Culture

When you turn on a light bulb, fill up your gas tank, or pay your electric bill, how often do you think about the fall of the Roman Empire? Chances are, not much - but Jeremy Rifkin, adviser to the European Union and author of The Third Industrial Revolution, might urge you to start. That's because, according to Rifkin, the fall of Rome was directly tied to the Empire's failure to find new energy sources to meet the needs of its growing economy -- and, he warns, we're on a similar trajectory unless we can revamp our energy regime to fit the demands of twenty-first century society.

You may know your playlists like the back of your hand, but what if your playlists also knew you? Tony Churnside, media technologist at the BBC, says the notion is not so far fetched.   He and his team have developed a radio that is fully flexible to your wants and needs - including adapting its coverage depending on where you are and what you like.

Seth Godin is a fantastically successful entrepreneur who — in his own words — has been thrown out of offices, looked at like he’s crazy, and generally refused to follow the crowd. It’s the personal history you might expect from someone whose latest book, “The Icarus Deception,” argues that those who don’t innovate and think creatively will be left behind by the Internet generation. In 1998, Yahoo paid $30 million for the marketing company Godin started on a shoestring and made him a Vice President. But Godin soon left Yahoo, wrote bestselling books about the new innovation economy and spoke at companies like Disney, Amazon, and Google — and he wants American education to encourage similar risks.  

Should we always reward the highest bidder? We explore the moral limits of markets with Harvard's Michael Sandel, author of “What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets.” Read More...