How Do We Fix It?

Have you spent your life switching careers? So has former NPR host, professor, and journalist Farai Chideya. It’s the new normal —- the episodic career.Can you build a career with a non-traditional work history?How do you find  a rewarding career in the new world of work?How can you thrive and prosper in a jobs market disrupted by technology and globalism? These questions are answered in this podcast. Our guest is well-known journalist, professor, author and former NPR host, Farai Chideya, author of “The Episodic Career”. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average job in the U.S. lasts 4.6 years, a far cry from an era when a large percentage of the workforce could expect to stay with their current employer for decades.   Farai tells us why resiliency, lifelong learning, plus understanding how your skills relate to the needs of the employment market are the three pillars of a successful career.   Look for solutions and links to useful sites at our website, howdowefixit.me.  Please rate and review our shows at iTunes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever been the victim of a con artist? Very often we fall for cons ourselves without being aware of it. We speak with journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova, best-selling author of “The Confidence Game:" Through storytelling and science, she explains the mind of the con artist and what makes the rest of us so susceptible. 
Con artists are everywhere. Since 2008 the number of reported cases of consumer fraud have shot up 60%. Online cases have doubled. Billions of dollars are lost each year in scams. Maria Konnikova explains how con artists target us and why we fall for it.Find out how you can avoid being the victim of a con artist. Go to our website www.howdowefixit.me Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fresh thinking for the New Year: In 2016 we were exposed to a dazzling range of smart, practical ideas from our podcast guests - from climate change and money matters, healthcare reform, to making room for strangers in our lives.  In this show we start with Rebecca Jarvis, Chief Business, Economics and Technology Correspondent for ABC News. One of her smart money resolutions for the New Year is to be skeptical. Watch out for the know-it-alls and outright charlatans of investing, who pretend to understand how to beat the market. Rebecca also urges borrowers to be aware of the full costs of personal debt.
The need to be wary of simplistic slogans and fixes is at the heart of global economist Ruchir Sharma's book, "The Rise and Fall of Nations.” His solution? Look beyond the headlines to long-term trends. Slower growths in the workforce and immigration rates have a big impact on prosperity and growth.  In the excerpt from our show on nuclear power, Michael Shellenberger, author of An Ecomodernist Manifesto, challenges the views of many environmentalists. He says nuclear is a crucial source of energy that "produces zero air and water pollution." "At the end of the day everybody is biased," says John Gable, who joined us to explain the thinking behind AllSides.com. This news website comes with a left/ center/ right column - showing readers how major events are interpreted by liberal, conservative and centrist media. John urges us to confront our own biases and filter bubbles as we separate truth from fake news.One forecast for 2017: due to the squabbling in Washington DC, over the role of federal government more solutions will be local. We spoke with obstetrician-gynecologist Rose Gowen, a City Commissioner in Brownsville, Texas. She told us how she was able to reduce high obesity rates using grants, a farmers market and bike trails and other local initiatives. Pulitzer-prize winning author, and New York Times journalist,Charles Duhigg talks about how we can improve our bad habits and become smarter, faster, and better. In this clip, we discuss to-do lists, mental models and making the most of our time - in life and in business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alan Dershowitz on Trump; what an Islamic fundamentalist learned in an Egyptian jail; plus a tenured professor explained why she quit her job—trigger warning ahead. No doubt about it - the nomination and election of Donald Trump was the biggest, most surprising news story of 2016. At the start of this show we get two fascinating takes on the Trump story from a marketing man and a Harvard Professor. For decades Alan Dershowitz has been on the front lines in the fight for civil liberties. He also has a refreshing take on the Trump phenomenon. "He was unpredictable: somebody who gave some people hope that maybe things won't be the same," says Dershowitz. British marketing expert Mark Earls, made a second visit to our podcast, told us that emotion and identity play far greater roles in our voting decisions than many of us realize." We imagine that people consider in something as important as politics the pros and cons and the policy, but we don’t. We spoke to Karen Firestone, the author of Even the Odds, about the time she met the famous advice columnist, Anne Landers, on a plane. The advice Landers gave Firestone changed her life. Find out why. Do you like talking to strangers on planes, or talking to strangers? If the answer is no, then listen to Kio Stark (TED author and speaker) explain why we all need to spend more time talking to strangers. Joan Blades tells us how she brings progressives and Tea Party supporters together for Living Room Conversations. Historian Alice Dreger, author of "Galileo's Middle Finger", reveals her personal fight for academic freedom and why it cost her a job at a prestigious university.As a young Muslim man in Britain, Maajid Nawaz joined a global Islamist group. Jailed in Egypt in 2001, Maajid began an extraordinary personal journey. In this episode he describes his transformation towards liberal, democratic values as a secular Muslim. Today, Maajid is an active counter-extremist and founding Chairman of Quilliam - a global organization focusing on integration, religious freedom, citizenship and identity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What we can learn from the best education systems in the world? A lot.We learn about PISA - The Program for International Student Assessment - and why this international test on math, science and reading has disturbing results for U.S. schools. 
 We interviewed British teacher Lucy Crehan, author of the breakthrough book, "Cleverlands", went on a remarkable journey to Finland, Asia and Canada, to study the world’s best schools. We find out why a simple question from a student in her science class, “Miss, why do we sneeze?" sent Lucy on a two-year quest to learn how to improve schools. 
Playful, enthusiastic, and full of common sense, "Cleverlands" is a personal story, an adventure, and a how-to book on how everyone can improve children’s education. Lucy paints a picture of school life, making sense of the theories and data through the stories of teachers and children.  Solutions:- Get children ready for formal learning. Early education is important but don’t focus on academic skills. The most effective programs build motivation, character, and cognitive skills through playful learning. - Play is very important; children develop skills through play, such as self-regulation, planning and language development. One of the top performing school systems don't begin formal academic instruction until age 7. - Let children take breaks. 4 out of the 5 school systems Lucy studied had 10–15 minute breaks between every lesson. - Encourage children to take on challenges rather than making concessions: Delay dividing students into different classes based on ability until age until 15.- Emphasize the importance of effort rather than intelligence. It’s easier for children to tackle a challenge if they believe they can change the outcome through hard work. - Combine school accountability with school support. Instead of punishing "bad" schools, provide more help and examples from successful educators and schools.- State and local boards of education should design a curriculum with a set of principals rather than detailed instructions for every week of the school year. This gives teachers greater job satisfaction, more autonomy and freedom to motivate students to do their best.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More than eight years after the financial meltdown, we still have a lot to learn, says our guest, CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar. "The rise of finance has actually kind of eaten the rest of the economy," Rana tells this in this "Fix It" episode. "Finance controls the rest of industry. Finance has become the tail that wags the dog." At the same time, the financial industry remains at risk for another hugely destructive collapse. In her book, "Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business", Rana says only 15% of all the money in financial markets ends up in the real economy in the form of loans to help grow business. The rest is traded and shuffled around the financial system. "Finance is there to serve business. We need to simplify it," Rana says. That means deciding "what kinds of activities in our economy we want to incentivize and then creating the rules around finance to help capital flow to those areas."Solutions:Reform the tax code that “treats one-year investment gains the same way it treats longer-term investments, and induces financial institutions to push overconsumption and speculation, rather than healthy lending to small businesses and job creators.” End the system's bias favoring debt over equity.Reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate - and abolish complex loopholes. Encourage multinational corporate to return cash kept overseas, reinvesting it in U.S. enterprises. 
End offshore banking, which allows corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying tax.Discourage stock buybacks. Boost incentives for large corporations to fund research and innovation. Reform banking laws. Impose new safety limits on the amount of money banks must have in cash.  Impose a financial transaction tax: forcing banks to pay a small fee for each trade in bonds, stocks, and derivatives. Limit leverage: impose safety controls that require banks to hold a larger percentage of holdings in cash. Simplify and overhaul the enormously complex Dodd-Frank law, which penalizes community and regional banks.  Pass a new form of Glass-Steagall Act - the 1933 law that separated commercial banking from investing and trading.  Take a page from airline safety.  Set up a financial version of the independent National Transportation Safety Board to investigate bank failures and other threats to the financial system. End "cognitive capture" or group think. When debating financial reform, listen to the views of all stakeholders: large and small banks, consumers, manufacturing businesses and academics that study the impact of finance on other sectors of the economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Michael Shermer is our guest; he's the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American and a regular contributor to Time.com.In his latest book, “The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom,” Dr. Shermer discusses how science, reason, and rational inquiry contribute to human progress and history. He claims that we are living in the most moral period of our species’ historyUsing data, and lessons from history, Michael shows that the arc of the moral universe bends toward truth, justice, and freedom.When considering right and wrong, "most people separate scientific facts - facts about nature - from moral facts," says Michael in this episode of our podcast, "How Do We Fix It?" "I'm pushing back against that saying moral truths are really no different from biological or physical truths about nature."We consider the profound implications of his ideas for how we look at science, religion, politics, climate change, prison reform and our own moral choices. More information about Michael and his books are available on our website: http://www.howdowefixit.me/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The U.S. spends more than $3 trillion a year on healthcare, or nearly $10,000 a year for every man, woman and child. But are we getting a bang for our buck? In many cases, the answer has to be no. And this goes well beyond the raging debate over Obamacare and whether all Americans should have access to coverage.About a third of money spent on healthcare is now simply wasted or spent on poor decisions, says our guest, emergency room physician and entrepreneur, Doctor Joe Habboushe. The crisis includes clinical waste, excessive prices, fraud and bureaucracy.Dr. Habboushe shares his moving personal story and passion for reducing waste and improving patient outcomes through his work as a physician and as CEO of MDCalc - an online diagnostic app used by about 50% of American doctors."Let's not get rid of what we do really well and that's drive innovation for the world," says Dr. Joe. "If we focus on waste, we have to look at why healthcare costs a lot and if we want to reduce that how can we do it in a way that doesn't damage our system.Solutions:- Greater use of technology to help doctors improve decision-making.- Take a careful look at how much money, and intense care, is spent on the final months of life. In some cases, doctors and hospitals profit from treatment - Government and taxpayers need to continue funding research that leads to potential drugs and breakthrough treatments.- Allow pharmaceutical companies to profit from new drugs and medical treatments that benefit patients.- Patients: Be better informed about successful medicine, which doesn't always mean a pill for every ailment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This show is about the benefits adults, especially business owners, can get from playing games. This year's huge success of Pokemon Go helped bring gamification and augmented reality into the mainstream - with many small businesses using the mobile app to raise engagement with consumers. Dan Grech, OfferCraft, tells us how governments, businesses, and even parents use games to boost participation and change behavior.Dan Grech is a former journalist who works for OfferCraft, a Florida company that designs games for companies and other clients. "You can incorporate games into business settings in really small and subtle ways that aren't necessarily expensive and can generate extraordinary results" says Dan. Solutions with games:Governments use games and behavioral economics insights to reduce speeding or increase voter turnout. In China, the government introduced lottery scratch-off games to cut tax evasion.Businesses offer prizes and rewards to excite consumers and boost engagement Doctors’ offices and healthcare clinics may reduce income loss from last-minute cancellations with games and prizes for patients who show up. Parents can use games, such as ChoreMonster, to get kids and other family members to do household chores. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anyone who cares about diversity, feminism and closing the gender gap should be fired up about this show.Author, entrepreneur and - yes provocateur - Sallie Krawcheck is our guest.  Her forthcoming 2017 book is "Own It: The Power of Women at Work."  Sallie is CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, a digital investment platform and wealth management site for women.  For years, she has been well known as one of the most senior women on Wall Street and was called "the last honest analyst" by Fortune Magazine after the 2008 financial crisis.  She has deep experience in "the biggest boys club in the world" - the financial industry, where 86% of investment advisers are men.First off we talk about why the Trump Presidency could be good for feminists.  “It’s (locker room talk) on the table now,"  she says. The infamous conversation with Billie Bush, and the widely discussed New York Times column "How Wall Street Bro Talk Keeps Women Down" are both "a really important wake up call."Sallie lists the many benefits of true diversity. Organizations where many different voices are respected perform better than those with narrow like-minded leaders from the same gender and social class. Being successful does not mean acting like men, Sallie tells us. "The power of diversity is not bringing a bunch of women or people of difference together and having them act like middle-aged white guys."Sallie’s Solutions: - For women: Make sure your work gets noticed your supervisors and make sure goals are quantified and acknowledged. - For men: Be a fully equal partner with your spouse: do the laundry.- For companies: Diversity is a crucial ingredient to a firm's success, but it won't happen without clear leadership from the top. - Investing: Diversify your portfolio and save for the long term. Instead of trying to beat the market, invest in a range of mutual funds that include U.S. and international sources plus large and small companies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.