Stan Greenberg at the Monitor Breakfast

Monitor Breakfast: Democratic Pollster Stan Greenberg

While most of the media attention is focused on the Republican presidential nomination, especially with the Iowa caucuses rapidly approaching on January 3, 2012, Democratic pollsters are developing strategies to win over an electorate that has grown disenchanted with the current state of affairs in Washington. And they have their work cut out for them: …

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In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

Today, the FORA.tv community mourns the loss of one of our favorite speakers: the great Christopher Hitchens. No one embodied the spirit of fearless inquiry and open, informed public discourse that FORA.tv hopes to promote more than Christopher Hitchens. We are deeply saddened by his passing away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Hitch, as …

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Occupy Wall Street begins a march through Manhattan

The Culture Project: The Rise of Occupy Wall Street

This week Time magazine anointed its 2011 “Person of the Year” award to an individual making an impact in places such as Tahrir Square in Cairo, Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, and in public places in almost every major city in the Western world. Time’s Person of the Year is the world’s Protester, unified by an …

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Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson Remembers the Legendary Steve Jobs

Ever since Steve Jobs succumbed to complications from pancreatic cancer in early October, he has been eulogized both in private and in public.  Fans of Apple have lamented the loss of one of technology’s most iconic figures and celebrated the design sensibility he brought to the world. Shortly after Jobs’ death, biographer Walter Isaacson released …

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Bob Costas on TimesTalks

Bob Costas and Bob Lipsyte: A TimesTalks Conversation About Sports

Few sports journalists have received higher accolades among the broadcasting community than Bob Costas. Over his 30-year career, the longtime NBC correspondent has won over 20 Emmy Awards and is known for calling play-by-play in several memorable sporting events, including the Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, which would ultimately be Michael Jordan’s last …

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Monitor Breakfast: Democratic Pollster Stan Greenberg In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) The Culture Project: The Rise of Occupy Wall Street Walter Isaacson Remembers the Legendary Steve Jobs Bob Costas and Bob Lipsyte: A TimesTalks Conversation About Sports

Dec
19

Monitor Breakfast: Democratic Pollster Stan Greenberg

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While most of the media attention is focused on the Republican presidential nomination, especially with the Iowa caucuses rapidly approaching on January 3, 2012, Democratic pollsters are developing strategies to win over an electorate that has grown disenchanted with the current state of affairs in Washington. And they have their work cut out for them: recent polls show a dismal approval rating for Congress that hovers around 12 percent.

Stan Greenberg at the Monitor Breakfast

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg talked about this work with political journalists at the Monitor Breakfast on December 16, 2011. The program is now available on demand at FORA.tv.

Greenberg, who is CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a political polling and campaign strategy firm, recently surveyed independent voters in a number of battleground states like Florida and Wisconsin. He discovered that Democratic candidates are gaining ground in GOP-controlled House districts. Many swing voters are frustrated by the Republicans seeming refusal to work across the aisle on issues such as the deficit and jobs creation. Six in 10 voters wanted their representatives to work with President Obama.

The story, however, is slightly different in Michigan, a Democratic stronghold that has long suffered from high unemployment and a stagnant economy. Some independent voters are leaning more toward Republican candidates, especially in two key suburbs of Detroit. Mitt Romney has gained ground on President Obama in these suburbs, which are located in Macomb and Oakland counties, and in some polls holds a 5-point lead. It was 30 years ago during the 1980 presidential election when disaffected blue-collar voters in both counties bolted to support the Republicans, a group of which Greenberg dubbed the “Reagan Democrats.”

Even though Romney has slipped in national polls thanks to a recent surge by Newt Gingrich, Greenberg believes that eventually the former governor of Massachusetts will eventually come out on top—and Democrats need to put the pressure on him sooner rather than later.

Watch the Monitor Breakfast on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
16

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

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Today, the FORA.tv community mourns the loss of one of our favorite speakers: the great Christopher Hitchens.

No one embodied the spirit of fearless inquiry and open, informed public discourse that FORA.tv hopes to promote more than Christopher Hitchens. We are deeply saddened by his passing away after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Hitch, as we affectionately referred him, will continue to grace our site with videos of his appearances from 92Y, Intelligence Squared, the Commonwealth Club, the New York Public Library, Georgetown University, Politics & Prose Bookstore, Hoover Institution and more — all of which have been high points for our organization.

Our colleague Stuart Schulzke’s impromptu exchange with Hitch at Politics & Prose in 2007 remains his “favorite personal snapshot of my time at FORA.tv. I’m sure he didn’t mean it, but I take it as a compliment that Hitchens turned his famous cerebral firepower my direction for a few minutes. Also, I’m pretty sure I lost.”

Few, if any, intellectuals were as pivotal as Hitchens in shaping the public debate since September 11, 2001. Read his impassioned and rational defense of the publication of The Satanic Verses by his friend, Salman Rushdie contained in Hitch-22 to see how prescient he was regarding global politics and fiercely loyal he was regarding friendship, Almost everyone disagreed with Hitch about at least one topic vehemently – but everyone also recognized him as indispensable to the world of ideas.

As Salman Rushdie wrote on Twitter last night: “Goodbye, my beloved friend. A great voice falls silent. A great heart stops.”

Today at FORA.tv we will toast Hitch with a glass of his favorite blended Scotch Whiskey. We invite you to do the same. Below is a selection of my three personal favorites featuring Hitch, for more programs please visit our tribute series.


Christopher Hitchens’ Favorite Whiskey from Commonwealth Club on FORA.tv


Rushdie and Hitchens Playfully Alter Classic Literature from 92nd Street Y on FORA.tv


Christopher Hitchens vs. Al Sharpton: God Is Not Great? from The New York Public Library on FORA.tv

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Dec
14

The Culture Project: The Rise of Occupy Wall Street

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This week Time magazine anointed its 2011 “Person of the Year” award to an individual making an impact in places such as Tahrir Square in Cairo, Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, and in public places in almost every major city in the Western world. Time’s Person of the Year is the world’s Protester, unified by an effort to move toward (or back to) democratic principles.

Occupy Wall Street begins a march through Manhattan

FORA.tv recently featured a live event, The Rise and Fall of Wall Street, presented by The Culture Project that discussed, in part, current efforts by the Occupy Wall Street movement. On stage was activist and de facto Occupy Wall Street spokesperson Jesse LaGreca, along with former Bush administration Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind.

If there is a singular moment in the Occupy Wall Street movement that helps to define the motivations of the protesters, it was Jesse LaGreca’s interview with a Fox News producer in Zuccotti Square in Manhattan who asked about the movement’s endgame. LaGreca, who has since championed the movement’s ideals on several mainstream news shows, offered a trenchant analysis of the frustrations of the so-called 99 percent, and also gave scathing criticism to mainstream media companies like Fox News that seem to perpetuate an already corrupt system (Watch LaGreca’s interview with Fox here.)

At the FORA.tv event, LaGreca said that the majority of Americans feel disenfranchised from the system and that their votes have been rendered useless by the power of large corporations and special interest groups.

It’s untrue, he said, that protesters are vilifying the 1 percent of income earners. “Our concerns are with the 0.01 percent, who are the people who use power and influence to buy lobbyists and influence government and regulators. They have ultimately disenfranchised people who can’t ‘buy off’ government so easily.”

What lit the proverbial tinderbox that sent so many people into the streets in anger? The 99 percent, have suffered economically over the last three years because of the recklessness of the financial industry, said LaGreca. “We are the first generation of people who being told our future will be bleaker than our fathers. Until people are held accountable for this disaster, many will continue to protest and voice their frustrations.”

Watch LaGreca, O’Neill and Suskind: The Rise and Fall of Wall Street on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
14

Walter Isaacson Remembers the Legendary Steve Jobs

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Ever since Steve Jobs succumbed to complications from pancreatic cancer in early October, he has been eulogized both in private and in public.  Fans of Apple have lamented the loss of one of technology’s most iconic figures and celebrated the design sensibility he brought to the world. Shortly after Jobs’ death, biographer Walter Isaacson released Steve Jobs, an authorized biography that takes an unprecedented look into the life of Apple’s founder.

Walter Isaacson on Steve Jobs

On December 14 at 6pm, join FORA.tv as we present Walter Isaacson Talks Steve Jobs, presented by the Commonwealth Club of California—the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum. This program will  be available live and on demand.

For his book, Isaacson, who previously wrote critically acclaimed, best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, drew upon over 40 interviews with Jobs over the course of two years and was allowed access to many of his family, friends, and colleagues. Isaacson also spoke with a number of Jobs’ adversaries and competitors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Though Jobs was know to be intensely private, tightly controlling his personal life (as well as, of course, his products), he allowed Isaacson “exclusive access” to his life and encouraged those around him to speak truthfully for the sake of the biography. Other than authorizing the final cover, Jobs relinquished all control over the book’s content to Isaacson and even waived his right to read it before it was published.

Isaacson’s relationship with Jobs stretches back to 2004. The Apple CEO was familiar with Isaacson’s work on Einstein and Franklin, and asked Isaacson to write his biography. Initially, Isaacson declined, thinking Jobs was in the middle of his career and said he would rather write a biography after Jobs’ retirement from Apple. Later, Isaacson discovered that Jobs asked him the day before he entered surgery for his first pancreatic cancer treatment.

Watch Walter Isaacson Talks Steve Jobs live and on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
13

Bob Costas and Bob Lipsyte: A TimesTalks Conversation About Sports

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Few sports journalists have received higher accolades among the broadcasting community than Bob Costas. Over his 30-year career, the longtime NBC correspondent has won over 20 Emmy Awards and is known for calling play-by-play in several memorable sporting events, including the Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, which would ultimately be Michael Jordan’s last championship appearance.

Bob Costas on TimesTalks

New York Times journalist Bob Lipsyte sat down with Bob Costas on TimesTalks for an in-depth conversation on current events within the sports world, including the Penn State sexual abuse scandal. Costas also touched on his current role as both a host and a correspondent. TimesTalks events are available on demand at FORA.tv.

Many of Costas’ peers regard him as one of the best interviewers in sports. But recently his skills were put to the test in a surprise conversation with Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach now embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal. Costas explained the bizarre circumstances behind how the interview, which aired on Rock Center with Brian Williams, came about. “We were surprised when [Sandusky’s lawyer] Joe Amendola told us he could get his client on the show,” Costas said. “I immediately think: ‘This doesn’t seem like a very good idea from your standpoint, Joe.’ Of course, what I said to him was, ‘Sure, let’s do it.’”

Throughout the course of the interview, Costas was unflinching in the tenor of his questioning. Lipsyte asked Costas how he was able to keep himself focused through the interview. “I was acutely aware that the audience needed to hear from [Sandusky] and then they could form their own opinions,” Costas explained. “If I let my emotions get the better of me, it would’ve undermined what he had to say.”

On another topic, Lipsyte asked about an inherent conflict in major league sports Lipsyte asked if Costas and other journalists can truly offer objective criticism when the league is, in essence, paying for the broadcast. But Costas believes objective criticism does have a place and used the example of concussions in the NFL, a growing concern for many players and team officials, but a topic that is rarely touched on.

On a 2010 Sunday Night Football broadcast on NBC, Costas offered analysis and opinion on what the NFL must do to prevent concussions from occurring. “Few if any network sports journalists are inclined to tackle such a subject,” Costas said. “But if someone says ‘hey, I saw Bob Costas talk about concussions …on an NFL broadcast,’ it makes a far greater impact than if I mentioned the problem on PBS or HBO. If I offered my opinions every single week, it would wear thin on people but I do choose my battles from time to time.”

Watch Bob Costas & Bob Lipsyte: A Conversation About Sports on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
12

Monitor Breakfast: Feisty Independent Joe Lieberman

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After serving more than 20 years in the US Senate, Joe Lieberman will retire next year. An independent who is closely aligned with the Democrats, Lieberman has always been an enigmatic political figure. Praised and vilified by both sides of the aisle, he is a pro-union, pro-choice advocate who supports gay rights, and he is an outspoken hawk on foreign policy who champions using force against regimes in Iran and Yemen. As he looks toward the end of his term, does Lieberman have enough political clout to make one last big impact in Washington?

Joe Lieberman (l) with Republican Senator Tom Coburn

Join Washington’s top journalists at the Monitor Breakfast as they sit down with Lieberman to discuss the latest defense authorization bill, deficit spending, and counterterrorism tactics. As always, Monitor Breakfast events are available on demand, at FORA.tv.

During the 2000 United States presidential election, Lieberman was Al Gore’s running mate, and most members of the Democratic Party held him in high esteem. He was the first Jewish candidate on a major presidential ticket and remained a reliable supporter of Democrat domestic policy issues. However, he often sided with Republicans when it came to foreign policy. He became a strong supporter of the post 9/11 security policies implemented under the Bush administration and was a champion of authorizing force against Iraq in 2002.

In fact, Democrats were so thoroughly fed up with Lieberman’s shift to the right that they refused to endorse him in the 2006 Senate race. He lost the Democratic primary, but formed his own party and won the general election as a third-party candidate. Since then Lieberman has identified as an Independent and no longer caucuses in Democratic committees. The last straw for many Democrats was his endorsement of Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

So what does his political future look like as he enters his last year in the Senate? Lieberman did have plans to unveil a preview of his deficit reduction plan to reporters at the Monitor Breakfast, but aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) made it clear that he isn’t a fan of the proposal. If Democratic leadership blocks Lieberman’s plan, he may end up appealing to Republicans instead, playing the part of the feisty independent to the very end.

Watch The Monitor Breakfast on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
09

TimesTalks: A Conversation with Jeff Bridges

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Coming from a famous Hollywood pedigree that includes his late father Lloyd and his older brother Beau, Jeff Bridges has lived up to the family name. As one of Hollywood’s most successful actors, Bridges has received six Academy Awards nominations and won the Best Actor for his role of Otis “Bad” Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart. While critics hail him as one of the best actors of his generation, fellow stars praise him for his likability and ease of character.

Jeff Bridges at the premiere of True Grit

Bridges sat down with New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend contributor Lynn Hirschberg in a TimesTalks interview to discuss his acting style and some of his most famous roles. This conversation, along with other interviews featuring iconic Hollywood names like Quentin Tarantino, Denzel Washington and Kevin Spacey are available on demand at FORA.tv.

One of Bridges’ first appearances on screen was as a four-month-old infant in a 1951 film noir titled The Company She Keeps. The director needed a crying baby for the scene. “But I wasn’t as emotive back then and [lead actress] Jane Greer had to pinch me to get me to cry,” Bridges joked.

His first real acting job came in the 1970 film Halls of Anger about integrating white students into a black high school. Bridges was suffering through real-life heartbreak at the time and was extremely emotive in his scene, which garnered applause from the entire production team. “At the premiere I was sitting next to my father and brother and told them, ‘Wait till you guys see this piece of acting,’” Bridges said. “Unfortunately, the director cut to me in my scene just as I was making a funny face while crying, which caused uproarious laughter from the audience. Needless to say, I was slightly humbled.”

In 1971, Bridges appeared in The Last Picture Show, in which he was nominated for his first Academy Award for his portrayal of a small town Texas football player. He went on to act in several famous movies throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including the 1976 remake of King Kong and the 1982 sci-fi classic Tron. While critics lauded many of his dramatic roles, he is arguably best known as the “The Dude” in the 1998 comedy The Big Lebowski, directed by the Coen Brothers. The movie, an idiosyncratic look at a pot-smoking, slacker living in Los Angeles, was initially a box-office failure but is now an acclaimed cult classic.

“The Coen Brothers actually wrote that role for me,’” Bridges explained, who has been a longtime fan of the Coen Brothers. “But I thought it was sort of funny they saw me as this slacker, because while I can relate to the character, I thought I outgrew that role after partying in college.”

Watch TimesTalks: Film Stars on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
07

Monitor Breakfast: The Importance of Turkey in International Affairs

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Since gaining independence after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, Turkey has been an enigmatic presence in regional politics. On one hand, Turkey leans toward Europe as a secular, modern nation state; yet on the other it maintains strong ties to the Middle East with a culture rooted in hundreds of years of Islamic rule and traditions. With a strong economy and growing presence in international affairs, how important is Turkey to both the West and the East?

Turkey's Ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan

Join the Monitor Breakfast as Washington’s top journalists sit down with Ambassador Namik Tan for an on-the-record conversation about relations between Turkey and the United States and how this relationship impacts the Middle East. FORA.tv will present this event on demand.

Since becoming the chief Turkish envoy to the United States in 2010, Namik Tan inherited a diplomatic relationship that has cooled significantly over the last decade. Turkey, a member of NATO, remains an important military ally of the United States, but the Iraq War—an event that Turkey feared would cause considerable regional instability as well as an uprising in the country’s restive Kurdish minority—caused significant diplomatic damage.

Lately, the Obama administration sees Turkey’s foreign policy as having “gone rouge,” according to a New York Times article. Turkey has softened its stance toward Iran’s nuclear ambitions and has deteriorating relations with Israel, due to a conflict over Palestinian aid that left nine Turkish activists dead at the hands of Israeli commandos.

For Turkey, its current posturing is not as much as affront to the United States as it is protecting its interests.  Ambassador Tan recently spoke at the University of Virginia on security and enviously stated: “The United States has Canada in the north, Mexico to the south, and two oceans between potential conflict areas.” By contrast, Turkey’s vibrant economy and security is at constant threat from regional instability, from Kurdish insurrections in Iraq, to an unpredictable Iran, and now Syria—a country that is in turmoil because of Arab Spring uprisings.

Watch the Monitor Breakfast on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
07

The Economist: What Are the Consequences for a World Awash with Debt?

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Over the past month economists from around the world have trained their eyes on the current crisis that is unfolding in Europe. Experts have analyzed whether or not the continent can weather the impending storm brought on by indebted countries such as Greece and Italy and  if the crisis will end up being the death knell for the Euro. Here in the United States, policy makers have asked if the European crisis will motivate America to get serious about solving its addiction to debt?

In order to break down the current debt situation, The Buttonwood Gathering, hosted by The Economist, featured a panel of three private-sector investment experts who analyzed public-sector responses to the crisis. FORA.tv currently offers this event, What Are the Consequences for a World Awash with Debt?, on demand.

Economists have their eyes closely trained on the debt crisis unfolding in Europe

Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital, a Dallas-based hedge fund that made millions gambling against the subprime mortgage bond market before it crashed, believes that the world has “reached it’s credit limit.” Governments must rid themselves of debt immediately. “In the end I think [governments] are going to have to default and restructure,” Bass said. “We can’t expect rich countries like Germany or China to continue to write checks to countries that are continually on the verge of default.”

One concern among investors in the United States isn’t the amount of debt the federal government currently holds, but the unwillingness of politicians to talk about it in a public forum. Stephen Pagliuca of Bing Capital, a Boston-based investment firm, believes the system is broken because politicians are more worried about getting reelected than doing the right thing. “Consultants would tell me if you want to get elected you can’t talk about deficits,” said Pagliuca, who unsuccessfully ran for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat as a Democrat in 2009 “You can’t talk about paying off spending or raising taxes. One way to fix this is to have term limits and get politicians to focus less on sound bites and more on the long-term picture.”

With Washington mired in political gridlock, is there any room for optimism? Nathan Sheets, a former Federal Reserve economist and current global economist at Citigroup, believes that if both Democrats and Republicans dig in their heels and refuse to solve deficit spending in the United States, it could have a positive effect on the 2012 presidential election. “If both sides of the aisle refuse to tackle debt problems in Congress, presidential candidates will be forced to talk about this on the campaign trail,” Sheets explained. “It’s possible we could emerge from [the 2012] election with something approximating a social consensus, with gridlock giving birth to progress.”

Watch What Are the Consequences for a World Awash with Debt? on demand at FORA.tv.

Watch The Buttonwood Gathering in its entirety on demand at FORA.tv.

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Dec
02

Russell Brand: Childhood Memories, Success After Addiction, and Partying With P.Diddy

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Last week as many of us were planning our Thanksgiving holiday dinner, FORA.tv kicked off TimesTalks: Celebrated Chefs, a series with food as the main entrée. This week, FORA.tv presented another TimesTalks series, Comedy Stars, featuring interviews with famous stand-up comics and comedic actors, such as Tracy Morgan of NBC’s 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, and Ben Stiller of blockbuster hits like Meet the Parents and Tropic Thunder. Russell Brand, TV and radio host, actor and husband to pop starlet Katy Perry, also appeared on TimesTalks and shared stories about his childhood influences, musings on music, and a curious adventure with P. Diddy.

Russell Brand at TimesTalks

Compared to his contemporaries, Brand is a relative newcomer to the comedy circuit, making his first significant stand-up appearance while he was a video journalist at MTV in 2000. In the FORA.tv program New York Times culture desk reporter Dave Itzkoff asked Brand about who influenced him in his career.   “Peter Cook is an English comedian I admire and, of course, Dudley Moore, but those are comedians you retrospectively choose as an adult to make yourself seem more grandiose and erudite,” Brand quipped. “As a kid I would’ve picked shows like Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, and other English sitcoms that really helped me with one-liners and wordplay.”

Before Brand’s triumphant rise to fame in the early 2000s, he struggled with addictions to drugs and sex, both subjects he discussed in vivid detail in his memoir, My Booky Wook. Itzkoff asked Brand what he could do for an encore book that would top the success of his first memoir. “Well, I could talk about loads of things because I carried on living, that’s the thing,” Brand joked. “Because I survived, I wanted to just keep adding chapter after chapter to the end of the book, but the publishers insisted that I come to some sort of climax.”

One of Brand’s most famous roles is that of Aldous Snow, lead singer of a fictional rock band who appeared in Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008 and Get Him to the Greek in 2010. Brand received rave reviews for his portrayal of the hard-living Snow, and Itzkoff asked if he ever considered releasing an album or going into music on his own. “Musicians are serious people. They aren’t exactly self-effacing, like me,” he said.

Even though he doesn’t feel he could be a rock star, Brand loves working with musicians, such as rap artist P. Diddy, who he collaborated with in Get Him To The Greek. “There was a moment during the filming when P. Diddy wanted to see a boxing match with Manny Pacquiao, and all of a sudden I found myself between P. Diddy and Jay-Z in Las Vegas,” Brand explained. “After that, he wanted me to spend the entire weekend with him in Vegas, which I can only describe delicately as a ‘soft kidnapping.’ I found out the saying is true: What happens in Vegas really stays in Vegas.”

Watch more of TimesTalks: Comedy Stars on demand at FORA.tv.

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