Inside 'The Startup Game' from KQED's Forum Podcast

We talk with Silicon Valley venture capitalist William Draper about his new book, "The Startup Game." One of the West Coast's first venture capitalists, Draper was an early investor in such iconic companies as Hotmail and Skype, among many others. Listen to the podcast.

Yiyun Li from KQED's Forum by forum@kqed.org (KQED Public Radio)

San Francisco-based author Yiyun Li was recently named a Macarthur "genius" Fellow. She joins us today to discuss her new collection of short stories, "Golden Boy, Emerald Girl." Download the podcast here.

David Eltis, David Richardson: Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-C)

In December, 2010, National Public Radio featured a story on the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This is the introduction to that feature story: In the mid-15th century, the ships of the trans-Atlantic trade system went from carrying cargoes of gold to carrying cargoes of human beings. Over the next 350 years, some 12.5 million people would be shipped as slaves from Africa. Historian David Eltis has summarized that piece of history in Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, an online database that uses thousands of documents to offer a clearer picture of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He and fellow historian David Richardson have also published a book on the subject by the same name. Author, editor, and historian David Eltis is a Robert W. Woodruff Professor of History at Emory University. A few of his lectures are posted below. These are also interesting books and collections of maps: George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps, Atlas of Remote Islands.

2010 In Review: The Year for Muslims In The U.S. from NPR Podcast Talk of the Nation

Muslim Americans have fallen under suspicion in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11. 2010 was no exception. Moustafa Bayoumi, author of How Does It Feel To Be A Problem, talks about the year for Muslim Americans as it draws to a close. Download the podcast here.

Joseph Menn: Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet

From fserror.com (promotional website for the book): Joseph Menn’s third book, “Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet,” was published in the US in January 2010 and in the UK in February 2010 by PublicAffairs Books. Part true-life thriller and part expose, it became an immediate bestseller, with Menn interviewed on national television and radio programs in the US, UK, Canada and elsewhere. Menn has spoken at major security conferences including RSA, Black Hat DC and DefCon on his findings, which include hard evidence that the governments of Russia and China are protecting and directing the behavior of some of the world’s worst cyber-criminals. He also has given invited talks at meetings convened by the US Secret Service and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. “Fatal System Error accurately reveals the secretive global cyber cartels and their hidden multibillion-dollar business, proving cybercrime does pay and pays well,” said Richard A. Clarke, special advisor to President George W. Bush for cyber security and author of “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror.” The New Yorker magazine said it was “riveted” by the tale, comparing it to the novels of Stieg Larsson, while Business Week called it “a fascinating high-tech whodunit.” Fatal System Error has been placed on the official reading list of the US Strategic Command and is being translated into Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Menn has reported on technology for more than a decade at the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times, mostly from his current base in San Francisco. His coverage areas for the FT include technology security and privacy, digital media, and the PC industry. He is a two-time finalist for the Loeb Award, the most prestigious in financial journalism, for coverage of Microsoft and the Hollywood writers’ strike. Earlier, he won a “Best in Business” award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for tobacco coverage at Bloomberg News, where as legal editor he directed stories that revealed the landmark settlement talks between the cigarette companies and the states.



Regarding Wikileaks and the security measures that the organization's taken in order to thwart those actors that would like to see the site shut down permanently, the author wrote this for the Financial Times: WikiLeaks appears to be winning the technological fight to publish secret US diplomatic cables, hopscotching around the world to avoid government pressure and hacking attacks. The site has been forced to change a number of service providers, including those hosting its documents and providing bandwidth, and on Friday had to change its website address, moving from wikileaks.org to wikileaks.ch. “The Cablegate archive has been spread to more than 100,000 people. If something happens to us, key parts will be released automatically,” said Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder. While the shuffling occasionally meant that the cables were unavailable, they demonstrated both the group’s resilience and the extreme difficulty of keeping anything off the internet, particularly something not universally condemned by technology companies and experts. Read that article, in full, here. See also: Wikileaks and Julian Assange. Shlomo ben Ami, Avigdor Lieberman, the Mossad..., WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies. All cables with tags from 1 5000 [DOES NOT CONTAIN TEXT OF CABLES], WikiLeaks: Removing the 'top secret' seal. NPR affiliate, KQED, recently aired a Forum broadcast on cyber crimes and cyber security; the author was a guest there. See the podcast of that show, just below.

James L. Haley: Wolf: The Lives of Jack London

In "Jack London's Dark Side" on the Slate.com, Johann Hari recently wrote this about the book:

If Jack London is chased forever from our historical memory by the dog he invented, then we will lose one of the most intriguing, bizarre figures in American history, at once inspiring and repulsive. In his 40 years of life, he was a "bastard" child of a slum-dwelling suicidal spiritualist, a child laborer, a pirate, a tramp, a revolutionary Socialist, a racist pining for genocide, a gold-digger, a war correspondent, a millionaire, a suicidal depressive, and for a time the most popular writer in America. In Wolf: The Lives of Jack London, his latest biographer, James L. Haley, calls London "the most misunderstood figure in the American literary canon"—but that might be because he is ultimately impossible to understand. London nearly died by suicide before he was even born. His mother, Flora Chaney, was a ragged, hateful hysteric who reacted to anyone disagreeing with her by screaming that she was having a heart attack and collapsing to the floor. She had grown up in a 17-bedroom mansion, but she ran away as a teenager and ended up joining a religious cult that believed it could communicate with the dead. She had an affair with its leader, William Henry Chaney, who beat her when she got pregnant and demanded she have an abortion. She took an overdose of laudanum and shot herself in the head with a—fortunately—malfunctioning pistol. When the story was reported in the press, a mob threatened to hang Chaney, and he vanished from California forever.

You can find that Slate article here. Also, NPR affiliate KQED recently aired a Forum (with Michael Krasny), about the book's main subject, Jack London, with the author. Find that podcast below.



And in July of 2010, The Washington Post said this about the book: Texas historian James L. Haley's sharply focused biography recaptures the breadth of London's achievements and the intricacies of his personality. Haley reminds us that, in addition to fiction and polemics, London produced influential journalism, covering the Russo-Japanese War for the Hearst syndicate, two of Jack Johnson's boxing bouts for the New York Herald and the Mexican Revolution for Collier's. (Haley's analysis of all three persuasively argues that London's racial attitudes, though hardly enlightened, were more nuanced than some critics have claimed.) Conscientious summaries of London's prolific output will probably not inspire anyone to seek out books other than the ones already mentioned; Haley's primary interest is the author's rich, complicated life, and his intelligently measured assessment of that life is the biography's greatest strength. Find that article here.

Cybercrime from KQED's Forum Podcast

The recent Wikileaks scandal saw the release of thousands of pages of classified government documents, inciting controversy and sparking new concerns about cybercrime. Joseph Menn, author of "Fatal System Error," joins us to discuss cyber-security. Download the podcast here.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Power

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. This business school's magazine summed Pfeffer's thesis in an introduction of an article about the book and its topics: "Through three decades of teaching and writing about power, Jeffrey Pfeffer has emphasized a pithy but potent concept: Politics often trumps performance." See that article here. NPR's Forum (a KQED affiliate program) plugged the book. You can find the podcast of that show, here. The Harvard Business Review keeps a blog called "The Conversation," where Pfeffer posted an entry called, "Women and the Uneasy Embrace of Power." In the article, he writes that:

The evidence shows that women are less power-oriented than men. Women have more negative attitudes toward holding power, they are less likely to pursue power-based influence strategies, they are more bothered by and disfavor hierarchical relationships, they are less motivated to dominate others, and they are less likely to take actions to attain power. Moreover, in situations such as salary negotiations, studies show that women often believe that they deserve less than similarly qualified men and are, as a consequence, likely to demand less and to press their salary demands with less vigor.

See that HBR blog post here.

In Defense of Force from KQED's Forum Podcast

In an era of terrorism and insurgency, is there an acceptable role for preventive force in our national security policy? Drawing on the findings of the Stanford Task Force on Preventive Force, Hoover Institution fellow Abraham Sofaer looks at this issue in his new book, "The Best Defense?: Legitimacy and Preventive Force."

Download the podcast here. See also: Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945, Obama's Wars, The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's

Emotional Kids from KQED's Forum Podcast

Local author and clinical psychologist Mary Lamia joins us to discuss her new book, "Understanding Myself," in which she offers tools and advice to preteens who need help navigating their intense emotional worlds.

Download the podcast here. See also: Understanding Myself: A Kid's Guide to Intense Emotions and Strong Feelings, The White Knight Syndrome: Rescuing Yourself from Your Need to Rescue Others

Salman Rushdie from KQED's Forum Podcast

Salman Rushdie's new novel "Luka and the Fire of Life" chronicles the story of a son on a journey to save his father. Rushdie joins us to discuss the new book, aimed at children and adults, as well as other issues.

Download the podcast here. See also: Luka and the Fire of Life: A Novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Midnight's Children: A Novel, The Satanic Verses: A Novel, The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel

The U.S.-Israel Relationship from KQED's Forum Podcast

We talk with Todd Gitlin and Liel Leibovitz, who examine the U.S.'s close relationship with Israel as co-authors of the new book, "The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election."

Download the podcast here. See also: The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election, Aliya: Three Generations of American-Jewish Immigration to Israel, Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization, Lili Marlene: The Soldiers' Song of World War II

Reza Aslan's Literary Landscapes from KQED's Forum Podcast

Reza Aslan joins us to discuss his latest book, "Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East." A "Words Without Borders" anthology, this collection of short stories, memoirs, essays and poems spans both territory and time to bring together a century of Middle Eastern literature.

Download the podcast here. See also: Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East (Words Without Borders), No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization - Originally published as How to Win a Cosmic War, No god but God: The Origins and Evolution of Islam

Atlas of San Francisco from KQED's Forum Podcast

Forum explores the many layers and different experiences of San Francisco with author Rebecca Solnit. Her new book, "Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas," reinvents the traditional atlas and presents 22 maps that reveal hidden connections and cultural experiences. She maps the sites of graveyard shift work from San Francisco's industrial 1960s with 6am bars that exist now, and 2008's murders are mapped with 2009's Monterey Cypress trees.

Download the Forum podcast here. Check this NY Times piece out, on the title. See also: Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster

The Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century from KQED's Forum Podcast

We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times reporter and columnist Michael Hiltzik. His new book "Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century," is a story of the largest public works project in US history.

Download the podcast here. See also: Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age, The Plot Against Social Security : How the Bush Plan Is Endangering Our Financial Future, Sleepaway Camp Survival Kit (Movies 1-3)

Philip Roth's "Nemesis" from KQED's Forum Podcast

Michael Krasny speaks with celebrated author Philip Roth about his new novel, "Nemesis." Once again returning to the physical landscape of Newark, Roth revisits some emotional themes from his previous works -- mortality, fate, and the existence of God -- by delving into the polio scare of the 1940s.

Download the podcast here. See also: Nemesis, American Pastoral, Portnoy's Complaint, Indignation (Vintage International)

Sam Harris from KQED's Forum Podcast

Author Sam Harris joins us to discuss his new book, "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values." The book explores the perils of moral relativism and the relationship between knowledge and values.

Download the podcast here. This is what Salon had to say about the book:

His long-awaited new book, "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values," deals head-on with issues that many atheistic thinkers have been skirting for years. If religion is so bad, where should humans look for a moral authority? The answer, for Harris, is science. Harris defines morality as anything related to the "well-being of conscious creatures." Since many scientific findings have implications for how to maximize well-being, Harris believes scientists should be authorities on moral issues. As Harris sees it, scientists not only have every right to make moral arguments, but should be authorities of the moral realm.

There's a full interview that's transcribed, here. See also: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, Letter to a Christian Nation: Counter Point, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

The Business of Power from KQED's Forum Podcast

Michael Krasny talks with Stanford business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer. Pfeffer's latest book, "Power: Why Some People Have It -- and Others Don't" explores the dynamics of power and keys to success in the business world.

Listen to the show here. See also: Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't, What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom About Management, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management

'Letters to My Torturer' from KQED's Forum Podcast

Iranian journalist Houshang Asadi spent six years in the notorious Moshtarek prison in Tehran after a government crackdown on opposition parties in the early 1980s. In his book, "Letters to my Torturer: Love, Revolution, and Imprisonment in Iran," Asadi confronts the man who inflicted various forms of torture and "intimate cruelty" on him.

Listen to the podcast here. Download the show here.

Why Books Matter from KQED's Forum by forum@kqed.org (KQED Public Radio)

In his new book, "The Lost Art of Reading," Los Angeles Times book critic David Ulin explores the ongoing relevance of literature in an age of digital distraction.

Download or listen to the mp3 podcast here. See this LA Times blurb. Or there's this NYT piece as well, but on reading aloud. Note: this is still a pre-order item on Amazon. (We're ordering soon as we find that there's a Kindle copy that we can snag.)