Talk Cocktail

While women have yet to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling of the White House, they've been steadily scaling the towering heights of Wall Street since the 1960s. The author of the groundbreaking book "She Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street," historian Paulina Bren talks to me about how these trailblazers navigated the male-dominated world of finance. From Muriel Siebert becoming the first woman to own a NYSE seat in 1967 to the waves of female graduates entering finance in the 1980s, women transformed the financial sector despite facing persistent discrimination. Bren explains how these pioneering women rose from secretarial pools to trading floors and executive suites, reshaping one of America's most powerful industries.

What happened to women voters as Harris drew fewer of them than Biden in 2020? Even in pro-choice strongholds, economic concerns trumped reproductive rights.

To examine this I’m was joined the morning after the election on this WhoWhatWhy podcast by Amanda Becker, a 2023 Nieman Fellow and Washington correspondent for The 19th. She is the author of the book You Must Stand Up: The Fight for Abortion Rights in Post-Dobbs America.

She expalins that the great female firewall against Trump’s return never materialized. In fact, it crumbled. 

Vice President Kamala Harris actually performed worse than Joe Biden did in 2020, capturing just 54 percent of women’s votes compared to his 57 percent. 

Even more stunning: In states like Ohio and Kentucky, where women had recently mobilized to protect reproductive rights, the expected momentum vanished. What happened? 

The answer challenges everything we thought we knew about women voters in post-Roe America. 

Journalist and presidential historian Jonathan Alter's new book 'American Reckoning: Inside Trump's Trial—and My Own' offers unique insights from inside the Manhattan courtroom where he sat just 25 feet from Donald Trump. While the political landscape has shifted dramatically since those summer days, Alter finds hope in the long view of history. Drawing on his experience covering nine presidents, the former Newsweek senior editor and NBC News analyst reminds us how other nations have successfully fought to restore their democracies. His deeply personal meditation on democratic accountability becomes a call to arms, arguing that American democracy, while challenged, has the resilience to prevail.

On a recent California Sun podcast I spoke with Sasha Abramsky, author of the new book “Chaos Comes Calling.” Abramsky talks to me about how America’s deep polarization has cascaded from national politics down to local levels of governance. Abramsky reveals that even in small rural communities, once-mundane local issues like library policies, road repairs, and child care have become ideological battlegrounds. Abramsky illuminates how the pandemic, social media echo chambers, and talk radio amplified partisan voices, transforming school boards and city councils into microcosms of the broader red-blue divide. 

"Vigilantism” - it's a word that conjures images of lynch mobs and frontier justice. But today, both would be Presidents and state governments are not just turning a blind eye to vigilantes, they're actively encouraging them.

From Virginia's tip line for parents to snitch on teachers, to Texas unleashing bounty hunters against abortion providers, to Florida encouraging drivers to run over protesters - vigilantism is becoming the new normal in American politics.

My guest, Jon Michaels, argues in 'Vigilante Nation' that this represents a concerted effort by right-wing politicians, pundits, and preachers to subvert democracy and cement their hold on power. The pattern they expose should concern us all."

On this California Sun podcast I talk with Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano who dismantles the myth of a monolithic “Latino vote.” After 3,000 miles across the Southwest, Arellano finds Latino communities laser-focused on local issues & identity, not national politics The real power? It's in city halls, not DC.

This is January 6 as you’ve never seen it before. 

My guest on my latestWhoWhatWhy podcast is filmmaker Jon Long. Long has just completed Fight Like Hell, a documentary that offers a provocative, unfiltered, never before seen look at the day’s shocking events, and the Stop the Steal movement’s evolution.

Long explains that what you will witness in this documentary may shock you, move you. You may have thought the talk of January 6 was old news, that the candidates and the country had moved on, but not so fast. What happened still matters a lot.

https://youtu.be/ZC-Wo9nJ3O4?si=DXoOaixFGafV34d0

Steve Wasserman's journey from Berkeley radical to literary luminary is a testament to the enduring power of the written word. In our conversation, Wasserman reflects on a life shaped by books, ideas, and an insatiable curiosity that led him from tear gas-filled streets to the pinnacles of publishing. His friendships with intellectual giants like Christopher Hitchens and Susan Sontag honed his empathetic sensibility, while never dulling his capacity for outrage at injustice. Having navigated the literary landscapes of New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area, Wasserman offers a unique perspective on American culture and politics. His memoir, “Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It's a Lie,” serves as both a celebration of and a rallying cry for the life of the mind in our digital age.

In a time when democracy hangs in the balance, how do we turn political conviction into victory? My guest, Robert Creamer, argues it's all about execution - the nuts and bolts of political organizing. 

With five decades of activism under his belt, from working with Saul Alinsky to helping pass the Affordable Care Act, Creamer has been at the forefront of progressive battles. 

His new book, "Nuts and Bolts: The Formula for Progressive Electoral Success," offers a pragmatic handbook for today's political climate. In an era of base elections where undecided voters are rare, Creamer's insights on turning out voters could shape the future of America.

In an age when our smartphones have become extensions of ourselves, allowing us to summon a ride, order dinner, or transfer money with a few taps, why can’t we use the same technology to participate in the most fundamental act of democracy — voting?

In my latest WhoWhatWhy.org podcast, I talk with Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist, philanthropist, and political strategist. He believes voters, using a smartphone app, could cast ballots securely from anywhere, potentially increasing turnout. He explains that by engaging more moderate voters — especially in primaries — mobile voting could reduce political polarization and encourage more centrist policies and could also lead to a more responsive democracy. He details exactly how mobile voting would work