Ideas and Lives

Ron Radosh describes growing up in Manhattan and attending a high school run and taught by communists. He became a leader on the political left through college, graduate school, and his early teaching career. Ron discusses how his book, The Rosenberg File, led to his ostracism from his friends on the left. He became further disaffected by the left when decrying the operations of the communist regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua, regimes defended by others on the American left. Ron went on to write several books, ranging from the foreign policy of the US labor movement, the Spanish Civil War, Harry Truman and the founding of Israel, to his 2001 autobiography, called Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left. At 88, Ron remains a productive essayist and book reviewer.

Joe Weber walks us through his early life in Brooklyn and a New York suburb to his unlikely success despite his up and down experience in college. He finds himself partly because of a helpful medical school dean who could not believe he was applying for medical school with a very weak college record. Hear about Joe's adventures, his invention, and his innovations in a variety of spheres as well as his perspectives on artificial intelligence.

Jonathan shares his upbringing in France and educational journey that led him from music studies to economics and finance, including his academic work on option pricing and financial theory. Jonathan describes his risky decision to fly to Los Angeles with few resources and little English. He relates how his enrollment in a local community college began his awakening to learning and led to success in college, graduate school, and a Ph.D. in economics. His mastery of finance theory and his experience working in the private sector gave him the ability to build his own firm managing funds. Jonathan came to recognize how the blending of theory, real-world uncertainties, and behavioral economics should be used to understand the financial world.

Carl Gershman is an American political activist and democracy advocate who served as the president of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) from its founding in 1984 until his retirement in 2021. Under his leadership, NED became a prominent organization supporting democratic movements and civil society groups worldwide. Carl describes the evolution of his career, from his work after college as a VISTA volunteer, to his work with Bayard Rustin, and to his leadership of the NED. You can hear his perspective on the Social Democrats movement and their ability to penetrate the Democratic party. He mentions the positive role of NED in a wide range of countries.

Doug Besharov describes his upbringing in Queens, New York, raised by a widowed single mother. Working his way through college and law school, he landed a position within the New York City government dealing with child abuse and child support cases. Doug explains how he became the first director of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. After discussing his work at the center, Doug talks about his time at the Brookings Institution, where he wrote the first of the 14 books he authored or edited. In his subsequent career at the American Enterprise Institute and the University of Maryland, he testified many times before Congress and published articles in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Doug concludes the interview with his perspectives on European social policy.

Though born in the UK, Chris moved to the US at age 8 and attended high school in Larchmont, NY. He entered MIT in 1963 in time to work on the early computers, learning how to program and later how to create computer compilers (translating programs using high-level languages to machine language). Chris recounts his early career at MIT and his subsequent work in gaming and supercomputers. His interview ends with a discussion about where artificial intelligence (AI) and it will be more revolutionary than other aspects of the computer revolution.

David begins by highlighting the background of his parents, how they met in Mexico, and their careers. He discusses his elementary and high school experience in San Antonio and his first national award. He describes how he chose Harvard among other schools at a time when Harvard was not a dominant brand. David provides examples of his intellectually stimulating time at Harvard and then turns to his subsequent decision to enter law school instead of medical school. His early career as an attorney contributed to his finding his wife Ellen and convincing her to marry. David makes interesting points about enjoying courtroom litigation and the jury system. The session concludes with David's innovative practice of taking each child to countries with special histories but only after the children did their homework in reading about the countries.

William Raduchel describes growing up in Houghton County, Michigan, as it evolved from a prosperous to a declining area. Starting from a local college, Michigan Tech, a school focused on engineering, on to Michigan State and then to many roles at Harvard, Bill gained a mastery of economics, computer science, and engineering. His career made fascinating transition from automating Harvard's admissions, to creating special software for economic analysis, to achieving top positions at McGraw Hill, Xeros, Sun Microsystems and AOL Time Warner. He explains why some companies grew with technology while others were unable to make technology work for their business success. Bill concludes with perspectives on the growth of Artificial Intelligence and its likely impacts. He explores these and other issues in his forthcoming book, The New Technology State.

State Senator Jim Rosapepe describes where and how he grew up, his heritage, his early interest in politics, and the beginnings of his business career and entrepreneurship. He then turns to the relationships he built in politics, business, and foreign affairs. Jim's role in the Italian support for President Bill Clinton is one of his many interesting stories. Finally, he explains his success in the legislative process in Maryland and his renewed interest in apprenticeships for America.

Eytan Sheshinski describes growing up in Haifa, Israel with parents who emigrated from Germany and Switzerland in the 1930s to a kibbutz.  While initially joining a kibbutz and understanding economics from a Marxist perspective, Eytan talks of his excitement in learning modern economics first at Hebrew University under famed Israel economist Don Patinkin and later at MIT.  After building a strong research record in public economics as a highly respected professor of economics, he served without pay as the head of two commissions to ensure that the Israeli public obtained its fair share of profits from oil, gas, and potash resources.  Eytan discusses the challenges he faced and the ultimate satisfaction he derived from his public service.