political issues are debated, many of us objectify others. Those who belong to the wrong tribe are often targets of personal scorn. In a Twitter post, our guest, writer and entrepreneur,  Chlo...

Stifle that yawn. Infrastructure just got exciting again. President Biden  announced  a $2 trillion plan to rebuild roads and rails, repair bridges, modernize airports and seaports, create hundreds of thousands of union jobs in the solar and wind power industries, boost housing, expand broadband access to regions that are poorly served, and speed-up the transition to a climate-friendly e...

Our lives depend on it and most of us don't give it a moment's thought. But when the electricity goes off we feel frustrated— powerless. America's grid was an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, but as the recent sudden freeze and severe power  outages in Texas  have shown, our electricity infrastructure is fragile and in need of basic repair, especially as the w...

Our obsession with what is normal and acceptable is at the heart of how we view mental health. It is also the source of stigma around many forms of mental illness.  In this podcast with anthropology professor,  Richard Grinker , we ask how do we fix it? What are successful ways to challenge stigmas, as we help millions of people reach their full potential? Richard discusse...

When social media burst on the scene, many of us were in awe of its great potential. For the first ten years of Facebook, public reaction to this new form of communication was overwhelmingly positive, but now that we have a better understanding of how social media is shaping our world, there are growing calls for fundamental reform.  Should tech monopolies be cut down to size a...

Elon Musk  is an entrepreneur and out-of-this-world thinker, who has shaken up two vital industries that were dominated by giant multinational corporations with companies that began life as startups. Tesla's breakthrough with electric cars is well-known, but many of Musk's most stunning innovations have come with SpaceX, which pioneered reusable rockets— slashing the cost of space launches—&n...

The January assault on the U.S. Capitol and the depth of toxic partisanship lead us to question our past assumptions about the American electorate and its relationship with the government. This episode features two experts who have spent many years trying to understand us. Frank Luntz is one of the best-known pollsters and political communications experts in America today. We hear edited extracts...

Even before the alarming and violent  January 6 assault  on the Capitol, American politics was in danger of spinning out of control— bumping up against the guardrails of our democratic institutions. On social media and in the civic square, many have separated into two camps that seem to hate the other side. We have become estranged from family and friends over politics. More than ev...

More than 10% of the U.S. population  has received  at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but injection rates are lower in black and brown communities, and many people express doubts about the shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Vaccine hesitancy presents a barrier in the fight against coronavirus.  A recent poll  by Pew Research Center found that "Black Americ...

After the recent storming of the US Capitol and the loss of both the White House and U.S. Senate, it's tempting to believe that civil war will break out among Republicans— a party deeply split between traditional conservatives and Trump-supporting populists. We decided to find out what two young Republicans say about the future of their party, and the need to confront those who believe in conspira...

Even before coronavirus led to social distancing, widespread working from home, and lockdown restrictions, loneliness was becoming a defining condition of the twenty-first century. Today, this pandemic of pain and isolation is far worse.  One of many recent polls found that more than three in five Americans say they are lonely, with more and more people reporting feeling like they are left ou...

We are in a stunning moment for our country. A hoard of rioters invaded our nation’s seat of government to try to overturn an election. Many of them appear to have been motivated by false and inflammatory statements by President Trump, and under the sway of wild online conspiracy theories . In response, our leading tech platforms have tried to silence Trump and shut down many of the channels where...

Just before the 2020 election, pundits predicted that Latino Americans would overwhelmingly vote for Joe Biden. And it’s true—Latino voters do tilt Democratic. But Donald Trump won a greater share of Latino votes in some states and large cities than he did in 2016. Because of decades of investment and political courtship, as well as a nuanced and varied cultural identity, the Republican party has...

The storming of the U.S. Capitol building by an angry mob of Trump supporters was a dark day in American history and a shock to people around the world. Images of looting and anarchy in the proud place where Congress has met for over 200 years, provoked profound despair and led many to question the stability of American democracy.  The insurrection brought shame to President Trump, who incite...