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.

4.7

357 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

[Chris Hedges] The Prison P...

12.02.2021

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865 officially abolished slavery. However, there is a crucial legal exception. Section 1 of the Amendment provides: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have ...

AlternativeRadio episodes:

12.02.2021 [Chris Hedges] The Prison Plantation System The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865 officially abolished slavery. However, there is a crucial legal exception. Section 1 of the Amendment provides: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have ...
11.25.2021 [Jeff Chester, Kathryn Montgomery] Commercial Surveillance Culture Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, once described the internet as a "permissionless space for creativity, innovation and free expression." In the early days, you may recall, the internet was also called the “information superhighway.” It would ...
11.18.2021 [Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore] Radical Lessons: Then & Now The 1960s have been largely romanticized and commodified. The Beatles, Woodstock, sit-ins, protests, and marches. Those years saw huge social change. Bottom-up grassroots movements rocked the establishment. A major symbol of those years was Angela Davis. She has this to ...
11.11.2021 [James Loewen] History Textbooks: Facts or Fiction? There’s a famous quote in George Orwell’s 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Orwell understood how important knowledge of history is and how it can be manipulated by the powerful to ...
11.04.2021 [Noam Chomsky] Tipping Points: Environmental & Political Tipping points are in the air. And with good reason. A planetary emergency looms in the not-too-distant future. This isn’t alarmist talk but the best judgment of our leading scientists. The prestigious International Union for Conservation of Nature has just ...
10.28.2021 [Chalmers Johnson] Blowback: Impacts of the New Militarism The CIA coined the term “blowback” to describe the unintended results of U.S. covert operations abroad. It was first used in connection with Operation Ajax, the Agency’s 1953 coup in Iran overthrowing the democratic government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The United ...
10.21.2021 [Tariq Ali] Afghanistan, China & the Decline of U.S. Power (part 2) The ignominious debacle in Afghanistan was predictable and predicted. Afghans, like most people, don't appreciate foreign invaders occupying their country. Just ask the British and the Russians. But the U.S., in its imperial hubris, thought it was different. It would ...
10.07.2021 [Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor] Black Liberation The widespread protests in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor marked a new chapter in the struggle for Black liberation. What would constitute Black liberation? Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor says it’s about self-determination. “Can we make decisions ...
10.01.2021 [Eqbal Ahmad] Terrorism: Theirs and Ours Terrorism is the scourge of the era. It is a fearsome symbol conjuring up images of ferocious-looking, bearded men brandishing AK-47s. The media focus on the terrorism of official enemies like Saddam Hussein, bin Laden, and Zarqawi. After they were ...
09.30.2021 [Daniel Ellsberg] Origins of the Vietnam War The 50th anniversary of the Pentagon Papers has brought attention once more to Daniel Ellsberg. His action in 1971 in releasing the Pentagon Papers blew the lid off of Washington’s mountain of lies and deceptions about Vietnam and ultimately led ...
09.23.2021 [Roxanne Dunbar-Ortíz] An Indigenous People’s History The history of the U.S. is one of settler colonialism. The state was established on the basis of white male supremacy, slavery, land theft and genocide. “From sea to shining sea” the Native nations were decimated and dispossessed. The survivors ...
09.16.2021 [Michael Eric Dyson] Chaos or Community? In his 1967 book Where Do We Go From Here? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote these prophetic words: “A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. The oceans of history ...
09.09.2021 [Jeffery Robinson] The South, Slavery & the Lost Cause The Lost Cause is rooted in the South’s search for justification and the need to find a substitute for victory in the Civil War. In attempting to deal with defeat, the South created an image of the war as a ...
09.02.2021 [Noam Chomsky] The U.S. Rules the World Many years ago I heard Noam Chomsky lecture. He compared U.S. foreign policy to the way the mafia operates. That caught the audience’s attention. Everyone had seen The Godfather movie. Chomsky went on to explain that obedience to the Godfather ...
08.26.2021 [Maureen Webb] Hackers and Democracy The digital age has given birth to hackers who carry out cyberattacks on our personal data, on pipelines, energy grids and meat processing plants. There are also hackers who practice the sharing of software, open sourcing and the secure free ...
08.19.2021 [Stephen Bezruchka] Covid-19 Lessons for the Future If you weren’t aware of it before, the pandemic demonstrates the fact that the virus recognizes no boundaries or borders. There is no safe place. Our collective fragility has been made all too evident. What will we take away from ...
08.12.2021 [Richard Wolff] Transitioning to Democratic Enterprises Capitalism is exhibiting a hardening of its economic arteries. The pandemic has exposed profound structural problems. The crisis demands a serious examination of not only its root causes but for viable solutions. Once we are passed the pandemic do we ...
08.05.2021 [Jayati Ghosh] India’s Covid Catastrophe The news from India is grim. A Covid wave is sweeping the country, inflicting widespread misery and deaths. Government figures of Covid-related fatalities are widely seen as very much underreported. India may soon pass the U.S. as the global leader ...
07.29.2021 [Rebecca Solnit, Astra Taylor] Remake the World While we are regaled with images of Mars, back here on Earth our planet and its people are in distress. The eco-crisis continues unabated. There are wars and the threats of wars. And, of course, the coronavirus. The pandemic has ...
07.22.2021 [Vijay Prashad] China, the U.S. & the New Cold War (part 2) China is one of the oldest cultures in the world with a rich history. The ancient Middle Kingdom is today's People's Republic of China. For several centuries prior to the creation of the PRC, China endured invasions, occupations, civil wars ...
07.08.2021 [John Ghazvinian] Hidden History of U.S.-Iran Relations The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have been at loggerheads ever since America's ally, the shah, was overthrown in 1979. Iran was an important part of U.S. hegemony in the Middle East. In the decades since, Washington ...
07.01.2021 [Lawrence Ferlinghetti] A Defense of Poetry A great practitioner, publisher and defender of poetry was Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He passed away just shy of his 102nd birthday earlier this year. Born in Yonkers, New York in 1919, his education was paused for World War II and Atlantic ...
06.24.2021 [Jeffery Robinson] The South, Slavery & the Lost Cause The Lost Cause is rooted in the South’s search for justification and the need to find a substitute for victory in the Civil War. In attempting to deal with defeat, the South created an image of the war as a ...
06.17.2021 [Mehdi Hasan] Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism Is Noam Chomsky an anti-Semite? How about Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein? The question may sound absurd. Yet, according to the definition of anti-Semitism that more than 30 countries including the United States under the Biden administration have adopted, Chomsky, ...
06.10.2021 [Timothy Snyder] The State of American Democracy There’s a new Jim Crow in the U.S. This 2.0 version is legislation passed by politicians who mouth pieties about protecting our sacred right to vote and the integrity of elections. After one of the most secure and verified elections ...
06.03.2021 [Frank Smyth] The NRA Unmasked Gun violence exacts an enormous toll on U.S. society-claiming tens of thousands of lives every year. Many more thousands are wounded and scarred physically and psychologically. From malls to schools from places of worship to concerts there is no safe ...
05.27.2021 [Noam Chomsky] Consequences of Capitalism The consequences of capitalism during the pandemic have revealed glaring failures and monstrous brutalities. It’s a highly unstable economic system, careening from crisis to crisis. For a handful, it produces unparalleled levels of wealth. But for the many, if they ...
05.13.2021 [Ralph Nader] Corporatism’s Threat to Democracy Milton Friedman is the godfather of modern conservative economics. A Nobel-prize winner, his ideas informed what is called the Chicago School. He laid the groundwork for Reagan-era neoliberalism with his landmark essay, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase ...
05.06.2021 [Prabhat Patnaik] From Neoliberalism to Neofascism Fascism of the classic variety is associated with Germany, Italy and Japan. It ends at the conclusion of World War II. But in the recent years there has been the development of a different variety which is neofascism. Neo is ...
04.29.2021 [Eddie Glaude, Cornel West] James Baldwin’s Legacy James Baldwin was one of the most significant figures of the 20th century. In this moment of racial reckoning, his life and work are being discovered and rediscovered. He was born in 1924 and died in 1987. He graduated from ...
04.22.2021 [Michael Eric Dyson] Chaos or Community? In his 1967 book Where Do We Go From Here? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote these prophetic words: “A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. The oceans of history ...
04.15.2021 [Jeff Cohen, Janine Jackson] Cutting Through Corporate Media BS With few exceptions the corporate mainstream media operate within very narrow parameters. In one corner you have MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and in the other you have Fox’s Sean Hannity. And they do present contrasting views but the boundaries of discussion ...
04.08.2021 [Angela Davis, Astra Taylor] Democracy: Theirs & Ours The term democracy is frequently invoked perhaps never more so than after the January 6th assault on the Capitol which was almost unanimously described as an attack on democracy. The Ancient Greeks coined the term, demos is people and kratia ...
04.01.2021 [Howard Zinn] American Exceptionalism American exceptionalism has been a fundamental tenet of U.S. foreign policy. International law applies to designated enemies, not for Washington and its vassals. Obey the master or face the consequences. Assassinations, sanctions, bombings, invasions and occupations are all tools of ...
03.25.2021 [Erica Chenoweth] Civil Resistance in the 21st Century The success and failure rates of civil resistance movements might seem like something studied at the U.S. Army War College. But social scientists and political activists always want to know why some tactics work, and some don’t. Boycotts, street protests, ...
03.18.2021 [David Harvey] Smash the Mirror: Imagining a Different System The global health and economic crises are points of opportunity. Arundhati Roy, the great Indian intellectual and writer says, “Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. And ...
03.11.2021 [Kali Akuno, Richard Wolff] Capitalism, the Pandemic & the Two-Party Monopoly The pandemic has revealed a huge systemic failure in the ability of the U.S. to effectively attend to the well-being of millions of its citizens. World-class inequality has exacerbated the situation. You don’t need a degree from MIT to figure ...
03.04.2021 [Noam Chomsky] Class Struggle or Get It in the Neck The ruling class, and there is such a thing, assiduously attends to its needs. That is to say, to maintain and expand its power and wealth. How does it do that? By manipulation, propaganda and political influence. It deploys divide ...
02.25.2021 [Chris Hedges] Beyond the Politics of Despair Despair. We all experience it. It can lead to demoralization. What’s the antidote? Engagement. Finding kindred spirits and acting collectively. Building bonds of solidarity. Working toward the common good. John Lewis, long-time Georgia Congressperson and civil rights icon had this ...
02.18.2021 [Diana Buttu, Ilan Pappe] Israel & Palestine: What’s Next? The decades-long one-sided Washington policy in favor of Israel reached new heights during the Trump regime. The peace process is a joke. The ever-expanding Jewish-only colonies, known euphemistically as settlements, have grown ever larger. The possibility of a sovereign, viable ...
02.04.2021 [Roxanne Dunbar-Ortíz] An Indigenous People’s History The history of the U.S. is one of settler colonialism. The state was established on the basis of white male supremacy, slavery, land theft and genocide. “From sea to shining sea” the Native nations were decimated and dispossessed. The survivors ...
01.28.2021 [Nader Hashemi, Trita Parsi] Retargeting Iran The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the JCPOA, the Iran Deal, was a major diplomatic accomplishment. By all accounts it was successful. However, it was unilaterally abandoned by the current president. The UK ambassador to the U.S. called Trump’s move ...
01.14.2021 [Robert Fisk] Chaos in the Middle East The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 is one of the great crimes in modern history. No one has been held to account. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died, many more wounded and millions became refugees. Washington’s insane action ...
01.07.2021 [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 ...
12.31.2020 [Jason Stanley, Andy Zee] Resisting Fascism As a political ideology, fascism developed in Mussolini’s Italy, a century ago. At its core, fascism conjures up a mythic past. There is nostalgia for a so-called purer time. Its advocates deploy a raw appeal to nationalism. Opponents are demonized. ...
12.24.2020 [Noam Chomsky] The President, The Pandemic & the Election We are in “unchartered territory,” as the media incessantly remind us. We are on the eve of an election amidst a pandemic. The president has declared in advance that the election is a “hoax,” it is “rigged.” He would not ...
12.18.2020 [Arundhati Roy] What Have We Done to Democracy? India is often called the world’s largest democracy. Narendra Modi is the prime minister. He was elected in 2014 and again in 2019. Prior to becoming prime minister, he was chief minister of the state of Gujarat, where in 2002, ...
12.17.2020 [Steven Levitsky] Polarization Can Kill Democracy It’s axiomatic that political discourse in the U.S. is becoming more and more extreme. There’s even talk of a coup. In textbook coups, martial law is declared. The internet and phones go dead. The opposition is jailed or killed. This ...
12.03.2020 [Ruth Bader Ginsburg] Gender Equality Legal battles for gender equality didn’t begin with the Women’s Movement of the 1960s. But it laid the groundwork for the historic 1972 Supreme Court decision that made gender discrimination unconstitutional. That case was successfully argued by then-38-year old Brooklyn-born ...
11.26.2020 [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 ...

Older episodes