Mixed Mental Arts

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Ep178 - Ganesh Sitaraman Dec 16, 2014

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As part of our continuing look at counter-insurgency and nation building, we speak with Ganesh Sitaraman, Assistant Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, and author of The Counterinsurgent's Constitution: Law in the Age of Small Wars. In the wake of 9/11, the argument was often made that because terrorists did not adhere to the rules of war that meant that we did not need to either. (Here I'm assuming that terrorists don't listen to The Bryan Callen Show.) While there are many moral arguments for adhering to the rules of law, Sitaraman makes the point that holding to law even when your enemies don't is excellent strategy. In an insurgency, the competition is for legitimacy in the eyes of the population and the side that adheres to the rules and abide by the highest principles will win the hearts and minds of the population. The Counterinsurgent's Constitution: Law in the Age of Small Wars is available on Amazon. You can follow him on twitter at @GaneshSitaraman.

Ep177 - James Tooley Dec 09, 2014

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In the early 1980s, James Tooley went to Zimbabwe to help support and build socialism by teaching under the then hopeful leadership of Robert Mugabe. Returning to England in the midst of the Thatcher Revolution, he aimed to discredit all ideas of market reforms in education. Instead, as he researched his PhD, he became convinced that private education was the way forward and that the government should be kept out of it. However, even as his newfound faith in private education deepened, he saw no way to align it with his desire to help the poor. That all changed on January 26th, 2000 (which as we discover is Bryan's birthday) when while walking through a slum in Hyderabad, India, he came across a private school for the poor…and then another…and then another. When he mentioned these schools to other development experts and local government officials, they denied the existence of these schools.In the fourteen years since then Professor Tooley has found these schools in India, China and throughout Africa and a distinct pattern has emerged. Although these people are only living on a dollar a day, these schools are providing poor parents and students with a far higher quality education than what they'd get in the public sector. As detailed in his book The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves, teaching positions in the developing world are often used as a form of political patronage, a way to buy off political supporters and allies. (Many of these government teachers then never, ever show up to their schools and even if they do they come from the middle classes and so treat the students who live in the slums with utter contempt.) In this interview with Professor Tooley, Hunter, Bryan and Leo Flowers discuss the book and what his research means for developed countries like the US. The Beautiful Tree is available on Amazon.

Ep176 - Howard G. Buffett and Howard W. Buffett Dec 04, 2014

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In 2006, Warren Buffett told his son that he was leaving the bulk of his fortune to making a difference in the world. That's when he gave his son Howard G. Buffett a billion dollars and told him to go fix the hard problems. As a professional farmer, Howard G. decided to go out and fix hunger. Over time, he has realized that you can't fix hunger without dealing with conflict, with property rights and just about every other aspect of society. In his book 40 Chances (co-written with his own son Howard W. Buffett) he tells the story of how the average farmer only gets 40 Chances to plant a crop between the first time he climbs on a tractor and the last time he climbs off it. A farmer has to make the most of those 40 Chances. Rather than ploughing cash into the same projects that have always gotten cash, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has chosen to adopt an experimental approach to development that looks above all for self-sustaining solutions that keep themselves going long after all the aid workers have left. 40 Chances is available on Amazon. You can follow the book on twitter @40Chances.

Ep175 - Jonah Berger Dec 02, 2014

Show notes

If there's one thing we'd like to figure out at The Bryan Callen Show, it's how to get good ideas to spread. Fortunately, Jonah Berger has those answers. While it often seems like things catch on randomly, Professor Berger's research shows there are definite factors that help explain what makes things go viral. Whether you're trying to spread good ideas, market a product or figure out the world's next great cat meme, Contagious: Why Things Catch On is the book for you. Contagious is available on Amazon. You can follow him on twitter @j1berger.

Ep174 - Stephen Kotkin Nov 27, 2014

Show notes

When Professor Stephen Kotkin set out to write a biography of Stalin, he faced a series of challenges. Perhaps first and foremost, people already thought they knew who Stalin was. The world's view of Stalin has been shaped by opponents like Trotsky and the West. The result is that we interpret the atrocities of Stalin's rule as the actions of a monster. The far more disturbing possibility laid out by Professor Kotkin is that far from being a cardboard cutout Hollywood valid, Stalin was a fully fleshed out human being…who truly believed in the cause of Communism.Professor Stephen Kotkin is the John P. Birkelund Professor in History and International Affairs. His biography of Stalin will appear in three parts. The first part Stalin: Paradoxes of Power is available on Amazon now.

Ep173 - Pasi Sahlberg Nov 25, 2014

Show notes

Throughout the 2000s, Finland emerged as the country with the best performing educational system in the world. It did so by defying much of the educational conventional wisdom. While the Global Educational Reform Movement (referred to by Professor Sahlberg as GERM) has swept the world, spreading a message of centralization, standardization and accountability, Finland has focused on decentralization and local autonomy. In Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn From Educational Change in Finland?, Pasi Sahlberg explores how Finnish students get better results by doing less work than other students and with far less stress.In this episode, Bryan and Hunter discuss with Professor Sahlberg the success of Finland's educational system and how it fits with everything else they've learned through the show.Finnish Lessons is available on Amazon. Finnish Lessons 2.0 (the updated version as opposed to the sequel) will be available on Amazon December 19th, 2014

Ep172 - Paul Kindstedt Nov 20, 2014

Show notes

During a cheese tasting class at Murray's, Hunter heard the teacher say that "Cheese and Culture" was the best book on cheese in the world. Instantly, we knew we had to get its author for The Bryan Callen Show. Professor Paul Kindstedt may well be the world's foremost expert on cheese. Currently at the University of Vermont, he is particularly known for his work on mozzarella. (True statement.)Cheese and Culture is available on Amazon.

Ep171 - Werner Sollors Nov 18, 2014

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In the wake of World War II, as the world discovered the full extent of the atrocities committed by the NAZIs, the German people struggled to make sense of their place in the world. Ruined, occupied and reviled, they had every reason to give up all hope. In his most recent book, The Temptation of Despair, Professor Werner Sollors examines contemporary records from the time to understand how they coped. In the process, he shows a side of World War II that is not often discussed.Today, we regard World War II as a morally clear war but well into 1941 the American people continued to oppose direct involvement. Even after the war, General Eisenhower said "We are told that the American soldier does not know what he was fighting for." It was only with the discovery of the concentration camps that the American soldier would, as Eisenhower went on to explain, know "what he is fighting against." World War II stands out in the American psyche as the good war. A war in which good guys fought against pure evil and everyone knew it from minute one and then we destroyed the Axis powers with overwhelmingly military might. Rather than viewing each conflict as unique, America has sought to transform every conflict from Vietnam to the War on Terror into another World War II: a conflict between pure evil and pure good that will be decide by who has superior firepower. As Professor Sollors puts it, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who try and repeat history are doomed to fail." Not only can we not repeat World War II, World War II is not as morally unambiguous as we think it is. History is written by the victors and the Allies have highlighted the atrocities of the NAZIs without drawing attention to their own misdeeds. As Soviet soldiers occupied Germany they subjected German women to repeated rape on a truly unimaginable scale. British historian Anthony Beevor has described it as "the greatest phenomenon of mass rape in history." Likewise, even as Americans scolded Germans for their racism, they occupied Germany with a racially-segregated Army.However, there is one bright spot in this untold history. The German people while deeply anti-semitic had never been programmed to have any special dislike towards African-Americans. The result was that for the first time African-American servicemen had the experience of interacting with white people with a sliver of the prejudice they had faced back in the States. More than that, denied command positions, servicemen ended up in supply and transport jobs making them the most popular soldiers among the German people. Historians have suggested that this experience was vital in contributing to the Civil Rights movement when the servicemen went home. More personally, it determined the course of Professor Sollors. His fond memories of the kindness of African-American servicemen to him as a child in post-war Germany caused Professor Sollors to become a Professor of African-American literature.The Temptation of Despair is available on Amazon.

Ep170 - Vanessa Tyson, Part 5 Nov 13, 2014

Show notes

Vanessa Tyson is a Professor of Government at the Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. In this fifth episode of our series of conversations with Vanessa, Bryan is missing again. So, Hunter and Vanessa take their seditiousness one step further and mutiny…briefly. In this episode, Vanessa and Hunter discuss the narratives the political parties build and how buying into them can do us a disservice. You can follow Vanessa on twitter at @vanessactyson. Her book Twists of Fate: Multiracial Coalitions and Minority Representation in the US House will be coming out in 2015. We'll be buying it and when it does come out, we'll be bringing her back on to discuss that. In the meantime, stay tuned for round of Tyson.

Ep169 - The Mother of All Podcasts Nov 11, 2014

Show notes

In this interview, Bryan and Hunter draw together the lessons they've learned over their most recent podcasts. For more on Robert McNamara, you might enjoy this article: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514591/the-dictatorship-of-data/

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