Two Fresh Air Interviews You Must Listen To

Originally uploaded by emdot.

Don't miss these. I mean it.

» Elizabeth Warren on the Credit Card Industry
Elizabeth Warren is a professor at Harvard Law School, specializing in Bankruptcy and Contracts. Which means, Professor Warren knows a lot about Credit Card companies. She knows their games, their motives, their posturing, and their history. It took 80 of her students (3rd year students getting ready to graduate) over an hour to decipher just one "straight-forward" credit card contract.

Bottom line: We, Americans, need to wake up and become hawk-eyed when it comes to our credit card statements. We need to call and then call and then call again when unwarranted fees are charged and not removed. We need to check and recheck when our bill is due every month (they will arbitrarily change your date so that you become a day late in payment). We need to understand that they have all the power -- all of it -- when it comes to how we are charged and when they want to up our rates (basically, whenever they want). It is a crime how they are treating their customers. And we are blind sheep letting it happen. Do not miss this interview.


» Einstein: Relatively Speaking, a Complicated Life
Walter Isaacson discusses his new biography on Albert Einstein. He talks about his childhood, his personal challenges, his personal triumphs and his life attitudes. Even better he succinctly sums up Einstein's major theories in language that is easy to understand.

What I took away from this: One, understanding the theory of relativity a little more. Two, that success and achievement have little to do with following the socially accepted developmental path. Einstein was a terrible student. Couldn't get an academic job. Wasn't liked by his professors. Had tumultuous marriages. In so many ways he could have been judged a loser.

BUT. But but. He lived true to himself. He questioned everything. He followed his dreams and interests. And he wound up being the most influential scientist (or maybe person) in the 20th century.

I love that.