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

“‘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

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

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

It’s the bedrock of who we are today. But to believe there was agreement among the “Founding Fathers” to replace plutocracy with democracy is just wrong. A lot of the answers as to where we find ourselves today, good and

They hide under the cover of academia. They claim to be local grassroots. But behind the faces we see on the news, there is an interconnected network of fossil fuel and evangelical interests in a very efficient soup-to-nuts approach to

Since Plato’s allegory of the cave, tyrants have successfully manipulated the projected images the public sees. On January 6th, Trump told the insurrectionists they were being patriots. And they believe him. On this show, philosophy professor Andrew Fiala talks about

What had been a strong established left in France has seen much of its support move to the right. People who feel left out and looked down on see a kindred spirit in the far right candidacy of Marine LePen.

Shock Therapy. That was the US policy toward Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. That brought economic anarchy, a real depression, and the clamoring for a strongman government. And today we see the results. According to our guest

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Taxes. Working people have been subsidizing the rich for far too long. All polls show that support for finally taxing the richest is hugely popular. Of course the Republicans openly serve that top

Do you buy into American Exceptionalism? Politicians of both parties do. But what does it mean to the planet? On this show professor Aviva Chomsky sheds light on the aspects of exceptionalism we don’t want to see. Technical tweaks alone

It was not intended to be this supreme. But since Brown v Board of Education desegregating schools, even Democrats have been complacent and yielded too much authority to the court. America’s founders focused on freeing our government from oligarchs. But

Clearly not his intention, but with his assault on Ukraine might Putin actually be decapitating his worldwide far right? Guest John Feffer director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies  in an article titled “Will Ukraine

America today is not the America of the past. But in his new book What it Took to Win, author and history professor  Michael Kazin, there is a thread that still works. Among the varied demographics, people want the government

The break in the supply chain feels sudden but it’s been building  for some 50 years. And our guest American Prospect Executive Editor David Dayen explains in an special edition of the magazine: “None of the private players involved have

As with many success stories, an impoverished, unknown yet powerful woman made it happen. In his new book, The First Kennedys, The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty author Neal Thompson tells us about the Ireland they fled and the

Breaking the mold of powerlessness happens, in the US Senate and in our neighborhoods. On the first segment Political Science professor and author Ron Feinman points to six little known US Senators who courageously stood up against war and injustice.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait, we went to war. With Russia massing at the Ukraine border, we threaten war. But when the repressive kingdom of Morocco claims possession of another distinct nation, silence from the US. The rest of the world

One might think it was purely an honor, but it can be brutal. Especially for women. Sexism may generally be more subtle now, but not always. In this discussion of her new book, Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the

Both establishment parties are competing to be toughest on the Ukraine crisis. But the fact is America’s founders were solidly non-interventionist. Our constant search for new monsters to destroy; where has that gotten us? More peace and justice? Our republic

A dangerous addiction to war is a result of what our guest retired Lt Col. William Astore calls victory disease. He actually served at the nuclear trigger under 2000 feet of granite. Reagan fired up the desire for conquest, but

In walling out Palestinians, the State of Israel has walled in themselves. Former Zionist Israeli Defense Forces paratrooper Sylvain Cypel speaks to us from Paris about his evolution.  As a Jewish Frenchman, he says how that country’s experience with Algeria

There used to be a long held American tradition of opposition to colonialism and that government served the common good. FDR’s vice president Henry A Wallace was an outstanding visionary. Then a corrupt political machine performed a bloodless coup at

A consumers republic was born at the end of the second world war. And though it was genuinely intended to be a tide lifting all boats, it has increased economic inequality and created isolation where public space once was central.

He 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.  In her

The words seem so obviously neutral and just technical. In her new book “Does Skill Make US Human?” author Natasha Iskander reveals that the language of skill versus unskilled is being used to justify dehumanizing workers in Qatar, much the

We barely pulled democracy back from the ledge. Now there’s work to be done to make democracy work even better. On this show Kristen Eberhard talks about steps described in her new book “Becoming a Democracy: How We Can Fix

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

Distrust of the press is hardly a new phenomenon. In the 1920s two American literary luminaries shared a concern about bias in the press. But they offered widely divergent reasons and ways to correct the unfairness. Upton Sinclair insisted the

You’ve heard of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 between the trenches of the British and German soldiers. These were indeed brave men. But that was not the only such event: there were desertions, mutinies, and fraternizations. Today it seems