I talk with BILL McKIBBEN (The New Yorker), co-founder of both the global climate campaign, 350.org, and, in 2021, ThirdAct for folks 60 & above. In these dark times, his new book, HERE COMES THE SUN offers hope – not with happy talk but with a clear declaration of facts: Solar and wind are no longer alternative fuels. They are the cheapest as well as the cleanest. (So cheapest also in external costs, health, for example.) Experience has taught Bill that winning on the science and now the economics is not enough. It will take the power of the people to fight the power of the fossil fuel industry. In the book - and in our conversation - Bill offers marching orders for action. billmckibben.com, thirdact.org 

McKibben-08-28-2025-Transcript

First half: This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Here’s my 2006 conversation with Douglas Brinkley about his book The Great Deluge, in which he investigates the failures of government at every level, and traces the character flaws, inexperience, and ulterior motives that allowed the disaster to devastate the Gulf Coast. Second half: As school year begins, here’s my 2005 conversation with National Teacher of the Year, Rafe Esquith, on a PBS documentary celebrating his Hobart Shakespearians. Esquith leads fifth graders at LA’s Hobart Elementary, one of the nation's largest inner-city grade schools, through a challenging curriculum of English, math, geography, and literature. At semester’s end, students - few for whom English is their first language - perform a full-length Shakespeare play. 

Brinkley, Douglas (2006) - Transcript
Esquith (2005) - Transcript

What happens when the President plays mob boss - “How much can I get away with? Who’s going to stop me?” I talk with American legal scholar ROBERT POST of Yale Law School about the rule of law, the American legal system, free speech, academic freedom, public morality, and the Supreme Court’s weakness in the age of Trump. You can learn more at law.yale.edu/robert-c-post

Robert Post 2025 Transcript

A bittersweet truth about having recorded these conversations for 25 years is how many of my guests are no longer with us. I went back through my files and found at least 60 - Sixty human beings worthy, willing, and able to share an hour with me. Here’s my 2003 conversation with ROBERT FULLER, who crusaded for the dignity of all and against what he defined as “rankism” - the dismissal of society’s unknowns and underachievers as “nobodies.” We talk about his first book, Somebodies and Nobodies. Fuller died July 15th at the age of 88.

Fuller-05-20-2003 transcript.2.doc

In just the last two decades, we’ve experienced a global financial crash, a pandemic, multiple wars, and a climate crisis with repeated natural disasters. I talk with LIZZIE WADE about the ideas in APOCALYPSE: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures. If a society enters a cataclysm - climate crisis, war, plague, etc. - behaving one way and emerges behaving another, she defines that as an apocalypse. Looking at these situations over time reveals they need not end badly. In fact, such transformation have often nudged us forward. Faced with today’s news, we could all use a dose of hope. You can learn more at lizziewade.com 

A couple of weeks ago I recorded myself reading a speech I originally gave June 9, 1989 -  36 years ago - at my 20th college reunion, Harvard class of 1969. Ours was the year of the University Hall takeover and the campus strike. In ’89, I was fully involved in the entertainment industry. In the speech, I asked how we were living up to our youthful ideals. I don’t know if my words affected anyone else, but I came back home and got much more involved in causes, setting me on the path on which I found this show 7 years later. Today I find my words prescient, hopeful and - given today’s reality - a bit tragic.

FF_TM 1989 Harvard Speech_Transcript

As we reel and resist Trump’s careless breakdown of government, society and the economy, I speak with CHRIS HUGHES, a co-founder of Facebook, who left the company in 2007 and called for META’s breakup in 2019. In the first 45 minutes, we talk about the current state of tech and then dive into his new book, MARKETCRAFTERS: The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy. How do we prepare to repair what Trump is destroying? For the final 15, I read a speech I gave in 1989 -  36 years ago - at my 20th college reunion, Harvard class of 1969. Ours was the year of the building takeover and the campus strike. In it I asked how we were living up to our youthful ideals. Today I find my words prescient, hopeful, and tragic. 

T. McNally Harvard Speech Transcript

In Trump’s tax bill, 60% of cuts go to the top 20% (income: $217K+). More than a third to top 5% ($460K+) Households earning less than $51K  will see income drop next year. Top 0.1% will get an average boost of $390K. Time for one of my favorite episodes: my January 2010 conversation with Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett about their groundbreaking book, The Spirit Level. Based on 30 years of research, it makes clear that the more unequal a society is, the worse it is - in all sorts of dimension - for everybody – rich and poor alike. Worth a listen.

Wilkinson.Pickett - Transcript

When I decided to speak with TIM JACKSON about his new book, THE CARE ECONOMY, I had second thoughts. What could be further from our current reality in the US than a care economy? Would talking about it seem naïve? But as Robert Reich makes clear, “We need to demonstrate not just against Trump but also for the America we want,” and this episode is part of my attempt to imagine and flesh out such a vision. Jackson is Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity in he UK and his earlier books include PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH and POST GROWTH: Life After Capitalism. You can learn more at timjackson.org.uk

Jackson, Tim-05-15-2025-Transcript

The chaos Trump is creating in Southern California is a distraction from the other cruel, careless, and destructive actions of his administration. The assault on higher education and Harvard University in particular will cost us enormously, especially in terms of medicine and science. Here’s my 2012 conversation with Don Ingber, founding director of Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, who has emerged as one of the leading voices defending science and attacking White House cuts to research. Following this conversation you’re about to hear, I was hired by the Wyss Institute to host and co-produce Disruptive, a 17 episode podcast series, honored by the Webbies as one of the five top science podcasts of 2017. Search Disruptive, Terrence McNally to find the series at numerous sites.