At the depths of the first world war in 1915, about 1200 women from around the world met at The Hague to try to bring an end to that blood drenched disaster. As they celebrate their centennial, there’s much to learn from the past that remains in today’s news, many crucial topics needing attention.

March 8, 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the first official ground troops landing in Vietnam. Today it’s like a dark family secret, intentionally disappeared from popular memory. It was erased in part by President Reagan who invaded Grenada to restore American Pride. Today the only lesson the government learned from that war is to keep reporters away and to use drones instead of American “boys.”

It used to be that when the word “Extremist” came up, the John Birch Society was the first thing you’d think of. Claire Conner was raised by two national leaders of the Birch Society. Her new book is “Wrapped in the Flag,” and she is a dedicated fighter for her country, trying desperately to make Americans realize that the John Birch Society is alive and well, and as she puts it, extremely dangerous. More so now than ever because today it’s called the Republican Party.

Every day more than 10,000 people born at the baby boom turn 65. America is not prepared for what today’s guest Ai-Jen Poo calls the “elder boom.” Her just-published book is called The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elderly Future in a Changing America.

It’s very difficult and painful to let go of a dream. For many decades, American Jews have based their identity as Jews on the State of Israel. On this show, Alice Rothchild bravely explores the difficulties Jewish Americans are having with the stark realities of so much injustice and racism in the State of Israel.

The corporate polluters want us to just accept our sense of powerlessness. But not only are there real answers, available now, to global climate change, but they can actually be made to happen. Environmental engineer and writer for the Huffington Post, Ellen Moyer on this show offers exceptional insight with realistic solutions. Some of the biggest sources of carbon emissions may surprise you. And we can make them happen, despite moneyed resistance in Washington.

One of the greatest aspects of democracy is artistic freedom. Movie makers put this value to great use. Everyone knows about the Oscars, many of those films have questionable artistic value, often winning because they make a lot of money.

It’s been a huge success now for 80 years. But the right has been attacking Social Security for the last decade. They’re trying to whip up fear among young people that it won’t be there for them. Balderdash.

The mainstream media loves her: an attractive insurgent campaign–maybe. But there’s the drama, and the media thrives on drama. On this who Charles Chamberlain, Executive Director of Democracy for America, and Kurt Ehrenberg, state director of Run Warren Run talk about what might make her jump in and run for president. And why they think she can win not only the nomination but the White House as well.

What was once healthy and strong may now be breaking apart. Stresses from many people angry at a lack of a say in their own future may be pulling the once powerful European Union apart. We see it from the left and the right. On this show, Foreign Policy in Focus’s John Feffer looks at how it happened: how grand it looked in 1989 and how fragile Europe looks today.

In the long held American tradition of opposition to colonialism and a government serving the common good, FDR’s vice president Henry A Wallace was an outstanding visionary. Then a corrupt political machine performed a bloodless coup at the 1944 Democratic convention. Just as his name was to be placed in nomination (he easily had the votes to win) the gavel was brought down and the convention adjourned.

On one hand, the turnout in last November’s elections was pitiful. On the other, there are huge numbers of a massive yet largely untapped political energy. Unfortunately, the only organized political reach-out to these justifiably angry citizens so far has

Most Americans were shocked by high profile police killings of unarmed black men last year. Was it a few bad apples, poor training, or what? On this show, Professor Sam Mitrani discusses what he learned in writing his history book on the subject. Polic…

it was an earthquake in Greece. On January 25th, fed up Greek citizens took a leap into the unknown electing the radical-left Syriza to power to take on the anti-democratic forces of centralized capital. The European financial powers have threatened no…

If you want to be inspired, give this a good listen. The people of Spain, now in desperate economic straits thanks to northern European-imposed austerity, are organizing themselves to really take on the powers-that-be and create genuine self-government…

It is understood that the war against southern independence ended any question of slavery in the re-established union. It was made illegal. Well, sort of. On this show, the Wall Street Journal’s Douglas Blackmon describes the results of his research an…

In her new book of essays, author Janet Cheatham Bell shares her unique insights into lessons learned from growing up black in America. Henry Louis Gates Jr. called her a “pioneer.” She talks about how much progress has, or hasn’t, been made in race re…

Though it’s dropped out of the headlines recently, the situation in Ukraine and Russia is remarkably dangerous for the west. And according to our guest, Patrick L Smith, columnist for Salon and a veteran of the International Herald Tribune, most of the…

Teachers today face intense pressure to avoid politically controversial issues in their classrooms. But according to our guest, Diana Hess, author of The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, the need to do this is great. Am…

How and when the media got put on a short corporate leash? When we had an activist FCC, it was understood that the airwaves were being leased from the public and that the public had to be served. How far we have come.
On today’s show, guest is V…

You’ve probably heard of the Christmas Truce 100 years ago between the trenches of the British and German soldiers. These were indeed brave men. Today it seems anyone with a uniform is dubbed a hero, but what about the peacemakers? On this show Adam Ho…

There is a widely recognized crisis in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education. There is a huge demand for such educated kids but a very low supply. And it’s also now known that if schools don’t grab kids interest in K-2, it probabl…

Preserving democracy is even more important than ice cream. On this show, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s, talks about his new effort to literally stamp money out of politics. As he describes, the Stamp Stampede is a campaign to stamp messages…

It’s about power: not just generation of electricity. The story of nuclear power is one of citizen power: big money and tremendous political power one one side and average citizens organizing at the local level on the other. And guess what; despite the…

Potential presidential candidate VT Senator Bernie Sanders talks about his just released 12 point Economic Agenda for America. He believes Americans are at last hungry for real solutions to our challenges. People need work, and there is a lot of work t…

As the first president Bush exclaimed after the first Gulf War, “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all.” Powerful political forces remain determined that we never learn any lessons from America’s disastrous …

With multiple opportunities to learn and make a course correction, it seems national Democrats remain committed to a course which has proven to be political suicide. On this show, Michael Brenner, senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic relations…

Prisons are a very old concept and it’s time to ask: Do they still work? Do they accomplish the goals for which they were created? What can we do with dangerous people if we do away with prisons, how can we protect society? Maya Schenwar is guest on th…

 After any defeat, it’s an important opportunity to listen and learn any lessons. Most of the Democratic losses in the 2014 election were among Blue Dog, “centrist” Democrats. On part one of today’s show, Elias Isquith of Salon argues that it is E…

Peter Van Buren spent 24 years at the State Department and a year in Iraq. He has great knowledge of the players in the region, and on this show we focus on what’s possible in the new war against ISIS. There are not a lot of options at this point, and …