August 17 - A Mysterious Bombing in Thailand; Clinton Dogged By Scandal While it Rolls Off Trump; Amazon's Darwinian Work Practices

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the bombing at a shrine in Bangkok, Thailand that is a popular tourist site, which resulted in 20 killed and over 120 injured. Gerald Fry, a distinguished professor of international and intercultural education at the University of Minnesota who wrote the definitive book on Thailand, “A Historical Dictionary of Thailand” and has a forthcoming book “The Thais: The Bamboo and the Lotus” joins us. We will discuss the military government’s charge that the bombers “targeted foreigners to damage tourism and the economy” and examine whether the bombing is a result of the country’s deep political rivalry between the red shirts and the yellow shirts, as well as speculate if and when Thailand will emerge from its destructive pattern of polarized civilian governments interspersed between military coups.

Part 2

Then we speak with Mark Feldstein, a professor and the Chair of Journalism at the University of Maryland and author of “Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture.” We examine why Hillary Clinton can’t seem to get out from under the constant media refrain of real and manufactured scandals that dog her campaign, while the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, brushes off career-ending scandals that roll off him like water off a duck’s back.  

Part 3

Then finally we get an analysis of The New York Times’ investigative article on employment and work practices at the country’s most valuable retailer Amazon, and speak with Barbara Garson, the author of “The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers are Transforming the Office of the Future” and “Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession”. We will discuss how the country’s fifth richest person, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, has imposed a work culture of “purposeful Darwinism” that encourages workers to snitch on each other as they strive long hours in a corporate game of musical chairs to avoid being fired in the annual culling of the workforce.