Broadcast

History & Politics: Zigs & Zags
Vijay Prashad
History and politics are replete with zigs and zags into all kinds of unexpected directions. Take for example, the Shah of Iran. He looked impregnable on his throne until he was toppled by massive street demonstrations. Who could have predicted that the suicide of a street vendor in a small town in Tunisia would lead […]
For the World to Live Columbus Must Die
Russell Means
The dynamic Russell Means presents a moving and eloquent talk on Native America. He recounts how consciousness has changed among indigenous people but among the white European settler descendants, many of the old prejudices remain. For example, he says, “The Pope is going to canonize Father Serra an Indian murderer and Indian slave owner.” In […]
Debate on Humanitarian Intervention
Michael Chertoff, David Gibbs
Humanitarian intervention is always cloaked in altruism. Noam Chomsky says, “Almost every aggressive act by any great power is justified on humanitarian grounds.” Helping people who are suffering is laudable but injecting military force can lead to even worse outcomes. Libya is a perfect example of what can go wrong. The specter of atrocities was […]
The State/Finance Nexus
David Harvey
The contemporary capitalist economic system has an extraordinary component to it. That is the connection between the government, and the financial sector, the big banks. What banks? The Big 5 are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Their assets are in the trillions of dollars. The economic and political implications […]
Beyond Money
David Korten
Money, you know, is the root of all evil. The pursuit of it no matter the consequences has led to us, as the New York Times describes it, “speeding toward environmental catastrophe.” Unregulated predatory capitalism and its obsession with generating profits no matter the cost to Nature is endangering civilization as we know it. Globally […]
Fixing Democracy
Caroline Fredrickson
Around the world democracy is in trouble. Autocrats have come to power. In the U.S. democracy is compromised by a political system awash in money, gerrymandering, voter suppression and that absurd relic, the electoral college. One of the principal designers of the U.S. system of governance was James Madison. He said the main task of […]
Pushing Back at Amazon
Joe Allen
Amazon, the retail behemoth, is named after the giant river in South America. The company began in the Seattle area in 1994. Since then it has not just grown and expanded but has transformed marketing. Consumers are attracted to in some instances, lower prices but overwhelmingly it’s the sheer convenience of online shopping and home […]
The Working Class
Michael Yates
Warren Buffett, the much-admired genius investor and one of the world’s richest men said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” And who are the losers? The working class, people who work for an hourly wage or are salaried. The ruling class has driven […]
Second Thoughts on the First Amendment
Howard Zinn
“Congress shall make no law…abridging freedom of speech.” There it is. Plain and simple. The First Amendment to the Constitution. But since 9/11 that amendment has been under sustained attack. Whistleblowers John Kiriakou, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and others are hounded, threatened and imprisoned by the U.S. government. A fascinating and compelling account […]
Origins of Radical Right-Wing Power
Nancy MacLean
The history of the anti-government and anti-democratic politics that have transformed the U.S. in recent years is largely obscured from view. The radical right’s agenda includes: suppression of voting rights, privatization of everything from schools to Medicare to Social Security to public lands, elimination of unions and limiting majority rule. Core beliefs also include: there […]
Climate Disruption
Dahr Jamail
Ralph Nader points out the term climate change is a vast understatement and does not convey the gravity of what we are facing. He says, climate disruption is more accurate. Study after study, report after report make it clear that human activity is transforming our planet. With heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods, melting ice sheets […]
How Hitler Happened
Benjamin Hett
The post-WW1 Weimar Republic in Germany was the height of European civilization. Its scientists and scholars led the world. Its Bauhaus architecture was the rage. Its arts featured such luminaries as Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Thomas Mann. Yet, out of this modern democracy sprang Nazism, German fascism, and one of the most barbaric […]

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