Perspectives Matter... A McCuistion Program

Perspectives Matter #2922 - The Attack on Democracy and Civil Liberties

According to Freedom House (2023) global freedom has been declining for the last 17 years.
Joining Host Jim Falk to talk about the increase in attacks on democratic institutions and civil liberties in countries that were once considered established democracies is:
Moíses Naím, Ph.D., Former Minister of Trade and Industry for Venezuela, who is considered one of the foremost thinkers on how leaders or in this case, dictators and authoritarians, gather and exercise power. He is currently a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A syndicated columnist and a prolific author, his latest book is The Revenge of Power: How
Autocrats are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century.
George Orwell said, We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it; yet why do some who gain power use that power for good, and some for their own personal means at the expense of the people they govern?
As Freedom House and Dr. Naím remind us, “Freedom flourishes in democratic nations where governments are accountable to their people.”
Dr. Naím discusses the rise in autocracy and that freedom and democracy are to be treasured and protected. The liberties that we take for granted today can be slowly and deliberately diluted if as citizens we are not engaged and vigilant.
 
Program aired on KERA July 16, 2023
 
Watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.
 

Perspectives Matter #2919 - The E.V. Battery Challenge

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 changes the eligibility rules to claim a tax credit for clean vehicles. The act is an ongoing, very aggressive campaign to revolutionize the automobile industry and get consumers to ditch combustion engine, gasoline-powered vehicles in favor of EVs – electric vehicles. Could this tip consumers to move to electric vehicles?
While these incentives may spur demand, there are headwinds that may stall if not derail growth and the most important of these surround the battery, which is complicated and expensive.
The jury is still out, despite how attractive electric vehicles may be.
Joining Host Jim Falk are:Tony Quiroga, the Editor in Chief of Car and Driver Magazine andSteve LeVine, the editor of The Electric, and author of The Powerhouse: America, China and the Great Battery War.
Our guests discuss the pros and cons EVs present, primarily as it relates to charging EVs and the battery challenge. Join us to learn more about what lies in our future and the EVs we may or may not buy.
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.

Perspectives Matter #2917 - The Growing Issues of Homeless Youth

In Dallas alone, studies show the homeless population has grown 500% in the last six years.
An exceptionally vulnerable segment of the homeless population is our youth. It’s estimated that just within the Dallas Independent School District, there are over 4,000 students who meet the federal definition of homeless.
For many young people, family issues lead to their being homeless; child abuse and/or neglect, domestic violence, parental substance use, and other family conflicts.
Joining our host, Jim Falk, is After8 to Educate Founder and Chairman, Jorge Baldor, a fierce advocate of education. Jorge founded After8 in 2017 to help this vulnerable demographic; and its Executive Director, Dr. Ara Grimaldo, who joined After8 in 2021.
We also visited the After8 to Educate campus to learn firsthand the exemplary work they do. Their model is being replicated in other cities throughout the United States.
The discussion offers insights into this growing issue, the challenges with funding, and what is being done to support our homeless youth.
Join us for a poignant and enlightening look at solutions and challenges with our unsheltered youth and an example that stands out as a beacon for other cities- After8 to Educate.

Perspectives Matter #2921 - The Escalating North Korea Challenge

To say the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea is contentious is putting it mildly.
That North Korea is only one of three countries that can threaten the U.S. with nuclear weapons is of great concern, not only to the U.S.
Joining host Jim Falk to talk about our relations with North Korea and its impact on world events are:
Jenny Town, a senior fellow and director of the Stimson Center’s 38 North Program which provides in-depth analysis on North Korea, and
Dr. Siegfried Hecker, a leading expert on nuclear issues. From 1986 to 1997, he was the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is the author of Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program.
This past April, President Biden hosted South Korea’s President Yun Suk Yeol, for a summit marking the 70th anniversary of our alliance. Critical points were addressed including the strength of the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea in the face of an attack from North Korea.
According to S. Korea’s President “North Korea’s obsession with nuclear weapons and missiles is throwing its population into a severe economic crisis and human rights abuses.”
President Yun Suk Yeol called South Korea’s bond with the U.S. “an alliance of universal values. Freedom, human rights, and democracy are the very foundations of our bonds.”
He said, that South Korea, with the U.S. “will play the role as ‘a compass for freedom'” throughout the world and stand as a bulwark against North Korean aggression.”
We’d like to hear your views.
Join us for an in-depth discussion on the present state of our relationship with both S. and N. Korea.
 
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.

Perspectives Matter#2914 - Do Authoritarians Rule the World? Part Two

Joining host Dennis McCuistion once again are:
Barbara Kolm, Ph.D., Director, The Austrian Economics Center; President of the Friedrich August von Hayek Institute andRobert Salinas-Leon, Ph.D., Director, Center for Latin America at Atlas Network, President of the Mexico Business Forum.
As we discussed in Part One of this program series, we are seeing increasingly flagrant abuses of power, in many parts of the world.
This program focuses on the economics of and examples of autocracy. It looks at the end use of power and discusses the pillars of power, populism, polarization, and post-truths.
The question that remains unanswered is, what about autocracy in the United States?
 
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.

Perspectives Matter #2913 - Do Authoritarians Rule the World? PartOne

Joining host Dennis McCuistion are:
Barbara Kolm, Ph.D., Director, The Austrian Economics Center; President of the Friedrich August von Hayek Institute andRobert-Salinas-Leon, Ph.D., Director, Center for Latin America at Atlas Network, President of the Mexico Business Forum.
In 1887, Lord Acton, England said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority….”
Today, there appears to be an increasing number of autocrats and political leaders who rule solely for their own interests. From N. Korea to Iran, Saudi, and Latin America, we are seeing some flagrant abuses of power and instances of how absolute power corrupts.
Our experts focus on how authoritarians exercise and abuse their power shaping world events and not for the better.
 
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.

Perspectives Matter #2918 - Is an E.V. in Every Garage in Our Future?

The Biden administration has announced that by 2030 50% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. will be electric. That’s a heavy lift, since last year only 5.8% of vehicles sold were electric. In this program, we discuss whether this ambitious goal is attainable.
Joining Jim Falk Host, are:
Timothy Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of the Practice of Energy and Environment at Duke University, andRobert Bryce, author of A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations, host of the Power Hungry Podcast.
Some of the issues they address:
Will there be enough charging stations?
Is the electrical grid large and stable enough to power the anticipated growth?
Where will the rare materials needed to manufacture the batteries come from?
And, lastly, who will foot the bill?
What are the major obstacles that will impact whether the Administration’s goal can be met?
Related to the above, what must happen before electric vehicles become a “normal” option for everyday car buyers?
 
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.

Perspectives Matter #2819 - What We Need to Know About Mass Shootings

Join our host Vince Poscente who interviewed key experts on the topic of mass and school shootings, just last fall:
Mark Follman, national affairs editor at Mother Jones, and the author of Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America, Katherine Schweit,retired FBI agent and author of Stop the Killing: How to End the Mass Shooting Crisis, whom the FBI tagged to create their active shooter program, after Sandy Hook, andPeter F. Langman, Ph.D., a counseling psychologist and author of Warning Signs: Identifying School Shooters Before They Strike Dr. Langman’s research on school shooters has been cited in congressional testimony on Capitol Hill.
Defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which four or more victims are shot or killed, mass shootings are on the rise. To date (2023), there have been 184 mass shootings in the U.S.
These mass shootings have led to 248 deaths and 744 injuries. https://abcnews.go.com/US/116-people-died-gun-violence-day-us-year/story?id=97382759
 As Mark Follman states, “The massacres don’t come out of nowhere. This is planned violence.”
Mass shootings are on the rise, caused by personal grievances to the rise in life stressors, both in general and as a result of the pandemic, especially hardships related to finances, employment or family and relationships.
These issues can lead some people “to act out or respond violently,” said Jaclyn Schildkraut, the interim executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the non-partisan Rockefeller Institute of Government. https://rockinst.org/gun-violence/mass-shooting-factsheet/
Our guest’s counsel:
If you have guns at home, make sure they are safely locked up. 
Mass shooters don’t just snap! The shootings are carefully planned and thought out.
There are signals mass shooters drop about their intentions. Most are ignored.
They state “It’s our role as society to place more obstacles and barriers to make sure we stop this violence once and for all.”
 
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.

Perspectives Matter #2909 - Resilience: Can Adversity Make You Stronger?

This week, we talk about resilience with people who have faced extreme adversity and are now stronger and leading thriving lives.
Join host Vince Poscente as he interviews three real-life heroes:
Allison Massari, an artist,W. Mitchell, CPAE, a professional speaker, andCaptain J. Charlie Plumb, USNR, CPAE, POW
W. Mitchell, a former mayor of Crested Butte, Colorado, survived burns over 65% of his body during a motorcycle accident and later became paralyzed from the waist down after a plane crash. Allison Massari, an artist and keynote speaker, was trapped in a burning car, which left 50% of her body burned. Captain Charlie Plumb, a retired Navy fighter pilot, was held prisoner of war for six years during the Vietnam conflict.
Each tells their story of what happened, how they overcame their disaster, and how their lives changed as a result of the resilience factor.
Today all three have thriving businesses and talk about adversity and resilience to audiences all over the world.
Join us to hear their incredible stories of resilience and learn from their experiences.
 
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.

Perspectives Matter #2908 - The Science of Resilience: Nature or Nurture?

The dictionary defines resilience as “The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”
Resilience has long been thought to be what an individual can do to overcome adversity, brave the odds and conquer failure and life and health issues, etc.
A plethora of self-help books and motivational wisdom offer steps to grow strengths such as grit, gratitude, and fortitude, among others, to grow our resilience factor.
Yet is that all there is to it? Joining Host Vince Poscente are:
Michael Ungar, Ph.D., The Resilience Research Centre at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia andAndrew Nevin, Ph.D., Advisory Partner, Chief Economist, PwC, Nigeria, scientist and an economist who brings a different perspective to the definition.
So is resilience an individual trait, we either have true grit or we don’t?
Some scientists say differently that resilience comes about because we have more than individual grit. It is also the circumstances we grew up in, the resources we had or have that help us overcome.
They tie resilience to performance and productivity as stronger resilience factors are a boon to business in general.
Join us to learn more about a “trait” much needed in today’s challenging times.
Perspectives Matter is a McCuistion Program, and as part of a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization does not receive any pledge dollars, PBS funds, or government grants. The funding which has kept us on the air for 33-plus years comes from our grantors and loyal viewers. Your donation allows us to continue to hold engaging programs that provide different perspectives.
 
To be a catalyst for change, support our TV programs.
 
 
You can also watch Perspectives Matter episodes on our website, https://mccuistiontv.com/, or on our YouTube channel, https://youtube.com/c/mccuistiontv.