True Thirty Reports

Tom Morris holds a double Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University. 

Morris is a former professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is a founder of the Morris Institute for Human Values, and author of over 30 books. He is also a business and motivational speaker, applying philosophical themes and concepts to business and professional life.

During our chat we discussed his newest book, Stoicism for Dummies, and why it is such an important book for our politically divided culture.

We talked about the founding fathers and their love and understanding of philosophy; the beauty, simplicity and reasons that philosophy matters today more than ever.

I was thrilled to have Professor Morris back on the program to share his decades of wisdom and experience. I hope you learn as much as I did from our time together.

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Check out some of Tom’s books:

The Everyday Patriot

Stoicism for Dummies

The Art of Achievement Silver Anniversary Edition

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Joe Hack is a government relations specialist, political consultant, and former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff with more than 16 years on Capitol Hill.

As Senior Vice President of The Daschle Group, Joe is known for his expertise in Senate politics and procedures. Notably, Joe served as a lead Republican consultant in securing passage of The Respect for Marriage Act and played a key role in shepherding The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act following the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

Previously, Joe spent 12 years as a senior advisor in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, including more than six years as Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (NE).

Prior to that, he worked for Senate Whip Jon Kyl as Communications Director and chief spokesman. Joe is also a veteran of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant for Rep. J. Randy Forbes (VA-04). He began his career in the office of Senator George Voinovich (OH)

Joe was recognized by The Hill as a Top Lobbyist in 2022 and 2023. He is also a 2022 Maverick PAC Future40 Awardee. In 2017, Joe was named by POLITICO as a top Senate operative in the “New Guard” Power List, a guide described as “crucial to understanding the players who are breaking through in the all-consuming era of Donald Trump.”

Joe is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Georgetown University and the George Washington University School of Law.

Joe and I talked at length about the origins of the TikTok bill, and the legislation drafted to ban the Chinese-owned app for over 170M Americans. We talked about the young man named Bijan Koomariaie. 

Joe then shared a story about how he met and interviewed a young lawyer named Bijan Koomaraie, who he introduced to Congresswoman Cathy MacMorris Rodgers of Washington State – a top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce committee – to be her legal counsel. Shortly thereafter Steve Scalise, House Majority Leader – based on Bijan’s acumen as counsel – poached Bijan to be HIS technology counsel overseeing all that’s going through the house Republican conference. 

This same TikTok bill was passed by the House and the Senate, and signed by President Biden on April 24th of 2024. 

We then moved on to talk a bit about RFK and his ascendancy as an Independent candidate – a candidate who pledges to be on the ballot in all 50 states before the November election – and how and why RFK is making some real waves for both parties in 2024. 

We ended our talk by discussing the possibilities of Mr. Trump’s growing stable of VP candidates – and which ones we believe have a chance – and those we deemed unworthy of future discussions.

This was my first interview with Joe Hack, but we had so much fun (both on and off camera) that we are going to continue our conversation under the heading of Joey Squared moving forward.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

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Rich Klein is the Managing Partner of McLarty Media. He was part of the 1992 Clinton/Gore presidential campaign, helping to craft policy and messaging on emerging global issues. Rich was subsequently appointed by President Clinton to head the speechwriting staff and be part of the policy planning office at the Department of Commerce, reporting directly to Secretaries Ron Brown, Mickey Kantor and Bill Daley successfully. From the Commerce Department, Rich was appointed by President Clinton to serve as Special Assistant for International Affairs at the Department of State, the bureau charged with monitoring and enforcing international economic sanctions.

During our chat, we talked about Rich’s purview of geopolitics as a former member of the State Department, the hot wars in Russia and Israel/Palestine, past administrations foreign policy - both good and bad - why NATO matters more than ever - and the continuing dysfunction of our current Congress.

It was my honor to have Rich join me on the program and I truly enjoyed every minute of his storied history, tenure, and storytelling of all things Washington D.C.

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Thom Shanker is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is also the director of the Project for Media and National Security at George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs.

Prior to his time at these academic institutions, Shanker was a longtime Pentagon correspondent and editor for the New York Times. His tenure with the Times included thirteen years covering the US Department of Defense, overseas combat operations, and national-security policymaking. 

Shanker conducted dozens of reporting trips to Afghanistan and Iraq and was embedded in the field with units from the squad and company level through battalion, brigade, division, and corps. He has chronicled a historic series of defense secretaries, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, Robert M. Gates, Leon E. Panetta, and Chuck Hagel. More recently, Shanker served as deputy Washington editor of diplomacy, military, and veterans affairs. 

Before joining the Times in 1997, Shanker spent five years as the Tribune’s Moscow correspondent, covering from the start of the Gorbachev era to the death of the Soviet Union and the communist empire in Eastern Europe. 

Shanker is an author, with Eric Schmitt, of Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda, published in August 201. The book became a New York Times best seller. 

During our chat, we talked at length about his newest book, Age of Danger that he co-authored with Andrew Hoehne. Their book was published in May of 2023 to much acclaim by both military experts and politicians alike.

During our chat, we discussed the history of our “warning and action systems” specific to our military readiness, and how these systems have been altered and improved over the decades to protect Americans and our national security. We also discussed the many new challenges presented by climate change, pandemics, AI, and our ever increasing involvement with two hot wars in the middle east and Russian. 

It was a fascinating conversation with a true legend in the world of investigative journalism, and it was my honor to have Thom join me on the program. I hope you learn as much as I did from this chat.

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Mitra Kalita is a storied journalist and media executive, author of two books, and a former Senior Vice President for News, Opinion and Programming at CNN Digital, where she oversaw a team of 200 employees. Mitra has also taught her craft at Columbia, UMass Amherst, CUNY Graduate School, and St. John’s. And in November of 2020 she was asked to join the board of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

During our chat, we talked about her tenure as a journalist and media executive, why she started a company called Epicenter NYC during Covid, how and why she co-founded her company URL Media, and why she believes that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are so important in today’s news rooms.

I was honored to have Mitra join me on the program, and I hope you learn as much from her as I did.

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Dax-Devlon Ross is the author of six books, including the acclaimed Letters to My White Male Friends. His journalism has been featured in Time Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post Magazine and many other national publications. He won the National Association of Black Journalists’ Investigative Reporting Award for his coverage of jury exclusion in North Carolina courts and is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at Type Media Center.

Dax is now a principal at the social impact consultancies, Dax-Dev and Third Settlements, both of which focus on designing strategies to generate equity in workplaces and educational spaces alike.. 

During our time together, we talked about the conflicts of oppositional black intellectuals like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, and we did so through the lens of one of his own books authored in 2008, The Nightmare and the Dream: Nas, Jay-Z and the History of Conflict in African-American Culture.

Dax then shared his reasons for using Nas, Jay-Z, Biggie and Tupac to frame a centuries long discussion on what it means to be black in America. We talked about the poetic rhyme and reason of these iconic hip-hop artists and why their song and story is so important to black culture.

We also talked about the recent Supreme Court ruling: Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard University and its landmark decision about how college admission programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment.

And we closed our time together by discussing Roland Fryer's recent article in The New York Times called – Build Feeder Schools And Make Yale and Harvard Fund Them – an article that talked at length about why affirmative action needs to start well before the admissions process into our universities.

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Tom Morris was born and raised in North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar, and holds a double Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University. UNC has honored him with the "Distinguished Young Alumnus Award".

Morris is an American philosopher - and former professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is a founder of the Morris Institute for Human Values, and author of over 30 books. He is also a business and motivational speaker, applying philosophical themes and concepts to business and professional life.

Morris' books include Francis Schaeffer's Apologetics: A Critique, Understanding Identity Statements, Philosophy for Dummies, Plato’s Lemonade Stand, True Success, The Art of Achievement, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, The Stoic Art of Living, Stoicism for Dummies, Superheroes and Philosophy, and, If Harry Potter Ran General Electric.

During our chat we discussed his newest book, The Everyday Patriot: How to be a Great American Now, and why it is such an important book for our politically divided culture.

We talked about the founding fathers and their love and understanding of philosophy; the beauty, simplicity, and importance of The Declaration of Independence, why patriotism matters today more than ever, and some very prescriptive things we can all do as citizens to assist our democracy in 2023 and beyond.

I was thrilled to have Professor Morris back on the program to share his decades of wisdom and experience. I hope you learn as much as I did from our time together.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.truethirty.com/subscribe

Show business is in Sharon’s blood. Born into a family of entertainers, this busy woman prides herself on being an event project executive, influencer, and author of four books, including her latest, Skin In the Game, Black Buying Power in Sports & Entertainment. 

In addition to her work in professional sports, Braxton is the CEO of Inclusive Marketing Group, which works on projects in the wine & spirits business, gaming, exotic cars, food & beverage, and the consumer goods industry.

Braxton started her career as an on-air personality and later became a music director at WRBB in Boston. She then moved to Atlanta to work in media relations with the Atlanta Hawks before heading back to New York where she worked in marketing with acts like Cher, Madonna, Missy Elliot, Yolanda Adams, En Vogue and Busta Rhymes - to mention a few. 

Braxton is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, MA with her Bachelor of Science in Speech and Communication with a concentration in radio and television. 

During our time together, we talked about her new book and why the industry of sports needs more black representation. We discussed the importance of Deon Sanders, both as a player and a coach. And we finished up by discussing the recent supreme court ruling that recalibrates how universities like Harvard and University of North Carolina will treat race as a factor in their admission policies moving forward.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

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In our effort to better understand the plight of California’s foster care system, and those that serve our children in need, I sat down with GaKnew Roxwel, a senior social work investigator for The Children’s Law Center of California. Prior to his sixteen years at the Center, he volunteered with various community organizations, and even worked closely with Leila Steinberg, an artist mentor to Tupac Shakur, in developing an after school arts program. 

The combination of GaKnew’s chosen career, mixed with his love of music and education, birthed his socially therapeutic book, Under the Influence: When Hip Hop meets Psychology.

During our chat, we talked about his upbringing in South Central Los Angeles, the tragedy of losing family and friends to senseless violence, his reasons for choosing social work as a career, his time teaching in Los Angeles Unified School District, and why he believes that intervention in the lives of troubled youth needs to begin early. To quote him directly “If you wait until they’re teenagers [to show them love and care], you’re not really going to get the buy-in, because they’re already focused on the cool… and cool wins. But if you get the kids before the cool, you actually get to the core of who they are.” Words of a poet, indeed.

GaKnew taught me a ton during our hour together, and I hope you enjoy his wisdom and insight as much as I did.

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Holly McNamara is a registered Professional Civil Engineer with a Bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a Master’s degree from UC San Diego in Structural Engineering. She has more than two decades of experience in project management, engineering design, and due diligence.

In addition to her career, she has experience forming and working with 501c3 non-profits, as well as event planning and fundraising for many different groups. In 2010, Holly had the opportunity to work alongside the late CEO of Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh, to launch his best-selling book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. The book launch consisted of a two-month media push that required traveling and coordinating approximately 150 interviews and speaking engagements across the country. The book remained on the New York Times Best Seller List for 27 weeks.

In my chat with Holly, we spoke about her decades-long friendship with Tony Hsieh, her time as his colleague at Zappos, and his tragic death in November of 2021. We discussed, at length, the recently published book, Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos, and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley, by Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans. Holly was interviewed by the authors for over 40 hours for this publication.

I hope you enjoy this very special episode.

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