Talk Cocktail

Like it or not, the nature of our society and of our culture today is focused inward.  Walk down any urban street, vs. 40 years ago and instead of looking out, we’re look down or inward.  At our phones, our images, at our own world.  
In a culture where self branding is celebrated, where selfies rule and Millennials are self absorbed, is it any wonder that narcissism seems rampant? 
But is this just a societal phase, resulting in the kind of prolonged adolescence that A.O. Scott talked about in his NY Times essay, or is it a clinical epidemic that needs more serious attention? Jeffrey Kluger examines these changes in The Narcissist Next Door: Understanding the Monster in Your Family, in Your Office, in Your Bed,in Your World.
My conversation with Jeffrey Kluger:

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It seems quaint now, but there was a time we had to rely on others for most of our needs.  We had to rely on family for food, operators to place calls, travel agents to book travel, the post office to deliver mail, and large institutions to fulfill our needs.
The technological revolution that began in the 70’s changed all that.  As consumers, as individuals we become empowered.  We could do our own thing, we could customize our lives.
But this new found power was a little like an 18 year old going off to college. A new freedom that would often result in excess.  That excess, for us as a society, has been the self absorption that it has engendered.
But that’s changing. The millennial generation is both self absorbed AND one of most compassionate.  It is arguably the bridge in a maturing culture that is coming to grips with this new found power.  
These are some of the core issues that Paul Roberts writes about in his new book, The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification
My conversation with Paul Roberts:

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If we were to listen to many of the Cassandras out there today, you would think that technology, information, and progress were all bad.
They are the same people who would have objected to the printing press, the telephone, television and the automobile.
They look at education and don't understand why memorization and rote learning are no longer worthy of attention and want to put the technology genie back in the bottle.
Well, it's not going back in!  In fact, much of what we have wrought as a society and as a civilization has made us better, smarter, and awakened whole new aspects of human potential.  Journalist Clive Thompson makes the case in Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better.
My conversation with Clive Thompson:

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It seems that every generation seeks to find fault with the adolescent generation coming of age.  Just as the parents of boomers eschewed the 60’s, so today, we boomers are all too quick to criticize and disparage the state of Millennials.
Perhaps if we better understood adolescence, the process that the brain goes through as it remodels itself, we’d better understand the young adults that are coming of age.
And while we are quick to judge  what seems to be the extension of adolescence today, new research shows that the extension of adolescence is actually the extension of the plasticity of the brain which allow it to continue to be enhanced and invigorated.
Understand all of this has been the work of Dr. Laurence Steinberg in Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence.
My conversation with Dr. Laurence Steinberg:

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Be it immigration, race or sexual orientation, we have an odd human tendency to expect that tolerance and integration to really mean sameness.
The idea of a social, political and cultural melting pot is often seen as the primary metaphor for accepting difference, as opposed to … well just accepting and appreciating differences.
Perhaps nowhere has this been more profound than for gays and lesbians.  Once shunned, now we look to gay marriage, child rearing and fashion, as a kind of establishment model.
In short, human beings  love to co opt difference and seek sameness.
But what impact does this have on individuals who may be different?  Individuals whose ideas, values, creativity, and life style seek to really be different?
That is one of the issues that Julie Bindel takes up in Straight Expectations
My conversation with Julie Bindel:

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Is there anyone that believes that we still have a measure of privacy?  Not only are there cameras everywhere, not only is big data a part of almost every business, but the uses of the this data, not by the NSA, but by corporate America, are becoming ever more sophisticated.
After all, it’s what we say we want.  Better customer service, better consumer satisfaction and greater personalization. After all, when you look up something on Amazon or Google and then you see ads for that item within seconds, on every website you visit, maybe it seems to go a bit too far.
No place is better at this, particularly in the bricks and mortar world, than Las Vegas. A place where money and service are as one, where loyalty still seems to matter and where the world of tech and the world of touch come together, as in few other places.
This is the backdrop for an Adam Tanner's look at big data, in What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal DataLifeblood of Big Business and the End of Privacy as We Know It.
My conversation with Adam Tanner:

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Think about some of the great themes and conflicts of our times.  Freedom vs. Tyranny, the 1% vs the 99%, East Coast values. vs the Western ethos, team effort vs individual effort, the US vs Russia, the triumph of the Greatest Generation, craftsmanship vs mass production, and the moral as well as physical victory of America in the Second World War.
All of these themes and more are part of the story that Daniel James Brown weaves together in his bestselling The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Reminding us that the story of Jesse Owens was not the only American triumph to emerge from the 1936 Olympics. The victory of the Boys in the Boat, the University of Washing crew team, would happen, right under Hitler’s watchful gaze.
My conversation with Daniel James Brown:

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As we approach this anniversary of 9/11, it's worth noting that the Afghan war has become the longest in American history. Also, to think about how many of the men and women who have served in that war, were motivated and inspired to act, by those events thirteen years ago.
Michael Golembesky is one of those.  He would go on to become one of the first members of the US Marines Special Operations Team, that was created in 2006.
His story, his eight years of service, is a telling snapshot of both the good and bad of our efforts in Afghanistan.
He shares the personal and military nuances of his story in his memoir Level Zero Heroes: The Story of U.S. Marine Special Operations in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan.
My conversation with Michael Golembesky:

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When we talk about success, be it on Wall Street, or Silicon Valley, or even the boom in natural gas, we always talk about it as “the new gold rush."  In part because the Gold Rush represented the mobility, energy and adventure of Americans in pursuit of riches.
But those riches, that began in California in 1849, were anything but easy.  While many made fortunes, many of those fortunes came to those who took care of the hundreds of thousands who would come looking to change their lives.That’s the world that Edward Dolnick writes about in The Rush: America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853
My conversation with Edward Dolnick:

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Election day 2014 is fast approaching.  At the end of the process, we will have spent over three hundred million dollars to decide if Mitch McConnell or Harry Reid will have a two vote margin.
While there are many social, political and psychological reasons for our current state of political gridlock and polarization, money is certainly at the core.
The next Presidential election could well cost over one and a quarter billion dollars. It costs ten million, at the very least, to become a US Senator and even House races cost millions.
We’ve long talked about the corrosive effect of money in politics, and Citizens United has only reinforced that.  But both sides are raising and spending the money with equal alacrity, and the public shows no signs of being fed up enough, to do anything about it.
If it continues, what does it really mean for democracy has we have known it, what kind of government will it give us, and will there ever come a tipping point for an angry and disaffected public?  Those are some of the question that Tim Kuhner raises in Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution.
My conversation with Tim Kuhner:

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