Resources

The Business of Shock - Resources

November 21st, 2008 | post a comment

In her book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein delves into the secret history of capitalism, and explains how the “free-market” has expanded by exploiting periods of shock and crisis. She spent years traveling to disaster zones to see how the policies forced through in crisis impact people on the ground, and her insight is particularly valuable in this time of crisis in the US and world economy.

Today, we are in such a time of political upheaval and economic crisis. Just as outlined by Naomi Klein, in this time of shock, large banks and financial interests are trying to push through corporate-friendly policies. Can we somehow break the cycle of shocks with a new administration? This week, Business Matters will explore how the lame-duck Bush Administration and the Federal Reserve are applying a kind shock therapy to the economy, and we’ll spend the hour with the best-selling author of The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein.

Naomi Klein, Author of The Shock Doctrine | Download MP3

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times and international bestseller, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Published worldwide in September 2007, The Shock Doctrine is set to be translated into 20 languages to date. You can read an excerpt of the book here.

Most recently, she’s been writing about the exploitation of the credit crisis:
-Naomi Klein: “In Praise of a Rocky Transition”
-Naomi Klein: “The Bailout Profiteers”

Her previous book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies was also an international bestseller, translated into over 28 languages with more than a million copies in print. Naomi Klein writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian that is syndicated internationally by The New York Times Syndicate. In 2004, her reporting from Iraq for Harper’s Magazine won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.

Check out the six minute companion film to The Shock Doctrine, created by Alfonso Cuaron, director of “Children of Men.” It was an Official Selection of the 2007 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals and was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.

The Business of Fear - Resources

November 14th, 2008 | post a comment

Fear can be the most powerful motivating factor in business and politics. This week, Business Matters explores how fear can be manipulated, overcome and understood. We’ll meet someone whose been studying the media’s use of fear for decades and an entrepreneur who explains how fear can sometimes have positive effects. We’ll help you develop the tools to understand how it’s used, who uses it, and how to remain unafraid when you are bombarded with fear messaging.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Part 1: David Altheide, Author of Terrorism and the Politics of Fear | Download MP3

David Altheide, PhD, is Regents’ Professor in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University, where he has taught for 34 years. His research focuses on how mass media and information technology have powerful roles in social control.

The most recent books are Terrorism and the Politics of Fear and Creating Fear: News and the Construction of Crisis. His recent research focuses on how news reports about “fear” have evolved over time. Along with his students, he’s been investigating how the language of law enforcement and the military has infused popular culture. He’s identified the critical elements of successful media messages, and how critical consumers of information can better understand “media logic.”

Dr. Altheide is a three-time winner of the Cooley Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. In 2005, Dr. Altheide received the George Herbert Mead Award for lifetime contributions from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. His next book, currently in preparation, is The Mass Media and Terrorism After 9/11.

Part 2: Paul Borgese, Creator of FEAR Selling | Download MP3

Paul Borgese has been writing and lecturing about e-commerce and online marketing from its inception. He’s also the author of M&A From Planning to Integration and FEAR Selling: How To Sell More and Sell Faster By Tapping Into Your Prospects’ Deep-Seated Emotional Needs. You can receive Paul’s free ebook, The 7 Deadly Sins of Selling, here.

Paul also manages the Emerging Markets Group of The Associated Press Digital Division, and advises EyeCatcher Interactive a digital strategy and marketing firm. He’s worked on marketing initiatives with the Federal Reserve System, J.P. Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Merrill Lynch, McKinsey & Company, IBM, The Wall Street Journal Online, the Paris Chamber of Commerce, and many others.

Paul teaches marketing and international business at New York University, Pace University, and Baruch College, City University of New York. He also is an childrens’ author and singer/songwriter, including the book, When Fish Go Peopling, and the Parents’ Choice Award-Winning CD, Even the Monkeys Fall Out of the Trees.

Part 3: Naomi Klein, Author of The Shock Doctrine | Download MP3

The Challenge for the 44th - Resources

October 24th, 2008 | post a comment

Whoever becomes the next president, he’ll be facing an economic crisis more threatening than any other since the Great Depression. Plus, he’ll inherit two wars, a degrading infrastructure and a declining global image. So this week we’ll try to find out what kind of leadership qualities and techniques are needed and what sort of policy challenges the next administration will have to confront. We’ll ask experts on public policy and leadership how the 44th President can begin to solve the pressing challenges of our time.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Part 1: James Galbraith, Economist |Download MP3

James Galbraith is an economist and the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Most recently, he’s the author of “The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too”.

In the early 80’s, he was a congressional staffer, eventually becoming the Executive Director for the Joint Economic Committee. He has been actively involved with issues of peace and justice, serving as Chair of Economists for Peace and Security and the Director of the University of Texas Inequality Project

Part 2: Peter Block, Leadership Consultant | Download MP3

Peter Block is an author and leadership consultant based in Cincinnati, Ohio. His work has focused on leadership, community reconciliation and accountability. In 2004, he won the Members’ Choice Award from the Organization Development Network, which recognized his book “Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used” (1st edition 1980, 2nd edition 1999) as the most influential book among organizational development practitioners over the last 40 years. His other books have included “Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest” and “The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work”
His books focus on ways to create positive workplaces and communities and bring change into the world through consent and connectedness rather than through mandate and force. Peter’s latest book, Community: The Structure of Belonging, was released in May 2008. He is also a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed by Peter to build the skills outlined in his books.

Part 3: Lewis Pitts, Public Interest Attorney | Download MP3

Lewis Pitts has been a public interest lawyer for over 32 years, focusing on racial and environmental justice, children’s rights and participatory democracy. He’s the Senior Managing Attorney of the Advocates for Children’s Services, a statewide project of Legal Aid of NC. He’s also a member of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy. Lewis has appeared on Larry King Live and ABC’s Good Morning America discussing children’s rights and has been arrested six times (but never convicted) protesting nuclear power. He is the 2005 recipient of the W.W. Finlator Award from the ACLU.

The Real Truth Behind the Bailout - Resources

October 17th, 2008 | post a comment

After the Treasury Department’s proposal for $700 billion to buy up the distressed assets in the financial system was approved by Congress, the markets continued their historic free-fall. Find out why this solution was the only one considered in Washington, as we explore the root causes of the crisis as well as innovative new solutions. First we’ll talk with a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to learn how we got into this national financial donnybrook. Then, hear from an economist who has an alternative solution that offers to cost taxpayers far less and reduce the risk of moral hazard.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Paul Craig Roberts, Former Assistant Sec. of the Treasury | Download MP3

During President Reagan’s first term, Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, earning him the title of the “Father of Reaganomics”. He is a former Associate Editor and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. He’s the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. He’s now a syndicated newspaper columnist for Creator’s Syndicate (read his syndicated columns here). In academia, he has been the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, as well as being a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Luigi Zingales, Professor at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business

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As a professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, Luigi Zingales studies the theory of the firm, the relation between organization and financing, and the going-public decision. He was born in Italy, where high inflation and unemployment inspired his interest in becoming an economist. He doesn’t believe that economists should stay up in an ivory toward, above the fray of practical policy decision. This has inspired his work to improve the $700 billion bailout package. After the initial bailout proposal, he was a signatory of a petition by hundreds of economists to “express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis.” He elaborates on his suggestions for a new rescue strategy in the paper, Plan B and also in an online piece for Foreign Policy magazine, entitled “Stop the Bleeding Hank.”

His book, Saving Capitalism from Capitalists, coauthored with his college Raghuram G. Rajan, outlines the regulatory framework necessary to protect the free market from powerful private interests and was acclaimed by the National Review Online as “one of the most powerful defenses of the free market ever written.” Among the awards he has received for his research are the the 2003 Bernacer Prize for the best European young financial economist, the 2002 Nasdaq award for best paper in capital formation, and a National Science Foundation Grant in economics. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance and the American Economic Review. Zingales is also the director of the American Finance Associations and an contributor to Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian counterpart of the Financial Times and serves on the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent and nonpartisan research organization focused on improving the regulation of U.S. capital markets. He’s been a member of the Chicago GSB faculty since 1992, after recieving a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Water Resources

October 10th, 2008 | post a comment

For the first time in nearly a hundred years, our water resources, both at home and abroad, are up for grabs. Many are suggesting the demand for water resources is becoming the 21st Century’s quest for fossil fuels. We’ll discuss not only the quality of our drinking water, but who owns it and what they are doing with it. Find out who’s trying to control our water, why this is a concern, and what you can do about it.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Part 1: Interview with Alan Snitow, Co-Producer and Co-Author, Thirst |
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Alan Snitow is a filmmaker, author and journalist, whose interest in water rights and water resources began while working in California’s Central Valley picking raisins. Along with his partner Deborah Kaufman, he’s produced the award-winning films “Thirst”, “Secrets of Silicon Valley”, and “Blacks and Jews.” Early in his career, he spent eight years as the News Director for the renowned Bay Area community radio station, KPFA-FM, where he was awarded the Best Newscast Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He has also spent 12 years as a news producer at KTVU-TV. He is currently a Board member of the Film Arts Foundation and a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Part 2: Interview with Sam Finkelstein, Great Lakes Organizer, Food & Water Watch |
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Food and Water Watch is a Washington DC-based, non-governmental organization working to stop water privatization and to reform the factory farm and agribusiness industries. They lobby to help municipal water supplies avoid degradation due to a lack of funding, while countering corporations efforts to take control of public water sources.

Along with an international coalition of advocates for water rights, Food and Water watched helped push for the Great Lakes Compact, which recently passed the Congress and was signed by President Bush. They have also worked on a local level, such as when, along with community groups, they successfully returned Stockton California’s water supply to public control.

Part 3: Interview with Stephen Estes-Smargiassi, Director of Planning, MWRA |
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When you think about your tap water as a commodity, you might notice that it is delivered and picked up from your house, every day, at a relatively tiny cost. But you might not realize there is a vast networks of pipes, reservoirs, people and testing that goes in to ensuring that your tap water is safe, reliable and tasty.

As director of planning for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Stephen Estes-Smargiassi has to ensure the safety and satisfaction of millions of customers. Unlike other businesses, there’s no room for error, and unlike corportations who make money off bottled water, there’s no effort to maximize the profit margin. But consumers must realize that water supplies need constant upkeep to fight against disrepair, because if they are allowed to degrade, the public health of whole metropolitan areas will be threatened.

Music:
Cool Water - Sons of the Pioneers
Cool, Clear Water - Bonnie Raitt

Small Business Resources

October 3rd, 2008 | 1 comment

Small Businesses make up over half of the economic output of the United States. Today we’ll ask: How do you start them? What makes them successful? What does it take to stay competitive? We’ll start by meeting the winner of an award for being “Best Small Company to Work for in America.” Then, we’ll meet the owner of a neighborhood coffee shop in Kansas City that was challenged by a Starbucks moving in next door. Hear how they managed to keep their small business successful even when a giant chain store showed up. Also, host Thomas White explains what he’s learned from his experience starting small businesses himself and helping other businesses succeed.

Lauren Dixon is founder and CEO of Dixon Schwabl, an advertising and public relations firm. This year, the Society for Human Resource Management designated Dixon Schwabl as “#1 Best Small Company to Work for in America”. As CEO, Dixon is in charge of the overall strategy and managing the growth of the firm with local, regional and national clients.

Founded over 20 years ago, Dixon Schwabl has become one of Upstate New York’s top communications, marketing and public relations firms. Lauren began her career as an on-air reporter and anchor at WOKR TV in Rochester, before going on to her career successfully growing her small business to be a premiere marketing and communications firm.

Interview with Lauren Dixon | Download MP3

Jon Cates of Broadway Café in Kansas City

Broadway Cafe and Roaster’s have been at the same downtown Kansas City location for the past 16 years. In the late 1990’s, Starbucks moved in next door and provided a challenge for the small independent coffee house, run by Jon and his wife Sara. After they managed to outlast Starbucks, they were faced with the decision of how to expand. They decided that the best idea was to focus on roasting of the best gourmet green coffees. They’ve now roasted over 150,000 bags. While they haven’t opened up chain retail shops all over the city, they have expanded to include a dedicated roasting location with a full-service carry-out espresso bar. The Broadway Cafe has succeeded over the years by sticking by their dedication to the quality of the coffee and the needs of the customers.

Interview with Jon Cates | Download MP3

Food Crisis Resources

September 19th, 2008 | post a comment

September 19, 2008

The current rise in food costs in the US and shortage abroad seemed to have happened suddenly. This week we explore the factors that led to this situation and when they actually began. Is this a temporary condition or will it worsen? Find out what you can do to deal with the impact this crisis. With Sharon Astyk of the blog Casaubon’s Book and author of “Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front,” Bettina Luescher from the U.N.’s World Food Program, and Janet Larsen of the Earth Policy Institute.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Bettina Luescher is a former CNN International anchor who made a life changing decision. Rather than continue with the career climb in the broadcast industry, she chose to become a spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program. In this role, she witnesses, first hand, the depth and breadth of the challenge of feeding those who are hungry.

The UN World Food Program is the world’s largest international food assistance organization combating hunger in underdeveloped nations with severe food shortages. The frontline stretches from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to Latin America and Asia & the Pacific. They help:

Victims of natural disasters like the 2006 East Africa drought, the Pakistan earthquake and Hurricane Stan in 2005, the tsunami disaster and Bangladesh floods in 2004, the Iran earthquake in 2003 or Hurricane Mitch, which affected one million people in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatamala in October 1998.

Displaced People - both refugees and internally displaced persons to leave towns and villages in places like Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia.

The world’s hungry poor, trapped in a twilight zone between poverty and malnutrition.

The World Food Program serves in two ways. First it mobilizes food assistance for delivery to natural and man-made disaster areas. Second, its rapid response team draws-up contingency plans designed to move food and humanitarian assistance fast into disaster areas.

Truly they are an unheraled champion that deserve our appreciation and support.

Interview with Bettina Leuscher | Download MP3

Janet Larsen is the Director of Research of the Earth Policy Institute, She is a co-author of The Earth Policy Reader and has written on topics ranging from natural resources availability to population growth and climate change. Her research has been translated into various languages and featured in a number of print, on-line, and radio publications

The Earth Policy Institute was founded May 2001 by Lester Brown and Reah Janise Kauffman to provide a vision of a sustainable future and a plan for how to get from here to there.As a small organization with a global mission, the Earth Policy Institute has designed a unique information dissemination model, capitalizing on the synergy between a worldwide network of book publishers, the communications media, and the Internet. Through this distribution network, countless individuals and organizations have become aware of the environmental issues facing the world and many have been inspired to take action

Check out the new book “Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition” by Lester Brown that crystalizes their impact on solving some of the most difficult challenges on the planet. It is certainly a key voice that bears our attention.

Interview with Janet Larsen | Download MP3

Sharon Astyk is a writer, teacher and subsistence farmer, and the author of two books on Peak Oil and Climate Change —“Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front” (Sharon Astyk) which is just published and and A Nation of Farmers (And Cooks) (Spring ‘09), the latter co-authored with Aaron Newton. This is Sharon’s “encore” on our program. She brings a clarity about the world’s pressing issues and a pragmatic wisdom on getting into action now to do something about these challenges.

Sharon’s frequent writings can also be found at her Blog Casaubon’s Book and Hen and Harvest. We wonder how Sharon has time to be a farmer and a mom and write so prolifically. We forgot to mention she is also a teacher. You can find out at her website more about the wonderful on-line learning experiences she offers.

Interview with Sharon Astyk | Download MP3

MicroFinance: Supporting Entrepreneurs Around the World

September 12th, 2008 | post a comment

September 12th, 2008

One of the greatest gifts we can give each other is our trust. In this episode we look at how entrusting entrepreneurs in poor countries with small amounts of capital can dramatically change the potential of their business, their country, and the world. Featuring Premal Shah, President of Kiva.org, the leading microlending website and Tracey Turner, founder of MicroPlace, an eBay subsidiary helping the working poor across the world.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Premal Shah is President of Kiva.org – an online lending marketplace that connects internet users with developing world entrepreneurs in need of low cost capital. Prior to Kiva.org, Premal was a Principal Product Manager at PayPal, an eBay company where he spent 6 years building the world’s largest internet payment network (114 million users in 55 countries — and a current Kiva.org partner). Premal also co-founded the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and has worked in India at NGOs focused on economic empowerment and microfinance. Premal began his career as a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting in New York and graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

Part 1: Interview with Premal Shah | Download MP3

Tracey Turner is the founder and GM for MicroPlace, a subsidiary of eBay. A conscious capitalist, Tracey has dedicated her career to developing sustainable solutions to global poverty. She believes that through the power socially responsible investment, we can enable a billion people to lift themselves from poverty in our lifetimes.

Tracey has been involved in international development, social investing and philanthropy for more than 20 years. Prior to founding MicroPlace, Tracey was CFO of KickStart, an organization that designs and sells products the world’s poor can use to escape poverty. In 1998, she founded her first company, 4charity, a web-based marketplace for charitable giving, and served as its CEO. Earlier in her career, Tracey held a variety of positions with socially responsible firms including the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Calvert Ventures and the World Bank.

Tracey’s numerous leadership awards include Top 25 Women of the Web Award, San Francisco Business Times Leadership Award and a Working Woman Magazine Entrepreneurship Award. Tracey holds a degree in engineering and economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Part 2: Interview with Tracey Turner | Download MP3

Jonathon Repinecz is a grad student studying French literature at Berkeley, who recently spent the summer in Senegal working as a Kiva Fellow. He initially got involved with Kiva as a volunteer translator and then by giving French lessons at Kiva’s San Francisco office to help the company with its communication abilities in West Africa. While in Dakar, Senegal, he worked specifically for the Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund where he interviewed entrepreneurs who receive Kiva funds to make sure their transactions were completed and to assess impact. You can read about his and other’s experiences as a Kiva Fellow on the Kiva Fellows Blog.

Part 3: Interview with Jonathon Repinecz | Download MP3

America’s Schools: A Crisis, September 5th, 2008

September 5th, 2008 | 1 comment

The current education system is not preparing our youth for the real world thanks to programs such as No Child Left Behind. We will discuss the source of the problem and look for both public and private solutions, such as charter schools and homeschooling. With the Peter Reilly, President of NYSCATE, Robert Cane of FOCUS, and Donna Simmons of Christopherus Homeschooling.

Listen to the Full Episode | Download MP3

Pete Reilly is the former Director the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center, which provides technology services to over sixty school districts north of New York City. Pete is a former English teacher whose life has been devoted to empowering students, teachers, and administrators to fully utilize their unique gifts and talents. Pete currently serves as the President of the New York State Association of Computers and Technology in Education (NYSCATE). Since his retirement, he works with individual educators, district teams, and organizations to help them be the very best leaders and human beings they can be.

You can find out more about Pete by visiting his blog.

Part 1: Interview with Pete Reilly | Download MP3

Robert Cane is the Executive Director of FOCUS, Friend of Choice in Urban Schools, located in Washington D.C. Prior to getting into public education in 1992, Robert worked as a political campaign organizer, lawyer, law teacher, and law school associate dean. After a year of doctoral courses at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, he served as assistant principal at two Virginia public high schools and principal at another. Frustrated by the lack of a commitment to meaningful reform in the three school districts in which he served, Robert joined FOCUS in November 1998. Robert is a graduate of Stanford University and Northwestern University School of Law.

Be sure to visit FocusDC.org for additional information.

Part 2: Interview with Robert Cane | Download MP3

Donna Simmons is the public face of Christopherus Homeschool Resources. She writes the books, gives talks and workshops and consults with homeschoolers. She has been a youth worker, Waldorf teacher, parent educator and housemother for developmentally-disabled adults (in a Camphill Community). She is a homeschooling mom. She graduated with a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she joyfully studied politics, history, creative writing and child development (which included independent work on Waldorf views of child development). She has been deeply involved with Waldorf education most of her life - including a brief time as a class teacher (brief due to pregnancy), and establishing a Waldorf-inspired nursery in Sheffield, England. Much of her work with children has been on the land - bringing the therapeutic benefits of Waldorf education and outdoor experiences to children, many of whom had no other contact with Waldorf education. She is a member of the Anthroposophical Society.

Part 3: Interview with Donna Simmons | Download MP3