Honoring Dorothea Lange, the American documentary photographer and photojournalist who, through her snapshots and commentary, recorded the consequences of the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and WWII in California.

Snapshots in black & white illustrate the human suffering and struggle to survive of farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and the internment of Japanese American citizens.

A walk through the past brings us back to today. Here we are, 95 years years after the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Poverty is spiking in the country with the highest concentration of billionaires in the world, the U.S.A. Through the machinations of the billionaires and fossil fuel corporations, the White House has rolled back progress in dealing with the climate crisis. Remember the suffering and loss caused by the Dust Bowl? Remember the devastation caused by the Great Depression?

After experiencing the live performance of Last West Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, this is what floated up for me. https://svma.org/exhibition/last-west/

For more: https://oshahayden.com/

RELEVANT HISTORY

The DUST BOWL

“Between 1930 and 1940, the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States suffered a severe drought. Once a semi-arid grassland, the treeless plains became home to thousands of settlers when, in 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act. Most of the settlers farmed their land or grazed cattle. The farmers plowed the prairie grasses and planted dry land wheat. As the demand for wheat products grew, cattle grazing was reduced, and millions more acres were plowed and planted.

Dry land farming on the Great Plains led to the systematic destruction of the prairie grasses. In the ranching regions, overgrazing also destroyed large areas of grassland. Gradually, the land was laid bare, and significant environmental damage began to occur. Among the natural elements, the strong winds of the region were particularly devastating.

With the onset of drought in 1930, the overfarmed and overgrazed land began to blow away. Winds whipped across the plains, raising billowing clouds of dust. The sky could darken for days, and even well-sealed homes could have a thick layer of dust on the furniture. In some places, the dust drifted like snow, covering farm buildings and houses. Nineteen states in the heartland of the United States became a vast dust bowl. With no chance of making a living, farm families abandoned their homes and land, fleeing westward to become migrant laborers.”

“In all, 400,000 people left the Great Plains, victims of the combined action of severe drought and poor soil conservation practices.”

“In his 1939 book The Grapes of Wrath, author John Steinbeck described the flight of families from the Dust Bowl: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west--from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless--restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do--to lift, to push, to pick, to cut--anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."

Library of Congress US History https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/dust-bowl/

If you enjoyed this show, please leave a positive review and share with your friends. Thank you! Osha

In an inspiring conversation with Justine Willis Toms, co-founder of New Dimensions Radio, Osha and Justine discuss the power of deep listening and holding space as they navigate the troubled water of these times with vision, spirit and joy.

Justine shares powerful practices and lessons from her storied career. As one of the founding conveners of the Millionth Circle Initiative, she has been engaged in Circle Work for decades and speaks about the value of these Circles, especially in difficult times. The Millionth Circle Initiative, is based on Jean Shinoda Bolen’s groundbreaking book, The Millionth Circle.

About

Justine Willis Toms is Co-Founder, Executive Director and Host of New Dimensions Radio & Media which has been broadcasting since 1973. New Dimensions is an internationally syndicated radio series, featuring dialogues with the world’s most visionary wisdom leaders. Justine, along with co-founder Michael Toms, was inducted to the 2011 Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Justine Willis Toms has also hosted the radio series In Her Company: Deep Dialogues with Women of Wisdom, and has produced many award-winning radio series. Besides her radio work, she leads workshops on Finding Grace in a Chaotic World.

She is coauthor with Michael Toms of True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do, and author of Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World.

In June 2004, she was one of thirty people in the world invited to participate in the Synthesis Dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Check out New Dimensions Radio & media: https://newdimensions.org/

You can hear Justine on her podcasts: New Dimensions Radio, and New Dimensions Cafe https://newdimensions.org/podcasts/

Learn about Circle Work: https://millionthcircle.org/

Jean Shinoda Bolen: https://www.jeanbolen.com/

@aspirewithOsha, @buzzsprout, @newdimensions.org, @millionthcircle.org, @oshahayden.com

If you enjoyed this show, please leave a positive review and share with your friends. Thank you! Osha

Today we are talking about the billionaires that have hijacked the American government.

My guest, Chuck Collins, is uniquely qualified to talk about this issue.

As heir to a family fortune, he had an insider’s seat at the table of wealth management - and what he learned about how things operate - caused him to do something considered radical - by the others at the table. He chose to donate his inheritance and dedicate himself to exposing the corrupting influence of dynastic wealth.

This is Aspire with Osha; art, nature, humanity, and I’m your host, Osha Hayden. My guest Chuck Collins, has been on the show several times. Let me tell you more about this remarkable man.

Chuck Collins is the Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org.

Author of several books on wealth inequality, including most recently, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. He also wrote a novel, Altars to an Erupting Sun and has a new book coming out this Fall, and we’ll hear more about that.

You may have listened to our previous interview from Nov 5, 2023, available on my podcast https://oshahayden.com/podcast/how-trillions-in-hidden-wealth-impacts-us-insights-from-chuck-collins/

Osha and Chuck Collins discuss what happens when wealth is transferred from working citizens to the top .01% and billionaires are able to influence policy and elections.

Are you curious about how billionaires have captured such a large percentage of the world’s wealth? About how they have rigged the system in their favor and yet pay so little in taxes? Chuck Collins states that “the combined wealth of the nine-figure club is now $16.1 trillion, up $2 trillion from a year ago.” What are some steps we can take to challenge the takeover of our government by Billionaire oligarchs?

We discuss what happens when mega billionaires seize control of the levers of power, and how that affects middle class and poor citizens.

In Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, he describes the rings of power and the one ring to rule them all. In the trilogy, evil and hatred are on the rise and the dark lord Sauron seeks to find this ultimate ring of power. Because - once he takes possession of the ring, he has control over everything. But the ring is toxic in its power, it utterly corrupts the soul of whoever carries it. Osha notes the relevance of this story to the corrupting influence of extreme wealth and power.

It’s worth noting that although one of Musk’s corporations, Tesla, is valued at over $1 trillion, it paid zero income tax last year. (ITEP, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Jan 30, 2025) https://itep.org/tesla-reported-zero-federal-income-tax-in-2024/

The US Debt is now over 36 trillion. It is estimated that the budget package being proposed would add another 5.1 trillion to the deficit. Who is on the hook for that deficit?

Chuck Collins has a new book, Burned by Billionaires, coming out this Fall.

Learn more about Chuck’s work and his books:

https://inequality.org

https://www.chuckcollinswrites.com/

Other Sites of Interest:

https://www.postcarbon.org/. Richard Heinberg, author of

If you enjoyed this show, please leave a positive review and share with your friends. Thank you! Osha