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Here novelist James Scott speaks with KGNU's Claudia Cragg about 'The Kept'.

"In the winter of 1897, Elspeth Howell treks across miles of snow and ice to the isolated farmstead in upstate New York where she and her husband have raised their five children. Her midwife's salary is tucked into the toes of her boots, and her pack is full of gifts for her family. But as she crests the final hill, and sees her darkened house and a smokeless chimney, immediately she knows that an unthinkable crime has destroyed the life she so carefully built."

"Her lone comfort is her twelve-year-old son, Caleb, who joins her in mourning the tragedy and planning its reprisal. Their long journey leads them to a rough-hewn lake town, defined by the violence both of its landscape and of its inhabitants. There Caleb is forced into a brutal adulthood, as he slowly discovers truths about his family he never suspected, and Elspeth must confront the terrible urges and unceasing temptations that have haunted her for years. Throughout it all, the love between mother and son serves as the only shield against a merciless world."

"A scorching portrait of guilt and lost innocence, atonement and retribution, resilience and sacrifice, pregnant obsession and primal adolescence, The Kept is told with deep compassion and startling originality, and introduces James Scott as a major new literary voice."

More about James Scott at Grub St. 

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For KGNU's 'It's The Economy', Claudia Cragg speaks here with MIT's Ofer Sharone about latest work. In this, he discussed that today 4.7 million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months. In France more than ten percent of the working population is without work. In Israel it’s above seven percent. And in Greece and Spain, that number approaches thirty percent. Across the developed world, the experience of unemployment has become frighteningly common—and so are the seemingly endless tactics that job seekers employ in their quest for new work.

Flawed System/Flawed Self delves beneath these staggering numbers to explore the world of job searching and unemployment across class and nation. Through in-depth interviews and observations at job-search support organizations, Ofer Sharone reveals how different labor-market institutions give rise to job-search games like Israel’s résumé-based “spec games”—which are focused on presenting one’s skills to fit the job—and the “chemistry games” more common in the United States in which job seekers concentrate on presenting the person behind the résumé. By closely examining the specific day-to-day activities and strategies of searching for a job, Sharone develops a theory of the mechanisms that connect objective social structures and subjective experiences in this challenging environment and shows how these different structures can lead to very different experiences of unemployment.

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KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks here with the delightfully husky-voiced Angelica Cheung, editor-in-chief of Vogue China and, before that, editorial director of the Chinese edition of Elle and the editor-in-chief of Marie Claire Hong Kong where she also co-published several other fashion magazines.

Cheung says that in the early days of fashion shoots for Vogue China, Westerners thought only of “'cheongsams, opium beds and 'In the Mood for Love'”, but she had to let them know that was very patronising. She is not interested, she says, in being told what Chinese women should or should not do or wear. Through her work, she is trying she says to create an energy among her readers and while she is not what she terms a 'fashion feminist', she does cares about how her Chinese readers feel about their lives and being happy because “life is short”.

Born in 1966 Cheung recently took part in the International New York Times S.E.A. Of Luxury conference, @INYTLuxury, hosted by Suzy Menkes, designed the organizers say to “bring South East Asia out of the shadows with an agenda that looked at Asia both as as a luxury goods supplier, as well as a powerful consumer base”.

The daughter of a Chinese diplomat, Cheung graduated from Peking University in 1990 where she obtained degrees in law and English language and literature. She subsequently received an MBA degree from University of South Australia and then in 1993 took a position as a writer at 'Eastern Express', an English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, She covered all aspects of life there in the run-up to the handover to China in 1997 and then, in 2001, was named editor-in-chief of Marie Claire Hong Kong and, in 2003,editorial director at Elle China in Shanghai. When publisher Conde Nast wanted to launch Vogue in China, the company asked Cheung to take the lead and since 2005 she has been editorial director.

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Speaking to KGNU's Claudia Cragg in person @INYTLuxury held recently in Singapore Livia Firth (yes, Colin IS her husband) says that girls or young women should wear their clothes thoughtfully, each piece at least 30 times, in the name of 'Sustainability'.

Because of her work with the GCC, Livia Firth was awarded in November 2012 the title of UN Leader of Change Award.

Firth is the brains behind the 'Green Carpet Challenge, a fast moving, dynamic project working to unlock “Sustainable Style” in the fashion industry. Since its creation in 2009, she and the GCC have blazed a trail working with A-list designers pioneering sustainability in brands at the world’s most high profile events. From the Golden Globes and Academy Awards to the Met Ball and Cannes Film Festival, the GCC has collaborated with all the iconic design houses in the world winning widespread critical acclaim and international media attention.

Most recently, with Chopard – one of the world’s largest privately owned luxury jewellery and accessory companies – we launched its journey to sustainable luxury by forging a philanthropic relationship with South America’s most influential mining NGO: the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM). 

Previously in September 2012, the GCC created ‘The Green Cut’ – a unique exhibition pairing eight seminal fashion designers with eight iconic films to create a collection of striking gowns. The exhibition, which saw the British Fashion Council (BFC) and the British Film Institute (BFI) worked together for the first time, opened London Fashion Week and was celebrated at the London Film Festival, before being shown in Harrods. Read more here.

In March 2013, the GCC created the GCC Brand Mark and launched with Gucci a new frontier for sustainable style: the world’s first zero deforestation certified handbag collection from Amazon leather. Read more here.

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In this interview with Claudia Cragg for KGNU's 'It's The Economy' @INYTLuxury 2013 the focus is on China, with a review of the Plenum late last year, and the opportunities for US and others. Amidst a barrage of criticism and fiscal negativity directed towards that country, we talk with a native-born woman, US-educated Jing Ulrich, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of J P Morgan. She is in a unique position to discuss what to expect economically from the new leader Xi Jing Ping, from her ringside seat as a significant very high-level financial advisor both to China on the US and also to the US on China. 

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An interview with The International New York Times (formerly International Herald Tribune) Suzy Menkes, @INYTLuxury 2013. She is the woman who has long unearthed every new fashion trend for The International Herald Tribune (now the Intl. N Y Times) believes that not only are the Chinese coming (leaping forward where Japan once did) but that sustainability will be part of their, and all our, fashion futures.

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KGNU "It's The Economy' host, Claudia Cragg, speaks here with Sam Daley-Harris who has been called “one of the certified great social entrepreneurs of the last decades” by Ashoka founder Bill Drayton. Daley-Harris founded RESULTS  in 1980, the Microcredit summit in 1995, the Center for Citizen Empowerment and Transformation in 2012, and mentored the founder of  Citizens Climate Lobby prior to its launch in 2007. For many years now, Sam has committed himself to bridging the gap between citizens and their government.

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Hustlers, strivers, dealers and call girls are the subject of discussion by KGNU's Claudia Cragg (for 'It's The Economy') with Sudhir Venkatesh about his latest book, 'Floating City. The work is a study both of a changing aspect of New York and its economy but also, some say, a changing aspect of the author (a Columubia sociologist) himself.

Here Venkatesh seems to propose that, unlike in other cities, immigrants wanting to make it big in New York – to transcend traditional barriers and improve their lot, licitly or otherwise – need to learn to “float”. The drug-dealer who wants to graduate to selling cocaine to wealthy upper-middle class clients needs to find a way to “float” into that milieu, via contacts, brokers, connections in new worlds. Those who cannot work their way through, past, over these barriers will fail; a would-be high class escort unable to “appreciate good food [or] discuss politics and the opera” with clients will never achieve her aim.

Venkatesh believes too, though, that there are lessons from New York's less orthodox financial world that others in cities around the States and elsewhere would also do well to learn. 

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KGNU's Claudia Cragg talks her with Alan Blinder about his book, whose title refers to an infamous remark made in July 2007 by Charles O. Prince III, then the chief executive of Citigroup. “When the music stops, in terms of liquidity,” he said, “things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing.” His book, he explains, relates, the sorry tale of fiscal irresponsibility and chaos as well as the ways the Bush and Obama administrations grappled with the unspooling crises,

Furthermore, Blinder believes that that the disaster was years in the making. Starting in the late 1990s and continuing through 2007, he says that, Americans had “built a fragile house of financial cards” that was just waiting to be toppled and that the the “intricate but precarious construction was based on asset-price bubbles, exaggerated by irresponsible leverage, encouraged by crazy compensation schemes and excessive complexity, and aided and abetted by embarrassingly bad underwriting standards, dismal performances by the statistical rating agencies and lax financial regulation.”

A Princeton professor, in 2009 Blinder was inducted into the American Academy of Political and Social Science, "for his distinguished scholarship on fiscal policy, monetary policy and the distribution of income, and for consistently bringing that knowledge to bear on the public arena." He is a strong proponent of free trade and Blinder also has been critical of the public discussion of the US national debt, describing it as generally ranging from "ludicrous to horrific"

Blinder served as the Deputy Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office (1975), on President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers (January 1993 - June 1994) and as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from June 1994 to January 1996. As Vice Chairman, he cautioned against raising interest rates too quickly to slow inflation because of the lags in earlier rises feeding through into the economy. He also warned against ignoring the short term costs in terms of unemployment that inflation-fighting could cause. Many have argued that Blinder's stint at the Fed was cut short because of his tendency to challenge chairman Alan Greenspan

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KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks here with the celebrated scholar Carla Kaplan’s on her cultural biography, Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance. The book focuses with vivid prose, extensive research, and period photographs on white women, collectively called “Miss Anne,” who became Harlem Renaissance insiders.

It is largely the story of unconventional, free-thinking women, some from Manhattan high society, many Jewish, who crossed race lines and defied social conventions to become a part of the culture and heartbeat of Harlem. New York City in the Jazz Age was host to a pulsating artistic and social revolution. Uptown, an unprecedented explosion in black music, literature, dance, and art sparked the Harlem Renaissance. While the history of this African-American awakening has been widely explored, one chapter remains untold: the story of a group of women collectively dubbed "Miss Anne."

Sexualized and sensationalized in the mainstream press—portrayed as monstrous or insane—Miss Anne was sometimes derided within her chosen community of Harlem as well. While it was socially acceptable for white men to head uptown for "exotic" dancers and "hot" jazz, white women who were enthralled by life on West 125th Street took chances. Miss Anne in Harlemintroduces these women—many from New York's wealthiest social echelons—who became patrons of, and romantic participants in, the Harlem Renaissance. They include Barnard College founder Annie Nathan Meyer, Texas heiress Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, British activist Nancy Cunard, philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason, educator Lillian E. Wood, and novelist Fannie Hurst—all women of accomplishment and renown in their day. Yet their contributions as hostesses, editors, activists, patrons, writers, friends, and lovers often went unacknowledged and have been lost to history until now.

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David Malone is a UK investigative financial reporter, the author of 'The Debt Generation' and and a BBC filmmaker.

In this interview for KGNU's 'It's The Economy', he discusses here with Claudia Cragg the always especially knotty subject of geopolitics. As in a super-fantastic War of the Worlds, in his opinion, Malone says the French are now teaming up with Qatar versus The House of Saud. This, he believes is to free themselves from the Russian dominance in natural gas. Furthermore, you'll hear him argue that powers outside Syria might even be content to have permanent multi-factional revolutionary foment in the region so nobody ever gets ultimate contol, leaving those with commercial interests free to roam.  It's not' all about NOT oil, he says, but gas gas gas. 

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Here KGNU's Claudia Cragg speaks with Frederick Forsyth about his latest thriller, 'The Kill List'.

In interesting update (4 Oct 2013) on this interview, former NSA/CIA Chief speaking at a Washington Post Forum on 'Cyber Security, joked about "Putting Edward Snowden on Obama’s Kill List". This goes to show, perhaps, that the once journalist Forsyth's intinct for veritas amidst dissembling is far greater than even he knows. 

Frederick Forsyth is the author of fourteen novels and short story collections, from 1971's The Day of the Jackal to 2003's Avenger. A former pilot and print and television reporter, he has had five movies made from his works, and a television miniseries. He also writes a column for Britain's 'Daily Express' newspaper. This latest work, too, is shortly to be made into a movie directed by Rupert Sanders. 

From Penguin, “In Virginia, there is an agency bearing the bland name of Technical Operations Support Activity, or TOSA. Its one mission is to track, find, and kill those so dangerous to the United States that they are on a short document known as the Kill List. TOSA actually exists. So does The Kill List.

Added to it is a new name: a terrorist of frightening effectiveness called the Preacher, who radicalizes young Muslims abroad to carry out assassinations. Unfortunately for him, one of the kills is a retired Marine general, whose son is TOSA’s top hunter of men.

He has spent the last six years at his job. He knows nothing about his target’s name, face, or location. He realizes his search will take him to places where few could survive. But the Preacher has made it personal now. The hunt is on.”

This is a FIRST. First ever Google Hangout recorded interview with Myanmar award-winning film directors, Khin Khin Hsu, Shunn Lei Swe Yee, Hnin Ei Hlaing in conversation with KGNU's Claudia Cragg, together with the organizer of The Singapore Myanmar Film Festival, Dr Marlar Tun (herself a filmmaker, I Am Myanmar (YouTube).

What is lacks in audio quality (this is Myanmar, this is internet Google Hangouts not a fancy studio) is more than made up for by all the interviewees with their authenticity, veracity and bold spirit.

A polished, more orthodox, conventionally manicured journalistic piece will appear soon and air in the US and elsewhere over more old-fashioned airwaves.

(No apologies! The style of this piece is also orchestrated to make it as accessible here to those for whom English is not their first language).

From The Myanmar Times:

The first-ever Singapore Myanmar Film Festival has drawn rave reviews, both from Myanmar people living in Singapore and foreigners interested in learning more about Myanmar films.

“This year’s festival is dedicated to Myanmar filmmakers” at home or abroad, the festival’s director, Benoit Shaack, told The Myanmar Times. “We want to give Myanmar filmmakers a chance to shine outside of Myanmar.”

In June, a panel of judges announced five winners had been selected from over 30 films submitted for consideration. The winning films were shown July 7 at the Golden Village theatre in Singapore, with the filmmakers being honoured the night before at an evening welcoming party.

First prize at the festival went to The Bamboo Grove by Khin Khin Hsu; second prize went to My Grandfather’s House by Shunn Lei Swe Yee; third prize went to Bungkus by Lay Thida (sadly, not available for this interview; fourth prize went to Burmese Butterfly by Hnin Ei Hlaing; and fifth prize went to The Old Photographer by Thet Oo Maung (also not available for this interview).

The Bamboo Grove, which won the festival’s top award, follows a naïve young city doctor whose first posting after medical school is a rural Kayin community in the Delta. The film portrays the deep-seated feelings of the people living there.

“This film is the true story of the scriptwriter, Dr Aung Min,” said Khin Khin Su, the film’s director.

She said the biggest difficulty when shooting the film in 2010 was the use of actual Kayin residents as actors. Some of them did not speak Myanmar, making communication difficult. But it also lent the film an air of realism which struck a chord with festival-goers.

“This is my first competition film,” Khin Khin Su said. “I never thought I would go to Singapore for a film festival or that my film would win first prize. I can’t describe my happiness.”

It may have been her first trip to the film festival, but she’s already made two more feature films since The Bamboo Grove, so it likely won’t be her last.

Another winner, Hnin Ei Hlaing’s film Burmese Butterfly, is already a veteran of the international film festival circuit, having been showcased in 18 countries.

Burmese Butterfly features 21-year-old hairdresser Phyo Lay looking back on a turbulent childhood and adolescence. A rare glimpse into the emergent gay community in this hitherto-isolated country, it describes how difficult it is to come out in Myanmar.

“I’m happy to win the prize,” said Hnin Ei Hlaing, “But I am more happy that this festival was organised … and that I got a chance to show my film in Singapore. Singapore is very close to our country and a lot of Myanmar people live there.”

Burmese Butterfly started filming in 2009. Before the cameras rolled, however, Hnin Ei Hlaing spent about six months getting to know the film’s lead actor.

“I hung out with Phyo Lay wherever he went, even at his home,” she said. “When I started directing the film, his aunty was pregnant. When the film was finished, she had already delivered her child.”

The film was originally supposed to tell the story of two gay men in Myanmar, one more feminine and one more masculine. But the family of the latter man would not allow shooting, so the film’s script had to be changed, Hnin Ei Hlaing said.

Even though Burmese Butterfly has been given a permit for public showings by the Myanmar Censorship Board, audiences in Singapore have to be 18 or over to see it. Despite the age restriction, Hnin Ei Hlaing is grateful the festival is connecting audiences to her film – and allowing filmmakers to get to know each other.

“We got to know many filmmakers and other technicians through this festival,” she said. “We can connect to each other through our films.”

The Singapore-Myanmar Film Festival was organised and funded by the Singapore Myanmar Exchange Organisation. The theme for this year was “Behind closed doors”. The festival included categories for short films, full-length features, documentaries and more, all made by young independent filmmakers of Myanmar origin.

First and second prize winners were awarded HD professional camcorders, and all filmmakers were given top-end post-production software for use on future projects. The organisers also arranged workshops for the five winners with filmmakers from abroad.

“Next year, we will try to hold an even better festival,” said Daw Marlar Tun, director of the Singapore Myanmar Exchange Organisation and coordinator of the Singapore-Myanmar Film Festival. She added that next year’s festival will also be accepting international submissions.

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). 

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KGNU’s Claudia Cragg talks with Blair Levin about the new book he has co-authored ‘The Politics of Abundance - How Technology Can Fix the Budget, Revive the American Dream, and Establish Obama’s Legacy’

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EXCERPT - “Some will tell the President that the government should never have a growth strategy beyond being fiscally prudent and letting markets allocate capital. But a government that can land a thinking machine on Mars surely can develop an informed opinion about what sectors of the economy can grow rapidly and contribute to a high and rising standard of living for everyone. In any event, currently the knowledge and power markets cannot readily allocate capital appropriately because they are constricted by a web of law, externalities, and monopoly bottlenecks. Moreover, the government plays such a large role as a spender and regulator in these markets, that its conduct, whether or not coherently focused, enormously affects industry trends. Finally, if the United States economy does not rebuild the knowledge and power platform far faster, better, and cheaper than market forces are now doing, then Americans will suffer from inadequate educations, poor and expensive healthcare, and devastating climate change, for generations to come.

However, those who remain unconvinced of the merits of a growth strategy, and prefer single-minded focus on the debt-to-GDP ratio, should be mollified by the fact that our legislative proposals for the two platforms reduce the deficit by about $100 billion, without accounting for the additional tax revenues that will be derived from more rapid economic growth. In Chapter 4, we suggest ways to negotiate for these measures as part of avoiding the “fiscal cliff.” Taken as a whole, our proposals outline the politics of abundance.” -Reed Hundt and Blair Levin

Levin oversaw the creation of the National Broadband Plan as the executive director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the Federal Communications Commission in 2009 and 2010. He is now a fellow at the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the executive director of Gig.U, a coalition of research university communities working to accelerate the deployment of next-generation networks in the United States.

The book’s co-author Reed Hundt is the CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital, a non-profit. He was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997, and he was on Barack Obama’s Presidential transition team.

He sits on the boards of directors of Intel Corporation, ASSIA, a communications software firm, and Kno Inc., the education software company. He also serves on boards or as an advisor at the United Negro College Fund; the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority of Connecticut; the Advanced Energy Economy Institute; Yale School of Management; Peek, Inc., a mobile technology company; and Mytonomy, a social network for college planning.

Hundt has written many articles and two books: In China’s Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship (Yale University Press, 2006) and You Say You Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (Yale University Press, 2000). He graduated from Yale College, and Yale Law School.

Surveys (this is just one) show that many today feel they are drowning in too much information, but find it’s often too much of the kind they DO NOT want and rarely approaches what they might be looking for.

With nifty Power Searching techniques, anyone can ‘drill down’ to unearth hidden facts, documents, file types in a variety of locations and languages. This a skill that is only becoming more important each day.

This information, together with the Blair Levin interview (‘The Politics of Abundance) made up a one hour programme for KGNU’s ‘It’s The Economy’ on The FCC and The Economics of The Internet and Connectivity.

Hear you will hear an excerpt (with kind permission) of a recent seminar at Newsplex Asia (at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University) in conjunction with Google, covering topics from the hot and newly-emerging field of data journalism and visualization to making the most of Google Tools to generate news stories. Speakers took part through Google+ Hangouts to share their experiences on how free online tools, such as Fusion Tables, can be used to gather and display data to readers in disasters such as the Fukushima-Daichi disaster after the Japanese quake and tsunami last year. In the full-length version, YouTube experts also convey how news organisations can make the most out of the video-sharing platform.

Sign up for Power Searching with Google course.

Dan Russell's home page and site.

YouTube video of Robin Moroney's and Anthony Baxter's (for reasons of length NOT incl. in this podcast) http://youtu.be/f4hIOsahz2A

Here KGNU’s Claudia Cragg speaks to Victor Chan about “The Wisdom of Compassion” written with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. This book offers rare insights into the Dalai Lama's life as he interacts with remarkable people from all walks of life. In these deeply engaging behind-the-scenes stories we see not only the Dalai Lama at his most human, and most humane, but also the way he approaches the world with humour and optimism.

Enhanced by the Dalai Lama's seven decades of practice and illuminated through captivating anecdotes, The Wisdom of Compassion gives insight in to how to lead more fulfilling lives. The Dalai Lama also shows how "when we open our hearts and minds to others, we are on the surest path to true happiness." 

Chan has travelled extensively through his work, including numerous treks to Tibet. He wrote the 1,100-page Tibet Handbook: A Pilgrimage Guide, published by Moon Travel Handbooks in 1994. The book is recognized as the most comprehensive guide on the culture, art, sacred sites, and pilgrimage routes of Tibet.

Victor Chan has known the Dalai Lama for over 30 years and co-authored with him The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys. The book was shortlisted for the Best Spiritual Book of 2005 (Nautilus Prize, New York) and translated into 14 languages. In 2005, Chan and the Dalai Lama co-founded the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education in Vancouver, Canada.

Chan was Chair of the Organizing Committee responsible for the visit of the Dalai Lama to Vancouver in 2004. He and Professor Pitman Potter, Director of the Institute of Asian Research, UBC convened the symposium on "How to Balance Educating the Mind with Educating the Heart" which featured the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Professor Jo-Ann Archibald. With Potter, Chan was instrumental in establishing a Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program at UBC and was the first Executive Director of that program.

In response to Chan’s invitation, the Dalai Lama returned to Vancouver in September 2006 to attend the Vancouver Dialogues dedicated to promoting the Center’s key themes of compassion, peace and education. In September 2009, the Dalai Lama Center and Chan hosted the Vancouver Peace Summit, featuring five Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and many other visionaries from around the world.

TOBIAS ORLANDO Cragg recorded a follow-up conversation with Victor Chan at the 2013 Irawaddy Literary Festival in Yangon.

You may listen to this at this link