(1) Can government save capitalism from itself? CHRIS HUGHES, Facebook co-founder, (2) my prescient & tragic 1989 speech to my 20th Harvard reunion

Written on July 4th, 2025
As we reel and resist Trump’s careless breakdown of government, society and the economy, I speak with CHRIS HUGHES, a co-founder of Facebook, who left the company in 2007 and called for META’s breakup in 2019. In the first 45 minutes, we talk about the current state of tech and then dive into his new book, MARKETCRAFTERS: The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy. How do we prepare to repair what Trump is destroying? For the final 15, I read a speech I gave in 1989 –  36 years ago – at my 20th college reunion, Harvard class of 1969. Ours was the year of the building takeover and the campus strike. In it I asked how we were living up to our youthful ideals. Today I find my words prescient, hopeful, and tragic. 
 

 

T. McNally Harvard Speech Transcript

 

TIM JACKSON, THE CARE ECONOMY – Can we imagine it? Can we make it real?

Written on June 20th, 2025

When I decided to speak with TIM JACKSON about his new book, THE CARE ECONOMY, I had second thoughts. What could be further from our current reality in the US than a care economy? Would talking about it seem naïve? But as Robert Reich makes clear, “We need to demonstrate not just against Trump but also for the America we want,” and this episode is part of my attempt to imagine and flesh out such a vision. Jackson is Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity in he UK and his earlier books include PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH and POST GROWTH: Life After Capitalism. You can learn more at timjackson.org.uk 

 

Jackson Tim-05-15-2025- transcript

 

How Poor Immigrant Children Succeed in Inner City Philly-SISTERS CONSTANCE TOUEY & JEANNETTE LUCEY

Written on March 21st, 2025

The headlines are full of the cruel, unjust, illegal, unconstitutional, and costly treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration. Here’s my 2019 conversation with SISTERS CONSTANCE TOUEY and JEANNETTE LUCEY. They met in 1984 when both were assigned to a parish K-8 school in inner city Philadelphia. Their book, DO IT BETTER: How the Kids of St. Francis de Sales Exceeded Everyone’s Expectations tells the stories of their 30+ years as principal and 8th grade teacher as they educate and transform the lives of wave after wave of poor immigrant children. I’m proud to have written the book with them.

How did the 60s lead to both 1973 and 2022? KEVIN BOYLE, THE SHATTERING: AMERICA IN THE 1960S

Written on July 2nd, 2022
1973 looms large as we live out the 50th anniversary of the Watergate Hearings and Roe v Wade. Let’s look at the fears and forces in response to ‘60s changes that fueled the long Christo-Authoritarian march to a Supreme Court forcing minority rule on America. In my recent conversation with KEVIN BOYLE about his book THE SHATTERING: America in the ‘60s, he reminds us how generations who’d lived through the Depression and WW II, facing an enemy with nuclear weapons, would cling to a newly found and highly valued sense of security – and how the the challenges and changes of the 60s threatened that security. 
 

My 2018 conversation w/ARLIE HOCHSCHILD (Strangers in Their Own Land) – listening to our alienated fellow Americans

Written on January 21st, 2021

Last week I spoke with ARLIE HOCHSCHILD, author of STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND: Anger & Mourning on the American Right, about the Trump years, the insrrection, and the future. Given the inauguratiopn of Biden and Harris and the several immense crises we face, nothing may be more important at this moment than understanding our neighbors with whom we disagree. So here’s my 2018 conversation with Hochschild, in which we learn about her path to her current work and the lessons she learned from the folks she listend to. Finally we ask each other what new story might inspire more Americans to yearn for the future rather than the past.