California -- always a fascinating marriage of opposite extremes -- is at a cross-roads in agriculture. Many Californians are struggling to fend off overdevelopment and the loss of farming lands and traditions while embracing innovative visions of agricultural sustainability. At the same time, California is where fast food was born and a center of the biotechnology industry and large corporate agribusiness. The debates raging in California over issues...

Technological advancement, economic development, population increase - are they signs of a thriving society? Or too much of a good thing? Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese, this provocative documentary explores the concept of progress in our modern world, guiding us through the major "progress traps" facing our civilization in the arenas of technology, economics, consumption, and the environment. Featuring powerful arguments from such visionaries...

Evaluates the negative impact of digital network technologies on the economy and particularly the middle class, citing challenges to employment and personal wealth while exploring the potential of a new information economy.

Disruption explores a groundbreaking initiative that seeks to eradicate poverty by empowering women on government assistance programs in Colombia, Peru and Brazil to “save their way out of poverty.” The film interweaves women’s testimonies to the transformative power of financial education with the story of Fundación Capital, a group of dynamic activist-economists that believes when you invest in women you change society. As women share how...

When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, what will they say was the most crucial development at the dawn of the 21st century--the attacks of 9/11, or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, and giving them...

"In [this book], author and economist Tim Harford paints an epic yet intimate picture of economic change by telling the stories of the ideas, people, and tools that have had far-reaching and unexpected consequences for all of us. Drawing on his hugely popular BBC radio program and podcast ..., Harford expands on them with fascinating glimpses into the inventions that have transformed the ways, we work, play, and live. From the plow to artificial intelligence,...

Foreword, by John C. Bogle - Preface - Acknowledgments - DECISION 1: Am I Ready to Retire? - DECISION 2: Can I Afford to Retire? - DECISION 3: When Should I Apply for Social Security? - DECISION 4: How Should I Take My Pension Payments ? - DECISION 5: What Should I Do With the Money In My Company Savings Plan? - DECISION 6: When Do I Have To Take Money Out of My IRAs? - DECISION 7: How Should I Invest During Retirement? - DECISION 8: What Should I...

In 1998, university professor Kembrew McLeod trademarked the phrase “freedom of expression” - a startling comment on the way that intellectual property law restricts creativity and expression of ideas. This provocative and amusing documentary explores the battles being waged in courts, classrooms, museums, film studios, and the Internet over control of our cultural commons. Based on McLeod's award-winning book of the same title, Freedom of Expression...

Nudge is about choices-how we make them and how we can make better ones. Drawing on decades of research in the fields of behavioral science and economics, authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein offer a new perspective on preventing the countless mistakes we make-ill-advised personal investments, consumption of unhealthy foods, neglect of our natural resources-and show us how sensible "choice architecture" can successfully nudge people toward...

"Health for Sale" asks: are the world's largest drug companies, paradoxically, major obstacles to making a healthier world? The film focuses on Big Pharma, the ten largest pharmaceutical makers, who account for 500 billion dollars of world health spending a year and whose 205 billion dollars in pre-tax profits were more than the combined profits of the 490 other Fortune 500 companies. Officials from all sides debate the impact of drug companies' patenting,...