Imaging a Better Future. How Doomers Prevent Progress. James Pethokoukis

A recent poll finds that two-thirds of Americans often or occasionally get news from social media. But many consumers are highly skeptical of the information they see on Facebook and other sites, expecting it to be "largely inaccurate."Now a new company, Newsguard, uses journalism to fight the epidemic of false stories, misinformation and outright propaganda, helping readers to navigate through online news sites. Newsguard's web browser extension rates websites that appear in searches on their reliability. The easy-to-use plug-in includes a red-green symbol that shows if a site is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda. "We apply common sense to a problem that algorithms haven't been able to resolve," says Newguard's co-CEO, Steven Brill. During an extraordinary career as a journalist, author and business executive, Steven was founder of Court TV, The American Lawyer Magazine, Brill's Content Magazine, and The Yale Journalism Initiative. Now, his latest passion is fighting fake news.Newsguard provides "nutrition label" write-ups for news and information websites in the U.S. and plans to expand globally. Employing scores of journalists and analysts, the growing venture also identifies suddenly trending fake news sites and warns internet users about them in real time.More information here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

27 Sep 201824min

Are identity politics ruining democracy? National and global institutions are in a state of decay, and identity fuels much of today's debates in America and across the world. On the right, Donald Trump seized on the grievances and resentment of white working class voters and others who felt let down by the impact of globalism and technology. On the left, social and political movements based on gender, sexual identity, race and ethnicity play an increasingly large role. "The problem with our politics is that we have shifted from arguing about economic policies to arguing about identities," says our guest, political scientist, Francis Fukuyama. In his new book, "Identity: The Demand for Dignity and The Politics of Resentment," he warns that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continual conflict. In the United States, “it’s better if both parties actually stick to broad social policy issues that they can argue about, rather than lining themselves up according to biological characteristics,” he tells us in this episode.We examine Fukuyama's provocative analysis of populism, nativism, white nationalism, radical Islam, and authoritarian tendencies that threaten to destabilize democracy and international affairs.Francis Fukuyama is a political scientist at Stanford University. His best-known book is "The End of History and the Last Man", published after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

20 Sep 201829min

In recent decades, business strategy has been built on the idea that we must compete to win.But what if the competitive model of business is now broken? In today’s interconnected, digital world, strategies to create competitive advantage may be holding us back— with a negative impact on the workplace and the economy.In his new book “Collaborative Advantage: How Collaboration Beats Competition as a Strategy for Success". British marketing and business consultant Paul Skinner presents Collaborative Advantage as a radical alternative to the conventional goal of Competitive Advantage. Skinner says: "We can be more ambitious in the way we grow our businesses, increase the impact of our non-profits and find better solutions to our most pressing problems when we view our opportunities through the lens of cooperation rather than competition."This episode explores:How Competitive Advantage can overshadow human purpose and the capacity for cooperation in businesses and other organizations.How leaders can put cooperation-enabling ideas at the heart of their businesses and deepen relationships with customers, clients and employees.How the dogma of Competitive Advantage may explain why solutions offered by previous guests “How Do We Fix It?” are not yet mainstreamPaul Skinner is the founder of the U.K.-based Agency of the Future, and founder of Pimp My Cause, which uses cause-related marketing to boost the capabilities of teams and individuals. Paul is a regular listener to “How Do We Fix It?” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

14 Sep 201824min

At the recent funeral for Republican Senator John McCain, former Presidents and leaders of both parties paid tribute to his belief that America "is a nation of ideals, not blood and soil." In the farewell statement to the country he loved, Senator McCain described our democracy as “325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals.” The funeral was a rare, and perhaps passing moment of bipartisan unity and friendship at a time of bitter partisan division. In this episode, we look at some of the roots of political tribalism, why some young people are turning against free speech, and the need to "play our way to a better democracy." Our guest is social psychologist, Professor Jonathan Haidt, co-author of the highly-praised book, "The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation For Failure." We discuss the ideas and research in his book: Why so many college students are anxious and depressed and how recent problems on campus have their origins in three damaging, destructive ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education:What doesn't kill you makes you weaker.Always trust your feelings.Life is a battle between good and bad people.We also examine constructive ways to deal with microaggressions, helicopter parenting, "safetyism" and the growing intolerance for opposing points of view that threaten the future of our national political discourse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 Sep 201835min

Tyson talks about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets, tackles science deniers on the right and left, and explains why we should invest more in pure science. Tyson also discusses his book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.”"What's curious to me is you have the liberal community claiming the (moral) high road ...against the science deniers of the right with regard to global warming and evolution in the classrooms... as though they are somehow untainted by non-scientific thinking,” Tyson tells us. "There is a whole portfolio of science denying that also happens in the liberal left."Investments in pure science led to many remarkable breakthroughs in medicine, technology and physics - often decades after the research began. Following the discovery of quantum physics in the 1920's, "it would take forty to fifty years before we would see the rise of information technology," says Tyson. "There is no information technology without an understanding of quantum physics."Tyson also discusses his sense of awe and wonder about the secrets of the cosmos.““You can’t be a scientist and have discomfort with not knowing,” he tells us. “When there is a frontier that’s unexplored, where there are stupefying depths of ignorance, it excites you. It gets you out of bed in the morning and running to the lab.””— Neil deGrasse Tyson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 Sep 201823min

Neil deGrasse Tyson, America’s most prominent spokesman for science and Director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium, talks about the benefits of a cosmic perspective, the case for manned space flight and much more in this first part of our wide-ranging conversation. We also discussed Tyson's book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry."Richard and Jim met Tyson at his offices at The American Museum of Natural History. While insisting he is not an advocate for manned space flight, Tyson says "history tells us" space exploration "is one of the most potent forces to operate on the scientific ambitions of a citizenry." At the height of the Apollo program in the 1960's, "you didn't need special programs to get people interested in science," Tyson explains. "There were weekly headlines about our journeys into space and you knew you needed the best of the best to breech the frontier of space." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

30 Aug 201823min

The national suicide rate rose 28% from 1999 to 2016, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2016, alone, 45,000 people took their own lives.This year's suicides of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer, Kate Spade, focused new attention on the crisis.Why is the U.S. suicide rate as high as it was one hundred years ago? What are proven ways to save lives and reduce depression and chronic anxiety?Our guest is Dr. Richard Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry and Director of the psychopharmacology Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. "We should declare war on suicide," he tells us. "The federal government spends more money researching dietary supplements and headache remedies than it does suicide."More here from Dr. Friedman's recent New York Times article. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 Aug 201825min

Was Donald Trump's election a one-off event, or did it represent a fundamental realignment of American politics?Washington-based political experts wrongly called the 2016 election, and our guest, Salena Zito, author of "The Great Revolt", argues that they keep blowing it today. Democrats who ignore the concerns of those who went for Obama in 2012, but then backed Trump four years later, do so at their peril.We examine the spread of populism that is reshaping American politics on the right and the left, and why it may have much more staying power than critics would like to admit.Despite President Trump's weak approval ratings, the coalition that brought him to the White House is largely holding together. Salena drove many thousands of miles on back roads, speaking with hundreds of Trump voters in ten Great Lake swing counties while reporting for the New York Post, the Washington Examiner, and contributing to The Atlantic. She takes them seriously. From "red-blooded blue-collared" conservative populists to "rough rebounders" and "girl gun power" supporters, we learn why so many believe that Trump stands up for working people against powerful corporate interests."Modern populism today is a healthy skepticism of large things, big institutions, big government, big entertainment, big sports," says Salena. "This coalition isn't just impacting the ballot, its having an impact on how we shop and how we consume things."In this episode we look at the roots of populism, but also take a skeptical view of its future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

13 Aug 201828min