Author Archives: Maria

Noam Chomsky: Racing to the Precipice (TWO of TWO)

By MariaMay 9, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Noam Chomsky spoke at the MIT Starr Forum on March 23, 2017 to the dual danger we are facing today – nuclear extinction and climate change. In a scathing indictment of the current administration Chomsky explained that we are not just sleepwalking into disaster but are purposefully racing to the precipice.
In this concluding segment Chomsky begins by covering climate science from recent publication, including sea level rise, CO2 emissions exceeding 400 ppm.
Chomsky also remembers his intensely personal experience of the beginning of the nuclear age and explains the Anthropocene as defined by the World Geological Society.
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has worked since 1955. And he is the author of [ . . . ]

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Noam Chomsky: Racing to the Precipice

By MariaMay 2, 2017Newest Catalog ItemsIsrael/Palestine

Within days of the public posting in early April 2017 of his one hour speech the downloads for YouTube alone exceeded 100,000. Noam Chomsky spoke with such critical passion and urgency that this talk should have the widest possible distribution – so TUC Radio will carry it as well. It is a combination of a no holds barred critique of the Trump administration on climate change and nuclear danger.
The reason why this March 23 speech has become so popular – I believe – is that it not only brings into focus the looming danger – that can sometimes feel overwhelming – but puts it into context of history, global justice, indigenous rebellion and equity.
Chomsky investigates the reasons for our failure [ . . . ]

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Noam Chomsky: Racing to the Precipice (ONE of TWO)

By MariaMay 2, 20172017, Newest PodcastsIsrael/Palestine

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Israel-Palestine Through the Lens of Settler Colonialism (TWO of TWO) Professor Ilan Pappe

By MariaApril 25, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Here is the Question and Answer section following a talk by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe (in last week’s radio program). In his presentation at the Press Club in Washington DC on March 24, 2017, he had challenged the audience with his conclusion that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can no longer be achieved by the so-called two state solution. Instead, Pappe said the only resolution comes with one democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis with equal rights for both. And this radio program presents some of Ilan Pappe’s thoughts how this may become a reality.
And for those who do not want to see Palestinian rights discussed TUC offers – again – a disclaimer: “The views and opinions expressed in the [ . . . ]

Podcast (file2): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

Israel-Palestine Through the Lens of Settler-Colonialism (ONE of TWO) – Professor Ilan Pappe

By MariaApril 18, 20172017, Newest PodcastsIsrael/Palestine

The program begins with a standard disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the following program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this radio station, its staff or board of directors.
I placed the disclaimer because content critical of the Israel/Palestine peace process is frequently criticized. Please give it an airing because the ideas expressed may help explain a situation that has led to decades of pain and bloodshed in the Middle East. And Professor Ilan Pappe is an extraordinary intellectual and historian.
Here is background on him and the organizers:
Ilan Pappe was born in Haifa and educated in Israel. He was a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa (1984–2007) and [ . . . ]

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Israel-Palestine Through the Lens of Settler-Colonialism – Professor Ilan Pappe

By MariaApril 18, 2017Middle East, Newest Catalog Items, PalestineIsrael/Palestine

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Richard Grossman – Dismantling Corporations (TWO of TWO)

By MariaApril 11, 20172017, Newest PodcastsCorporate Personhood, Corporations

This segment begins with an intriguing archival speech on the history of corporations that TUC Radio recorded in Washington DC. at the 1996 Teach-In organized by the International Forum on Globalization. The segment ends with two important projects Grossman worked on just before his death: A law to criminalize hydro-fracking and corporations as a class or group.
In the Preface to his 1993 pamphlet, Taking Care of Business, Richard Grossman wrote:
“Corporations cause harm every day. Why do their harms go unchecked? How can they dictate what we produce, how we work, what we eat, drink and breathe? How did a self-governing people let this come to pass? – Corporations were not supposed to reign in the United States.”
Richard died of cancer [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:59 — 19.9MB)

Richard Grossman – Dismantling Corporations (ONE of TWO)

By MariaApril 4, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Ralph Nader called Richard Grossman the preeminent historian of corporations. In his writings and teaching Grossman warned us that unchecked corporate power would lead to the destruction of democracy. He said that the American revolution was fought less against the King but “against the crown corporations, the Hudsons Bay and East India Corporations.” And he believed that it is time to remember that fight and assert sovereignty of the people over corporations and the corporate state.
In this speech Grossman provocatively calls for dismantling “the thousand largest corporations off the face of the earth.”
Richard Grossman’s research showed him that in the original intent of American revolutionaries corporations did not have rights, they only had privileges, and only those that we the [ . . . ]

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Richard Grossman – Dismantling Corporations

By MariaApril 4, 2017Economics, Government, Newest Catalog Items

Remembering Richards work and life
Richard Grossman said: “.. corporations don’t have rights. Rights are for people. Corporations only have privileges, and only those that we the people bestow on them.” In a nutshell that was the essence of his research and teaching for the last 20 years. Richard died of melanoma on November 22nd, 2011, at a hospital in New York City, where he was born sixty-eight years earlier.
Ralph Nader called him the “preeminent historian of corporations” and a new, inspiring reading of history was his special gift. Richard said that the American revolution was fought less against the crown but against the crown corporations. And he believed that it’s time to remember that fight and assert sovereignty of the [ . . . ]

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Feminist Theology and Women in the Muslim World (TWO of TWO) Archive

By MariaMarch 28, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Special for International Women’s Month
This is the conclusion of Dr. Riffat Hassan’s extraordinary feminist lecture on the story of Adam and Eve, a story that forms the basis for the oppression of women in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Plus my interview with her about her radical re-interpretation of the significance of Eve’s acceptance of the apple.
Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim theologian from Pakistan who opposes the Islamic view of the inferiority of women. She says that since anti women legislation and custom are enacted in the name of theology, it is necessary to study the Koran and critique the source.
In the original text, says Hassan, women are neither inferior nor sinful. Adam is not a man’s name – it [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

Feminist Theology and Women in the Muslim World (ONE of TWO) Archive

By MariaMarch 21, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Special for International Women’s Month
Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim theologian from Pakistan who opposes the Islamic view of the inferiority of women. She says that since anti women legislation and custom are enacted in the name of theology, it is necessary to study the Koran and investigate the source. This required courage since challenging traditional interpretation of the Koran can be a capital offense. On the other hand we are all familiar with the claim that Islam has given women more rights than any other religious tradition. And Riffat Hassan decided to deal with that contradiction.
Riffat Hassan began her quest in 1984 when her feminist friends in Pakistan asked her to help define the theological argument for women’s liberation. [ . . . ]

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Feminist Theology and Women in the Muslim World – Dr. Riffat Hassan

By MariaMarch 21, 2017Newest Catalog Items, Women

For International Women’s Month
Dr. Riffat Hassan, born in Pakistan and educated in England, taught theology in the US. Her feminist friends in Pakistan realized that they needed a theological argument to oppose anti woman legislation and asked her to help. She became, in the mid 1980s, the first trained theologian to take on, at personal risk, the misreading of the Koran with the explicit goal to help women’s liberation.
Recorded on April 1, 1993, at UC Berkeley, this is a two part program that begins with an moving account of her personal journey and ends with a painstakingly researched account of the story of Adam and Eve common to Islam, Christianity and Judaism. This myth has been used to declare women [ . . . ]

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Prof. Jim White: Sea level rise and the melting of sea ice and glaciers (TWO of TWO)

By MariaMarch 15, 20172017, Newest PodcastsArctic

Dr. Jim White turns his attention to ice. The accelerated melting of the Arctic sea ice and the ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica.
Concentrations of carbon dioxide – after water vapor the most important greenhouse gas – are measured in parts per million. The organization 350 dot org expresses in its name that – to be safe from catastrophic climate change – we should not go over 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. However in late 2016 the measurements at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, went over 400 ppm for the first time in modern history. (And on March 9, 2017 the reading was 405 ppm)
When a visionary scientist, Charles Keeling, began daily readings for CO2 concentration from Mauna Loa in [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:58 — 19.9MB)

Prof. Jim White How to respond to climate change deniers and Consequences of sea level rise

By MariaMarch 8, 2017Environment and Climate Change, Newest Catalog ItemsClimate Change

TWO programs
When the Weather and Climate Summit was established in 1985 the goal was to bring together weather-casters and meteorologists from the U.S. and Canada with scientists and researchers. Their annual summit of 2017 was held in Breckenridge, Colorado, from January 8 to 12. One of the many topics at the summit was to prepare for the incoming Trump administration that was to include outspoken climate change deniers.
Dr. Jim White teaches at the University of Colorado. He specializes in Global change, paleoclimate dynamics, and the human impact on climate.
In a very entertaining and easy to understand way he addressed the five topics climate change deniers most often bring up:
2. How can we insignificant humans change the climate?
3. How can something [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)

Podcast (file2): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:58 — 19.9MB)

Prof. Jim White – How to respond to climate change deniers (ONE of TWO)

By MariaMarch 8, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

When the Weather and Climate Summit was established in 1985 the goal was to bring together weather-casters and meteorologists from the U.S. and Canada with scientists and researchers. Their annual summit of 2017 was held in Breckenridge, Colorado, from January 8 to 12. One of the many topics at the summit was to prepare for the incoming Trump administration that was to include outspoken climate change deniers.
Dr. Jim White teaches at the University of Colorado. He specializes in Global change, paleoclimate dynamics, and the human impact on climate.
In a very entertaining and easy to understand way he addressed the five topics climate change deniers most often bring up:
2. How can we insignificant humans change the climate?
3. How can something like [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)