I'd heard of Dr. Bacevich and read some op-eds, but as soon as I saw into his interview a few weeks back with Bill Moyers, I knew I had to talk with him. The next day when I looked at Barnes and Noble for his book I was surprised and pleased that it had jumped to #1 in sales. I believe Andrew Bacevich in his new book pulls things together in ways that I hadn't seen before. Things like our politics of personality, the rise of the imperial presidency, and our national culture of consumption and how all of those link to our military adventures. I say each week that I'm looking for pieces of the puzzle, and I believe today's guest is pulling some of them together in ways that make our problems clearer and change more possible. ANDREW BACEVICH, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, served twenty-three years in the U.S. Army, retiring with the rank of colonel. He also lost his son in Iraq last year. A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, he received his Ph. D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic Monthly, the Nation, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author several books, including THE NEW AMERICAN MILITARISM and his newest, THE LIMITS OF POWER: The End of American Exceptionalism

Aired 09/09/08 Clinical researcher and author Neal Barnard, M.D., is one of America’s leading advocates for health, nutrition, and higher standards in research. As the principal investigator of several human clinical research trials, whose results are published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals, Dr. Barnard has examined key issues in health and nutrition. Neal Barnard is the founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Dr. Barnard is also president of The Cancer Project, a nonprofit organization advancing cancer prevention and survival through nutrition education and research. If you have diabetes or are concerned about developing it, this program could change the course of your life. Although diabetes is a serious illness that all too often leads to heart problems, nerve damage, blindness, stroke, or kidney failure, it doesn’t have to be that way. A new book by nutrition researcher Neal Barnard, M.D., outlines a completely new dietary approach to preventing, controlling, and even reversing diabetes. The program is based on a series of research studies Dr. Barnard and his colleagues have conducted over the years, the latest funded by the National Institutes of Health. Published in the August 2006 issue of Diabetes Care, that study found Dr. Barnard’s program to be three times more effective than the American Diabetes Association dietary guidelines at controlling blood sugar. The studies also show that by adopting a low-fat vegetarian diet—free of all animal products and added vegetable oils—individuals can lower their cholesterol, reduce their blood pressure, and lose weight. Best of all, the diet doesn’t demand one count calories, cut portion sizes, or give up all carbohydrates. On the contrary, you can eat as much as you want. The book explains how the diet actually alters what goes on in an individual’s cells. Rather than just compensate for malfunctioning insulin, like other treatment plans, Dr. Barnard’s program helps repair how the body uses insulin. It also includes helpful tips on adopting a plant-based diet and more than 50 delicious and easy-to-make recipes

Aired 09/03/09 Today I look at security strategy and planning with Thomas Barnett, an expert on how globalization is transforming warfare whom US News & World Report calls, "one of the most important strategic thinkers of our time." THOMAS BARNETT has been a senior adviser to military and civilian leaders in a range of offices, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, Central Command and Special Operations Command. From November 2001 to June 2003, he advised the Pentagon on transforming military capabilities to meet future threats. Barnett also led the five-year HYPERLINK "http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/projects/newrulesset/nrs_index.html"NewRuleSet.Project on how globalization is transforming warfare. In his book HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/Pentagons-New-Map-Twenty-first-Century/dp/0425202399/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9598594-4856004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180360844&sr=8-1"THE PENTAGON'S NEW MAP: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century, Barnett presents concrete, world-changing strategies for transforming the US military -- adrift in the aftermath of the Cold War and 9/11 -- into a two-tiered power capable not only of winning battles, but of promoting and preserving international peace. He is author also of HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Action-Future-Worth-Creating/dp/0425211746/ref=sr_1_2/002-9598594-4856004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180361200&sr=1-2"BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION: A Future Worth Creating and writes regular columns for HYPERLINK "http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/articles/esquire.htm"Esquire.

Aired 08/26/08 CRAIG VENTER is a remarkable and entrepreneurial scientist. As such, he asks huge questions, takes on huge challenges, and has achieved huge successes. Growing up in California, VENTER was an unremarkable student, with little interest in his schoolwork and even less motivation to complete his education. But the Vietnam War draft led to being a Navy medic, which piqued his interest in science and medicine, and jump-started his education. He received advanced degrees and established himself as a gifted and outspoken scientist. At the National Institutes of Health he introduced novel techniques for rapid gene discovery, and his own research institute in 1995 sequenced the first genome of a living species in history, the bacterium. This success led to the dauntingly more ambitious goal of the entire human genome—billions of letters of genetic code that would test the limits of both human and computation abilities. He announced he'd do it more quickly and for far less money than the government sponsored Human Genome Project's prediction for completion—a goal he fulfilled in 2001. http://www.jcvi.org/

Aired 08/19/08 GERALD CELENTE accurately forecast the Iraqi War quagmire, the last two recessions, the Dot-Com meltdown, and the 1987 world stock market crash. As far back as 1993 he predicted that a new Crusades would be raging at the dawn of the new millennium. GERALD CELENTE's latest trends alert just released looks back from the year 2012. The streets are teeming with the homeless, helpless and jobless. Major cities look like Calcutta. Neither Big Brother's surveillance, corporate security squads, or angry vigilantes can stop the pandemic crime wave. Even gated communities provide no sure sanctuary; the rich have become the targets of choice for kidnappers, gangs and organized criminals. Food is plentiful if you can afford it, but dangerous to eat unless you grow your own or get it from reliable sources. After years of drought and mismanagement, water shortages have reached crisis levels in much of the world.