Is command and control from the top down bureaucrats the best method for teaching kids? How about critical thinking skills? Much of the best results of public education come from democratizing schools, welcoming input from those who best know what

The Republicans in power are set against themselves: on one hand there’s the revved up old Cold Warriors targeting China. On the other hand there’s the strength of the big business powers who see their futures tied to China. On

This book changed my view of US History. He posits that the standard story is not the truth: The surprising reality of America’s founding shows we were created for insider rule, a stable hierarchy but not justice. On this show

Overwork, uniquely stressful conditions, patients suffering.  Blaming individual caregivers with personal failures results in fewer and fewer professionals when the need by boomers is growing exponentially. On this show, David Schenck author of two previous books on ethics and healing

If it was only about achieving national security! But our foreign policy is like driving while self-blinded and that undermines both stability and democracy. Our decades old War on Terror only damages America; real national security is weakened. The damage

Imagine being a judge and having a mandate to break up families! Today’s guest, noted children and family lawyer Jane Spinak talks about her new book The End of Family Court: How Abolishing the Court Brings Justice to Children and

Many of those of us who have homes wish the homeless were invisible. Unknown, clearly on hard times, why isn’t it done, why is it in all of our interest to prevent homelessness? Noted psychiatrist Dr. Robert Okin lived for

Biden’s problem is he’s not a TV star, just a good president. What is the draw of royalty? It’s much less effort than tedious democracy to just accept legitimacy being handed down from above. On this show, from the Brooklyn

It used to be just the far right fighting against an income tax. Now that’s the Republican Party. On this show Matt Ford, staff writer for The New Republic explains a case the court soon may or may not take

It took a lot of persistent steady heavy lifting but New York State now has a new democratically run power authority. Instead of the traditional for-profit monopolies, the public good will determine a greener, less expensive supply of electricity.

Our infrastructure is overloaded. It already can’t handle extreme weather and climate change is making it more frequent. We can’t keep sweeping it under the rug. On this show Steve Ellis, president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense,

Their language is illegal where they live. They can not give their kids Kurdish names. A continuing legacy of European imperialism. Americans owe Kurds gratitude for beating ISIS in 2014. Our guest Kani Xulam, director of the American Kurdish Information

It’s not just blue vs red, North vs South. There’s us here in Yankeedom, Then there’s New Netherlands, The Midlands, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, The Deep South (of course), New France, The Far West, El Norte, The Left Coast, and First

What passes today for populism is anything but! It’s astounding that the far right calls itself that when they are the total opposite. Labor historian and author Steve Babson on this show clarifies the meaning of the word “populism:” and

He served 20 years in the military. No, he’s not the macho militarists; our guest today retired Lt Col. William Astore says empire is killing the America he served to protect. Our insane war budget, our “full spectrum global dominance”

It’s a tale of fiction but in his new book Altar to an Erupting Sun well known activist and author Chuck Collins tells the story of the main character Rae Kelliher who, facing her own death, makes a bold, shocking,

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 newly published book, The Plea of Innocence, author Tim Bakken argues that prosecution really has

Today’s right encourages and seeks to use men’s anger in the culture war, though their policies actually damage working class men. In their fear and rage at the gains for equality, as Washington Monthly editor William Norris notes, Sen. Josh

They claim loudly they’re protecting freedom and innocent children, but the truth is the right is oppressing both. On this show psychoanalyst Avgi Saketopoulou, co-author of Gender Without Identity, argues there is not one true immutable authentic identity with which

The 19th and 20th century systems of control of the earth have failed; there’s a connection between famines and empire. Especially in the face of climate change, we have a lot to learn from indigenous and peasant systems; the idea

In short, it was not about individual rights but about protecting the institution of slavery. It created militias as slave patrols. And despite conventional wisdom, militias were useless in the war for independence. Historian Carl Bogus’s new book Madison’s Militia,

The thousands of islands in the global south have been treated as toys by the western “civilizers.” Though they are responsible for less than 1% of greenhouse gas emissions, today their voices are not part of the conversation on dealing

We finally get that can’t have infinite growth on our finite planet. The dominant western approach of treating the earth as our playground isn’t working anymore. It’s late but there are still real opportunities for a partnership between humans and

Is it heresy to support a cease fire; can we both support Ukraine and diplomacy? Our guest on this informative show wonders if the Biden Administration is “trapped in its own stifling, peace-averse domestic political climate.” Jacobin Magazine staff writer

It’s a puzzling mystery why so many working class people in the midwest go for Trumpism. Some answers are in Imagining the Heartland; White Supremacy and the American Midwest  by anthropologist authors Britt Halvorson and Joshua Renoit. It examines the

It was a crime to even be a member of the “One Big Union.” But even Helen Keller was a member of the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World. On this show, Ahmed White talks about his new book

“Nothing in this story makes sense,” but it’s all too real. So says today’s guest Jordan S Rubin whose new book is titled Bizarro: The Surreal Saga of America’s Secret War on Synthetic Drugs and the Florida Kingpins It Captured.

The pressure to prevent active curiosity is a serious threat to democracy. Our guests today are authors Perry Zurin and Dani Bassett whose new book is Curious Minds, The Power of Connection. The push is on by the Trumpist right

From a vaunted Latin American “pink wave,” Colombia’s new president Gustavo Petro and vice president Francia Marquez realized that even with socialised profits, more extraction does not equal more wealth. In fact as the Insitute for Policy Studies’ John Feffer

India enjoys a greatly romanticized image; you may think of Gandhi or the Beatles visit there. The reality  is open repression and violence against the large Muslim minority.   Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon visit America and his Hindu