Ink on paper, books, have always been subversive. They lead to critical thinking. On the first part of this show, Ken Gloss,  proprietor of the internationally renowned Brattle Book Shop talks about the role of books in the 21st century. And he is…

Freedom of speech; we take it for granted. But after the Reverend Bruce Shipman wrote short, a fairly mild letter to the NYTimes, recognizing that Israels devastation of Gaza probably fanned flames of anti-Semitism, he was forced to resign from his pos…

Talk about making history! On Thursday September 18, Scotland votes on whether or not to declare independence from the United Kingdom. My guest is Bob Campbell, a Scot who is in the north of England. He doesn’t want a Yes vote because Campbell figures …

The State of Israel and it’s defenders have been very adept at intimindating Jewish Americans from speaking out against their brutality in Gaza by labeling critics as “self hating Jews.” On this show, “self respecting Jew” Eric Mann takes this charge h…

So much of what we love about American culture has roots in Africa. Today some Americans fear the unknown Islamic world of the region. But there really is nothing to fear and a lot to gain. There is a West African music and culture festival coming up o…

Brushed aside for decades, a recent conference of scientists focused on the potential uses of LSD and other psychedelics. On this show, guest Randolph Hencken of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies talks about Psychedelic Science for …

As this show was being recorded, word came that another American journalist was beheaded. War hawks McCain, Graham, and Hillary Clinton are calling for massive intervention, but that has so often backfired. On this show, veteran foreign policy journali…

The presidency of Bill Clinton was, on the domestic side, “just as damaging to the nation as George W Bush’s was on the foreign policy side.” This according to today’s guest Dr. Steven Jonas author and co-author of many books and former insider on the …

He seems to be picking up steam: Tennessee Senator Rand Paul separates himself from the pack by his libertarian and conservative credentials. But can this mix actually happen? On this show, political researcher and writer Sean McElwee discusses his con…

Public support for legalizing and regulating marijuana/cannabis is growing quickly. But most politicians remain wary of such a change. Why? Who is behind the various efforts to keep it illegal? On this show, guest is Sarah Bryner, data analyst for the …

Is this America? With heavy arms and tanks, police in Ferguson attacking journalists? Police are there to serve and protect, while the military makes war on enemies. On this reprise show, guest is Alex Pareene, a columnist for Salon.com who has researc…

Rabbi Michael Lerner says “Real friends don’t let friends pursue a self-destructive path.” Despite intense pressure, he refuses to be silent in the face of the destruction of Judaism. As the State of Israel moves away from traditional Jewish values and…

While the left has very few electoral victories, author Michael Kazin argues it has very effectively changed the nation. The author of “A Godly Hero: William Jennings Bryan,” talks about what’s gone right and wrong with America’s left, and ideas for wh…

It was October 25. 2002 that a freak accident took the lives of Senator Paul Wellstone and five others. Wellstone, of course, was the biggest thorn in the side of the White House’s planned war on Iraq. The guest on this show is Jim Fetzer who has thoro…

We know it started 100 years ago, and we all thought it ended with the armistice and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. But author and columnist Michael Moran argues the conflicts responsible for the horrific bloodletting remain as alive as ever. In the…

In the 30s, Communism meant an idealized hope for many destitute Americans. Then in the 50s, it became the Red Scare, led by the murderous Stalin. And the word Capitalism brings forth images of freedom and individuality. But there’s a great deal of mis…

Though American history is full of left-leaning populist movements, for the last few years, the only populism has been on the far right. That may be changing, so argues Elias Isquith, assistant editor at Salon.com.

Many Americans see our freedom to choose as consumers as what independence is all about. But recovering corporate CEO and Huffington Post columnist Richard Eskow on this show shines a light on how far we’ve veered from what the founders envisioned as t…

Peter Van Buren knows from personal experience. He told the truth about Iraq and was pushed out of his job at the State Department because of it. he sees three distinct eras in terms of a constitutional republic versus a police state. In the first era,…

A protest sign read: End Legal Bribery. As with lots of political change, it is starting in New Hampshire, home of the first presidential primary. The New Hampshire Rebellion is catching fire, as people fed up with the corruption of our system by vast …

Many saw it coming back in 2003: the US invasion of Iraq was an avoidable disaster. It was easy to see it could not work. Now as ISIS swarms Iraq, what can be learned? Can Iraq save itself? Is there really anything the US can do now that might actually…

Five hundred years may separate the reformation of Martin Luther and the nationalist/populist surge currently taking place in Western Europe, but there are strong connections between the two. On this show, John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In …

Most of the world seems to think that the State of Israel and Judaism are one and the same. They are not. Where Judaism is thousands of years old and lived for peace with Muslims and Christians in what Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss calls The Holy Land, Zio…

Though it’s usually thought of as a good thing, the word “tolerance” really falls well short of full inclusion. Instead tolerance actually preserves prejudice and leaves intact inequality. Suzanna Danuta Walters’ just published book (right in time for …

If we rely on the mainstream media, the narrative about Ukraine is pretty clear. But investigative historian Eric Zuesse has instead simply used the internet to go to primary sources and found that we are being lied to. The alleged good guys Obama is b…

She looked inevitable in 2008, too. But Hillary Clinton as a presidential contender has some serious vulnerabilities. On this show Guy Saperstein, former civil rights attorney, past president of the Sierra Club Foundation, and board member of Brave New…

The fall of Qadaffi and instability in Libya. Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria. The French war in Mali: all these hot spots influence the world and neighboring Niger, another former French colony. On this show NH resident Bess Palmisciano who has been …

In old East Germany or the Soviet Union, there was no question the government was watching. Everyone was a suspect. But this is the United States where we still have a fourth amendment in effect that is supposed to protect us from such intrusion into o…

On May 17, 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously against “separate but equal” in public schools, recognizing segregation meant inequality. The point was to improve education for impoverished minorities. But today’s guest Richard Rothstein argues …

On the first half, Chuck Collins, co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, talks about the effects of extreme wealth on democracy and public health and what can be done about it. And on part two, journalist Amanda Marcotte discusses a recent home-scho…