Parent Previews: "Rampage" and "Sgt. Stubby"

Guest: Charles Rossotti, Former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (1997-2002), Senior Advisor, The Carlyle Group, Author, "Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest To Turn Around The Most Unpopular Organization In America" The individual filing deadline is upon us. While you may be stressing to get your return in on time, consider this: the IRS deals with 150 million individual income tax returns a year and another 100 million federal tax returns for businesses and nonprofits. How does the famously unpopular and under-funded agency manage it all?  Charles Rossotti was the commissioner of the IRS from 1997 to 2002. He led a major reorganization of the agency during that time and has since written a book about it called, “Many Unhappy Returns.”

Guest: Donald Stinson, Author, “Downstairs at the White House” Donald Stinson had big ambitions from an early age. In 1973, he talked his way into a series of low-level jobs making copies and delivering mail inside the White House, which gave him a front row seat to all kinds of drama – Watergate, Vietnam protests, Vice President Spiro Agnew’s resignation, the release of the Nixon tapes, the resignation of President Richard Nixon himself.  Stinson met all kinds of important people during his teenaged escapades at the White House – and made all kinds of enemies among the Secret Service who weren’t so impressed with his mischief.

Guest: Samuel Bazzi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Boston University The days of Manifest Destiny, when settlers spread out across the western United States to conquer the land and prove up their claims are long over. But the legacy remains ingrained in the psyche of those still living in what used to be the American frontier, to the extent that it influences their political beliefs today.

Guest: Kent Gee, PhD, Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University; Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer Office