Talk Cocktail

Today it is technology that brings “creative destruction” into our lives. Silicon Valley and its related communities sit at the epicenter of change.  But in the 1960’s and 70’s it was very different.  It was art and ideas and personalities that changed the world.  In the art world, it was New York, the Museum of Modern Art and its Chief Curator Peter Selz, that sat at the epicenter of a changing cultural landscape
Gabrielle Selz, grew up in that world. She watched how her father shaped the world and now she looks back at how that world shaped her in Unstill Life: A Daughter's Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction.
My conversation with Gabrielle Selz:

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Perhaps it’s the idea of 1.3 billion people. Or that half a billion have moved out of poverty in such a short time.  Perhaps it’s that China is has moved so rapidly to become the world's second largest economy.  Or perhaps it’s the environmental degradation left in the wake of these accomplishments.  
Perhaps it’s all of these things and more, that often block our view of the humanity of China.  Yet it is a nation of individuals. Individuals with personal stories, aspirations and ambitions.  People who have learned to deal with the contradictions and disconnects, between a vibrant, 21st century economic system and a backwards, almost 19th century political system.  Ironic, I suppose that it even sounds a little like the US.
In the resolution of that disconnect, may lie the future of China, America and even the world as we know it. That the journey that Evan Osnos takes us on in Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
My conversation with Evan Osnos:

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On the morning of August 7, 1974, forty years ago,  Philippe Petit illegally strung a tightrope between the towers of New York's World Trade Center, then under construction. For 45 minutes, he performed a ballet in the sky, as he moved back and forth across the wire. He was more than 1300 feet above the ground – without a net. The story of this feat was captured in the Oscar-winning documentary "Man on Wire."
However powerful that feat was, in its own right, it was also a metaphor for the rebellion, chaos, organization, faith and fearlessness that would animate Petit’s life and which, if looked at in the wider context of today’s world, animates all that is good and necessary about change and progress and fear. Now Petit has taken his fearlessness and applied it to creativity in Creativity: The Perfect Crime.
My conversation with Philippe Petit:

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Back in the 1960’s and 70’s we were deeply divided as a nation.  Issues like Civil Rights, Vietnam and the Cold War created deep tensions.  Yet in Washington, things did get done.  The passage of the Civil Rights act, the creation of the EPA, and even public pressure to end the war in Vietnam, all impacted those who govern.
Today, Washington appears more divided and gridlocked than ever.  Yet among the people, there seems to be less real division. The citizens seem to be more in sync than ever, about issues of corporate power, civil liberties, environmental concerns, and unchecked militarism.  
So where is the disconnect, if the people have things in common, why are our leaders so divided?  Perhaps the fault is not in our leaders but in ourselves and our unwillingness to engage in the exercise our own power.
This is the premise of the latest from Ralph Nader, Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State
My conversation with Ralph Nader:

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For the majority of the  boomer generation, and generations that preceded it, work was mostly an obligation. A way of earning one's way in the world, a way of  paying for the perceived American dream.  
Today that’s changed. Today the work itself is often the object.  For millennials, the work must have purpose.  It must be fulfilling in its own right, and the efforts, even if it’s just a  small part of the whole,  must contribute to something bigger.  Today, rather than the artificial construct of work/ life balance, work and life are merging into a seamless self actualized effort.
This is not just a psychological observation.  In fact, this direction coupled with the growing  information economy, is changing the very fabric of economic exchange.  It’s creating what Aaron Hurst calls The Purpose Economy.
My conversation with Aaron Hurst:

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Today we have an all volunteer military.  When young men and woman join the Marine Corps, they do so to serve their country.  They know full well they the work may put them in harms way.  That a bullet, or a grenade, or an IED might cut their life short, at any time.  What none of them expect is to be killed or maimed by drinking water.
Yet that is exactly what has happened to Marines at the historic Camp Lejeune facility in North Carolina.  As many as a million people connected with the base were exposed to highly toxic and contaminated well water.  What the military and government has done about it, is truly a crime.
Long time journalist Mike Magner takes us into the human tragedy of the government and Pentagon inaction in A Trust Betrayed: The Untold Story of Camp Lejeune and the Poisoning of Generations of Marines and Their Families.
My conversation with Mike Magner:

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Think about advertising for new cars. Better yet, think about looking at a new car in the showroom.  That experience is all about possibilities and dreams. It’s about  what that car can do for you, not just where it will take you geographically, but where it will take you emotionally.
From the days of Mad Men, right up to today, that’s what the car dream has always been about.  But usually, like the real disconnect between dreams and life, the car takes on a life of its own. It's often far removed from the ad or the showroom fantasy.
Few cars have conjured up this iconography more than the 1957 Chevy. A car that personified our relationship to the automobile and the infinite possibilities that were postwar America. That's the world that Earl Swift captures in Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream.
My conversation with Earl Swift:

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Particularly in the First World, it's amazing how fragile our world is. Remember how upset we get if our cell phones don't work, or our computers get glitchy? So imagine if the electrical grid collapsed, or the fuel or food supply was curtailed, only for a few days, much less, some far more devastating apocalyptic kind of event?
We see it in natural disasters, like tsunamis, or earthquakes, or floods or tornadoes. We get a glimpse, but only a glimpse, of what might happen.  But are we prepared for any of these kinds of disasters, or should we be? 
Were Katrina and New Orleans and Sandy only outliers or a harbinger?  And if it is the later, what should we know about trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world?
Oxford research scientist, Dr. Lewis Dartnell gives us that information in  The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch.
My conversation with Lewis Dartnell:

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When the nuclear age dawned, people spoke of being “present at the creation.”  Man suddenly had the ability to completely remake  the world anew, or even to destroy it. Today, we have that same power.  The environmental crises we face, driven by the pillars of population growth, technology and short term thinking, also give us the power to destroy the world.
In fact, much of the destruction may be underway already and it may even be too late to reverse some of it.  We may be entering what Elizabeth Kolbert calls The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
My conversation with Elizabeth Kolbert:

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Back in the 1980’s we thought Japan was not only the number one economic power, but we thought it was taking over the world.  The Japanese bought iconic properties like Rockefeller Center, and Pebble Beach.  We were looking at Japanese schooling and trying to emulate their educational and economic success.  Just as we want our kids to learn Mandarin today, back then we wanted them to learn Japanese. 
All that has changed.  Japan’s economy has spent twenty years in the doldrums.  The Japanese population is aging, and it’s been anything but a dynamic society. 
How are all of these events related?  How does the rise of China, the stagnation of Japan and the insecurities of the US all fit together?  And how has Japan, especially since the multiple and overlapping tragedies of Fukushima, been able to cope with its place in the world?
Is there something we can all learn from the way that Japan deals with its adversity? Journalist David Pilling thinks so, and he gives his views in Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival
My conversation with David Pilling:

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