Business & Economy

Architectural preservationist David Naylor, whose new book, Great American Movie Theaters, charts the past glory and current demise of a uniquely American architectural treasure, the downtown movie palace.

Brendan Gill. He has written for The New Yorker magazine for more than 50 years, writing poems, prose, profiles and film and theater reviews. Gill also writes about architecture and has just written a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Andrew Tobias, author of The Only Other Investment Guide You'll Ever Need. Tobias is a best-selling author and popular speaker on managing money.

Economist, writer and lecturer John Kenneth Galbraith. Galbraith, who served as an advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, is perhaps the most influential Keynesian economist. Under Roosevelt, he played a key role in formulating wartime economic policy. Under Kennedy, he helped formulate the liberal social policies that President Johnson pursued in the Great Society initiatives.

Financial reporter Douglas Frantz, whose new book Levine & Co. follows Wall Street's insider trading scandal.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg argues that the increasingly insular and unintelligible vocabulary of businesses stems from a growing adherence to corporate culture.

Consumer activist Ralph Nader interviewed the top executives of a number of major American corporations for his new book.

Activist Ralph Nader joins Fresh Air callers and host Terry Gross to discuss a broad range of topics, including the legislation of safety regulations, campaign ads, money in politics, and working in nonprofit organizations.

Robert Townsend is the author of the 1970 bestseller "Up the Organization," and his newly revised edition of the book is called "Further Up the Organization: How to Stop Management from Stifling People and Strangling Productivity." Townsend contends that most workers are "docile, bored, and dull," and advocates a type of "non-violent guerrilla warfare," in which workers dismantle all but those aspects of organizations that serve them. Townsend is known for his tenure at Avis and also worked at Twentieth Century Fox and American Express.

In conjunction with the Design Since 1945 exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, consumer rights activist Ralph Nader delivers a lecture about the political aspects of aesthetics.

Michael Graves sees his design aesthetic as one that moves away from the abstraction of steel and glass, instead finding continuity in the figurative language of past architectural styles. His approach and use of color continue to polarize critics.

Malcolm Forbes is the owner, chairman, and editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, whose slogan is "Forbes: The Capitalist's Tool." The company was founded by Forbes's father, and Forbes joined the staff in 1947, and was promoted after his father's death in 1954. The firm remains a family business--two of Forbes's sons work for the magazine. Forbes is also known for his wealth and extravagant hobbies such as hot-air ballooning (he was the first to travel coast-to-coast in one), motorcycling, and collecting art and toy soldiers.

Ben Krass of the Krass Brothers clothing store and Aaron Levin of Aron Levin Galleries are businessmen known in Delaware County for their television commercials. They join the show to discuss why they chose to create their own television advertisements, and how the ads have effected their businesses and images.

British-born economist Hazel Henderson sees an economy based on renewable energy and environmentally-sound industry as the best path forward for the United States. She argues that tax cuts and subsidies associated with Reaganomics are hindering such efforts.

Writer Marilyn Moats Kennedy discusses the state of businesses, nonprofits and wages during the current recession. For job seekers, she suggests a number of strategies to employ during salary negotiations. Fresh Air listeners call in with their questions.

The Pennsylvania Democrat works to counteract the policy positions of the moral majority. He sees hope in the rise of prominent moderate Republicans to steer the direction of the Reagan administration toward less conservative economic and foreign policy decisions. Fresh Air listeners call in with their questions.

Democratic senator Paul Tsonga argues that political liberalism has become untenable, particularly with regard to domestic economic policies. He argues for what he dubs "compassionate realism" as a guiding principle for the United States. Fresh Air listeners call in with their questions.

Gus Hall considers the history of the Communist Party in the U.S. as well as the fraught deployment of communism in the Soviet Union.

The historian and prolific writer talks about the influence of communist organizations and movements in the United States and abroad. He is careful to point out the positive influence of communists in American labor movements, and cautions against viewing communism in different countries as a monolithic force.

Philip Foner is the foremost historian on the labor movement in the U. S. He is the author of over eighty works, including a four volume history of the American labor movement, "Organized Labor and the Black Worker," and "Women and the American Labor Movement," the second volume of which was recently published. He is currently a visiting professor at Rutgers University.