Free Forum with Terrence McNally

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 Governance) investing. Here’s my conversation with STAN COX of the Land Institute and JOHN FEFFER of the Institute for Policy Studies, about this anti-democratic and destructive strategy and other aspects of the politics of climate. You can learn more at landinstitute.org and johnfeffer.com

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 Director of Business for Impact at Georgetown University and former managing director at Ashoka, the global venture fund for social entrepreneurs, about her book, How Change Happens: Why Some Movements Succeed While Others Don’t

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’s worse, as of now PEs are legally shielded from liability for the consequences of their actions. You can learn more at plunderthebook.com.

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 which Henry Kissinger called him, "the most dangerous man in America." His actions did not end the war – at least not as quickly as he had hoped – but they did change history. Here is our conversation recorded in 2009. 

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 starring Antonio Banderas. We talk about his newest, OUR MIGRANT SOULS: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of Latino. You can learn more at hectortobar.com. 

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 employed for a decade - turning off all screens for 24 hours one day a week. She says this practice has completely changed their lives, giving them more time, productivity, connection, and presence. What could it do for you?

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] seeks to foster constructive dialogue through critical thinking and media literacy. Learn more at ProjectCensored.org

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 Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, about their new book, THE BIG MYTH: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market. Learn more at thebigmythbook.com

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 LONELY CENTURY: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart. You can learn more at noreena.com

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 repressive governments. We pull back the curtain on its role in pursuit of the bottom line above all that has made this country less equal, less just, less healthy, less safe, and less democratic.