Posted 12:43 PM by Blah blah

For Foreign Policy Lovers: Speeches/Talks in Streaming Video (Thoughtful, Politics)

To learn more about what experts have to say about our foreign policy, economy, politics, and all that important but "boring" stuff that ultimately affects all of us, please check out these links. Here's what the movers and shakers in politics, academia, media, and business have to say.

Of course I don't find this stuff boring. I LOVE this stuff. You'll find unexpected gems and eloquence if you dig into these sites. I wish I had more friends who cared about world affairs. I'm dying to talk to people about it. In fact, I'm starving. To those who have replied to me about politics, thank you thank you! Please keep doing so.

1. Charlie Rose Show. What more can I say about this wonderful TV interview show on PBS that I haven't already? Watch interviews with some of the world's most influential people, in science, arts, business, and politics, over the Internet. I've joined his message board and am finding more people who share my interests in politics and humanities. Goodbye RBJ teenyboppers!

2. Conversations with History, from UC Berkeley's Institute of International Studies. See transcripts and videos of interviews with all kinds of movers and shakers who have visited Berkeley. Some guests include: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Berkeley English professor Frederick Crews on creative writing, director Oliver Stone, head of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Joseph Nye, ex-Governor General of Hong Kong Christopher Patten, Chinese human rights dissident Wei Jingsheng, Dean Tom Farer on being an international lawyer, ex-U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, MIT physicist Victor Weisskopf, and former 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (featured in that Russell Crowe movie The Insider).

3. Rice University Webcasts, speakers at the James Baker Institute for Public Policy. My favorite diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, gave this clear and enlightening speech about Iraq last October. I hear he's advising three Democratic presidential candidates now, so he has a good shot at becoming our next Secretary of State. I really hope he does. Richard Holbrooke has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times. He's truly a great man! He inspires all of you who may only be used to corruption in politics.

You MUST watch this speech by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Very fun and lively talk about globalization and how the world has changed.

Also see this great discussion, Political Islam and the Jihad Against America, with Allen Matusow.

Other people from the Rice Webcasts include: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, ex-S. African President Nelson Mandela, PLO head Yasir Arafat, "father" of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, and MIT psychology professor Steven Pinker on How the Mind Works.

4. Commonwealth Club of N. California, America's oldest and largest public affairs forum. This club has been going for 100 years. "Along the way, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates have all given landmark speeches at the Club." Speeches are broadcast on National Public Radio, and you may both listen to them and read their transcripts on the website.

5. World Affairs Council of N. California, similar to the Commonwealth Club. Big thinkers, big issues, important people. Listen to the speeches. Speakers include: Sun Joun-Yung (Korean ambassador to the U.N.), William Cole (head of the Asia Foundation), Caspar W. Weinberger (chairman of Forbes and ex-U.S. Defense Secretary), and China experts like Orville Schell.

See Fareed Zakaria's excellent 4/23/02 speech, "Why Do They Hate Us?" about the Muslim world's view of America.

6. Frontline, the PBS investigative reporting program I keep plugging on this site. They do some of the best investigative TV reporting, period. You may view the complete TV broadcasts of 15 of their programs now.

7. Council on Foreign Relations. Charlie Rose, Walter Russell Mead, and other thinkers are members of this influential foreign policy think tank. It publishes the journal Foreign Affairs. See the transcripts/videos of their public forums. Speakers include Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Richard Holbrooke and the French & German Ambassadors to the U.S., Alan Greenspan, and President Hu Jintao of China.

8. Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Their videos include: Iraq Teach-In Q/A with Yale professors, Thomas Friedman, Kofi Annan, Carl Pope, Sandy Berger, and Zhiwu Chen about the China economy.

9. NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. This PBS program is the best in-depth daily news program on TV. They always have extended 20-minute discussions about major issues.

This ought to fill the appetite of you policy wonks out there!