More than any time in recent decades, American politics are deeply divided. Compromise is a dirty word.
"The way that we're running the country is that we're not running the country," says our guest Mark Gerzon, author of the new book, "The Reunited States of America."
As President of Mediators Foundation, the group he founded 25 years ago, Mark has brought people together in conflict zones around the world Concerned about increasing polarization in the U.S., Mark is working on the ideological frontier between left and right.
Read moreFrom the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers - through wars, economic change and the struggle for civil rights, American history is overwhelmingly dominated by the achievements and errors of men.
Women - because they were largely excluded from public and professional life for most of our history - play a relatively small role in the established narrative of our past.
"Role models have a huge impact on the way young girls and women in general think about themselves," says Joan Wages, President and CEO of The National Women's History Museum.
"We need more women role models out in the public sphere so we know about them."
In this episode, Joan tells about the campaign for building a National Women's History Museum in Washington D.C. The Museum's website states: "It will be centrally located near the world's most prestigious museums and monuments in our Nation's Capital."
Read moreFor its opponents, Obamacare is a disaster - a classic example of over-reach by an Administration that wants to expand the size and scope of the Federal government.
Supporters say The Affordable Care Act is a triumph, benefiting countless millions of Americans, while reducing the threat of personal bankruptcies in medical emergencies crippling healthcare costs.
"We have decreased the rate of the uninsured by about a third," says our guest Megan McArdle, a columnist at Bloomberg View. But Obamacare poses a potentially fatal threat.
Read moreWith love, humor, and compassion, Debbie Galant talks about what it's like to live with breast cancer. What she learned along the way amounts to solutions for what can be a desperate, lonely experience.
From the first shock of her first diagnosis to sometimes wrenching, sometimes funny conversations with her doctors and family, Debbie gives us valuable lessons about how to survive and recover, physically and emotionally.
"You are pitched into this world of fear... this incredible world of fear," she tells us. "You're making a lot of decisions in that period, but you're really in a primal place."
Her journey includes how to "de-code" her oncologist, and learn from a nurse-navigator to dealing with her own emotional roller-coaster ride. She also talks about a vital ingredient: humor.
"Going into a doctor's appointment with a sense of humor, as opposed to a sense of dread, really helped."
Debbie, her husband Warren Levinson, and son Noah tell their story in the podcast, "Chemo Files" - is a deeply personal account of her months of dealing with cancer. She is Associate Director of New Media Initiatives and runs NJ News Commons at Montclair State University, New Jersey.
Read moreAnti-lock brakes make many motorists drive faster. Introducing helmets and face masks in football raised the risk of concussions. Financial regulators and central bankers played a role in creating conditions that led to the 2008 mortgage meltdown.
The illusion of safety can lead to reckless behavior. These fascinating insights are part of "Foolproof- Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe", the recently published book by Greg Ip, chief economics commentator at The Wall Street Journal.
Read moreBefore The U.S. and other nations can be successful against Islamic State (ISIS) and other global jihadists, we must understand the difference between Islam and Islamism. That's the argument from our guest on this week's episode, Maajid Nawaz.
"It happens to be that today we are dealing with an insurgency that's rising and growing within my own Muslim community," he says. It doesn't help to deny it."
A Sunni Muslim and a former Islamist fundamentalist, who is the founding chairman of the London-based counter-terrorism foundation, Quilliam, Maajid makes a powerful argument for freedom, tolerance and respect.
Read moreWe'd like to think that science should exist outside of politics and researchers follow the truth wherever it goes.
But the ideal of rational non-ideological science is under attack at many colleges and universities, says our guest, Alice Dreger. A historian who studies human sexuality and the ethics of medical research, Alice is the author of the provocative new book, "Galileo's Middle Finger."
Read moreThe armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the dry prairies of Southeast Oregon by members of a small militia group is the most recent chapter in the very long-running dispute over land in The West.
Our guest is environmental historian Nancy Langston, author of “Where Land and Water Meet. A Western Landscape Transformed.”
Read moreIt's easy to make resolutions to improve our lives, but how do we boost our chances of following through?
The first two guests on this New Year's Resolutions special are Dave McRaney of the podcast, "You Are Not So Smart" and Dr. Peter Whybrow, Director of the Semel Institute at U.C.L.A., author of The Well-Tuned Brain: Neuroscience And The Life Well Lived."
Dave dives in to confirmation bias, when we seek out information that confirms our world view, rather than challenging ourselves with the truth. Peter says we often make short-term choices that conflict with our best long-term interests.
Instant gratification is often the enemy of a balanced budget. Beverly Harzog lived through her own personal crisis of bad debt and now helps people repair their credit. She explains how she got into credit card debt and how you can get out of it. She has more helpful information at her website, BeverlyHarzog.com.
Farnoosh Torabi, host of the popular podcast, "So Money", gave us creative ideas on how to make more money and preserve your wealth by being your own best financial advocate.
Many people make major mistakes when purchasing home, life, auto or health insurance. While some don't have enough coverage, others buy duplicate insurance. Laura Adams, host of the "Money Girl" podcast and insurance quotes.com says the cost of term life insurance may be much cheaper than you think.
If you plan to buy or rent a home in 2016, Nela Richardson, Senior Economist with the real estate website, Redfin, has some useful tips. Jeff Koyen, Editor-in-Chief of VanWinkles.com talks about the importance of getting enough sleep. He gives us some creative ideas on improving our sleeping lives.
Read moreIf you want to get of sense of what we're about, this highlights show may be a good place to start. We've put together a "best of" podcast that reflects our values and makes the argument for why we're worth listening to.
Read moreWe love our smartphones, tablets, laptops and game consoles. But what is the explosion in mobile technology doing to our brains?
Our guest, Professor Abigail Baird, is a developmental psychologist, expert on the teenage brain and mother of two young children. She says technology has great benefits, but also could have a negative impact on our conversations, memory and social life.
Read moreFrom angry scenes over Halloween costumes at Yale to protests against racism at the University of Missouri, student activism is back. More than at any time since the late 1960's, America is in the middle of a wave of college unrest.
To what extent do students today have genuine grievances? Are at least some of them rebels without a cause - angry because their feelings have been hurt?
“Step by step colleges are being transformed into something more akin to mental health wards rather than citadels of learning,” says our guest, Hara Marano, Editor at Large of Psychology Today and author of the book, "A Nation of Wimps".
Read moreFrom Paris to San Bernardino, terrorist attacks have sparked an outcry from many politicians in Europe and the U.S. - including calls for new controls on immigration, refugees and the free movement of labor across national borders.
The leading Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, called for a total and complete ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Our guest in episode 29, Peter Coy, Economics Editor for Bloomberg Businessweek, makes a strong case for more - not less - immigration, as well as a greater exchange of ideas across the boundaries that divide us.
Read moreIf you have at least seven hours of interrupted sleep each night, consider yourself very lucky indeed. Problems with sleep are remarkably widespread.
Many millions of adults and children either don't spend enough time in bed or suffer from sleep disorders, resulting in illness, obesity, depression, mood swings and loss of creativity.
Our guest is Jeff Koyen, Editor-in-Chief of Van Winkle's, a new website "obsessed with sleeping, waking and everything in between. He shares the stories of scientists, artists, travel writers, child-care experts and many others who have a great deal to tell us about how we do - and don't - sleep.
Read moreThe holiday shopping season is underway and finding the right toy or game for his or her kids is the goal of every parent. A vast range of new toys has been introduced in recent months.
Joining us in this episode to look at the recent changes is consultant and branding expert, Richard Gottlieb, of Global Toy Experts.
"The toy industry is a nineteenth-century industry that's trying hard to break into the twenty-first," says Richard. "It's had a lot of difficulty dealing with the digital aspect of play that's become so popular."
Read moreThe demand for energy around the world continues to grow each year. And so does the amount of carbon dioxide that's pumped into the earth's atmosphere.
What happens if the world fails to bring down CO2 emissions in the coming decades? What if all the treaties and negotiations over climate change don't succeed in reducing the threat of global warming?
Our guest is Peter Kelemen, Chair of Columbia University's Earth and Environmental Sciences Department and Arthur B. Storke Professor of Geochemistry. Last year, Peter was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
His research on carbon capture and storage may offer one exciting solution to a global crisis. Our show looks at a tool that could fight climate change by taking carbon dioxide and literally locking it up in the earth's crust, right under our feet.
Read moreThe Federal Reserve plays a fundamental role in our economy. But many Americans loathe The Fed - furious that it bailed out banks and other huge financial firms during the 2008 financial crisis.
Our guest, Roger Lowenstein, is the author of "America's Bank - The Epic Struggle to Create The Federal Reserve." His book is a dramatic account of the chaotic years before The United States became the last major industrialized nation to form a central bank.
Read moreMore than ever America is divided into political tribes. One person's truth is somebody else's lie. This show is about confirmation bias and filter bubbles: How our brains play tricks on us as we try to make sense of the world.
David McRaney, the host of the entertaining and popular podcast, "You Are Not So Smart", is our guest. His show is "a celebration of self-delusion." David, who calls himself a psychology nerd, is passionate about the need for all of us to have some understanding of how our brains work. He is the author of two recent books: "You Are Not So Smart" and "You Are Now Less Dumb."
Read moreWomen in the workplace face huge challenges, including discrimination and low pay. The Pew Research Center says women's hourly wages are 84% those of men. The White House says the true number is lower. Many firms insist on rigid working hours, making it hard for many employees to balance work and family life.
How Do We Fix It? Enter time management and productivity expert Laura Vanderkam, author of "I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time" and "What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. "
Read moreIf you had a 10% of facing a flood or getting into a fatal car accident, you'd make sure you bought first-rate insurance coverage. That's what our guest Gernot Wagner says we should do about climate change.
Science tells us that if we do nothing, there is the risk of a global catastrophe. We hear the argument for climate insurance. Gernot is the co-author of "Climate Shock - The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet," and lead senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund.
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