Last week, a young woman asked me if, after graduating from university, she should become a journalist

I had no answer. I'm not a psychologist, a careers advisor, a seer or a phrenologist prepared to lay my hands on her wickedly bumpy skull for portents.

Then of course I started to think for myself, why in fact had I become a journalist.

Was there was some point at which I had decided that was to be my future. No. Never.

But to answer her question as succinctly as I can, I'd say to the young lady (because she is a 'lady') just listen to this (attached piece) and you'll perhaps see why.

In this sad age of Fox/Sky News, #HackGate and paparazzi this is why. This, the piece you can listen to by simply clicking the iPod icon to the left of the title.

If you don't understand, after little over five minutes of just one of so very many remarkable people's stories over 35 years, I don't think you ever will. 

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The Very Reverend James Jones, 64, till now The Bishop of Liverpool, is retiring imminently from the diocese but will continue his connection with the Hillsborough disaster aftermath. Jones chaired the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which cleared fans of blame for the tragedy in its report of September 2012.

Jones will continue to work in a different role, to be announced later this year and in the meantime will regularly be heard on the BBC. On Monday 22nd July at 8 p.m., there is a new broadcast series on BBC Radio 4 in a new series, 'The Bishop and The Bankers' in which, it is hoped, Jones will equally fearlessly and rigorously explore the morality, mindset and personal stories of individuals in banking and business.

Check the BBC iPlayer schedule for other broadcast times.

However, looking back, in this archive interview for KGNU with Claudia Cragg, the then Bishop of Liverpool discusses politics, politicians and science, the role of the individual, The Eden Project in Lancashire and his personal criticism of radical "end-timers" who allegedly consider global warming as an inevitable stage in a Biblical apocalyptic plan.

His visit at that time was a very brave attempt aimed at trying to enthuse naysaying US conservative evangelicals in Colorado Springs into becoming passionate about environmental concerns.

Rev. Jones has long been known as a champion of environmentalism in Britain and was the author of "Jesus and the Earth". 

Jones says it is appropriate, as many others are now doing, to liken the moral imperative presented by climate change (that he has seen for himself in Switzerland, Africa and India) to that of slavery because the poor are being oppressed by climate changes that are ruining harvests.

(Originally roadcast on KGNU on 12/14/06)

(Image from Operation Noah conference)

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Claudia Cragg talks here for a KGNU special programme with Michael Woodford, company president, whistleblower and crusader about his book, Exposure, the story of how he brought to light the dark heart of the Japanese corporation, Olympus.

When Michael Woodford was made President and CEO of that corporation, he became the first Westerner ever to climb the ranks of one of the country's corporate icons.

Then his dream job turned into a nightmare.

Exposure is a deeply personal memoir that reads like a thriller. As Woodford himself puts it, 'I thought I was going to run a health-care and consumer electronics company but found I had walked into a John Grisham novel.'

He learned about a series of bizarre mergers and acquisitions deals totalling $1.7 billion - a scandal which, if exposed, threatened to bring down the entire company. He turned to his fellow executives but was met with hostility and a cover-up. 

Within weeks he was fired in a boardroom coup that shocked the international business world. As rumours emerged of Yakuza (mafia) involvement in the scandal, Woodford fled Japan in fear of his life. 

He went straight to the press - becoming the first CEO of a multinational to blow the whistle on his own company.

Woodford grew up in Liverpool and joined Olympus as a medical equipment salesman. He rose through the ranks to run its UK, MEA and European businesses. 

The Ink Factory, with the support of Film4, has announced that it has optioned film rights to “Exposure”.

Simon Cornwell, producer and co-founder at The Ink Factory said today that they see the movie as "a rich character-driven drama about a man called to take extraordinary action. There are all the elements of a thriller: the constant shadow of the Yakuza, and the very real sense of physical threat. It is also a tale full of contemporary resonance and moral depth. We are very excited to be working with Michael Woodford in bringing his unbelievable experiences to the screen.”

Woodward was named Business Person of the Year 2011 by the Sunday Times, the Independent and the Sun, and won the Financial Times Arcelor-Mittal Award for Boldest Businessperson of the Year. 

SPECIAL NOTE comment from Michael Woodford, dated 3 July 2013. 

"I’ve written and spoken extensively about the Olympus scandal. The lessons of this sad tale should be obvious to anyone who is paying attention, and I do hope that people in Japan are paying attention.  I do not, however, feel that it would be dignified for me to make any comment in relation to the sentencing of my former board colleagues.  I have a great affection and fondness for Japan and want to see the country move forward as I do for myself and my family."

(This interview was recorded and produced for broadcast before the sentences were handed down by the Japanese court and the story contains NO comment from Mr. Woodford on same.)

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KGNU 'It's The Economy' host, Claudia Cragg speaks here with SteadyState.org's Rob Dietz. He brings a fresh perspective to the discussion of economics and environmental sustainability with a diverse background in economics, environmental science and engineering, and conservation biology (plus his work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors). His expertise has given him an unusual ability to connect the dots when it comes to the topic of sustainability. 

Rob is the author, with Dan O’Neill, of Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources.

As the editor of the Daly News, Rob is a devoted advocate for revamping the economy to fit within biophysical limits.  He writes with humor, clarity, and a personal touch as he considers the complex set of institutions and activities that make up the economy.

Rob says he is attempting to align his personal life with the principles of a steady state economy.  He lives with his wife and daughter in a cohousing community striving for development rather than growth.

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Austerity and the Great Crash are affecting everyone at all levels, regardless of past career success or not.

Claudia Cragg speaks here for KGNU with ex TV honcho, Adrian Kulp.

He first learned that he was about to become a father, he says, when he was essentially a teenage boy trapped in the body of a thirty-two-year-old high-powered executive.

So he did what his wife asked him to do: grow up. He packed away his Phillies baseball memorabilia, hid his GI Joes, and converted their guest bedroom from his private man cave into a nursery.

Kulp now has a new book out in time for Father's Day based on his mercilessly funny and brutally honest blog. It is is the hilarious story of one man’s journey from being the one who brings home the bacon to the one who fries it—along with assembling the crib, learning how to “accessorize” his daughter, and flying with an infant for the first time. From numbing booze-free co-ed baby showers to navigating the Farmer's Market with a baby (and loaded diaper) strapped to his chest, to locking himself out of a childproofed toilet, this often-sweaty and exhausted SAHD (stay-at-home dad) gets down and dirty about surviving life as a new parent—dad or alive.

But behind the jocularity is a story that, these days, is all too startlingly and increasingly familiar. 

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Here KGNU host, Claudia Cragg, talks for 'It's The Economy' with Judy Wicks, author of Good Morning, Beautiful Business.

The book is a memoir about her White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, as well as about the evolution of Judy to becoming an entrepreneur who would not only change her neighborhood, but would also change her world—helping communities far and wide create local living economies that value people, nature and place more than money.

Wicks recounts her life as a girl coming of age in the sixties, living a year in an Eskimo village, cofounding the Free People’s store, her accidental entry into the restaurant business, the creation of the White Dog Cafe and her eventual role as a pioneer in the localization movement.

Passionate, fun, and inspirational, Good Morning, Beautiful Businesse explores the way entrepreneurs, as well as consumers, can follow both mind and heart, cultivate lasting relationships with each other and the planet, and build a new compassionate economy that will bring us greater security, as well as happiness. 

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Charles V. Bagli of The New York Times, talks here to KGNU's Claudia Cragg about the collapse of America's biggest ever real estate deal.

In 2006, the Middle Income Lower Manhattan housing projects, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper were sold at competitive auction for $5.4 billion, a deal that has since fallen apart leaving the first-, second- and even third-generation families that lived there in residential jeopardy.

Caught, as they have been, between a real estate rock and hard place, the tenants and the estates themselves have come to exemplify the excesses of the housing boom at its very worse. However, as Bagli explains here, the reverberations not only continue to be felt today, but also represent the squeezing out of affordable properties in key metros, not only in New York, but potentially also in other cities around the US.

Bagli is a New York Times reporter who covers the intersection of politics and real estate. He has written about the sale of high-profile buildings, political contributions of the real estate industry, the battle to build a $2 billion dollar stadium for the Jets, bid rigging in the construction industry, payoffs at the tax assessor's office, and a Sutton Place co-op that turned public land into a private park. He has worked for the New York Observer, the Daily Record of Morristown, New Jersey, the Tampa Tribune and the Brooklyn Phoenix.  

At the end of the interview, a 2010 documentary now on YouTube by filmmaker and Huffington Post contributor, Sandi Bachom, is featured with many Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper residents.

Sandi Bachom Contact Details:

Twitter: @SandiBachom

Website: SandiBachom.com

And reads the book. 

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KGNU's Claudia Cragg talks here with Melvin Goodman, a 24-year veteran of the CIA, who according to his publishers, City Lights, brings peerless authority to his argument that U.S. military spending is indeed making Americans poorer and less secure, whil undermining its political standing in the world.

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KGNU's Claudia Cragg talks here with former Microsoft executive, the brains behind the 'Room To Read' organization which, he says, all started with a case of job burnout. John Wood escaped to Nepal for a much-needed backpacking getaway and while hiking in the Himalayas, met a Nepalese “Education Resource Officer” who invited him to visit a school in a neighboring village. Little did John know that this short detour would change his life forever. At the school, John saw the harsh reality confronting not only this village, but millions of Nepalese children–a dilapidated schoolroom and a severe shortage of books. John was stunned to discover that the few books this school had had–a Danielle Steele romance, the Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia, and a few other backpacker castoffs–were so precious that they were kept under lock and key...to protect them from the children.

As John left the village, the headmaster made a simple request: "Perhaps, Sir, you will someday come back with books." His request would not go unheard. John emailed friends asking for help collecting children's books, and within two months had collected over 3,000 books. The following year, John and his father, accompanied by a train of eight book-bearing donkeys, returned to the village in Nepal. Seeing the faces of the children with the books convinced John to leave the corporate world and devote himself to becoming the Andrew Carnegie of the developing world. In late 1999, John quit his executive position with Microsoft and started Room to Read. Beginning in Nepal, John and his Nepali co-founder, Dinesh Shrestha, started by working with rural communities to build schools (School Room) and to establish libraries (Reading Room).