Podcast
Radically Out of Step With America’s Founders: the Tea Party
The Tea Party claims to carry the banner of the founders of the United States, but an examination of history demonstrates they are anything but patriotic. Award winning journalist Robert Parry (of Iran/Contra reporting fame) explains what’s really behi…
United We Dream: Young Undocumenteds Winning Changes/Extrajudicial Killings of Americans!
On the first half, we look at some significant success young undocumented residents have begun to make in their fight against the fear of sudden deportation and the breaking up families by the government. United We Dream won a prestigious award, from t…
Military Takeover of Law Enforcement: It’s Happened. Really.
The Department of Defense recently, and very quietly, changed regulatory rules regarding law enforcement in the US, giving itself broad new powers over and above state and local law enforcement. Using intentionally vague terms like “domestic disturbanc…
Guatemala: Justice Denied?
In early May, former dictator Rios Montt was convicted in his own country, Guatemala, of genocide. Then three weeks later, apparently due to extrajudicial political pressures, that conviction was thrown out. Professor Colin Snyder provides some needed …
From Occupation to Worker Ownership: The Republic Windows Story
Who says the age of worker militancy has passed? The world took notice when the suddenly out of work, former employees of Republic Windows and Doors occupied their factory in 2009. But that was only the beginning. Now The workers own it and manage what…
Potentialism: Neither Capitalism Nor Socialism. A bit of Maslow, Jung, and More.
Throughout history, humanist leaders have dreamed of finding a way to move humanity beyond poverty, prejudice, injustice, hate and war to a new era of equality, enlightenment and empowerment. All past efforts have fallen short, yet they have mo…
Report From Psychedelic Science 2013 Conference
Heroin and smoking addiction.The huge challenges of treating PTSD. The moral and spiritual impacts of psychedelics on humans and society. These are some of the topics addressed by nearly 2000 participants, including over 100 of the world’s lead…
Obama Missing Opportunities in Mexico/The Edge of Imperialism
There are great opportunities in Mexico that can benefit both countries. Opportunities the presidentchooses to not see. On the first half of the show, Professor Robert Pastor, author of The North American Idea: A Vision of a Continental Future, tlaks a…
Despite Losing in the 19th, The South Won Much in the 20th Century
Beginning in the 1930s, liberalism and Southern-style white supremacy worked well together. Today’s guest Jeremy Kessler argues that it is liberals themselves who shoulder the blame for accomdating racist Jim Crow policies. As a result, Southern values…
The Struggle to Repeal Citizens United and Restore Democracy. Not At All Easy.
Underlying a multitude of troubling issues is the matter of undue corporate power. The Supreme Court unloosed the dogs of this power with the Citizens United decision. This show looks at efforts to amend the Constitution to overturn this terrible decis…
New Report on Torture: What If We Don’t Learn?
A major new report on the use of torture was recently released. It is an unquestionably non-partisan report that raises deeply troubling questions about the status of America itself in the wake of the approval of the use of torture at the highest level…
Tax Day Came and Went. Was it Good For You?
Most Americans see money go from their pocket to…who knows where? Today’s guest is the National Priorities Projects’ Mattea Kramer, who leads their research program on the federal budget, spending and tax policy. From what she found, it turns out the…
Good Food and Social Activism: The Story of the White Dog Cafe
Judy Wicks’ new book is Good Morning Beautiful Business; The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local Economy Pioneer. It’s a new 21st century way of doing business. And in this discussion she describes a model both left and right can a…
Take Power Over The Public Economy with Public Banks
It seems they exist in a world above everyone else. The big banks play by their own rules, which certainly appears to be greed pure and simple. Of course the rest of us pay the price. Dearly at that. Senior Fellow at the Campagin for America’s Future R…
Robeson, Guthrie, and Seeger: Legacies of the Cultural Front
They were performers, not philosophers, and maybe that’s why the impact they had on the current identity of the American political left can hardly be overstated. Purdue University political science professor Harry Targ talks about the significant impac…
Public Ownership of Public Utilities On the Rise/Marriage Equality and the Supremes
There used to be momentum privatizing publuc utilities. But now it’s swinging back to public ownership and control. On part one, Slate columnist Matt Yglesias looks at what it means for the common good.And on part two, Ian Millhiser, Senior Constitutio…
Survey Says: The Rich Have Different Priorites, And Tend to Get Their Way
The wealthiest Americans in the country have disproportionate influence over our nation’s leaders. Problem is, as F Scott Fitzgerald noted, the rich are different. Today’s guest, Professor Benjamin Page, is co-author of a new study of th…
Opportunities in The Faith Communities: Iraq and The New Pope
America’s war on Iraq started ten years ago on March 19 Some four thousand Americans and well over a hundred thousand, possibly close to a million Iraqis died. On part one, journalist Greg Barrett talks about what he witnessed among Americans and Iraqi…
Facing the Truth About Kent State and Vietnam
The old powers-that-be don’t want the truth about the Kent State Massacre to ever see the light of day. Others are determined to have that truth known and justice to be done. On part one, Laurel Krause, whose then-19 year old sister Allison was killed …
The Klan of the 1960s: What Was It and Where Is It Now?
We all have images of the Ku Klux Klan as rabid terrorists. But the frightening reality is they were just average white men of the South. In his new book, Klansville USA, author and sociologist David Cunningham delves into the American cultural and poi…
Senator Bernie Sanders Leads on Climate Legislation/Taking on AIPAC
A bill to help business create jobs, tax carbon, and save billions on disaster relief has been introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Here Darren Springer, Senator Sanders’ chief counsel, describes what it is and how it …
Hollywood Movie Awards: Not Those Guys, The Progies!
The military industrial complex is well aware of the power of Hollywood, that’s why they spend gobs of money to influence those productions. But artists will be artists and not all Hollywood productions satisfy the desires of the militaristic plutocrat…
“Fix The Debt:” The 99% Sacrifice, While the 1% Romp
It may sound fair, but in reality, “Fix the Debt” is the same folks as the bogus No Labels group. Depite the title, it’s not about cutting the deficit and reducing the debt, it’s really about rich people staying rich and siphoning all the public money …
Henry A Wallace: One of Our Greatest Americans. Who?
The Cold War and Red Baiting of the 50s. America’s war in Vietnam. Civil rights and women’s equality. All would have been far different had the Democratic machine not replaced FDR’s vice president Henry Wallace with their own choice Harry Truman at the…
Forward On Climate Rally/Obama and Extrajudicial Killing
On the first half hour it’s Dan Kessler, spokesperson for the environmental group 350.org, discussing the upcoming Washington rally on February 17th to push Obama on the Keystone XL pipleine in specific and climate change in general. He needs the push!…
Guatemala’s Former Dictator Goes On Trial for Genocide. In Guatemala!
No one would have thought it possible. Prosecution in an international court would have been stunning enough. But now the amazing has happened: President Reagan’s buddy, Guatemala’s dictator in the early 80s, General Efrain Rios Montt is on trial for g…
The IMF and Europe/ Blacks and Obama
On the first half, Marc Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research talks about a new report on how policies of the International Monetary Fund are affecting the people of Western Europe. Their policies are supposed to boost ec…
The Increase in Elderly Homeless Women
It used to be that homeless women over 50 were blessedly rare. Now it’s become the norm. San Francisco radio host Rose Aguilar went out on the streets and what she found should disturb all Americans.
A New War: This Time It’s Mali
And we thought the Libya war was tucked neatly away. It seems all those weapons, loosed from the old Qadaffi regime, are now set loose in the desert nation of Mali, a former French colony. French forces are on the ground and in the air, fighting agains…
A Surprising History of the Second Amendment and the NRA
The belief that the Second Amendment guarantees every individual the right to possess and carry any sort of gun anywhere is exceptionally recent. Guest on this show is Alternet senior fellow Stephen Rosenfeld, who has written a series of articles revea…