Free Forum with Terrence McNally
by Terrence McNally
Features conversations with people who offer pieces of the puzzle of “a world that just might work” -- provocative approaches to business, environment, health, science, politics, media and culture. Guests have included Michael Lewis, Ken Burns, Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, Temple Grandin, Bill Maher, Cornel West, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Norman Lear. [http://terrencemcnally.net]
Episodes
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Episode 753: SHARON WEINBERGER-VALLEY OF DEATH-How BIG TECH Is Fueling the Future of War
I talk with SHARON WEINBERGER, for years the National Security and Foreign Policy Editor at the Wall Street Journal, now the Editor-in-Chief of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, about her new, important, and timely book, VALLEY OF DEATH: How BIG TECH Is Fueling the Future of War. The tech bros…
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Episode 752: CHARLES GROB MD-Handbook of Medical Hallucinogens-Update on psychedelic research
This past April, Trump signed an executive order accelerating development of psychedelic drugs as medical treatments for mental-health conditions. CHARLES GROB MD has conducted approved clinical research with psychedelics since the early 1990s and has published numerous articles and chapters in…
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Episode 751: SHERRY TURKLE-ARTIFICIAL INTIMACY-Who We Become When We Talk to Machines
I speak with SHERRY TURKLE, MIT professor & Founding Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology & Self, author of Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation, about her new book, ARTIFICIAL INTIMACY: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines. What do we lose by outsourcing emotional needs to...
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Episode 750: ERAM ALAM-THE CARE OF FOREIGNERS-How Immigrant MDs Changed US Healthcare.
For years, Harvard professor ERAM ALAM has been looking at the role immigrant physicians play in US healthcare. We fill a chronic shortage of new domestic MDs with doctors trained elsewhere. Nearly a quarter of our physicians went to medical school outside the U.S. or Canada . We talk about her...
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Episode 749: SVEN BECKERT-CAPITALISM: A Global History-learn from the past to reshape the future
SVEN BECKERT, in his latest book, CAPITALISM: A Global History, traces its story across the world since the dawn of the last millennium. He reminds us that capitalism is not natural or inevitable, but a human invention, one that has survived - even dominated - as its form has changed. What can we...
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Episode 748: JOHN JENKINS-SUMMER of ’71: Five Months That Changed America
I’m one who says the 60s didn’t end until about 1973. John Jenkins was a young journalist in Washington DC in ’71 when some shit was going down. War still raging in Vietnam. Largest mass arrest of protestors in US history. Daniel Ellsberg steals, copies, and delivers the Pentagon papers and the...
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Episode 747: RICHARD HEINBERG (2003) died in July-A NEW COVENANT WITH NATURE, THE PARTY’S OVER
RICHARD HEINBERG, a guest a handful of times on this show died July 19th, just two weeks after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. He was often a few steps ahead of whatever the current conversation might be regarding humanity’s relationships with nature, energy, power, and each other. His books...
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Episode 746: DANIELLE ALLEN-RADICAL DUKE (new book) & the work of Renovating Democracy
I talk with Harvard professor, DANIELLE ALLEN about (1) her latest book, RADICAL DUKE, about the third Duke of Richmond who inspired the colonies’ independence and their establishment of representative democracy; and (2) her ongoing work on the promise and challenges of democracy today. She’s...
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Episode 745: ARI BERMAN-Trump’s threats to the 2026 mid-term elections
Trump makes a prime-time speech, lying once again about fraud in previous elections and previewing his intention to disrupt and disable the 2026 mid-terms. Time to talk with ARI BERMAN, national voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones' and the author of Minority Rule and Give Us the Ballot…
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Episode 744: 1) ROBERT THURMAN (2011), Buddhist teacher, died in June - 2) JONATHAN SCHELL (2004), late journalist & author reflects on 9/11
We lost perhaps our nation’s most influential Buddhist with the death of ROBERT THURMAN June 16th at the age of 84. A former monk, ordained and partly trained by the Dalai Lama, left the monastery, earned a Harvard doctorate, taught at Amherst & Columbia, and wrote, edited and translated more…
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Episode 743: CORY DOCTOROW - AI-Use it. Don’t buy the hype. Don’t feed the bubble.
I learned a lot in this conversation with CORY DOCTOROW and in his new book, THE REVERSE CENTAUR’S GUIDE TO LIFE AFTER AI. Rather than fear AI, Doctorow uses it daily, but he is also skeptical. He reminds us that nothing about the way things are unfolding with AI, technology, or society is...
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Episode 742: ROBERT COLES (2008) - renowned psychiatrist & Pulitzer-winning author died June 4 at 97
Here’s my 2008 conversation with ROBERT COLES, child psychiatrist, Harvard Professor, and author of 75 books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning six volume Children of Crisis. He died June 4 at the age of 97. He spent a lifetime listening to people - often those ignored by others - and told…
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Episode 741: PROTEST-ANNIE LEONARD & ANDRE CAROTHERS-Respect It. Defend It. Use It.
I speak with ANNIE LEONARD & ANDRE CAROTHERS. She created the video documentary, The Story of Stuff, and led Greenpeace US for a decade. He worked for Greenpeace for 13 years and co-founded the Rockwood Institute. The new book they’ve written together, PROTEST: Respect it. Defend it. Use it...
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Episode 740: ANDREW WEIL MD (2003)-America’s most trusted doctor of integrative medicine
When many believe HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - lacking in scientific, medical or public health training - is giving alternative medicine a bad name, here’s my 2003 conversation with Andrew Weil MD. We trace the evolution of Dr. Weil’s work and thinking from his earliest understandings of...
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Episode 739: THE FUTURE IS PEACE-AZIZ ABU SARAH (Palestinian) & MAOZ INON (Israeli)
Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah lost his brother to Israeli authorities in the second Intifada. Israeli Jew Maoz Inon lost both his parents to Hamas on October 7th. In their book,The Future Is Peace, these two travel guides to Israel/Palestine and lifelong peace activists, take readers on a journey...
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Episode 738: ASTRA TAYLOR (2020)-WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? Can we revive it? Can it meet our challenges?
Plato cautions that democracy inevitably leads to tyranny because the rich always want to get richer and the poor will follow a demagogue who promises to overthrow the rich. I first learned of Plato’s critique in this 2020 conversation with ASTRA TAYLOR, about her documentary WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?…
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Episode 737: BRENDAN BALLOU-WHEN COMPANIES RUN THE COURTS: Forced Arbitration, America’s Secret Justice System - plus private equity, rampant corruption & presidential pardons
I speak with former federal prosecutor BRENDAN BALLOU about a number of things. His first book was PLUNDER: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America and we get an update. He’s founder and CEO of the Public Integrity Project, which sues those who seek to bribe government officials, as well as...
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Episode 736: 1) CRAIG VENTER-Genome decoder died last week 2) STUART KAUFFMAN-REINVENTING THE SACRED-Two conversations from 2008
1) History-making entrepreneurial scientist CRAIG VENTER, died last week at the age of 79. The New York Times obituary leads with these words, “A risk-taking outsider, he brought speed, competition, and controversy to one of science’s biggest races.” In 2000, his team published the first sequence...
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Episode 735: SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE-MICHAEL MANN (Climate) & PETER HOTEZ (Pandemics, Vaccines)
Climate scientist MICHAEL MANN (The New Climate War) has been a target of threatening abuse ever since he led the team that produced the “hockey stick graph” making clear the extreme rise in temperatures since the Industrial Revolution. PETER HOTEZ (Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism) has...
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Episode 734: Psychedelics - Research and Exploration - 1) CHARLES GROB MD(2012) 2) JAMES FADIMAN (2012)
In “even-a-broken-clock …” news this week, Donald Trump did something I applaud. He signed an executive order to accelerate research and access to psychedelic drugs for medical use, particularly to treat serious mental illness. Psychedelic substances have been used for ceremony and as medicine…
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Episode 733: AI, Billionaires, Authoritarians, Artists-JONATHAN TAPLIN-MOVE FAST & BREAK THINGS
When tech billionaires make nice with authoritarians and AI challenges are everywhere, I check in with JONATHAN TAPLIN, Director Emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, a former tour manager for Bob Dylan & The Band, a producer of films including Martin Scorsese’s MEAN STREETS, and the…
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Episode 732: Tech visionary JARON LANIER(2013)-WHO OWNS THE FUTURE?-You should be paid for your data.
When tech billionaires seem okay with authoritarianism and AI may be today’s existential challenge, here’s my 2013 conversation with Jaron Lanier about his book, WHO OWNS THE FUTURE? Lanier envisions a radical solution to surveillance capitalism that he believes could restore the American middle...
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Episode 731: REBECCA GOLDSTEIN-THE MATTERING INSTINCT: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us
Let’s get down to basics. Does your life have a purpose? Can you justify your existence? I talk with REBECCA GOLDSTEIN, philosopher, novelist, and MacArthur Fellow, about THE MATTERING INSTINCT: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us. Goldstein asserts we are “creatures of matter who…
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Episode 730: NICHOLAS KRISTOF & SHERYL WuDUNN (2020)-TIGHTROPE - Deaths of Despair among the Working Class
To remind us what has to heal to put MAGA behind us, here’s my 2020 conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning husband-wife team, NICHOLAS KRISTOF & SHERYL WuDUNN. Their book, TIGHTROPE, tells how Nick’s childhood home - Yamhill, Oregon - was devastated by the loss of well-paying jobs and policy...
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Episode 729: Can US Primary Care Be Healed? TROY BRENNAN MD-WONDERFUL & BROKEN
I talk with TROY BRENNAN, professor at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and former Chief Medical Officer at CVS Health about his latest book, WONDERFUL AND BROKEN: The Complex Reality of Primary Care in the US. The US accounts for roughly half of total global health care spending,...
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Episode 728: For Oscar week from the archives: 1) Roger Ebert( 2006), 2) Phil Donahue( 2007)
For Oscar week, two half hour film-linked episodes from the archives. First my 2006 conversation with ROGER EBERT, following that year’s Oscars, where CRASH beat BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN for Best Picture. The vote was controversial in the film world and the fact that a gay cowboy movie came close riled...
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Episode 727: BILL HARTUNG & BEN FREEMAN-TRILLION DOLLAR WAR MACHINE-Trump likes using it
TRILLION DOLLAR WAR MACHINE - the title of the new book BILL HARTUNG & BEN FREEMAN wrote together - is about a trillion dollar a year machine for waging wars and for creating them. Donald Trump has discovered he likes using it. We spend more than we did in 1985 for a military half the size.…
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Episode 726: CHIP BERLET(2017)-We look at extremism in early days of Trump One [Chip died in January]
Here’s my 2017 conversation with CHIP BERLET, investigative journalist, research analyst, activist - and friend - who died January 30, 2026. Over the last 50 years, Chip was one of a handful of folks who consistently tracked and organized against right-wing extremism. As MAGA grew and…
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Episode 725: DEBORAH TANNEN-You Just Don’t Understand-35 years exploring everyday conversation
How we “talk” to each other has changed dramatically since 1990 when Georgetown linguistics professor DEBORAH TANNEN brought gender differences in communication style to public awareness in her phenomenal best-seller, YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND. Personal interactions now include email, texting,...
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Episode 724: DAVID KIRP (2011), KIDS FIRST: Five Big Ideas for Transforming Children's Lives and America's Future
I believe we need compelling visions of life after the current horror is over. What if we loved our children? How would things be different? Here’s my 2011 conversation with DAVID KIRP about his book, KIDS FIRST: Five Big Ideas for Transforming Children's Lives and America's Future. These...
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Episode 723: JANINE BENYUS-BIOMIMICRY: Innovation Inspired by Nature-Looking back 28 years after she coined the term
In her 1997 book, BIOMIMICRY: Innovation Inspired by Nature, JANINE BENYUS - biologist, author, and innovation consultant - coined a term and invented a field. After 3.8 billion years of R&D on this planet, failures are fossils. What surrounds us in the natural world has succeeded and survived....
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Episode 722: SHARON SALZBERG (2002)-FAITH: TRUSTING YOUR OWN DEEPEST EXPERIENCE-Finding light in dark times
Here’s my 2002 conversation with SHARON SALZBERG, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society on her book, FAITH: TRUSTING YOUR OWN DEEPEST EXPERIENCE. Sharon is a New Yorker, and the book is her response to the experience of 9/11. Seems like it might be helpful in our current dark time. Faith…
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Episode 721: GEORGE PACKER, THE EMERGENCY-his first novel in decades-Can it cut through our overwhelm?
I speak with journalist and best-selling author, GEORGE PACKER (THE UNWINDING, LAST BEST HOPE) about his first novel in decades, THE EMERGENCY. He felt facts were no longer hitting home. It’s an allegory - not unlike those of his hero, George Orwell - in an unknown time or place with plenty of...
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Episode 720: WAEL GHONIM (2012) - REVOLUTION 2.0-How The Internet Helped Spark Egypt's Uprising
As deadly protests engulf Iran and a mass pro-democracy movement seems the path forward in the US, here’s my 2012 conversation with WAEL GHONIM about his book, REVOLUTION 2.0. Ghonim, a 30-year-old Google manager, unwilling to publicly criticize the Egyptian regime, anonymously launched a…
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Episode 719: BILL McKIBBEN-HERE COMES THE SUN-Recorded at LiveTalksLA event, 09-18-2025
I talk with BILL McKIBBEN (The New Yorker), co-founder of both the global climate campaign, 350.org, and ThirdAct.org, for folks 60 & above. I did publish an episode with Bill in the fall, but then I was invited to talk with him in front of an audience for LiveTalksLA. This is that new...
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Episode 718: PAUL GILDING (2012)-THE GREAT DISRUPTION: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring the End of Shopping & the Birth of a New World
Here’s my 2012 conversation with PAUL GILDING, former head of Greenpeace International, about his book, THE GREAT DISRUPTION: Why the Climate Crisis will Bring on the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World. GILDING said it was time to stop worrying about climate change and brace for impact....
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Episode 717: PETER TURCHIN-The historical forces that explain Trump & what needs to change
As one year ends and another begins, many pause to look backward and forward. We’ll do that on a deep historical scale with today’s guest, PETER TURCHIN, author of END TIMES. In 2010, when Nature magazine asked for a ten-year forecast, he predicted that America was in a spiral of social...
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Episode 716: RICHARD DAWKINS (2006) THE GOD DELUSION-We start w questions & end w awe
As we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, here’s my 2006 conversation with RICHARD DAWKINS on his best-seller, THE GOD DELUSION. I consider myself spiritual, thank the universe daily, and feel myself blessed, but I don’t see an entity directing this unfolding pageant. I invite you to listen with an...
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Episode 715: USArmy Colonel (ret) IKE WILSON-Part 2-Trump’s Abuse of Military + deeper Qs re military
This is Ike Wilson episode # 2. Questions about Hegseth, Venezuela, US cities are bigger than when we spoke in October. We make time to discuss other concerns I have about the US military - morale, Christian nationalism, lack of success despite unlimited resources. With 33 years in the field and...
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Episode 714: CHUCK COLLINS - BURNED BY BILLIONAIRES: How Concentrated Wealth & Power Are Ruining Our Lives & Planet
This week when we give thanks, let me say how grateful I am to have these conversations about a world that just might work and that folks take the time to listen, learn, and share. CHUCK COLLINS says a lot of people tell him, “…nothing a billionaire does harms my life.” In response, he wrote…
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Episode 713: SHERRY TURKLE(2011)-ALONE TOGETHER: Why We expect More from Technology, Less from Each other
With family gatherings upcoming over the holidays and emergence of AI everywhere we look, here’s my 2011 episode with Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, about her book ALONE TOGETHER Why We Expect More from Technology, Less from Each Other. At that...
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Episode 712: MELANIE CHALLENGER-HOW TO BE ANIMAL: What It Means to Be Human
I’m not an environmentalist, but rather someone who works to move society toward a healthy relationship with the rest of nature. The notion that we are separate makes no sense to me. So I was drawn to this week’s guest, MELANIE CHALLENGER, who writes on the relationship of humans to the living...
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Episode 711: DEBORAH TANNEN (2002) - ARGUMENT CULTURE and I ONLY SAY THIS BECAUSE I LOVE YOU
DEBORAH TANNEN, best known for YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND: Women and Men in Conversation, 4 years on the NYTimes bestseller list, 8 months at #1. This conversation is about 2 later books: First, I ONLY SAY THIS BECAUSE I LOVE YOU on why we have so much trouble communicating within families - could...
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Episode 710: ANDREW ROSS SORKIN-1929-Are we headed for another crash?
The stock market keeps rising, driven almost entirely by the “magnificent seven” tech giants. No one tries to deny we’re fueling AI and crypto bubbles. Great time to talk with author, producer, and New York Times journalist, ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, about his new best-seller, 1929: Inside the Greatest...
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Episode 709: 1) THOMAS FRANK(2004)-WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? 2) PAUL LOEB(2010)-SOUL OF A CITIZEN
Following the largest single day of protest in American history, here’s first, my 2004 conversation with THOMAS FRANK about his ground-breaking classic, WHAT’ S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? Frank examines the GOP’s success building unnatural alliances between Midwest and Wall Street, workers and…
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Episode 708: Retired Army Colonel IKE WILSON-Trump’s Use & Abuse of the Military
Trump has ordered troops to LA, DC, Chicago, and Portland. Americans are on the brink of using lethal force against other Americans. Our military are killing people at sea in the Caribbean with no constitutional basis. I turn to retired U.S. Army Colonel, IKE WILSON, for an expert take on Trump’s...
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Episode 707: Defending nature with their lives-MARTIN GOODMAN-The Extraordinary Story of India’s Bishnoi
These are dark times in the United States, and due to this country’s power and influence, dark times for the planet. This show is about a world that just might work – so we talk a lot about problems and crises as we look for solutions. I’m always on the lookout for good news and inspirations....
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Episode 706: ROBERT WRIGHT (2017)-WHY BUDDHISM IS TRUE-Can mindfulness help us deal with Trump?
Here’s my 2017 conversation with ROBERT WRIGHT on his best-seller WHY BUDDHISM IS TRUE. Wright has been asking big questions for nearly four decades in books like THE MORAL ANIMAL, NON-ZERO, and THE EVOLUTION OF GOD. On Substack, he’s persuasively critical of much of what happens in Washington...
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Episode 705: MICHAEL ANSARA-THE HARD WORK OF HOPE-a memoir of a lifetime of activism
In 1969, my senior year at Harvard, anti-war activists took over University Hall and their brutal removal by state troopers led to a month-long strike. Today’s guest, longtime activist and organizer, MICHAEL ANSARA, was chair of the strike committee. We’ll talk about his new memoir, THE HARD WORK...
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Episode 704: ROBERT JAY LIFTON (2020)-LOSING REALITY-Lifton died last week at 99
Here’s my 2020 conversation with psychiatrist & author ROBERT JAY LIFTON whose work led him into some of history’s darkest corners - Hiroshima survivors, Nazi doctors, torture at Abu Ghraib. I turned to him as the pandemic raged and the BLM protests were in full bloom. We talk about his book…
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About this show
Features conversations with people who offer pieces of the puzzle of “a world that just might work” -- provocative approaches to business, environment, health, science, politics, media and culture. Guests have included Michael Lewis, Ken Burns, Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, Temple Grandin, Bill Maher, Cornel West, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Norman Lear. [http://terrencemcnally.net]
Hosted by
Terrence McNally
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