Saturday, January 30, 2016

Climate Change Hope

New World Notes #413, 28:58 (February 3)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)


Australian climate scientist Tim Flannery reviews some new, cutting-edge approaches to restraining or halting global warming.

Flannery opposes risky "geoengineering" schemes. But the new, "Third Way" approaches, he says, are different. Based on natural processes, they actually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

These new technologies--combined with a shift from fossil fuels to wind and solar power--give us some reason to hope that climate catastrophe may be averted.

Tim Flannery

Flannery spoke in Seattle on November 12, 2015. The audio of his complete presentation was provided by Mike McCormick, producer of Mind Over Matters, in Seattle. (Many thanks.) I have substantially condensed the talk for this radio program.


Friday, January 22, 2016

Beyond Militarism

New World Notes #412, 28:33 (January 26)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)


Is American militarism a problem? What are the causes of this militarism? Why are we now calling every guy who ever put on a uniform a "hero"? And can militarism be stopped?

Former career soldier Stan Goff addresses these questions with impressive insight and erudition.

We supplement Goff's analysis with a few minutes of Martin Luther King's fine address on American militarism and war, Beyond Vietnam (April 4, 1967). Plus some background and commentary by KD.


Thanks to Michael Welch, the Global Research News Hour, and station CKUW-FM (Winnipeg, Manitoba) for the recorded interview with Goff, which I have edited and condensed.

Illustrations by Eric Drooker (top), Robert Shetterly (above).

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Capitalism vs. Reality

Part 1: New World Notes #410, 29:10 (January 12)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Part 2: New World Notes #411, 28:09 (January 19)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Michael Parenti (2nd from left)

In this new talk, political scientist Michael Parenti refutes the claim that the "free enterprise" system (capitalism) promotes both democracy and prosperity.

Part 1 focuses on democracy. Through several historical examples--from ancient Greece to the Constitutional Convention to the present day--Parenti shows how the capitalists (and their predecessors) fought democracy every step of the way--and continue to do so. Rather, democracy emerged, in fits and starts, from the struggles of ordinary people to bring practical improvements to their lives.

Part 2 focuses more on prosperity. Drawing on the past 150 years of American history, Parenti refutes the myth that capitalism increases the general prosperity. In fact the system has brought regular recessions and depressions to ordinary citizens. Not "free enterprise" but a massive increase in government spending finally lifted America out of the depression of the 1920s and 1930s.

Parenti spoke at the University of Illinois at Springfield on October 16, 2015. Thanks to the university, and to Dale Lehman of WZRD-FM, Chicago, for the original recording.  I have lightly edited the original and done what I could to improve its audio quality.

The real origins of democracy, according to Parenti



Saturday, January 2, 2016

Searching for the Authentic on a Motorcycle

New World Notes #409 (#358), 29:47 (January 5)
Broadcast quality MP3 (41 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (14 MB)


This week's show is mostly monologue.  It's an extended "personal essay" by me, more or less in the tradition of Blue Highways and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  With I guess a few echos of "News From Lake Wobegon."

It's about authenticity and its opposites.  It's also about motorcycle design, and simplicity versus clutter, and the rebirth of the "Indian" brand, and the quiet, subtle virtues of a Harley-Davidson. It's about how New England place-names sort of begin to make sense after you've lived here 20 or 30 years.

It's about corporate franchises and their phony food and their phony architecture--including fake gables, fake windows and even fake "widow's walks."  And it's about taking a motorcycle to search for "the authentic"--and sometimes even finding it when you get far enough out of town.  Uncasville, maybe.

This installment was previously broadcast, as NWN #358, in January 2015.