All Programs — Page 93 of 169 — Alternative Radio

Welfare: Myths & Facts
Frances Fox Piven
The public discourse on welfare is often characterized by hyperbole and falsification. Ronald Reagan was a great one for making up stories. He spoke of a welfare queen in Chicago with eighty names, thirty addresses and a dozen social security cards who collected thousands of dollars in checks. Another Reagan fabrication had people buying vodka […]
The Politics of Family Values
Frances Fox Piven, Richard Cloward
“Family values” is a political football thrown all over the field. It’s a rich vein of rhetoric mined by politicians who can’t seem to finish a paragraph without denouncing “deadbeat dads” and “welfare moms.” What are the underlying impulses that drive both Democrats and Republicans in making family values such a contentious issue? How do […]
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
Steven Pinker
Interviewed by David Barsamian.
Imperialism, War, and Journalism
John Pilger
“The first causality when war comes is truth,” warned Senator Hiram Johnson in 1917. Those words resonate strongly today. When the country goes to war, the corporate media are virtually cheerleaders. Journalists extol the noble virtues and intentions of U.S. state power. There’s a time-honored system of you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. If […]
Wealth and Democracy
Kevin Phillips
The French have a theory that behind every great fortune lies a great crime. The recent corporate crime wave certainly lends credence to that idea. Corporations & the individuals who own them use their money and power to exert an inordinate influence on national politics, thus undermining democracy. Rather than government of, for and by […]
Israeli-Palestinian Peace: Prospects and Obstacles
Matti Peled
The Israeli-Palestinian issue is often described as intractable and complex. Pundits and scholars tell us it is an extremely complicated problem, i.e., be intimidated and leave it to the experts. The media and popular culture routinely depict Palestinians as kaffiyeh garbed terrorists brandishing AK-47s. Israelis, on the other hand, are a lot like us, whatever […]
The Art of Investigative Journalism: Iran/Contra, October Surprise, etc.
Robert Parry
As newsrooms shrink and budgets are slashed fewer and fewer reporters do serious investigative journalism. Award-winning reporter Robert Parry is part of a vanishing breed. He broke the Iran/Contra scandal, the October Surprise and other major stories while at AP and Newsweek. Today. Parry works as an independent and publishes The Consortium, a new investigative […]
Iran/Contra Scandal, Colin Powell, and Cover-ups
Robert Parry
Interview by David Barsamian. Recorded at KGNU.
Political Economy of Gender Oppression
Michael Parenti
Monopoly Culture and Academic Freedom
Michael Parenti
“I’ve been kicked out of some of the best universities in the U.S,” declares Michael Parenti. He recounts how his political activism cost him jobs in Vermont and Illinois. Among the charges leveled against him were, “bad for the image of the university;” “anti-business attitudes;” and “unprofessional conduct” for refusing to pledge allegiance to the […]
Theocracy vs. Democracy
Michael Parenti
This lecture is a no-holds-barred critical look at religion. Michael Parenti begins with recounting a personal experience at a yoga retreat in the Caribbean. The swami in charge of the ashram, Parenti says, “was full of ego” and a materialist. No criticism was allowed. “This swami was a perfect theocrat. What we had at the […]
The Arrogance of Empire
Michael Parenti
The ancient Greeks wrote often about hubris, arrogance, as a fatal flaw. It brought down the mightiest of kings and kingdoms. Today, U.S. armadas rule the seas and its jets and satellites control the skies. Its power is unchallenged. However, as Buddhism teaches, no condition is permanent. The seeds of the America’s eclipse are being […]

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