Electric Politics Podcast

Nonviolent Struggle

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500

It would be a truly wonderful thing if the American system of government were capable of reforming itself to become democratic. Most likely, it can't. We're on a downward spiral that will end either in collapse or revolt. There is a politically legitimate off-ramp — Article V of the Constitution provides for amendments — but navigating great reforms through it won't be simple or easy or painless. Probably, at some point, nonviolent struggle will become necessary. To get a sense of nonviolent strategy from someone who doesn't agree with me but who has done more work on the theory and on comparative studies than anyone, I turned to Dr. Gene Sharp. It was an eye-opener to talk with him and I hope he forgives me my impertinent questioning. Total runtime forty three minutes. Enjoy!

Having Ears To Hear

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:00:00 -0500

It's interesting: as climate science becomes ever more certain about anthropogenic global warming, the public — more so here in the U.S. but also abroad — becomes more skeptical. People really don't like bad news. To get at the science/public interface I turned to Bud Ward, editor of the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media. It was great to talk with Bud and I hope the message gets delivered, though, to be honest, I'm not optimistic. Total runtime one hour. Prepare for the worst!

Empirical Monism

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:00:00 -0500

Thinking conventionally about things distances us from ourselves. Instead, argues Dr. Ellen J. Langer, we could be mindful, alive to possibility. Being mindful — Ellen provides a boatload of empirical evidence for this — will improve our physical well-being, make us happier, and extend our longevity. Her latest book, Counterclockwise, tells the story. You should read it. I also happen to think her ideas have a profound application to politics, though we tread lightly on that question in this conversation. It was a pure delight to talk with Ellen and I learned a great deal. Total runtime an hour and one minute. Enjoy!

The Hypnotist

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:00:00 -0500

In a recent essay at the Huffington Post, Michael Brenner nails it. Mr. Obama, he writes, "is what we used to call a moderate Republican before the species became extinct." To get at some context on diverse political and foreign policy issues I asked Michael for a free-form tour d'horizon. I think it would be fair to say his bottom line is "anything is possible," but not necessarily in a good way. Even so, in these troubled times it's a blessing to hear some independent, unconventional thought. Total runtime an hour and five minutes. De oppresso liber.

Mistakes Were Made

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:00:00 -0500

Consider a counterfactual hypothesis about World War II. If Eisenhower had allowed Lt. Gen. Devers to cross the Rhine in November 1944, the war in Europe might have been shortened by several months and the Battle of the Bulge almost certainly never would have happened. Did Eisenhower screw up? What could have caused things to go so wrong? For a look at some relatively unknown and greatly underappreciated history I turned to David P. Colley, author of Decision at Strasbourg (Naval Institute Press, 2008). It's a fascinating story with a number of important lessons relevant for contemporary warfare. Total runtime an hour and eight minutes. Enjoy!

Blueprints for Governing

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:00:00 -0500

Although the Most Serene Republic of San Marino has an older, written, working constitution, among countries of any significance the United States of America has the oldest. By far. Unfortunately, it hasn't aged gracefully. We're driving a Model T but telling ourselves it's a Ferrari. We're delusional. And until we figure out that the system's rules deliver lousy results — that our political backwardness is not so much the fault of a deficient culture — we're stuck. To talk about this problem logically I turned to the brilliant Chicago labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan. It was a rare pleasure to get into the structural nitty-gritty and I hope someday we'll see Tom in Congress. Total runtime forty seven minutes. Optimism favors the wise.

Terrorism Safari

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:00:00 -0500

Come visit Yemen, where for a modest fee authorized security operatives can observe terrorists in their native habitat and — at special à la carte pricing — if desired, kill them. Trophies available. Limited to parties of six or fewer; no boots on the ground; some other restrictions apply. Well, nobody in officialdom would be quite so louche to say so but that's pretty much what it amounts to... For a look at Yemen from the back of a pickup truck I turned to the former UK infantry officer James Spencer. A pleasure and an honor! Total runtime an hour and fifteen minutes. Listen & learn.

Kill the Bill

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:00:00 -0500

To ward off the Black Death, physicians in Europe donned bird masks fitted with red tinted lenses. Six hundred and seventy years later, when it comes to general-purpose health care in modern day America we prefer to deploy incense made out of money. The results are just about as good and the mentality is not much changed, either. To explore some of the pernicious superstition at the heart of our pending health care legislation I turned to Richard "R.J." Eskow, an expert who blogs frequently at the Huffington Post and who, I hasten to add, thinks the Senate bill could be made palatable. This conversation was slightly overtaken by Tuesday's vote in Massachusetts; nevertheless, it still sheds light on the choices before Congress. I very much enjoyed talking with Richard and I hope we can do it again. Total runtime an hour and five minutes. ℞

Speeding Up Human Evolution

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:00:00 -0500

It's got to be the biggest detective story in the world: what are our human origins? And if we're continuing to evolve at an ever faster rate, as Dr. Henry C. Harpending suggests in The 10,000 Year Explosion, how differently, then, might we identify with the earliest historians, or even relatively recent ones? A lot to consider. Not directly related to politics (perhaps), but the ideas profoundly influence how we talk about it. Total runtime an hour and nine minutes. Caution! Contains politically incorrect content.

Tolerance or Capitulation?

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:00:00 -0500

On the one hand, Muslims have every reason to feel aggrieved over U.S. military interventions around the world. On the other, many Muslim cultural practices run up against Western norms and don't — in my view — under the banner of religion deserve any special protections. Indeed, a danger exists the other way around when ecumenical tolerance, a bedrock liberal concept, gets circumscribed though undue deference to a fundamentalist world view. To explore some of these issues I turned to Dr. Jytte Klausen, author of the recently published (and partly censored by Yale University Press) The Cartoons That Shook the World. I don't entirely share Jytte's reasoning but I learned a great deal and am very grateful to her for talking candidly about her experience with her book. Total runtime one hour. Let secularism rule!

Galactic Poachers

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:00:00 -0500

If we're being visited by aliens — and I absolutely believe that we are — it shouldn't seem all that surprising if some of them abduct humans. Why they might do it and the extent to which it may be happening, however, remain murky. To talk about such strangeness I turned to the celebrated artist Budd Hopkins, whose just published memoir ART, LIFE and UFOs has got to be one of the most unusual ever written. It was great fun exploring different ideas with Budd and I'll give him this: his heart's in the right place. Total runtime an hour and four minutes. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year's and I wish you all a very joyous holiday season! ☃

Climate Reality

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Industry pays many Americans not to believe in anthropogenic climate change. Other skeptics, however, have an innate, almost theological aversion to "theory," to the point where they have a great deal of trouble understanding the difference between theory and facts. In the context of our American debate it's critical, therefore, to emphasize the facts, and so to consider some high-priority ones I turned to Dr. Orrin Pilkey, a leading expert on coastal environments. Orrin's most recent book, co-authored with Rob Young, is The Rising Sea, an honest assessment of what will get washed away. I really enjoyed talking with Orrin and I wish his plain common sense were more widely shared... Total runtime an hour and two minutes. Seize the high ground!

Passenger Rail

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Passenger trains. We're going to have to have more of them. But it would be folly to wait for the market to provide for our needs, because it won't. Passenger rail isn't profitable, anywhere. Let's be frank: it's socialized transportation. To talk about the virtues of train travel, and its politics, I turned to James McCommons, author of the most excellent and just published Waiting on a Train. Jim spent most of 2008 riding around on Amtrak and interviewing top people in the railroad industry, the book being a fun mix of travel writing, reporting and editorializing. It was a great pleasure to talk with Jim and I hope his message gets heard. Total runtime an hour and eleven minutes. Take the train!

Archy and Mehitabel

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

It's a truism — but no less true for that — we often can't get to reality except through literature. Or poetry. Or, in the case of Don Marquis, whatever it was, format-wise, that he wrote in his newspaper columns featuring Archy, the vers-libre poet reincarnated as a cockroach, and Mehitabel, the alley cat who fancied herself the reincarnation of Cleopatra. As Archy put it: "i see things from the under side now" and somehow he manages to explain the meaning of that perspective to us. To talk about this extraordinary work and other literary matters I turned to Michael Sims, editor of The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel and author and editor of several other books. It was a rare delight to talk with Michael; I hope you enjoy hearing from him as much as I did. Total runtime an hour and twelve minutes. Happy Thanksgiving! ♫

Big Pharma, Unleashed

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

In America, giant pharmaceutical corporations run roughshod over the public. They price gouge, charging 50% more than in civilized countries. They foist useless, often harmful — even deadly — drugs on the market. They profoundly corrupt the medical profession. Adding insult to injury, they pay unimaginable sums of money to get whatever they want from Congress. It's an outrageous situation. To learn the details of what's really going on I turned to Melody Petersen, who's been writing and reporting on Big Pharma for over ten years and whose latest book, Our Daily Meds, is a must-read. Despite the horror stories it was great to talk with Melody and I have the highest regard for her work. Total runtime an hour and eighteen minutes. No blind trust allowed.

Baghdad Rumbled

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Forget Afghanistan for a moment. A lot of us, including me, have been worrying that the U.S. may be stuck in Iraq indefinitely. Quil Lawrence, however, says that that may not be the case. Quil, NPR's Baghdad bureau chief, has spent many recent years in Iraq, knows a great deal, has excellent judgment, and his reports must be taken seriously. Since I'm not there and he is, I defer to him despite my intellectual skepticism. I certainly hope he's right. It was great to talk again with Quil and I thank NPR for helping make it possible. Total runtime forty four minutes. Enjoy!

Heartless Israel

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

It's crazy-making to watch the world's indifference to Israel's grinding destruction of the Palestinians. There isn't really even a word for it — either the indifference or the criminal assault, and particularly the latter. But like it or not, admit it or not, Israel has thoroughly implicated America. To talk about all this I turned to a former CIA analyst, Kathleen Christison, whose recent book Palestine in Pieces (with co-author husband Bill Christison) gets pretty much everything right. An inhuman problem, but a joy to realize that some of us are aware. Total runtime an hour and seventeen minutes. Take a stand!

Free Running

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Sometimes speaking truth to power, even when you're in power, means risking your life. That's why Abolhassan Banisadr, the first President of Iran following the 1979 revolution, fled in 1981 to take up political asylum in France. Nor has he seen eye to eye with the clerics ever since. What's surprising is that Mr. Banisadr's critique of the Iranian regime, of what's going on in Afghanistan, and of developments in the Islamic world generally, isn't pitched at particular contextual facts so much as at core beliefs. Exactly the sort of thing we mean by thinking outside the box. It's a special honor to have been able to talk with President Banisadr, for which I'm quite grateful. Note: this podcast is a three-way conversation with Dr. Mahmood Delkhasteh interpreting from English to Persian and back again. Total runtime an hour and twenty four minutes. ☮

New Deal Reprise

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

It would be unfair, and incorrect (which is worse?), to say that everything about modern economic theory is based upon delusional thinking about human behavior and markets. Or that the theory has become merely a threadbare excuse to worship greed. Nevertheless, mainstream economists, a priori, are to be regarded with the deepest suspicion. And so it's always refreshing to hear an alternative economic worldview, particularly from a financial practitioner who knows whereof he speaks. Marshall Auerback is doing us a tremendous service with his public advocacy, and I for one am grateful. Total runtime an hour and nineteen minutes. Enjoy!

Building Seven

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

The 9/11 truth movement keeps getting stronger. And the movement's assault on the establishment's preferred narrative, after eight years, has reduced it to a risible absurdity. An abundance of irrefutable scientific evidence exists. The problem remains, however, of getting people to turn their attention from special effects to reality. Many people, for many reasons, really want to believe that the wrong things are true. To help reawaken their critical faculties we have David Ray Griffin's latest book, The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7, which rips out the foundation, so to speak, of official dogma. I'm always delighted to talk with David and I always learn a lot. Total runtime an hour and eight minutes. Imprimisque hominis est propria veri inquisitio atque investigatio.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Peace, a fundamental human right. ✓ Health care, a fundamental human right. ✓ An egalitarian society, a fundamental human right? Yes, let's add that last one, not because we're Communists, but because it makes sense — and not merely as a theoretical or an ethical fancy, but in hard-nosed pragmatic practice. Of course, it will take an historic political fight for the U.S. to get there... To explain the facts I turned to Richard Wilkinson, who is laboring mightily in the vineyards. This is new news, fascinating, and critically important. Total runtime one hour. Who are we?!

Forever From the Earth

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Farmers are an endangered species. Farmers who fight back against what's happening to them by farming smarter, even more so. But without farmers who respect and love the land, who farm in a sustainable way, we're goners. Here are a few human scale stories, as told by Lisa M. Hamilton, from her marvelous book Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness. Also a few policy questions to ponder. It was great to talk with Lisa — even if the problems seem intractable, these profiles of courageous farmers embody, as Alice Waters says on the book's jacket, "the future of American agriculture." Total runtime an hour and eleven minutes. Enjoy!

Ghosts in the Machine

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Mysticism and science overlap more than people usually recognize as the former usually promises, in one way or another, adepts a means to enlightenment under their own steam. It's one reason — a pretty good reason — why the early Christian fathers decided the Gnostic gospels were heretical texts, too dangerous to include in the New Testament. Anyhow, it should be no surprise that certain mystical experiences can be shown to have a scientific grounding. Here, I talk with John Geiger, author of The Third Man Factor, who sketches the recent history of "presences" experienced under various extreme conditions of human endeavor, and tells how modern science sheds some light on what's happening. It's an absolutely fascinating story, which John develops in a most accessible way. And I'm happy to have had the opportunity to talk with him. Total runtime forty four minutes. Enjoy! ☴

Ringmaster

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500

At this point, to be brutally realistic about it, there isn't much good to be said for Mr. Obama except, perhaps, that he's better than a Republican. One can only hope that he's susceptible to being pinned down by determined opponents from the progressive side of things. Due to widespread public outcry, for example, there may yet be a small chance for real health care reform. Considering these circumstances, it makes sense to study Mr. Obama's weaknesses. And to get a thoughtful appraisal I turned to Paul Street, one of Mr. Obama's earliest critics from the left, who had the opportunity back in Chicago to see him in action. Paul has been amply vindicated, I think, and is still pretty far ahead of the curve. Total runtime an hour and one minute. Contain your despair.

Whither Afghanistan?

george@electricpolitics.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500

What a tar baby. It's just not so simple to see how we get out of Afghanistan, either in the context of events over there or of politics here at home. One thing, though, is for sure: We won't win a military victory. To get a sense of how things are doing I turned to Wayne White, a former top intelligence analyst. We also talk about Iraq. I'm most grateful to Wayne for sharing his brilliant and exemplary insight. Anti-war arguments need all the help they can get! Total runtime an hour and thirty five minutes. History repeats itself… [Rough transcript, here.]