How Do We Fix It?

Will the Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis ever end? Nearly 18 years since the Boston Globe's Spotlight investigation's shocking revelations, U.S. bishops and The Vatican still struggle to hold the church fully accountable for decades of criminal wrongdoing.

Last year's Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report revealed that over 1,000 children had been abused by Catholic priests across six dioceses over seven decades. A new Pew Research Survey finds that a large majority of American Catholics think abuse by clergy is still happening.

This episode looks at the crisis from a unique perspective. Maggi Van Dorn, a Catholic committed to healing the Church from the inside, hosts "Deliver Us", a frank and remarkable series of podcasts that spoke with survivors of abuse, advocates and church experts.

"The Church is marred in a really ugly way," Maggi tells us. "As a member of this family, it's really incumbent on me to work for reform."

We discuss solutions, such as the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the campaign to get justice for survivors, calls for greater transparency, and a stronger role for women in the leadership of the Church.

Listen to "Deliver Us" here.

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A lot of politicians like to say that there are “two Americas,” but do any of them know what life is really like for the marginalized poor?

We speak with journalist and photographer, Chris Arnade, about the forgotten towns and people of back row America. In 2011, Chris left a high-powered job as a bond trader on Wall Street, hit the road, and spent years documenting the lives of poor people, driving 150 thousand miles around the U.S.

His new book is "Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America." In his many columns in The Guardian, Chris writes about broken social systems that have betrayed poor people on the margins of society. He speaks to us about drug addicts and prostitutes he met, and their faith, resilience and ties to community.

"I think if I had one suggestion to policy people, it would be get out of your bubble," says Chris. "I think when you blame a group of people for their behavior, without addressing the situation they find themselves in, then you are doing it wrong."

In this episode we explore the stark division between elite, globalized "front row kids" in the media and knowledge industries, and most of the poor and working-class people in the back row.

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"Twitter is like the crystal meth of social media," says our guest, University of Tennessee Law Professor, Glenn Reynolds, founder of the popular political blog, Instapundit.  Twitter "is addictive and ultimately unsatisfying."

In this episode we look at why social media is poisoning our politics, journalism and relationships by stoking anger, fear, hyper-partisanship and distrust of others. We ask: "how do we fix it?" 

"Social media is addictive by design. The companies involved put tremendous amounts of thought and effort into making it that way, so that people will be glued to their screens," writes Glenn in his new book, "The Social Media Upheaval." 

In our podcast, he cites the work of Columbia University Professor Tim Wu, author of "The Curse of Bigness", who warns about the dangers of excessive corporate and industrial concentration. Glenn is sympathetic to calls to break up social media giants and reign in their political and commercial power.

Among other solutions discussed are greater transparency, such as publishing details of algorithms used by Twitter, Facebook, Google and other big internet firms to keep us on their sites.

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Climate change has never been a leading issue in a Presidential election campaign-- until now. A recent poll found that 82% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters said it’s “very important” that their party’s nominee supports taking “aggressive action” to reduce the effects of climate change.

2020 could be the climate election. All of the leading Democratic candidates are calling for legislative action, and even many leading Republicans are changing their messaging and how they discuss pollution and the impact on climate.

But the environmental politics can cut both ways. While the recent European Parliament election results were a win for green parties, Australia's conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison won a surprise victory, while resisting calls to sharply reduce carbon emissions and coal production.

In this episode, we revisit our interview with for GOP Member of Congress Bob Inglis, who argues that while Donald Trump and fellow Republicans are part of the problem, they must be part of any solution. This small-government Christian conservative from South Carolina believes in a free-market answer to climate change. He supports a revenue-neutral carbon tax, combined with a cut in FICA - the fee paid by workers to pay for Social Security and Medicare.

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Support for socialism is surprisingly strong, especially among young Americans, ages 18-29. According to recent polls, they are more likely to have a positive view of socialism than capitalism.

Despite socialist economic failures in Venezuela, Africa and Eastern Europe, today's promises of free health care, college loan debt forgiveness, mandatory stock ownership for employees, and guaranteed income look increasingly attractive to a large group of voters in the U.S.

"Seriously debating socialism gets us talking about a good society really is and the philosophical, economic and political foundations that underlie it," wrote economist Emily Chamlee-Wright this month in The Wall Street Journal.

While believing that "competitive and open markets are the answer", Emily tells us in this episode that the debate over socialism allows us to challenge the flawed system of crony capitalism and discuss fundamental moral questions about how our economy is organized.

Emily Chamlee-Wright is President and CEO of The Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.

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Human rights have rarely been at greater risk. President Trump and other world leaders are conspicuously silent about torture, the suppression of press freedom and threats to democracy. For the first time in many decades, the U.S. is led by a President who routinely praises foreign dictators, and rarely speaks up for democratic institutions. 

From the imprisonment of journalists in Turkey and Egypt, widespread torture and killings in Syria, to probable genocide in Myanmar and the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, the worst human rights offenders are able to act with complete impunity. 

Today's heads of government are "morally weak, shortsighted, mediocre, and no longer willing or able to defend human rights," says this week's "How Do We Fix It?" guest, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the former U.N. Human Rights chief. We find out why it wasn't always this way.

In this episode, we look at the need for greater media coverage of human rights, and learn more about some of the world's bravest defenders of the oppressed, including U.N. humanitarian staff who are on the ground in some of the world's most dangerous and difficult places. 

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Is modern technology a force for good or evil? In many countries, digital repression, often powered by artificial intelligence, is a direct threat to freedom and the relationship between citizen and state.

China has begun using AI to weaponize social media and mass surveillance in ways that give the Communist government incredible control over what Chinese citizens say and do—and even how they think

The Road to Digital Unfreedom: How Artificial Intelligence Is Reshaping Repression" is the title of a groundbreaking research paper in the Journal of Democracy by Steven Feldstein, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Steve is a Professor at Boise State University and our guest for this episode. 

"What's surprising to me is just how a few governments are using surveillance to get inside almost every kind of action they might be interested in from certain individuals," Steve tells us. 

We discuss the coordinated use in China's Xianjong province of DNA readers, facial recognition images, and wifi "sniffers" that can look into laptops and mobile phones. Steve discusses the role of U.S. tech companies in spreading surveillance technology and why this may be a threat to democracy and human rights around the world.

Link to article: "How Artificial Intelligence Systems Could Threaten Democracy."

Link to article: "Half of the U.S. is Registered in Police Facial Recognition Databases, and They're Completely Unregulated."

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Angry rhetoric, narrow partisanship, and leaders who appeal only to their base are all reasons why American politics is in urgent need of reform.

By huge majorities, the public has a negative view of Congress and believes the system is broken.

Our guest, 29-year-old Nick Troiano, Executive Director of Unite America, is a leading voice of the reform movement, who supports changes aimed at reducing gridlock, boosting voter participation, and finding common ground. "We are caught in a democracy that is spiraling in a very negative direction and the question before us is how do we break that," Nick tells us.

Among his solutions:

- End gerrymandering. Independent commissions, not partisan legislators, would decide the shape Congressional districts.

- Ranked-choice voting. Instead of choosing just one candidate, voters would have the option of ranking candidates according to their preference.

- Reform primary rules, and allow independents to vote in party primaries.

- Campaign finance reform. Allow small donors to have more influence at the expense shadowy "dark money" special interest groups.

- Encourage support for The Problem Solvers Caucus and other bipartisan coalitions in Congress and state legislatures.

- Voting reform. Expand polling hours, and legalize early and at-home voting. 

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From dating to switching jobs and managing retirement. We all manage risk. Want to get better at it?

The best way to learn is to ask some of the real experts: Magicians, gamblers, big-wave surfers, horse breeders, and prostitutes. That's what economist, journalist and risk advisor Allison Schrager did. She's our guest in this episode.

For people faced with risky decisions every day, making the right choices can be the difference between success or failure, and in some cases, life and death. 

Allison is the author of the new book "An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Learn About Risk." She visited Nevada's Moonlight Bunny Ranch brothel, hung out with paparazzi who stalked celebrities, spoke with movie makers in Hollywood, and went to a risk conference for surfers in Hawaii as part of her extensive research for the book.

We learn basic lessons about human psychology as well as hedging, diversification, leverage and insurance. "You take risks to get what you want in life, and you're never going to get what you want without taking risks," says Allison. 

An Oscar Award-winning documentary is mentioned: "Free Solo," about Alex Honnold's attempt  to become the first person to climb the face of America's most famous rock, the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, without a rope. 

Also, learn more about Allison's firm, LifeCycle Finance Partners.

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Are you depressed when you read the news? The media's rampant negativity, with a daily emphasis on outrage and crisis, is a form of mental pollution that misinforms the public, harms democracy, and leads a distorted view of the world.

"You Are What You Read", by Jodie Jackson, is a call for reform. Written by a non-journalist, the book looks at the psychological impact of reading endlessly negative news, and shows viewers, listeners and readers how to protect themselves and change their media diet. 

"We need learn about how problems are being solved, issues being resolved for the sake of our souls," says Jodie in her YouTube video, promoting her book.

"This is not a call for us to ignore the negative, but rather to not ignore the positive," Jodie tells us. "The most important thing from this research showed that learning about solutions can make us feel more empowered."

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