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2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
November 25 - Michael Hiltzik sits in for Ian Masters: The Election and what it Wrought
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with Guest Host Michael Hiltzik
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First, we are joined by Eric Laursen, the author of "The People's Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan". We discuss the dangers to Social Security and to Medicare from the debate over the 'fiscal cliff', and how all the discussion in Washington about cutting the deficit, at a time when we still need government stimulus to promote job creation and economic recovery, is really a stalking horse for an attack on what are sometimes known as entitlements - those programs that are really crucial for keeping millions of Americans out of poverty and ensuring a comfortable retirement when declined corporate pensions and the financial markets have left American struggling. |
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Then we speak with Michael Grunwald about economic recovery and the government's role. Michael Grunwald is a national correspondent for Time Magazine, and his latest book, "The New New Deal", is a terrific examination of how crucial the Obama stimulus program was to the economic recovery after 2008, and since my latest book is "The New Deal: A Modern History," which deals with FDR's new deal, we compare and contrast these two. |
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Then finally we look into the defeat of Proposition 37 which would have required labels on a wide range of genetically modified foods, though not all GMOs, which was just one of the problems with Proposition 37. We are joined by Michael Eisen, a Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California Berkeley, who was one of the most articulate opponents of Proposition 37. We talk about how to create legislation dealing with scientific issues that is based on genuine science, not junk science. |
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November 22 - Stop Shopping and Save the Earth; Giving Thanks to Those who put Food on our Table; Celebrating People Power
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We begin on this Thanksgiving holiday as we celebrate family and community and look into what we have to be thankful for and what we can do to makes others thankful. We begin with the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping and explore alternatives to the coming frenzy of shopping that begins tomorrow with Black Friday and intensifies in the month ahead until Christmas. |
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Then we speak with Sister Ann Kendrick, one of the nuns on the bus, who works in Central Florida bringing services and support to farm workers and their families. We discuss the challenges facing immigrant communities, many of whom toil to put food on our table, and the changing face of America that is fast-becoming a majority-minority country. |
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Then finally Jim Wallis joins us. He recently served on the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and is president and CEO of Sojourners and editor-in-chief of Sojourners Magazine. We will discuss the many reasons to be thankful that our democracy survived an attempt by the oligarchy to buy the recent election, and how citizens can build a movement to take money out of politics and make government responsive to the needs of people not the power of money. |
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November 21 - Exiting the Quagmire as the Region Trembles; Pakistan's Perfidity in Losing our Longest War
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We look into a big issue that was not mentioned in the recent presidential campaign, the Afghan war, a protracted engagement war-weary Americans want to forget, that has had eleven commanders in the last eleven years of America’s longest war. One of the leading experts on Afghanistan and its people and culture, Thomas Barfield joins us. He is the President of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies and the author of “Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History” and we discuss the future of this tormented country the U.S is withdrawing from in 2014. |
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Then we further explore Afghanistan’s uncertain future with Christine Fair. She was a United Nations Political Officer in Afghanistan and is a Senior Fellow with the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point. We discuss the likely aftermath of the U.S. and NaATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and whether a reduced American footprint in the region will diminish the virulent anti-Americanism in a nuclear-armed and increasingly unstable Pakistan. |
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November 20, 2012
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We begin with an apparent shift in our politics, that have moved further and further to the right over the last few decades, indicating the American people are starting to move to the left. David Halperin, a Senior Fellow at Republic Report joins us to discuss the new blue America that will get bluer, and how much our purple president with shift with the progressive wind. |  |
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Then we speak with University of Indianapolis presidential historian Edward Frantz, the author of “The Door of Hope: Republican Presidents and the First Southern Strategy”. We discuss the current fratricide and recrimination inside the Republican Party and assess whether the GOP can reverse course in its march to the right to rediscover its progressive roots as the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. |
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Then finally we look into the surging tide of women candidates swept into office in the recent election and speculate whether the ultimate glass ceiling, the election of a woman as president of the United States, is about to crack. Jo Freeman, an American feminist, political scientist, writer and attorney joins us to discuss the emerging new majority of women, the young and minorities, and whether the Republicans will come back in 2014. |
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November 19
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We begin and examine whether the grand bargain that the White House and the Republican Congress are working on to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, will end up as the great betrayal. William K. Black, Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City joins us discuss the need for the president not to cave in to Republican blackmail as he did last time and to fight to preserve Social Security and Medicare. |
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Then we speak with Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect about the extent to which the president has drunk the deficit Kool Aid which billionaires like Pete Peterson have been ladling out for decades. We discuss the deficit hoax and the need for further stimulus instead of the austerity that is crippling Europe. |
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Then finally Gar Alperovitz joins us. He is an historian, political economist, activist and writer who believes that bottom-up solutions to empower Americans at the local level are possible as community banks and municipal utilities are beginning to grow as alternatives to the top-down Wall Street financialization of our economy. His forthcoming book is “What Then Must We Do?: Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution”. |
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