SHEILA KUEHL looks back on 20 years in office. She got things done.
Written on April 17th, 2023SHEILA KUEHL has long been one of my favorite elected officials. A true public servant, she served 8 years in CA’s State Senate, 6 in the State Assembly, and 8 more on LA County’s Board of Supervisors. Kuehl was the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the Legislature, first woman named Speaker pro Tem of the Assembly, and authored 171 bills signed into law. One of my go-to sages re state and local politics, now retired, we look back together at how she was so successful – not just at overcoming prejudice but also at achieving real world results. Is it possible to still succeed in today’s political climate?
SAM MYERS, PLANETARY HEALTH: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves – Exhibit A: the pandemic
Written on April 13th, 2023April is Earth Month. My environmental goals: a healthy relationship with the rest of nature and an effective reckoning with climate change. Here’s my 2020 conversation with SAM MYERS, Harvard research scientist, Founding Director of the Planetary Health Alliance, and one of the editors of PLANETARY HEALTH: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves. The book offers solutions to the challenging impacts of environmental change on human health by reimagining cities, food, energy systems, economics, and ethics. Learn more at planetaryhealthalliance.org.
EUNICE NICHOLS, Co-CEO, CoGenerate – bringing older and younger together to solve problems & bridge divides
Written on April 7th, 2023While we live in the most age-diverse society in human history, with almost equal numbers of people of every age, the US has become an age-segregated nation, with few opportunities for generations to connect. Here’s my conversation with EUNICE NICHOLS, Co-CEO of CoGenerate – the recently chosen new name for what had been called Encore.org. The organization’s focus evolved from seniors’ purposeful second and third acts to cogeneration – bringing older and younger people together to solve problems and bridge divides. In the words of Encore founder and Eunice’s co-CEO, Marc Freedman: “in our new chapter – in Encore’s encore – we are not just asking what older people can do for the next generation, but what older people can do with the next generation.” You can learn more at cogenerate.org.
THOMAS FRANK, What’s the Matter w Kansas? & EDGAR CAHN, late serial social justice entrepreneur-Jan 2012 conversation-the year ahead…
Written on March 30th, 2023I was a virtual attendee last week at an inspiring and humbling memorial for the late EDGAR CAHN, on what would have been his 88th birthday. Cahn, an unsung hero of 20th century America, authored articles and books that intentionally led to national policy, including The War on Poverty (1964) which led to the establishment of Legal Aid, Hunger, U.S.A (1968), Our Brother’s Keeper: The Indian in White America (1969), and Time Dollars (1992). He and his late wife, Jean Camper, co-founded Antioch School of Law, now the District of Columbia Law School. Here’s my 2012 conversation with Edgar and THOMAS FRANK, influential social critic and author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and One Market Under God.
Podcast: KATHRYN PAIGE HARDEN, THE GENETIC LOTTERY: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality – though many want to pretend it doesn’t.
Written on March 22nd, 2023Though most people now accept that genes influence our height, weight, heart health, etc., many get nervous when we apply that same perspective to things like our mental health, intelligence, or educational attainment. Here’s my conversation with KATHRYN PAIGE HARDEN, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas, about the ideas in her first book, THE GENETIC LOTTERY: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, which attempts to reconcile the findings of behavior genetics with her commitment to social justice. You can learn more at kpharden.com.
