Talk Cocktail

For reasons that are both complicated and simplistic, immigration has become the issues of our time.  Fifty years ago the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act put in place the system we have today.  That system has helped make us a nation of of immigrants and set the stage for the diverse Asian/American population in the US today.
Erika Lee takes us through the history of that population in The Making of Asian America: A History
My conversation with Erika Lee:

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Imagine one movement the combines every contemporary progressive social issue; race, immigration, Civil Rights, the labor movement, gender discrimination.  It may sound on the surface like the ultimate impossibility.  In fact, they all did converge in the movement for the rights of Domestic Workers.
From the 1950’s to today, the movement in support of workers who are the most invisible, whom labor organizations thought could not be organized, is the story of an amazing group of women overcoming unique obstacle in a struggle that had much larger ripples on the social landscape. Premilla Nadasen takes us through the history of an amazing group of African American women who built a movement.  She tells their story in Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement.
My conversation with Premilla Nadasen:

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In spite of a rough stock market and a bumpy economy there is one business, not a tech company, that has grown revenues from $229 million in 1999 to over 800 million today.  That is the business that is the ten largest programs in College football.  It’s a business where the CEO’s, the coaches, are mostly part of the one percent. They earn millions annually and even worse than most big businesses, their employees work for almost nothing.
The world of College football specifically and College athletics in general has grown out of all proportion to its real value.  This is the world we begin to watch this week and that Gilbert Gaul writes about in Billion-Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football.
My conversation with Gilbert Gaul:

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I’ve often told the story of a newly minted teacher considering her first job.  She had several offers, but in the end there were two that were intriguing to her.  One in a difficult and struggling inner city school district; the other in a very wealthy, upper middle class suburban enclave.  She said that she felt like it was a decision between difficult students or difficult parents.
In that choice, we come to understand one of the dilemmas of today's educational system.  The extremes between parents who simply don’t have the time or knowledge to engage in their kid's education, or parents like those portrayed as Tiger Moms, or the Upper East Side moms of Primates of Park Avenue, who take helicopter parenting to a new extreme.   
Worse yet, it generally reaches its apogee at precisely the time in Middle School when kids could most benefit from personal responsibility, social emotional development and yes, even owning their failure. 
This is what NY Times and Atlantic contributor Jessica Lahey writes about in The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed.
My conversation with Jessica Lahey:

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Through the efforts of both critics and audiences, we’ve come to understand that “genre films,” are just as significant as mainstream films.  Few mastered the genre of horror and suspense to the degree that Wes Craven did.  From his first, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) to the 1984 classic NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Craven infused intelligence into all of his work.
Back in 1999 I spoke to Craven about his work, and the publication of his first novel.  
Here is my conversation with Wes Craven:

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How do we navigate the world in spite of change?  It's one of the central tenants of modern society. Over and over again, Oliver Sacks used the experience and metaphor of debilitating conditions to explain the amazing resilience of the human mind. A resiliency he himself exhibited right up until the end of his life.
I had many chances to talk with Sacks over the years, the last was in November of 2012. It was about his book The Mind's Eye.  Inspired in part by his own experience with the cancer that would take him from us.
My November 2012 conversation with Oliver Sacks:

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The phrase “The Perfect Storm” has come to mean a lot of things.  Most notably the unique and singular coming together of disparate forces to mark a disaster.  In that context the City of New Orleans experienced the perfect storm not just from the meteorological confluence of isobars that would create hurricane Katrina, but in the impact and aftermath of a city torn by racial strife, economic division, identity politics, poor management and even poorer public policy.
It it’s true that one should never let a crisis go to waste, many within New Orleans did not.  In Katrina they saw an opportunity to remake the city anew.  But in whose image and at the cost of whose future?
This is the New Orleans that Gary Rivlin captures in Katrina: After the Flood
My conversation with Gary Rivlin:

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When we think about the iconography and the history of contemporary policing and urban criminal justice what comes to mind?  Sixty years ago it was Dragnet and Joe Friday. Later, everything from Adam 12 to the work of Joe Wambaugh.  Then their was the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots; the OJ trial, helicopters employed by police and chases, both high and slow speed.  What they all have in common is the City of Los Angeles.  A city that has been on the cutting edge of all that is right and wrong with urban policing.
Long time investigative journalist Joe Domanick writes about this checkered history in Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing
My conversation with Joe Dominick:

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Even today, fifteen months before Election Day, we are in full political campaign season.  And while we hear a lot of loose talk about issues, it’s easy to forget that politics is also about both the art of governing, and sometimes doing so in the real world of compromise and possibilities.
Even with all the problems of our healthcare system, Doctors usually go into medicine because that have calling; a desire to help people.  While it's’ hard to believe sometimes, many politicians also have a calling and go into it because they have a desire to use the levers of policy to make the world a better place.
For Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, this is true.  Since Missouri became state, 194 years ago, she is the first woman to serve as its United States Senator and has just written her memoir Plenty Ladylike.
My conversation with Senator Claire McCaskill:

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One of the ongoing conundrums in sports is whether it’s about the team or the individual?  Back in the early days of the NFL,  Pete Rozelle believed passionately, that in a game played only once a week, the team was the key to marketing.  In Basketball, former Commissioner David Stern saw the value of individual stars as the draw for fans.
For Baseball it’s been a mixed bag.  Even for iconic teams like the Dodgers or the Giants, the question of team vs. the individual is hotly debated.
For the Dodgers, at least the current team and its current ownership group, the answer is clear.  With players like Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw, Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford, stars outshine the team. The individual player is king, second only to the dollars that are being paid.
Looking at this team, a team that was in bankruptcy just three years ago, as a result of a a messy divorce, is my guest sports journalist and former ESPN reporter Molly Knight. She takes a hard look at this team in her new book The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse
My conversation with Molly Knight:

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