For Subscribers

Consumer Capitalism
Justin Lewis
Rene Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher once said, “I think, therefore I am.” In today’s context, it may be more like, I buy therefore I am. Orchestrated wants driven by sophisticated advertising techniques have created a culture of consumption. Appetites for the latest hot things are manufactured. Media campaigns sell cool and sexy. Data are collected. […]
Taking Control of Our Lives
Noam Chomsky
On the occasion of Noam Chomsky’s 96th birthday on December 7, we are honored to broadcast for the first time this classic recording of a talk he gave in Albuquerque in the year 2000. Many of the issues he addressed then remain salient today. Chomsky says that the right of sovereignty is fundamental to the […]
Algorithms, Digital Technologies & Warfare
Koohan Paik-Mander
Algorithms are processes or sets of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by computer. Sounds innocuous enough. But hang on. It has a dark side. Algorithms can make mistakes due to biases, poor design, coding errors, or flawed assumptions. They can collect and process large amounts of personal data which […]
Anatomy of a Genocide: Gaza
Francesca Albanese
Francesca Albanese of the UN says, “Gaza is now a wasteland of rubble, garbage and human remains.” And it may be worse than that. In the litany of crimes genocide is the most heinous. Omer Bartov, Brown University genocide scholar and former Israeli military officer in November 2023, a month after the October 7 attack […]
What Are We Going to Do?
Naomi Klein
The day after the Trump election, the New York Times wrote: “America stands on the precipice of an authoritarian style of governance never before seen in its 248-year-old history.” For many, the results of November 5th confirmed the view that we are in dark times. So, the big question is: what are we going to do? We can […]
Gagging Democracy India-Style
P. Sainath
India, the world’s most populous country, is ruled by Narendra Modi who is the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP. He first became prime minister in 2014 and has been reelected twice since though in 2024 with much lower margins. Before coming to power in Delhi he was chief minister of the state […]
The Wrong People at the Top
Brian Klaas
Power. What is it? Political theorist Robert Dahl gave one example. He said, “A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that he would not otherwise do.” Why is it that often that those who are on top are the wrong people? The high rollers and the […]
War & the Media
Norman Solomon
In times of war the corporate media play a salient role in shaping public opinion. There are worthy and unworthy victims. Muslims, Arabs, and Iranians generally fall into that latter category whereas Washington and its allies are worthy victims that we support and empathize with. The current phase of the Gaza war did not begin […]
A Brief History of Zionism
Zachary Lockman
Zion is the name of a hill in ancient Jerusalem. The Jewish nationalist movement coined the term Zionism in the 1890s. Zionism got the big power backing it was looking for when Britain issued the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917. Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary stated: “His Majesty’s Government view with favor […]
Welcome to the Reservation
Russell Means
Indigenous communities are among the poorest in the U.S. This is one of many persistent symptoms of the colonial relationship imposed by force upon Indigenous peoples. As famed historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz says, “Neither arcane colonial laws nor the historical trauma of genocide simply disappear with time and certainly not when conditions of life and consciousness […]
Blaming the Victim: Roots of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Richard Forer
Blaming the victim is as old as the hills. It occurs when the victim of a crime or tragedy is held at fault for the harm that befell them. In other words, you had it coming to you. The great scholar Edward Said ruefully remarked that the Palestinians were the victims of the victim hence it was very […]
International Law: Real or Fiction?
Noura Erakat
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the term international rules-based order would be repeated by Washington officials almost daily to describe Moscow’s action. Then a curious thing happened when Israel invaded Gaza in 2023. The term virtually disappeared as the U.S. sought to protect its close ally Israel. But the U.S. itself has a […]

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