Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Aired 10/16/11Both Ira Glass and Malcolm Gladwell say today's guest is their favorite storyteller. In his books and magazine articles, Lewis writes about sports, business, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, political campaigns, fatherhood. Stuff that matters to a lot of people. He's smart and he has a sense of humor.Lewis was a trader at Salomon Brothers before he wrote his first best-seller, LIAR'S POKER about the excesses of Wall Street during the 1980s. He continues to write about that world with his last two books, a column for Bloomberg, and articles in Vanity Fair.His newest book BOOMERANG: Travels in the New Third World is made up of articles originally published in Vanity Fair and picks up where 2010's THE BIG SHORT left off. What happens after the meltdown of 07-08? Governments are the focus of this book. Mostly because they have taken on the bad debts of the too big to fail banks, so now they are themselves at risk. Now politics and culture become much more important as to how they will deal with that risk. Then there's the story of California which as a state ran up unsustainable debts during a series of bubbles and can't raise the taxes to pay for them.We'll also talk about the twisted path taken to get MONEYBALL into theatres. The film based on his 2003 book is now a popular and critical success. MICHAEL LEWIS received a BA in art history from Princeton University and a Masters in economics from the London School of Economics. He contributes to bloomberg.com and Vanity Fair. His other books include The Blind Side, Panic, The New New Thing, and Home Game.

Aired 10/09/11Politics and the media have for the most part shown themselves impotent, indifferent, or in cahoots when it comes to confronting and rolling back the takeover of the United States by the super-rich and the super-corporations.Since the days of Clinton, we've been reminding ourselves of the words of FDR to progressives pressing for the New Deal -- "Make me do it." Envying the attention and power granted the tea party. Millions march all over Europe in response to austerity measures that make the people pay for the failures of the financial class. Millions march in the Arab Awakening when hunger, poverty, corruption, and autocracy prove too much to bear and social media connects and informs the people like never before. When will Americans take to the streets?September 17th, a small group of demonstrators camped out in a downtown New York park and Occupy Wall Street was born. Occupy Los Angeles emerged a week ago, October 1st. Both are alive and well. As of Saturday the Occupy movement has spread to 1,016 cities in the US and abroad. There has been carping in the mainstream media about the movement's lack of focus, lack of clear message, lack of specific platform or demands. The closest thing to a brand for the movement so far is the claim that, "We are the 99%". I think this is a wonderful opening. It's based on cold hard facts. It is inclusive. Even a tea partier knows they are part of the 99%. Inequality is problem #1 in this country. from which all else follows, including a corrupted political system that is not able to meet the challenges we face.I don't think anyone knows where this goes...At some level a lot of us have grown so resigned to the dominance of money in our society that I'm not sure too many have a plan how to get from here to where we need to get.I think we each also have to invent the role we are going to play as this story unfolds.I'll be joined by representatives for both Occupy Wall Street -- NELINI STAMP (Working Families Party) and MELANIE BUTLER (Code Pink) -- and Occupy Los Angeles -- LISA CLAPIER (media, Occupy LA) and SHARIF ABDULLAH (Commonway.org). I plan to ask them to tell their individual stories, report what's happening around them and what they think it means.http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet

Aired 10/02/11This radio show aims for "pieces of the puzzle of a world that just might work." Many of those pieces arise out of a vision that reality is not dead, mechanical, or separate, but rather alive, evolving, and composed of interdependent systems. I believe this worldview has been shared by indigenous peoples for millennia, revealed by science since early in the 20th century, and obvious every time we walk outside or look into the eyes of another living creature.It is this world view that inspires the annual Bioneers conferences that take place each fall in the San Francisco Bay area and now stream via satellite to sites across the country. The conference is a gathering of scientific and social innovators who draw from four billion years of evolutionary intelligence and apply nature's operating instructions to develop and implement visionary and practical models for restoring the Earth, and its communities and people.In addition to founding and co-directing Bioneers (Collective Heritage Institute), KENNY AUSUBEL, is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and social entrepreneur specializing in health and the environment. He co-founded Seeds of Change, a biodiversity organic seed company. He authored the books, Seeds of Change; Restoring the Earth: Visionary Solutions from the Bioneers. Recently he edited the first two titles in the Bioneers book series with J.P Harpignies, Ecologocal Medicine, and Nature's Operating Instructions. He founded Inner Tan Productions to produce visionary feature films.DAVID ORR is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President of Oberlin College and a James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design. He raised funds for and spearheaded the effort to design and build a $7.2 million Environmental Studies Center at Oberlin College, a building described by the New York Times as "the most remarkable" of a new generation of college buildings and selected as one of 30 "milestone buildings" in the 20th century by the U.S. Department of Energy. Orr is the author of six books including THE LAST REFUGE: The Corruption of Patriotism in the Age of Terror; THE NATURE OF DESIGN; EARTH IN MIND; ECOLOGICAL LITERACY; and co-editor of The Global Predicament and The Campus and Environmental Responsibility. http://www.bioneers.org/http://davidorr.com/

Aired 09/25/11In CONNECTED, as her father battles brain cancer and she confronts a high-risk pregnancy, TIFFANY SHLAIN, co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and a Fellow at the Aspen Institute, asks what it means to be connected in the 21st century. The documentary film continues at three theaters in the Bay area, opens 09/30 at the Arclight Hollywood (Q&A w Shlain)and at the Angelika in New York 10/14 (Q&A w Shlain). TIFFANY SHLAIN, honored by Newsweek as one of the "Women Shaping the 21st Century," is a filmmaker, artist, founder of The Webby Awards, co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Her films include Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness, about reproductive rights in America and The Tribe, an exploration of American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie doll, Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg's Howl, about our addiction to technology and the importance of "unplugging", and her newest Connected: A Declaration of Interdependencehttp://www.tiffanyshlain.com/tiffanyshlain/Home.htmlhttp://connectedthefilm.com/

Aired 09/18/11ROBIN WRIGHT said of her last book DREAMS AND SHADOWS, "My goal was to probe deep inside societies of the Middle East for the emerging ideas and players that are changing the political environment in ways that will unfold for decades to come." Just three years later, ROCK THE CASBAH tells the stunning personal stories behind the rejection of both autocrats and extremists in the Muslim world.She describes the new phase of the Islamic activism as a counter-jihad. For some, it's about reforming the faith. For others, it's overhauling political systems. For all, it is about basic rights-on their own terms and not necessarily based on Western models. Muslims are now confronting extremism and rescuing their faith from a virulent minority, thereby taking charge of history and doing what the West cannot.ROBIN WRIGHT has reported from more than 140 countries on 6 continents for numerous news organizations, including several years with the LA Times. She has been a fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Brookings Institution, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Yale, Duke, Stanford and others, and is the author of five books. Her latest is ROCK THE CASBAH: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World.http://www.robinwright.net/

Aired 09/04/11I am currently focusing the show on the breakdown and restoration of the American Dream. Recent guests include Rob Johnson, Richard Eskow, Drew Dellinger, Jacob Hacker, Paul Pierson, and David Cay Johnston. Today I'll be joined by VAN JONES, co-Founder and President of REBUILD THE DREAM. Learn more at rebuildthedream.com Introducing the American Dream Movement, Jones said, "It is the American Dream that the GOP's "slash and burn" agenda is killing off. We need a movement dedicated to renewing the idea that hard work pays in our country; that you can make it if you try; that America remains a land committed to dignity, justice and opportunity for all. Right now, this very idea is on the GOP chopping block. And we must rescue it now -- or risk losing it forever.America will not make it through this crisis healthy and whole if -- at the first sign of trouble -- we are willing to throw away our teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and others who make our communities and country strong. Their daily work is essential to the smooth functioning and long-term success of our nation. An attack on them is an attack on the backbone of America. Nobody objects to politicians cutting budgetary fat. But the GOP program everywhere is so reckless that it would actually cut muscle, bone and marrow, too. This approach is both shortsighted and immoral. We should rise up against it -- in our millions."VAN JONES is Co-Founder and President of REBUILD THE DREAM, and a co-founder of three other successful non-profit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green For All. Jones served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009, and is currently a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress and a senior policy advisor at Green For All. He holds a joint appointment at Princeton University, as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is the author of The Green Collar Economy.http://ourfuture.org/conference 10 CRITICAL STEPS TO GET OUR ECONOMY BACK ON TRACKI. Invest in America's InfrastructureII. Create 21st Century Energy JobsIII. Invest in Public EducationIV. Offer Medicare for AllV. Make Work PayVI. Secure Social SecurityVII. Return to Fairer Tax RatesVIII. End the Wars and Invest at HomeIX. Tax Wall Street SpeculationX. Strengthen Democracy

Aired 08/28/11ROBERT JOHNSON serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) and Director of the Project on Global Finance at the Roosevelt Institute. He recently served on the United Nations Commission of Experts on International Monetary Reform under the Chairmanship of Joseph Stiglitz. Previously, Johnson was a Managing Director at Soros Fund Management where he managed a global currency, bond and equity portfolio specializing in emerging markets. He also served as Chief Economist of the US Senate Banking Committee and was an Executive Producer of the Oscar winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side.http://ineteconomics.org/

Aired 08/14/11I've invited three people to begin a conversation with me about what's broken at the intersection of our society, our politics, and our economy, how it got broken, and how we can fix it.ROB JOHNSON served as chief economist of the US Senate Banking Committee, was a Management DIrector at Soros Fund Management, and is now Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), funded by Soros to encourage and support a rethinking of the fundamentals of economics so that they take into account the role of human behavior including politics.R J ESKOW, a former executive and consultant on matters of finance and information technology, to AIG, the World Bank and the State Department, is a prolific blogger at the Huffington Post and Campaign for America's Future.DREW DELLINGER is a poet, teacher, activist and founder of Planetize the Movement. He is currently finishing his doctoral dissertation on the last years of Martin Luther King Jr., and co-wrote the documentary film, The Awakening Universe. Learn more at drewdellinger.org, for RJ Eskow -- ourfuture.org/users/new-4468 or nightlight.typepad.com/, for Rob Johnson -- ineteconomics.org

Aired 08/08/11KILL THE MESSENGER emerged from MARIA ARMOUDIAN's studies into the causes of genocide, war, peacemaking, democratization, and the protection of human rights and the environment, while she was working on her Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, as well as during her work as a broadcast journalist and public official. Looking across conflicts and policy successes and failures, she found that media (and media professionals) were among key factors in determining political outcomes, including matters of life and death.Written in five parts, KILL THE MESSENGER shows how media fomented rage and genocide in Rwanda, the Holocaust and the Bosnian war; how they helped bring peace in the Northern Ireland Conflict and the war in Burundi; how media contributed to democratization and the protection of human rights in South Africa, Taiwan, Mexico, and Senegal, and how they aided both the destruction and rebuilding of democracy in Chile. In its final case study, Kill the Messenger explores the media's role in the fate of the world, as journalists disentangle the issue of climate change for the public.The book's forward was written by Tom Hayden.

Aired 08/05/11Left, Right & CenterThe global markets have been heading steadily south for the last two weeks, but on Thursday, they took a sharp dive. The Dow lost more than four percent of its value, its worst day in three years. As our program went to air on Friday afternoon, the markets continued to sputter downward. There was a bit of good news: unemployment went down and jobs went up in July, but only slightly. The jobs report appears to have prevented another day like Thursday on Wall Street, but is it enough to calm investor fears that we're entering into a double-dip recession? And with the grim economic forecast and a bruising fight over the budget, what are the political implications of all this for President Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill? What are their prospects for re-election? (Terrence McNally sits in for Matt Miller. Chrystia Freeland joins us as our special guest panelist.)