Chatting Up A Storm - Claudia Cragg

Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) speaks here with Devin Fergus (@devin_fergus), the Distinguished Professor of History and Black Studies, at the University of Missouri, about his new book, '"Land of the Fee: The Decline of the Middle Class and the Making of the New World Financial Order". "Consumer financial fees have helped to choke off dreams of the middle class and middle class aspirants alike," argues Fergus (History and Black Studies/Univ. of Missouri; Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980, 2009, etc.). In particular, Fergus investigates several common financial transactions that he contends involve hidden or excessive fees so egregious that they are damaging the economic well-being of Americans, including subprime mortgages, student loans, and payday lending. The damage these forms of borrowing have done to American households during and after the Great Recession is already well-known. Fergus traces in detail the discouraging story of congressional inaction by both politic

For this episode, Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) speaks with Anne Nelson (@anelsona), about her new book. Shadow Network:Media, Money, and The Secret Hub of the Radical Right. An award-winning author and media analyst, Nelson chronicles the astonishing history and illuminates the coalition's key figures and their tactics. She traces how the collapse of American local journalism laid the foundation for the Council for National Policy's information war and listens in on the hardline broadcasting its members control. And she reveals how the group has collaborated with the Koch brothers to outfit Radical Right organizations with state-of-the-art apps and a shared pool of captured voter data - outmaneuvering the Democratic Party in a digital arms race whose result has yet to be decided. In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan's election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety

Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks here with , about his newest book, #WhoSaysYoureDead Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curious & Concerned from @AlgonquinBooks Appel presents an invigorating way to think about vital health and ethical issues that many will confront as individuals, or we as a society must reckon with together. Drawing upon the author’s two decades teaching medical ethics, as well as his work as a practicing psychiatrist, this profound and addictive little book offers up challenging ethical dilemmas and asks readers, What would you do? Appel is an , , , ,   and . He is best known for his , his work as a , and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, ,  and . Appel's novel  won the  in 2012. He teaches bioethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he is Director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry and a member of the Institutional Review Board. He is also an attending psychiatrist in the Mount Sinai Healthcare System. He holds a medical degree from Columbia

Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks here with , about his shattering account of the crack cocaine years, Please send any comments or questions or ideas for future shows to @ClaudiaCragg. This book from the award-winning American historian, tells the story of the young men who bet their lives on the rewards of selling 'rock' cocaine, the people who gave themselves over to the crack pipe, and the often-merciless authorities who incarcerated legions of African Americans caught in the crack cocaine underworld. Based on interviews, archival research, judicial records, underground videos, and prison memoirs, Crack explains why, in a de-industrializing America in which market forces ruled and entrepreneurial risk-taking was celebrated, the crack industry was a lucrative enterprise for the 'Horatio Alger boys' of their place and time. These young, predominately African American entrepreneurs were profit-sharing partners in a deviant, criminal form of economic globalization. Hip Hop artists often celebrated their e

Pete Singer, The Life You Can Save, and many are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the publication (originally published 3rd December 2009) and the global initiative which it launched. He is also the author of the iconic book on .   This book is available FREE as a download (at ) to all listeners as he mentions in the piece. He says "this is to 'reach the most readers/listeners and help the most people who live in poverty."   Singer believes that the end of global poverty is in our reach.  gives concrete directives about what all of us should and can do to help bring that end more quickly. Since the book’s 2009 first-edition release, dramatic progress has been made in reducing extreme global poverty, and the book and organization have contributed to that effort by helping raise millions of dollars for effective charities. However, millions of people across the world still live in abject poverty, so much work has yet to be done.   Widely considered to be one of the most influential living philosophers, Singe

Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) takes up a discussion with (@LydiaPyne), historian, about whether or not an authentic painting needs to be painted by Andy Warhol? And should we be outraged that some of those famous scenes in Blue Planet were filmed in a lab? Who are the scientists putting ever-more improbable flavors in our ? Welcome to the world of “genuine fakes”--the curious objects that fall in between things that are real and things that are not. Unsurprisingly, the world is full of genuine fakes that defy simple categorization. Whether or not we think that those things are authentic is a matter of perspective. In , Lydia Pyne explores how the authenticity of eight genuine fakes depends on their unique combinations of history, science and culture. The stories of art forgeries, fake fossils, nature documentaries, synthetic flavors, museum exhibits, Maya codices and Paleolithic replicas shows that genuine fakes are complicated and change over time. Drawing from historical archives, interviews, museum exhi

(@claudiacragg) speaks here for with Richard Cahan (@Picturetweeter) about the book he has put together with Mark Jacob and Michael Williams, :The Human Toll of War.  Richard Cahan is the author of 12 books including an acclaimed history of the federal court in He served as the picture editor of the and is currently an independent scholar at the . The world was in ruin at the end of #WorldWarII: from the #Blitz in London to the atomic bomb blasts in #Hiroshima and #Nagasaki. A small group of Army soldiers witnessed it all. They photographed Germany’s last push, the and they rode into Germany to witness unimagined destruction. They documented the Burma Road, which opened Mainland China to supplies, and saw war atrocities as far away as the Philippines. These soldier photographers are acclaimed for their war photographs, but their work showing the impact of total war has never been compiled in a book. As towns fell and the result of years of war were being laid bare, the world began to comprehend the impact

Kindly consider taking part in a short survey on this podcast (). Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks here with psychologist (@drdoreendm) about her new book, ''.  With current statistics suggesting that the average American over the age of 14 engages with screens upwards of 10 hours a day, the topic of our growing dependence upon technology applies to nearly everyone. While the effects differ at each point of development, real changes to the brain, relationships, and personal lives are well documented. Deviced! explores these alterations and offers a realistic look at how we can better use technology and break away from the bad habits we’ve formed. Dodgen-Magee makes a detail-rich, persuasive case for the need to embrace technology yet also “make some conscious decisions about what place we want technology to hold in our lives.” The dilemma, as she explains it, is that people feel “gratitude for the ways that technology benefits society” but “many are experiencin

Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks here with Robert Kuttner (@rkuttnerwrites) whose latest book is. Some of those interviewed in this long-running series are in such high demand that time in discussion is sorely limited. Recently, one such has been Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of and professor at Brandeis University's Heller School.  In 'The Stakes....', Kuttner argues that the 2020 presidential election will determine the very survival of American democracy. To restore popular faith in government―and win the election― Kuttner believes that Democrats need to nominate and elect an economic progressive. The Stakes explains how the failure of the economy to serve ordinary Americans opened the door to a demagogic president, but also how democracy can still be taken back from Donald Trump. Either the United States continues the long slide into the arms of the bankers and corporate interests and the disaffection of working Americans―the course set in the past half century by Republican and Democratic

Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia) speaks here with geriatrician and author, Dr. Louise Aronson () on her new book, , an essential, empathetic look at a vital but often disparaged stage of life. For more than 5,000 years, "old" has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood, and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we've made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied. Reminiscent of Oliver Sacks, noted Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients, and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that's neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy--a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself. Elderhood is for anyone who is, in

The news cycle rarely passes these days without negative news of Russia and, sadly for the people of that region, Ukraine. What about the people?  Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia) speaks here with Caroline Walton (@carolineski) who,  during three decades of visiting Russia and Ukraine, met some exceptional women and men, people who had known famine, war and nuclear disaster. Each of them underwent a process of transformation, and in so doing they transcended their circumstances in ways that were little short of miraculous. “Where there was the 'holodomor'," she says, "there was my grandfather-in-law, Petro, who forgave everything. Where there was the Gulag, there were people such as de Beausobre who made it her personal Calvary. And where there was the most terrible siege in human history, there were people who sang Ode to Joy to their Nazi besiegers.” From a village wise-woman to survivors of the siege of Leningrad and the Chernobyl disaster, to the family she married into, they helped Caroline transform her own

For this show, Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks here with Jason DeParle (@JasonDeParle) a veteran reporter for The New York Times, about his new book,  (Viking, 1st Edition edition, August 20, 2019. Throughout his career, De Parle has written extensively about poverty and immigration. His book, was a New York Times Notable Book and won the Helen Bernstein Award from the New York City Library. He was an Emerson Fellow at New America. He is a recipient of the George Polk Award and is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. De Parle's latest work is powerful examination of one of the day’s most important topics: global migration. In many ways, the latest is a summary effort of the past three decades of his core research that began in the Philippines when he was a much younger reporter launching his career. Some of the close relationships he forged during his time there became lifelong friendships—and helped lead to this crucial and timely volume about the increasingly explosive and controversial phenome

In 's, 'Lucky Boy, Solimar Castro Valdez is eighteen and drunk on optimism when she embarks on a perilous journey across the US/Mexican border. Weeks later she arrives on her cousin's doorstep in Berkeley, CA, dazed by first love found then lost, and pregnant. This was not the plan. But amid the uncertainty of new motherhood and her American identity, Soli learns that when you have just one precious possession, you guard it with your life. For Soli, motherhood becomes her dwelling and the boy at her breast her hearth.  Kavya Reddy has always followed her heart, much to her parents' chagrin. A mostly contented chef at a UC Berkeley sorority house, the unexpected desire to have a child descends like a cyclone in Kavya's mid-thirties. When she can't get pregnant, this desire will test her marriage, it will test her sanity, and it will set Kavya and her husband, Rishi, on a collision course with Soli, when she is detained and her infant son comes under Kavya's care. As Kavya learns to be a mother - the singing,

The US economy is designed by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, says Ted Howard in conversation here with Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg). His new book, , written with , offers a compelling vision of an equitable, ecologically sustainable alternative that meets the essential needs of all people. Ted Howard is the Co-founder and President of . Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the National Center for Economic Alternatives. Howard and Kelly argue cogently that we now live in a world where 26 billionaires own as much wealth as half the planet’s population. The extractive economy we live with now enables the financial elite to squeeze out maximum gain for themselves, heedless of damage to people or planet. But Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard show that there is a new economy emerging focused on helping everyone thrive while respecting planetary boundaries.  At a time when competing political visions are at stake the world over, this book urges a move beyond tinkering at the margins to address the sy

Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia) speaks here with Ran Poliakine, a serial entrepreneur, inventor and industrial designer. In 2007, Poliakine founded , a company that utilized  technology to develop  solutions. Then, in 2009, through Wellsense he developed the world’s first bedsore monitoring system and the Monitor Alert Protect (MAP) system. This continuously monitors a patient to display potential development of high-pressure points that lead to  and and is used in major hospitals throughout the world and in the US including the , ,  and Kentucky’s Jewish Hospital. Today he is involved in a myriad of new companies all developing far-reaching new technologies.  Poliakine was born in ,  where he lives with his wife and five children.  You can find .  

On April 13, 1919, a column of British troops marched into the , a public garden in Amritsar, a city in Punjab, where more than 15,000 Indians had gathered for a peaceful protest against the increasingly restrictive policies of the British government, and in particular the deportation of two followers of Gandhi. At the orders of Brig. Gen. Reginald Dyer, the soldiers began firing into the crowd without warning. When screaming men, women and children rushed toward the exits, Dyer ordered his troops to aim at them. Many who were attempting to climb over the high perimeter wall were gunned down, their bloodied bodies falling in heaps. The firing went on for 10 minutes, killing an estimated 500 to 600 people and wounding many more. While Dyer was the one to order the killings, another man was also responsible for the massacre: Michael O’Dwyer, the lieutenant governor of Punjab, who justified the carnage and defended Dyer’s actions. Anita Anand’s “The Patient Assassin” is the story of Udham Singh, an Indian who so

In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience.

  Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks here with Christopher de Hamel, whose most recent book is Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. This work won the Wolfson History Prize for history written for the general public and the Duff Cooper Prize for best work of history, biography, or political science. For 25 years from 1975, he was responsible for all catalogues and sales of medieval manuscripts at Sotheby's worldwide, and from 2000 to 2016 he was librarian of the Parker Library in Cambridge, one of the finest small collections of medieval books in the world. De Hamel is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. He has doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge, as well as several honorary doctorates. He is a Fellow of the prestigious Society of Antiquaries of London and a member of the Roxburghe Club.  

speaks here (reprise of earlier interview) with Liza Mundy on . This is the story of the young American women who cracked German and Japanese communications code to help win the Second World War.  Recruited from settings as diverse as elite women’s colleges and small Southern towns, more than ten-thousand young American women served as codebreakers for the U.S. Army and Navy during World War II. While their brothers, boyfriends, and husbands took up arms, these women went to the nation’s capital with sharpened pencils–and even sharper minds–taking on highly demanding top secret work, involving complex math and linguistics. Running early IBM computers and poring over reams of encrypted enemy messages, they worked tirelessly in a pair of overheated makeshift code-breaking centers in Washington, DC, and Arlington, Virginia, from 1942 to 1945. Their achievements were immense: they cracked a crucial Japanese code, which gave the U.S. an acute advantage in the Battle of Midway and changed the course of the war in t