Aired 07/08/12

I seldom interview writers of fiction, but the debut novel THE AGE OF MIRACLES got my attention. It’s being heavily promoted as one of THE books of the summer. Enough so that I read the first couple of pages and I really like the writing. It’s about how one family in Southern California responds to a global crisis, the slowing of the earth, and the lengthening of days and nights. The writer, KAREN THOMPSON WALKER joins me for a delightful interview.

http://www.theageofmiraclesbook.com/

 

Aired 06/17/12

DAVID DeGRAW, who a year ago was among a handful who called for the 99% to rise up. On June 14th, Flag Day, last year, Anonymous and the 99% Movement launched a collaborative effort to announce the birth of a “decentralized non-violent resistance movement to end the system of political bribery and break up the big banks centered at the Federal Reserve.” This morphed into Occupy Wall Street, and we will talk about one of the newest incarnations of that effort.

DAVID DeGRAW. David is founder and editor of http://ampedstatus.com/, formerly editorial director of http://mediachannel.org/, and author of The Economic Elite Vs The People of the United States. He is one of the early leaders of the the Occupy/99% movement and one of the founders of http://moneyoutpack.org/

 

Aired 06/17/12

This week’s show will deal with the Occupy/99% movement from two different perspectives. For most of the hour I’ll be joined by renowned scholar and activist, NOAM CHOMSKY. His newest book, a collection of interviews and speeches on the movement, is entitled simply OCCUPY.

NOAM CHOMSKY is Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where has taught for over 50 years. He is also a renowned political activist and writer. His scores of books on linguistics, human rights, economics and politics, include Manufacturing Consent, Necessary Illusions, Hegemony or Survival, 9/11, and his latest, OCCUPY.

http://chomsky.info/about.htm

 

 

Aired 04/22/12

AQEELA SHERRILLS

20 years ago this spring there was a riot/disturbance following the Rodney King verdict. But there was another event in 1992 that received somewhat less attention, but was more remarkable: The Peace Treaty between the Crips and Bloods. Aqeela Sherrills was intimately involved in negotiating that treaty and is spearheading a celebration/reunion next week on its 20th anniversary. He is executive director and co-founder (with his brother Daude) of the Community Self-Determination Institute. He also co-founded Amer-I-Can with American football player Jim Brown. Sherrills’ son, Terrell Sherrills, was shot to death in 2004 in an apparently random killing. A longtime anti-death penalty activist, Sherrills became the Southern California Outreach Coordinator for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CCV) in 2010.

EVENT:
Los Angeles “Peace Treaty” 20th Anniversary Reunion Celebration.

Community Dialogue this Friday April 27th all day at the Maxine Waters Employment Preparedness Cener, 10925 S Central Av.LA 90059. It will include Jim Brown, Connie Rice, Alex Sanchez, Rick Ross, among others.

UNITY MUSIC celebration — all day Saturday April 28th — Graham Ave and 103rd –featuring the Watts Prophets, Charles Wright and the 103rd Street Band and many others. To learn more go to https://www.facebook.com/20thPeaceTruce#!/20thPeaceTruce

 

Aired 04/15/12

For over thirty years, you and I have lived through a radical redistribution of wealth — upward, to a tiny fraction of the population — as though we’re part of a bizarre experiment to see how much inequality a democratic society can tolerate. Finally this past year, as a result of the Great Recession that burst the mortgage/refi/credit card bubble that had allowed too many of us to deny reality, people have woken up and “We are the 99%,” the rallying cry of the Occupy movement, has spread far and wide.

CHUCK COLLINS has been on the case since at least 1995, when he co-founded United for a Fair Economy to raise the profile of the inequality issue and support efforts to address it. In fact, when he did so, he was one of my first guests on this show and we talked then about the same issues we will talk about today.

Chuck’s new book, 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It, paints a picture of how disparities in wealth and power play out in America and the world, and identifies the shifts in social values, political power, and economic policy that have led to our current era of extreme inequality. He lays out the destructive cost of inequality on virtually every aspect of society.

But Collins believes there’s hope and offers proposals for closing the gap, and a guide to many of the groups working toward a society that works for everybody.

http://inequality.org/