Podcasts

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Who’s Counting – Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics (ONE of TWO) – ARCHIVE

By MariaJuly 12, 20162016

A TUC Radio classic on the destructive power of endless economic growth
Marilyn Waring was shocked and dismayed when she learned that all countries that are members of the UN are forced to keep their books and design their budgets under the system of National Income Accounting. This GDP system counts only cash transactions in the market and recognizes no value other than money. This means there is no value to peace and to the preservation of the environment.
At age 22 (in 1974) Marilyn Waring became the youngest member of the New Zealand Parliament. She chaired the prestigious Public Expenditures Committee and became familiar with the Gross Domestic Product system and decided to disclose its pathologies in a film, her teachings [ . . . ]

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

The Earth Wants YOU! – Bill Talen

By MariaJuly 7, 20162016, All Time Favorites

AKA Reverend Billy
Reverend Billy in his smart white suit and Elvis Presley hairdo is preaching the stop shopping gospel while standing knee deep in the rising floods of climate change. That’s the photo on the cover of his recent book by City Lights: The Earth Wants YOU, a motivational handbook meant to inspire its readers to challenge the consumerism that is killing our planet.
Bill Talen moved from San Francisco to New York City in the early nineties after many years in Bay Area Theater and performance art. There he began preaching on street corners in Times Square in front of Disney stores and advertising bill boards. His solo appearances soon attracted crowds and sympathizers and the Church of Stop Shopping [ . . . ]

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

American Nuremberg – The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes

By MariaJune 29, 20162016

an interview with Rebecca Gordon
To this day the people of the United States have no accounting of what has been done in our names in the so-called war on terror. But we are left with ongoing misery for literally millions of people, destabilized regions in the Middle East, South East Asia, North Africa and blow-back and spill over into Europe. And it is extraordinary how a small group of political leaders could have created such ongoing expanding devastation and has not been held responsible in any way.
Rebecca Gordon writes that for the sake of the victims of the war on terror we need real accountability for American war criminals. Her book, American Nuremberg, published by Hot Books at Skyhorse, NY-City, [ . . . ]

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

‘The End of Water As We Know It’ with Argonne National Lab Scientist Dr. Seth Darling (Part TWO of TWO)

By MariaJune 21, 20162016

This is the conclusion of a one hour talk by Dr. Seth Darling. In Part ONE he spoke about increasing water depletion while economists project that water demand will rise by at least 55% by 2050.
In this Part TWO Dr. Darling is turning to science, describing the amazing characteristics of water as well as its global history. Also included are a few of the questions that he answered at the end of his talk. They range from fracking to different methods of water cleaning and desalinization
Seth Darling is a Scientist at Argonne National Lab. and a Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. He is the co-author, with Douglas L Sisterson, of the 2014 book: [ . . . ]

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

‘The End of Water As We Know It’ with Argonne National Lab Scientist Dr. Seth Darling (Part ONE of TWO)

By MariaJune 15, 20162016

Even though water is most vital for survival the status of depletion or contamination is not well known to the public and there are very few mechanisms in place world wide for water protection and access to water as a human right.
In this May 18, 2016, talk valuable information is introduced to support and inspire local efforts. Dr. Darling updates statistics about the water embedded in certain products.
He also makes an interesting connection between energy production and water and surprises us with research that shows how the energy industry withdraws 200 billion gallons of water per day in the US alone.
Seth Darling is a Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the [ . . . ]

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

Robert Fisk on the Armenian Holocaust (UPDATED ARCHIVE)

By MariaJune 8, 20162016

The ongoing controversy about the Armenian Genocide
When on June 2nd, 2016, the German Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution declaring the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide, the Turkish government angrily denounced the vote as “null and void,”. And Prime Minister Erdogan called his ambassador in Germany back to Ankara for consultations. Fear spread among German political leaders that Erdogan might retaliate and unleash tens of thousands of refugees that Turkey currently hosts.
Robert Fisk is the award-winning Middle East correspondent of the London Independent. He has reported from the Middle East since 1976, speaks arabic and lives in Beirut, Lebanon.
Fisk wrote on June 2, 2016 in the Independent that Germany now joined France and Russia and at [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:56 — 19.9MB)

Climate Change is Here – Now What? Professor Bill Collins (TWO of TWO)

By MariaJune 1, 20162016

There are three surprises embedded in this headline. “Climate change is here” as statement of fact in a time of climate change denial. Combined with the question “Now What?” – that seems to indicate a new turn for scientists who hesitated to make recommendations. Also this acknowledgment of the current situation is coming out of a venerable 75 year old institution, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, that conducts scientific research on behalf of the US Department of Energy.
This is a lively Q/A over geoengineering, carbon intensity of food and agriculture, air pollution, methane, and heat waves. These are excerpts from an almost 2 hour event that also covered direct recommendations for the SF Bay Area – and by implication any [ . . . ]

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

Climate Change is Here – Now What? Professor Bill Collins (ONE of TWO)

By MariaMay 25, 20162016Climate Change, Ecosystem

The Berkeley Lab, short for: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, overlooks the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. They conduct scientific research on behalf of the US Department of Energy, and are managed and operated by the University of California.
In September 2015 the Berkeley Lab established the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division. The mission of the new Division is to understand, predict, and advance stewardship of the Earth’s Climate and Ecosystems. They pay attention to water, energy, and agriculture.
The Director for the new Climate and Ecosystem Science Division is Dr. Bill Collins. He is an internationally recognized expert in climate modeling and climate change science and also serves as director of the Climate Readiness Institute, a new multi-campus initiative to [ . . . ]

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

Palestine is Still the Issue (TWO of TWO) – by Israeli Historian Prof. Ilan Pappé

By MariaMay 17, 20162016Israel, Palestine

NOTE:
Since tempers can flare on any issue critical of Israel you may want to precede this program with a disclaimer that the opinions offered here a that of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of the station, it’s staff or board of directors.
I do hope that you will play this important program but also want to be sure that you know that you may draw criticism. Maria Gilardin
INFO ON THE PROGRAM:
Prof. Ilan Pappe is the best known member of Israel’s generation of “new historians” who have been rewriting the history of Israel’s founding in 1948. Pappe’s seminal book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, was published in 2006 while he was teaching at Haifa University. The publication led to [ . . . ]

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

Palestine is Still the Issue (ONE of TWO) – by Israeli Historian Prof. Ilan Pappé

By MariaMay 11, 20162016Israel, Palestine

Prof. Ilan Pappé is the best known member of Israel’s generation of “new historians” who have been rewriting the history of Israel’s founding in 1948. Thanks to the declassification of British and Israeli documents in the 1980s Pappé has dedicated himself to exposing the truths behind the long established myths around what Israel calls its war of independence in 1948. That war led to the ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Palestinians and the destruction of over 500 of their villages in what is now Israel.
That’s described in Pappé’s seminal book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, published in 2006 while he was chair of the Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies at Haifa University. The publication led to [ . . . ]

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

Climate Scientist Kevin Anderson on The Unforgiving Math for Staying Under 2 Degrees

By MariaMay 4, 20162016Climate Change

Part TWO of TWO
Two numbers haunted the climate negotiations of COP 21 in Paris in December 2015: 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. Finally the vast majority of the world’s countries agreed that global warming may not go over 2 degrees and that we really ought to stay under 1.5 degrees to save the island states and low coastal areas that are already flooding at the current 1 degree C warming.
Politicians and some scientists claim that we will invent technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere and therefore no urgent action is required now. Anderson explains BECCS, Biomass energy carbon capture and storage, the so far elusive promise to extract the already emitted CO2 from the air and store it underground. [ . . . ]

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

Climate Scientist Kevin Anderson on: The Unforgiving Math for Staying Under 2 Degrees

By MariaApril 26, 20162016

Part ONE of TWO
Much was made of the April 22, 2016, signing of the Climate Treaty negotiated in Paris last December. At the ceremony in New York UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon said that we are in a race against time, and that the window for the goal set in Paris for keeping global temperate rise well below two degrees Celsius, let alone 1.5 degrees, is “rapidly closing.”
During the negotiations in Paris in December 2015 some scientists had already warned that even a 2 degrees Celsius limit in temperature would be almost impossible to maintain unless we were to make significant changes within the next 5 years. Kevin Anderson is one extraordinary and important voice among them.
Anderson is Professor of Energy [ . . . ]

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

The Atomic Age: Humans and Other Living Beings Come Last

By MariaApril 26, 20162016

In all the memories recorded about the nuclear technologies and the disasters of our time the fate of humans exposed to radiation comes last. That was the leading concept of a Fukushima/Chernobyl anniversary talk by Norma Field. She hopes to rescue humans and other living things from oblivion and from the real harm inflicted upon them now and into the future.
Some argue that Norma Field risked her academic standing as professor of East Asian studies at the University of Chicago by not only teaching Premodern Japanese Poetry and Prose, and Women Studies, but also by being public and vocal in her indictment of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
Born in Tokyo in 1947 to a Japanese mother and American serviceman father [ . . . ]

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

Chernobyl 30 Years Later: Lucas Hixson’s Diary

By MariaApril 13, 20162016

Anniversary Date: April 26, 1986
In September 2015 a next generation nuclear field engineer from Chicago went to Chernobyl to join the 3,500 workers on site. They are completing the largest movable structure humans have ever built: Tall enough to enclose the Statue of Liberty and wide enough to cover the exploded Unit Four of the Chernobyl power plant including the sarcophagus that was built over the plant in 1986.
Bechtel corporation, the lead contractor, says the $1.3 billion confinement structure will keep water out and radioactive dust and debris in — for at least a century. Radiation levels in some locations are still high enough to cause premature failure of structural materials. The gigantic arch had to be built away from the destroyed [ . . . ]

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

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson – Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?

By MariaApril 6, 20162016

Against the background of an increasingly more urgent debate over the sources of conflict in the Middle East, the growth of ISIS, the refugee crisis, and the role of the US armed interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria; this question takes on great importance: Who is setting Middle East policy in the US? These and other topics were addressed at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2016, at the conference on Israel’s Influence.
Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson is the highest ranking US foreign policy whistle blowers to date. He was Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff from 2002-05 during the fateful time of the US war on Iraq.
Before coming to the State Department, Wilkerson served [ . . . ]

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