How Do We Fix It?

Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids makes the case for carefree summer activities and unstructured play time-- arguing against those who put safety fears ahead of a child's need to explore, be curious and grow."If You're a Kid, the Experts Want You to Have a Fun-Free Summer" is the title of a recent article by Lenore.Summer is a time to "dig in the sand, gulp from the hose, play at the park, and leap with joy," writes Lenore. "Unless you're a kid-- in which case, find yourself a comfy sofa in a dark, quiet room and settle in."Parents are bombarded with safety messages from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Parenting Magazine and other well-intentioned sites, which give urgent warnings about the hazards of summer. Their advice, says Lenore, is "don't have fun, it's too dangerous."Find out why being safety obsessed comes at a heavy price. Worried parents risk robbing their children of curiosity about the world and pride in their own achievements.

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Are you too attached to your stuff? Do you have a big move coming up?Long-haul trucker, Finn Murphy has covered more than a million miles of packing, loading and hauling people's material possessions all across the country. In this episode he shares his insights into the moving business, truckers, his many customers and how American households have changed in recent years.Finn is the author of "The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road," a wise, vivid and charming account of his years in the business. His book gives a penetrating look into the lives of big-rig drivers and the people they move.More than 35 million Americans move house every year.  Finn has intelligent advice on how to avoid moving scams, the best way to pick a mover and when finding a new place to live might not bad a smart move. 

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In our age of big data Liberal Arts smarts are undervalued. Our guest, Scott Hartley, argues that the most valuable jobs skills in the future will belong to people who can think creatively, using emotional intelligence and adaptability. Scott is a venture capitalist and author of "The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World." At Stanford University, where he studied political science, fuzzies majored in the humanities or social sciences. Techies took computer science or STEM courses. Many in the business world still believe that it's the techies who drive innovation.  In his contrarian book (we love contrarians!) Scott reveals the counterintuitive reality today: it's actually the fuzzies - not the techies - who are playing key roles developing the most successful new business ideas. Corporate leaders, educators and thinkers are starting to realize that to tackle some of the world's biggest technological challenges, we need people who understand human emotions and behavior. We unpack Scott’s argument, looking at examples of innovative fuzzy thinking, from Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg and beyond. Our solutions look at new ideas for business, universities, government and parents.

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Journalism is in crisis. Our trust in the news media has fallen to an all-time low. One recent poll found that two thirds of Americans believe mainstream news organizations often publish fake news. The business model at many newspapers, magazines, radio stations and websites is failing. Declining revenues have forced layoffs and other cutbacks at news organizations across the country. Professor Aron Pilhofer of Temple University, one of the world's most respected experts in digital innovation for journalists, is our guest. Before joining Temple, Aron was Executive Editor of Digital journalism at the Guardian in London and was a former senior executive at the New York Times."It's impossible to overemphasize what a vast change there is now in the way people get their information," Aron tells us. For his young students at Temple, the news "finds them" through their feeds at Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. The news is not handed down from high. Instead, it's part of a conversation. 
Aron says regaining readers' trust is essential to the future of journalism. Covering "what now" of news - solutions - is one answer. Greater transparency in how stories are covered and a much deeper commitment to diversity in newsrooms are among the fixes we discuss.

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Today, about 2.2 million Americans are behind bars. "The incarceration rate is about five times the rate of 1970 and our crime rate is the same as in 1970,"John Pfaff, our guest, tells us.Our guest, John Pfaff of Fordham University is both a law professor and an economist. Author of "Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration—and How to Achieve Real Reform," he says state and local policies matter far more than changes in the federal system.Do you want to know more? Check out our website: http://www.howdowefixit.me/

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It isn't just the crime. It's also the cover-up. Volkswagen's multi-year conspiracy to evade pollution rules may be the biggest scandal in auto industry history.The world's second largest car manufacturer misled regulators, consumers, and motorists.
Our guest is New York Times Germany correspondent, Jack Ewing, author of "Faster, Higher, Farther: The Volkswagen Scandal." The book tells the remarkable story of a very dysfunctional company and how the scandal unfolded.Do you want to know more? Check out our website: http://www.howdowefixit.me/

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Are credit cards evil?  Do you need to restructure debt or were refused a loan?  If so, this episode is for you.If you're a parent looking for smart money advice to pass onto young adults as they enter the workforce, our podcast has a checklist of do's and don'ts.Respected credit card expert and consumer advocate Beverly Harzog is our guest. Beverly hasn't just talked the talk about maxing out on debt, she's walked the walk. In her best-selling book, “Confessions of a Credit Junkie", she tells her personal comeback story.Look for solutions and links to useful sites at our website, howdowefixit.me.  Please rate and review our shows at iTunes.

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Tyson talks about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets, tackles science deniers on the right and left, and explains why we should invest more in pure science. Tyson also discusses his new book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.”"What's curious to me is you have the liberal community claiming the (moral) high road ...against the science deniers of the right with regard to global warming and evolution in the classrooms... as though they are somehow untainted by non-scientific thinking,” Tyson tells us. "There is a whole portfolio of science denying that also happens in the liberal left."Investments in pure science led to many remarkable breakthroughs in medicine, technology and physics - often decades after the research began. Following the discovery of quantum physics in the 1920's, "it would take forty to fifty years before we would see the rise of information technology," says Tyson. "There is no information technology without an understanding of quantum physics."Tyson also discusses his sense of awe and wonder about the secrets of the cosmos."You can't be a scientist and have discomfort with not knowing," he tells us. "When there is a frontier that's unexplored, where there are stupefying depths of ignorance, it excites you. It gets you out of bed in the morning and running to the lab."

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Neil deGrasse Tyson, America’s most prominent spokesman for science and Director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium, talks about the benefits of a cosmic perspective, the case for manned space flight and much more in this first part of our wide-ranging conversation. We also discussed Tyson's new book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry." Richard and Jim met Tyson at his offices at The American Museum of Natural History. While insisting he is not an advocate for manned space flight, Tyson says "history tells us" space exploration "is one of the most potent forces to operate on the scientific ambitions of a citizenry." At the height of the Apollo program in the 1960's, "you didn't need special programs to get people interested in science," Tyson explains. "There were weekly headlines about our journeys into space and you knew you needed the best of the best to breech the frontier of space."

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For Jim and Richard "How Do We Fix It? has been a great big learning experience. From how to switch careers to the search for meaning and the importance of speaking to strangers, our guests have proposed many smart, practical solutions. And they've also challenged conventional wisdom.Our podcast invites listeners to get into their discomfort zone as a way of being more receptive to change.  Jim starts this show revealing what he learned from David McRaney, host of "You Are Not So Smart," - a podcast about psychology.  David told us about our deep attachment to confirmation bias - where most of us try to confirm our views, rather than challenging ourselves with an opposing hypothesis.  As someone who admits he knows little about science, Richard says he has learned about the scientific method from several guests, including Ainissa Ramirez and Michael Shermer. In the lab, scientists routinely test and try to disprove a theory before they embrace it as fact.Some Fix It episodes were ahead of the curve. John Gable, Joan Blades, Geoff Colon and other guests raised the alarm about filter bubbles and online information silos well before Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley executives voiced their concerns.Last year, Megan McArdle, a columnist at Bloomberg View, spoke to us about the tangled problems of fixing Obamacare months before before President Trump and House Republicans realized how hard it be to "repeal and replace" without a massive fight. We also heard from Steve Hilton, former personal advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron.  He made the pro-European case for Brexit in a surprising and enlightened way.Richard tells Jim: "I've learned a lot from you," declaring himself to be a "thorough convert" to Jim's conviction that we romanticize the past and catastrophize the present. Richard has also come over to Jim's view that the challenge to free speech on college campuses is a much more serious problem than many believe.Now on to the next 100 shows.

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