New World Notes #683, 28:46 (April 6)
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of police forces began to change
Both a blog and a weekly radio program. Each examines political & social issues from a Progressive perspective and with humor. The content includes my own commentary ... recorded talk by people who do this better than me ... stories from the alternative press read aloud ... graphics ... and music with a message.
New World Notes #683, 28:46 (April 6)
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New World Notes #681, 28:24 (March 23)
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New World Notes #680, 28:39 (March 16)
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He explains how both the government and Big Tech companies capture and use your data. How they record your every movement. And how they collude to prevent you from stopping all that data capture.
The talk reveals Snowden to be, not only a brilliant technician, but a complex, humane and caring person.
New World Notes #679, 28:32 (March 9)
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The Wolff segment is from his interview with video blogger Mexie, September 15, 2020. A different section of this interview (edited by KD) appears as NWN #663, in November 2020. Many thanks to both Mexie and Wolff.
John Martin's "The Irish Slave Trade" was published in Global Research in 2008 (rpt., ibid., March 15, 2015). I have edited and condensed this article for radio.
New World Notes #678, 29:19 (March 2)
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Part 1: New World Notes #675, 28:05 (February 9)
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Part 2: New World Notes #676, 28:42 February 16)
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Part 1: New World Notes #670, 28:00 (January 5)
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Part 2: New World Notes #671, 28:18 (January 12)
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Part 3: New World Notes #672, 28:40 (January 19)
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An engaging and insightful documentary on corporate-sponsored advertising in the 21st century. It explores advertising's ubiquity; its insidiousness; its devastating social, psychological, and environmental effects--and its role in perpetuating the most harmful aspects of corporate capitalism.
Communications scholar and activist Sut Jhally narrates. The film is adapted to radio, and with introductions, by KD.
Part 1 focuses on the commercial takeover of our culture, the problem of industrial overproduction, and the development of the advertising industry to increase demand for products.
Then Part 2 examines the devastating ecological and environmental effects of our culture's binge of consumption.
Part 3 further explores the ecological devastation wrought by the trio of neoliberal capitalism, rampant consumerism, and product advertising. It also explores the breakdown of social ties--and the celebration of rampant and live-for-today individualism--that this trio promotes.
But the film's conclusion is optimistic: many people are seeing through the trio's false promises and are rebelling.
Following the film are two complementary sketches: comedian Bill Hicks on advertising and marketing, and Janis Joplin's song, "Mercedes Benz."
New World Notes #666, 28:10 (December 8)
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Part 1: New World Notes #664, 28:41 (November 24)
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Part 2: New World Notes #665, 27:40 (December 1).
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New World Notes #663, 28:40 (November 17)
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Capitalism is a fatally flawed economic system that cannot be made to work well, argues economist Richard D. Wolff. One fatal flaw is its instability: for the past 300 years, capitalist economies have crashed every 4-7 years.
We are now in the third crash of the 21st century, the worst since the 1920s. The COVID pandemic--and the right-on-schedule crash it triggered--make the system's failures undeniable, Wolff argues.
Wolff is in fine form in these selections from an interview (of September 15, 2020) with the Progressive Canadian video blogger, Mexie.
First, though: brief eulogies for Connecticut radio program producer and political activist Mike DeRosa and for veteran Middle-East correspondent Robert Fisk. And a funny song on President Trump by satirist Roy Zimmerman and friends.
Mexie's video programs are available on YouTube. I have borrowed the title of her interview with Wolff (as well as a fair amount of the audio). Many thanks.
Richard D. Wolff--Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst--has written or co-authored 16 books on economics and economic theory.
Part 1: New World Notes #660, 28:38 (October 27)
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Part 2: New World Notes #661, 27:56 (November 3)
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Part 3: New World Notes #662, 27:29 (November 10)
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Part 1 covers Zinn's impoverished early life in NYC; his early disillusionment with the police; and his experiences as a shipyard worker, Air Force bombardier in WWII, graduate student, and left-leaning white professor in a conservative Black college in the South as the Civil Rights movement took hold.
All these events profoundly shaped Zinn's views on politics, democracy, freedom, history, and historiography.
Part 3 includes the favorable public reaction to Zinn's People's History, especially by school students and teachers; scenes from Zinn's play, Marx in Soho; and Zinn's public opposition, post-9/11, to going to war against Iraq.
First, though, we'll hear President Trump's public denunciation of Zinn for destroying the patriotism of schoolchildren (September 17, 2020)--and then part of a 2009 interview of Zinn, by Amy Goodman, in which Zinn explains what he would like young people to learn about American History. (Thanks to democracynow.org for the audio in this segment.)
Part 1: New World Notes #657, 28:32 (October 6)
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Part 2: New World Notes #658, 27:54 (October 13)
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New World Notes #654, 29:00 (September 15)
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New World Notes #653, 28:26 (Sept. 8)
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Ex-cop, investigative journalist, activist, and prophet Michael Ruppert (1951-2014) was quirky, controversial ... and very often right. In this interesting monologue, he explains why Western industrial civilization is unsustainable and beginning to collapse--and what Americans can do to weather the transition. Surprisingly, he ends on a note of optimism.
From Chris Smith's 2009 film, Collapse. Previously broadcast, in December 2012.
New World Notes #651, 28:19 (August 25)
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Comedian / satirist / critic George Carlin is in peak form in these satiric sketches from the 1990s--not previously broadcast on New World Notes. With sharp and strong satire he skewers much of American culture and politics.
A gentler satiric style is included as well, in Carlin's comic discussion of the silly idioms (such as "down the tubes") we use in American speech.
All (now) suitable for airplay. (Grumble!) With a little commentary, here and there, by KD.
George Carlin, 1937-2008. R.I.P. and thanks.
I am indebted to Free D. People, who was host of the show Talk on Colorado Free Radio. Talk's 2-hour uncensored tribute to George Carlin, issued following the performer's death in 2008, was the basis for New World Notes's highly edited selection.
New World Notes #650, 27:51 (August 18)
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Part 1: New World Notes #648, 28:18 (August 4)
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Part 2: New World Notes #649, 28:58 (August 11)
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