Talk Cocktail

Someone once remarked that when they saw a snake and a vulture having sex in Washington, and thought it was just business as usual.  Fitzgerald said that he rich were different, because they have more money. Politicians are different, usually because that they have more insecurities
The fact is that most politicians and other high profile inhabitants of our nation's capital are just flesh and blood human beings. And yes, they may be different than you and I, they are certainly more caught up in their unbroken series of successful gestures, but most do care about their work.
In fact, some care too much.  As the late, great journalist Richard Ben Cramer once wrote, that feeling you can make a difference is like a drug.   Also a great journalist, Mark Leibovich, has been been giving us great insights about the power players in Washington for the NY Times Magazine. Those profiles are part of his new book Citizens of the Green Room: Profiles in Courage and Self-Delusion.
My conversation with Mark Leibovich:

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Recently we spoke of the 50 Anniversary of Freedom Summer and the early flowering of the civil rights movement.  Much has been written of the historical roots and narrative of those events. But now Jacqueline Woodson tells her personal story and the larger story of the journey of a movement from the Deep South, to urban core of America.  
The story of   Brown Girl Dreaming is a story made all the more powerful by recent events that bring into focus the arc of that journey. A journey that ended short of its target.
My conversation with Jacqueline Woodson:

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When we do think about the state or origins of language, we often think about it as something based in the distant past.  But language is very much a living thing, with a direct nexus to our cultural evolution.   The choices we make about the words we use, reflect both our own place in the culture as well as the state of the culture itself.
This is all part of the unique work of Princeton Professor Daniel Cloud in The Domestication of Language: Cultural Evolution and the Uniqueness of the Human Animal.
My conversation with Professor Daniel Cloud:

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As we listened to election results last week, the one thing we heard over and over again is the slicing and dicing of the electorate.  Into generations, incomes, ethnicity, etc.
Certainly we hear repeatedly about the complexity and challenges of today's multi- generational workplace.
With all of this talk about division, it's perhaps worth looking at what might actually unite us.  There is an answer we might find surprising, and that is technology.  To paraphrase the old orange juice commercial;  technology, it’s not just for Millennials anymore.
In fact, the use and strategic advantage of technology may be the most unifying forces for all us. That's the conclusion reached by Thomas Koulopoulos and Dan Keldsen in The Gen Z Effect: The Six Forces Shaping the Future of Business.
My conversation with Thomas Koulopoulos:

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In a business environment as data driven as ours is today, it’s not surprising that we don’t view success through the lens that Fitzgerald used to describe Gatsby, who saw his success as “an unbroken series of successful gestures.”
Still success to be sustainable and replicable, both personal and professional, has to be more than habit or behavior, or just data. 
In a world in which changes take place so quickly, in which workforce diversity both generational and ethnic, is so varied, the traditional solutions to problems are not always applicable.
As we often hear said about the military, you can’t fight the next war with the lessons learned from the last one
That’s why design and intentions are so important as tools for driving both leaders and their organizations.
That's what Mindy Hall focuses on in Leading with Intention: Every Moment Is a Choice
My conversation with Mindy Hall:

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If the past 30 years of television has been about anything, it’s been about specialization.  While ESPN was the leader and Granddaddy of specialty television programming, you can now watch nothing but Sci Fi, or old movies, or cartoons, and of course food.
Food programming, like sports has had a cultural impact far beyond the screen. The Food Network, like ESPN, has both shaped our perceptions and married it with our culture in ways that gives us both celebrities and food.  What better combination for 21st Century America.
Allen Salkin looks at his history in From Scratch: The Uncensored History of the Food Network
My conversation with Allen Salkin:

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Throughout history, from Cesar thru Lincoln,  from Archduke Ferdinand and Gandhi through the Kennedys and Malcolm X, a bullet has changed the world.
But what’s different when assassination is not a random deranged act, but an instrument of policy.  First, it’s the stuff of movies.  Think about it;  The Manchurian Candidate, Day of the Jackal, Executive Action, Parallax View, to name a few.  Add to this list, Syriana, a story based on the life of former CIA operative Robert Baer.
Baer has now codified his unique line of work in The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins
My conversation with Robert Baer:

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We are in the midst of a great migration to cities.  The number of farms and people engaged in agriculture continues to decline.  Yet human ingenuity has produced abundant resources of food, through innovation and technology.  
Historically, when disaster has struck and we have been threatened as a species, we’ve always seemed to find a way out, particularly with respect to our food supply.  This has resulted in increases in population, which then takes us to the next crises.
This cycle is replicated throughout history.  It is what MacArthur fellow and Columbia Professor, Ruth DeFries calls a cycle of Ratchets, Hatchets and Pivots.  She explains in her book The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis.
My conversation with Ruth DeFries:

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Todays workplace bears very little resemblance to that of our parents.  It’s multi generational nature, its focus on employee empowerment and its reflection of broader changes in society, education and culture, all create a perfect storm that requires whole new skill sets from today’s leaders.  
These are the skills that Susan Fowler writes about in Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging
My conversation with Susan Fowler:

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Back in the early 1960’s the world took note of the decadence of life in the Italian capital of Rome, in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.   Inspired by two major political/sex scandals of the era, the film, which would win the 1960 Palme d'or in Cannes, depicted a Rome that was ultra sophisticated, ultra modern and ultra decadent.
Fifty plus years later, Prof. Roger Friedland would decide to move to Rome with his wife and adolescent daughters, because he saw Rome as an antidote to America being awash in sexuality, modernity, sophistication and decadence. He writes about his experience in Amore: An American Father's Roman Holiday
How have the tables switched so dramatically, and what does it say about the state of love, sex and popular culture in the 21st century.
My conversation with Roger Friedland:

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