The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 30 December 2021

Air Date: 
December 30, 2021

CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR   

FIRST HOUR  

9-915  
1/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 
The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?

In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system.

Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.
 

915-930 
2/8   The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 
 

930-945 
3/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 
 
945-1000 
4/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 
 

SECOND HOUR  

10-1015 
5/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 

1015-1030 
6/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 
 

1030-1045 
7/8 The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 
 
 
1045-1100 
8/8  The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by  Adrian Wooldridge  Hardcover – June 3, 2021  
 

THIRD HOUR  
 
1100-1115   
1/4  Adapt and Be Adept: Market Responses to Climate Change,  by  Terry Anderson  (Editor) Paperback – April 1, 2021
How can markets help us adapt to the challenges of climate change? Editor Terry L. Anderson brings together this collection of essays featuring the work of nine leading policy analysts, who argue that market forces are just as important as government regulation in shaping climate policy—and should be at the heart of our response to helping societies adapt to climate change.
Anderson notes in his introduction that most current climate policies such as the Paris Agreement require hard-to-enforce collective action and focus on reducing or mitigating greenhouse gases rather than adapting to their negative effects. Adaptive actions can typically deliver much more, faster and more cheaply than any realistic climate policy. The authors tackle a range of issues: the hidden costs of renewable energy sources, the political obstacles surrounding climate change policy, insurance and financial instruments for pricing risk of exposure to the effects of climate change, and more.
Reliance on emerging renewable energies and a carbon tax are not enough to prevent the effects of global warming, they argue. We must encourage more private action and market incentives to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.
 
 
1115-1130 
2/4  Adapt and Be Adept: Market Responses to Climate Change,  by  Terry Anderson  (Editor) Paperback – April 1, 2021
 
 
1130-1145 
3/4 Adapt and Be Adept: Market Responses to Climate Change,  by  Terry Anderson  (Editor) Paperback – April 1, 2021
 

1145-1200 
4/4 Adapt and Be Adept: Market Responses to Climate Change,  by  Terry Anderson  (Editor) Paperback – April 1, 2021
 
 

FOURTH HOUR   

12-1215   
1/4  Damascus Station: A Novel, by  David McCloskey.  – Hardcover October 5, 2021 
"Damascus Station is the best spy novel I have ever read." ―General David Petraeus, former director of the CIA

A CIA officer and his recruit arrive in war-ravaged Damascus to hunt for a killer in this page-turner that offers the "most authentic depiction of modern-day tradecraft in print." (Navy SEAL sniper and New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr).
CIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad’s recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy.
But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad’s spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard. Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with fear and rebellion, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet.
 
 

1215-1230 
2/4  Damascus Station: A Novel, by  David McCloskey.  – Hardcover October 5, 2021  
 
 

1230-1245 
3/4  Damascus Station: A Novel, by  David McCloskey.  – Hardcover October 5, 2021 
 

1245-100 AM  
4/4  Damascus Station: A Novel, by  David McCloskey.  – Hardcover October 5, 2021