Free Forum with Terrence McNally

We often think social contagion yields negative consequences - teens smoke because other teens smoke, for example. However, in his latest book, UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Putting Peer Pressure to Work, ROBERT FRANK makes the optimistic case that the economics of social contagion could solve our most critical problems — from climate change to income inequality – as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s evidence: As VOX’s Ezra Klein points out, in the face of the coronavirus, "social pressure has driven perhaps the single fastest behavioral transformation in human history.”

In a normal year, children would to be starting back to school. This year, some will, some won’t, and parents, teachers, and school systems all face tough choices. What do know about what works to help kids whether they’re in school or not? Here’s my 2019 conversation with DAVID KIRP, Professor at UC Berkeley. His books include THE SANDBOX INVESTMENT and KIDS FIRST, and we talk about innovative programs that make a big difference in kids’ lives and deserve to be invested in and expanded nationally.

The Trump-Barr Justice Department is actively working for the President and his election campaign. The militarization of local police over the past decade mixed with a population that owns a lot of guns and a culture of systemic racism and anti-immigrant passion has produced a dangerous brew. I talk with ELIE MYSTAL, justice correspondent at The Nation magazine about the movement for racial justice and the Trump-Barr assault on the constitution and the rule of law. You can learn more at thenation.com

Who is DAVID BOHM? A physicist who reconciled Einstein’s theory of general relativity and Neils Bohr’s quantum theory. A seeker whose scientific insight of implicate order and cosmic wholeness echoes the consciousness of oneness in Eastern philosophy. Welcome when a virus has forced us to acknowledge our shared vulnerability I talk with PAUL HOWARD, Producer/director of the new documentary, INFINITE POTENTIAL: The Life and Ideas of DAVID BOHM. You can learn more and watch the trailer at infinitepotential.com.

Who is Stephen Miller? Though officially chief speechwriter, he's also the architect of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies - travel bans, family separations, refugees in cages during a pandemic. How did he achieve such power so soon? How did the anger and resentment of a young nerd in the early 2000s end up twisting the ideals of a nation and fueling the suffering of thousands of vulnerable people he will never meet? I talk with investigative reporter JEAN GUERRERO about her book, HATEMONGER: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda

Inequality is getting worse. Most of us know that the Covid-19 pandemic has devastated the US economy. Between March 18 and June 25, over 46 million people filed for unemployment. In that same period, however, U.S. billionaire wealth surged over $600 billion. At least eight billionaires have seen their wealth grow by more than $1 billion this year. I talk about this with CHUCK COLLINS, who directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-edits Inequality.org. His books include 99 TO 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It; and BORN ON THIRD BASE.

At a moment when Black Lives Matter protests - the largest, most sustained mass demonstrations in US history - are still taking place and Donald Trump is sending federal secret police to incite disorder in Portland, here’s my 2017 conversation with JODIE EVANS. A tireless activist, advocate, and communicator for peace, justice and the planet, this interview was recorded as Code Pink, one of the organizations Evans founded, was celebrating its 15th birthday.

Election Day is less than four months away. Between closing poll sites, purging voter rolls, manipulating voting machines, and putting obstacles in the way of voting by mail, the Trump administation and many state governments want to keep you from voting. Investigative reporter GREG PALAST has been working this beat since 2000. His latest book is a warning: HOW TRUMP STOLE 2020: The Hunt For America’s Vanished Voters. What are they up to and how can we foil them?

The Supreme Court is in the news – issuing surprising rulings on the Dreamers and abortion access in Louisiana, but predictable ones limiting absentee voting in Texas and okaying the denial of contraception coverage based on employers’ religious beliefs. Chief Justice Roberts seems to be the new swing vote, so what should we expect? Let’s listen to my 2013 conversation with MARCIA COYLE on her book THE ROBERTS COURT: The Struggle for the Constitution. By the way, Coyle confirms my belief that the most crucial issue in considering the last few GOP-nominated justices is not abortion or gun control - but the rights and powers of corporations vs those of human beings

Psychiatrist and author ROBERT JAY LIFTON has spent a lifetime not turning away from our dark side: writing about Hiroshima survivors, Nazi doctors, and the Japanese cult that released sarin gas in Tokyo’s subways. Now 93, he finds the darkness closer to home. He wrote the foreword to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Experts Assess a President, and his latest book is LOSING REALITY: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry. How can Trump’s alternative facts compete with the harsh realities of this moment?