To me…we all draw our satisfaction from what we ourselves have been able to do with our lives. And if somebody, some government or someone else is just giving to me, I’m not going to be a happy person.
The Conversation (Page 3 of 7)
The Conversation #47 — Oliver Porter
presented by Aengus Anderson, Micah Saul, Oliver Porter
The Conversation #46 — Mark Mykleby
presented by Aengus Anderson, Mark Mykleby, Micah Saul, Neil Prendergast
Today, in America right now, we only can think of growth in quantitative terms. And in a resource-constrained environment, how frickin’ stupid is that? You’re actually imposing your own death sentence by not being able to get over the grip of this quantitative dynamic.
The Conversation #44 — John Seager
presented by Aengus Anderson, John Seager, Micah Saul
In 1962, the Food and Drug Administration approved the birth control pill. I would submit that that’s one of the four or five most transformative technological changes of the last millennium. Not just the last century. Because for the first time in the history of the world, half the people on Earth no longer have to depend on the other half for the arc of their lives.
The Conversation #43 — Roberta Francis
presented by Aengus Anderson, Micah Saul, Neil Prendergast, Roberta Francis
Generally people don’t see the skirmishes that are always always always going on in the background to preserve where we are now in terms of laws against sex discrimination or laws that would promote sex equality. But compared to where we were when the ERA came out of Congress in 1972, we are very much better off in terms of equality of rights being guaranteed by the law, because so many laws that did discriminate on their face are off the books as a result of the struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment.
The Conversation #42 — Gary L. Francione
presented by Aengus Anderson, Gary L Francione, Micah Saul, Neil Prendergast
The best justification we have for killing fifty-six, fifty-seven, whatever billion land animals and a trillion sea animals every year is that they taste good. And so, in a sense how is this any different from Michael Vick, who likes to sit around a pit watching dogs fight, or at least he used to?
The Conversation #41 — John Fullerton
presented by Aengus Anderson, John Fullerton, Micah Saul
I actually think you can trace many many of these big systemic crises to being symptoms of the flawed idea that economic growth can go on indefinitely, exponentially, on a finite planet. That’s sort of my North Star. And then as a finance person, why do we think we need economic growth? Well, because the way our capital system works is that capital demands that growth.
The Conversation #39 — Richard Saul Wurman
presented by Aengus Anderson, Micah Saul, Richard Saul Wurman
Conversation has been consistently a model in my head of being human. For quite a while I’ve spoken about how we’re not taught at any time in our life how to ask a question, and how to talk on the phone. And most people think they know how to ask a question, and they know how to talk on the phone. And yet I found that 98% of questions are either bad questions or speeches. And most phone calls are terrible.
The Conversation #38 — Alexa Clay
presented by Aengus Anderson, Alexa Clay, Micah Saul
I think at a fundamental level I just believe in human agency. And I think that everyone should feel like they can participate and shape the economy, rather than feel like they’re experiencing symptoms of the economy. When the recession happened, there was all this chatter around well, the Fed is going to do this. Or the banks are going to do this. And government is going to do this. And there was no narrative around what people are going to do.