The pressure to prevent active curiosity is a curious thing in a democracy. Our guests today are authors Perry Zurin and Dani Bassett whose new book is Curious Minds, The Power of Connection. As they say, acquiring information is insufficient,

America today is not the America of the past. But in his new book What it Took to Win, author and history professor  Michael Kazin, it’s clear what has and still works.  Today’s right plays on a sense that it

Like all bad habits, war is a tough one to break. On this show, Professor Emeritus Lawrence Wittner explains that respecting, listening, and helping people in other countries is a lot more economically conservative and accomplishes security much more effectively.

We’ve won the abortion debate, and had the vote been a few weeks ago… But it’s not until November 8th. Neil Oxman is co-founder of The Campaign Group and on this show he shares his uniquely valuable vantage point. Oxman

Authoritarianism. Anti-Immigrant. White men fearful of losing control.   Books banned, free press shut down. Widespread domestic spying. Dissent criminalized and many jailed tortured and killed. In his new book, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s

We can’t do it by talking down to middle Americans. If Democrats don’t get that rural Americans have fear that what little they have may be taken away, we stand to lose yet again. Victory comes when we listen, respect

The right wing depends on fear and hatred of others. As we approach elections, their TV ads seek to scare us about a surge at the border. Why don’t they stay home? What if they were white? Today’s guest Avi

It took a mere ten days before the UK’s new prime minister blew it big time. Liz Truss’s budget was instantly panned; pretending to be trickle down, it gushes money upwards to those who need it least. On this show

Elitists in Democratic Party bring avoidable disasters. From northern Iowa, Professor Wallace Hettle sees how the power of big money over the Democratic Party pushes away working people, farmers, and others in the hollowed-out heartland. Terry McAullife’s loss in Virginia

Author Kathryn Bond Stockton argues in her new book Gender(s) that obvious genital distinctions are in reality incomplete. When children are born, it’s like parents “lower a cone over the baby,” imposing an identity without consent and even ignoring other

A crippling rail strike seems to have been averted. Barely. You and I may think of the railroads as ways to move freight, but as our guest today observes: “The railroad companies have been Wall Street’s plaything throughout their half-century

In our 300 year old system of an adversarial combative system of justice, there is no mechanism to prove and protect the innocent. In his soon to be published book, The Plea of Innocence, author Tim Bakken argues that prosecution

Reporters used to report, now there’s virtually no line between media and the national security state. Veteran international journalist Patrick Lawrence on this show notes the big change occurred 9/11; since then we have been subject to an information monoculture.

We all know there are powers determined to destroy democracy. The ubiquity of hand held video cameras has the unique power to disrupt the narrative of power. On this show author Phil Allen talks about his new book The Prophetic

It may appear to be a rogue court today but the truth is the Supreme Court has long led the fight against democracy. Our guest today historian Steve Fraser points out that the liberal Warren Court was the real aberration.

The new book is Imagining the Heartland; White Supremacy and the American Midwest and it’s about the powerful roots of today’s angry violence against The Others. On this show anthropologist authors Britt Halvorson and Joshua Reno look at the use

Politicians of both parties buy into American Exceptionalism. But what does it mean to the planet? On this show professor Aviva Chomsky sheds light on the aspects of exceptionalism we don’t want to see. Instead of a good life just

As another school year kicks off, skepticism about quantifying is appropriate. That measure is command and control from the top down bureaucrats. But much of the best results of public education can’t be seen but come from democratizing schools, welcoming

Even in safe spaces for gay men, there is subtle racism and stratification if one is not white. On this show, Professor Anthony Ocampo talks about his new book Brown and Gay in LA, including pressures from Mexican and Filipino

A consumers republic was born at the end of the second world war. And though it was genuinely intended to be a tide lifting all boats, it has increased economic inequality and created isolation where public space once was central.

It’s almost time for the start of schools. Of course all parents want to protect their children from inappropriate material. But when “parental rights” mean teachers are forbidden from mentioning homosexuality or racism because that means teachers are “grooming” kids

Why do America’s veterans have to beg for help on TV ads? How is it that our government refuses to pay the true costs of war? On this show, senior veterans policy analyst Suzanne Gordon talks about the new book

The same old same old foreign policy of military first does not enhance our national security. On this show historian Leon Fink, author of Undoing the Liberal World Order, sees that the causes of terrorism are untouched by our reliance

You may have thought it began after 9/11. But it really all started in 1947, as National Security Archive Scoville Fellow Rachel Santarsiero explains. The focus of our huge arsenal then quickly shifted from Germany and Japan to the perceived

America today is not the America of the past. The Republican Party is unrecognizable. But in his new book What it Took to Win, author and history professor  Michael Kazin, discerns a theme that still works as we head into

The comfort of colonial powers relied on them not seeing the damage to exploited nations. So it is with mining and milling the uranium for nuclear power. Victims then as now are people without power, indigenous populations which are health

The Missouri Senator voted against one thing that can actually address what he says is the problem. Where once men felt pride in what they contributed to family and community as sole breadwinners, that is gone. The anxiety is real.

Do liberal women feel that their culture is superior? Among women who feel liberated, what is it about the sight of Muslim women in traditional hijabs that so bothers many? In her new book Unruly Women; Race, Neocolonialism, and the

Private Security Firms; just part of doing business, right? Blackwater was America’s version in Iraq; The Wagner Group is Russia’s today in Ukraine and Africa. Atrocities in the Donbass region of Ukraine? Russia cynically said, that’s not us, it’s “little

The opposite of conservatism is a police state. Yet public figures who call themselves conservative are crushing many of our traditional civil liberties and our legal rights. This according to Jacob Hornberger founder and president of the Future of Freedom