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Liaquat Ahamed talks about his book Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World. He reveals history through biography--the lives of four central bankers whose decisions precipitated the Great Depression and led to World War II. Key topics include the gold standard, financial "bubbles," the role of tariffs (Smoot-Hawley Act), lessons for today, and Ahamed's new book coming out soon that is a prequel to Lords of Finance. This book was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for History. -
Fred Burton, a former State Department special agent and New York Times best-selling author, talks about the book he co-authored with Samuel Katz called Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America. He discusses Iran's role in terrorist bombings, kidnappings and killings of Americans after the Iranian revolution, the life, abduction and death of CIA Station Chief William Buckley, how 'Beirut Rules' differed from previous spycraft rules, why the US didn't retaliate, and much more. Burton also addresses whether the American public might be more supportive of the current Iran War if the terrorist attacks against the US from this period were given greater weight by the Trump administration.
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The Environmental Protection Agency last November announced a change to the Clean Water Act, citing a 2023 Supreme Court decision, that would alter what bodies of water would be regulated under the act. Local and state organizations react to the proposal, some claiming that most of Iowa and Illinois’ wetlands would lose protections and continue to be degraded. -
Timothy Wu, professor at Columbia Law School and former White Houseadvisor on tech and competition policy, talks about his new book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity. We discuss the initial promise of the Internet and what went wrong, how tech platforms choked off competition, platform power in health care and housing, the role of "couch lock" and convenience in creating dependency, whether AI will break platform monopoly power or extend it, the implications for our economy and democracy, and recommendations on how to address platform monopoly power. -
The Quad Cities National Organization for Women (NOW) will hold a Rally for Reproductive Freedom on Sunday, Jan. 18 in Rock Island, near the 53rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion before being overturned in 2022. -
David Lynch, global economics correspondent for The Washington Post, talks about his book, The World's Worst Bet: How The Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (And What Would Make It Right). Our discussion includes when this era of "hyper-globalization" began, the attraction of the theoretical underpinnings of globalization, what led to the global pushback, the role of Bill Clinton as the chief cheerleader of globalization, and much more. -
Colin Woodard talks about his new book, Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America. The best-selling author of American Nations explores the regional roots of the partisan divide over several key issues (guns, immigration, climate, authoritarianism) and offers ideas on how to unify the nation based on new cultural insights and opinion research. -
Nationally-eminent historian H.W. Brands discusses his book, Andrew Jackson: His Like and Times, a timely topic since Jackson is one of president Trump's favorites. Brands discusses Jackson's upbringing that shaped his values as president, the "Corrupt Bargain" and the longest campaign for the presidency in 1828, Jackson's appeal to voters, his role in what Brands calls the beginning of American democracy and its first true test, and the similarities and differences between Jackson and Trump. -
A.J. Wilhemi, President and CEO of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, talks about the impact of the Affordable Care Act on Illinois health care, the system's dependence on federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid, the shortage of health care workers, how immigration impacts health care staffing, rural health care, the increasing roles of technology and AI, and much more. -
Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, talks about the US-China global competition from his unique perspective,the "engineering state versus the lawyer state," Trump's trade policy and the impact of tariffs, why the US needs more manufacturing, the lessons of Robert Moses in rebuilding our infrastructure, and what thetwo countries can learn about each other. -
GovernmentSuzanne Mettler co-author of Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy, talks about the economic foundations of the divide, how rural resentment against elites grew, the importance of local party organizations in addressing the divide and much more. -
Michael Pack, award-winning film producer and president of Manifold Productions, talks about his new documentary, The Last 600 Meters, which tells the story of the 2004 battles of Najaf and Fallujah.
