Diane Rehm: On My Mind

What’s behind Donald Trump’s obsession with Greenland?  Most of the island is covered in ice, less than sixty thousand people live there and, until recently, it was best known for snowy photos of polar bears. But climate change has changed the equation and thrust the island into the middle of global politics.  Donald Trump has repeatedly said he’d like to buy the territory, and last week at a news conference he said that taking military action to acquire it was not off the table.  Sherri Goodman is secretary general of the International Military Council on Climate and Security. She is also a senior fellow at the Wilson Center and author of a new book, “Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security.” 

For the last year The Wall Street Journal has been investigating the Medicare Advantage program. It was originally created to make healthcare for seniors and the disabled more efficient. The idea was to outsource insurance to private companies to save taxpayer dollars -- and avoid providers gaming the system as they had in the traditional Medicare program. “Some of those good intentions did not foresee how companies would respond to the financial incentives that had been created,” says Christopher Weaver, one of the Journal reporters who looked at the issue. He says companies have bilked the system for billions of dollars using tactics like over diagnosing patients.  Christopher Weaver joins Diane on this episode of On My Mind to share the results of his investigation – and discuss the future of the Medicare Advantage program. For more on The Wall Street Journal's series on the Medicare Advantage program: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/christopher-weaver

A note from Diane: Over the years I had the chance to interview President Jimmy Carter more than 10 times. We talked about his faith, his rural childhood, his triumphs and challenges as president, and his work as a global humanitarian after his years in the White House. He was always kind, warm, gracious and thoughtful. But what made him such an interesting person to talk to was that he never stopped learning, never stopped evolving. You could see this in how he approached the issues he cared about: housing and homelessness, the peace process in the Middle East, and international health, to name a few. Now, as we look back on his legacy, I wanted to share excerpts of our conversations with you. You can find many of Diane's conversations with President Carter in their entirety here: https://wamu.org/series/diane-rehm-in-conversation-with-president-carter-through-the-years/

January 20 will mark the end of the presidency of Joe Biden.  Biden came into office as the man who stopped Donald Trump, with promises of serving one term then passing the torch to the next generation.  His administration led the country out of the Covid crisis and included some blockbuster legislative successes, as well as a great deal of partisan gridlock. But it might be his decision to run again that will come to define his legacy. “He decided to seek a second term and that proved a perilous decision,” says Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at USA Today, pointing out that many Democrats blame him for Trump’s victory in November.  And yet, she tells Diane on today’s episode of On My Mind, she considers Joe Biden to be a transformative president whose accomplishments could be felt for decades to come.

Thousands of years ago humans learned to control the power of water – and civilization was born. Now, in a new book, Jeremy Rifkin argues climate change has shifted that equation, and water is once again controlling us – with floods, droughts, hurricanes and typhoons.  “The waters are rebelling,” he says. “They are literally taking down the infrastructure of our civilization in real time.” Rifkin is the author of more than 20 books about the influence of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, and the environment. He has advised governments around the globe on how to adapt economies and infrastructure to a changing world. He joins Diane to talk about his new book, “Planet Aqua,” a plea to radically rethink our relationship to water and its impact on our future.

Earlier this week Diane hosted a special edition of The Diane Rehm Book Club, her monthly series held on ZOOM in front of a live audience.  This month she asked some of her favorite book lovers to join her to talk about their favorite reads of year. And they did not disappoint.  Her guests were Ann Patchett, novelist and owner of Parnassus Books, Eddie Glaude Jr., professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of several books on race and politics, and Maureen Corrigan, book critic on NPR’s Fresh Air. She also teaches literary criticism at Georgetown University.  See below for a list of each guest’s top books of the year, along with all of the titles discussed during this conversation.  Maureen Corrigan’s top books of 2024: “James” by Percival Everett “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna “Long Island” by Colm Tóibín “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar “Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner “Cahokia Jazz” by Francis Spufford “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore “A Wilder Shore” by Camille Peri “The Letters of Emily Dickinson” edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell Ann Patchett’s top books of 2024: “James” by Percival Everett “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna “Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout “Mighty Red” by Louise Erdrich “Time of the Child” by Niall Williams “An Unfinished Love Story” by Doris Kearns Goodwin “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan “Hotel Balzaar” by Kate DiCamillo (middle grade book)  “Water, Water: Poems” by Billy Collins Eddie Glaude Jr.’s top books of 2024: “Slaveroad” by John Edgar Wideman “Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative” by Isabella Hammad  “We’re Alone” by Edwidge Danticat Other titles mentioned in the discussion: “Wide Sargasso Sea” with introduction by Edwidge Danticat  “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver  “The Dog Who Followed the Moon: An Inspirational Story with Meditations on Life, Experience the Power of Love and Sacrifice” by James Norbury  “Afterlives” by Abdulrazak Gurnah  “Someone Knows My Name” by Lawrence Hill  “Moon Tiger” by Penelope Lively  “Sandwich” by Catherine Newman  “Windward Heights” by Maryse Condé  “There's Always This Year” by Hanif Abdurraqib  “Mothers and Sons” by Adam Haslett (publication date in January 2025)  “Memorial Day” by Geraldine Brooks (publication date in February 2025)  “33 Place Brugmann” by Alice Austen (publication date in March 2025)  “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell  “Independent People” by Halldor Laxness  “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald  “Beloved” by Toni Morrison  “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward To find out more about The Diane Rehm Book Club go to dianerehm.org/bookclub.

Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. They say they will cut one third of the federal budget, slash regulations, reduce the federal workforce ... and that it “will be easy!” David Fahrenthold is an investigative reporter at The New York Times and has covered government spending for years. He says there are certainly places where government can run more efficiently, and where waste and fraud can be eliminated.  However, he adds, “It’s really hard to find places where you can cut a trillion or 2 trillion dollars and not drastically cut back the services people expect from the government.  Fahrenthold joins Diane to talk about what the leaders of DOGE have in mind and what it will take to accomplish their goals.

For years experts have warned about a looming crisis facing the Social Security system. According to current estimates, the program will become insolvent by 2034, at which time benefits would be automatically cut.   During the campaign, President-elect Trump positioned himself as an advocate of the program, which remains highly popular among voters. But economist Teresa Ghilarducci says that if you dig into his proposals, a different picture emerges.  A recent analysis shows his policies would move up the date of insolvency from 11 years to 9 years. “It’s kind of a shocker,” she says. “He’s very bold in his policies.” Teresa Ghilarducci is a professor of economics at The New School and author of the new book "Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy.” She joins Diane to explain the urgency of addressing Social Security’s finances and why Trump’s proposals would make the situation worse.

For years, legendary folk singer Joan Baez wrote poems and tucked them away in notebooks and on scraps of paper. She started this decades ago, around the time memories surfaced of childhood abuse at the hands of her father.  Baez says poetry was a way to explore the reasons behind her lifelong phobias, insomnia and panic attacks – and to come to terms with a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder, which for her meant she lived with several other voices in her head.  Now 83, Baez has taken these musings about her life, her trauma, and her passions for nature and art, and is sharing them with the world.  “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance” reads like a diary in verse, and offers deep insight into the experiences and creativity of one of our nation’s most beloved folk musicians. Diane spoke to Joan Baez on Zoom in front of a live audience as part of The Diane Rehm `Book Club in August of this year. They talked about the book, as well as the recent documentary about Baez’s life, “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise.” Find out more about The Diane Rehm Book Club here: dianerehm.org/bookclub

Donald Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s an appointment that has many public health experts more than a little concerned.  For years Kennedy has spread misinformation about vaccines, calling into question their safety and efficacy. He has promoted controversial or debunked medical treatments. He has falsely linked antidepressants to school shootings. And he has accused the federal agencies he will oversee as having an interest in “mass poisoning the American public.”  Dr. Céline Gounder is an infectious disease specialist, epidemiologist and currently the editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News. She joins Diane to separate the facts from falsehoods and outline just how much power Kennedy might have over our healthcare system.