SARA DAVIDSON, THE DECEMBER PROJECT – Conversations with Zalman Shachter-Shalomi on the meaning & mystery of life and death

Written on December 22nd, 2022

I wish you, your loved ones, and those without loved ones at this time, health, safety, peace, and joy. At this time of reflection, here’s my 2014 conversation with SARA DAVIDSON about her book, THE DECEMBER PROJECT. Sara met every Friday for the last year of his life with 89-year-old Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. What did they talk about? In his words, “When you can feel in your cells that you’re coming to the end of your tour of duty, what is the spiritual work of this time, and how do we prepare for the mystery?”

Taxpayers fund drug research. Corporations reap obscene profits from “our” discoveries. ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK, OWNING THE SUN:A People’s History of Monopoly Medicine

Written on December 15th, 2022
Why are medications essential to survival so outrageously expensive? Why are vaccines for a global pandemic a source of huge profits and limited availability? Why does the government allow private companies to patent and monopolize drugs resulting from tax funded research? Here’s my conversation with ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK about the revelations in his book, OWNING THE SUN:A People’s History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to COVID-19 Vaccines. You can learn more at zaitchik.com

Who wants a new Constitutional Convention? Sen. RUSS FEINGOLD & PETER PRINDIVILLE-Constitution in Jeopardy

Written on December 2nd, 2022
Although Thomas Jefferson recommended we redraft our constitution every 19 years, the fact that we could actually face an Article 5 Constitutional Convention – if only a few more states vote for it – scares the hell out of me. It’s also a big problem that the Constitution has only been amended 17 times in 233 years, not once in the last 30. I talk with former Senator and current president of the American Constitution Society, RUSS FEINGOLD, and co-author, Peter Prindiville, about their new book, THE CONSTITUTION IN JEOPARDY: The Unprecedented Effort to Rewrite Our Fundamental Law and What We Can Do About It. This episode was recorded as a LiveTalksLA event October 24th in Santa Monica. 

Election Reflections with ROB JOHNSON-Not as bad as feared, not as good as desperately needed

Written on November 12th, 2022
I share election reflections with ROB JOHNSON, President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (ineteconomics.org) and host of the podcast Economics and Beyond. What happened? Who made the difference? How could so many vote for the party of grievance and lies? Why does the “good news” feel so profoundly disappointing? How can we turn things around? Will we deal with the critical challenges we face?

As we await final counts and interpret results-ASTRA TAYLOR (2020) Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone

Written on November 9th, 2022

I can’t get Plato’s Paradox out of my head: Democracy inevitably leads to tyranny. The rich always want to get richer and the poor will follow demagogues who promise to overthrow the rich.I first learned of Plato’s pessimistic prophesy  In ASTRA TAYLOR’S documentary WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? and her companion book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone.  Here’s our 2020 conversation. We explore democracy’s early roots as well as its current embattled state. Next week I’ll respond to the election with Rob Johnson of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.