Author Archive

Burt Cohen

CultureEducationFreedomPodcastWomen

It’s almost time for the start of schools. Of course all parents want to protect their children from inappropriate material. But when “parental rights” mean teachers are forbidden from mentioning homosexuality or racism because that means teachers are “grooming” kids

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Military and Defence PolicyPodcast

Why do America’s veterans have to beg for help on TV ads? How is it that our government refuses to pay the true costs of war? On this show, senior veterans policy analyst Suzanne Gordon talks about the new book

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Central and South AmericaForeign AffairsMilitary and Defence PolicyPodcastPresident Biden

The same old same old foreign policy of military first does not enhance our national security. On this show historian Leon Fink, author of Undoing the Liberal World Order, sees that the causes of terrorism are untouched by our reliance

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Civil LibertiesForeign AffairsMilitary and Defence PolicyPodcast

You may have thought it began after 9/11. But it really all started in 1947, as National Security Archive Scoville Fellow Rachel Santarsiero explains. The focus of our huge arsenal then quickly shifted from Germany and Japan to the perceived

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DemocratsPodcastPopulism

America today is not the America of the past. The Republican Party is unrecognizable. But in his new book What it Took to Win, author and history professor  Michael Kazin, discerns a theme that still works as we head into

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CultureEnvironmentPodcastRacism

The comfort of colonial powers relied on them not seeing the damage to exploited nations. So it is with mining and milling the uranium for nuclear power. Victims then as now are people without power, indigenous populations which are health

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Podcast

The Missouri Senator voted against one thing that can actually address what he says is the problem. Where once men felt pride in what they contributed to family and community as sole breadwinners, that is gone. The anxiety is real.

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CulturePodcastWomen

Do liberal women feel that their culture is superior? Among women who feel liberated, what is it about the sight of Muslim women in traditional hijabs that so bothers many? In her new book Unruly Women; Race, Neocolonialism, and the

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Military and Defence PolicyPodcastWar

Private Security Firms; just part of doing business, right? Blackwater was America’s version in Iraq; The Wagner Group is Russia’s today in Ukraine and Africa. Atrocities in the Donbass region of Ukraine? Russia cynically said, that’s not us, it’s “little

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Civil LibertiesFascism on the RiseJusticePodcast

The opposite of conservatism is a police state. Yet public figures who call themselves conservative are crushing many of our traditional civil liberties and our legal rights. This according to Jacob Hornberger founder and president of the Future of Freedom

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CultureJusticePodcast

The intent is humiliation, eating away at one’s humanity. How can that make one a better person? Former figure skater Keri Blakinger’s new book Corrections In Ink tells the story from the inside and asks:  does locking up groups of

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Civil LibertiesJusticePodcast

Justice Scalia claimed to be an Originalist: did he mean only propertied white Christian men have rights? Perhaps the actual intent is still consent of all the governed. In the 21st century, are we not all entitled to participate in

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CulturePodcastSexuality

In theory, the state in a republic serves its citizens. Traditional conservatives insist they want government out of such things as sex. Our guest today Professor Paisley Currah in his new book Sex is as Sex Does, Governing Transgender Identity

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EducationPodcastRacism

America’s suburbs came into being as a way to keep white school kids at the top. But what’s happening with Asian-Americans in upscale places like the sample “Woodcrest” High School? Asian American kids are catapulting to the top. Should teachers

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CultureJusticePodcastReligion

Though the angry white supremacist right grabs today’s news, the truth is the Christian Left has much deeper roots in American history. According to the Reverend Quadricos Bernard Driskell, the religious left has always been part of the fabric of

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Fascism on the RisePodcastSocialismWomen

Pre-capitalist indigenous cultures have a lot to offer us today for a better, greener future. And socialism is not how its pictured. Neglected by the Great Men study of history, Rosa Luxemburg, a 4′ 11″ disabled young woman from what’s

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CultureForeign AffairsPodcast

A glorious celebration of a great state symbol: the Queen, who’s been through so much in her 70 year reign. Nostalgia for an imperial glorious past only goes so far. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was booed by his own party

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DemocratsEducationFascism on the RisePodcastRacism

Of course all parents want to protect their children from inappropriate material. But when “parental rights” mean teachers are forbidden from mentioning homosexuality or racism because that means teachers are “grooming” kids for pedophilia or Chinese communism, liberty is under

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CultureEducationPodcastRacism

Rather than just keeping one’s head down and staying safe, addressing that which is uncomfortable can bring new insight and a more complete sense of being. The often rigid structure of colleges is not enough, mentoring: listening, respecting is a

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Podcast

When national Democrats acted as if “we” need to educate “them,” someone who at least pretends to listen and respect wins. They have fear that what little they have may be taken away. The real change comes not from mere

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Central and South AmericaCultureForeign AffairsPodcast

Here we are well into the 21st century and we’re stuck on imperialism, a 19th century western idea. Meanwhile a new non-western, non-American, nonaligned world is emerging. And perhaps it’s a very good thing. On this show international journalist Patrick

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EnvironmentPodcastPresident Biden

Saving the planet is not just for hippies anymore. It’s good to remember that when the business community came out against the war in Vietnam, that was the tipping point. In his new book Climatenomics, Washington, Wall Street, and the

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CultureJusticePodcastProtests & ResistanceTake Action

Divide and rule. It’s worked quite well for many decades. When sectors of America are made invisible, behind walls, it takes away the power of democracy. In their new book Standing Up, Tales of Struggle, authors Ellen Bravo and Larry

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History That Matters NowInternational NewsMilitary and Defence PolicyPodcastWar

Of all the motivations for war, nostalgia is at the top. Longing for an imagined glorious past. We see it not only in Ukraine but in many former empires, like France. And this nostalgia plays itself out in racist nationalist

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Civil LibertiesJusticePodcastWomen

The attack on traditional rights is at the vanguard of the culture war, reproductive rights are the floor not the ceiling. Religious nationalists cherry pick what they mean by liberty. We can wish  Samuel Alito was an outlier but he’s

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EnvironmentMilitary and Defence PolicyPodcastWar

There are concentric circles: innermost being the destruction of Ukraine. But the increased insecurity of so many essential factors as a result of the war is starting to disrupt and bring increased misery to the poor of the world. On

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Military and Defence PolicyPodcastWar

Why does it have to be us or them? Bush II tried to use Iraq to force nonaligned nations to choose; it failed. And it’s not working today on Ukraine. Why do so many nations still insist on not choosing

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CultureFreedomPodcastSexuality

“‘Opposite sex’ is a phantom concept—nobody lives it.” So says our guest author Kathryn Bond Stockton. Her new book Gender(s) argues that what seem like obvious genital distinctions are in reality incomplete. When children are born, it’s like parents “lower

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CulturePodcastWar

One generation held the book and the author in reverence. And with Tom Roston’s new book The Writer’s Crusade and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse Five a new generation is discovering the unique importance of Vonnegut’s vision or war and

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DemocratsEconomyPodcast

They decided the remedies of the 30s no longer fit the 90s. They talked about expanding opportunities not government. The economy was strong that decade and so they did not worry about inequality. In her new book: Left Behind, The

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