Thanksgiving Turkeys, Loneliness, Koala Tracker Dogs

What are Native Land Acknowledgements About? (0:36)
Guest: Christine McRae, Executive Director, Native Land Digital
Recently, I’ve started to noticing speakers at public events say something along the lines of: “We are gathered today in native space and on the traditional lands of the Massachusett tribe," or “Before I begin this morning, I’d like to recognize the Algonquin nation on whose traditional territory we are gathering. We acknowledge them as the past, present and future caretakers of this land.” In one of the more high-profile examples, actor and director Taika Waititi acknowledged native land at this year’s Oscars. “The academy would like to acknowledge that tonight we have gathered on the ancestral lands of the Tongva, the Tataviam, and the Chumash.” Hearing these acknowledgments, two questions have come to mind—what’s the value of this? And, if I wanted to do it, how would I figure out whose traditional territory I’m on?
 
This Thanksgiving, Rediscover How America’s Indigenous People Ate Before the Colonists Came (17:29)
Guest: Sean Sherman, Founder, CEO, The Sioux Chef, Author of “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen”
You may be interested in adding some traditional indigenous flavors to your Thanksgiving feasting. Chef Sean Shermanhas some ideas. He’s Lakota Sioux and his cookbook, called “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen” includes recipes from every region in North America, with an eye toward what people here were eating before the colonists arrived.
 
Everything You Know About Thanksgiving is Wrong (33:09)
Guest: Bruce Forbes, Retired Chair of the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department, Morningside College, Author of "America's Favorite Holidays"
The story goes that the first Thanksgiving happened in November of 1621 when the Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest in the New World and invited some of their Native American friends to join them in a feast. And every year since then, grateful Americans have come together in feasting and thanks on the fourth Thursday of the month. Well, none of that is quite true.
 
Gratitude in Life, Science, and Business (52:48)
Guests: Kristi Nelson, Author of “Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted,” Executive Director, A Network for Grateful Living; Jo-Ann Tsang, Professor of Psychology, Baylor University; Tina Seelig, Professor of Practice in Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Author of “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20"
For many American families, it’s a Thanksgiving tradition to go around the dinner table and have everyone say one thing they’re thankful for. But once the pie and turkey leftovers are gone, we often forget to be grateful. So what’s the best way to practice it? And does it actually do us any good?
 
Railroad Tycoons and the Creation of Big Business in America (1:12:04)
Guest: Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, Los Angeles Times, Author of “Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads and the Making of Modern America”
The completion of the transcontinental railroad 150 years ago changed America’s culture and economy. But the rail industry was also a pretty big disaster in those first couple of decades—deeply in debt, poorly maintained and rife with corruption. There were hundreds of shorter lines crisscrossing the country that were in cutthroat competition with each other. It was chaotic and terrible for rail travelers, as well as for the US economy. But then, somehow, they coalesced into America’s first mega corporation. The railway tycoons of the early 1900s created the big business playbook still used today—especially by tech leaders like Jeff Bezos at Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. (Originally aired Oct 1, 2020).
 
PBS at 50 Years Old (1:33:09)
Guest: Paula Kerger, President and CEO, PBS
PBS turns 50 this year. It gave us Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Julia Child and Ken Burns. But with Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon and Apple all flooding us with new viewing options, not to mention the traditional network and cable channels that have been at it forever, what exactly is the value of PBS in 2020? (Originally aired Oct 1, 2020).