AlternativeRadio

By David Barsamian

News & Politics Government & Organizations Non-Profit

What's AlternativeRadio about?

Alternative Radio is an "unembedded" weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International. AR provides information, analyses and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in other media.

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[Winona LaDuke] Native Amer...

02.27.2020

Eduardo Galeano in his masterwork, The Open Veins of Latin America wrote that 500 years ago European settler colonialists came to this hemisphere and “sank their teeth” into the throats of Indian civilizations. You know the story. Genocide. Land was ...

AlternativeRadio episodes:

02.27.2020 [Winona LaDuke] Native American Eco-Justice Eduardo Galeano in his masterwork, The Open Veins of Latin America wrote that 500 years ago European settler colonialists came to this hemisphere and “sank their teeth” into the throats of Indian civilizations. You know the story. Genocide. Land was ...
02.20.2020 [Howard Zinn] Q&A in Albuquerque This recording, recently discovered in the piles at AR, features the great radical historian talking with students at UNM. He is asked about getting past the culture of denial of the powerful. Drawing on his vast knowledge of history he ...
02.13.2020 [Sanjay Kak] Kashmir in Crisis The stunningly beautiful land of Kashmir, nestled in the Himalayas, has seen much bloodshed and suffering. Over the decades the Indian state in attempts to stifle resistance to its rule in Kashmir has deployed hundreds of thousands of troops, imposed ...
02.06.2020 [Nick Estes] Indigenous People’s Resistance The history of indigenous people is full of acts of resistance. One such dramatic action was the seizure of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay by activists from the American Indian Movement. November marks the 50th anniversary of that event. ...
01.30.2020 [Noam Chomsky] Threats to Peace & the Planet (part 2) Why are so many people all over the world out in the streets demanding change? What are the root causes of revolt? What about U.S. Syria policy and the betrayal of the Kurds? And BDS and Palestine? How do we ...
01.16.2020 [Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor] The Power of Social Movements One of the techniques of ruling class control is to isolate people from one another. “Look out for yourself,” is the constant drumbeat. We are reduced to self-centered consumers not engaged citizens. Saul Alinsky suggests a different path. In his ...
01.09.2020 [David Cole] Guardians of Liberty The wheels of justice turn slowly. How long before Jim Crow laws were overturned? How long for the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize gay marriage equality? How long the wait times in immigration courts? And even when someone, or some ...
01.02.2020 [Cornel West] The Socratic/Prophetic Traditions “How do you straighten your back up? How do you tell the truth? How do you bear witness? How do you organize? How do you mobilize? How do you generate forms of resistance and resiliency in the face of some ...
12.26.2019 [Vijay Prashad] History & Politics: Zigs & Zags (part 2) History and politics are replete with zigs and zags into all kinds of unexpected directions. Take for example, the Shah of Iran. He looked impregnable on his throne until he was toppled by massive street demonstrations. Who could have predicted ...
12.12.2019 [Russell Means] For the World to Live Columbus Must Die The dynamic Russell Means presents a moving and eloquent talk on Native America. He recounts how consciousness has changed among indigenous people but among the white European settler descendants, many of the old prejudices remain. For example, he says, “The ...
12.05.2019 [Michael Chertoff, David Gibbs] Debate on Humanitarian Intervention Humanitarian intervention is always cloaked in altruism. Noam Chomsky says, “Almost every aggressive act by any great power is justified on humanitarian grounds.” Helping people who are suffering is laudable but injecting military force can lead to even worse outcomes. ...
11.29.2019 [David Harvey] The State/Finance Nexus The contemporary capitalist economic system has an extraordinary component to it. That is the connection between the government, and the financial sector, the big banks. What banks? The Big 5 are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs ...
11.21.2019 [David Korten] Beyond Money Money, you know, is the root of all evil. The pursuit of it no matter the consequences has led to us, as the New York Times describes it, “speeding toward environmental catastrophe.” Unregulated predatory capitalism and its obsession with generating ...
11.14.2019 [Caroline Fredrickson] Fixing Democracy Around the world democracy is in trouble. Autocrats have come to power. In the U.S. democracy is compromised by a political system awash in money, gerrymandering, voter suppression and that absurd relic, the electoral college. One of the principal designers ...
11.07.2019 [Joe Allen] Pushing Back at Amazon Amazon, the retail behemoth, is named after the giant river in South America. The company began in the Seattle area in 1994. Since then it has not just grown and expanded but has transformed marketing. Consumers are attracted to in ...
10.31.2019 [Michael Yates] The Working Class Warren Buffett, the much-admired genius investor and one of the world’s richest men said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” And who are the losers? The working class, ...
10.24.2019 [Howard Zinn] Second Thoughts on the First Amendment “Congress shall make no law…abridging freedom of speech.” There it is. Plain and simple. The First Amendment to the Constitution. But since 9/11 that amendment has been under sustained attack. Whistleblowers John Kiriakou, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and ...
10.17.2019 [Nancy MacLean] Origins of Radical Right-Wing Power The history of the anti-government and anti-democratic politics that have transformed the U.S. in recent years is largely obscured from view. The radical right’s agenda includes: suppression of voting rights, privatization of everything from schools to Medicare to Social Security ...
10.11.2019 [Dahr Jamail] Climate Disruption Ralph Nader points out the term climate change is a vast understatement and does not convey the gravity of what we are facing. He says, climate disruption is more accurate. Study after study, report after report make it clear that ...
09.26.2019 [Shoshana Zuboff] Surveillance Capitalism Surveillance Capitalism is a global architecture of behavior modification which poses profound threats to society. It was invented at Google, duplicated at Facebook, and has moved almost seamlessly into virtually every economic sector. Vast wealth is accumulated in an ominous ...
09.19.2019 [Stephen Bezruchka] Economic Inequality Kills Given that people in the U.S. spend more money on health care than the rest of the world combined, then logic would dictate that we have the best health outcomes. Well, we don’t. Why? Increasing evidence from epidemiologists— the scientists ...
09.12.2019 [Lawrence Wilkerson] U.S. Empire & Latin America The list of U.S. invasions, occupations, coups and sanctions in Latin America is a mile long. It is after all, “our little region over here,” and our “backyard” according to policymakers in Washington. Starting with the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 ...
09.05.2019 [Nader Hashemi] The Slide to War with Iran The U.S. and Iran are on a collision course. The name-calling and saber rattling are ominous. The New York Times headline reads: “Iran Calls U.S. ‘Desperate and Confused.’ Trump vows ‘Obliteration.’” Is Iran going to commit suicide by attacking the ...
08.29.2019 [Ruth Wilson Gilmore] Toward the Abolition of Incarceration The U.S. is Number One. America is first in the world in having 2.3 million people behind bars. They are held in state prisons, federal prisons, county jails, juvenile correctional facilities and other lockups. The prison industrial complex costs state ...
08.22.2019 [Paul Street] The Anti-Democratic U.S. Constitution The title of this program may come as a surprise to some. The Constitution is considered by many in the United States as a sacred document. Its framers are venerated as demi-gods. The Founders, white men, slave owners and holding ...
08.15.2019 [Noam Chomsky] The Decision That Has To Be Made Noam Chomsky warns, “There has to be some kind of Green New Deal if we’re going to survive. The human species is facing questions which have never arisen before. Is organized human life going to survive in any recognizable form? ...
08.08.2019 [Chuck Collins] Inequality: The New Gilded Age A conversation between Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald reportedly went like this: Fitzgerald says, “The rich are different from you and me.” To which Hemingway responded, “Yes, they have more money.” You bet they do. And now more than ...
08.01.2019 [Winona LaDuke] Native American Eco-Justice Eduardo Galeano in his masterwork, The Open Veins of Latin America wrote that 500 years ago European settler colonialists came to this hemisphere and “sank their teeth” into the throats of Indian civilizations. You know the story. Genocide. Land was ...
07.18.2019 [Bill McKibben] Planet in Peril We’ve all seen the images of huge icebergs breaking off the Antarctic ice sheets into the ocean. It’s not just polar bears and penguins who are in danger of losing their habitat. Our “pale blue dot” in the universe as ...
07.11.2019 [Lawrence Wilkerson] U.S. Empire & Latin America The list of U.S. invasions, occupations, coups and sanctions in Latin America is a mile long. It is after all, “our little region over here,” and our “backyard” according to policymakers in Washington. Starting with the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 ...
07.06.2019 [Wallace Shawn] Artists & Social Responsibility Artists, creative people, occupy a special place in our hearts and minds. They interpret the world around us and imagine things outside the box. What is the connection between them and their creative output and society? Is it just to ...
07.04.2019 [Michael Yates] The Working Class Warren Buffett, the much-admired genius investor and one of the world’s richest men said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” And who are the losers? The working class, ...
06.20.2019 [Aneelah Afzali, L.A. Kauffman] The Enduring Power of Protest Are marches and demonstrations just feel good affairs? You vent some spleen then go home satisfied as if you’ve done something worthwhile and before you know it the glow wears off? Or does the power of collective action, solidarity and ...
06.13.2019 [Leilani Farha] The Financialization of Housing From Seattle to Toronto, the cost of owning a home is soaring. Rents are no better. Accelerated by neoliberal economic doctrine a paradigm shift in housing has occurred in recent years. There is a growing disconnect between housing as a ...
06.06.2019 [Dahr Jamail] Climate Disruption Ralph Nader points out the term climate change is a vast understatement and does not convey the gravity of what we are facing. He says, climate disruption is more accurate. Study after study, report after report make it clear that ...
05.31.2019 [Shoshana Zuboff] Surveillance Capitalism Surveillance Capitalism is a global architecture of behavior modification which poses profound threats to society. It was invented at Google, duplicated at Facebook, and has moved almost seamlessly into virtually every economic sector. Vast wealth is accumulated in an ominous ...
05.30.2019 [Ilan Pappe] Palestine: The Pendulum Is Shifting For decades Palestine and Palestinians were associated with terror and terrorism. In political discourse and popular culture Palestinians were often typecast as blood thirsty killers. As the great Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said once ruefully observed, “Palestine is a thankless cause, ...
05.09.2019 [Dana Frank] Honduras: Coups, Crises & Caravans Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and has one of the world's highest murder rates. More than half of its population of about ten million live in poverty and per capita income is one of the ...
05.02.2019 [Sheldon Wolin] The Inversion of Totalitarianism Traditional totalitarianism conjures images of jack-booted storm troopers, death camps and Stalin-like regimes. In recent years a new variety of totalitarianism has emerged departing from the norm. Noted political theorist Sheldon Wolin calls it “the inversion of totalitarianism” and that ...
04.26.2019 [David Swanson] The Abolition of War The famous words: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war no more” are attributed to Isaiah in 700 B.C. Abolition of ...
04.25.2019 [Ralph Nader] Land of the Lawless Politicians and pundits love to go on and on about "the rule of law." The concept that no one is above the law is laudatory and central to a functioning democracy. But we can easily see the grotesque disparities in ...
04.18.2019 [Malcolm X] The Ballot or the Bullet Malcolm X is a singular figure in African-American history. He led an extraordinary life. He was born in an impoverished family in Omaha, NE on May 19, 1925. He recalled being “dizzy” with hunger. He said, “My whole life has ...
04.10.2019 [Nathan Schneider] Co-ops: Economic Democracy One day, a few years ago, I was walking in San Francisco’s Mission district and looked up and saw a sign that said: “Arizmendi Bakery. Worker owned and operated.” This piqued my curiosity. I went inside to find out more. ...
04.03.2019 [Steve Ellner] The Open Veins of Venezuela Historically, Venezuela has been an ATM machine for U.S. corporations. Located on the northern coast of South America with a population of 32 million, Venezuela is rich in natural resources: diamonds, bauxite, gold, iron ore, natural gas and oil, especially ...
04.02.2019 [Steve Ellner] The Open Veins of Venezuela Historically, Venezuela has been an ATM machine for U.S. corporations. Located on the northern coast of South America with a population of 32 million, Venezuela is rich in natural resources: diamonds, bauxite, gold, iron ore, natural gas and oil, especially ...
03.25.2019 [Robin Kelley] The Dream of Revolution In some ways Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered twice. First by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis and then by killing his revolutionary message. Today, King is largely remembered with special holiday sales. His vision of radical revolution muted. ...
03.14.2019 [Lilly Adams / Bruce Amundson] Preventing Nuclear Apocalypse You may know Apocalypse as a Marvel Comics supervillain. It is a word of Greek origin, meaning the catastrophic final destruction of the world. The use of nuclear weapons would be apocalyptic. It is difficult to imagine extinction. Understandably, most ...
03.07.2019 [Jason Stanley] How Fascism Works What is fascism? Michael Parenti, author and historian says, “Fascism historically has been used to secure the interests of large capitalist interests against the demands of popular democracy. Then and now, fascism has made irrational mass appeals in order to ...
02.28.2019 [Chris Hedges] Root Causes of a Failed System Neil Postman in his classic work Amusing Ourselves to Death nailed it when he wrote, “When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form ...
02.21.2019 [Michael Pollan] Notes from the Psychedelic Underground The legalization of marijuana across the U.S. and Canada is making headline news. The study of the medical uses of psilocybin (and other psychedelics) does not. Academic research of psilocybin found in hallucinogenic mushrooms, lysergic acid, and ecstasy is ongoing ...

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