Talk Cocktail

Every generation of parents wants their children to do better than themselves.  It seems though that to accomplish that today, as NY Times columnist Tom Friedman and others have warned, "average is no longer good enough."
So how do we reconcile this with the data that tells us seeing our children for who they are and focusing on their social and emotional needs, is every bit as important as their academic needs.
How do we square that circle of success.  Nancy Rose explains in Raise the Child You've Got - Not the One You Want: Why Everyone Thrives When Parents Lead with Acceptance.
My conversation with Nancy Rose:

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The student loan crisis has reached epic proportions. Beyond the basic fact that it could be the next financial cries, with debt exceeding one trillion dollars, its impact on higher education, at a time when that education is a prerequisite for today's employment market, makes the problem all the more profound and complicated.  It also makes it a matter of urgent attention in the realm of public policy.
Joel and Eric Best take a comprehensive look at the scope and history of the problem in The Student Loan Mess: How Good Intentions Created a Trillion-Dollar Problem.
My conversation with Joel & Eric Best:

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Suddenly talk of income equality and poverty has become more acceptable.  Perhaps it’s the political season, or Thomas Pikitty’s book, or perhaps it’s just the reality of what we see all around us in America.
But how does talk turn into action and what kind of action?  We see in Silicon Valley and in tech, in general, that when a company succeeds, or is bought out, all of the employees, all of the stakeholders benefit.  Why can’t that same idea apply to the rest of corporate America?
This is part of the idea of the The Citizen's Share: Reducing Inequality in the 21st Century.A new book and a new way to look at these issues by Joesph Blasi.  
My conversation with Joseph Blasi:

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It has been argued that more evil is committed in the name of banality, than purpose.  Certainly a look at our current golden age of television, confirms that. Don Draper,  Walter White, and Tony Soprano never really seem to make up their minds about being good or evil.
So what’s the zeitgeist of our culture that separates hero from villain and what's different today than say in the 90’s or even the 50’s?
Who better to ask than Chuck Klosterman, The Ethicist for the NY Times Magazine, and the bestselling author of seven previous books, including Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs no looks into our confusion about good and evil in I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)
My conversation with Chuck Klosterman:

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When Hanna Rosin wrote The End of Men, did it also portend the end of fatherhood?  There is no question that gender roles have been dramatically changed in the past 50 years.  That in almost every measurable metric, women are not just pulling ahead of, but are surpassing men.
Yet fifty years of change, is no match for almost two million years of human evolution.  Where these two forces converge is the reality of modern fatherhood.
The scientific, genetic and evolutionary influence of fathers is powerful and provable.  Yet in many ways it runs headlong into popular culture, contemporary role models, and the reality of 21st century family life.
Journalist Paul Raeburn describes the current revolution in research in Do Fathers Matter?: What Science Is Telling Us About the Parent We've Overlooked
My conversation with Paul Raeburn:

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Everyday we encounter jerks.  Some have recently argued that the number of jerks has increased exponentially as we all experience greater stress and more frequent encounters, in denser urban environments.  But when those jerks go to far, than they truly become a******s.
But why so many, why now and what can we do about it?  That's the question that Aaron James asks in A******s: A Theory.
My conversation with Aaron James:

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Immigration has once again become the issue of the day.  Children are pouring across the border. Misinformation is rampant and our national attitude has become mean spirited.  We say we are a nation of immigrants, yet what we really mean by that seems very different than the current reality.  
We have a system that has grown inefficient, prejudicial and disconnected from the very human concerns of people seeking a better life. Aviva Chomsky has been active in Latin American solidarity and immigrants’ rights issues for over twenty-five years.  She examines where we are today in  Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal.
My conversation with Aviva Chomsky:

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It’s long been said that if you really want to get to know someone, travel with them. The corollary is that if you really want to get to know members of your family, go on a vacation with them.  The crucible of that experience usually brings out both the best and worst of who they are.  
That’s the pressure cooker that the Post family is thrown into in Emma Straub's. new novel The Vacationers.
It isn’t easy making it onto the New York Times bestseller list with your second novel, but Straub did it with The Vacationers — the perfect book to bring with you on your summer getaway.
My conversation with Emma Straub:

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America has more ocean and more coastline than any other nation. We produce more fresh seafood than other nations. Yet the amount of seafood extracted from those oceans, that we keep here in the US, is very small.

Why this disconnect? Why is our relationship to seafood so attenuated? And is there some connection or consistency between the decline of farming in America and the decline of domestically consumed seafood.

Paul Greenberg takes us inside seafood and aquaculture in American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood.

My conversation with Paul Greenberg:

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Technology is transforming the world.  But so too are millions of young people throughout the Middle East, whose attitudes, desire for freedom and more cosmopolitan views, are transforming nations. When these forces combine, the results can be powerful.  This is what we’ve seen in the Arab Spring and in the uprisings and youth movements in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole, one of our most distinguished Middle East experts, talks of a rising Arab Generation Y, in his new book The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East.
My conversation with Juan Cole:

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