During this six-part series, Dennis McCuistion revisits past programs on specific issues from the last 20 years. In part one of this series, Dennis McCuistion discusses the American education system through an episode entitled Education and Our Children. This program features:
- Terry Flowers, PhD: Headmaster at St. Philip’s School
- Tom Luce: CEO of National Math and Science Initiative
During the program on the American education system, Terry Flowers is joined by students from St. Philips School who recite the St. Philip’s Creed, a creed that made national news. Tom Luce talks about what is necessary for the US to remain competitive today in education.
The McCuistion TV Program (co- founded 20 years ago by host, Dennis McCuistion, and Executive Producer/Producer, Niki 
Nicastro McCuistion) focuses on issues that impact our daily lives, economically, politically and socially. Niki believes that “the power of television when combined with an understanding of important issues can make significant, positive differences in the lives of people who watch.” The team brings that mission to every program they have produced.
Dennis and Niki both firmly believe educating our children is a critical issue, stating:
“Educating our youth is the single biggest challenge we face in a knowledge based society with global 
competition. We believe it’s not about more money; it’s about better parenting, more discipline, innovation or market-based education vs. government run education, and great leadership. It’s vital we put more emphasis on the basics; phonics, and repetition, yet it’s also using the best of the new technology.”
The team believes “children are our future, and while we say that if we don’t provide the tools and the environment where our children can excel, then it won’t be them who have failed us, it will be us who have failed them.”
Tune in and enjoy a retrospective look on the American education system followed by a discussion of where we are today and the hope for the future.
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17% of our GDP is spent on health care, thus health care has gone from being a personal issue to a public policy debate. In this 20 year retrospective on this issue we feature various perspectives: liberal, conservative and libertarian.
Dr. Ed Annis on the Health Care Debate
In 1994 Dr. Ed Annis the author of Code Blue joined us with his views. Dr. Ed Annis had rebutted President John Kennedy on his platform on health care.
We asked him, “How did the national health care debate come about?”
Dr. Ed Annis responded, “Well there were philosophical flaws, politicians were biased and the media was belligerent… The problem is government not health care.” He addressed Medicare by saying, “People should be allowed to provide for themselves if they can.” Dr. Ed Annis stated that just because one has a birthday of 65 does not mean one is entitled. He then addressed permeation and gradualism.
Max Sawicky on Health Care as a National System
Dennis quoted Arthur Schlesinger, from The Partisan Review of 1947, on the transition to socialism. And we made the transition to Max Sawicky of the Economic Policy Institute who joined us in 1999. Max said, “I would move health care into a national system.” Max believes we can’t afford anything else. “If health care is made on the basis of profit- everyone is priced according to their worth.”
Dr. John Goodman on the “Bureaucratic Health Care System”
Dr. John Goodman, the father of medical savings accounts, joins us in 2010, and has this to say:
“We have a bureaucratic, dysfunctional health care system with perverse incentives… In 1993 Hilary Clinton, wanted to nationalize health care. She failed. Look at the “S Chip” program for children that ration health care, and the difficulty seeing doctors. Expenditures for health care have gone up from $500 billion in 1990 to $2 trillion today.”
Impact of Drugs on Society
From health care we go to drugs and their impact on society and our system overall. Jacob Sullum, Senior Editor of Reason Magazine, joins us in 2007 and comments on the direct correlation between prohibition and drugs. We hear from several voices on various sides of this issue. Philip Jordan, former director of the El Paso International Center, seemed to find a similarity between prohibition and drugs, even though the drug enforcement code Dennis reads says differently. Rusty White, a former prison guard says, “In a controlled environment like a prison, drugs still get in.”
From drug use to new cures and behaviors we visit with Dr. Kevin Gilliland, CEO of Innovations 360. “Drugs,” he says, “wreck a person’s self image. They rob you of your sense of self. Addiction is not a moral failing.”
On that same program in 2009, Christopher Kennedy Lawford joins us with his story of the genetic disease within his family, how as an adolescent he lived through the assassinations of two uncles, and he comments on the conditions within his family and how this led to a very troubled youth. He comments, “traumatized and troubled youth, sometimes turn to drugs or alcohol”. He says, “Drugs and alcohol gave me a way out. They saved my life.” Christopher Lawford Kennedy is now an activist, educating others on alcohol and drug abuse.
Health and Wellness
From drugs and dependence we go to health and wellness, with a look at a revolutionary new care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment. Alene Creacy and her husband Bill join us with their story and the importance of this treatment. Claudine, a Canadian mother, talks about the process and how it has helped her sons, born with cerebral palsy. Claudine actually demonstrates the chamber and how the oxygen helps.
In terms of wellness, Dr. T. Colin Campbell joins us in 2009 to talk about good eating habits. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, the most comprehensive nutritional study ever conducted, became a vegetarian as a result of his research. He shakes his head at the hosts’ eating habits and says, “no to sugar, no to burritos, but salsa isn’t bad. And chocolate, well, that’s a plant based food!”
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#1819 – 04.08.10
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In part two of the 6-part series, Twenty Years of McCuistion focuses on three key issues critical to our future: energy, the environment and immigration. Several notable guests join us in this retrospective look at the past as they add new information. We promise you a heated program as the participants express their views with passion, conviction and their perspectives.
ENERGY
Discussing global warming and climate change are:
Dr. William Kellogg with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who joined us in 1992. Commenting on global warming as it was then titled, he said,
“The fact is that the global average temperature has been going up in this century. I think scientists have a great responsibility to define or to express whether they’re talking about science, which they have a right to talk about with some authority, or whether they’re talking about social /socio-economic problems, which they are probably not necessarily qualified to talk about anymore than the so-called ‘man in the street.’”
Some heated remarks are made by Cato’s Dr. Pat Michaels, who comments,
“Every measure we have of global temperature shows nothing in the last decade and every climate model we had that was the so-called consensus of scientists said it was to have been warming rapidly. Aside from that there’s no scientific problem with Global Warming. If there are floods, it’s because of global warming. If there’s a drought it’s because of global warming and if there isn’t a flood or a drought, it’s because of global warming.”
Dr. Sterling Burnett, Senior Fellow with The Center for National Policy Analysis, who has been on several programs on this issue joins us in the studio. Dr. Burnett takes us from Kiyoto to Copenhagen and today’s present status as in regards climate change.
ENVIRONMENT
The segment on the environment comes in for its fair share of disagreement as well, as Dennis McCuistion moderates the 1995 “debate” between Dr. Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Ted Eubanks, then Director of the National Audobon Society. John Leedom, of the Weather Modification Association talks about the criticality of water in a segment taped in 2007 and Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, Secretary General of OPEC, gives us his opinion on the oil issue in 2007. Matt Simmons, author of Twilight In the Desert, joins us in 2006 as does Scott Naumann, Manager of Economics and Energy for Exxon. Scott adds,
“We do a detailed estimate of the world’s global resource base. One number we can all agree on up here on the panel is how much we have produced since the beginning of time. So we produced 1 trillion barrels out of 4 or 5 trillion barrels. Nowhere near half way. Nowhere near peak.”
The oil debate goes on with Amory Lovins, PhD of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Ed Wallace, historian and anchor of a KLIF radio program chime, who joined us in 2005.
IMMIGRATION
The Immigration segment continues the heated discussions with several key experts who joined us at different times with their views on this other controversial issue. Jacob G. Hornburger, who in 2007 said,
“We’re building a Berlin wall on the southern border of the United States. This is inconsistent with a great nation, a nation that prides itself on freedom. We say it’s time to recapture the principles of open immigration and freedom in which this country was founded.”
Dr. James F. Hollifield, Director of The Tower Center of Political Studies at SMU- Dallas lays out a foundation for the immigrant waves of immigration and says,
“Immigration is part of the founding myth of this country, but we have gone through four great waves of immigration in our history. So this is a country that certainly was built on immigration and immigration has
always been controversial.”
They are debated by Republican Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, who states,
“You have to look at whether they want an America as described by Jacob, no borders, just a place on a continent inhabited by residents, not citizens, just people who are gathered together around one set of principles, almost all economic in nature. But you have to make this decision. Do you believe in borders or not? That’s the first question you have to ask yourself. Are they important? Do they matter? Before you can even begin to agree that borders are important, that they do matter, then you have to think about what that means. If you have them, are you willing to actually enforce them.”
The segment concludes with Herb Meyer, author of The Siege of Western Civilization, who joined us in 2008. Meyer talks about demographics and the diminishing birthrates that will affect immigration. He states,
“Last year in the United States 23% of all births in this country were to women who themselves had not been born in the United States. Now there is nothing wrong with this. We just need to understand this. We should be in favor of immigration. That’s how we got here.”
This is one segment that will have you on the edge of your seat. Join us as we once again talk about things that matter with people who care…
Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer
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1815 – 02.14.2010
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Motivation is often defined as that which gives purpose; action toward a desired goal. Sharing their stories on motivation and leadership on this 20th anniversary segment are several of the leading speakers and leaders in the country.
We hear from motivational speakers:
- The late, Rosita Perez, CPAE
- Ed Foreman, CPAE, Founder of the Successful Life Program
- Vinnie Roazzi, successful businessman and the author of The Spirituality of Success
- Margo Chisholm, mountaineer and author of To The Summit
We also hear from corporate governance and leadership experts:
- Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte and Touche, LLP
- Bill George, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and former Medtronic CEO
- Todd Bluedorn, CEO of Lennox International
… and many, many more.
Motivation
The late, Rosita Perez has the audience chuckling in the segment on The Healing Power of Humor as she describes her cold remedies when she is under the weather.
Ed Foremen joined us in 1994 and again in the studio the evening of the program’s taping. He talks about a motorcycle trip- and driving back to Texas from Louisiana. To test the bike he pushed the speed and flew down the road. All was well until he saw the flashing lights behind him. He had one thought (only briefly) of gunning the motor and crossing the Texas border. Of course he didn’t and when he stopped, the State Trooper asked for his license and said he had been clocked at 113 mph. Looking the license the trooper did a double take- “You’re 75 years old? Maybe you should act your age and you’d be a lot safer driving your age!”
Vinnie Roazzi and Margo Chisholm joined us in 1999, along with the late Art Berg, CPAE. The each spoke about their separate life challenges. Art Berg shared his story of the car accident that left him a quadriplegic and how life still goes on after the worst happens.
The notables are joined by Bob Buford, author of Halftime and Jim Sirbasku, of Profiles International, who assesses Dennis McCuistion’s leadership style- on camera, much to Dennis’s and the audience’s amusement. The motivation segment concludes with the late Ray Pellitier, CPAE, talking about coaching champions, as well as this author, Niki McCuistion, a coach and consultant, on the critical role coaching plays in helping individuals reach their goals.
Leadership and Governance
From motivation the program goes on to discuss leadership and governance. Dennis McCuistion talks about Jeff Skilling of Enron and how values and ethics are critical to successful leadership. Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte and Touche, LLP and Todd Bluedorn, CEO of Lennox International, Inc. both comment on governance and ethics in corporate America, and how critical a role values play in the success of a company.
And to end the retrospective on motivation and leadership, Bill George, former Chairman and CEO of Medtronics and a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard, joins us from another segment to emphasize values in leadership and their critical role.
This program on motivation and leadership is one you won’t want to miss as it goes from humor, to inspiration and on to practical “how to’s”.
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1817 – 02.21.10
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Join Dennis McCuistion in the fourth of a six-part retrospective series – 20 Years of McCuistion: Media and the Internet.
When we joined the ranks of the media in 1990, the worldwide web had just been invented. In fact, very few people even had access to email. Today? Blackberries and iPhones, Facebook, Twitter, and Google are all household names and media itself has changed as a result.
Now, many of us are getting our news online and foregoing paper copies altogether. Former news people are blogging and while many of us question the new style, we read the blogs and blog ourselves. This program explores how the Internet has changed our way of getting news, what news and the press really mean and its impact on democracy and public opinion.
In the last 20 years we have interviewed some of the most prestigious names in journalism including: Bill Moyers, Sam Donaldson, Bob Schieffer, Jim Lehrer, John Solomon, and joining in from a recent program, which featured Manny Mendoza and he and Mark Birnbaum’s doc-film, Stop the Presses, are Ben Bradlee, Anders Gylenhall, and Charles Ealey.
From the business world we’ve interviewed: the Father of the Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf, and Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web. We’ve gotten a perspective on news today from Steve Forbes and Mary Mapes, author of Truth and Duty, a book about President George W. Bush’ military incident that led to CBS’s firing her and eventually Dan Rather. Jeff Crilley, an award winning Fox News reporter, ends the media segment, commenting on its changing landscape and the dangers and opportunities this presents.
This retrospective episode entertains and informs as it gives us a very interesting snapshot of the new world of media and communication, a world that through its ever changing evolution leaves many of us struggling to keep up.
Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer
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1818 – 02.28.10
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Over the last 20 years the McCuistion Program has looked at various public policy issues that impact the United States. This 20 year retrospective focuses on three key areas that are presently at the core of American society. Looking back in history and going forward in time, key experts take us to the present credit crisis, and government boondoggle.
Berlin Wall
Dennis McCuistion begins with August 13, 1961 and the rise of the Berlin Wall. It was in the aftermath of the Berlin Wall coming down in November of 1989 that we taped our first television program featuring the late Senator John Tower. The Senator compares negotiating with the Soviets during the Cold War to playing chess, which he didn’t and poker- which he did. Ambassador Hank Cooper adds the behind the scenes story with President Reagan and the SDI program… President Reagan wouldn’t capitulate and Cooper says, “Gorbachev went off and wrote Perestroika.”
Dr. James F. Hollifield, Director of the Tower Center of Political Studies at Southern Methodist University, gives us a very thorough history of Soviet collapse under its own weight of communism, and takes us to the Putin age of “managed democracy”. We hear from Herb E. Meyer, author of a best selling and controversial video, the Siege of Western Civilization, who talks about Putin as a thug and predicts the coming Russian population diminishing to smaller than the population of Yemen.
China & the Federal Debt
Leaving the topic of Russia, Angelina Kwan, from Asia Pacific Cantor -Fitzgerald, takes us to China, “China is a country of the future and views the US as a past and present trading partner.” Still our debt affects their position. The exact position of United States debt is dramatically chronicled by Dennis with a chart- held by audience members, extending across the studio. The chart shows that in less than 30 years our debt has gone from $1 trillion to $12 trillion and has quadrupled in less than 12 years from $4 trillion to present day.
In 1991 Dr. James Buchanan, Nobel Prize winner, joined us with a look at the impact of budget deficits. Congressman Ron Paul, R. Texas, expressed his concern about “honest money”. And in 1995, Kay Bailey Hutchison joined us as well, addressing the issue from her perspective.
We meet David M. Walker, Former Comptroller General, who expresses his concerns with Social Security and Medicare promises that over the next 75 years will not keep up with payroll taxes and premiums.” $40 trillion is what is needed and we have $0!” Steve Moore, Senior Economics writer for the Wall Street Journal tells us ,“70 to 77 million baby boomers will be retiring in the next 15 to 20 years”, a recipe for disaster if we continue on our present course. And Peter G. Peterson, Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations, and founder of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, talks about how this group can organize given the AARP and other venues, and the significance of this, as 1/3 of this retiring group have no savings, and depend almost entirely on social security and Medicare for their health benefits.
Credit Crisis
Banking comes in for its fair share with the late Charlie Pistor and other bankers taking a fun hit from Dennis on the credit crisis in the 80’s and now. Brian Beaulieu of the Economic Institute for Trend Research brings the economic situation to present day, calling California, “the poster child for lunacy.” With 65% of the mortgages held there, interest only variable rate mortgages, and homeowners with no equity.
Fred Foldvary, Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University in California, who had predicted the current real estate “depression”, leaves us with a future prediction- another credit crisis and recession coming up.
Yet, while some of the comments and conclusions made by a stellar cast of experts, this episode thoroughly examines the past, brings us solidly to the present and helps us more clearly understand the future. Thanks as always for joining us as we talk about things that matter with people who care.
Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer
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1816 – 04.04.10
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