Frank Prosnitz/A Bridge to the Future: Recent Episodes
Frank Prosnitz
We explore a variety of topics. In this podcast, we learn about a Grammy nomnated rocker,what brought him to his music,and what has motivated his latest project.
With many believing U.S. democracy is in peril, Brookings Senior Fellow Darrell M. West offers a more optimistic outlook.
It’s not that West, a former director of Brown University’s Taubman Center, doesn’t see that democracy may be in jeopardy, but he is confident that mainly younger voters are recognizing the dangers.
We talked with West, trying to make sense of the chaos. In this podcast, West talks about a political atmosphere, maybe best described by former President Bill Clinton, as “politics of personal destruction.”
Our conversation ranges from the blurring of separation of powers, immigration, the divide in America, and ramifications of the “Big Beautiful Bill” on marginalized Americans, and what West sees as provisions that will add to a doctor shortage in this country.
West is a senior fellow of Governance Studies in Brookings Center for Technology Innovation within the Governance Studies program and a co-editor-in-chief of TechTank. He is a former Brookings vice president and director of Governance Studies, the author numerous books, including his latest, Lies that Kill: A Citizens’s Guide to Disinformation, co-authored with Elaine Kamarck. He was honored by Public Administration Review for having written one of the 75 most influential articles since 1940.
Rolling Stone magazine credited legendary singer/songwriter Tom Rush with ushering in the era of the singer-songwriter. That was decades ago, and Tom is still at it, discovering new talent that he showcases on his Rockport Sundays, broadcast from his home in Southern Maine.
We recently talked with Tom, reflecting on a career that spans more than 60 years. A few years ago, he started a farewell tour, repeated it the next year, and then dropped "farewell" and kept performing.
He’ll be at the Narrows in Fall River on Saturday, tickets available from the theater or Tom’s website.
A Harvard graduate (English Literature), Tom would find himself during his college years playing in clubs around Cambridge, and after graduation often at Club 47, influencing the likes of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Jackson Browne.
We talk about those years, his impressions (and stories) of Bob Dylan, of promising young singer/writers, many of whom he spotlights on his Rockport Sundays.
And he’s still writing songs, performing, and recording.
Of Tom’s most recent album,, Gardens Old, Flowers New, FolkAlley said it “is vintage Tom Rush. His lyrical whimsy and ingenuity captures moments of human vulnerability and celebrates the joys of life and love. Rush has a gift for matching just the right musical notes to evoke the emotions his lyrics embody.”
We talk about that album, and two others he hopes to release in the not-too-distant future. Listen to the interview here:
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, has become among the leading advocates for Supreme Court accountability, transparency, and reform. Running for a fourth Senate term, he has also been characterized as a “climate hawk,” and chairs the United States Senate Committee on the Budget. Senator Whitehouse joined me on WBLQ in a wide-ranging discussion on the Supreme, climate, affordable housing, and more.
Since 2003, when David Isay founded StoryCorps, he has been on a mission of finding hope, even at the darkest times. Since 2003, StroryCorps has conducted more than 700,000 interviews, and has recently launched a new project, One Small Step, bringing together people with different political views, who relate to one another not as political foes, but as human beings with far more in common. David has won six Peabody Awards, a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, and the 2015 TED Prize for his work. We caught up in advance of his presentation at Westerly, Rhode Island's United Theater on July 26.
Following the 2020 election, Ken Block, a software engineer and political activist, who twice ran for governor in Rhode Island, received a phone call from the Trump campaign, enlisting his expertise in validating claims of voter fraud. However, it didn’t work out that way. He describes his book, Disproven, released earlier this year, as his “unbiased search for voter fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data that Shows why he lost, and how we can improve our elections.” Not only does the book debunk many of the Trump campaign claims of voter fraud, but explores our system of elections, from a state that doesn’t require voter registrations to another that carries hundreds of thousands of names of deceased individuals on the voter rolls.
Imagine turning the federal government workforce of some four million employees into a highly efficient and productive organization, motivated around each employee’s individual strengths. That’s the mission that former Rhode Island Leadership Rhode Island Executive Director Mike Ritz, now Gallup’s Executive Director/Federal Government has undertaken. He’s still at the beginning of this 10-year project, a year and a half in. Mike shares with us early assessments of the federal workforce, the importance of the CliftonStrengths assessment not only helping each federal employee understand and utilize their greatest strengths, but also how the process can benefit governments, schools, non-profits, and even small businesses.
A conversation with Brookings' Darrell West, and a forecast for 2024 -- “A very tough year in the history of this country.” We touch on a divided nation, Congressional inaction, the Biden "impeachment," and much more.
Darrell M. West is a senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation and Douglas Dillon Chair in Government Studies at the Brooking Institution. He is the author of numerous books, including Power and Politics: Trump and the Assault on American Democracy (Brookings Press, 2022). His books have won numerous awards and in 2014 he was honored by the Public Administration Review for having written one of the seventy-five most influential articles since 1940, “E-Government and the Transformation of Service Delivery and Citizen Attitudes.”
Since it was founded in 1971 in London, Foghat, a classic rock band, has achieved eight gold albums, one platinum and one double platinum album, and continues to perform today, with its latest album, Sonic Mojo, named among the top 20 albums of 2023. Through more than half century, the band has gone through various configurations, with only drummer Roger Earl remaining from the original group. Still, the Foghat remains true to its original roots, a classic rock band with considerable blues and country influence. I recently spoke with lead singer Scott Holt, who joined the group two years ago after about 15 years on his own and a decade with blues legend Buddy Guy.
Antisemitism is on the rise at levels not seen in decades. On college campuses Jewish students are feeling unsafe, many in the Jewish community are on edge -- real or perceived. And it doesn't matter whether you are a religious or secular Jew, whether you see your Judaism as spiritual, cultural, or social, or only relate because you were born that way. Adam Greenman, president and executive director of the Jewish Alliance in Rhode Island, reflects on the rise in antisemitism, the Israeli/Hamas war, and still provides a message of hope.
From the glitter of the Vegas strip, to small comedy clubs, and expansive auditoriums on cruise ships, Dave Goodman has spent a career making people laugh.
In this conversation he talks about how he abandoned his pursuit of a law career to become a successful standup comic, a regular in Las Vegas, where he logged more than 3,000 performances ... and then on cruise ships for years, traveling around the world. In 2015, he wrote the book -- "Confessions of a Cruise Ship Comedian."
From Robin Williams to Don Rickles and Bill Cosby, he talks of those with whom he performed, befriended, or simply came to know.
And he talks of his own comedic style, and how laughter often serves to heal even the most difficult of situations.
Nellie Gorbea spent eight years as Rhode Island’s Secretary of State, earning a stellar reputation for her work in cybersecurity, staunch advocacy for voting rights, dedication to improving civics education, and working with businesses throughout the state. She joins me as we discuss a variety of issues, from her time as Secretary of State, her new role at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University, attacks on voting rights, and how her native Puerto Rico is recovering from a series of devastating hurricanes.
Archie Calise has been in the car business for years -- in finance, sales, and management. He's also an antique car collector. We touch on all aspects of the industrry. How it's changing, the future of electric cars, buying styles, whether to lease or buy, and more.
Robert L. Carothers came to the University of Rhode Island, in the worst of times, and when he left 18 years later, URI and the state of Rhode Island were much better for his having been there. We catch up with Bob Carothers, as he now contemplates a second retirement, this one from College Unbound, which has and is transforming the lives of individuals, many of whom would otherwise likely face a lifetime of despair. Bob Carothers – educator, university president, poet, and lawyer.
University of Rhode Island Economist Len Lardaro, author of a montly Rhode Island economic index, believes there is a 60 percent chance of what he calls a "vanilla" recession in 2023 asnd 70 percent in 2024. In this interview he touches on immigration and its impact on employment, the economic importance of affordable housing, and lack of in-house due diligence in state government.
Terry Schwadron has been watching the evolution of journalism since he was first hired as a reporter at the Providence Journal in 1971. He's lived the changes as a senior editor and eventually deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, and then as a senior editor for some 17 years at the New York Times., where he directed News Technology for 1,200 reporters, editors, photographers, and web producers.. "Retired," he writes frequently for various publications about current events.
Legendary Blues Artist James Montgomery and the Beehive Queen Christine Ohlman, the voice of the Saturday Night Live band for three decades, joins me in a look at the state of the blues, their own careers, and the importance of music as a voice during cataclysmic events.
We caught up with Darrell West, a vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and asked him if Democracy is on trial. We touch on the courts, the January 6 Commission, campaign finance among a number of issues. West, who has authored more than 20 books holds the Douglas Dillon Chair in Governmental Studies and is Co-Editor-in-Chief of TechTank at Brookings. Before coming to Brookings, he was the John Hazen White Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University. He won numerous awards, including the American Political Science Association’s Don K. Price award for best book on technology (for Digital Government) and the American Political Science Association’s Doris Graber award for best book on political communications (for Cross Talk). His Brain Gain book won the ForeWord Review Book of the Year for political science and his Billionaires book won the ForeWord Book of the Year Silver Award for political science,
The way Colin Blunstone tells it, he just happened to be sitting in the right seat in class when a classmate leaned over and asked him if he had a guitar … and it wasn’t long before Blunstone, Rob Argent and their friends were performing as a teenage band called the Mustangs. Realizing that the name belonged to another group, Blunstone says they settled on the Zombies, and as they say, the rest is history. Blunstone, now approaching 77 reflects on a career that’s spanned nearly six decades, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame … and the music he and the Zombies continue to create.
The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation. - Stella Adler
Viewed as perhaps Rhode Island's premier arts’ organization, Trinity Repertory Company is among the only surviving repertory companies in the nation. Curt Columbus is Trinity's longtime artistic director and shares his perspective why Trinity has survived as a repertory company when other have not, the state of the arts, and the importance of depicting on stage “the truth about life, and the social situation.”
Keri Anne O'Donnell just loved to dance. "She was the one," says her dance instructor, "who got the moves right." At 15 she had a passion for the performing arts - dance, singing or acting.. But on a summer's morning, on her way to the beach with her sister Elyse and some friends, the tire blew on the car in which they were riding. A tragic accident, in which all were seriously injured. Keri did not survive. But, according to her dad, comedian Frank O'Donnell, Keri lives on through the scholarship fund they created some 12 years ago. They have awarded more than 200 scholarships, worth tens of thousands of dollars, to aspiring performing artists, O'Donnell says,. "It's great to see these kids continuing to follow their passion in the performing arts. In a way they are keeping Keri alive, at least her spirit is alive," The latest project for the Keri Anne O'Donnell Memorial Scholarship Fund is a Kalendar, a month long event. Learn more about it here, or at Kerisfund.org.
From classrooms at Harvard to corner coffee shops, where his career as a singer/songwriter began, Tom Rush has not only been heralded for his legendary career, but also as an inspiration for so many other artists. We talk about his career, his bout with Covid, and how he's still helping to develop careers among young talented artists.
Now living in the south of France, McCarty is the original and long-time drummer of the Yardbirds. He talks about his musical journey, and the two books he has written: "Nobody Told Me," about his musical career, from a holiday camp in England to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame; and "She Walks in Beauty," described on McCarty's website as his "lifelong quest to unravel the mysteries of the world that exists beyond the world in which we live."