Talk Cocktail

While January 6th and the attempted coup may have been the final trigger at the end of the Trump presidency that could have brought down democracy, it was the four years prior that may have been the end of governance in America. The unsung heroes deep inside government, the departments, the cabinet secretaries, and the national security apparatus, all of whom took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, may have been the ones who saved the Republic from its dismantling. All of this is laid out by David Rothkopf in his new book American Resistance.

My conversation with David Rothkopf:

Think of all the true crime stories you’ve watched or read. The image of a dogged or even sometimes fumbling detective usually lies at the center. But today, like almost everything else, technology has changed that.

Since the mid-80s, DNA technology has begun to transform the search for both guilt and innocence. Suddenly cold cases, like the Golden State Killer, are solvable, dozens and dozens of years later.DNA databases are growing, as are privacy fears about their misuse. Dedicated cold case detectives, both professional and amateur, are evolving into a new profession.The idea of no statutes of limitations on murder has always been a fundamental tenant of our criminal justice system. But now, with DNA’s ability to solve so many other types of crimes, will the system change?…Will the long arm of justice be forever.That is what Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistEdward Humesexamines in his new bookTHE FOREVER WITNESS.

My conversation with Ed Humes:

Language has always been an important tool in American politics. It allows politicians to communicate their ideas and visions to their constituents and persuade them to support their policies. The power of words is so great that politicians often have teams of speechwriters to help craft their messages. These writers often work closely with the politicians to understand their vision and goals, and help express them in a way that resonates with the public.

In his book GRACE, Cody Keenan writes about his experiences as President Obama's chief speechwriter during a critical ten-day period in June 2015.Through Keenan's perspective, we see the inner workings of the Obama administration and the challenges they faced in trying to pass legislation and shape the future of the country. His book offers a unique insight into the role of language in American politics and the way it can be used to shape history.My conversation with Cody Keenan:

Somewhere in the magic formula that makes great art is the internal potential for pain. Someone once said of artists that they were like the rest of us, except that their emotions were just always sitting closer to the surface…. more accessible, more sensitive, and more vulnerable to pain, despair, and even suicide.

The stories of people like Kurt Cobain, Van Gough, Virginia Woolf, Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, and Hunter Thompson, while all different, reinforce the image and reality of the tortured artist.Add to this list, Anthony Bourdain. A complicated artist in so many ways, he would suffer a similar fate. But we should also remember that while all these stories have the same ending, each artist and their journey tells us more and more about ourselves and about the human condition.This is the story that Charles Leerhsen tell in Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain: 

My Conversation with Charles Leerhsen

Herbert Hoover said that “the business of America is business.” And for decades no business better defined that than General Electric. An industrial titan, everything about it, from credit to jet engines, from x-ray machines to lighting the nation, to bringing entertainment to the masses, defined the broad shoulders of American business and American capitalism.

As might be expected, its executives also lived a good life. Like an episode of Succession, there were multiple private jets, cars always at the ready, and offices that make today's tech offices look provincial. There was the office staff waiting to fulfill every executive whim, and CEOs like Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt became household names and were seen on the covers of Fortune and BusinessWeek.Today, after 130 years GE, like many companies of its time, has all but disappeared. Like so many corporate icons of that era, Polaroid, Kodak, Dow, and US Steel, we were led to believe that “creative destruction” took them down; that Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma had caught up with them.But sometimes we discovered in hindsight that it was simply bad management, bad decisions, hubris, and the idle worship of what William James called the b***h goddess success that turned its ugly gaze on the company. This story, a cautionary tale about management men and money, is the story that best-selling authorWilliam Cohantells in his latest book,Power Failure: The and Fall of An American Icon.My conversation with William Cohan:

Herbert Hoover said that “the business of America is business.” And for decades no business better defined that than General Electric. An industrial titan, everything about it, from credit to jet engines, from x-ray machines to lighting the nation, to bringing entertainment to the masses, defined the broad shoulders of American business and American capitalism.

Not just here in America, but throughout the world, the forces of liberty are battling the forces of authoritarianism. These forces are global as well as local.Here in America such battles played out after George Floyd’s death, and on January 6th, and we still don’t know what might happen between now and 2024. These are moral battles for the soul and future of the country.But hopeless as it may sometimes seem, these kinds of "against the odds" battles have been won before. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and even the anti Vietnam war movement were both, in their own way, successful. But why and how were they successful and what lessons do they provide us in today’s moral battles?The Civil Rights movement was framed as a nonviolent struggle. Yet baked into that nonviolence were methods, tactics, training and communication from which we can all go to school.Few understand the context of the battlefield and the military better than Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Thomas Ricks. In his new book Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 he details how the military tactics of the Civil Rights movement outshined even the US military.My conversation with Tom Ricks:

Not just here in America, but throughout the world, the forces of liberty are battling the forces of authoritarianism. These forces are global as well as local.

On Tuesday we will have our first election since January 6. There is every reason to believe that things will get worse. That January 6 was merely an inflection point on the road to a government we may not recognize in a few years.

This according to my WhoWhatWhy podcast guest, New York Times Magazine reporter and author Robert Draper.In his new book,Weapons of Mass Delusion,Draper explains how January 6 was a signal moment for the Republican party, one that left the MAGA base as the core and future of the party.

My WhoWhatWhy conversation with Robert Draper

Almost since the beginning of time, men have shaped society. From ancient times to Man Men, patriarchy was the defining framework of our society. Men dominated in industry, as workers and leaders, in college graduation, in earnings, in national and local leadership, and in protecting our society. Women and girls were left behind

In the 70s and 80s, all of that began to change. Things like Title IX in 1972, and the feminist movement were both achievements and symbols of success, and harbingers of important societal changesBut none of this happened in a vacuum. Other social, political, and sociological changes were taking place. In the nature of work, of communication, of education of character and economics.Over time, and not just as a zero sum exercise, the world of boys and men changed. Some of the changes were obvious and frankly, more men should have seen them coming. Others happened in a more subtle way, not unlike the frog in boiling water.Suffice it to say that today these changes have reshaped our society. The gender gap is reshaping our politics and feeding authoritarian populism, it impacts the raising of younger generations and adds to class, cultural, economic, and political divisions. And unfortunately, like almost everything else it’s become a talisman of left / right polarization.Trying to raise the conversation about that is my guestRichard V. Reevesin his new bookOf Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It.

My conversation with Richard V. Reeves: