How Do We Fix It?

Russia's invasion of Ukraine made Europe's energy dependence painfully clear. "We are supporting and actually financing the war by purchasing oil and gas and other fossil fuels from Russia," Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin bluntly put it.Fossil fuel energy is vital for Russia's economy, accounting for almost half of its exports. One-third of Europe's oil and as much as 40% of natural gas imports come from Russia. In this episode, we discuss how the war in Ukraine is changing the debate over fossil fuel dependency. Our guest is climate economist and Bloomberg News columnist Gernot Wagner of NYU and Columbia School of Business.The invasion has already prompted a dramatic rethink by European policymakers. The EU has pledged to sharply reduce and ultimately phase out purchases of Russian oil and gas. In an abrupt about-face, Germany halted the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline project. The unprovoked attack on Ukraine "certainly provides the moral clarity that tells us to get off fossil fuels now," Gernot tells us. "This is a fossil fuel war." As they do in almost every episode, Richard and Jim put the spotlight on solutions. Among the topics covered here:- The prospects for carbon capture technology to remove significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.- The case for a new carbon tax plus a proposed ban on natural gas in new apartment building construction.- Why building many more homes in big cities would reduce carbon emissions.- The role of nuclear power, solar, and wind in reducing the world's reliance on fossil fuels.Recommendation: Richard enjoyed watching the Danish six-part HBO series, "The Investigation". We are doing something special with our Patreon account, where we ask listeners for support. The usual appeal is: give us a few dollars each month to help boost the audience for our solutions journalism podcast. Until now we've been spending all of the money to expand our reach and gain more subscribers. But for the next 6 months we're sending all the money to Ukraine relief efforts. The money will go to charities like Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. Help us help people who need our money most. Sign up here. https://www.patreon.com/howdowefixit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Democracies around the world are under threat from populist movements, demagogues, and dogmatic extremists who use disinformation, conspiracy theories, cancel culture, and shaming to weaponize social media and challenge our ability to distinguish truth from falsehood.Most recently, the Russian government has used lies and fake news to justify its attempted land grab in Ukraine. In "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth", best-selling author, journalist, and public intellectual, Jonathan Rauch, offers a stirring defense of the social system of checks and balances that is crucial for turning disagreement into verifiable facts."This global network of people hunting for each others' errors is far and away the greatest human technology ever invented," Jonathan tells us. The constitution of knowledge "is a global conversation of people looking for truth, and more especially, looking for error."In this episode of "How Do We Fix It?", Jonathan arms listeners and advocates of truth with a clear understanding of what they must protect, and how to do it. He makes a clear and moving argument for how all of us can help defend truth and free inquiry from threats that come from as far away as Russia and as close as our cellphones.Here's one of our recommended reviews of "The Constitution of Knowledge".Movie recommendation: Richard enjoyed "The Leopard", a 1963 Italian period drama by director Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, and Alain Delon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shock, surprises, and suffering are the most immediate results of all wars. Russia's brutal, yet deeply flawed invasion of Ukraine has profound implications for the West, global democracy, and the future of Europe and Russia. We hear the perspectives of two prominent thinkers, Jane Lytvynenko and Robert Kagen. Richard and Jim also share their analysis of the unexpected early outcomes of the war. This episode has extracts from an interview with Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. He spoke with podcast producer and host Jenna Spinelle of "Democracy Works". We also share part of an interview from the current episode of "Democracy in Danger" with journalist Jane Lytvynenko, who covers technology, disinformation, and now, Ukraine. She was born in Kyiv. Jane is also a senior research fellow at Harvard University's Technology and Social Change Project at the Shorenstein Center.  This podcast is produced with the generous help of the Democracy Group podcast network and the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. "I actually believe in the long run we will come out of this," says Robert Kagen. "Unfortunately, the long run may be longer than we want and we may be in this for 20 years.""Had the West stood up against the torture of protesters in Belarus, Russia would not have been able to put tanks there today," says Jane Lytvynenko. She argues for a more robust response by the West to attacks against democracy in other nations.Recommendation: Jim is reading “Mercury Rising. John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War" by Jeff Shesol. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The war in Ukraine and the global response to Russia's invasion are dominating the news. But missing in much of the coverage is a sense of the country and its people. In this historic moment, we hear a riveting account of the country's recent political awakening and why Ukrainians are prepared to resist and fight.In the past century, Ukraine suffered massively during two world wars, Nazi occupation, famine, and the Chernobyl disaster. Eight years ago, during the "Revolution of Dignity", Ukranians stood up against corruption, brutality, and Russian dominance. A new democracy and civic bond were formed. The country profoundly changed."Ukranians are fighting for all of us," says our guest, Yale University historian Marci Shore, the author of “The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution.” She is a scholar of Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet era. "I'm terrified for my friends," Marci tells us. "The Ukrainians will not give up... I'm desperately hopeful that as difficult as the odds are, they are going to prevail."Recommendations for further reading about the war and today's Ukraine: Yarolav Trofimo, the Wall Street Journal’s Chief foreign correspondent, now in Kiev. Phil Stewart of Reuters and his newsfeed on Twitter, coverage from CNN's Clarissa Ward, Anderson Cooper, and Alex Marquardt in Ukraine. Background and perspective in The Economist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The invasion of Ukraine is a shocking reminder of what's at stake for democracies around the world. This moment is a stunning reminder of the vital importance of what we so often take for granted— personal freedoms and the rule of law. Despite well-advertised flaws, our constitutional system of governance is infinitely preferable to dictatorships or thuggish autocracies. In this episode, we share a conversation that touches on the relationship between voters and those who represent them, and what is meant by "representative democracy". The interview is shared with us by our friends at the "Democracy Paradox" podcast.Lisa Disch, author of the book, “Making Constituencies: Representation as Mobilization in Mass Democracy” is this week’s guest. She is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan and an elected member of the Ann Arbor City Council. She is a committed member of the Democratic Party, but her views and research should be of interest to listeners from across the political spectrum.Lisa makes a spirited defense of multi-party representative democracy as an engine for change and progress. Justin Kempf asks the questions in this interview. His podcast, “Democracy Paradox” and ours are members of the Democracy Group network, where you can hear challenging, fascinating, and sometimes difficult ideas about democracy and governance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Partisan gerrymandering— where one party gains an unfair advantage by redrawing political maps to favor its candidates— is unpopular with voters, but widespread in many states. We examine why this process devalues democracy, and how data science is being used across the country to expose many of the most egregious examples, and help voters advocate for fair and transparent redistricting. Every decade, legislators across the country come up with maps for state and congressional districts. The latest round of changes, due to be finished well before primaries are held before the 2022 midterm elections in November, is facing widespread criticism. Redistricting reformers also see strong ties between partisan and racial bias.Our guest in this episode shows citizens how they can fight back against local examples of gerrymandering by both Democrats and Republicans. Professor Sam Wang oversees the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which runs an informative website that helps voters in every state decide if they live in an unfairly drawn legislative or Congressional District."A sense of fairness is a fundamental principle of our democracy," Professor Wang tells us. But "these fundamental principles are hard to keep sight of when a lot of the ways we talk about democracy have started to break down a bit." Additional listener resources on political reform: Dave's Redistricting App, and RepresentUs. Daily news coverage of democracy reform at The Fulcrum.Richard's recommendation this week: Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. The book, first published in 1605, is often called the first modern novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best-selling author Daniel Pink admits he's pedaling against the wind. His new book, "The Power of Regret" takes on the longstanding and deeply ingrained doctrine that paying attention to our regrets is foolish. In this episode, we ask him why this notion is wrong."No regrets" is the name or theme of countless books and popular songs. Bob Dylan, Angelina Jolie, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg all advised us to live without regrets. "We think that it's courageous to say I have no regrets, but it's not," Pink tells us. "What's courageous is staring your regrets in the eye, confronting them, and doing something about them".Almost everybody has regrets. And if we acknowledge them in fresh and imaginative ways, we can enlist our regrets to make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and deepen our sense of meaning and purpose. In our solutions podcast, we hear that examining what we regret the most helps us understand what we value the most.Pink draws on research in psychology, neuroscience, economics, and biology to challenge widely-held assumptions about emotions and behavior. He also questioned people about their regrets and conducted his own World Regret Survey, which has collected regrets from more than 16,000 people in 105 countries.Recommendation: Jim often listens to the podcast, "Blocked and Reported", hosted by journalists Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two years of coronavirus have made the growing loneliness crisis even worse— with greater social isolation causing personal pain and mental and physical illnesses."Even before the global pandemic introduced us to terms like social distancing, loneliness was becoming the defining condition of the twenty-first century. But it's also one we have the power to reverse," says our podcast guest, economist Noreena Hertz. Numerous surveys have found that reported cases of loneliness have jumped in recent decades. More than three-in-five Americans told a 2020 poll, conducted before the pandemic, that they felt left out, poorly understood, and lacking in companionship. Noreena Hertz is the author of "The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World Pulling Apart." Her book is a personal and deeply-researched investigation into the roots of the loneliness epidemic and what we can do to come together. In our interview, we discuss the importance of the workplace in enhancing community, the need to reinvigorate our neighborhoods, and how governments and private enterprises can react to the increase in loneliness and alienation. We also learn more about the link between loneliness and the rise of right-wing populism.In many different ways, the social fabric of our community is being pulled apart, causing an increase in polarization and a loss of confidence in democracy and civil institutions. Technology, including social media, migration, a radical reorganization of many workplaces, and the transactional nature of commerce have also led to a broader sense of isolation. We discuss solutions in this episode.Recommendation: Richard and Jim use Wikipedia, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Wiki co-founder, Jimmy Wales, is the guest on a recent episode of "the Economist Asks" podcast, hosted by Anne McElvoy.Note: This episode was first published in January 2021. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across the board— from voter access to questions of race and gender, and views of the economy— the gap between Republicans and Democrats has grown wider in recent years. According to recent polling, a rising share of Americans say that having political conversations with those they disagree with is “stressful and frustrating”.Political polarization and the recent actions of party leaders have prevented compromise and resolution of critical problems.We discuss five personal ways to reduce polarization with our guest, Kamy Akhavan, Director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California, and former CEO of the well-known non-partisan site procon.org "In today's political climate we don't respect the other side: We don't care what they have to say," says Kamy. "Our immediate reaction goes to defense. It is 'stop that side'".5 personal tips to depolarize:1. Listen to understand not to judge.2. Commit to speak with and learn from others you disagree with.3. Seek Opposing Views. Is your sense of what the other side is saying a mere characterization of what they say?4. Interpret Generously. Don't assume that those with different ideological and cultural views are bad people. 5. Superordinate. Instead of pursuing common ground, recognize our underlying shared values. Seek out what you have in common with your workers, colleagues, and—yes— political opponents.In this episode, Kamy also shares his personal experience as an immigrant and a bridge builder.Recommendation: Jim is reading the science fiction novel, "Far From the Light of Heaven", by Tade Thompson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the point of an education? Is it to learn skills that will help you get ahead in the workplace, or is it to acquire knowledge and to think more deeply about your place in the world?In this episode we hear from an educator who thinks that the great books— Plato, Aquinas, Shakespeare for example— aren’t just for a few well-off students at elite colleges, but for everybody. And he says encountering these thinkers when he was a poor immigrant teenager from the Dominican Republic literally changed his life.Roosevelt Montás is senior lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University. He is director of the Center for American Studies Freedom and Citizenship Program, which introduces low-income high school students to primary texts in moral and political thought, as well as seminars in American Studies including “Freedom and Citizenship in the United States.” From 2008 to 2018, he was director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum. "There is a prevailing cultural attitude that liberal education— the study of literature and philosophy — is appropriate only to the elite," Roosevelt tells us. "That is a really pernicious idea." He argues that the students who benefit the most from the foundational wisdom in the "great books" come from poor and marginalized backgrounds.But liberal education is under assault today in academia. We find out why.Recommendation: Richard is watching the Anglo-Japanese Netflix TV series, "Giri / Haji", — duty/shame in Japanese— a thriller about a Tokyo detective scouring the London underworld to find his allegedly deceased brother. The series was filmed in Tokyo and London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.