Things I Love: Fresh Air

Thanks to the magic of podcasts, I never have to miss an episode of one of the best shows in the world, Fresh Air with Terry Gross. My favorite episodes are the ones that deal with current events and political issues - Terry Gross has an amazing talent of conducting interviews with the best minds in a way that helps me understand previously intimidating issues. Most recently I was moved and challenged by two shows. The first was with a man named Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor at Boston University who wrote a book called The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. The title would generally intimidate me and is a perfect example of something that Terry Gross helped me understand...and now I feel like a more informed citizen. Prof. Bacevich has a background as both a soldier and an academic, and also is a father of a soldier killed in the current "War on Terror." With amazing bipartisan scope (Bacevich describes himself as a conservative, but has praise for Jimmy Carter), Bacevich helped me understand the ways that we as a country need to reexamine our foreign policy goals and the sacrifices these demand of us as citizens. It's an accessible and thought-provoking interview and I encourage everyone to check it out: Andrew J. Bacevich

The other show that I was pleasantly surprised by was a dry sounding recap of the presidential candidates health care plans. "Political scientist Jonathan Oberlander offers an in-depth comparison of the Obama and McCain health proposals. Oberlander compared the candidates in his report, The Partisan Divide — The McCain and Obama Plans for U.S. Health Care Reform, which was published Aug. 21, 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine." I know it sounds boring, but it's an important issue and Oberlander does a great job of narrowing it down to the basics: Jonathan Oberlander