Brain: Paul Thissen

Dean Phillips, Phillips Distilling, innovative businessperson and marketer who also thinks and cares deeply about the broader community; Kathryn Roberts, Ecumen, maybe Minnesota’s leading thinker on how we will deal with the coming age wave; Dan Lieberman, Lieberman Companies, smart about the things that matter in the long-term—energy, the environment.

Bob Dylan. He keeps finding ways to reinvent himself.

Lincoln’s Virtues by William Lee Miller (great insights into Lincoln as a practical politician—willingness to compromise and to fit his position within the historical moment, but also reflecting and then acting upon what he saw to be the fundamental principles of the United States and—perhaps above all—his absence of malice toward his opponents); What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer (the story of the 1988 presidential campaign and the most insightful and engaging political reporting I’ve read).

Obama. He seems to understand that the long-term challenges we face are as important as the short-term crises we have to take on. And he seems curious about the ideas of those who disagree with him.

No.

People smart.

Bruce Springsteen. Few other musicians have articulated a view about how we can best live together and Springsteen has.

Growing awareness that too many of us spend beyond our means and too many others have nothing to spend.