Easter Season in America

New World Notes #682, 28:56 (April 30)
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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 past 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 supermarket strike, and how (on Easter, 1929), Edward Bernays got American women hooked on cigarettes.

This is a replay (with minor changes) of NWN #581, from April 2019. Some of the current events mentioned are now two years old. Because the discussion goes beyond the events to the larger issues the events illustrate, the show holds up well (IMHO).

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

John Brown redefines the Easter parade. "Beecher's Bible" is in his right hand (left side of the painting).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

How the Internet Makes You Stupid

New World Notes #681, 28:24 (March 23)
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Nicholas Carr, in front of old-fashioned communications technology

Nicholas Carr--author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains--in a recent conversation with Ralph Nader.

They explore the bad effects of Internet use--especially popular sites such as Facebook, Google, & Instagram--on human learning, reasoning, knowledge retention, and critical thinking.

One bad effect is millions of Americans who are easily manipulated and who remain unaware that they are being manipulated.

The original audio--here edited by K.D.--courtesy of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (August 8, 2020).  ralphnaderradiohour.com . Thanks to Ralph.

The second edition of Carr's The Shallows was published in 2020. The first edition appeared in 2010.

How Your Cell Phone Spies On You

New World Notes #680, 28:39 (March 16)
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Celebrated NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden explains the mass surveillance of Americans by means of their cell phones. 

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.

Edward Snowden

Snowden's talk is taken from an interview with video blogger Joe Rogan (*The Joe Rogan Experience," #1368, October 2019). I have lightly edited the talk for radio. Many thanks to Rogan and Snowden both.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "benign neglect") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Capitalism and its Discontents

New World Notes #679, 28:32 (March 9)
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Variations on a theme. KD explores why the Powers-That-Be try to suppress the word "capitalism." Economist Richard D. Wolff explores the public's disillusionment with the U.S. economic system and explores the prospects for change.

We'll hear also a song--intended to be apolitical--by the late Anne Feeney: "Winter, Go Away." One line of the song, though--which implies that winter is warmer in Texas--inspires a preface on this month's death toll from Texas' profit-driven, un-winterized electric system.

Finally, we read an article on the huge trade in Irish slaves shipped to the New World in the 17th and 18th centuries.

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.