May 27---Richard Thaler on NUDGE and June Cohen on TED.com

In hour one of the program we spoke to Dr. Richard Thaler, the co-author with Cass Sunstein, of their book NUDGE.

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion.

Unfortunately, we often choose poorly.

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful choice architecture can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice.

Nudge offers a unique new take-from neither the left nor the right-on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike.

In hour 2 of the program we spoke to the Executive Producer of TED media June Cohen about this thing called TED.

June Cohen is a really a special person, TED aside!

As Executive Producer of TED Media, I'm focused on extending TED in new directions — particularly those that help spread ideas. I led the charge to bring the conference online, launching TEDTalks in 2006, and the new TED.com in 2007. I also co-produce the annual conference, manage our talented media team, and continue to look for new ways to spread ideas (watch this space).

Before TED, I'd been working at the intersection of media and technology for the last 15 years. In 1991, I led the Stanford team that developed the world’s first multimedia magazine. It was built in HyperCard, using just-released QuickTime, and distributed over the campus network. It got a fair bit of attention in the press.

Then, in 1994, I was lucky enough to join the team launching HotWired.com, the pioneering website from Wired Magazine. HotWired was one of the earliest web companies, and we introduced many of the conventions now commonplace on the web (from ad banners to discussion threads around news stories to the concept of "membership"). For several years, I wrote "Net Surf," one of the web’s proto-blogs, and in 1996, I founded Webmonkey.com, the much-loved developers’ site, which is still (I'm proud to say) used by millions. From 1997-2000, I helped lead HotWired to profitability as VP of Content, overseeing all creative development on sites, from Animation Express to the HotBot search engine. I worked with extraordinary people, and -- for all the turmoil and tears -- still view that as a charmed period in my life. The people I worked with and projects I worked on have influenced everything in my life since then.

After leaving Wired, I wrote The Unusually Useful Web Book, which collected just about everything I'd learned about how to make a successful website. 2003 wasn't, ahem, the best time to release a web book, but it was critically admired (“an instant classic”) and translated into four languages. (The Czech version credits me as June Cohenova, which makes me sound like a really awesome tennis player).

I'm currently (very slowly) at work on my second book, exploring the trends in media, technology and culture that I occasionally cover in my neglected blog, Media Habit (mediahabit.typepad.com). The main gyst: That modern technologies are actually returning us to very ancient forms of media, communication and community. And that we're all the better for it.

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm also passionate about the visual and performing arts. I'm an on-again, off-again photographer. And I've spent a good chunk of my life on stage (musical theater, dance, comedy). My mother, Shirlene Starr (nee Shirley Gewirtz) was a Broadway actress and ballerina who danced under Ballenchine in the late 50s. So theater is in my blood, and I'm easily goded into performing, especially when Jill Sobule is around. There have been several periods over the last 10 years when I've seen literally every show on Broadway. Though I am currently, desperately behind.

I'm also a passionate traveler -- constantly planning elaborate trips that I may or may not ever take. I've biked across the U.S., trekked around Nepal, tracked rhino in Kenya, and visited a respectable number of historic cafes and bookstores across Europe. My typically intense work schedule means there are still major holes in my global repertoire, but I keep working away at it.

Final CV details: I have a BA in political science from Stanford (minors in Human Biology, Anthropology, African studies). And I was Editor in Chief of The Stanford Daily -- another formative experience that has influenced everything I've done since.