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2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
March 7 - Could Sanctions That Bite North Korea Bite Back?; The Killer in Corporate Food; How the Filibuster Ensures a Right Wing Judiciary
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We begin with North Korea’s bellicose response to a new round of UN sanctions imposed as a result of a recent North Korean nuclear test. Charles Armstrong, the Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University and author of the forthcoming book “Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World 1950 to 1990”, joins us to discuss North Korea’s threat of a nuclear strike against the United States. |
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Then we speak with Dr Robert Lustig the country’s leading expert on childhood obesity and its connection to high fructose corn syrup and sugar that is prominent in processed food. We discuss Dr Lustig’s new book “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease” and whether American consumers can free themselves from the corporate food products that are killing them. |
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Then finally we examine the latest filibuster against President Obama’s nominee to fill John Robert’s seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Circuit that has been vacant since 2005 due to the routine and consistent use of the filibuster by Republican Senators. Erwin Chemerinsky, the founding dean and distinguished professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law joins us to discuss how Mitch McConnell’s brazen obstruction of Obama’s judicial nominees has slanted the federal judiciary in a heavily conservative direction. |
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March 6 - Obama Breaks Bread with Reasonable Republicans; Fukushima Two Years Later; Kenya's Post-Election Dispute could Explode
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As the president breaks bread with a group of Republican senators in an effort to find a way around the sequester stalemate, we begin with a look into whether the deficit-cutting mania that led to the sequester is losing steam as cuts begin to ripple through the economy and perhaps come home to roost in mid-term elections when deficit hawks may have to explain to their constituents why frustrating President Obama’s ability to govern is more important than America’s economic recovery. Jeff Madrick, who writes a column on economics for Harpers and is the author of “Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America 1970 to the Present” joins us to discuss whether Obama can find enough adults in the room to avoid more self-inflicted economic wounds. |
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Then we speak with Dr Helen Caldicott who is organizing a major international symposium in New York on next week's second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. We discuss the mounting medical and ecological consequences of the multiple meltdowns in Japan that will cost over 100 billion dollars to clean up over the next 40 years and what lesson have been learned two years later with 23 boiling water reactors similar to Fukushima still operating in the United States. |
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Then finally we get an update on the disputed elections in Kenya, where the front-runner Uhuru Kenyetta, who is due to stand trial before the International Criminal Court for fueling the violence that killed over a thousand people after the 2007 election, has accused the British High Commissioner of shadowy and suspicious involvement in the counting of ballots. Nii Akuetteh, an independent researcher and analyst on Africa joins us to discuss the possibility of the dispute over spoiled ballots turning violent. |
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March 5 - The Death of a Revolutionary; Filling the Political Vacuum in Venezuela; Should Israel be Exempt from Sequester Cuts?
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We begin with the death today of Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer. Javier Corrales, the author of “Dragon of the Tropics: Hugo Chavez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela” joins us to discuss the regional impact of the leader of the Bolivarian revolution Hugo Chavez, whose mentor Fidel Castro credits with saving the Cuban Revolution. |
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Then we look further into the legacy of Hugo Chavez with Jennifer McCoy the director of the Carter Center’s America’s Program. She previously directed the Carter Center’s project on Mediation and Monitoring in Venezuela and we discuss the emotional and political vacuum left in Venezuela following the death of their larger-than-life leader whose successors are not likely to fill the void but nevertheless will carry on with the Bolivarian revolution. |
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Then finally we discuss the AIPAC convention underway in Washington DC where incredibly the pro-Israel lobby is seeking to make military aid to Israel exempt from the sequester cuts, even though Israel’s economy is in better shape than America’s and its latest military technology like Iron Dome, partly subsidized by U.S. taxpayers, is more advanced than ours. MJ Rosenberg who served as Director of Policy Analysis for the Israel Policy Forum and previously was editor of Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC’s) bi-weekly publication on Middle East policy, joins us. |
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March 4 - The New Secretary of Energy; "How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour"; Kenya's Ruling Class
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We begin with an assessment of Ernest Moniz, President Obama’s choice to be the next Secretary of Energy. Tyson Slocum, the Director of the Energy Program at Public Citizen joins us to discuss the choice of the physicist who is currently Director of MIT’s Energy Initiative, a research group that gets funding from BP, Chevron and Saudi Aramco. |
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Then, with the publication today of the new list of billionaires from Forbes, we will speak with Les Leopold, the author of a new book “How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Hedge Funds Get Away with Siphoning Off America’s Wealth”. Now that the Republicans have again gone to the mat to protect the tax loopholes that allow hedge fund managers to accrue astonishing wealth while paying less taxes than their secretaries, we discuss what it is that hedge funds do and why they are able to pull down astounding sums in minutes. |
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Then finally, as counting begins in the Kenyan elections, we examine the revolving door between the political classes that rule Kenya, often inciting violence to further their power, but ultimately taking care of themselves and not the voters they promise to take care of. Georges Nzongola, professor of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina joins us to discuss the lack of ethnic violence so far, compared to the last election, which could change as election results are announced. |
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March 3 - Navigating Between Egypt's Government and Opposition; How America's Corporate Food Cartel is Killing Us; Assad's Latest Delusion
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We begin with an update on secretary of State Kerry’s visit to Egypt where he is trying the reach out to both the opposition and government to end the political impasse and economic freefall. A specialist on Egypt at the Brookings Institution, Khaled Elgindy joins us to discuss the new Secretary of State’s delicate mission to revive a revolution at the crossroads, facing an opposition largely convinced that America has colluded with the Islamists to create a new dictatorship. |
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Then we look at how the food giants have hooked America on the poison they peddle in the name of nutrition. Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Michael Moss joins us to discuss his explosive new book “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us”. We discuss how the corporate food cartel manipulates nutrition to fatten their bottom line, and the extent to which the food monopolies know they are responsible for America’s obesity epidemic, but rather than eliminate sugar, salt and fat from processed food, they are encouraging the addictions of their heavy users that feed their profits. |
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Then finally we go the Syrian/Turkish border to speak with Rafif Jouejati, the English-language spokesperson for the Syrian Local Coordination Committees, the umbrella group of the Syrian opposition. With the noose apparently tightening on the embattled regime, we discuss the latest claims made by the dictator Assad in an interview with the London Sunday Times that the British Foreign Secretary has called delusional. |
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