Easter Season in America

New World Notes #581, 28:44 (April 23)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Easter parade: Note "Torch of Freedom" in

the fashionable young lady's right hand.

In a humorous and satiric monologue, KD reflects on several current (and some other) events, all somehow connected to Easter-time in America. Plus a song by David Rovics.

Topics include secularization and commercialization of holidays, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Mueller Report, John Brown, the Stop-and-Shop supermarket strike, and how Edward Bernays got American women hooked on cigarettes.

"John Brown" is from David Rovics' "Big Red Sessions" album.

John Brown--"Beecher's Bible" in his (right) hand--redefines the Easter parade.

The Great Hamburger Blowup

New World Notes #580, 29:03 (April 16)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

A classic broadcast from 1965 by radio's great humorist-satirist-storyteller, Jean Shepherd. Condensed by K.D.

With wit and humor, Shepherd reflects on adolescent psychology ... on being "shot down" ... on traumatic experiences ... and on the absurd prose on back of packages--notably Official World's Fair Toothpicks. Then he tells a story from his childhood: how he snuck into a Ukrainian-American picnic, pretended to speak Ukrainian, and--to his later regret--consumed 17 hamburgers.

Jean Shepherd

Originally broadcast on WOR AM-FM on April 1, 1965. Original recording courtesy of Radio Veronica via radio4all.net

This installment is the fourth, to date,  in our series of classic Jean Shepherd broadcasts, condensed and then aired again on New World Notes. The others are

• Radio Great Jean Shepherd
• Jean Shepherd vs. "Creeping Meatballism"
• Jean Shepherd: Elephant Feet

The Algebra of Revolution

Part 1: New World Notes #578, 28:41 (April 2)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Part 2: New World Notes #579, 28:38 (April 9)
Broadcast quality MP3
Decent quality MP3
 

Chris Hedges

A hard-hitting speech by journalist/essayist Chris Hedges. It's about the corruption of "the System" ... the increasing power of "the one percent" ... the betrayal of the people by the Democratic and Republican parties ... the century-long crackdown on dissent ...

And it's about our increasingly meaningless national politics, in which our real and pressing problems (climate change, oligarchy, a plundered economy) are seldom even mentioned--let alone debated, let alone put to a vote.

Hedges devotes some particular attention to the three national candidates: Clinton, Sanders, and Trump. None of them advocates the sort of radical change that (to Hedges) is our only hope.

Introduction by K.D.

Hedges spoke in Seattle on April 25, 2016. Video recording courtesy of Pirate Radio Seattle. I have edited the soundtrack for radio broadcast.

Previously broadcast, in August 2916, as NWN #442-443. Files downloaded from the links, above, are identified by those numbers.  

Photo (above) by Justin Norman, Creative Commons licanse (by-cc). Thanks.