Since Hollywood began making movies, right wingers have blasted movie makers for ever including any liberal themes in their art. The 1950s blacklists were just one example. Problem is, thinking and caring artists think and care. We all know about the O…

The movement started in Tunisia, spread to Egypt and then much of the middle east. Now thousands in Wisconsin are rising up, angry at attempts by government to take away rights. And the uprising may be spreading into other states. Why have Americans fo…

From privatizing water to spreading toxic sludge, when it comes to the regulatory process, it’s not a level playing field; corporate interests almost always beat local popular resistance. But there’s a new legal tool coming into being that can give …

February 6th was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan. No doubt, he lifted American spirits. Guest on this show is Robert Parry, who broke a number of Iran-Contra stories while at the Associate Press and Newsweek in the Reagan era. There…

What is a corporate person, and how has if affected our democracy? About a hundred years before the crucial Citizens United decision, a legal fiction was created called corporate personhood. And it’s caused great harm to our democratic system. Now V…

For about forty years, there have been attempts to turn NH into a “Right to Work” state. With nearly half of the House of Representatives being new members in 2011, there’s concern this year the bill has a better chance. But if you’re not a union membe…

 There’s one set of economic rules for big finance and another set for the rest of us. Our tax dollars are subsidizing non-productive gambling by the “too big to fail” finance houses, while everyone else in capitalism has to follow  the hard …

With the FCC approval of the Comcast takeover of NBC-Universal, there is a new, unprecedented consolidation of media and internet power in the hands of one company. As Sen. Al Franken puts it: “When the same compnay owns the content and the pipes that …

Some of America’s top income earners understand that it’s in their interest to pay more taxes. Our country’s economic stability is at stake and, as Thomas Jefferson understood, the survival of a democracy depends on a strong middle class, which has bee…

Many Americans dismiss the charge that the right-wing talk of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Bill O’Reilly contributed significantly to the Tucson massacre, insisting, “Oh, they all do it.” But is this true? And what happens if the hard right does not…

Young Afghans are leading the way for leaders to follow. On this segment, the guest is Uzayr Humkar, an Afghan living in Los Angeles who serves on the steering committee of the new international group Afghans for Peace. They oppose both the Taliban and…

Are We Too Dumb for Democracy? The first guest is U Michigan researcher Brendan Nyhan whose recent study shows that beliefs determine which facts we accept, perhaps rendering democracy unworkable.
Along similar lines of thought, on the second half of …

Dan Ellsberg says,”If I put out the Pentagon Papers in every detail, same as before, I would now be called a terrorist.” Jason Ditz of antiwar.com is guest on this show. What is truly frightening, he argues, is the lack of reaction to the truths which …

U of Wisconsin-Madison History Professor Alfred McCoy knows quite a bit about empire. He’s written many books on America’s empire, and recently convened a group of 140 international historians to examine empires in transition. His latest article is Fou…

As we head in to 2011, we face a deeply divided, crumbling America: red and blue, super rich and a beaten down middle class. Federal Reserve policies threaten the stability of the dollar. Some say the alternative to chaos between left and right, rich a…

We were snookered. He’s not as advertised, instead we’re seeing that Obama is a willing captive of Wall Street, the insurance lobby, and the other oligrachic forces and has turned his back on the hope that put him in office. Chris Hedges, author of the…

One ot the UK’s best ever singer/songwriters and performers, Graham Parker has been at it since the mid 1970s. His new DVD is coming out December 7th. GP is a gutsy and intense rocker, who has a lot to say.

It couldn’t have been a tougher election year, but California’s Proposition 19, which would have legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults, very nearly won. Stephen Gutwillig is that state’s director of the Drug Policy Alliance, and on this se…

The White House Commission on the Deficit recommends cuts in social security and medicare. Not too damn likely. Bob Borosage, founder and president of The Institute for America’s Future and chair of Progressive Majority organized a Citizens Commission …

He’s America’s most widely syndicated political cartoonist: in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, LA Times, Village Voice. His new book is called “The Anti-American Manifesto,” but he’s really pro-American people and principals, just wants t…

We remember Nixon’s infamous spying on Americans. Controls were then put in place to stop it.  Today there is an ever expanding movement by both corporations and government agencies to use new communications tools for domestic surveillance purpo…

On November 3rd, Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve Bank announced it would print another 600 billion dollars. What’s the goal, what does it mean for our economy? Listen in as Burt and University of Montreal Economic Profressor Rod Tremlay discuss the matt…

Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine and chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives talks about his “10 Commandments to Revive Progressives After the November Defeat.” He suggests ways to get over the perception liberals are elitists. An…

Now is the hard part for the right: governing. Burt’s guest on this podcast is Adele Stan, Washington Bureau Chief for Alternet. Which way will President Obama move: center or left? How powerful will the Tea Party be and how will the GOP handle them? A…

On November 2nd, Californians will vote on ending prohibition of marjuana. Burt’s guest is Hanna Liebman Dershowitz, an attorney in Los Angeles, co-chair of the Proposition 19 legal subcommittee. It’s an intense struggle with ramifications for the enti…

Can we advance national security goals and cut the Department of Defense budget? Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul joined with 53 others calling on the White House study on deficit reduction to look at ways to reduce the massive spending and adapt …

Famous for its coal mines, eastern Kentucky also pays a high monetary and air quality price for electricity generated by coal. But a number of members of the region’s electric co-op are determined to bring democracy back to that entity, as was original…

In this revealing interview, author David Rosen looks at what really drives the Tea Party. It’s not just the fiscal insurrectionists, angry formerly middle class Americans. And it’s not just the oligarchs who fund the movement for their own benefit eit…

What would happen to our economy if the Republicans actually passed their new “Pledge to America?” UMass economics professor Richard Wolff dissects the facts.

 If you oppose any part of the “war on terror,” that makes you a terrorist, right?  With recent raids on antiwar organizers homes in the midwest, the Obama Justice Department is purposely chilling our freedoms. That’s the opinion of Heidi Bog…