Author Archives: Maria

WWI – The Christmas Truce of 1914

Silent Night in trenches of the Western Front
The Christmas Truce was an unofficial cease-fire on parts of the Western Front. Guns fell silent for one to several days. Soldiers emerged from the trenches and talked, exchanged gifts and kicked around a soccer ball. Trenches were close in some places, separated by 50 yards or less.
The Story of the Christmas Truce WWI is a documentary film about this spontaneous cease-fire. Thanks to historians Peter Hart, Taff Gillingham and Robin Schaefer, and their choice of rare documentary photos, footage and archived letters from soldiers of both sides. The documentary focuses on the section of the trenches where British and German soldiers were facing each other.
This radio program goes into distribution on [ . . . ]

Read More

Joanna Macy – Inspiration for December 2022

“On the way to destroying our world we are beginning to wake up from a millennia long sleep.”
Here are excerpts from a conversation between the scholar of Buddhism and activist Joanna Macy and Vicki Robin, a writer, speaker, and host of the What Could Possibly Go Right podcast. Robin’s goal is to interview people who see far and serve the common good and help us to see more clearly and act more courageously.
Joanna Macy wrote: “The most remarkable feature of this historical moment is not that we are on the way to destroying our world – it’s that we are beginning to wake up – as if from a millennia long sleep.”
Joanna Macy is an author, teacher and a scholar [ . . . ]

Read More

Joanna Macy – Inspiration for December 2022

“On the way to destroying our world we are beginning to wake up from a millennia long sleep.”
Here are excerpts from a conversation between the scholar of Buddhism and activist Joanna Macy and Vicki Robin, a writer, speaker, and host of the What Could Possibly Go Right podcast. Robin’s goal is to interview people who see far and serve the common good and help us to see more clearly and act more courageously.
Joanna Macy wrote: “The most remarkable feature of this historical moment is not that we are on the way to destroying our world – it’s that we are beginning to wake up – as if from a millennia long sleep.”
Joanna Macy is an author, teacher and a scholar [ . . . ]

Read More

TUC Archives: The Quest for Water and the American West

By Dr. Gray Brechin: Imperial San Francisco
This is Part TWO of the history of San Francisco. The town that grew from 16 houses on sand dunes in 1850 to the largest city on the West Coast in only 30 years.
Gray Brechin explains in the first chapter of his book Imperial San Francisco how the gold rush connected two major factors for city building: A swelling of the population and the growth of investment capital.
But the mix of people and money was lacking another major ingredient: water. As the first wave of destruction of California was brought about by gold mining, the second wave was caused by the damming of rivers, and the flooding of land for reservoirs, even eventually [ . . . ]

Read More

TUC Archives: The Quest for Water and the American West

By Dr. Gray Brechin: Imperial San Francisco
This is Part TWO of the history of San Francisco. The town that grew from 16 houses on sand dunes in 1850 to the largest city on the West Coast in only 30 years.
Gray Brechin explains in the first chapter of his book Imperial San Francisco how the gold rush connected two major factors for city building: A swelling of the population and the growth of investment capital.
But the mix of people and money was lacking another major ingredient: water. As the first wave of destruction of California was brought about by gold mining, the second wave was caused by the damming of rivers, and the flooding of land for reservoirs, even eventually [ . . . ]

Read More

TUC Archives – The Underground History of the Gold Rush

By Dr. Gray Brechin: Imperial San Francisco
This is part of the history of a city, grown from 16 houses on sand dunes in 1850 to the largest city on the Pacific Coast in only 30 years. The book, Imperial San Francisco by Dr. Gray Brechin, is one of the few examples of a scholarly dissertation that becomes a very popular book. Imperial San Francisco brings to light the huge sacrifices extracted from the surrounding land by large cities, from Babylon to the Italian city states to the instant cities of North America.
This program focuses on the Gold Rush and the early conflicts between mining and farming. Next week we’ll talk about the valleys flooded and the rivers diverted to [ . . . ]

Read More

TUC Archives – The Underground History of the Gold Rush

By Dr. Gray Brechin: Imperial San Francisco
This is part of the history of a city, grown from 16 houses on sand dunes in 1850 to the largest city on the Pacific Coast in only 30 years. The book, Imperial San Francisco by Dr. Gray Brechin, is one of the few examples of a scholarly dissertation that becomes a very popular book. Imperial San Francisco brings to light the huge sacrifices extracted from the surrounding land by large cities, from Babylon to the Italian city states to the instant cities of North America.
This program focuses on the Gold Rush and the early conflicts between mining and farming. Next week we’ll talk about the valleys flooded and the rivers diverted to [ . . . ]

Read More

Rebecca Solnit, HOLLOW CITY – TUC Archive

The destruction of San Francisco in the late 1990s
A new generation of writers Rebecca Solnit, Mike Davis, and Gray Brechin are inspiring us into seeing our familiar surroundings with new eyes. They also offer a different perspective on the radical transformation that development and venture capital have brought to so many cities. San Francisco, formerly famous for taking a travelers heart away, is now reaching for the soul and the wallet. A dot com boom combined with the growing biotechnology industry have driven housing prices up and residents and local small businesses out.

Rebecca Solnit says she wrote Hollow City in a hurry to document the beauty and rich culture that was being destroyed, and to support the growing movement of [ . . . ]

Read More

Rebecca Solnit, HOLLOW CITY – TUC Archive

The destruction of San Francisco in the late 1990s
A new generation of writers Rebecca Solnit, Mike Davis, and Gray Brechin are inspiring us into seeing our familiar surroundings with new eyes. They also offer a different perspective on the radical transformation that development and venture capital have brought to so many cities. San Francisco, formerly famous for taking a travelers heart away, is now reaching for the soul and the wallet. A dot com boom combined with the growing biotechnology industry have driven housing prices up and residents and local small businesses out.

Rebecca Solnit says she wrote Hollow City in a hurry to document the beauty and rich culture that was being destroyed, and to support the growing movement of [ . . . ]

Read More

Prof. Michael Hudson: Super Imperialism, from the World Bank to Ukraine

Here are excerpts from a conversation on the new podcast site: India & Global Left. The well prepared host, Jyotishman Mudiar wants to know: “Why the US has a unique place in the history of imperialism?” And Michael Hudson describes how much power can be projected by control of the instruments of finance.
Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City – But unlike most academics he has also practiced banking as a balance of payments economist in Chase Manhattan Bank from 1964 to 1968.
Michael Hudson acts as an economic advisor on finance and tax law to governments worldwide including China, Iceland and Latvia.
Michael Hudson is the author of many books, among them:
Super Imperialism: [ . . . ]

Read More

Prof. Michael Hudson: Super Imperialism, from the World Bank to Ukraine

Here are excerpts from a conversation on the new podcast site: India & Global Left. The well prepared host, Jyotishman Mudiar wants to know: “Why the US has a unique place in the history of imperialism?” And Michael Hudson describes how much power can be projected by control of the instruments of finance.
Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City – But unlike most academics he has also practiced banking as a balance of payments economist in Chase Manhattan Bank from 1964 to 1968.
Michael Hudson acts as an economic advisor on finance and tax law to governments worldwide including China, Iceland and Latvia.
Michael Hudson is the author of many books, among them:
Super Imperialism: [ . . . ]

Read More

From the City of Quartz to San Francisco – Mike Davis

A Conversation with Tim Redmond – TUC Archive
It was with sadness that I received the news that the urban historian Mike Davis died on October 25, 2022, at home in San Diego – in the county his parents reached by hitch-hiking during the Great Depression. From meat cutter and truck driver to college student and teacher – editor of The New Left Review, and successful author of twenty books – his life and academic career were extraordinary.
I met and recorded Mike Davis in San Francisco in March 2000 when he visited my neighborhood, the North East Mission Industrial Zone. We had all been affected by the dot.com boom of 1998 through 2000, driven by [ . . . ]

Read More

From the City of Quartz to San Francisco – Mike Davis

A Conversation with Tim Redmond – TUC Archives
It was with sadness that I received the news that the urban historian Mike Davis died on October 25, 2022, at home in San Diego – in the county his parents reached by hitch-hiking during the Great Depression. From meat cutter and truck driver to college student and teacher – editor of The New Left Review, and successful author of twenty books – his life and academic career were extraordinary.
I met and recorded Mike Davis in San Francisco in March 2000 when he visited my neighborhood, the North East Mission Industrial Zone. We had all been affected by the dot.com boom of 1998 through 2000, driven by [ . . . ]

Read More

Yanis Varoufakis – Techno-Feudalism & the Death of Capitalism

Steven Parton interviews Varoufakis on Singularity Radio
Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and politician who was the acting Minister of Finance in Greece during their debt crisis in 2015.
Varoufakis defines Techno Feudalism and how corporations have appropriated our identity and convinced us to consume things that we neither need nor want – creating environmental destruction. Also covered in this interview: why 2008 is a watershed moment for Capitalism; block chain VS bit coin; Universal Basic Income; and the question of democratic control of our technologies.
The host of Singularity Radio, Steven Parton, has focused on how technology is impacting the human condition and society as a whole. These are excerpts from the original podcast published on Sept. 23, 2022 [ . . . ]

Read More

Yanis Varoufakis – Techno-Feudalism & the Death of Capitalism

Steven Parton interviews Varoufakis on Singularity Radio
Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and politician who was the acting Minister of Finance in Greece during their debt crisis in 2015.
Varoufakis defines Techno Feudalism and how corporations have appropriated our identity and convinced us to consume things that we neither need nor want – creating environmental destruction. Also covered in this interview: why 2008 is a watershed moment for Capitalism; block chain VS bit coin; Universal Basic Income; and the question of democratic control of our technologies.
The host of Singularity Radio, Steven Parton, has focused on how technology is impacting the human condition and society as a whole. These are excerpts from the original podcast published on Sept. 23, 2022 [ . . . ]

Read More