THE BIG SHIFT with Jim Paymar

Today, we’re investigating a topic that we all need to survive, water. Without water, there would be no plant life, no forests, crops could not grow, livestock could not exist, so we’d have nothing to eat. The fact is, we as people consist of water. The average adult human body is about 60% water.

Tragically, the world, with some 8,000,000,000 people, growing to 10,000,000,000 by the year 2050, is running out of water as we heat the planet to such an extent that glaciers and snowpack that feed mountain streams disappear.

We are draining ground water from aquifers to the point of no return, and we pollute sources of clean drinking water by using rivers and lakes as virtual industrial and residential sewers.

To discuss this vital issue impacting all of our lives, is Adrienne Esposito, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment based in New York. Adrienne has been a long-time champion of water protection, public health, preventing pesticide use, ending plastic pollution and creating alternative energy sources.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the American way of life is our justice system. The courts are a pillar of our democratic society. A jury trial is a constitutional right.

Our founding fathers believed the right to be tried by a jury of our peers was the highest law of the land. It’s included in the 6th and 7th amendments of the Bill of Rights.

But our court system is under fire. Local courts have been chastised for convicting people of color at a far greater rate than whites. The system often compels innocent people to plead guilty. Different courts in adjacent jurisdictions yield different penalties for the same crime. High-level white-collar executives are rarely prosecuted for serious crimes.

The highest court in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court has been accused of becoming a partisan appendage of the Republican party with six of the nine justices being appointed by the GOP, three justices were appointed by ex-President Donald Trump while President Barack Obama was denied one appointment to the high court.

To discuss these critical issues, impacting all of our lives, is Ron Kuby. Kuby is a nationally known criminal defense and civil rights attorney who’s worked on some of the most high-profile cases in America including New York’s vigilante shooter Bernard Goetz, terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman who orchestrated the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and mass murderer Colin Ferguson. He was a partner with famed attorney William Kuntsler one of the most important civil rights lawyers of the 20th century. Kuby has also hosted national TV and radio programs.

If there was ever a point in time where the world needs to change, it is now. We have two major wars raging, one in Europe and one in the Middle East.

Millions of people in scores of countries do not have enough to eat. Climate change is foreshadowing catastrophic weather events, from rising seas to ferocious storms to incinerating droughts.

Joining us to discuss how we might move forward through the darkness to the light, is world renowned, virtuoso cellist Michael Fitzpatrick.

Michael travels the world using music as a vehicle for increasing peace and compassion for humankind. He’s performed the Musical Keynote for Pope Francis at The Vatican. He performed twenty Musical Keynotes for the Dalai Lama's public talks. Fitzpatrick served as Co-Music Director of the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards.

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “music is the universal language of mankind.” Ludwig van Beethoven said, “Music can change the world." Fitzpatrick has intriguing thoughts about a musical transformation for our planet.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE "FREEBIRTH" PERFORMANCE AT THE END OF THE PODCAST. ONLY A SHORT SEGMENT PLAYED DURING THE INTERVIEW.

Today we’re looking into a subject you may have heard about lately Conservatorship, also referred to as Guardianship. It’s been big news after superstar pop singer Britney Spears wrote a book about being placed in involuntary conservatorship for 13 long years, with her father having near complete control of every aspect of her life. 

Currently, an estimated two-million Americans live under guardianship or conservatorship. 

A shocking fact, state courts confiscate $50 billion in money and property every year from those placed under court ordered guardianship which typically lasts about six years, so an estimated $300 billion worth of assets in this country are under the jurisdiction of a guardian or conservator.

The state-run guardianship system, or conservatorship, is largely unregulated and there are predators in society who prey on the weakest among us. Some people are forced to take medication. Many feel they are virtual prisoners with no rights. There is no national uniform set of principles or guidelines to protect people paced in guardianship.

Joining me to discuss this extremely controversial area of jurisprudence is Diane Dimond. 

Diane is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, syndicated columnist, and former television correspondent who specializes in crime and justice issues. Diane has reported for NBC’s Today Show, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, Court TV. She’s written for Newsweek, the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast. She’s the author of Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case. She has written a new book, We're Here to Help, When Guardianship Goes Wrong. 

Most foreign policy experts agree the most important geopolitical issue of our time, beyond the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is America’s relationship with China.

America and China are the world’s two largest economies by far, they are the top emitters of greenhouse gases, the cause of global warming and extreme weather events. The two nations also spend more on their militaries than any other country.

For several decades America and China became economically interdependent. But in 2018 former President Trump imposed hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs on China citing unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft by China. The Biden administration has kept the tariffs intact.

China’s military expansion in the South Pacific, has pushed the two nations into an arms buildup, a rivalry that threatens the world order. Without the two most powerful nations cooperating, collaborating, and coordinating, there is the prospect of conflict.

We are joined today by Dr. Mei Gechlik, a China Law & Policy Expert, Founder & CEO at SINOTALKS, and Former Director of Stanford University's China Guiding Cases Project. Dr. Gechlik was born in Hong Kong and has extensive experience in China, observing court trials and interviewing judges to complete her Stanford doctorate on judicial reform in China. Apart from law degrees from Beijing and Stanford Universities, she has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at U Penn. She's widely recognized as one of the world’s leading Chinese American legal scholars.

We’re going to discuss how America and China might avoid future tension and work toward finding solutions to our shared global challenges and avoid armed conflict.

Recently we’ve seen the Supreme Court of the United States eliminate a woman’s right to choose whether she bears a child. Affirmative action has been reversed. Students are being forced to pay off intolerable levels of debt. The LGBTQ community is under threat, murders have occurred. We are seeing book banning. Vicious anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant attacks are a regular occurrence. We have an ex-president who’s been indicted multiple times. He continues to perpetrate the BIG LIE that he won the election when he lost badly. He lied about holding onto to classified government materials. He’s been charged with sexual assault and paying hush money to a porn star. What comes next? My next guest is Eric Kay, and he unfortunately has seen this kind of play before. He is a Holocaust survivor. Eric was born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1926 and is now 97 years old. He fears we Americans can lose our rights like the German people did some 100 years ago.

Today we’re looking into attacks on democracy. Many world powers have shifted toward autocracy with strong man leaders. Putin in Russia, Xi in China, Erdogan in Turkey, el-Sisi in Egypt, America with the Trump in 2016, and Viktor Orban in Hungary. There’s been keen interest with Orban in America among Republicans who applaud his support of white Christian values. Orban was invited to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, known as CPAC. Tucker Carlson, before he was fired by FOX, produced a documentary about Orban and also hosted his show from Budapest. Former Vice President Mike Pence visited Hungary for a conference on conservative values. Joining us to discuss Viktor Orbán…. his relationship with the Republicans and his autocratic rule…. is George Lazar who was born in Hungary but has lived in the U.S. since 1980. Lazar worked in the computer science field for major American companies including nearly 20 years as a Director at Price Waterhouse Coopers…. the global accounting and consulting firm. Lazar, now writes about Hungarian politics and visits Hungary frequently where he grew up.

Today we’re looking into a subject that is front and center in American society, diversity, equity and inclusion. The nation was founded on basic principles of liberty, equality and justice for all. The problem is, America has not lived up to those principles, from the genocide of the Native-Americans, to hundreds of years of African-American slavery, a woman’s right to vote and now to choose on pregnancy, to anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant hostility. To explore this critical issue facing our United States,that seem more divided than ever, is Emil Guillermo a print and broadcast journalist and commentator who resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Today, we’re looking at something we take for granted but has a significant impact on our environment in numerous ways, lighting. Electric lights are on 24 hours a day around the world and represent more than 15% of the world’s total electricity consumption.

The International Dark Sky Association estimates about 30 percent of all outdoor lighting in the U.S. alone is wasted adding up to $3.3 billion dollars in cost and the release of 21-million tons of carbon dioxide per year, equal to planting 875 million trees annually.

It’s another huge environmental problem looking for a solution. Nancy Clanton, the CEO of Clanton and Associates headquartered in Boulder, Colorado has spent decades looking at how to develop and implement smart lighting that minimizes the carbon build up in our atmosphere.

Today we’re exploring a vital aspect of our society, news. Shockingly, more than one in five American citizens now live in news deserts with very limited access to local news, according to study by Northwestern University.

Seventy million people, who live in more than 200 counties, don’t have a newspaper…. and more papers are shutting down…. two newspapers a week are disappearing.  

In the past two years, 64 “new”digital state and local news sites went online but that was about the same number that went out of business.

To explore the critical issue of the lack of news and where we are heading without the news….. is Jaci Clement the CEO and Executive Director of the Fair Media Council in New York.  

Jaci is an industry thought leader, a writer, speaker who has submitted filings with the FCC and amicus briefs in media court cases that have influenced outcomes to protect the public interest, and she hosts her own Podcast called Fast Chat. 

Today, we’re delving into the world of communications and the critical role it plays in our lives, particularly in managing and working in business. Robert Kent, the former dean of the Harvard Business School said, ‘In business, communications is everything.’

There’s no one better to explain why that is the case…. than Bill McGowan…. He’s the founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group based in New York. Bill has trained hundreds of high-level executives at Fortune 500 companies. He’s also the author of PITCH PERFECT “How to say it right the first time, every time.”

Bill has been consulting and training business executives at the highest levels for over 20 years, CEO’S from Facebook, Airbnb, Spotify, Calvin Klein, Whole Foods and the Commissioner of the NFL.

In this podcast, Bill walks us through how developing solid communications for business people, actors, sports stars, anyone who gets in front of an audience, is storytelling and simplicity. Listen to the podcast and Bill will help you understand how to make your presentation PITCH PERFECT.

A special guest on THE BIG SHIFT today, Ann Ravel. She was the Chair of the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C., was Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, she worked for the United States Department of Justice and was a professor at the U.C. Berkeley School of Law. Today, Ann travels the world speaking and serving on panels working to preserve the right to vote. We’re discussing one of the most important issues this country faces, the right to vote. Voting is the backbone of American democracy, and it is threatened by the courts, including the Supreme Court, and state legislatures that are creating barriers for the American people to get to the polls.

YOU MUST VOTE. The vote in Wisconsin this week swung the Supreme Court to the progressives. A vote in Wisconsin this week gave the state senate a super majority and the right to impeach state officials. Your vote is critical for the future of democracy.

Today, we’re exploring a subject you might not think about when you think about the devastating impact of Climate Change, your toxic yard and the gas-powered leaf blowers, GLB’s for short, that are used on millions of yards around the country.

I think you’ll be shocked to learn just how much pollution is caused by the GLB’S and the health hazards they pose to you, your neighbors, to the workers and to the environment.

Joining me to discuss this important issue of our toxic lawns is Dr. Bonnie Sager.

Dr. Sager co-founded Huntington CALM (Clean Alternative Landscape Methods) in Huntington, New York which is located on the North Shore of Long Island, outside New York City. Long Island, for those of you unfamiliar, has a population of 3,000,000.

Dr. Sager has worked with elected officials, public-health and environmental experts, community representatives, manufacturers and operators from the landscaping and lawn-care industries… to accelerate a BIG SHIFT to cleaner, quieter, healthier and more sustainable practices in landscaping.

Today, we’re exploring the critical issues of conservation, preservation of habitat and the wildlife that live on our planet.

You might be stunned to know that more than one-million species are currently on the brink extinction, a rate not seen in 10 million years.

To explore how we can help stop this cataclysm, is Linda Lanzl the founder of SAFE Worldwide, which stands for Saving Animals Facing Extinction Worldwide. SAFE is a non-profit developing community programs, and partnerships with wildlife conservation organizations across the planet.

Today, we’re looking into something we should pay a lot of attention to, our health, and I’m not just talking about our physical health, but our mental health, our emotional health, our ability to live our lives in the midst of troublesome events, instability in our homes, violence on the streets, pandemics, and the impact of climate change.

Joining me now to discuss how we might collectively work together to make this world safer and saner, is Dr. Tami Roos. Tami was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, spent thirty years in Australia and now lives, lucky for her, in Hawaii.

She received her bachelor’s degree in International Business from San Diego State University, her MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and her PhD in Parapsychic Science from the American Institute of Holistic Theology.

Tami….. also recently published a book called Presence to Power: I AM the Gift.”

Today, we’re delving into the issue of immigration, drugs, guns and cartels from the Mexican side of the border. There is rarely a day that goes by that we don’t see tragic stories of immigrants trapped at the Mexican border, immigrants being deported, immigrants being shipped across America by Republican politicians who are sending desperate people to northern states.

To discuss THE BIG SHIFT…. America is confronting on the immigration…. issue is Ambassador Ricardo Camara.

As a career diplomat… Mr. Camara has worked around the world for the Mexican government… including postings as Deputy Consul General in Paris……Director General of Economic Relations for Latin America and the Asia-Pacific regions….. General Consul and Deputy Head of the Mexican Mission in London and Ambassador to Vietnam.

Today, we’re discussing a subject, that’s unfortunately in the news far too often, police brutality.

Recently, we saw the brutal beat down in Memphis, Tennessee of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, a father of a four-year-old, after being stopped for a traffic violation, just 100 yards from his home.

The beating was severe. Nichols was brought to the hospital in critical condition and died two days later from his injuries.

Five police officers were indicted and charged with second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, and other charges.

Joining me to discuss police brutality and policing in general, is Laura Goodman a former sergeant in the Minneapolis Police Department and Deputy Chief of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, a suburb of Minneapolis. She now travels the world as a policing advocate focusing on how to improve police-community relationships, reducing violence and increasing the representation of women in police leadership roles.

Hello everyone, I’m Jim Paymar…. and you are listening to THE BIG SHIFT…. the podcast that looks at the seismic changes our world, our economies, and our environments are confronting.

Today, we’re discussing the critical issue of Healthcare that impacts every man, woman and child in America at some point in their lives.

Of course, as we all know, healthcare can be very expensive. An average three-day hospital stay could cost $30,000. Healthcare spending accounts for nearly 20% of America’s Gross Domestic Product.

And medical care is becoming more sophisticated and complex every day.

Joining me to discuss this important issue, is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject, Michael Dowling, the President and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in the entire state of New York.

Michael Dowling, the CEO of Northwell Health….. who by the way was named America’s most influential health care leader in 2022 and after listening to him one can easily see why.

Today, we’re discussing a subject that’s in the news every day, the horrific war being waged by the Russian Federation, in their attempt to seize and control the democratic nation of Ukraine in the heart of Europe.

You’ve all seen the video of terrible destruction being rained down on the Ukrainian civilian population by Russian missiles, bombs and drones, the mass graves of innocent civilians executed by Russian troops.

Most thought this kind of terror would never happen again after the horrors in World War II. However, before the current Russian massacre… there was another genocidal war in the early 1990’s, as the former Yugoslavia disintegrated…. and Serbs, Croatians and Bosnians fought for control of territory.

Joining me to discuss the parallels between today’s war in Ukraine and the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is Leila Prnjavorac (purr-na-vo-rach) a communications expert, a lecturer, and a Freedom Ambassador who now resides in the Hague.

Today, we’re discussing a subject of critical importance to our society, business intelligence and how it impacts capital investments that drive the economy. When a company decides to do conduct business overseas the executives need to know about foreign governments, banking, international rules and regulations. Without that knowledge they can fail. There are techniques business can use to protect itself from falling into a trap. To discuss THE BIG SHIFT the world economy is experiencing is Bill Hutman, the Founder and Managing Director of GlobalSourceLLC an “international investigative business intelligence company”. Bill is a former investigative reporter whose work has appeared in such prestigious publications as the New York Times and The Times of London and the Harvard University Press.Bill is also the author of “Conversations… Thinking about Talking” a book about the importance of actually talking to each other and learning from real people and not just accessing information from social media.

On this edition of  "THE BIG SHIFT" we discuss a subject of extreme importance to our society, disinformation and misinformation and how it impacts our decision making, our politics and how our society can move forward in a positive direction when we no longer trust, and no longer know…. that what we read, view or hear in the media…… is true or not. We’ve gone through a rough few years in society and so much has changed. The pandemic which started in early 2020 is still with us today. Along with the pandemic, millions of American’s immersed themselves online…..  and began reading a great deal of unsavory, racist, anti-Semitic and untruthful information. …. There was disinformation about getting vaccinated, fictitious stories about the pandemic being caused by a deliberate leak from a lab in China, that COVID-19 was linked to cell towers that the virus was a hoax. The ex-President suggested bleach as a treatment. There was so much being thrown at us it was hard to know what to believe. 

Today, we’re discussing our volatile economy with a long-time expert in that field, Dr. Nicholas Sargen, the author of several books including “Global Shocks: An Investment Guide for Turbulent Markets.” The global economy has suffered through a series of global shocks – the coronavirus pandemic, which is still with us, the energy shock related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shutting down gas supplies to Europe and of course the biggest threat of all climate change wreaking havoc around the world. On top of that inflation has soared to the highest level in 4 decades, forcing the Fed to raise rates aggressively…. five hikes in 2022. Economists believe the chance of a recession next year are 50:50. What might we see going forward?

This episode of THE BIG SHIFT is about the radical changes the TV world has undergone since it began in the late 1940's to a landscape of hundreds of channels, cable, streaming and FAST TV. The podcast also delves into the way the news, once reliable, has been obliterated by opinion based on lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories. We also explore how TV has influenced the discourse of our society. My guest is Judith Bishop a TV veteran who has seen it all. She recently wrote a book called CHANGING CHANNELS and has talked to some of the biggest names in the television world about our brave new world of TV.

Hello my name is Jim Paymar…. You may have heard me anchor and report on CNBC, WNBC and WABC in New York, KRON in San Francisco and BusinessWeek…. 

Today you are listening to my new podcast The Big Shift that is focused on the massive changes America, the world and we as individuals are experiencing. 

Who could have imagined a couple of years back we’d undergo a global Coronavirus pandemic, that our Capitol would be invaded by supporters of a losing president who couldn’t relinquish power, that Russia would invade Ukraine, that we would experience dramatic climate events, droughts, floods, fires and ice sheets melting away.

On The Big Shift we explore how our society is going to survive threats to our planet, our governments, and how we can maintain freedom and liberty not just in America but around the world. 

 Can we survive "The Big Shift"?