Cecile Pineda with Harvey Wasserman: From Fukushima to Solartopia!

This is an updated archival program in memory of Cecile Pineda
Cecile Pineda had come to the Unitarian Universalists Fellowship Hall in Berkeley on Hiroshima Day 2014 to support Harvey Wasserman. He campaigns to prevent the opening of nuclear power plants – to limit their operation – or to close them down.
Cecile Pineda had just finished her novel: Devil’s Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step, that the Nation’s John Nichols called: “An astonishing anatomy of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster…”
Cecile Pineda died at home on August 11, 2022. Her friends and students miss her voice, her humor, her deep scientific knowledge and her rebellion – all inside her art of writing.
This replay of her appearance, along with Harvey [ . . . ]

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Protecting the Forests of the World – Professor William Moomaw and Stuart Scott

Prof. Moomaw wrote in 2021: Humanity puts out 11 billion tons of carbon each year – amazingly less than half ends up in the atmosphere. NASA satellite data and research show that a bit more than half of the remaining 6 billion tons of carbon are going into forests, plants, wetlands and soils. The other 40 – 45% is being absorbed by the oceans.
However the extraordinary capacity of forests to absorb carbon is being undermined by world-wide logging and clear-cutting – which ironically turns forests, that could be our best protection from climate disaster – into yet another powerful source of greenhouse gases.
William Moomaw is Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy at Tufts University. Stuart Scott was founder/executive producer of [ . . . ]

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Suzanne Simard – Dispatches from The Mother Tree Project

A report on the underground networks in the forest
Suzanne Simard is Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry. In spite of her status in academia, rigorous research and love and respect from her students it took over 30 years for her ideas to break through.
Ferris Jabr writes in the New York Times Magazine: “By analyzing the DNA in root tips and tracing the movement of molecules through underground conduits, Simard has discovered that fungal threads link nearly every tree in a forest — even trees of different species. Carbon, water, nutrients, alarm signals and hormones can pass from tree to tree through these subterranean circuits…
Resources tend to flow from the oldest and biggest trees [ . . . ]

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Suzanne Simard with David Haskell – Finding the Mother Tree

A small bookstore in Point Reyes Station, a coastal town in West Marin, California, was the first to invite Suzanne Simard for a conversation. Three days earlier, on May 4, her book had been published. Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, has already become a best-seller.
Suzanne Simard was born in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia and grew up in an old growth forest. She was educated at the University of British Columbia and Oregon State University; and is now Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry.
Over 1,000 people participated on the Zoom book release hosted by David Haskell. He is professor of biology and environmental studies at [ . . . ]

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Michael Parenti: Capitalism’s Apocalypse (ONE of ONE)

Why the rich can’t save anybody – not even themselves
Parenti predicted the financial crisis and said that giant corporate capitalism – by it’s very nature – is an apocalyptic system. When unregulated the built in elements of ever increased growth may well bring the whole system down. And he described the growing national debt not as a tragic mistake but as a means to shift ever more money from the tax payers to the financial institutions in the form of interest payments. This speech is an analysis of the many structural flaws of a capitalist system that puts it on a permanent collision course with democracy.
Recorded on August 23, 2008 at the closing reception for Maria Gilardin’s art show. [ . . . ]

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Michael Parenti Political Liberties and Economic Democracy – Part Two

From the University of Hartford Series: CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE 21st CENTURY – In his November 2009 lecture at the University of Hartford Dr. Michael Parenti answers intriguing questions about democracy. Is US democracy a result of capitalism as some claim – or does it exist – such as it is – in spite of the current economic system. AND did the founding fathers even envision a democratic system – and why were so many of them opposed to democracy.
Parenti (1933-2026) was one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. This is part two of his one hour lecture. He was introduced by the President of the University of Hartford, Walter Harrison. After receiving his Ph.D. in political science from [ . . . ]

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Michael Parenti Political Liberties and Economic Democracy – Part One

From the University of Hartford Series: CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE 21st CENTURY – In his November 2009 lecture at the University of Hartford Dr. Michael Parenti answers intriguing questions about democracy. Is US democracy a result of capitalism as some claim – or does it exist – such as it is – in spite of the current economic system. AND did the founding fathers even envision a democratic system – and why were so many of them opposed to democracy.
Parenti (1933-2026) was one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. This is part one of his one hour lecture. He was introduced by the President of the University of Hartford, Walter Harrison. After receiving his Ph.D. in political science from [ . . . ]

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Michael Parenti: Ideology and Conspiracy Part One

From: Understanding Deep Politics Conference, Santa Cruz, CA. – May 14/16 2010
In this entertaining talk, rich with historic references, Parenti describes the right-wing agenda of dismantling social democracy while calling anybody who describes this as a purposeful strategy a conspiracy theorist. He shows that this strategy began right after World War II but culminates now as powerful segment of right wing media and the GOP have moved so far to the right that they have overshot their popular base. Meanwhile democrats, including Obama, unable or unwilling to formulate the social democratic alternative, still talk of bipartisan approaches.
https://tucradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Parenti_DeepPolitics_ONE_100801.mp3