The San Francisco Experience

The United States has often used pressure tactics like sanctions, military threats and diplomatic isolation - Coercive Diplomacy - to achieve foreign policy goals. But from 1990 to 2020 the results of such actions has been mixed. Why ? Is Coercive Diplomacy still a statecraft tool for the US to use so frequently ?

Turner Classic Movies hosts a classic movie festival every year in Los Angeles. The theme this year was " Grand Illusions: Fantastic Worlds on Film ". Shaun Chang attended this year and shares his impressions.

The Ravensbruck concentration camp was a labor camp housing political dissidents from across the German occupied continent of Europe. The book tells the story of four French women who had a major impact for the good on the inmates, and their fellow countrymen. "Something must be done."

Joe Rogan interviewed the Telepathy Tapes producer Ky Dickens. Michael Marshall is the co-host of The Know Rogan Experience and critically analyses the claims made about telepathy in the interview. He is also editor of The Skeptic Magazine.

Mark Twain's novel features an enslaved man Jim who teams up with young Huck rafting down the Mississippi to freedom. But Jim has become one of the more controversial characters in American Literature. This book sheds new light on one of Mark Twain's most endearing albeit misunderstood characters.

San Francisco's venerable Ferry Building opened in 1898 but by 1938 with the opening of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, the need for commuter ferries vanished overnight. And with that, the grand transit hub fell on uncertain times. But through luck and civic activism the iconic former transportation hub has reinvented itself yet again, and is the centerpiece of a revived Embarcadero.

Veteran San Francisco Chronicle journalist Kevin Fagan wrote a 5 part series on homelessness in 2003 called "Shame of the City". Some of the characters profiled in that series became lifelong friends and were profiled in The Lost and The Found. Kevin had a 32 year career at The Chronicle.

Canada has a new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, and faces a General Election on April 28, 2025. The key - some would say existential - issues facing Canadian voters are the Economy and managing the US relationship with the Trump Administration. Marci Surkes served as advisor to Justin Trudeau, the former Prime Minister and witnessed historic policy debates and decisions.

Technology has reversed the information balance of power between the public and the elites .

Populist agendas of the Left and Right threaten to undermine fundamental principles that underpin liberal democracies. What can we do to reverse the trend ? Is it too late ?

San Francisco has over 4500 reports of child abuse annually. Safe and Sound for over 50 years has been working with at risk families to deal with the problem and prevent recurrences.

As an example of American True Crime stories, the Zodiac killings in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and 1970s, continue to fascinate. In today's episode, we discuss the 2007 movie, Zodiac and the 2024 Netflix docuseries, This is the Zodiac speaking.

Paranormal phenomena are all around us: UFOs, Telepathy, alien abductions. But what is the psychology behind such beliefs ? Anomalistic Psychology seeks to explain the psychological bases of these beliefs.

The Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco is an independent biomedical research institution that empowers world class scientists to find new pathways to cure disease.

Men have a different relationship with their health and doctors than women have. And it continues to evolve for the better as men are more likely to seek care earlier than they would have done 30 plus years ago. But there is still a cultural bias against appearing to be weak: more change is warranted.

New tech has created many billionaires and with that, extreme wealth. With AI and other advanced technologies on the horizon, the prospect of even greater wealth creation is highly likely. But how is social policy evolving to address the social ills that accompany new technology and new wealth ?

President Trump has convened a meeting with Russia in Riyadh to discuss Peace in Ukraine. President Macron also convened a meeting of European leaders while President Zelensky of Ukraine is meeting with Turkish President Erdogan in Ankara. First steps to end the three year conflict.