Talk Cocktail

When we think and talk about the Middle East today, we look at it terms of the religious and ethnic strife and extremism that define today's conflicts. We also assume that these conflicts has been going on for centuries.  That the holy wars and clash of civilizations of today have been the basis for the whole history of the region
Middle East historian Brian Catlos has a different view. One that puts those conflicts in a more political and economic perspective. In fact, it was really a world of conflict about money and land and power, and where interfaith cooperation was possible and where globalization may have gotten its real start.
Can understanding this helps us face today's challenges?  I don’t know; but we do know that perhaps it’s the beginning of wisdom. Catlos explains it in Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad.
My conversation with Brian Catlos:

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The recent suicide of Robin Williams puts into bold perspective that we really don’t know very much about the inner lives of the people that make us laugh. From Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor, from Johnny Carson to Bill Cosby, the demons and private lives that drove these comedians were often anything but funny.
Cosby was particularly unique in several ways.  He broke the color barrier for television with I Spy.  He appealed to predominantly white audiences, yet subtly advanced the civil rights agenda. He broke the rules, yet didn’t shout while he was doing it.  The Cosby show has become a part of American iconography and some would argue paved the way for the election of Barack Obama.
But what we know about his influential comedian has been mostly underwater. That is until journalist Mark Whitaker now pulls it all together in his new biography Cosby: His Life and Times
My conversation with Mark Whitaker:

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If you’ve ever borrowed money for anything, from a mortgage to a student loan, you’ve been impacted by LIBOR.  The London Interbank Offered Rate.  The global standard for interest rates.
The problem is, like so many other recent aspects of our financial markets, we’ve now come to find that it’s been rigged.  That a system built on trust, has been anything but trustworthy. That the gentlemanly system of the London bankers has joined the international movement toward greed, and dishonesty, at the expense of average citizens around the world.
This story has been reported extensively by financial reporter Erin Arvedlund.  Now she pulls it all together in her new book Open Secret: The Global Banking Conspiracy That Swindled Investors Out of Billions.
My conversation with Erin Arvedlund:

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When we talk about America's history of segregation, its not just about race and class, but also about geography.  Even as the civil right movement would begin to take hold in the late 60’s and seventies, there were parts of America, particularly in the rural South, that we untouched by that progress.  Places where slavery was not just a legacy to be overcome, but still in the fabric of the cultural DNA of place.
It is into this landscape that a young boy grows up, prematurely comes of age due to familial sexual abuse and yet has the strength, courage, and intelligence to make it out. To become not just a pillar of the NY Times editorial page, but a man brave enough  share his sometimes painful story.  That man is Charles Blow. His new memoir is Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
My conversation with Charles Blow:

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Years ago, in Hollywood, someone once remarked that the amount of bad screenplay writing increased with the advent of the copy machine.  The same claim was later made when word processing and screenwriting software came along.
The fact is there is a lot of bad writing that goes on in many arenas.  Today much of the blame gets heaped on email, or texting, or technology, or just “kids today.”   The real issues are more nuanced, more complex, and not quite as rigid as some might wish.
These are some of the conclusions of Harvard Professor Steven Pinker in his new book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Persons Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.
My conversation with Steven Pinker:

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The world is a crazy place.  Everyday here we talk about all the forces that are impacting us, making life more complex, confusing and making so many people less sure of who they are, how they fit in, and whether the decisions they make lead them in the right direction.
Sure, many people want to change their lives.  But for others, it’s simply a matter of trying to find true north.  Of seeing the guide posts or the modern day yellow brick road that will lead to a sense of certainty and security.
For many that road is about Gratitude and Trust, the title of a new book by Paul Williams and Tracey Jackson.
My conversation with Paul Williams and Tracey Jackson:

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Socrates was worried about the rise of written text. He feared that it would change our habits of mind and not allow us to remember.
The printing press would spark another revolution, as mass produced text would change the world.  Not unlike our current digital revolution, the push back was fierce and loud.
And because history does repeat itself, we can indeed learn a lot by looking back at the last great technological revolution in publishing.  One that gave birth to the publishing industry itself, and that today, fights for its place in the digital tsunami.
Journalist Alix Christie takes us back to this momentous time, 500+ years ago, in her debut historical novel Gutenberg's Apprentice.
My conversation with Alix Christie:

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We've all played the game of thinking about and listing the most important inventions in the progress of mankind.  Certainly from the wheel, to the printing press to the transistor, there are plenty to choose from.
But seldom do we think about philosophical revolutions.  The invention of ideas and philosophies and habits of mind, that have also changed the world.
Of these, there have been less. Perhaps, according to Luciano Floridi, only three that have truly shaped our conception of the world and who we are within it
Oxford philosophy Professor Luciano Floridi argues that the technological and information revolution of today, has created a rare  Fourth Revolution, from which we now view ourselves and our place in the world. A world in which we shape our reality and that reality in turn shapes us.
My conversation with Luciano Floridi:

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Once upon a time we got our international news through the relentless reporting of foreign correspondent.   The Vietnam war may have brought war into our living rooms for the first time,  but reporters still provided context.  Citizens would come to understand events through the consistency of work from a reporter, though time and experience.
Today, that foreign correspondent, satirized by Evelyn Waugh and celebrated by Hitchcock is an endangered species.  
Today the freelance reporter, dashing about and multitasking media, looking at events on a one off basis, may not have the same contextual understanding.
As a result, we tend to look at distant events without the benefit of context or connection.  The result is that our mistakes and failure appears untethered from each other and this, coupled with our short memories and even shorter attention spans, prevents the foreign correspondent  from providing that first draft of history.
HDS Greenway has been an eyewitness to some of the most profound events of our times, including the fall of Saigon,  ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and the horrors of both gulf wars. Now he shares his remarkable career as a Foreign Correspondent: A Memoir
My conversation with HDS Greenway:

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Few things ignite all of our senses to the degree that food does.  Once simply a form of sustenance, food today, in restaurants or in markets, represents status, sexuality, politics, and education. Where all of this comes together, is not just in taste, or smell, or texture, but in the language that is used by purveyors of food, and the language that we all use, in talking about food. 
Stanford linguistics Professor and MacArther Fellow, Dan Jurafsky gives us a menu to interpret this in The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu.
My conversation with Dan Jurafsky:

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