Wavemaker Conversations

Lois Jenson’s courage and tenacity have made her a historic figure in the battle against sexual harassment.

She was the lead plaintiff in the first class-action sexual harassment lawsuit -- a case that inspired the 2005 movie North Country.

I spoke with her in 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, for an in-depth Wavemaker Conversation. I’ve decided to repost the conversation now, for historical context, in light of the release...

My conversation with Elie Wiesel -- Holocaust survivor, author, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize -- was recorded in 2013 for the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Our wide-ranging conversation includes memories of his childhood village in Hungary, his experience in the Nazi death camps, and his reflections on humor and friendship.

The Nobel Committee, when awarding Wiesel the Peace Prize, stated: "...

The former Hardball anchor on the upcoming midterms; Trump vs. DeSantis; who to watch if Biden doesn't run; the power of humor in politics; and more … 

In his recent memoir, This Country, Chris Matthews shares an old rule of politics: the shape of the field decides the winner.

I sat down with Matthews this month for a Wavemaker Conversation about the shape of the field as we head into the 2022 midterm elections and look ahead ...

The latest climate change developments make it feel like we are on a runaway train that will flatten the dreams of our children. 

With this episode of Wavemaker Conversations, I hope to play a small part in slowing down that train. 

My guest, Spencer Glendon, is a former Partner at the trillion-dollar investment firm, Wellington Management.  His work there centered on topics ignored in the world of finance but with p...

With the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs in full swing, I’m bringing one of my favorite sports conversations out of the archives -- my conversation with legendary hockey maven Stanley Fischler. He has written more than 90 books on the sport. The backstory:  In 2013 I stumbled upon the thrilling Stanley Cup finals between the Blackhawks and Bruins with my daughter, who was nine at the time. We were riveted.  But we couldn't follow the puc...

In September 2022, The Buxton School, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, is becoming a smartphone-free campus. No smartphones at all. Not for students. Not for teachers. Not for administrators.  In this Wavemaker Conversation with Buxton's Director Emeritus, Franny Shuker-Haines, we discuss the tipping point (there was more than one) for this bold leap.  For parents, teachers and students who are listening, this may help you assess wh...

In order to help us process the horror being inflicted on Ukraine, and the courage exhibited by its people and president, I have reached out to Kevin Powers.  

Powers, author of the highly acclaimed war novel, The Yellow Birds, is a veteran of the Iraq War, who has used his powers of prose and poetry to help us feel what is almost beyond our imagination.

In this conversation, through his personal stories and reflections, I think he...

A rare opportunity to hear Dr. Sanjay Gupta unplugged — removed from the rush of breaking news.  In my recent conversation with the neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent, we discuss the latest science on keeping your brain sharp — well into old age;  how he weighs risk and reward; the remarkable story of the brain surgery he performed during a sandstorm in Iraq to save the life of a Marine — when the proper tools were no...

This is my conversation with Rachel Held Evans – RHE – from 2012, after the publication of her A Year of Biblical Womanhood, a provocative and entertaining account of her experiment living the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible. Evans died on May 4th, 2019 at the age of 37. Through her blog, books, and conferences, she built a large following challenging conservative evangelical thought on issues of women in ch...

This is the story, and backstory, of a workshop on feminism, led by men, for men, in an all-male prison. The Feminist on Cellblock Y is an immersive and memorable CNN documentary shot inside a California state prison. In this episode, we speak with the two inspired journalists behind the doc – CNN’s Emma Lacey-Bordeaux and Cocomotion Pictures founder Contessa Gayles. With a cameo fr...

What is your superpower? Is it writing, speaking, communicating with power? It could be if you listen to this conversation with Joseph Romm, author of How To Go Viral and Reach Millions: Top Persuasion Secrets from Social Media Superstars, Jesus, Shakespeare, Oprah, and Even Donald Trump. This episode is like a short master class. If you want to get the most out of it, I advise you start by listening to my October 29th episode, fea...

@YahooSports Senior NFL Writer and Hall of Fame Voter Terez Paylor joins me in Atlanta for a Super Bowl seminar and Football 101 combined – making it the perfect prep for those across the football spectrum: from super-novices to those who follow the NFL all year – all in under 25 minutes. Paylor’s show on Kansas City’s 610 Sports Radio & Radio.com has been a destination for Chiefs fans.  Even though his Chiefs missed this Super Bow...

Yoka Verdoner was separated from her parents when she was only 8 years old. Now 84, her life story is a window into the trauma that has been inflicted on so many migrant children separated from their parents at the southern border of the U.S. I spoke with Yoka over the summer, at the height of those separations, after she'd published a piece in The Guardian that was widely shared. Her story has urgency again, following last week's ...

A Charlottesville, VA jury today convicted a white supremacist of first-degree murder for killing Heather Heyer. He intentionally drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors at the “Unite the Right” rally for neo-Nazis and white nationalists. A week after that rally, in August 2017, I visited Charlottesville to speak with Henry Abraham. Abraham, now 97, spent his Jewish boyhood in Nazi Germany. He tells stories of anti-Semitis...

America is hungry for the voice of an honorable leader. So Wavemaker brings you the voice of Retired Admiral William McRaven, former Navy SEAL and Commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces. He was the architect of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. This episode features McRaven’s viral University of Texas commencement address: 10 memorable lessons from Navy SEAL training for those “who want to change the world” – aka the “...

Environmentalists don’t vote. At least not nearly as much as the general population. They have a turnout problem. By Nathaniel Stinnett’s estimate, 10.1 million registered voters who consider climate change or the environment as one of their top two priorities, sat out the 2016 presidential election. An even larger number stayed home for the 2014 midterms. But for Stinnett, those big numbers mean a big opportunity. Right now, his E...

Jane Alexander’s illustrious acting career was launched in 1968 by her breakthrough performance in the Pulitzer Prize winning play (and later movie) The Great White Hope. She then took the political stage as Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, when the NEA was on the political right’s hit list. She and her husband had virtually all their money stolen by an accountant who did a convincing job acting like their friend...