Most men, Marshall Herskovitz says, live lives of quiet struggle. They are trying to hold a job, stay married and be good fathers, while the loudest men in the country tell them it will never be enough.
Help Me Understand with Dr. Rod Berger. Emmy-winning writer, director and producer Marshall Herskovitz joins Dr. Rod Berger for a conversation where they don’t always agree. They start with Elon Musk and what it means when a private citizen holds this much power over national security, then move to the AI bubble, a federal government Marshall calls privatized, and the doubt being sown around the vote. Marshall tells the story of his father, who spent World War II at Fort Monroe and showed his son a different way to be a man. And they close on Abdul El-Sayed, the double standard he faces, and what the discipline of the civil rights movement still asks of anyone who wants to win.
In this episode
0:00 Welcome to Help Me Understand
1:13 Musk and a private citizen’s power
3:46 If the AI bubble bursts
6:00 The government, privatized
8:21 Doubt at the ballot box
12:21 Hungary, and whose job it is
14:34 We haven’t taught civics
16:21 Connection, then persuasion
20:58 What liberalism originally meant
22:36 What it means to be a man
24:27 Most men live lives of quiet struggle
32:36 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
34:03 Marshall’s father, Fort Monroe, 1943
37:55 Abdul El-Sayed and the double standard
43:33 The discipline of nonviolence
46:28 What are you willing to do to win?
Questions this episode answers
Who is Marshall Herskovitz? An Emmy-winning writer, director and producer. He co-created thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once and Again, produced films including Traffic and Blood Diamond, and is President Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America.
What does “lives of quiet struggle” mean? It’s Marshall’s phrase for most men today: people trying to hold a job, stay married and be good fathers while the loudest men in the country tell them it will never be enough. The conversation keeps coming back to it, from Elon Musk to Marshall’s own father.
What does the civil rights movement have to do with winning now? Marshall looks back at Martin Luther King Jr. and the discipline of nonviolence, and at what that discipline still asks of anyone who wants to win. Rod’s answer: “a level of discipline I don’t think our current society understands.”
About the hosts
Dr. Rod Berger has conducted more than 4,000 interviews across five continents. He is Editor-at-Large at Fair Observer and the author of The Narrative Edge: Authentic Storytelling That Meets the Moment (Wiley). Marshall Herskovitz is his friend and, on some episodes, his co-host.
Visit drrodberger.com · Get The Narrative Edge in hardcover
Help Me Understand is part of The Dangerous Ones Network. Have something you’re trying to understand? Call The People’s Hotline and leave a message: 503-212-4600.
