Aired 10/14/12

I’ll be talking with NADER about the critical ideas in his wonderful new book, THE 17 SOLUTIONS: Bold Ideas for Our American Future. Learn more about RALPH NADER and SEVENTEEN SOLUTIONS at http://nader.org/

Some of the 17 solutions:

* Reforming the tax system

* Making our communities more self-reliant

* Reclaiming science and technology for the people

* Getting corporations off welfare

* Creating national charters for large corporations

* Reducing our bloated military budget

* Organizing congressional watchdog groups

* Enlisting the enlightened super-rich

* Use government procurement to spur innovation

RALPH NADER was recently named by the Atlantic as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history, one of only four living people to be so honored. The son of immigrants from Lebanon, he has launched two major presidential campaigns and founded or organized more than one hundred civic organizations. His groups have made an impact on tax reform, atomic power regulation, the tobacco industry, clean air and water, food safety, access to health care, civil rights, congressional ethics, and much more. He is the author of eleven books, including UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED; THE GOOD FIGHT; THE SEVENTEEN TRADITIONS; and his latest, THE SEVENTEEN SOLUTIONS: BOLD IDEAS FOR OUR AMERICAN FUTURE.

    Aired 07/24/11 DAVID KIRP is a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley. He taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was founding director of the Harvard Center on Law and Education. He served on President Obama's presidential transition team. A former associate editor of the Sacramento Bee and syndicated columnist, his books include The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics; Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education; and his latest, KIDS FIRST: Five Big Ideas For Transforming Children's Lives And America's Future What's good enough for a child you love? What's good enough parenting? Good enough early education? Good enough healthcare? Good enough schools? Good enough support for college? Today's guest, DAVID KIRP, envisions a national effort to support and develop our children based on a simple but powerful "Golden Rule:" Every child deserves what's good enough for a child you love. His "Kids-First Agenda" takes two exceptions to much of current thinking and policy. First, while most policy for children focuses on K-12 classrooms, research makes clear that what happens before kindergarten and after school each day is at least as important in the their development. Second, while programs for children usually concentrate on helping the very poorest, Kirp argues that, in this era of underperforming public schools, budget cuts, and two-worker families, America's middle class also needs help. Not only that, programs for the poor are constantly under threat; programs that serve the wider public are more sustainable. In KIDS FIRST, he offers on-the-ground accounts of initiatives that work - and that could affordably be implemented in communities everywhere - to achieve five key priorities: 1) strong support for new parents, 2) high-quality early education, 3) linking schools and communities to improve what both offer children, 4) giving all kids access to a caring and stable adult mentor, 5) providing kids a nest egg to help pay for college or kick-start a career.

Aired 07/03/11

ERIC GREITENS attended Duke University and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University, where he earned a Ph.D. and won a gold medal at BUSA National Boxing Championships. His research led to humanitarian work in Rwanda, Albania, Mexico, India, Croatia, Bolivia, and Cambodia. In 2001, he joined the Navy SEALs and deployed four times. His military awards include the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. When Eric returned from Iraq, he founded The Mission Continues to help wounded and disabled warriors to serve their communities here at home.

His book THE HEART AND THE FIST: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL tells the story of these seemingly contradictory roles.

http://www.theheartandthefist.com/

http://www.missioncontinues.org/

 

Aired 01/10/10

JIM WALLIS Founder/President, Sojourners; editor, Sojourners magazine; Author, GOD'S POLITICS; THE GREAT AWAKENING; and his newest, REDISCOVERING VALUES on Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street: A Moral Compass for the New Economy.

In REDISCOVERING VALUES, JIM WALLIS argues that the worst thing we can do now is to go back to normal. Normal is what got us into this mess. We need a new normal, and this economic crisis is an invitation to discover what that means. Some of the principles he offers for a new normal are...
· Spending money we don't have for things we don't need is a bad foundation for an economy or a family.
· Care for the poor is not just a moral duty, but is critical for the common good.
· A healthy society is a balanced society in which markets, the government, and our communities all play a role.