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PODCAST

Talk Cocktail

Jeff Schechtman

Jeff Schechtman talks with authors, journalists, newsmakers and opinion shapers, and sheds light on the issues of the day, from local stories to national and international headlines and ideas. jeffschechtman.substack.com

news & politics

All Episodes

44:51

Trump, Putin, Epstein: It’s Not a Hoax

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/08/30

For nearly a decade, we've waited for the "smoking gun" that would expose the Trump-Putin relationship. But what if the scandal isn't hidden at all?On this recent WhoWhatWhy podcast I spoke with Craig Unger, bestselling author of House of Trump, House of Putin and American Kompromat. He has spent years documenting what he argues is a 40-year intelligence operation in plain sight. From Russian money laundering through Trump Tower to Jeffrey Epstein's shadowy network, Unger traces connections that

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22:49

Teaching Democracy in the Age of Data

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2025/08/28

Privacy expert Heidi Boghosian argues that America's democratic survival hinges on developing sophisticated digital literacy skills to combat surveillance capitalism and algorithmic manipulation. She connects declining civics education with rising technological dependence, advocating for enhanced cyber hygiene and citizen activism against corporate data collection. While her concerns about digital privacy and educational gaps merit attention, her solutions lean heavily toward regulatory

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34:57

When Thinking Stops, Evil Spreads: The Danger in Our...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/08/23

When we stop thinking, we enable harm. In this reprise of my WhoWhatWhy podcast with Elizabeth Minnich, she warns us that systemic evils don’t need monsters — “it takes all of us” through everyday compliance.I talk with moral philosopher Elizabeth Minnich, who delivers a timely warning about collective thoughtlessness. Building directly on her experience as Hannah Arendt’s long-time teaching assistant, Minnich reverses Arendt’s famous “banality of evil” thesis.Where Arendt observed how unremarkable

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36:14

Freedom, Community, Jerry Garcia, and the Grateful Dead

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/08/16

On my latest California Sun podcast, Jim Newton joins me to discuss “Here Beside the Rising Tide,” exploring how Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead emerged from 1960s California to become unlikely architects of America’s counterculture. Newton reveals Garcia as a reluctant icon who feared leadership yet created a multigenerational community that thrives decades after his death. We explore the Dead’s anti-commercial ethos, their role as cultural catalysts rather than political activists, and how

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66:08

Still in the Fight: Veteran Journalists on the Perils...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/08/13

In a week when two Al Jazeera journalists were killed in Gaza, we’re reminded that foreign reporting isn’t just dangerous—it’s occasionally fatal. In this WhoWhatWhy podcast, I talk with three veteran correspondents—William Dowell, Greg Dobbs, and James Dorsey—they swap stories from Vietnam to Beirut, Iran to South Africa. They trade notes on the life-threatening scrapes they barely walked away from, how the job has changed, and why, even with an average age north of 75, they still can’t resist the

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26:51

How Zoning Controls Everything

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/08/09

Discover the hidden force shaping every aspect of your community—from housing costs to racial inequality to environmental sustainability. Architect and attorney Sara Bronin, author of Key to the City, reveals how zoning, one of the most powerful yet misunderstood tools in local government, dictates where we live, work, and play. Learn why this "invisible" regulation holds the key to building more equitable, livable cities for our future.This post is FREE for everyone. Please spread it far and wide

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25:08

From Puberty to Politics: How Judy Blume Inspired a...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/08/06

My 2024 conversation with Rachel Bergstein explores the lasting political influence of Judy Blume, whose writing shaped a progressive worldview now under siege from conservative forces. As one of America's most frequently banned authors in the 1980s, Blume became an early champion against censorship—a fight that endures today.Discussing Bergstein’s new book, The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us, we examine how Blume’s candid treatment of adolescence, puberty, sexuality,

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25:09

How Trade is Impacting America’s busiest port

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/08/02

I’m joined by Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. The port handles 20% of America’s incoming cargo. In this California Sun conversation, he reveals how the 7,500-acre complex serves as an economic bellwether, highlighting trends months before consumers feel them. From automation debates to tariff-induced cargo swings, Seroka explains how what happens at the port ripples through the economy and shapes global trade.This post is FREE for everyone. Please spread it far and wide

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49:30

The Ghost in the Machine: How William F. Buckley...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/30

In 1951, a 25-year-old oil heir with an unplaceable accent declared war on Yale University — and modern American conservatism was born.On this WhoWhatWhy podcast, Sam Tanenhaus, former editor of The New York Times Book Review and the author of Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, talks to me about his monumental 1,000+ page biography of Buckley, a project 30 years in the making.We constantly ask how did we get here? How did the Republican Party transform into MAGA? The answer

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36:13

Debate Doesn’t Matter

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/28

What if everything we believe about changing political minds is wrong? The real work of transformation happens elsewhere.What if everything we believe about changing minds is wrong? What if the foundation of democratic discourse — the belief that better arguments lead to better outcomes — is not just flawed but destructively naive? Sarah Lubrano, with her PhD from Oxford and years of writing about the intersection of psychology and politics, brings devastating news: Decades of research reveal that

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31:29

Has NPR Passed Its Sell-By Date?

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/26

Now that funding has been cut off by Congress, the future of NPR and individual public radio stations remains uncertain. Back in May, on myWhoWhatWhy podcast, I talked with Steve Oney, who has written what may be the definitive history of NPR, On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR. Some of his conclusions may surprise you.While Fox News and right-wing talk radio built empires of outrage, National Public Radio quietly revolutionized American broadcasting with a different model: nuance, narrative, and

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36:14

Debate Doesn’t Matter

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/24

What if everything we believe about changing minds is wrong? What if the foundation of democratic discourse — the belief that better arguments lead to better outcomes — is not just flawed but destructively naive?Sarah Lubrano, with her PhD from Oxford and years of writing about the intersection of psychology and politics, brings devastating news: Decades of research reveal that political debates don’t change minds; they calcify them.In my recent WhoWhatWhy podcast Sarah gives an almost clinical

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46:29

How AI Safety Birthed a Killing Spree

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/19

On this California Sun podcast I talk with Christopher Beam, whose recent New York Times investigation, reveals how a group of brilliant minds from Google, NASA, and the rationalist movement in Berkeley became part of a murderous cult-like group known as the “Zizians.”Unlike Charles Manson’s dropouts, these tech elites weaponized artificial intelligence fears and rational thinking into deadly extremism, which was enabled by California’s tolerance for radical ideas.This post is FREE for everyone

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48:38

Apple and China: The Hidden Story Behind Every iPhone...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/16

That device you check 100 times a day? It exists because of the most consequential business partnership you've never heard of. Financial Times journalist Patrick McGee, author of Apple in China, talks to me about how Apple's quest for manufacturing perfection accidentally created China's technological superpower—while China's scale and ambition created the modern iPhone. Training 3 million workers, orchestrating billion-component supply chains, and reshaping entire economies, this is the untold

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31:04

Israel’s ‘Dirty Harry Moment’

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/15

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren joins me on the WhoWhatWhy podcast to decode this historical inflection point. A historian, former Knesset member, and veteran of Israeli government service, Oren offers a unique perspective from someone who has spent his life at the intersection of scholarship and statecraft. Hours before Israel’s first strike, he published a prescient piece asking whether this was Israel’s “Dirty Harry moment” — the confrontation that would finally call

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29:46

Rethinking Gun Violence: Beyond Politics to Human...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/12

University of Chicago economist Jens Ludwig challenges everything we think we know about gun violence. His groundbreaking research reveals that most shootings aren't about bad people or poverty—they're "garden variety arguments" that escalate tragically within fleeting 10-minute windows. Drawing from rigorous street-level evidence, Ludwig's new book "Unforgiving Places" offers a revolutionary behavioral economics approach that reframes gun violence as solvable through targeted interventions, not

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49:28

Culture Eats Policy: The Hidden Architecture of...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/09

Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America and former Obama White House Deputy CTO, talks to me about why government fails in the digital age. Drawing from her groundbreaking work creating the U.S. Digital Service, Pahlka exposes how rigid bureaucratic culture—not lack of money or technology—creates dysfunction. From unemployment systems requiring 17 years to master to 911 calls going unanswered, she demonstrates how accumulated policy complexity destroys state capacity. Her book "Recoding

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31:21

Small Drones, Big Consequences: The Future of...

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/03

$500 drones destroyed $100M Russian bombers.Last month (it seems so long ago) Ukrainian forces achieved what seemed impossible: Commercial drones costing less than a smartphone successfully struck Russian strategic bombers worth $100 million each, deep inside enemy territory. This isn’t tactical innovation—it’s the emergence of warfare where David doesn’t just defeat Goliath, but renders him obsolete. On this WhoWhatWhy podcast, I talk with David Shlapak, senior defense researcher at RAND

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31:04

Israel’s ‘Dirty Harry Moment’

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/07/03

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren joins me on the WhoWhatWhy podcast to decode this historical inflection point. A historian, former Knesset member, and veteran of Israeli government service, Oren offers a unique perspective from someone who has spent his life at the intersection of scholarship and statecraft. Hours before Israel’s first strike, he published a prescient piece asking whether this was Israel’s “Dirty Harry moment” — the confrontation that would finally call

en

19:06

Tehrangeles: A Diaspora, A Mayor, A Homeland Reimagined

Talk Cocktail ·

2025/06/28

Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian fled Iran with her family during the revolution to escape religious persecution, learning English as her third language before building a career in clinical psychology. Now the first Iranian American woman to lead the city, she governs a diverse community where roughly 20% of the population trace its roots to Iran. As war unfolds in the Middle East, she’s tells us, in this California Sun podcast how she’s become the de facto voice of a diaspora caught between

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1,369 results

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