Episodes

  • The Dark Side of Capitalism with David Bollier

    The Dark Side of Capitalism with David Bollier
    Mar 27 2024
    Author and Activist David Bollier explains The Commons, a different kind of economic system that values people over profits and puts cooperative action at the center of society instead of companies or the government. Bollier explains the concept of “enclosures’’ and the misunderstanding of the famous essay “Failure of the Commons.’’ Far from a fringe movement, The Commons is here to stay.
    Show more Show less
    37 mins
  • Can We Eliminate Nuclear Weapons? Author Ward Wilson thinks so

    Can We Eliminate Nuclear Weapons? Author Ward Wilson thinks so
    Dec 8 2023
    Author and activist Ward Wilson believes we can eliminate nuclear weapons and not because he is a woo woo liberal. Wilson has talked to the Generals, the diplomats and former presidents of countries. His experience led him to believe that worldwide elimination is possible because the weapons are not “useful’’ and because a nuclear mistake is more and more likely to happen. His central thesis is that since the development of the atomic bomb, a hazy and lazy argument has grown up around the weapons that make it difficult to think clearly about how to deal with them. The result: Wilson’s latest book -  “It is Possible: A Future without Nuclear Weapons.’’ It is endorsed by not one, not two, but seven Nobel Laureates and at least two former four-star generals, one of whom commanded the nuclear arsenal. The nuclear weapons historian Richard Rhodes calls Wilson’s work a “stunning breakthrough work’’ that gives us a way out from under what John Kennedy called the nuclear sword of Damacles.  Martin Sherwin, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian and the author of the great book about Robert J. Oppenheimer called Wilson’s book: “Arguably the most important contribution to the debate over the efficacy of nuclear deterrence ever written.” And the mayor of Nagazaki, Japan said: ““Ward Wilson’s book assures us that our vision of a “world without nuclear weapons” is not only possible but the only rational way to protect humanity and the planet from another Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” With recommendations like that, I wanted to know how someone could have broken through the fog and the paralysis in the country around nuclear weapons policy.  I’ve known Wilson for 35 years. He has been working on this book his whole adult life. And the historians, generals and heads of state are saying he is on to something big. Join us as we take it on.
    Show more Show less
    37 mins
  • Wales Shows Us the Way

    Wales Shows Us the Way
    Nov 9 2023
    In 2015, Wales (a country) passed a law called the Future Generations Act. And they made Sophie Howe the first Commissioner for Future generations in the World. Her job - make sure all government agencies consider the interest of future generations in everything they do. Doesn’t government always do that? Turns out the answer is No. Howe joined me for a conversation on a visit to Vermont to explain how the Welsh are doing things right - or at least better. When the Welsh government wants to build a new highway, they have to get the approval of the commissioner for Future generations. Howe didn’t have the power to veto anything. But she used the bully pulpit to force the highway agency to bring more facts to the table. The result? No highway and more government spending on bikeways and pedestrian priorities. Howe’s visit to Vermont was sponsored by a small group of UVM professors and activists uniting around the issue of well being, of forcing government agencies to consider the actual well being of the people before they act. Sounds easy, or revolutionary. Let’s listen to Sophie Howe explain it.
    Show more Show less
    32 mins
  • The JFK Assassination Still Haunts us with Jefferson Morley

    The JFK Assassination Still Haunts us with Jefferson Morley
    Oct 27 2023
    No event I can think of has defined America since World War 2 than the assasination of President John F. Kennedy. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was murdered while riding in an open car in the streets of Dallas Texas while on political visit there. You know the story so well. Lee harvey Oswald was arrested and accised of the crime. Oswald was then shot and killed while in the hands of police by shadowy underworld figure Jack Ruby. A commission appointed by Kennedy’s successor Lyndon Johnson issued a report that Oswald was the lone gunman, able to fire two shots hitting Kennedy at long range with a sniper rifle. And for 60 years, millions of Americans then and now do not believe the Warren Commission conclusion.  My guest, Jefferson Morley, is the nation’s top expert on the assassination. He casts doubt on the entire saga, from the Warren Commission investigation, to the murky and scandalous role of the CIA. The agency told the Warren commission it knew little about Oswald before the killing. Turns out that was a lie; that the CIA was in fact monitoring Oswald for weeks before the assassination. And records and memos to prove that are contained in CIA files, only recently declassified at the order of President Biden. Morley is an author of several books and a newsletter and podcast called JFK Facts, which explores the never ending questions around the case. As Morley says, incredibly - No one has ever been charged with a crime for the assassination. We dont know who did it. I made sure to ask Morley who he thinks killed Kennedy. Join us.
    Show more Show less
    42 mins
  • The Future of Movies with Keenan Ellis

    The Future of Movies with Keenan Ellis
    Oct 19 2023
    The strike. The future of streaming. The future of theaters. What makes a great film. What is your favorite film and why? It’s all here with writer, editor and producer Keenan Ellis, who joins his Dad to talk about the same stuff they usually talk about at dinner.
    Show more Show less
    38 mins
  • Robin Steinberg and the Injustice of the Criminal Justice System

    Robin Steinberg and the Injustice of the Criminal Justice System
    Oct 12 2023
    Public defender Robin Steinberg couldn’t accept that people without money are housed in jails all over the country, not because they are guilty, but because they can’t afford bail. So she started the Bail Project, an organization dedicated to eradicating the use of cash bail. The Bail Project actually pays the bail of the accused so they can be free from prison while the charges against them are dealt with by the criminal justice system. Steinberg has been a public defender for more than 35 years. She has represented thousands of low income people accused of crimes, trained other public defenders and founded other organizations - namely the Bronx defenders In NY and Still She Rises, in Oklahoma. She has taught at Columbia and UCLA, given a TED Talk and is a featured speaker worldwide on criminal justice reform. Steinberg is the author of the new book - The Courage of Compassion - A Journey from Judgment to Connection, about her experience inside the system.
    Show more Show less
    41 mins
  • Notes on Civil Rights heroes, Capitalism and the U.S. Open

    Notes on Civil Rights heroes, Capitalism and the U.S. Open
    Oct 5 2023
    Arthur Ashe would not recognize the U.S. Open Tennis championships played this summer in New York City. He won the tournament in 1968 as a US Army Captain and received NO prize money. Coco Gauff won millions for her victory, which she played in the shadow of Ashe and in the presence of Billie Jean King, not to mention the execs at JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.
    Show more Show less
    7 mins
  • How Did We Get Here? The American Freakshow with Author Nina Burleigh

    How Did We Get Here? The American Freakshow with Author Nina Burleigh
    Sep 22 2023
    How did America turn from a fairly health democracy into an angry, bitter group of tribes that believe their own stories and reject facts, science, government institutions and intellectual inquiry. Or have we always been this way? Journalist Nina Burleigh has been writing about these issues for years. You can draw a line from JFK’s affairs to the election of Donald Trump and the handling of the COVID pandemic for clues to how it got this way. Burleigh is the author of many books on politics and culture, including our handling of the pandemic and the assassination of Mary Meyer, the mistress of JFK and ex-wife of a high level CIA official. Burleigh connects the dots.
    Show more Show less
    45 mins