Patt Morrison for Thursday, 12/31/09

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Thursday, December 31, 2009

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:30

The life of a dissident inside Iran

Reports are emerging from Iran that the government is starting to push back against a wave of protests by gradually locking up anyone and everyone associated with the opposition movement, from reformist politicians to journalists.  There are even whispers that the regime will soon arrest Mir-Hossein Moussavi himself, the loser of June’s disputed presidential election and the symbolic leader of the opposition.  What are the ambitions of the Iranian political opposition and how do its leaders feel about nuclear weapons, relations with the West and religious radicalism?  Patt talks to one woman who lived the dissident’s life in Iran for some perspective.

 

Guests:

Borzou Daragahi, Middle East correspondent for the Los Angeles Times

CALL HIM:

• Borzou is currently in Beirut but was reporting from inside Iran as recently as December 21^st.

 

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, former member of the Iranian Parliament and reforming politician in Iran; visiting scholar at the Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston

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• Haghighatojoo served in the Iranian Parliament from 2000 – 2004 and was the first to resign when the anti-reform Guardian Council banned more than 2000 reforming candidates from that year’s parliamentary election.
• She was president of the Student Movement Caucus in Tehran.
• Before she entered politics she was a professor of psychology at the National University of Iran; here in the U.S. she’s served as a visiting scholar at the Center for International Studies at MIT and a fellow in the Women & Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

 

 

1:30 - 1:39

NOT CONFIRMED:  PLEASE DON'T PROMOTE

President Obama's probe into terror attack yields early details

An early look at reviews ordered by President Obama into the attempted terror attack on Christmas Day shows information was "vague but available" that would have kept a bomb off a Northwest flight into Detroit.  Administration officials are blaming "a mix of human and systemic failures" for the intelligence failure.  We hear details from Mike Allen, chief White House correspondent for Politico.com, who got a look at those documents.

 

Guest:

Mike Allen, Chief White House Correspondent for Politico.com

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1:41 – 1:58:30

Absolute power corrupts? Absolutely.
It is the ‘chicken or the egg’ question of ethics – does power corrupt or do the corrupt seek power? As 2009 draws to a close we take a look back at some of the most audacious examples of that false sense of superiority that so often comes with a position of power and look at new research from the Kellogg School of Management that explores the moral hypocrisy of powerful people.

Guests:
Adam Galinsky, the Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management at the Kellogg School
CALL HIM:

 

2:06 – 2:30

Happy New Year, America: enjoy the party because it won’t last

The 20^th century was clearly America’s century, as the country set the global tone politically, militarily and economically.  The 21^st century, at least in its infancy, could be the century of American decline, judging by its first ten years.  In the essay and forthcoming book “End of Influence” two economists lay out how America’s money, influence and power are on a diminishing course.  While American culture still rules the world, the country is unlikely to remain hegemonic, thanks mostly to our teetering economy supported uneasily by mountains of debt.  While the 1900’s were an American party, the 2000’s might prove to be one heck of a hangover for the U.S.

 

Guests:

Stephen Cohen, professor of regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley; co-director of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy

 

Brad DeLong, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley; chair of the Political Economy of Industrial Societies major at Cal

 

 

2:30 – 2:39

OPEN

 

 

2:41 – 2:58:30

The Truth-Gradient in Memoir Writing

The cover of Ben Yagoda’s Memoir includes a laurel wreath, an astronaut’s helmet, and a pilot’s cap, invoking the idea that one can wear many hats—and write with many personalities. And as Yagoda insists, memoirs are not 100% true, and the parts that are true may be hard to identify. Listing hundreds of examples of memoir trends, overdone “shtick lit,” sincere originality, and everything in between, Yagoda’s Memoir is for the well-read.

 

Guest:

Ben Yagoda, author of Memoir: A History.

ON TAPE

 

 

Jonathan Serviss

Producer, Patt Morrison Program

Southern California Public Radio

NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles

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