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…

A war on terror is, by definition, a war without end. On this show, Afghan correspondent for the Wall St Journal and Christian Science Monitor Anand Gopal talks about his new book: No Good Men Among The Living; America, the Taliban, and the War Through…

Andrew Hemingway is not the party favorite, but the 32 year old Republican is running for governor. On issues of privacy, the threat of a big casino, and the intransigence of our current governor on therapeutic cannabis, I suspect you will like what he…

Thousands of people joined the farmers, ranchers, and tribal leaders of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance the week of April 22-26 in Washington DC. They were joined by actor Darryl Hannah and rocker Neil Young. We open with Neil’s words to those gathered …

There’s a new religion out there. Up on a pedestal are the new information monopolies, which many believe in as infallible, purely scientific mechanisms that fix humanity’s problems better than mere humans. Google and Comcast are the new all-powerful i…

Remember when we thought the internet, being “open,” might be a leveler of power, putting the tools of creation in everybody’s hands equally? The reality is our digital devices are new shackles chaining us to corporate America and to government surveil…

In the 1930s, 2800 American men and women, black and white fought fascism in the prelude to the second world war. The battle was in Spain. They were the legendary brave heroes of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Now none of them are still alive but the spi…

Public education reform was kicked off in 1983 under Ronald Reagan. Not only has it not helped, according to our guest, the drive to put public education in the hands of for-profit interests has greatly weakened education and done real harm to thousand…

When asked what kind government we were to have, a monarchy or a republic, Benjamin Franklin answered: “A republic…if you can keep it.” Americans are wondering if we’ve already lost our republican form of government, first with Citizens United and no…

The past isn’t even the past: questions and debates remain fierce about such things as the locus of legitimate political power: should it be federal or state sovereignty? Did America really ever face up to the evils of slavery? In what ways was the whi…

You know it’s working when Netanyahu calls supporters of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions “anti-Semites and bigots.” If so, then why do so many Jews across the world support this pressure to stop the occupation of Palestinian lands? On the first half…

Even President Obama had to talk about it, saying income inequality is the “defining challenge of our time.” What he’s doing about it remains a big question. Have we come to the point where many Americans really care about the new wealth gap? AlterNet …

It was March 25, 1989 when the unprecedented oil spill from the Exxon Valdez tanker began polluting the Gulf of Alaska. What have we learned since then? Some call for “Drill Baby Drill,” and the political power of the petroleum industry has only increa…

A new progressive populist movement is gaining momentum. More and more every day, people are realizing that we are not powerless, that we can successfully take on the moneyed elite that has been manipulating the national economy for their own financial…

There are reasons why you probably never heard of  the TransPacific Partnership. It has been kept secret because the more Americans learn about it, the less we will like it. Some call the TPP the “Sneaky One Percenter Power Tool.” Listen in and le…

The conventional wisdom is that Hillary Clinton has the nomination. But can she win? How important is passion to the exceptional vast public momentum needed to achieve victory? Or is it best to stick rigidly to the safe middle? Vermont Senator Bernie S…

In 1966 it took real courage to publicly tear up one’s draft card. Bruce Dancis was just 18 when he did and he served time in a federal prison for it. He could have just used his student deferment to stay out of the war, but instead took a principled s…

Suddenly Ukraine is the center of the world’s attention. Are there good guys and bad guys? Is the EU and US supporting fascists? Would Ukraine be more secure were Crimea to secede? Can Putin back off? Guest in this important discussion is John Feffer, …

Sure there’s the glitz and glamor of the Oscars, but the winners of the Progressive Movie Awards have also just been named. These are films which are recognized both for their art and their leading roles in taking on injustice in the world. Guest once …

They arrested those who supplied the heroin that killed Philip Seymour Hoffman, but that accomplishes nothing. Heroin is a powerful and dangerous drug, totally unlike cannabis, which practically everyone agrees should be legalized. But what can we do a…

Political candidates used to send their checks back to NORML, the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. Now lawmakers and wannabes are beating a path to the door of Executive Director Allen St.Pierre.  Suddenly, after decades of tryi…

Charity from the super-rich perpetuates the myth that we need to keep them ultra-rich. As HL Mencken wrote: “The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” It’s been with us since feudal times, the many groveling before…

February 11 was called The Day We Fight Back, but it’s really a beginning. Uniquely uniting left with right, opposition to the massive NSA spying program is getting a real head of steam, both at the federal and state level. But it’s a federal program y…

The all-American dream of upward mobility is out of reach for more citizens, and the inequality gap in education is a big part of that. Educator Richard Murnane is co-author of Restoring Opportunity: The Crisis of Inequality and the Challenge for Ameri…

To many on the left, Noam Chomsky is nothing short of a hero. Back in 1967, the MIT linguistics professor wrote that it was the intellectuals’ responsibility to get involved and not merely parrot the official line from the government. While Chomsky has been a guest on The Burt Cohen Show, today’s guest looks at the reality behind the adulation. Anthony Greco’s new book is called: Chomsky’s Challenge to American Power, and in it, he reveals inconsistencies and serious lapses in Chomsky’s intellectual rigor.

Is the dream over? The democratic Israel our parents generation dreamed of is not the right wing Israel we see today.What’s happening with Jewish Americans who are under 70? Why does the right wing Israel lobby still have so much power in Washington? T…

Declining super powers, global rebalancing, anbd profound economic inequality. Sounds like 2014. But it is also describing 100 years ago as the world embarked on a horrible world war. Gordon Adams leads the discussion on this show; he is professor of international relations at American University and teaches national security policy and resource planning.

Some people believe charter schools may be a silver bullet for what ails our public schools. But what about accountability to the public? Guest today is Jeff Bryant who has written extensively on public education policy as the director of the Education…

Most Americans believe the transformation of our republic into a plutocracy started with the Reagan Presidency. On a speaking tour promoting his new book Who Stole The American Dream, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Hedrick Smith says the power shift a…