What’s Wrong with America?
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
09/28/23
•34m
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The United States seems to be on the verge of some kind of Judgement Day. Extreme partisanship, a past (and future?) president facing seemingly endless indictments and legal entanglements, a profound loss of trust in institutions and leaders, citizens who tell pollsters that their country is heading in the wrong direction and they fear the future—despite objective economic conditions that are better than almost anywhere else. What’s wrong? Why the deep unhappiness, even depression? Is the American dream becoming a nightmare?
Sometimes the best insights come from the outside. Our guest on New Thinking for a New World is an inside outsider with almost unique insight into how the United States works. Lars Trägårdh is a Swedish historian who has lived in the United States on and off for decades and has spent much of that time observing and thinking about the social contract between Americans and their government. Today he's a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, but continues to spend considerable time traveling across the United States.
Listen as he does a deep dive into the social and political challenges confronting America.
Is the United States headed in the wrong direction?
Previous Episode
Blot Out the Sun?
September 21, 2023
•34m
Supposedly, Herodotus wrote that when the Greeks were told that the Persian archers at the Battle of Thermopylae would blot out the sun with their arrows, they responded: “Good, then we shall have our battle in the shade.”
Fast forward to the early 21st century and the issue is no longer Persian arrows, but the relentless heat from a sun less and less buffered by earth’s atmosphere because of the accumulated greenhouse gasses. The result, according to scientists, is a rapidly warming planet with increasingly extreme weather, droughts and floods, supercyclones and hurricanes, raging forest fires, or other unusually intense natural disasters. All of that has become the new normal with every likelihood that what’s extreme today might be perceived as moderate next year. The need for shade has never been greater!
What can be done?
One possibility is what’s called "solar radiation management.” SRM essentially amounts to reducing the amount of solar radiation hitting, and hence warming, the planet. It's either an obvious approach—think, if not Persian arrows then the eruption of huge volcanoes—or crazy dangerous, depending on where you sit.
Luke Iseman and Andrew Song think it’s obvious, and are pioneers in trying to deflect solar radiation away from the Earth. But, unlike scientists, they have decided to stop talking about it and have begun doing it. Listen as they explain how they think they can cool the planet.
Is it okay for individuals to try to re-engineer the climate? Tell us what you think.
Next Episode
Pandemic Fallout: Unmasking Ethical Failures
October 12, 2023
•29m
According to the WHO, the COVID pandemic killed almost seven million people. The full bill was undoubtedly far greater, not only in terms of lives lost, but of liberties suspended, economies disrupted, educations interrupted, economic development foregone. All in all, the pandemic was one of the blackest swans to have landed in the global pond in a long time.
It was also a colossal ethical failure. Remember "We are all in this together?” Well, we weren’t. Although the pandemic was a global problem that obviously demanded a global solution, nationalism and self-interest triumphed as most high-income countries privileged self-defense over global security.
Why? Why didn't ethics come into play? Did the United States and other rich countries really think they could self-distance from the rest of an infected planet? What does that say about the likely response to other global problems, starting with climate??
Dr. Ruth Faden, an American scientist, academic and ethicist who has spent years thinking about human rights, ethics and justice and was deeply involved in trying to shape a more global, more ethical response to the pandemic. How does she explain what happened during COVID and how can we do better?
What do you think: when the next pandemic hits, do you want your government to take care of you before it thinks about people in other countries who might be more vulnerable than you?
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