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The Origin of American Police Was As Enforcers of Slave Laws

The politicization of the FBI and police is hardly new. The foundation of the law is protecting property not people. Enforcing a racial caste system. Himself a former FBI agent, our guest Mike German in his new book Policing White

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They’re Not Accidents; They’re Deadly Crashes Which Passengers Can Prevent.

With freedom comes responsibility. And not just the driver, but America’s roads have been littered with bodies of passengers who failed to speak up. Guest today is Candace Lightner was one of the founders of Mothers Against Drink Driving and

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Time for Democrats to Post a Clear Agenda for America

No question, it’s all about re-connecting with the working class: People without a college degree, lowering the cost of health care, championing the self-employed, addressing the transportation problems of the heartland. Our guest  today Paul Glastris Washington Monthly editor in

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Feminism and Philanthropy: Powerful Combination

More and more women are steering great philanthropies. In the current Chronicle of Philanthropy, Christine Ahn is co-author of this article: To Fight Growing Militarism, Philanthpy Should Embrace a Feminist Playbook. The subtitle is  Around the world, feminist activists have

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We Thought We Knew Racism and Sexism

In her new book titled Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? Why Red and Blue White People Disagree, and How to Decide in the Gray Areas co-author Betsy Leondar-Wright, through remarkable research, found Trumpists are not all racist and sexist

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The Trashing of Tastes: When Did It Begin?

When did politics and trash TV become one in the same? According to author Ross Benes, no question: it was the 1990s. As one reviewer said: “this book helps to explain the election of Donald Trump in ways that most

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A Global Minimum Wage = a Stronger Worldwide Economy

The reason we have minimum wage laws is to ensure a basic standard of living. But in America, the federal minimum wage is still what it was in 2009: $7.25. And in developing nations to which big corporations outsource jobs,

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Republicans Got It: Bottom Up Works. Wake Up, Democrats!

Democrats seem to always pay attention to the top, the federal races. But what worked for the right wing in 2010 can work for us: Our guest Eric Schmeltzer writes, in The New Republic, that to take power away from

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Christmas Truce of WWI: Not So Isolated, Really

    You’ve probably 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.

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Could These Guys Actually Cut Military Waste?

It may not be as it looks. For decades, millions of Americans have urgently sought to bring sanity to the defense budget. They propose a new  nongovernmental “Dept of Government Efficiency.” And military waste is the low hanging fruit. On

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Will There Be A Way to Stop Him?

Just the threat of prosecution can be a violation of our First Amendment rights. Look for the fascistic right under Trump to try to impose by force what they failed to win in the culture war. On this show, investigative

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Toward a Revival of Left Populism: What It Takes To WIn

Populism is the common language of America. Author and Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin notes people were not inspired by Harris’s “opportunity economy” talk. People feel disconnected and want a sense of membership, a sense of power, which unions used

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Immigration Was Played Dishonestly. The Truth is It’s Like Inflation

Just as it is with inflation, some immigration is good for the economy. It strengthens the economy and helps rural America. But as with inflation, immigration has to be kept under control. On this show Washington Monthly politics editor Bill

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One Eternally Explosive Line in the Sand

Storytelling is a venerable and often the most accurate way to teach history. Our guest co-author of the new A Line In the Sand, Miles Spencer, traveled with his partner along the 1100 mile trail of clues left by TE

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To Win, Go on Offense

Playing defense defines the playing field. Shall we just accept a world run by international mega-billionaires? On this show, Sam Pizzigati of Inequality.org argues now is the time to get ready to go on offense against what Trump Musk and

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The Many All-American Tools Trump Can Use To Chill Freedom

From the proposed Department of Government Efficiency to possible invocation of the Insurrection Act of 1807 to the Espionage Act of 1917 to the proposal to take away the non-profit status of organizations alleged to have ties to terrorists, there

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“Defending Democracy” is Fighting for You, Not the Status Quo

In the wake of the shocking presidential election, we Democrats now have an opportunity and an obligation. Once again, the heartland of America saw the Democratic Party as two-coast elitists. Our guest today, veteran political organizer Bob Creamer says despite

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11/11 Armistice: The Germans Were Ambushed, A Peace That Ended Peace

Can we ever learn from history?  November 11 is celebrated as the end of “the war to end all wars.” But in reality it was a peace that ended peace. Listen in as eminent historian Adam Hochschild cuts through the

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Greensboro ’79: “White Supremacy Done Correctly”

You remember: “that’s not who we are,” related to January 6, 2021? Turns out, maybe it is who we are. Was this too an outlier: Greensboro North Carolina November 1979 when the KKK shot and killed five people demonstrating for

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Restorative Justice Works Where Retribution Fails

You know the saying “hurt people hurt people.” Well, our guest argues “healed people heal people.” Most of us look away from the terribly failed system of justice, but Notre Dame Professor Jason Springs offers us a new path that

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Tim Walz’s Unique Appeal to Young Men’s Masculinity

There’s a mountain of electoral gold which, for the first time, is being mined: graduates of regional public universities. Many of them men. Colleges with “state” in their name. Our guest Washington Monthly editor in chief Paul Glastris talks about

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Under the Noses of the Nazis, Yiddish Thrived

Oppression and mass murder did not defeat a culture; the Nazis tried but did not erase peoplehood. They certainly destroyed millions of Jews and others, but they did not destroy Yiddish. On this Keeping Democracy Alive, talking about her new

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The Demise if Neoliberalism. At Last

Reagan, Clinton, and Obama all boosted neoliberalism. But Biden is showing that he’s on a different track. Democrats in the 90s moved away from FDRs liberalism only to solidify Wall St’s hold on our economic life and political power. In

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Heather Cox Richardson: Yes Democracy IS Awakening

In a democracy, we expect to have our own say over how we are governed. There’s a great grumbling throughout America because many don’t feel listened to. That’s the impetus behind today’s Trumpist populism. This populism is the voice of

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Wisconsin Rural Voters: Challenge and Opportunity for Democrats

Wisconsin is a key swing state in the upcoming election, with traditions of both real right and real left. On today’s show on-the-ground journalist Christina Lieffring tells us about realities in that 90% rural state. She says to win voters,

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The Deep Roots of American Illiberalism,Yes Illiberalism

Many Americans were appalled at the violent January 6th assault on the capitol. The thought was: “That’s not who we are.” But in truth, throughout our history, a great number of Americans have supported hierarchies and authoritarianism; freedom for us

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On Rosh Hashanah: Netanyahu, The Israeli Right, and Jewish Identity

In light of the Israeli state’s massive assault on Gaza, and now Lebanon, the question comes up: What does it mean to be a Jew? Our guest veteran New York Times sportswriter Robert Lipsyte says being a Jew entails certain

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Is Corporatocracy Unstoppable?

Corporations have their own interests at heart. From post-Civil War America through to Germany in 1933 to America today. And knowing public image counts, many try to have it both ways: bragging that they support reproductive and LGBTQ rights as

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From Rockefeller Republicanism to Trumpism: How Did We Get Here?

“People think of Nelson Rockefeller as the epitome of moderate Republicanism.” But what appears to be a clean break from this tradition is really an evolution. Author Professor Marsha E. Barrett explains how the shift to the right was something

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Architecture as the Ultimate Expression of Power: Gaza 2035

It was only discovered in an architectural trade journal: Netanyahu’s “Gaza 2035.” Architects were hired to provide models of a new Gaza , the old one having been flattened. Steel and glass high risers being erected where once a people

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Nuts and Bolts: What Needs to be Learned to Make Our Agenda Reality

As Americans, we want what we want right now. But it doesn’t work that way to make real political change. As with any mechanism, there are certain things that must be learned to make it work and achieve our goals.

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Criminalizing The Unhoused Gets Us Nowhere

Some might call it “cruel and unusual punishment,” arresting, sweeping the parks, bulldozing homeless encampments. Others believe if people are poor it’s their own fault. On this show, the Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis of The Kairos Center discusses an essay

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A Military Security State and the Erosion of Freedom

They love to say America has the strongest military of any nation ever. But boasting usually leads to disaster. On this show, we hear from William J. Astore,  a retired lieutenant colonel of the US Air Force and professor of

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What is the 9/11 Generation?

History professor Matt Warshauer argues in his new book that the 9/11 generation is the most unique in American history, and he explains how. The title is Creating and Failing the 9/11 Generation. This generation has seen a nonfunctional government,

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Evangelicals Souring on Trump: Why It Took So Long.

He got 81% of the evangelical vote in key swing states in 2016. Our guest today the Reverend Doug Pagitt is exceptionally familiar with what goes on with evangelical Christians, and he says he expects Trump to get less than

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Gen Z, Millennials and The 2024 Presidential Election

They weren’t there for Biden. A large chunk of young men are for Trump, but with a new presidential candidate, the Democratic Party is connecting with young people. One millennial voice is Josh Lafasan, on today’s show he says the

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Waving Goodbye to Neoliberalism?

It may have the word “liberal” in it but it’s anything but. Until the Biden/Harris years, the corporate wing of the Democratic Party had its deserved image of serving the richest among us. Trump understood raw populist anger to win

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Hawley And the Right: Terrified About Their Manhood

Now with the nomination of not just a woman, but a woman of color,  they feel even more threatened. Today’s right encourages and seeks to use men’s anger in the culture war, even though those very policies actually harm working

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With Walz, Can Democrats Win Back Rural America?

Since at least 2016, the Democratic policy has been driven by big contributors, yielding rural voters to Trump who at least pretended to hear them. With Minnesota Governor Tim Walz nominated as VP for Harris, middle America people who had

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Avi Chomsky: 21st Century Colonialism and Extractivism

Colonialism: Now it’s called corporate globalization. As the energy appetite of the west continues to accelerate, so does extractivism,  without the consent of the people directly affected. In this revealing discussion, Professor Avi Chomsky explodes the many myths we white

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Jails and Prisons Were a Hotbed of Covid. Needlessly.

The ideal breeding ground for the Covid virus: A place where people were forced to have constant close contact with each other and with the wider community. In other words: prisons. You know how awful it was for us on

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Make the Winner of the Popular Vote President

We were taught in elementary school that every vote counts in America. But as we all know the 2016 winner of the popular vote did not become president. The truth is the presidential candidates will spend a billion dollars this

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The Term “MAGA” Acknowledges US Empire is Over

Make America great “again?” What does that phrase assume? Our guest today, retired Lt Col. William Astore served 20 years in the military. No, he’s not a stereotypical macho militarist, far from it. He says our “full spectrum global empire”

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White Male Supremacists Fear and Hate it But “Romance” and Nuclear Families Aren’t the Only Option

We assume our picture of romance and marriage has always been there, but according to our guest author and professor Sabrina Strings, it was invented in the 12th century as a myth about Sir Lancelot. Marriage was about power, domination,

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Dems Need the Middle Class: Why is the DNC Still So Corporatized?

There is a palpable movement under Kamala Harris; so why is party leadership still so out of touch with working people as they were in 2016? Our returning guest, veteran party insider Norman Solomon, says the DNC is still top-down

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What’s Behind Trumpism: The Open Attack on Democracy

As Trump heads into the 2024 campaign, you might wonder who is behind it, who benefits from destroying our republic. Here is the story. The religious nationalists see him as a fierce leader. They believe God sends such kings to

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The Power of Pardons and Democracy

It’s not high on people’s reason to choose a president, but the power of pardons today is often corrupt and the promise of a pardon has been known to encourage crimes. In this discussion of her forthcoming book, Law Professor

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Union Curious in the Mid-2020s

Unions have achieved some historic victories recently. But though many workers are curious, there’s still reluctance to joining a union. As co-author of a new report called “Union Curious,” UC San Diego’s political economy professor John Ahlquist explains on this

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After The Shooting of July 13, Is it Over?

Today, more than ever, politics is theater. On today’s big stage we see Biden as an old weakened man, and then we have Trump with blood on his face, standing strong, defiant, fist in the air. On today’s show national

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The Challenges of Being Muslim Today

In 21st Century Western Culture, there’s a variety of impressions average white people get when you say the word Muslim. Most of them wrong. On this edition of Keeping Democracy Alive, Toronto author Saqib Qureshi brings some needed clarity to

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How Liberation is Only Found In Community

Today’s guest is Dr. Rachelle Winkle-Wagner, author of the new book The Chosen We. She’s a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy a U.Wisconsin-Madison. Over a period of ten years she interviewed 105 Black women from five selected cities about

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In Our Climate Threat, There Are Opportunities

Many still think “We don’t have to deal with it now,” but a new report from the Union of Concern Scientists is titled “Looming Deadlines for Coastal Resilience” for a reason. As co-author Dr. Rachel Cleetus explains on this show,

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US Africa Policy: “Willful Disregard of Reality”

So much history of over-reliance on military solutions when governments don’t have the support of the people, yet we’re doing it again in Africa. Our guest who has major experience in the White House and Defense Department is Dr. Gordon

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On the French Election: First Far Right Regime Since WWII?

In phase one of French elections, the far right of Marine LePen did very well, winning about a third of the total. The next and crucial vote is July 7. According to on-the-ground reporter, Oliver Haynes, President Macron is likely

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Ministry of Risk is it’s Own Reward

Many Americans say they are people of faith. But how many of us integrate our faith into our daily lives? Philip Berrigan was one of America’s most faith-driven people. Our guest is Brad Wolf, author of the new book on

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Do We Really Want to Get Back to America’s Founding Ideals?

This book actually changed my view of US History. The author says the Confederates and the January 6th assault are the inheritors of the original intent! He argues that the standard story is not the truth. The surprising reality of

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Dan Ellsberg Died One Year Ago. Long May He Live.

What do we mean by the word “hero?” Is it not a person of extraordinary courage, putting the good of the country above his or her own safety? That’s Daniel Ellsberg, most famous for the Pentagon Papers which he released

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Juneteenth and the Persistent Economic Racial Divide

Though it is finally a federal holiday, a lot of people still don’t really know about Juneteenth. It was the day in 1865 when formerly enslaved people learned of the Emancipation Proclamation. But what kind of freedom was it then

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Heather Cox Richardson: Yes Democracy is Awakening

In a democracy, we expect to have our own say over how we are governed. There’s a great grumbling throughout America because many don’t feel listened to.  That’s the impetus behind today’s Trumpist populism. This populism is the voice of

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Inspiration from Massachusetts: A New Wealth Tax Works

Across the United States there is tremendous support for a taxing the wealthiest among us. So why doesn’t it happen? Well, in Massachusetts, it has. As Inequality.org’s Sam Pizzigati explains in this segment, there was powerful resistance  to the new

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It Wasn’t Just Politics; The Art of Jazz Integrated America

In his new book The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America, prolific author Larry Tye shares what he learned about the lives of the three men, now recognized as great Americans. The racism they faced

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Snap UK Elections: A Fight for Mediocrity

Used to be Labour was left, Tories were conservative. Now it seems each party is trying to be just like the other. This right before PM Rishi Sunak shocked everyone by scheduling a new election for July fourth. And stirring

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Under Attack the World Over, What Is Liberalism?

The final chapter in our guest’s new book, Liberalism as a Way of Life asks the question: Requiem for a Liberal Way of Life? Well, is it really over? Reached in Sydney Australia where he’s professor of politics and philosophy

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The Deep Roots of American Illiberalism,Yes Illiberalism

Many Americans were appalled at the violent January 6th assault on the capitol. The thought was: That’s not who we are. But in truth throughout our history, a great number of Americans have supported hierarchies and authoritarianism; freedoim for us

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AntiChoice: In A Hole, Keeps Digging

They wanted to stop abortions, instead there were more after the Dobbs decision than before. One the first segment, Mother Jones magazine writer Julianne McShane tells how women are maintaining their reproductive rights despite the attacks. And on the second

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When the Supreme Court Was About Fairness to All

Imagine a Supreme Court whose only agenda was “equal justice under law.” It was real. Unlike today’s court, which is openly an arm of the MAGA movement, when that court ended legal segregation 70 years ago, the Chief Justice was

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Wisconsin Rural Voters: Challenge and Opportunity for Democrats

Wisconsin is a key swing state in the upcoming election, with traditions of both real right and real left. On today’s show on-the-ground journalist Christina Lieffring tells us about realities in that 90% rural state. She says to win voters,

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Rugged Individualism And The Role of Luck

America is an outlier: here it’s commonly accepted that if you succeed or fail you deserve it. We believe we make our own luck. And we blame ourselves for what’s really random bad luck. But that’s counterproductive, according to the

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A 32 Hour Work Week: The Time is Now

CEOs cry that shorter work weeks will bankrupt their companies. The reality is a 4 day work week around the world has already brought results that are “off the charts.” A shorter work week means more jobs. And people lose

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Miniforests as a Joyous Part of Class War

The environmental movement is often derided as elitist. But as our guest Liza Featherstone of the New Republic and Jacobin magazines tells it, by planting wild miniforests there’s no such polarization. The ultra-rich may have their gated sanctuaries whereas miniforests

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The War on Protest Escalates

Laws intended to fight mafia crime are being used to crush legitimate protest. We’ve all seen excessive police force on campuses, and many legislators are also doing their part to chill our treasured freedom of speech and assembly. In These

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The Court Versus the Voters: Who’da Thunk it?!

For many decades the Supreme Court was reliably on the side of voting rights. Incrementally, quite steadily, the justices have chipped away at our constitutional rights. On this show Professor Josh Douglas and I discuss his new book: The Court

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The Earth for Humanity: A How-To

Another Earth Day has come and gone, and how are we doing? The 19th and 20th century systems of control of the earth have failed; there’s a connection between famines, global warming  and empire. Especially in the face of climate

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Yes, Biden Can WIn the Working Class

Listening to working people’s concerns is key. Democrats have almost always won this constituency. That is until recently. Biden’s shift to the economic left is connecting and can yield electoral success. The New Republic’s Timothy Noah says tangible gains like

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The Power of What Appears to be Improvisation

Democracy is itself largely improvisation. Pushing back against the powers that be; the mainstream. Our guest Randy Fertel, author of the new book Winging It; Improv’s Power and Peril in the Age of Trump, says rationality alone is not enough;

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Should Biden Whistle Stop Campaign Across America?

Truman was down and nearly out. Then he did a campaign whistle stop tour of America and beat the odds. TV eye candy is one thing but seeing a president in the flesh connects far better, and connection is needed

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Trumpism is a Movement; Movements Are How Democrats Have Won

The Right gets it; where are Democrats? In his new book What it Took to Win, author and history professor  Michael Kazin looks at the last hundred or so years and says it’s clear what has and still works.  Whether

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Nuclear Rebranding as “Green?” Mere Window Dressing.

After decades in a coma, the nuclear industry is back. But the truth is nuclear power is not an acceptable stopgap measure, it’s a diversion from real, actually economic, safer solutions. On this show policy analyst Paul Gunter tells the

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Wealth Supremacy is On Autopilot: That’s Not the Only Option

In the current American version of capitalism, all of us are “thingified:” our only value being as digits on the way to corporate profits. This reflects a core bias in the system toward serving the very richest. But it doesn’t

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There’s No Conflict Between Commercialism and Idealism

It’s basic to the very essence of America. On this show Constitutional Law Professor John O. McGinnis argues that commerce was the mother’s milk of the American Revolution and that the virtues of commerce and idealism need not conflict. Listen

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Seek Higher Ground: The Laws of Nature are Not Optional

We’ve built all the dams we need and that nature can handle. Development in flood zones is still happening faster than more sustainable locations. In his new book; Seek Higher Ground, The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis, award

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Why Place Supplants Issues in the Heartland

Most of us can guess but there’s nothing like serious scientific research when it comes to understanding political change. In her forthcoming book  How the Heartland Went Red, Harvard’s Stephanie Termullo shares her findings from extensive field research in three

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Shielded: How Did Police Become Untouchable?

It’s a systemic problem: what is “reasonable,” what is acting “in good faith” when America’s police violate citizens rights or even kill them? As of now, police are protected, enjoying unique immunity which no one else has. In this show

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Gender Identity: Is it Fixed or Changeable?

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 and immutable authentic identity with

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Is There Journalism That Doesn’t Love A War?

It’s gotta be eye catching. Journalism works by way of fear and anxiety. How it gets presented affects how we understand the news. On this show Tufts University lecturer and author Nan Levinson and your host discuss questions about the

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The Irony of Racism in Decrepit MLK Urban Schools

If you have cared about equality in education in recent decades, you know of the work of America’s foremost advocate for public schools Jonathan Kozol. In schools named after Martin Luther King Jr, he sees a new punitive autocratic pedagogic

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The Truth Behind the Myth of the American Revolution

It’s the bedrock of who we are today. But to believe there was agreement among the “Founding Fathers,” that they aimed to to replace plutocracy with democracy is just wrong. In this lively interview, historian Woody Holton reveals fascinating little-known

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Netanyahu and Jewish Identity

In light of the Israeli state’s massive assault on Gaza, the question comes up: what does it mean to be a  Jew? Our guest veteran New York Times sportswriter Robert Lipsyte says being a Jew entails certain responsibilities and obligations;

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“As if We Were Trash.” One Woman’s Prison Memoir

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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Plato: The Benefits of Acting Justly

In her new book Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, Princeton Professor of Politics Melissa Lane shows how the orange one serves both anarchy and tyranny. Better politicians use virtue and justice to achieve success, and get

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Waking the Sleeping Giant: 85 Million Americans

Politicians know the consequences of voters being ignored.There are tens of millions of people who used to be middle class but a revived Poor People’s Campaign just may connect and inspire. According to today’s guest, campaign policy director Shailly Gupta

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Green? Not Hardly: Nuclear Power is Racist, Sexist, and Ageist.

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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Using Comedy to Fight Climate Change

Fun attracts people but let’s face it: environmentalists tend to be a dour bunch. Saving the planet is serious stuff. Average working people can get turned off. But what about dark comedy? We’ve seen where it works. On this show

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The End of Europe?

Progressive Americans have looked to Europe for successful building of a strong economy which addresses climate change effectively. But now there is a new rise of a far right throughout Europe, starting with Trump’s buddy Orban in Hungary. As with

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The Only Crisis is What the Refugees are Fleeing

As we head into the elections, both parties have made “the border crisis” THE issue. But humans have always moved. Our guest, John Washington whose new book is The Case for Open Borders, argues stopping immigration exacerbates crime. The negative

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Not Punishment: Treat Addicts as Full and Complete Humans?

When you’re in a hole, stop digging. The currently pervasive approach to abuse disorder is a total failure; it exacerbates the problem. Could it be time to stop doing that? On this show experts in the field with personal knowledge

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Conservatives Emerging Against Perpetual War

We’re in wars all over the globe; is America more secure now? It’s basically been one war party in Washington for decades. The idea of restraint has been anathema to any member of congress, as every one seeks re-election and

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Israel’s Vietnam?

Large transfers of population, meaning massive destruction of living areas. Racist colonialism; the intent to eliminate. Total domination through force. On this show Franklin and Marshall College History professor Van Gosse talks about similarities and differences between the American War

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Kids With Loved Ones in Prison

“Those kids.” It’s tough enough being in the 9th grade, but imagine if your parent, aunt, or uncle were behind bars. Democracy needs citizens to feel part-of, but these kids feel left out. On this show Amy Friedman of “POPS:

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Not Just America: India’s Exceptionally Harsh Religious Nationalism

India enjoys a 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 recently visited America and the bulldozer is the symbol

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What it Takes for Democrats to Win: Historian Michael Kazin

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, it’s clear what has and still works. This fear of popular movements  has fed the

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The South Won: Today’s Gun Culture

So many mass shootings; how did the gun culture become so powerful? Look to the Civil War: Militarily devastated, the angry determined Confederate culture transformed guns into a totem. In this revealing discussion, U of Wisconsin-Madison professor Nick Buttrick sheds

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The Supreme Court: How Can We Fix it?

They’re not supposed to be an arm of either political party. The word “supreme” means above it all but that’s not what we’ve got in 2024. The majority often contrives constitutional reasons to impose a right wing agenda. How can

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With Courage In The UN, Peace is Possible in Ukraine

The big fish love the UN Security Council. It keeps them able to make wars. But the UN was not always toothless nor must it always remain so. Two badly behaved little boys really can’t be the only option for

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2024: The Positive Breakdown of “Rules Based Order.”

History moves in many different directions at the same time. On this show author and independent journalist Patrick Lawrence explains how as we begin a new year there is optimism beneath the pessimism. The failure of our many imperial policies

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The Rise and Stunning Fall of “Moms for Liberty”

It’s so much easier to break things than to build them. The right wing group Moms for Liberty claimed that “Parental rights do not stop at the classroom door,” but their real goal was to destroy public education. On this

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The Cellphone Camera: The Power of Truth that Can’t Be Stopped

We all know there are powers determined to destroy democracy. The ubiquity of hand held video cameras has the unique power to disrupt the narrative of power. On this show author Phil Allen talks about his new book The Prophetic

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Mainstream Jewish Americans Opposed Creation of Israel

In the pivotal yer of 1916, Jewish leaders like Jacob Schiff opposed creation of a Jewish state. That was the majority opinion, unlike now. The financier who was instrumental in creating the Wall St we know today, made sure to

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Mainstream Jewish Americans Opposed Creation of Israel

In the pivotal yer of 1916, Jewish leaders like Jacob Schiff opposed creation of a Jewish state. That was the majority opinion, unlike now. The financier who was instrumental in creating the Wall St we know today, made sure to

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Must our political leaders really be stars?

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Must Our Politicians Be TV Stars?

And what is the effect on democracy? Playing to the camera makes advertisers happy. Truth? How one would govern? Fall by the wayside are how one might govern. On this show associate professor of history Kathryn Cramer Brownell sheds light

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The Self Serving Purpose of Philanthropy

At this Christmas time of year, we all think about giving. But what are philanthropists all about? To launder a plutocrat’s reputation, preserving great wealth and maintaining dominance and control. Our guest Edgar Villanueva has a new book, a second

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The Case Before the SupCo That Could Hjiack a Wealth Tax

If the plaintiffs get their way, Moore vs United States could be the wedge that prevents a wealth tax. Guests on this show are law professors and authors Joseph Fishkin and William Forbath whose op-ed in the New York Times

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Who Defines the Jewish Self?

The Republican led Congress declared antiZionism to be one in the same as antiSemitism. But is that accurate? Judaism has been around for thousands of years, Zionism only 150 or so. Does the Israeli state get to define my Jewishness?

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Parallels: Israel and India; Bibi and Modi

Keeping one ethnicity in control: The Israeli state and Modi’s India. Palestinians and India’s Muslim minority. The chumminess of Bibi and Modi. And in both cases, the oppressors ask: who lit the fire? On this show, Stan Cox explains the

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Israel’s American Objective: Create Fear Among Students

No one wants to be labeled “anti-Semitic.” But there’s a massive yet secret Israel-run spy network not only spying on American university protesters but intimidating them, affecting their lives and job prospects. On this show author James Bamford reveals the

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From 2016: Israel Conflates Religion with Nationalism

The unquestioned backing by Jewish Americans for the State of Israel started to fade about ten years ago, well before the current war.  This keepingdemocracyalive is from 2016, in which Allan C. Brownfield  reveals the relatively short shelf life of

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Palestine is Not The Only Middle East Nation Denied

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

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Critical Race Theory: Scopes Trial Redux?

In the Scopes Trial of 1925, William Jennings Bryan spoke against teaching evolution, saying “I have all the information I need to live and die by.” Today’s intense fight against teaching Critical Race Theory is more of the same. To

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Rabbi in The West Bank Calls for Torat Tzedek, An End to Settler Brutality

Violence in the West Bank has ramped up markedly in recent days. Jewish settlers there see the barbaric and evil acts of October 7th as a green light. They’re not just vigilantes, they are subsidized by the Israeli government and

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The Left Can Win a Moral Revival

The corporate powers in the late sixties were seriously freaked out by the powerful momentum of the left. So along came the 1971 Powell Memo, which was a battle plan to retake power. And it worked. On this show, economist

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Powerful Left-Labor Coalition Emerging

Used to be labor unions were seen as being limited to white working class men and as such lacked power to make real change. With the wins by the UAW and writers union, writing in the New Republic author Raina

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Heather Cox Richardson: Yes, Democracy Is Awakening

In a democracy, we have a right to our own say over how we are governed: that’s what history shows is the impetus behind populism, both right and left. It says: we are experiencing economic injustice; how do we get

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Horror and Absurdity: Revisiting Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5

One entire 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 Kurt Vonnegut’s vision of

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The Right’s Latest Target: Unmarried Women

 You may have heard the story: King Cnut sat on the seashore and tried to command the tide not to touch his feet, yet the sea ignored him. Such may be the case with the right wing’s war against unmarried

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The Mystery that is Cuban History

For over 60 years, North Americans have been kept in the dark about our neighbor Cuba. On this show Professor author Lisandro Perez talks about what his new book reveals. In The House on G Street traces generations of a

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Wealth Supremacy is On Autopilot: Time to Change

In the current American version of capitalism, all of us are “thingified:” our only value being as digits on the way to corporate profits. This reflects a core bias in the system toward serving the very richest. But it doesn’t

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The Useful Struggle for American Democracy

Democracy and oligarchy: since our founding it’s been a long balancing act. In his new book Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy, author historian Timothy Shenk tells of how such incredibly diverse people as

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Racism Built Into America’s Medical System

In his new book The Bodies Keep Coming, author Dr. Brian Williams offers Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal. As doctors know, treating the underlying causes of disease require addressing the whole body’s

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Who’s Your State Legislator? It Matters More Than You Think.

It’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Our founders fought for self-government to replace the distant authoritarian system. As Justice Brandeis said; states are the laboratories of democracy. But they are withering from lack of public awareness of their

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Is Water Not a Human Right?

The right says let the market be in charge. Privatizing and commodifying our essential human needs is OK with them. Should we just accept the normalization of hundreds of millions of plastic bottles, for corproate controlled water that is no

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Today’s Gun Culture: The South Won

So many mass shootings; how did the gun culture become so powerful? Look to the Civil War: Militarily devastated, the angry Confederate culture transformed guns into a totem. In this revealing discussion, U of Wisconsin-Madison professor Nick Buttrick reveals the

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How About A Rural New Deal?

Liberals usually fail to connect and inspire people of the rural mid-west. And we lose elections. But if we’re true to tradition, we should take the lead in solving rural alienation.  Our guest today Jessica Corbett explains a new report

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American Midnight: The Early 20th Century Model for Trump?

Authoritarianism. Anti-Immigrant. White men fearful of losing control.   Books banned, free press shut down. Widespread domestic spying. Dissent criminalized and many jailed tortured and killed. In his new book, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s

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The Demise of Neoliberalism: It’s About Real National Security.

Reagan, Clinton, and Obama all boosted neoliberalism. But Biden is showing that he’s on a different track. Democrats in the 90s moved away from FDRs liberalism only to solidify Wall St’s hold on our economic life and political power. In

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Wither American Arts?

The writers and screen actors strike is an example of what’s happening to working people: the rents are too damn high. Housing is at the root of so many issues of the 2020s, including a stagnation in the arts. On

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The First September 11th: 50 Years Ago

Republicans determined to replace democracy with authoritarian tyranny. No it’s not 2023, it’s 1973 when they succeeded. Duly elected democratic socialist Salvador Allende is overthrown and replaced with dictator Augusto Pinochet. It’s not well known today, but listen in as,

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What Is Racial Capitalism?

They used to be prosperous Black neighborhoods: less than 2 percent unemployment. But through connected processes over the last 75 years, government and banks worked together to create gentrification. Black people were intentionally left out of the capitalist system, frozen

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Real Democracy and Infertility

We value the right to control our bodies. But is there really reproductive fairness and justice if those who want to be a parent face unchosen infertility and are denied access and face social stigma?  The new book is called

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More Democracy Can Prevent Climate Collapse of Civilization

Phoenix may not last another 25 years. Whole countries will collapse. The issue is elite control, and that was why earlier civilizations: Chaco canyon, the Mayan culture, and Viking Greenland collapsed; average people had no say. On this show Professor

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Happy Birthday Henry?

One hundred years old and what’s Henry Kissinger got to show for it? Well, he’s a free man because the US never joined the International Criminal Court. Though he wouldn’t want to travel to the many nations that can prosecute

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2023: A Turning Point for Israel/Palestine?

It’s been an exceptionally long and bloody stalemate. And with the far right anti-democracy government of Netanyahu turning its wrath on Jewish Israelis, and opinion in the US and the world showing real shift, our guest Mitchell Plitnick of ReThinking

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Is Education Quantifiable?

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

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US Powers Split on China Policy

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

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Get Back to America’s Founding Ideals? No; Leave the Standard Story Behind

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

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Blaming Caregivers When It’s the System

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

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War Policy: Keeping the Fog on Our Windshield

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

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Time to End Family Court?

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

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Finding Unexpected Bravery and Tenacity Among the Homeless

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

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Biden is Not Royalty. Neither is Democracy

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

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This Supreme Court May Preemptively Ban Wealth Tax

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

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A Revolution in Public Power

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.

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It’s Costing Taxpayers Billions. “Prespond” To Effects of Climate Change.

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,

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Righting a Century Old Wrong: Free Kurdistan From Middle East Prison

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

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One Nation Indivisible: Oh Really?

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

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Trumpism: Opposite of Populism

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

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The Term “MAGA” Admits Empire is Over

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”

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Seriously Radical Action To Defend the Earth

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,

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What Can Be Done About Injustice in Our Justice System?

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

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Hawley And the Right: Wrong About Manhood

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

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How Do We Form Our Gender Identity & Can It Change Over Time?

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

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The Earth for Humanity: A How-To

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

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Madison’s Intent for the Second Amendment

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,

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Sea Change: As Islands Sink, Will Communities Rise?

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

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I Want a Better Catastrophe!

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

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Pressure Starting for Cease Fire in Ukraine?

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

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The Roots of Anti-Woke

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

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“Courage Unexcelled in US History”

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

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The Real War On Fake Drugs

“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.

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Why They Fear Curiosity

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

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You’ll Never Guess Which Country is Leading the Green Wave

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

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It’s Not Just in America: India’s Harsh Religious Nationalism

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

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In Breaking Iraq, America Broke Itself

Bush’s lies gave Trump moral scaffolding; today Americans believe big lies. On this show Thanassis Cambanis, a reporter who was in Iraq at the invasion, details the harm Bush and Cheney did to America. Even Russia gained power from our

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How Does an Economic System So Hostile to Life Endure for Centuries?

We may accept today’s economic system as just part of the natural order; but in truth capitalism started with overt violence. Centuries later it has morphed into what our guest calls Mute Compulsion. And now here we are, faced with

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Comedy To Fight Climate Change?

Fun attracts people but let’s face it: environmentalists tend to be a dour bunch. Saving the planet is after all serious stuff. Average working people can get turned off. But what about dark comedy? We’ve seen where it works. On

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Michigan Moves Forward, Arkansas Clamps Down on Rights

When Republicans win power, they use it. Obama tried bipartisanship. There was little, if any, perceptible change. In the following campaign in 2016, Trump said “I made a promise to the forgotten men and women of this country that I

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Twenty Years Ago Today 3/20/03: The Price Veterans Still Pay

Shock and Awe was launched on this date by then President George W Bush. Over a hundred thousand Iraqis died along with 4,000 Americans. But what about the veterans today? On this rebroadcast, author Kelly Denton-Borhaug talks about  her book

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Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable

It’s a systemic problem: what is “reasonable,” what is acting “in good faith” when America’s police violate citizens rights or even kill them? As of now, police are protected, enjoying expanded immunity which no one else has. In this show

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A Left-Right Pro-Putin Alliance?

Authoritarians that they are, it’s not a huge surprise today’s Trump/DeSantis Republicans are pro-Putin. But as noted historian Michael Kazin points out, some alleged leftists are linking up with the far right on the war in Ukraine. Though there’s a

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Black and Queer on Campus//Still A Ways to Go on Women’s Day

On the first half Wellesley  Professor of American Studies and author Michael P. Jeffries talks about his new book Black and Queer on Campus, the unexpected possibilities and challenges which remain. And on part two, noted feminist Amanda Marcotte talks

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The Real Purpose of The Fed’s Rate Hikes and Austerity

The unchecked power of the Federal Reserve claims its current, never ending rate hike strategy is about curbing inflation. It is not, according to our guest today, economics professor Clara Mattei. That we have become so used to it we

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Time to Get Serious: How to Save Democracy

There’s a science to the demise of democracy. On this show, Vanderbilt University political historian Eli Merritt talks about the new book he edited: How to Save Democracy; Inspiration and Advice from 95 World Leaders. It’s about the knowledge and

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Slave States and Today’s Gun Culture

So many mass shootings; how did the gun culture become so powerful? Look to the Civil War. Militarily devastated, the Confederate culture transformed guns into a totem. In this revealing discussion, U of Wisconsin-Madison professor Nick Buttrick reveals the roots

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20 Years After Iraq Protests: They Actually Worked

Despite current assumptions, “protests can win even as they appear to lose.” So says Notre Dame professor emeritus David Cortright in his new essay in The Nation. On this show, we show how there are two superpowers on the planet:

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More Weapons Spending = Weaker National Security

There used to be some 50 military contractors, now it’s more like five.  Merger mania. And we’re playing right into what China wants. And we’re still pouring money into one of the most costly weapons ever, the F 35, which

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Why Pakistan Matters. A Lot.

How big do you think Pakistan is? Would you guess over 200 million people? It’s a  nuclear armed power, deeply in debt, with a few rich powers and the military in control. On this show Murtaza Hussain fills in what

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How Ted Kennedy’s Liberalism Strengthened America, And Still Can

The Trumpist right today has had no small success erasing the productive history of liberalism. Today’s guest is author, lecturer, and journalist for The Washington Monthly David Masciotra who in this show talks about the renewed interest in Ted Kennedy,

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How Our Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor

Though most of us never see it, instead of doing ethical justice, there’s a whole factory system routinely, intentionally turning injustice into revenue. On this show law professor, lawyer, and advocate for impoverished children and adults author Daniel Hatcher describes

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The Power of Kids Drawing Deportation

Children have fewer filters: when they see and experience injustice they’re not scared  to draw pictures of the truth. In her new book Drawing Deportation Art and Resistance among Immigrant Children author Silvia Rodriguez Vega tells of the human creativity

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Two Topics: 1) How Real Our Democracy? 2) Who is This Ruben Gallego

Is the US is merely a procedural, but not a substantive democracy? On part one, Franklin and Marshall history professor Van Gosse asks: what are the factors why we lack more actual democracy? And on part two, The Nation’s national

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Outsourcing War: Making Atrocities Invisible By The Wagner Group

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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Only Refugees Who Look Like Us Are Welcomed.

All refugees lives are threatened equally, so why are Ukrainians handed the welcome mat as it is denied to most others? On this show, Columbia University Professor and co-author Helen Benedict shares what she’s found in the new book Map

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America’s Old Tradition of “Civic Republicanism” Is New Again

Despite the obvious divides, both sides in today’s fierce split may actually share a lot in common and can be pulled together for a better America by something traditional called Civic Republicanism. On this show, Washington Monthly Editor in Chief

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The Israeli Far Right 2023: The Mask is Off

Suddenly in 2023, the aspiration of  being the only democracy in the middle east is unraveling itself from within. With its turn to the far right, antidemocratic political Zionism is overpowering traditional spiritual and cultural Zionism. On this show, The

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Perspectives on 2022: Some Impressively Positive

In her CounterPunch essay, Medea Benjamin co-founder of CodePink writes of surprisingly good things that happened in 2022. On this show, she cites many genuinely positive developments and some hopeful wake-up calls. Give a listen!

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Yes: Democrats Can Win Back the White Working Class

How did so many blue collar regions go from Obama 2012 to Trump 2016? Our guest today Robin Johnson, himself of the mid-west, says Thomas Franks was wrong judging and dismissing this demographic; Democrats can win them back if we

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Lula: New Hope for a Habitable Earth?

From mere crisis to real emergency, one big political change in Brazil offers realistic hope for saving the planet. No exaggeration. On this show global south veteran journalist James North explains that implementation of new priorities, with a new president

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Christian Nationalism 2023: Power Not Piety

Bradley Onishi is himself a “deconverted” Christian nationalist. His new book is titled Preparing for War; The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism–And What Comes Next. On this show, he answers the puzzling question of why so many who consider

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The Christmas Truce of 1914: Not So Isolated

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

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The High Price Paid for Ignoring the Midwest

No one likes to be ignored. We saw what happened when the 2016 Democratic nominee skipped those states. The truth is it was a liberal heartland: McGovern, Wellstone, Mondale, etc. Our guest is historian and author of the new book

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The Danger of Nostalgia

Of all the motivations for war, nostalgia is at the top. Restoring lost glory. We see it not only in Putin’s Russia but in many former empires. Nostalgia is a factor in racist nationalist bloodletting everywhere. On this show History

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Slave States and Today’s Gun Culture

So many mass shootings; how did the gun culture become so powerful? Look to the Civil War. Militarily devastated, the Confederate culture transformed guns into a totem. In this revealing discussion, U of Wisconsin-Madison professor Nick Buttrick reveals the roots

Go

The Self-Serving Purpose of Philanthropy

At this time of year, we all think about giving. But what are philanthropists all about? To launder a plutocrat’s reputation, preserving great wealth and maintaining dominance and control. Our guest Edgar Villanueva has a new book, a second edition

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The Struggle to Rule American Democracy

Democracy and oligarchy: since our founding it’s been a long balancing act. In his new book Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy, author historian Timothy Shenk tells of how very diverse people like Mark

Go

Profitable Panic: Busting Sex Workers at Qatar World Cup

At the World Cup and other global sporting events, all kinds of workers are exploited. And under the guise of rescue and saving souls involved in the sex trade, evangelical, business interests, politicians, and police make out quite well. Harm

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An American Tradition of Christian Left

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 Quardricos Bernard Driskell, the religious left has always been part of the fabric of

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11/11 Armistice? Germans Ambushed, A Peace That Ended Peace

With renewed interest in the first world war, November 11 is celebrated as the end of “the war to end all wars.” But in reality it was a peace that ended peace. The German negotiators at that famous train car

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Instead of a Red Wave, One of Common Sense?

It’s echoing everywhere: Trump was the biggest loser of the 2022 elections. Recorded two days after the votes, our guest today, veteran political news person John Kosinski sees what so unexpectedly happened as a wake up call. Could it be

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Legitimacy From Above: Easier than Democracy

Why do Americans love royalty so much? For one thing, it’s much less effort than tedious democracy to just accept legitimacy being handed down. On this show, from the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, Suzanne Schneider explains how today’s fascination

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This is the Best Analysis of the Coming Election

Thinking with history; on this show political broadcast veteran John Kosinski demonstrates how so many people running just want to be showmen on TeeVee. He explains why so many are drawn to Trumpism: a desire to be heard and respected.

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Why Do They Fear Curiosity?

The pressure to prevent active curiosity is a curious thing in a democracy. Our guests today are authors Perry Zurin and Dani Bassett whose new book is Curious Minds, The Power of Connection. As they say, acquiring information is insufficient,

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Wake Up Now Democrats! Do What History Shows Works!

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, it’s clear what has and still works.  Today’s right plays on a sense that it

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Are Alternatives to War Really Realistic?

Like all bad habits, war is a tough one to break. On this show, Professor Emeritus Lawrence Wittner explains that respecting, listening, and helping people in other countries is a lot more economically conservative and accomplishes security much more effectively.

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Should Democrats Be Worried? View from a Pro

We’ve won the abortion debate, and had the vote been a few weeks ago… But it’s not until November 8th. Neil Oxman is co-founder of The Campaign Group and on this show he shares his uniquely valuable vantage point. Oxman

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American Midnight: Trumpism Before Trump

Authoritarianism. Anti-Immigrant. White men fearful of losing control.   Books banned, free press shut down. Widespread domestic spying. Dissent criminalized and many jailed tortured and killed. In his new book, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s

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Do Democrats Want to Win? Ignoring Voiceless Rural People Is a Sure Way to Lose.

We can’t do it by talking down to middle Americans. If Democrats don’t get that rural Americans have fear that what little they have may be taken away, we stand to lose yet again. Victory comes when we listen, respect

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Border Crisis? How About A Right to Stay Home

The right wing depends on fear and hatred of others. As we approach elections, their TV ads seek to scare us about a surge at the border. Why don’t they stay home? What if they were white? Today’s guest Avi

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The Beloved Queen is Gone, Now the Class War Resumes

It took a mere ten days before the UK’s new prime minister blew it big time. Liz Truss’s budget was instantly panned; pretending to be trickle down, it gushes money upwards to those who need it least. On this show

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How Democrats Can Win Back Working People from the GOP

Elitists in Democratic Party bring avoidable disasters. From northern Iowa, Professor Wallace Hettle sees how the power of big money over the Democratic Party pushes away working people, farmers, and others in the hollowed-out heartland. Terry McAullife’s loss in Virginia

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The Right Fears and Hates the Reality of Non-Binary Gender ID

Author Kathryn Bond Stockton argues in her new book Gender(s) that obvious genital distinctions are in reality incomplete. When children are born, it’s like parents “lower a cone over the baby,” imposing an identity without consent and even ignoring other

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Nationalize Railroads While There are Still Assets

A crippling rail strike seems to have been averted. Barely. You and I may think of the railroads as ways to move freight, but as our guest today observes: “The railroad companies have been Wall Street’s plaything throughout their half-century

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Restoring Truth to the American Justice System

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 soon to be published book, The Plea of Innocence, author Tim Bakken argues that prosecution

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The Collapse of Journalism and the Threat to Democracy

Reporters used to report, now there’s virtually no line between media and the national security state. Veteran international journalist Patrick Lawrence on this show notes the big change occurred 9/11; since then we have been subject to an information monoculture.

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The Cellphone Camera: The Power of Truth That Can’t Be Stopped

We all know there are powers determined to destroy democracy. The ubiquity of hand held video cameras has the unique power to disrupt the narrative of power. On this show author Phil Allen talks about his new book The Prophetic

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The Tyranny of the Supreme Court is Nothing New, It’s Tradition

It may appear to be a rogue court today but the truth is the Supreme Court has long led the fight against democracy. Our guest today historian Steve Fraser points out that the liberal Warren Court was the real aberration.

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White Supremacy And A Place You’ve Never Been

The new book is Imagining the Heartland; White Supremacy and the American Midwest and it’s about the powerful roots of today’s angry violence against The Others. On this show anthropologist authors Britt Halvorson and Joshua Reno look at the use

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The High Price of American Exceptionalism on the Earth

Politicians of both parties buy into American Exceptionalism. 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. Instead of a good life just

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The Folly of Quantifying Education

As another school year kicks off, skepticism about quantifying is appropriate. That measure is command and control from the top down bureaucrats. But much of the best results of public education can’t be seen but come from democratizing schools, welcoming

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Being Gay, Brown, and Immigrant

Even in safe spaces for gay men, there is subtle racism and stratification if one is not white. On this show, Professor Anthony Ocampo talks about his new book Brown and Gay in LA, including pressures from Mexican and Filipino

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Why Do Americans Buy So Much Stuff?

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.

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As Schools Open Again: The Moms for Liberty Nightmare

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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Veterans are Poorly Treated Pentagon Employees

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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Militaristic Foreign Policy Fails; There are Other Options

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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75 Years of National Security State: America?

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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What It Took–and Still Does–For Democrats to Win

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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Nuclear Power is Racist, Sexist, and Ageist: You Gotta Listen

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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Josh Hawley and the Republican Push for Toxic Masculinity

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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Feminist Prejudice Against Women in Hijabs?

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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Outsourcing War: Making Atrocities Invisible

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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“Conservatives” Are Disastrous to Civil Liberties

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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“As If We Were Trash.” A Woman’s Memoir of Prison

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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Today’s Supreme Court: Not All May Participate in Democracy

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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Sex Classifications Are There to Serve The State

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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Suburban High Schools Race At the Top; Between White and Asian Kids

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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We Know the Religious Right: Where is the Christian Left?

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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The Prescience and Vision of Rosa Luxemburg. Who?

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

Go

The Queen and BoJo: The UK From Here

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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The “Moms For Liberty” Nightmare for American 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 for pedophilia or Chinese communism, liberty is under

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Sister Resisters

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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To Win: Listen to and Respect Voiceless Rural People

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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Like it or Not:The Emerging Post-American, Non-West Order

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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Capitalism: Powerful Environmental Ally?

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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The Unique Success From Undoing Intentional Invisibility

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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The Murderous Power of Imperial Nostalgia

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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The Real Intent of Alito’s Assault on Privacy

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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The Worldwide Effects of the Ukraine War

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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Ukraine War: Trying to Bifurcate a Non-Aligned World

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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Simplistic Binary Genders is Oppressive Cultural Fortification

“‘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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Horror and Absurdity: Revisiting Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five

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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The Price Democrats Pay for the Clinton/DLC Years

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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Behind the Neat Myth of the American Revolution

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

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Organized to Destroy Democracy

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

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How We Passively Enable Tyranny

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

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Will the French Republic (and the EU) Survive?

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.

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We Missed it: An Opportunity For a Stable Russia

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

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Biden’s Billionaire Tax: The Image and the Reality

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

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The High Price of American Exceptionalism on the Earth

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

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Supreme Court Too Supreme

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

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Is Putin Writing the Far Right’s Epitaph?

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

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What it Took For Democrats to Win; Maybe it Still Does

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

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The Supply Chain Debacle Explained

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

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How The Kennedys Came to Be Dynasty

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

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Courageous Movement for Change That Works

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.

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The Last Colony: Western Sahara

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

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Shortlisted for Supreme Court: Like Police Interrogation

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

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Ukraine: A Conservative Take

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

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New Cold War Same as the Old One

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

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The State of Israel vs The Jews

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

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A Successful Coup in 1944 America

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

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Why Americans Buy So Much Stuff.

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.

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Josh Hawley And The Republican Obsession with Manliness

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

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“Skilled/Unskilled” New Political Categories

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

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Now’s the Time to Make Democracy Better

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

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The Emerging Post-American Non-West Order

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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News Media: Commodity or Public Good?

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

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The 1914 Christmas Truce: Powerful, Brave, and Not So Isolated

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

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The Christmas Truce of 1914: Powerful, Brave, Not So Isolated

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

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What Are the Rights of Human Subjects of Science Experiments?

In the name of advancing the public good, protecting Americans from dangerous diseases, in the mid twentieth century, certain humans became guinea pigs. It used largely marginalized groups like people in mental institutions, often times children, who became subjects of

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How To Win Working People Back from the Republicans

It was “the best and the brightest” who brought us the disaster of Vietnam. And such elitists in Democratic Party still bring avoidable disaster. From northern Iowa, Professor Wallace Hettle sees how the power of big money over the Democratic

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Don’t Fight Tribalism, Embrace It

One hears a cry for “unity” today, but though America is one country, we have always been actually many nations. On this show, author Louis Salome talks about places like Afghanistan, the other “stans,” Iraq, and other countries whose borders

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Political Earthquake: Honduras Elects Leftist Woman

The original “banana republic,” Honduras is the second poorest country in the Caribbean region. A few wealthy and many poor. You know the story. It’s had a right wing government since a US supported coup in 2009, but on November

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Why Privatization is the Wrong Tool for the Common Good

In his new book, The Privatization of Everything, author Donald Cohen directly takes on the myths which have led to intense concentration of power a an wealth and offers ways to reassert what America’s founders had in mind. Despite the

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How TV, Movies, and Social Media Maintain Invisible Sexism

Unless it’s a spectacle, we don’t see it on screens. But as our guest author Andrea Press spells out in her new co-authored book Media-Ready Feminism and Everyday Sexism, everyday sexism is just accepted. The Me Too movement originated in

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Simplistic Binary Genders is Cultural Fortification and Wrong

“‘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

Go

Violent Authoritarianism: How Did This Become the GOP?

Pat Buchanan was ahead of his time. He used the KKK’s David Duke to breed a new nativist religious nationalism, based on fear of liberalization. On this show political science professor Joseph Lowndes sheds light on how the Republican Party

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Why the Fear of Trans Troops in the Military?

How can one have optimum performance at your job when you have to hide your identity? There was fear of disruption by having openly trans troops in our military.  But the truth is the only disruption was from people in

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Slice A Trillion From Defense: Bring Greater Security?

It’s easy to be all for cutting “waste” in the Pentagon budget but that enables continuing plans to spend 7.5 trillion over ten years. And on what? Could shoveling money to the military make us less secure? On this show

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On Veterans Day: Suicide and the Moral Injury We Look Away From

Great stone monuments to the glory of war serve to silence the pain. Currently four times as many troops and veterans die by suicide as in combat. Our guest on today’s show is religion professor Kelly Denton-Borhaug whose new book is

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Remembering the Dogs on Veterans Day

They’ve save countless human lives in many wars. Military working dogs have a new monument at the Navy Memorial in Washington DC and it’s about time. Dogs are an essential asset deserving recognition. On this show first up is 20

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He Knows a Coup When He Sees One

Claiming the election was stolen, “angry loyalists storming the building while overwhelmed security guards gave way. The slavishly loyal vice-president who would, the president hoped, restore him to power.” Sound familiar? This was 1986 in Manila. Author and history professor

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What Was the Obama Presidency Really?

Everyone who supported him projected what they wanted to see on him in 2008. In his new book He Was Our Man In  Washington, A History of the Obama Years, author Owen Symes reveals such little known facts as Obama’s

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Tax The Rich to Boost the Economy

For decades the majority of Americans, Democrats and Republicans have supported taxing the rich but politicians in both parties have turned a deaf ear. But the grudging acceptance that everyone but the richest pays their taxes may be ending. On

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How Measuring Education Fails

If it can’t be seen, it can’t be measured, and it doesn’t count. But a lot of the best results of public education can’t be seen. Quantifying was put there to assure command and control from the top down bureaucrats

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Pervasive Yet Invisible White Christian Privilege

It’s been normalized. Americans who are neither Christian nor white may not necessarily feel open discrimination, but privilege underlies everyday life. The starting point is not neutral, as we’d prefer to believe. On this show Dr. Kyati Y Joshi talks

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Making the World Safe for Plutocracy: The History of American Policing

It was called the Gilded Age. In the late 19th and early 20th century, there was extreme wealth and everybody else (remind you of another time?). Wall Street bankers back then were getting robbed, someone had to protect them. In

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Republican Goal: End Public Education, End Democracy

It’s not about education reform; Republicans like Florida’s DeSantis and others are actually out to end public education. On this show, New Republic editor Kathryn Joyce looks behind such appealing phrases as Parents Bill of Rights to reveal a long

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The Prescience And Vision of Rosa Luxemburg. Who?

Precapitalist 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

Go

For Inspiration Today: Fannie Lou Hamer In the Early 60s

When she came onto the civil rights stage, the men assumed she’d sing, not speak. But Fannie Lou Hamer was a force. As author Kate Clifford Larson tells the amazing story in her new book Walk With Me, she stood

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From Heroes to Targets: Medical Workers Under Attack

It’s not like displaying a large red cross protects doctors from attack anymore. Yesterday’s Covid heroes are today vilified by some. Across the globe, health care workers have become routinely targeted. For example in Myanmar, since it is not an

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The Harmful Naivete of A Foreign Policy of Violence

With violence so deeply embedded into America’s foreign policy, it’s become invisible. But who does it harm more; us of them? On this show global religion teacher and author Kelly Denton-Borhaug says it is time to grow up and face

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Even When It Loses, the Pentagon Wins

They’re doing it again. Remember the Peace Dividend after Vietnam? Right, it never happened. Now with another war finally ended, here we are again. On this show, retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel William Astore says the amount of money shoveled to

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There Is Enough to Go Around. But Not the Way We’ve Been Doing It

The earth itself is today paying the price for the 20th century fossil fuel bonanza. Now instead of continuing to have all humanity in service to that powerful sector, it’s time to pay the climate and colonization debt. When George

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Must We Do the Cold War Again?

It’s so easy for the national security state to just paint the same old picture for Americans: Russia and China are military threats. But in truth they are not. They are rising economically in large part because we have wasted

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Keeping Democracy Alive Trailer

Keeping Democracy Alive Trailer

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Decolonize Philanthropy: What Does That Mean?

Philanthropies came into being to launder a plutocrat’s reputation. It’s become an industry today whose goal is preserving great wealth and maintaining dominance and control. According to our guest Edgar Villanueva, philanthropy has to be more than a wealth building

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Are We There? How Empires Fall

The prospect of losing the power of empire brings out fear which can lead to police states. Or it can be seen as an opportunity for significant improvement. On this show, Matt Wehmeier, who spent recent years in the former

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20 Years after 9/11: Are We Any Smarter?

Have we learned that the military is not necessarily the best tool for the job? On this show New Republic journalist Jordan Michael Smith talks about the self imposed failures, squandering America’s power.  Right after the attack, the world was

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Plagues and Extremism: The Perfect Storm

The assault on science and reason:we’ve seen it before. In the plagues of the 1300s and in 1918, as well as Covid-19, fear and uncertainty combine to draw out extremism. On this show professor of history at Messiah University (an

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The Biggest, Most Inhuman Power in America: Amazon

The dehumanized Amazon warehouse as pictured in the movie Nomadland is more benign than reality. There is an “existential bleakness” where every instant is being watched, humans serve robots, and one can be fired by algorithm. In his powerful new

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A Benefit From Covid? 4 Day Work Week

With the pandemic throwing everything up in the air, there are new opportunities for us to shape the way it all lands. Going back to the old “normal” is not the only option. On this show Joe Ryle a leader

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Now They Must Govern: Prospects for the Taliban

Anything but monolithic, the newly victorious Taliban have internal divisions and are desperately seeking stability. Many confuse the Taliban with Al Qaeda and even ISIS, but the truth is ISIS was the Taliban’s enemy, and the country of Afghanistan is

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Pack The Court!

Let’s face it: the current Supreme Court is hostile to democracy. Even if Congress passes the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the voter suppression right wing will take it to this Supreme Court which will decide voting rights. Does that

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The Emerging Post-American Non-West Order

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

Go

After Rich Trumka: Now What for Labor?

You may not have heard of Rich Trumka who passed away suddenly August 5th. From working in the mines of Pennsylvania he served as president of the AFL-CIO from 2009 to 2021. Our guest today is once and future president

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Horseshoe Crabs and Covid//Biden’s Options for China Policy

They come to us as they were from millions of years ago and today they are vital to fighting Covid and other diseases. On part one, Author William Sargent talks about his new book Crab Wars. The demand is outstripping

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Veterans and Suicide: The “Moral Injury” We Don’t Want to See

Great stone monuments to the glory of war serve to silence the pain. Currently four times as many troops and veterans die by suicide as in combat. Our guest on today’s show is  Moravian University professor of religion Kelly Denton-Borhaug.

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The Global Right’s Bizarre Obsession with Pedophilia

It’s the ideal fear generator; there’s nothing more awful than child abuse. Intentionally whipping up  such fear is a tried and true tool for crushing democracy. Cosmopolitan globalism, the prospect of losing white male hetero dominance has been effectively played

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9/11 At 20: So, Why Did We Attack Iraq?

Regime change in Iraq was on Bush’s agenda since 1998, September 11 merely enabled it. On this show is historian Larry Hartenian whose new book is titled George W Bush Administration Propaganda for an Invasion of Iraq, subtitled Absence of

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America Will Be Lots Richer With No Billionaires

Everyone knows the tax code is there to serve the richest Americans. But when it was created, the tax code was actually intended to tax only the richest. The Progressive era was a way out of the last Gilded Age

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Does it Have to be Militaristic Competition With China?

We hold their debt, they hold ours. Yet both countries are openly preparing for all out high intensity war. Flashpoints in the South China Sea. Nationalism here and in China. But as US Foreign Policy historian Lawrence Wittner explains, though

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Anti-Gun Americans Become a Wave of New Gun Owners: What?

Fear leads to actions people often later regret.  Why are people who’ve been against guns now buying them up? The pandemic isolation and fear of shortages is part of the explanation for the current surge. Feeling safer beats actually being

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David Beats Goliath: Water Over Gold

The most dangerous thing to be in Central America is a water defender. The transnational mining interests frighten regional governments with massive lawsuits if they don’t get their way. And they have killed. But as the new book The Water

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The Intent of the Drug War: Repress Black People

Remember Nixon’s “law and order?” It was a clever way to get whites to buy into racist repression. On this show author historian Alfred McCoy (who revealed government heroin distribution to GIs in Vietnam) says the continuing “war on drugs”

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Afghanistan: We’re Outta There, Now What?

President Biden is doing what presidents rarely do: seeing reality and making a change. At no small political risk. Are we abandoning the women to Taliban brutality? Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the conservative Cato Institute, former assistant to President

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Fourth of July 2021: Are We Keeping a Republic?

While there are major challenges, there is much to celebrate. We are the only country with the same form of government since our founding in 1787. But in light of Trumpism, religious nationalists, and January 6th, how strong is our

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Berta Caceres Trial Will Test Biden’s Central America Policy

When VP Kamala Harris went to Central America, Honduras was not on the list of stops. She has reason to not want to appear with their right wing president. He is supported by the powerful global extractive industries, but there’s

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Split Among Right Wing Evangelicals

There are signs of serious splits emerging in the very conservative Southern Baptist Convention, which  is the largest Protestant denomination in America. Fifteen thousand of them just completed their annual gathering to elect a new president. The least hard liner

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Critical Race Theory: Scopes Trial Redux?

In the Scopes Trial of 1925, William Jennings Bryan spoke against teaching evolution, saying “I have all the information I need to live and die by.” Today’s intense fight against teaching Critical Race Theory is more of the same. To

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Trans Medicine: Brave New World?

Like many professionals, doctors and medical providers are uncomfortable with plowing new ground. But that’s what trans medicine is, and there is growing need for best treatment practices. There is very little research or precedent but the needs of trans

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Rural Teacher Elected President in Peru While the Right Claims Fraud.

It’s a rich country full of poor people. With his teaching pencil as a symbol, from the countryside Pedro Castillo is the winner of the very tight but certified free and fair June 6th presidential election. The candidate of the

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Manchin: Ego Rules Over Patriotism

Michael Winship writes: “Despite Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being in the White House, we remain in existential peril.” A big step toward tyranny is Senator Joe Manchin who announced he will not support an end to the filibuster which

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Sexual Assault in the Military: Foxes Guarding the Henhouse

Women in the military know they are more likely to be attacked by men of their own company than by an enemy. It’s been a long tradition that reports of sexual abuse are crushed. Commanders protecting their own reputation takes

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The Power of Resentment and The Threat to Democracy

Is it the revenge of the “deplorables?” We’ve seen how a culture of resentment affected Germany in the early 30s, and it has brought us dangerous Trumpism today. On this show, professor of history emeritus Walter Moss looks at the

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Supreme Court Case Threatens Roe, But It’s Not Over

When Roe v Wade was decided in 1973, many thought the matter was settled. Nearly 50 years later, the new Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could overturn that landmark decision. On this show abortion law historian professor

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People Refusing to be Erased

The world sees the “flare up” but not the ongoing banal policies that are at cause. The State of Israel is copying the successful “settling” of the American west, so what options for resistance are open to Palestinians being evicted,

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America’s Altar of Guns Explained

What explains the worship of guns in America? It’s long been a mystery to many. Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz says guns have always been central to the insistent belief that God gave America to white Christian males. America’s first industry was

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Free College: We Are Getting There. Really.

Grades 1 through 12 education may have been adequate to the 20th century. But not anymore. With emerging technology and a global economy, at least a two year community college degree is essential for America’s common good. On this show

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Peace Was On The Floor in 1916-17, but Wilson Failed to Pick It Up

So many awful 20th century roads lead back to the First World War. And despite conventional wisdom, there could have been peace two years before it came to an official (but not really) end. Through a process of detective work,

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To Stop Northward Migration, Address the Causes

“Crisis at the Border.” The truth is: unless we get to the root of how bad it has to be to force people to leave home, the refugees will keep coming. On this show political anthropology professor David Vine reveals

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The Remarkable Success of MayDay 1971

Traditional liberals argued we’d alienate some by civil disobedience in the streets of Washington. The idea was to stop the center of the war machine to stop the war, which went on an on despite marches and speeches and everyone

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The Biggest, Least Human Power in America: Amazon

The dehumanized Amazon warehouse as pictured in the movie Nomadland is more benign than reality. There is an “existential bleakness” where every instant is being watched, humans serve robots, and one can be fired by algorithm. In his powerful new

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In Military Gear, Patriots Invade the Capital: 50 Years Ago

Self-professed “patriots” stormed the US Capitol Building January 6th, but it was Vietnam Veterans Against the War in late April 1971 who were the real patriots. They came for what they considered another tour of duty, after serving in the

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Troubles in Northern Ireland: Unforeseen Brexit Blues

You may have read recently about a flare up of rioting in Belfast. It’s all a result of Boris Johnson’s Brexit. Scholar Kenneth Surin, a British citizen teaching in the US, explains what’s going on in Northern Ireland. Though it’s

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How the Wealth Defense Industry Poisons Democracy

As our guest Chuck Collins explains, it’s like one person orders expensive wine for a dinner crowd and sneaks out without paying. His new book is titled The Wealth Hoarders; How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. What he calls

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Sedition and Democracy

Thanks to January 6th, the word sedition is in our consciousness again.  Trump is more likely guilty of treason than of mere sedition according to the former director of the CIA and our guest, history teacher and essayist William Pruden

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No Common Ground for Confederate Monuments

The monuments to Confederate leaders are all about altering the realities of history to empower and enforce old mythic beliefs. They are there on courthouse lawns to remind black southerners of their place. One this show, Southern historian Karen Cox

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Hands in His Pockets as He Kills George Floyd

The message of his calm kneeling and centuries of racist violence is: you could be next, black person. Chauvin knew only 1% of police killing black people are even prosecuted. There have been others caught on film in broad daylight

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Border Crisis? How About A Right to Stay Home

Americans talk about the surge at the border, but the real point is everyone has a right to stay home. Today’s guest Avi Chomsky says that under Biden, Trump’s cement wall is instead outsourced to a militarized high-tech barrier. Do

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Can Biden Complete JFK’s Start at Peace?

He came in as a macho Cold War president but after the reality of near nuclear war, John Kennedy became a changed man. He gave an important speech about peace in June 1963. Now the Cold War is back and

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Stronger than Ever : The One World Idea is Back

Fierce nationalism and the insistence that the US is indispensable to organize the world has played itself out. With awareness of climate change, worldwide opposition to racism, and the avoidable persistence of great poverty, could this be the time once

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The Rise of Fascism: It’s India’s Turn

Fossil fueled fascism is not limited to the west. The roots of India’s ruling party go back to Mussolini and Nazis. Repressing minorities as they increase wealth and power of the autocratic rulers. The US is tight with Prime Minister

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The Cold War Again?

It’s so easy for the national security state to just paint the same old picture for Americans: Russia and China are military threats. But in truth they are not. They are rising economically in large part because we have wasted

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Unknown Activist: Challenges, Successes, and Rewards

Even if it never makes it on TV, progressive action does make a difference. There’s a place for all activists, forcing hidden problems and opportunities to the fore. Our guest Dinah Yessne has a new book called Politically Defined. There’s

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Democracy Lost to Powerful Men in 2000, but Women Saved it in 1937

Pounding on windows, yelling Stop the Count; the tactics of physical intimidation (led by the president’s men) succeeded in crushing democracy in the US election of 2000. On part one, our guest historian Robert Toplin tells the story where fear

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Jewish Israeli: Time to Hold Israel Accountable at The Hague

Interviewed in Israel, Jewish author Larry Derfner says Israel has never been held accountable and argues the International Criminal Court is right to investigate Israel for war crimes. Boycott, Divest,and Sanction has been ineffective and that the right has used

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A Carnival of Breaking Stuff and Lynching: January 6th

So much we have to learn from January 6th. On the first part of today’s show History Professor Robert Schneider calls it a “Populist Transgression,” without a legitimate grievance. Other uprisings and disruptions are purposeful. He likens Trump to Mao:

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Patriotic Millionaires Boosting Democracy through HR 1 And More

The greedy hyper-wealthy cheer on their Republican advocates as they fight to crush democracy. But a lot of American millionaires are also patriots and recognize that more democracy is needed to build the common good. On this show, Morris Pearl,

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We’re Not at the Head of the Table Anymore

American presidents have assumed that our place is at the head of the table with our European counterparts. In his first (virtual) meeting as president with German and French leaders, Biden was met by, what KDA’s most popular guest Patrick

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What Happens to the Nukes if The US Splits Up?

Jefferson saw America as sovereign independent states, only unified for defensive foreign policy. But today both left and right recognize the costs of empire are too high. And we are really too big to govern. Splitting into more natural bio-regions

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Plagues And Extremism: A Perfect Storm

The assault on science and reason:we’ve seen it before. In the plagues of the 1300s and in 1918, as well as Covid-19, fear and uncertainty combine to draw out extremism. On this show professor of history at Messiah University (an

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A Surprising Team for Justice: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

They are often pictured as competitive opponents, but Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were “The Sword and the Shield” leading the same revolution with the shared goal of human dignity. On this show, Dr Peniel Joseph talks about his

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Can it Happen Now: Real National Security, an End to Endless Wars?

Are America’s perpetual wars having the desired effect of enhancing national security? As USAF retired lieutenant colonel William Astore says “Terrorist acts are mostly the recourse of the weak when taking on the strong. The United States isn’t going to

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After the Winter of Trump: A Masculine Spring?

The former president embodied what our guest calls confined masculinity: old cages locking men into highly limited macho roles. January 6th was a prime example of this. In the new book he co-authored Reinventing Masculinity: The Liberating Power of Compassion

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Poverty: Change the Structure of the Game

Despite the myths, there is less opportunity to climb the ladder out of poverty in America than in other modern nations. Did you know a majority of Americans will experience poverty in their lifetimes? And that childhood poverty costs us

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The Price of Mythologizing Former Presidents

Unlike other industrialized nations, America values celebrity over governing well. FDR was a rare exception,he became a celebrity because he served America so well. Then there was Reagan, who did great lasting damage to our country yet remains revered as

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Demilitarizing Our Democracy

What is this powerful hold the Pentagon has over our “civilian” government? Since Clinton’s presidency both parties have felt a need to look tough on defense; Biden and Trump competed for military support. That may be changing as America sees

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January 6th: Not Who We Are?

The Trumpian mob attack on the Capitol shocked America. We thought “this is not who we are.” But maybe it actually is, more than we’d thought. If we dare to look at our history, it was not such an exception.

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Two-fer: Senate Trial Realities and Biden’s China Conundrum

On part one: By strict legal standards, Donald Trump is obviously guilty. But the impeachment trial is a political not a legal proceeding, the Republican majority senate is the jury. And according to Marjorie Cohn, former president of the National

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Broke In America: Policies Not People Are To Blame

When one thinks of people in poverty, what judgements come up? Did you know that the vast majority are working often two or three jobs? When you go to a bank or a mortgage, do they ask you how much

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We Can Make the Popular Vote Rule

The Electoral College was born in a hasty compromise in the 18th century. Could it finally be about to change and enable more democracy? Though you probably haven’t heard of it, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is moving steadily

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One Nation Indivisible: Really? Forever?

Sure, the south was defeated militarily, but their attitudes remained, as we saw in the January 6th insurrection. What we saw is not a fringe, in fact it has deep roots. Disunity is traditional in American history. People in the

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Occupy Wall St. 2011 Was Just The Start

From its birth in one block in New York City to more than a thousand town squares, the conversation began ten years ago. It was the first social media driven movement and as Heather McKee Hurwitz writes in her new

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New President: New Better Mideast Policy?

No one likes an outside power coming in and having control over them. But that’s exactly what has pervaded the Middle East for over a hundred years. Some of the effects of America’s recent wars there include epidemics of birth

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The UK’s Jeremy Corbyn: What Now?

Smeared and driven from leadership of the British Labour Party. Relentlessly attacked by the uniquely powerful British tabloid media, our guest today Matt Sarb-Cousin argues there’s never been a leader like Jeremy Corbyn. Except perhaps America’s own Bernie Sanders. Trump

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Brothers from Another Mother: Trump and Kaiser Wilhelm II

The similarities are uncanny and deeply disturbing: Kaiser Wilhelm II and Donald Trump share an amazing number of attributes. Such as fascination with and envy of more powerful people, the need to belittle other heads of state, believing themselves physically

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2020 Not the Worst Election; 1876 Was

It was either another civil war or ratify a backroom deal to choose the next president. In that deal, the rights of newly emancipated people were sacrificed. Moving on from abolition, white northerners figured locking in white supremacy and the

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Why Democrats Should Listen to Deep Red Nebraska

Why should population density continue to determine Democrat or Republican wins? How is it that the Democratic Party seems to have given up on what used to be our working class farm/labor base? In his new book Rural Rebellion, our

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Trump and Pompeo Dictate New Map on Africa//Franco Still Dead

The world is as they say it is. Never mind the people who actually live there, Trump and Pompeo decided and imposed new boundaries between Morocco and Algeria. It may start a war between them but at least it gets

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Stop American War Billions Marching Us To Disaster

Why do we keep investing our national treasure in policies which make us much less secure? Part of the reason is what our guest calls the “fire-hose of content” from the 24/7 news cycle. Our foreign policy affects us all

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After 50 years, A Tipping Point for the Defeat of Fossil Fuels?

What we’ve been saying all the years has come true. The easy oil days are over. Banks are always leery of making bad investments, and heavy footprint fossil fuel interests also frighten the insurance industry. Oil is just not profitable

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Biden’s Better Foreign Policy?

The slogan was Build Back Better. In terms of foreign policy, our guest today Foreign Policy In Focus’s John Feffer says: “Thanks in no small part to Donald Trump, the United States just doesn’t matter much anymore,” our leadership is

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The Beginning of the End for National Cruelty?

With his gleeful displays of cruelty, is it possible that Donald Trump performed the service of waking us all up to cruelty commonly in national and corporate policy?  In his new book, Cruelty or Humanity: Challenges, Opportunities, and Responsibilities Australian

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Now’s the Time to Make Democracy Better

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

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Strongmen: From Mussolini to Trump’s Republicans

It didn’t start with Trump and it won’t end when he leaves office. There is an historic pattern to strongmen and he fit the playbook perfectly.  In her new book, Strongmen From Mussolini to the Present, historian of authoritarian governments

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The Danger of Trumpism After Trump

The threat of deeply dedicated religious nationalists is not about to go away when Trump leaves office. An electoral defeat energizes them. The author of the important book “The Power Worshipers,” Katherine Stewart expounds on her recent NYTimes op-ed, titled

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The Push Biden’s Going to Need

Ousting Trump is not enough. Getting back to the normalcy of tremendous economic injustice is not enough. With unprecedented wealth owned by a very few, close to 50% of Americans are at the edge of real poverty. Guest is Reverend

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4 Day Work Week: Beneficial Effect of Covid?

With the pandemic throwing everything up in the air, there are new opportunities for us to shape the way it all lands. Going back to the old “normal” is not the only option. On this show Joe Ryle a leader

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Thomas Frank’s New Book On Elitist Anti-Populism: “The People, NO”

The parties have flipped: It used to be that Republicans were for Wall Street, Democrats were for Main Street. Now the Democrats are seen as the party of the elitists, Republicans are for the common people. On this show Thomas

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Treason: What Is It Really?

The word treason has been thrown around a lot lately. By Trump against his detractors and also leveled at Trump for seeking to stage a coup against America. On this show one of the nations leading authorities on the law

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Ending the Drug War Got More Votes Than Biden or Trump

It was a momentous election. In blue states and red, voters overwhelmingly passed measures legalizing cannabis and, in Oregon, decriminalizing all drugs. So many people have been hurt, families have been separated, and the drug war has failed miserably to

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