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PODCAST

Free Forum with Terrence McNally

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]

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All Episodes

61:16

Episode 735: SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE-MICHAEL MANN...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/04/30

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 likewise been targeted since his highly visible role in vaccine development and public heath communication during the Covid 19 pandemic. Together they’ve written SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE: How to Fight the

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57:43

Episode 734: Psychedelics - Research and Exploration...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/04/24

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 for millennia. Such properties were being cultivated and studied in the US in the 1960s and early ‘70s till widespread and careless use of psychedelics - think Timothy Leary - and sensational media

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53:47

Episode 733: AI, Billionaires, Authoritarians,...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/04/16

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 author of MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS: How Google, Facebook and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy and THE END OF REALITY: How 4 Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the

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54:53

Episode 732: Tech visionary JARON LANIER(2013)-WHO...

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2026/04/10

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 class: we all get paid for our data - which is, after all, the source of the value of networks like Facebook, Yelp, YouTube, etc. We talk about a lot more than that and it’s wild to realize this

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67:09

Episode 731: REBECCA GOLDSTEIN-THE MATTERING...

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2026/04/02

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 long to matter” - physical beings governed by the laws of nature, yet obsessed with our own significance. She and I talk about the implications of this perspective on our understanding of what it

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58:27

Episode 730: NICHOLAS KRISTOF & SHERYL WuDUNN...

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2026/03/26

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 failures in education, healthcare, and justice that led to his childhood friends’ deaths of despair - and how we can end this crisis. We recorded this episode in the final year of Trump’s first

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60:00

Episode 729: Can US Primary Care Be Healed? TROY...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/03/19

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, even though it's only 4% of world population. The World Health Organization ranks US healthcare 37th overall compared to other Western countries. Primary care physicians play a pivotal role in both

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60:17

Episode 728: For Oscar week from the archives: 1)...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/03/13

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 the homophobic hearts of the Christian Right. So lots to talk about. In the second half, my 2007 episode with television trailblazer, PHIL DONAHUE, who died in 2024 at the age of 88. We talk about

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83:14

Episode 727: BILL HARTUNG & BEN FREEMAN-TRILLION...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/03/05

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. Hartung & Freeman talk about a military-lobbyist-newsmedia-entertainment-sports-industrial complex. The tech bro’s want in on the gravy train and see AI as their ticket. I assume we don’t talk

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57:15

Episode 726: CHIP BERLET(2017)-We look at extremism...

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2026/02/27

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 metastasized from its roots in the Silent Majority and the Tea Party, Chip was on the beat. Can’t say he didn’t warn us. Berlet was part of a team at the National Lawyers Guild who revealed the COINTELPRO

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61:28

Episode 725: DEBORAH TANNEN-You Just Don’t...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/02/20

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, What’s App, Slack, emojis, and AI. Over the years, Tannen has explored everyday conversation between men and women, parents and children, family members, at work, in argument, etc. We look back

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53:41

Episode 724: DAVID KIRP (2011), KIDS FIRST: Five Big...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/02/12

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 innovative programs have all been tried. They work and they deserve to be invested in and expanded nationally. I believe they could change so many things - for children, families, communities, and could

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62:00

Episode 723: JANINE BENYUS-BIOMIMICRY: Innovation...

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2026/02/05

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. Animals, plants, and microbes have found what works, what’s appropriate, and what lasts here on Earth. So why not learn as much as we can from them? Janine and I recorded our first conversation

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58:03

Episode 722: SHARON SALZBERG (2002)-FAITH: TRUSTING...

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2026/01/30

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 in what? Where do we place our faith when the US is beset by cruel authoritarianism and the world by multiple wars and climate driven disasters? Is faith today painfully naive or absolutely necessary

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66:45

Episode 721: GEORGE PACKER, THE EMERGENCY-his first...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/01/22

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 resonances with our current moment. What happens to society when the established order falls? …to families? to our moral creed? …to our sense of self? Packer-12-03-2025-transcript

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56:18

Episode 720: WAEL GHONIM (2012) - REVOLUTION 2.0-How...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/01/16

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 Facebook campaign to protest one killing by security forces. How did the Egyptian people finally find their voice and reject 30 years of oppression?} Two reasons I chose this episode: 1) Iran, taking a

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83:10

Episode 719: BILL McKIBBEN-HERE COMES THE...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/01/09

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 conversation, including a bit of audience Q&A. In these dark times, Bill’s new book, HERE COMES THE SUN offers hope – not with happy talk but with a clear declaration of facts: Solar and wind are no

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60:00

Episode 718: PAUL GILDING (2012)-THE GREAT...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2026/01/01

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. According to him, the coming decades would see loss, suffering, and conflict as our planetary overdraft is paid; however, they will also bring out the best of humanity: compassion, innovation,

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60:00

Episode 717: PETER TURCHIN-The historical forces that...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2025/12/27

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 disintegration that would lead to collapse of the political order. “Political breakdown, from the Roman Empire to the Russian revolution, follows a clear pattern: workers’ wages stagnate while elites

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54:29

Episode 716: RICHARD DAWKINS (2006) THE GOD...

Free Forum with Terrence McNally ·

2025/12/19

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 open mind and spirit. Dawkins and I begin with questions and end with awe. Learn more at richarddawkins.com. I wish you and your loved ones joyous holidays with time and space for reflection and

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