In the first half hour, Democratic political strategist Rpbert Creamer says the cause of the destruction of the middle class also points to the best way out of the current Great Recession. And on the second half, investigative journalist Rick Rosoff sh…

America Aflame is a major new interpretation of the civil war era. In this interview with author David Goldfield, light is shed into important dark corners, such as the tragic role played by evangelicalsm on both sides, why a post-war belief in sc…

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

Last year, Israel got a self-inflicted black eye by assaulting the flotilla of humanitarian aid meant for Gaza, killing 9, including one American. This year, Israel, clearly in concert with the US State Department, found other ways to stop the new flot…

Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World certainly knows her stuff. On this show, the columnist for The Daily Beast talks about what she’ know…

The president has ordered a partial withdrawal of combat troops from Vietnam Afghanistan. Of course popular sentiment figures into the decision, but what does it really mean for US presence in the region? Newseek/Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky o…

Greece is in crisis. Economist Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, looks at the causes and potential solutions. And on the second half, Christina Chauvenet, of Survival International, looks at what’s happenin…

What do former Reagan US Secretary of State George Schultz, Federal Reserve Chirman Paul Volker, the former presidents/prime ministers of Colombia, Mexico, Switzerland, and Brazil all have in common? They were all part of the just concluded Global Comm…

As the former secretary of state begins a book tour, he won’t be going to Spain or France, where there are warrants out for his arrest. More Americans are calling for his prosecution for crimes against humanity. Today’s guests are Debra Sweet, Director…

In opposing the four year extesnion of the so-called Patriot Act, Senator Mark Udall said, “Americans would be alarmed if they knew how this law is being acrried out,” and Sen. Ron Wyden said, “When the American people find out how their governmen…

Fixing elections was something from the old days of Tammany Hall and Mayor Daley, right? We’d all like to think election results can’t really be messed with anymore. But they can and are. Jonathan Simon is Executive Director of the Election Defense …

Compared to other western nations, Americans seem more accepting of our own powerlessness over institutions that run our lives. Psychologist Bruce Levine, author of Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corpor…

At this historic crossroads for US-Israel policy, manyyoung Jews are looking at the age old problem with fresh vision. Risking being called “self-haters,” these Jewish Americans are stating their identity as proud Jews, while being critical of Is…

Our mythic history suggests America was created by God and is therefore unique among nations. We have a higher moral standing and it is right, therefore,  for us to share our benificence. Lately the term American Exceptionalism is being used by th…

The war against secession began in the spring of 1861. What was won and what was lost? Historian Kirkpatrick Sale takes an alternative look at what was changed by the victory of the North.

Up to now, the far right has suceesfully claimed the mantle of the values of America’s founders. Even Glenn Beck has stolen the title of Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet Common Sense as the title of his own book. In this interview, Montana author and radio…

Other countries do it, not America, right? Our freedom requires the ability of teachers to teach, without government dictating content. Today there is a new concerted assault on what teachers may teach, and on college professors ability to be active ci…

Resolved: America is a republic. But are we a democracy? In this discussion historian Willam Hogeland addresses the existential conflicts inherent in the creation of our Constitution: protect the rich from dangerous democracy, or create a new-style gov…

How do self-identified conservatives feel about the positions of the Tea Party? University of Washington Professor Christopher Parker discusses findings of a recent poll he conducted of 1500 Republicans in 13 states. There is much dividing them, and mu…

Why has what used to be considered the fringe right wing taken hold with so many Americans, particularly those who least benefit? Nationally featured blogger Chauncey DeVega (a pseudonym) delves in to what the recent polling data reveals. The bad ne…

Burt talks with University of Western Kentucky Professor of Civil War History Glenn LaFantasie about his paper: The Erosion of the Civil War Consensus. And just as violence resulted in 1861 from the hot button issues of state versus federal sovereig…

What’s left of the middle class is being forced to bear major cuts. Working families are under attack as never before. Meanwhile there is plenty of money…hiding in Cayman Islands corporate tax dodges. Guests today are Chuck Collins, senior scholar at…

Owsley, the man who provided high quality LSD to the Grateful Dead and untold thousands of others, recently died in a car crash. Today, some 45 years after its then-legal popularization, there is renewed interest in what today’s guest psychiatris…

As Japan struggles to bring its nuclear catastrophe under control. the focus of today’s show is nuclear power itself. One the first half, guest is Diane D’Arrigo of the Nuclear Information Resource Service to explain what is happening at the Fukushima …

Recently hundreds of homeowners and community leaders targetted a Bank of America branch in Washington. Why? Keya Hicks, of the Alliance to Develop Power, an affiliate of National Peoples Action, explains they may have been too big to fail, but should …

Recently hundreds of homeowners and community leaders targetted a Bank of America branch in Washington. Why? Keya Hicks, of the Alliance to Develop Power, an affiliate of National Peoples Action, explains they may have been too big to fail, but should …

The Republicans in power are terrified. Their deep fear of female sexuality is what’s really behind their attacks on Planned Parenthood and marriage equality. They actually see feamle sexuality as a subversive force that needs to be strictly controlled…

So the Obama budget is less bad than the Republican proposal. But according to today’s guest Kevin Zeese, executive director of Voters for Peace, it is still dominated by the untouchable Security Budget. Democrat or Republican, the combined powers of t…

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…