Public Culture

The world needs to change. We have unleashed an ecological mega-crisis which is threatening the future of life on Earth. The actions we take over the next decade are critical. They will determine the destiny of our descendants and the fate of our world. How Soon Is Now presents a compelling manifesto for personal and planetary change. It proposes a revolutionary new narrative for a unified social movement. Through global cooperation, we can face this collective threat ecologically, socially, politically and spiritually.

In Search of an Adarsh Indian StateIn India, public policies are all around us. Despite this pervasiveness, yeh public sab nahin jaanti hai (the public doesn't know it all).Questions are rarely asked of the Indian State-the institution that makes rules, bends them and punishes others for...

From This American Life contributor and self-described “history nerd” Sarah Vowell comes a collection of humorous and personal essays investigating American history, pop culture, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell travels through...

We live in a world drenched in shame. Shame is the core belief not that I did something wrong, but that I am wrong. It severs us from the inherent goodness of our desire, our body, our Eros. This split disconnects us from the beauty of our Unique Selves and fuels many of today's personal and cultural pathologies. Wilhelm Reich called it "the murder of Eros"-and it is not metaphorical, but civilizational.

Everyone wants: High schoolers to graduate well-prepared for jobs. Improved STEM literacy. Greater achievement for inner-city children. Happiness for all children. So why are liberals spending billions of dollars working against those goals? In Race to the Bottom, Luke Rosiak uncovers the...

In 2020, an estimated 5.8 million Americans had Alzheimer’s, and more than half a million died because of the disease and its devastating complications. Sixteen million caregivers are responsible for paying as much as half of the $226 billion annual costs of their care. As more people live beyond their 70s and 80s, the number of patients will rise to an estimated 13.8 million by 2025. Part case studies, part meditation on the past, present and future of the disease, The Problem of Alzheimer's traces Alzheimer’s from its beginnings to its recognition as a crisis.

Martin A. Lee traces the dramatic social history of marijuana, from its origins to its emergence in the 1960s as a defining force in a culture war that has never ceased. Lee describes how the illicit marijuana subculture overcame government opposition and morphed into a dynamic, multibillion-dollar industry. Colorful, illuminating, and at times irreverent, this is a fascinating listen for recreational users and patients, students and doctors, musicians and accountants, Baby Boomers and their kids, and anyone who has ever wondered about the secret life of this ubiquitous herb.

This is a book about hope in the midst of a polarized culture. Camosy begins with a hopeful starting point in the midst of a crumbling US political culture: two of every three Americans constitute an “exhausted majority” who reject right/left polarization and are open to alternative viewpoints.

In this gripping political history, New York Times bestselling author Newt Gingrich takes readers behind the scenes of the 1994 Republican Revolution and the rise of the modern GOP to show how we can lead America toward a more conservative, prosperous future. The story of Gingrich’s rise from...

This "provocative and personally searching"memoir follows one mother's story of enrolling her daughter in a local public school (San Francisco Chronicle), and the surprising, necessary lessons she learned with her neighbors. From the time Courtney E. Martin strapped her daughter, Maya, to her...

It's become an article of faith that American entrepreneurship is in trouble. The problems are many: lack of capital, too few entrepreneurial immigrants, excessive regulation, an aging population, slowing population growth, and rising student debt. But while experts across the country debate the causes and propose solutions, Scott Shane explains that the data just do not fit. Dismantling each of the most widely accepted theories in turn, he persuasively demonstrates that - while an evolving market is changing the nature of most startups - entrepreneurship is actually alive and well.

Do you feel comfortable delivering bad news? Do you look forward to speaking in public? Do you enjoy networking? Is it easy for you to speak your mind and be assertive with friends and colleagues? If you answered no to any of these questions, this book can help! What often sets successful...

Our government organizations face political fallout, media scrutiny, reduced funding, and the many challenges involved in motivating large, multi-layered and highly regulated organizations. It's no surprise that many government organizations report that their employees are less engaged than ever and that leaders feel helpless to change the situation. In many cases, employees and government leaders are caught in a vicious cycle. Performance declines, scrutiny increases, and employee paralysis ensues. How do you break this cycle and begin building successful government?

Quando diciamo: "Prima gli italiani!" cosa intendiamo? Chi ha la cittadinanza italiana o chi in Italia ci abita? Chi parla italiano? Chi ha genitori italiani o chi in Italia ci è nato? E non è la prima volta che ci poniamo questa domanda: ha cominciato Dante con la ‘serva Italia’; poi d’Azeglio con gli ‘italiani da fare’; e ancora, i ‘santi, poeti e navigatori’; gli ‘italiani nuovi’ fascisti o ‘gli italiani brava gente’. Urliamo questo slogan in un paese dai confini incerti, diviso tra nord e sud, est e ovest, città e campagna.

Attraversiamo metropoli futuristiche e hutong, locali fumosi e campi di ginseng, antichi principi confuciani e intelligenza artificiale, neomarxismo e ipercapitalismo. Incontriamo l’ambiguo funzionario del Partito comunista, l’operosa dottoressa di Wuhan, l’eterea vlogger della Cina rurale, l’astro della letteratura fantascientifica, la giovanissima attivista per l’ambiente. Addentriamoci nella Cina nuova, quella che scopriamo appena smettiamo di leggerne soltanto la superficie.

Early in the crisis, a global volunteer collaboration called Pivot Projects was formed to rethink how the world works. Some members are experts in the sciences and the humanities; others are environmental activists or regular people who see themselves as world citizens. In The Pivot, the journalist Steve Hamm - who embedded in the enterprise from the start - explores their efforts and shows how their approach provides a model for achieving systemic change.

From farm-to-table restaurants and farmers markets, to support for fair trade and food sovereignty, movements for food-system change hold the promise for deeper transformations. Yet Americans continue to live the paradox of caring passionately about healthy eating while demanding the convenience of fast food. Rooted Resistance explores this fraught but promising food scene. This book wagers that socially responsible agrarian mythmaking should be a vital part of a food ethic of resistance if we are to rectify the destructive tendencies in our contemporary food system.

A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are examines the immense impact intelligent technology will have on humanity. These machines, while challenging our personal beliefs and our socio-economic world order, also have the potential to transform our health and well-being, alleviate poverty and suffering, and reveal the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. International human rights attorney Flynn Coleman deftly argues that it is critical we instill values, ethics, and morals into our robots, algorithms, and other forms of AI.

Best-selling author Newt Gingrich proposes a bold vision ofthe future: America is on the cusp of a renaissance, a new birth of technological and scientific innovation that will dramatically transform the prosperity and quality of life of every American. Our biggest enemy? Special interest groups, powerful lobbyists, and government bureaucrats who aredetermined to squash, control, or prevent these innovations - and permanently change the future of America.

In this provocative book, Ramesh Srinivasan describes the internet as both an enabler of frictionless efficiency and a dirty tangle of politics, economics, and other inefficient, inharmonious human activities. We may love the immediacy of Google search results, the convenience of Amazon, and the elegance of our Apple devices, but it’s a one-way, top-down process. We’re not asked for our input or our opinions - only for our data. The internet is brought to us by wealthy technologists in Silicon Valley and China. Srinivasan argues that we must think in terms beyond the Valley.