(To listen to the interview, CLICK 'ipod' icon above left)

Stephen Singular’s first book, Talked to Death, set the tone for his journalistic career. Published in 1987, it chronicled the assassination of a Denver Jewish talk show host, Alan Berg, by a group of neo-Nazis known as The Order. The book was nominated for a national award — the Edgar for true crime — and became the basis for the 1989 Oliver Stone film, Talk Radio. Talked to Death explored the timeless American themes of racism, class, violence, and religious intolerance, and the critics had been alerted to a new author and an important subject.

Here KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks with Singular together with his wife, Joyce Jacques Singular, an author in her own right as well as a co-author with her husband for many projects. 

The Singulars are in the midst of writing a book about James Holmes, who carried out the largest mass shooting in American history in July 2012 at the Aurora movie theater. This will examine the larger social issues involving gun control, mental health, video games, neuroscience, the death penalty, doctor/patient confidentiality, and will offer a variety of perspectives from the Twenty-Something generation that’s driven much of this violence.

Since 1991, Joyce Jacques Singular, has worked closely with her husband on many of the true crime books. They both have an intense interest in the psychological aspects of murder and have unconventional views of spirituality.  Over time, this combination filtered into their work together. They've been intrigued with the place where darkness meets the light — and with looking at certain crimes not just from a legal, forensic or sociological point of view but from a spiritual angle as well. This is especially true when killers have committed acts of violence in the name of religion.

Since 1987, Singular has published 19 more non-fiction books that reflect a wide range of interest and diversity of styles. Twice a New York Times best selling author, he’s written three books about sports, including collaborations with NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and controversial NFL superstar Terrell Owens, and biographies of Hollywood power players Michael Ovitz and David Geffen. True crime remained the focal point of his work, but he’d begun writing less about individual crimes and more about social crimes. His 1995 study of the O.J. Simpson case, Legacy of Deception, went beneath the media hysteria surrounding these murders and connected the violent bigotry of The Order with the racist corruption inside the Los Angeles Police Department. Singular’s 1999 book, Presumed Guilty: An Investigation into the JonBenet Ramsey Case, the Media, and the Culture of Pornography, performed a similar role for the infamous child killing in Boulder, Colorado. 

In 2001, Singular brought out The Uncivil War: The Rise of Hate, Violence, and Terrorism in America documenting the increasing dangers of the nation’s deepening cultural war. The book was published well before terrorism struck the United States on September 11, 2001, and the country had plunged into a bitterly divisive conflict in Iraq. The same themes the author had first uncovered in Talked to Death – Fundamentalist religion and intolerance, racism and violence – were re-examined in this book, but now the stakes were much higher and the stage was global. Singular was probing not just the violence itself, but its underlying emotional and spiritual causes. His 2006 book,Unholy Messenger: The Life & Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer, goes even deeper into the convergence of distorted religious beliefs and bloodshed.

In her work on the books, Joyce has attended legal proceedings, visited inmates in prison, interviewed witnesses, studied forensic data, and been involved in developing ideas for stories, photo selection, editing, creative suggestions, and re-writing. The use of both a male and female perspective has added a unique dimension to the true crimes books, three of which have been about women who committed murders. These include  A Killing in the Family which was an NBC-TV mini-series entitled Love, Lies, and Murder; Sweet Evil, about a young Colorado Springs wife and mother who killed another woman; and Charmed to Death, which became a FOX-TV movie titled “Legacy of Sin.”  In Anyone You Want Me to Be, the story of the Internet’s first known serial killer, Joyce was especially insightful in chronicling women who were drawn into online romances that ended with their deaths.

(KGNU Denver/Boulder Broadcast Link)

KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks here with Naomi Klein who argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. As she points out in her latest book. 'This Changes Everything', it is as she sees it alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geoengineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not—and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.

Klein argues that the changes to our relationship with nature and one another that are required to respond to the climate crisis humanely should not be viewed as grim penance, but rather as a kind of gift—a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds. And she documents the inspiring movements that have already begun this process: communities that are not just refusing to be sites of further fossil fuel extraction but are building the next, regeneration-based economies right now.

Can we pull off these changes in time? Nothing is certain. Nothing except that climate change changes everything. And for a very brief time, the nature of that change is still up to us. 

In Carbon Shock, veteran journalist Mark Schapiro, explains here to KGNU's Claudia Cragg, how in this book he takes readers on a journey into a world where the same chaotic forces reshaping our natural world are also transforming the economy, playing havoc with corporate calculations, shifting economic and political power, and upending our understanding of the real risks, costs, and possibilities of what lies ahead.

In this ever-changing world, carbon—the stand-in for all greenhouse gases—rules, and disrupts, and calls upon us to seek new ways to reduce it while factoring it into nearly every long-term financial plan we have. But how?

From the jungles of the Amazon to the farms in California’s Central Valley, from ‘greening’ cities like Pittsburgh to rising powerhouses like China, from the oil-splattered beaches of Spain to carbon-trading desks in London, Schapiro deftly explores the key axis points of change.

For almost two decades, global climate talks have focused on how to make polluters pay for the carbon they emit. It remains an unfolding financial mystery: What are the costs? Who will pay for them? Who do you pay? How do you pay? And what are the potential impacts? The answers to these questions, and more, are crucial to understanding, if not shaping, the coming decade.

Carbon Shock evokes a world in which the parameters of our understanding are shifting—on a scale even more monumental than how the digital revolution transformed financial decision-making—toward a slow but steady acknowledgement of the costs and consequences of climate change. It also offers a critical new perspective as global leaders gear up for the next round of climate talks in 2015.

It is clear that popular anger against the financial system has never been higher, yet the practical workings of the system remain opaque to many people. A new book by Brett Scott, The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance, aims to bridge the gap between protest slogans and practical proposals for reform. Here, KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks with Scott who is a campaigner and former derivatives broker who has a unique understanding of life inside and outside the financial sector. In this book, he builds up a framework for approaching it based on the three principles of 'Exploring', 'Jamming' and 'Building', offering a practical guide for those who wish to deepen their understanding of, and access to, the inner workings of financial institutions. Scott covers aspects frequently overlooked, such as the cultural dimensions of the financial system, and considers major issues such as agricultural speculation, carbon markets and tar-sands financing. Crucially, it also showcases the growing alternative finance movement, showing how everyday people can get involved in building a new, democratic, financial system.

For KGNU Denver/Boulder, Claudia Cragg learns more about Tibet's enduring myth, a story animated with Himalayan adventurers, British military expeditions, and the novel, Lost Horizon, remains an inspirational fantasy, a modern morality play about the failure of brutality to subdue the human spirit. Tibet also exercises immense "soft power" as one of the lenses through which the world views China. 

In their book, Stefan and Lezlee Brown Halper book trace the origins and manifestations of the Tibetan myth, as propagated by Younghusband, Madam Blavatsky, Himmler, Acheson and Roosevelt. The authors discuss how, after WW2, Tibet-- isolated, misunderstood and with a tiny elite unschooled in political-military realities --- misread the diplomacy between its two giant neighbours, India and China, forlornly hoping London or Washington might intervene. China's People's Liberation Army sought nothing less than to deconstruct traditional Tibet, unseat the Dalai Lama and "absorb" this vast region into the People's Republic, and Lhasa succumbed to China's invasion in 1950. 

Drawing on declassified CIA and Chinese documents, the authors reveal Mao's collusion with Stalin to subdue Tibet, double-dealing by Nehru, the brilliant diplomacy of Chou en Lai and how Washington see-sawed between the China lobby, who insisted there be no backing for an independent Tibet, and Presidents Truman and later Eisenhower, who initiated a covert CIA programme to support the Dalai Lama and resist Chinese occupation. It has been reviewed as 'an ignoble saga with few, if any, heroes, other than ordinary Tibetans'.

In this interview with Claudia Cragg for KGNU Denver/Boulder, Daniel Levitin explains how the information age is now drowning us with an unprecedented deluge of data. At the same time, we’re expected to make more—and faster—decisions about our lives than ever before. No wonder, then, that the average American reports frequently losing car keys or reading glasses, missing appointments, and feeling worn out by the effort required just to keep up.

But somehow some people become quite accomplished at managing information flow. In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel—and how readers can use their methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and time.

With lively, entertaining chapters on everything from the kitchen junk drawer to health care to executive office workflow, Levitin reveals how new research into the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory can be applied to the challenges of our daily lives. This Is Your Brain on Musicshowed how to better play and appreciate music through an understanding of how the brain works. The Organized Mind shows how to navigate the churning flood of information in the twenty-first century with the same neuroscientific perspective.

In this interview for KGNU's 'It's The Economy' Claudia Cragg speaks with Vann Alexandra Daly who is renowned as the “crowdsorceress” for her expertise in crowdfunding. Over the course of a year, Alex has raised millions of dollars for clients including Oscar and Emmy-nominated filmmakers and Neil Young (for the 'Pono'). She has served on panels at distinguished film festivals, universities, and is now on a national tour with the Knight Foundation offering her expertise on the subject. In addition to her crowdfunding successes, Alex is a producer for the feature length documentary "Cocaine Prison", which has received support from the Macarthur Foundation, Cannes Film Festival’s Fonds Sud Cinema, the Tribeca Latin America Fund, Bertha BritDoc Journalism Award, and more. Her other films have been selected by the world’s most prestigious festivals including Sundance and Tribeca.

Before transitioning into film Alex was a journalist for numerous publications, including New York magazine and SPIN, as well as the sole researcher for WSJ. magazine. Alex graduated from Vanderbilt University, where she double majored in Spanish and Philosophy, minored in film, and earned her honors thesis on 'Existentialism in Contemporary Drug Cinema'.

KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks here with Aidan White, Director of the Ethical Journalism Network. The network is a coalition of media professionals and support groups committed to building a global campaign in support of ethics, good governance and self-regulation in journalism and media. He is committed to new and innovative ways to support independent journalism and promotion of journalists' rights. He is an expert with deep understanding of issues related to media policy and journalism standards and has helped launch major international groups in support of press freedom and journalists' safety. Over a period of 30 years he has initiated programmes of support for journalists including professional training, association and union building and humanitarian support and raising awareness of the dangers facing media and journalists across the world. You can read his blog here and his Twitter handle is @aidanpwhite.

White is an inspiring communicator and speaker, writer, negotiator and presenter with experience in building coalitions and encouraging social dialogue between employers and unions.

He was the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists from 1987 until April 2011. He previously worked for several newspapers in the United Kingdom. He was with The Guardian in London prior to joining the IFJ. He is a long-time campaigner for journalists' rights and is a former activist with the National Union of Journalists in Great Britain and Ireland.

(To listen, click on 'Pod' icon above left)

"Fool me once, shame on you Fool me twice, shame on you."

Orig: "He that deceives me once; shame fall him; if he deceives me twice, shame fall me". James Kelly, Scottish Proverbs (1720).

In May 2009, Claudia Cragg interviewed the FT's Gillian Tett for then KGNU News co-Director, Joel Edelstein, on the 'It's The Economy' show. This was shortly after publication of Tett's then brand new book, "Fool's Gold, the Inside Story of J P Morgan and How Wall St. Greed Corrupted Its Bold Dream and Created a Financial Catastrophe."

The so-called 'never again' safeguards may or may not be in place to prevent a new worldwide even more serious catastrophe. By the time their efficacy is tested, it may be too late. And given the surfeit of new financial instruments and derivative games created since 2008, there is no sensible reason to presume it cannot or won't happen again and the fallout, while unimaginable, could be even worse than the prolonged 'Great Recession' that so many ordinary working lives have been subjected to.

Recently Gillian Tett has been calling attention to a relatively new problem, the 'Dark Pools' and their potential for causing global financial instability.

Relying on caveat emptor to keep the trading system from becoming too murky is naive

Few are taking heed.

Having ignored this proven financial Cassandra once before, are the Powers That Be so obdurate and greedy that they will wilfully ignore her once again?

When you listen to her analysis here of 2008, you will concur that as of July 1st 2014, very little indeed has changed. 

CLICK 'Pod' icon above left to listen to the interview

To begin the 12 June 2014 of the "It's The Economy" show broadcast on KGNU Denver/Boulder, everyone makes career mistakes. For many, though, acknowledging them can feel tantamount to occupation suicide.

Here, Jessica Bacal, director of the Smith College Wurtele Center for Work and Life, speaks with Claudia Cragg about her book, Mistakes I Made At Work. For this, she has interviewed 25 women across a variety of career fields—from writers to doctors to engineers—who share their worst on-the-job moments.

This advice, useful to all, shares how mis-steps  can be used as learning experiences to build a successful career.