Showing results by narrator "Kevin Stillwell" in All Categories

Multibillion-dollar valuations in Silicon Valley have obscured underlying problems in the way the United States develops technology. Government policies increasingly favor powerful interest groups over promising start-ups, stifling technological innovation.

After 13 years of war, the loss of many thousands of lives, and the expenditure of trillions of dollars, what has the United States learned? The answer depends on not only who is asking but when.

Washington doesn’t have the luxury of simply avoiding insurgencies, so it needs to figure out how to fight them better. Drawn from more than a decade of war, here are 10 lessons for doing so.

Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot and founder of CyPhy Works, talks to Foreign Affairs about robots, Star Wars, and how to bring futuristic technology to market.

Marcelo Claure, founder of BrightStar and CEO of Sprint, talks to Foreign Affairs about how to run a corporation like an entrepreneur and bringing soccer to the United States.

Contrary to popular belief, the reunification of North Korea and South Korea would not spell disaster for South Korea, nor would it pose an unacceptable risk for the United States, China, and Japan. Rather, it would produce massiveeconomic and social benefits for the peninsula and the region.

Austin joins Dallas and Houston in Akashic's deep dive into the Lone Star State's darkest dimensions. Featuring brand-new stories by: Gabino Iglesias, Ace Atkins, Amanda Moore, Jeff Abbott, Scott Montgomery, Richard Z. Santos, Alexandra Burt, Lee Thomas, Miriam Kuznets, Jacob Grovey, Chaitali Sen, Molly Odintz, Amy Gentry, and Andrew Hilbert.

In recent decades, most innovation has come from a single sector (information technology) and a single place (Silicon Valley). Walter Isaacson's The Innovators and Peter Thiel's Zero to One shed light on how that happened and what drives innovation more generally.

During and after several long hospital stays for what should have been a simple knee replacement but turned into something much more exhausting, writer Robert Ungar reflects on his deep intrigue with the way hospitals are managed. In Hospital Impressions, Ungar delves into the roles of nurses and doctors, the day-to-day madness visited upon the patients, and his own personal history with the medical world.

Despite all the grim predictions, the European Union is not on the verge of collapse. Quite the contrary: If European leaders act with resolve and persistence, the union could experience a rebirth.

The coming revolution in genetic engineering will be exciting to some, frightening to others, and challenging for all. If not adequately addressed, it will also likely lead to major conflict both within societies and globally.

The year is 1796, and a trading ship arrives in the vibrant trading town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. But it's a ghost ship - her entire crew has been decimated by a virulent fever which sweeps through the harbor town, and Newburyport's residents start to fall ill and die with alarming haste. Something has to be done to stop the virus from spreading further.

"I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth". On July 4, 1939, baseball great Lou Gehrig delivered what has been called "baseball's Gettysburg Address" at Yankee Stadium and gave a speech that included the phrase that would become legendary. He died two years later and his fiery widow, Eleanor, wanted nothing more than to keep his memory alive. With her forceful will, she and the irascible producer Samuel Goldwyn quickly agreed to make a film based on Gehrig's life, The Pride of the Yankees.

Shinzo Abe is trying to restore Japanese consumer confidence by boosting inflation. But confidence must rest on something more substantive: meaningful structural reforms to reverse Japanese companies' lagging competitiveness. Otherwise, any temporary economic boost will soon give way to disillusion.

Ancient Rome was a village that grew into a world empire. At the peak of its territorial reach, AD 117, it stretched from the British Isles to Mesopotamia and from the Rhine to the Sahara. Its history spans more than a millennium. Before the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late fifth century, Romans enjoyed a standard of living not seen again in the West until the mid-nineteenth century. They had flush toilets, granite countertops, indoor heating, and even cosmetic dentistry.

Father Steady Capri knows quite a bit about helping others. But he is afraid Katie Quinn's problems may be beyond his abilities. But there is one person who still may be able to save her from herself. He will show her an alternate escape, a way to write a new life. Ultimately, he will need to leave his secluded home and sacrifice the serenity he's found to help her. From the Florida coast, they will travel to the French countryside where they will discover the unwritten story of both their pasts and their future.

The January/February 2016 issue of Foreign Affairs.

Investing in Resources: How to Profit from the Outsized Potential and Avoid the Risks details how history and fortunes will be made in another extraordinarily rare investment opportunity that's happening right now. The opportunity that will enable today's savvy investor to realize incredible long-term profits is in commodities.

How to Wash a Chicken is not an audiobook about public speaking (or chickens); it’s a comprehensive playbook for business leaders and people on their way up to give the best presentations of their lives and embark on a circle of presentation success. With concrete suggestions, helpful tricks, and step-by-step guidance that’s applicable to all industries, Tim Calkins sets out to propel his listeners to create and deliver effective business presentations and pitches.

Five years after the brutal slaying of her husband, software technology executive Jill Shannon is finally ready to take the next step in her life. With her wedding to Phoenix Arizona prosecuting attorney Conner Manning just eight weeks away, the only cloud on Jill's horizon is her future father-in-law's political ambitions for his son. Jill has dark secrets in her past. Secrets she can't afford to have exposed under the relentless lights of a political campaign.