Indiana University education professor David Rutkowski joins us to talk about school assessment tools and outcomes inside the state of Indiana, across US states, and internationally, with lots of surprises. Going beyond the headlines and politics, results may not be what you think. David explains why schools are more than their assessments and why it's important for us to be smart about these measurements. We also touch on school finance and racial deviations, and Jennifer talks about her experi...
Oct 20, 2020•55 min
Published in April 2020, the book has been acclaimed for its ability to predict what would happen during a pandemic. Well, kinda, Wright got some things right, but Covid-19 is not nearly the apocalypse that he predicted. More problematic is the organization and editing of the book; the raw material for an interesting product is there, but it doesn't hang together as a novel: long educational sections about viruses, epidemics, laboratories are roughly spliced into personal drama. We speculate her...
Oct 18, 2020•45 min
Labor economist Dan Goldhaber joins us to talk about research findings regarding teacher scarcity and the correlations between teacher qualifications and their measurable impact on student learning. He explains how typical pay schedules reward or ignore teacher characteristics that seem to be related to student gains. He also discusses some research about non-credentialed teachers who come from programs like Teach for America. Another in our series about education and teaching, this is an eye-op...
Oct 13, 2020•59 min
Peng Shepherd's first book, The Book of M, received some accolades when it was published in 2018 though it doesn't quite fit in the post-apocalyptic genre and creeps over into fantasy. We take a critical look, along with other reviewers, at what makes this story intriguing but how ultimately the writing doesn't live up to the tantalizing premise that losing your shadow means losing your memories. We discuss the impact of flawed writing on the reader and the importance of detailed editing and wor...
Oct 11, 2020•33 min
USC School of Ed professor Larry Picus talks us through the nuts and bolts of local, state, and federal financing of school districts in California, including Prop 13, school bonds, and this year's Prop 15. He explains how districts are equalized, adjusted for special student populations, how differences persist, and compares other states' systems. We also talk about how money is generally spent (some surprises there) and what it tells you about education quality. Larry also offers some observat...
Oct 06, 2020•57 min
We discuss both Contagions, one, a medical thriller by Robin Cook, that turns out to have nothing to do with the 2011 Steven Soderburgh movie with the same title that continues to freak people out today. We learn about the careers of both creators and how these two works have stood the test of time, especially the movie seen through today's experienced and knowledgeable Covid-19 lens. We also talk about Soderburgh's other movies, especially Sex, Lies and Videotape, a forerunner in the independen...
Oct 04, 2020•33 min
We take on the toughest topics in teaching today with Doug McKee who teaches or has taught economics at Cornell and Yale: what makes a good teacher, teaching like a scholar, what good are grades, why we love our teachers, are students now worse than they used to be, avoiding burnout, why use group work, and recent research findings about effective online teaching. This is the second in our series on education and teaching. Don't miss this one. Doug's website/blog/podcast: https://teachbetter.co/...
Sep 29, 2020•59 min
American sci fi writer Greg Bear has written over 50 books during a career that has spanned 50 years. Blood Music was an early prize-winning novel about an infection caused by nanotechnology which took over reality. Published 15 years later, Darwin's Radio explored the notion of a prehistoric retrovirus that spread around the globe and caused evolution to take a giant step forward. We explore the two novels, Bear's career, and his thoughts about writing, science fiction, and current events. An i...
Sep 27, 2020•51 min
Law professor and public education policy expert Derek Black joins us to talk about his new book "Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy." In this informal but profound discussion, we review how the country's founding fathers and early government documents linked public education to the survival of the new democracy and where we have arrived today with public school funding, vouchers, and charter schools. From Betsy DeVos's promotion of religious schools to s...
Sep 22, 2020•1 hr 4 min
A modern-day town crier gets some ominous messages to read about impending pestilence in Paris while mysterious backwards 4s begin appearing on doors. The 2001 policier by French crime novelist Fred Vargas was translated into English by David Bellos and adapted into a movie by Régis Wargnier. Colorful characters, understated humor, and the complexity of Chief Inspector Adamsberg come through in the translation, not so much in the movie — although it still holds up as a competent urban thriller. ...
Sep 21, 2020•47 min
San Diego native, percussionist, guitarist, and producer Jeff Berkley talks about his musical evolution, his band Berkley Hart, song writing, record production, and why we keep coming back to acoustic music. Most unusually, he relays the nuts and bolts of making a living as a professional musician and shares some occasions when things they thought would be funny on stage didn't quite work out. He also talks about the power of music and what a live performance can do. A fun and intimate episode w...
Sep 15, 2020•56 min
In this zombie-apocalypse novel, literary novelist and dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker Colson Whitehead imagines three days in the life of a "sweeper," a civilian who works as part of an operation to clear NYC of zombies so it can be re-inhabited. The story is imaginative and exciting (after the first day), and the writing is expressive, arresting, cynical, and amusing. Whether you love or hate zombie stories, this is an enjoyable read. The 19th in our Literary Sunday episodes during the pandemic. T...
Sep 13, 2020•38 min
Robin Kardon, author of "Angel Flight," the new second novel in the Flygirl trilogy, joins us to talk about love and work in the life of an ambitious female pilot who is trying to succeed in a male-dominated environment. The fast-moving story finds Tris falling for a handsome captain with a mysterious past who she then discovers is competing with her for a promotion. We talk about romance at work, mental health issues among pilots, planning for death, and drama in the air, with a nod to 9/11. Wi...
Sep 11, 2020•51 min
The correct starting place to negotiate the base salary for a position is its value on the open market. Happily, that information is now usually available. Unhappily, certain laws and corporate policies have been advanced that work against open dialogue and fair negotiation. For example, California's law prohibiting companies from asking for salary history ends up exaggerating the gender pay gap, something it allegedly was designed to combat. Further, company policies which place a cap on salary...
Sep 08, 2020•21 min
Mann began his novel The Magic Mountain with the intention of exploring comedic elements broached by Death in Venice, but World War I intervened which distracted him into writing about German culture and nationalism. When he returned to the novel, his attitudes had changed, and so the novel is Bildungsroman mixed up with a bunch of philosophical and mythological characters and ideas. The setting is a sanatorium in Switzerland, which also happened to be visited by the Manns, where our young hero ...
Sep 06, 2020•39 min
Rebecca Jade joins us to talk about her musical history, how she ended up in San Diego, and why she stays. She talks vocal technique, musical education, career development, and clapping on the beat. We also talk about playing on the trolley and with Peter Sprague--and most importantly, where the best places to go for music are in San Diego. Finally, Rebecca offers advice to aspiring professional musicians. A warm and homegrown episode with a wonderful song from Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact. Th...
Sep 04, 2020•59 min
New York journalist Pete Hamill passed away this month after a stellar career as a columnist, essayist, and author. He and Jimmy Breslin inspired a generation of newspaper reporters, including our guest Brian O'Neill, a columnist in Pittsburgh for the last 30-some years. We talk about Pete's interest in people, how his writing revealed New York, and why his writing is so relevant and timeless. We also read from his columns about Trump in the 80s and the assassination of Bobby Kennedy when Pete w...
Sep 01, 2020•50 min
Thomas Mann's 1912 novella is about an esteemed artist suffering from writer's block who travels to Venice and becomes enamored with a beautiful Polish boy just as the city is falling prey to a cholera epidemic. It was made into a striking film in 1971 by Luchino Visconti starring Dirk Bogarde and then into an opera by Benjamin Britten as his last work. A simple story belies the torment of passion and disturbing feelings exposed by Mann, not only in his fiction but in his personal diaries, when ...
Aug 30, 2020•40 min
Being a boss is a big responsibility, even before you realize that your employee's poor performance is your fault. Yikes. We talk about reporting lines, performance appraisals, monitoring performance, and performance improvement processes. We provide a simple but effective tool for providing feedback and course correction in an informal context and how that leads into performance evaluations that are fair, thorough, and objective. We also discuss the steps of a performance improvement process th...
Aug 28, 2020•33 min
Stanford professor Nick Bloom shares his research about working from home: who likes it and why, what it does to productivity, what it exposes about performance metrics, some thoughts about face-to-face meetings, and what the office of the future might look like. Although he explains that "now is odd," a terrific understatement for the pandemic, we have learned a lot about working from home in the past few months, what makes it successful or not, and we have an opportunity to increase our produc...
Aug 25, 2020•56 min
In a continuing effort to improve our workplaces, particularly where management is concerned, we return to first principles in this episode to re-discover the value of longtime, hardworking employees who, although they don't appear on the balance sheet, really are your greatest assets. We review your responsibilities to nurture and grow them and how you trade resources and support for their knowledge and expertise, especially when, as so often happens, you as the manager don't know enough to do ...
Aug 21, 2020•24 min
Harvard economics professor Rebecca Henderson's new book "Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire" outlines how capitalism has let us down in recent decades, how free markets have been thwarted, how government has been weakened and corrupted, and how Americans and our planet have suffered. Chockfull of data and evidence, the book is ultimately inspirational, pointing out where businesses and powerful people have taken steps to restore the aspects of last century's economic system that did work...
Aug 18, 2020•50 min
This 2014 novel starts with the death of a Shakespearean actor followed quickly by a pandemic which wipes out most of humanity and causes the collapse of civilization. We pick the story up 20 years later. Despite its dystopian setting, I found the book uplifting, ultimately hopeful, and surprisingly nostalgic. Of the 16 books of our Sunday pandemic literary series so far, this is the first I recommend reading now. Thoughts? Comments? Potshots? Contact the show at: https://www.discreetguide.com/ ...
Aug 16, 2020•34 min
Today we honor Takoda, Ayla, Journey and Buster, real SAR or recovery dogs who work in the Eastern Sierra. Although their work might seem a bit grisly, they don't think so and demonstrate their enthusiasm and pride through their work ethic and good spirits. We talk about their breeds (Golden retriever, Swiss shepherd, Border collie, and Black lab), training, talents, and experiences. Some have been featured in the media, especially Buster, whose nose took him overseas to discover the remains of ...
Aug 14, 2020•28 min
Biographer Bob Kealing talks about his book "Life of the Party," the story of how an ambitious saleslady rose to be a top seller of Tupperware, an executive in the company, and on the cover of Business Week, only to be forced out and written out of the history of Tupperware. Kealing's research reveals new behind-the-scenes glimpses of jealousy, discrimination, and vindictiveness of this remarkable tale. Listen in for an interesting piece of Florida history. Bob's books on Amazon: https://www.ama...
Aug 11, 2020•47 min
W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel concerning an unfaithful wife whose husband takes her to China during a cholera epidemic was adapted into a 2006 movie starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. We contrast the surprisingly edgy and page-turner style of the book with its dreamy romantic representation in the movie. The book presents some themes about sexuality and feminism ignored by the movie while the movie is more cognizant of colonialism and the current events of the day. A fun episode if you'r...
Aug 09, 2020•32 min
We talk about the immigrant experience where second generation Americans express their appreciation and respect for what their parents went through to get them to where they are, whether it was working menial, low-paying jobs, multiple jobs, being underemployed, or being invisible to their employers. We talk about what occupations are likely to be filled by immigrant workers and what typical pay rates are. The future of the American workforce lies with the second generation, and their stories ar...
Aug 07, 2020•30 min
Joe Payne, the CEO of Arcturus Therapeutics, is back to talk about exciting progress on their messenger RNA Covid-19 vaccine and answer questions about testing for antibodies versus T-cell immunity, potential longevity and timing of the vaccine, and what countries are signing up for the potential Arcturus solution. He also talks about what we might expect after the pandemic slows and how Covid-19 might be similar to or differ from the seasonal influenza, and how public education will be key. Ano...
Aug 04, 2020•47 min
Yay! Another novel about a dystopia caused by a virus! This time, Canadian Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale, presents her view of an over-engineered world of capitalism run amok, leaving it vulnerable to mad science. Despite its length, it's a simple tale of love and morality, and, as it is the first in the MaddAddamm trilogy, there must be some hope left. Another in our Sunday literary series during the pandemic. Thoughts? Comments? Potshots? Contact the show at: https://www.discr...
Aug 02, 2020•27 min
Here are five ways to quickly improve your spoken English and improve your understandability. I've been offering the Your American Voice program for many years, and I find people often think that improving their English is going to be harder than it is. These tips include learning stress inside a word, rhythm inside a sentence, better pronunciation of just a few sounds, making connections between words, and having a good starting position, all of which will make you sound more natural and more A...
Jul 31, 2020•32 min
