"Be Bold America!"

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, October 6, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

How do historic documents show that fire suppression was driven by explicit racist and colonial beliefs? Is there nothing in American history that isn’t based in racism in some way? Well, fire suppress in California is and learn how in this "BurnScars", KSQD podcast during interviews with Dr. Char Miller and Dr. Peter Hess. 

There have been efforts to suppress fire in California since the 18th century Spanish invasion continuing through the US Forest Service’s relentless nationwide campaign in the 20th century. The Forest Service argues that suppression is critical for good forest management especially, but not exclusively, in the American West. Yet, in recent years, suppression has come under increasing scrutiny as a contributing factor to our current climate crisis exacerbated era of mega-wildfires.

Interview Guest:

Dr. Char Miller is an award-winning teacher and writer. Dr. Miller is the W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College. His new book is “Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning.” Dr. Miller’s previous book was Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet and Peril, and he also authored: West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement, and Theodore Roosevelt: Naturalist in the Arena. Dr. Miller is a senior fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, Corresponding Member of the Society of American Foresters and a Fellow of the Forest History Society.

Guest CoHost:

Dr. Peter M. J. Hess earned his M.A. in Oxford and his Ph.D. in History in Berkeley, and writes and lectures on the relationship between religion, culture and sciences.  A former Director of Outreach of the National Center for Science Education, Peter is the author of Catholicism and Science and of numerous articles and book chapters on religious and ethical aspects of climate disruption.  Dr. Hess is qualified as a Firefighter Type Two (FFT2) and is co-founder of the Lake County Prescribed Burn Association, a consortium of trained fire practitioners. Dr. Hess is currently writing a paper for the Sierra Club on the similarities and differences between ancient cultural burning practiced by indigenous tribes in California, and the prescribed burning increasingly practiced by forest agencies, municipalities, and private groups. Dr. Hess is also a contributing chapter author in “Climate Abandoned: We’re on the Endangered Species List.”

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

“The coast is never saved. It’s always being saved” - Rosanna Xia

Along California’s 1,200-mile coastline, the overheated Pacific Ocean is rising and pressing in, imperiling both wildlife and the maritime towns and cities that 27 million people call home. 

What are the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism and political scrimmages that have carved up our contemporary coastline? Do they foretell even greater changes to our shores?

 Hear about the beaches from the Mexican border to the sheer-cliffed North Coast; from the voices of Indigenous leaders, community activists, small town mayors, urban engineers, and tenacious environmental scientists on the challenges and urgency of forging a climate-wise future.

Interview Guest:

Rosanna Xia is an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her work has been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series. Her award-winning book, California Against the Sea, has been praised as a beautiful and revelatory exploration of how we relate to the natural world.

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, September 8, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

 “When somebody has taken the time to draw up a playbook, they are going to use it.” - Tim Walz, 2024 DNC Vice-Presidential Acceptance Speech (re: Project 2025)

Call it what you want. The Republican Party is nakedly zealous about turning America from a democratic republic into a kingdom and the right-wing billionaires and their corporations are doing everything they can to make it happen … led by The Heritage Foundation, that also flew the American flag upside down after the January 6 insurrection just as did Justice Alito’s wife.

Everyone must realize that the Project 2025 scheme to dismantle the American government is for any future Republican president. It might be beaten back this upcoming presidential election but these people, who are fighting for a dictatorship, will not go away.

The right wing is not hiding it. They say it out loud and have proudly written their manifesto; their painstakingly detailed, 922-page, step-by step instruction manual titled, “The Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise - Project 2025.”  This interview with Professor John Roth, cohosted by former KGO radio talk show host, John Rothmann, will peel back its pages with an emphasis on religion, health and education.

Yes, this is a detailed plot for a coup.

Interview Guest:

John Roth, PhD, is the Edward J. Sexton professor emeritus of philosophy at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. Dr. Roth was named the 1988 U. S. National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Dr. Roth's expertise in Holocaust and genocide studies, as well as in philosophy, ethics, American studies, and religious studies, has been advanced by postdoctoral appointments as a Graves Fellow in the Humanities, a Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and a fellow of the national Humanities Institute, Yale University. In addition to lecturing widely throughout the United States and around the world, Dr. Roth has authored, coauthored, or edited more than fifty books, and he has published hundreds of articles and reviews.  Dr. Roth graduated from Yale University with a Master of Arts and Doctorate of Philosophy degrees.

Guest CoHost:

John F. Rothmann is a renowned radio talk show host, formerly with KGO radio, and he is a popular lecturer and political and foreign policy consultant. John has also been involved in a broad variety of political campaigns on the national, state and local levels and Richard Norton Smith called John "a scholar of modern Republicanism.” John is the co-author of two highly acclaimed books and has been on the faculty of the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco since 2004. 

John’s personal library of 15,000 volumes is widely recognized as one of the finest libraries of American political history and biography in the United States. Scholars, graduate students and authors in the process of research frequently access his extensive collection. Currently, John hosts his own highly successful podcast titled, “Around the Political World with John Rothmann.” John lives in San Francisco with his wife Ellen and their two sons, Samuel and Joel.

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

PART 1 Covers the following:

Editor's Note: Why "Citizen” is a Verb

Foreword: Truth vs. Cynicism (written by Fred Keeley, Mayor of Santa Cruz)

Introduction: Welcome to California, the Most American State

Prologue: Explanatory Journalism, Explained

Wishing that things worked one way or another is not the same as knowing how things work. It’s when we all know how things work that we can impact things, from democracy itself to a local development project in your neighborhood. – Fred Keeley, the Mayor of Santa Cruz, California

How does the 5th largest economy in the world … work?

What are some true stories about how California is leading the world toward a better future, from protecting women’s and voter’s rights to building a sustainable energy infrastructure? These true stories are not naïve or full of starry-eyed optimism. 

The book “How California Works”, acknowledges that many Californians, well, lets’ face it … people the world over … are confronting a myriad of crises. Yet, individuals and organizations throughout California, maybe imperfectly, are making our state better, fairer, and a safer place.

How are they doing it? The word “citizen” is a verb.

Interview Guest:

Jonathan Vankin is a senior writer for California Local and an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Salon, L.A. Weekly and many others. He is the author of four previous nonfiction books, including Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Crimes—the first comprehensive, journalistic investigation of America's conspiracy-theory underground, foreshadowing the current state of sociopolitical affairs by two decades—and more recently Close to Zero, a full account of Donald Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Jonathan Vankin has also written comic books, TV, screenplays, and even the "book" for a hit Off-Broadway musical, Forever Dusty, about the great British pop star Dusty Springfield. He has made numerous media appearances on such networks as CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, the BBC and the CBC, as well as numerous podcasts and hundreds of radio stations.

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In the new book, “Winging It: Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump”, the author explores popular cultural and public affairs, ranging deftly from the unmediated experience in Fred Astaire’s tap dancing, Frans Hal’s brush strokes, hook-up culture, psychedelic trips, social media, and Hamilton’s hip-hop to, last, though not least, the performative and demagogic posturing of Donald Trump. 

The gesture all improvisations share is “I will create this on the fly,” or as Trump has stated, “my gut knows more than my brains” This defies rationality and elevates embodied emotions, instinct, and intuition that challenges our assumption that everything of value depends upon long study, tradition, and hard work. Claiming to be free of serious purpose … improvisation only pursues pleasure. Or so it says.

Interview Guest:

Randy Fertel, PhD, is a writer and philanthropist dedicated to the arts, education, New Orleans, and the environment. Randy holds a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Harvard University and is the author of A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation and The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir. 

Dr. Fertel has taught English at Harvard University, Tulane University, LeMoyne College, and the New School for Social Research. He specializes in the literature of the Vietnam War and the literature of exile. In addition to his writing, Randy is president of the Fertel Foundation and the Ruth U. Fertel Foundation, named for his mother Ruth Fertel, founder of Ruth’s Chris Steak House. He is co-founder of the Ridenhour Prizes for Courageous Truth-telling, now in its 20th year. He lives in New Orleans and New York.

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

America has fatal flaws in its economic paradigm.

Neoclassical Economics has ruled the United States for most of the past century. Valid economics cannot be separated from values, and what it means to be human.

Any notion of “Utility” must honor and encourage the best within us. 

At this, Neoclassical Economics is an abject failure. 

Neoclassical Economics legitimizes the short-term pillage of Earth, and discounts away the value of future civilization, indeed for all future life on our planet.

Dr. Richard Nolthenius will dissect its worst flaws, with special emphasis on how it trivializes climate damage to our present and future, and how its proponents have allied themselves to be servants not to humanity, but to their paymasters in corporate America and in the halls of political power.

Interview Guest:

Dr. Richard Nolthenius is a member of the “Earth Futures Institute”, with a specialty in economics, at UC Santa Cruz. Dr. Nolthenius is the Astronomy Program Chair at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, CA. In the past 10 years, Richard added climate science to his expertise, teaching a comprehensive course in Climate Science and its civilization context.  

By examining the climate science problem and searching for solutions, he has found its connected fundamentally to, well, everything. In addition, Richard is a contributing chapter author in Climate Abandoned: We’re on the Endangered Species List, a #1 Amazon bestseller.

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, June 16, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

Throughout Reagan’s eight years in the oval office, the “Great Communicator” was largely successful in shaping the soul of America to reflect his durable mantra that “government is the problem.”

That same American soul later embraced Donald Trump—a president who, arguably would have appalled Reagan.

Reagan’s contemporary mythology as tax cutter, deficit hawk, promoter of deregulation, the ordinary citizen, champion of traditional family values, small government and free market capitalism – all indelible images.

Reagan’s myth persists, and by understanding his time in office in the context of American history and of the American presidency, we can understand how a transformative president created more than policy by also shaping culture with the instrumental force of mythology.

Interview Guest:

Ed Oswald is a lawyer with an expertise in the federal taxation of municipal bonds. He is a partner in an international law firm in Washington, D.C. Ed is a frequent lecturer and speaker on financing infrastructure for State and local governments, non-profit organizations, and related matters. A graduate of St. John’s University in New York, B.S Accounting. He received his J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review. In 1991, he received an LL.M. in taxation from New York University. 

Ed served as an attorney-advisor at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Legislative Counsel during the second term of the Clinton Administration, where he worked on tax policy matters impacting US public infrastructure. At the US Treasury, he worked with the IRS, SEC, White House staff and economists, House Ways & Means Committee, and the Senate Financing Committee staff on a range of matters.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. The American College of Tax Counsel is a professional association of tax attorneys who are “recognized for their extraordinary accomplishments and professional achievements and for their dedication to improving the practice of tax law.” Fellows must be nominated by their peers and undergo a rigorous screening process before being admitted. Membership is limited to a maximum of 700 tax attorneys across the United States.Ed’s new book, From Ronald to Donald: How the Myth of Reagan Became the Cult of Trump, is now available wherever books are sold.

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

John F. Rothmann is a renowned radio talk show host, popular lecturer and political and foreign policy consultant.  

John will discuss Donald Trump’s 34 convictions, Justice Alito’s upside-down flags, Project 25, and the pivotal upcoming election.  And, what the future might hold if we do or don’t get out and vote!

vote this year.

John was a long-time host on KGO Radio until the station’s management suddenly changed its format. John has been a professor at the University of San Francisco Fromm Institute since 2004 and he has been involved in many political campaigns on the national, state and local levels. John has published a wide range of articles and books on education, the Middle East and on American political history.

Today, John Rothmann hosts a popular podcast called:“Around the Political World with John Rothmann.”

Interview Guest:

John F. Rothmann is a radio talk show host on KGO 810 AM in San Francisco. John first joined the KGO family in 1996.

A frequent lecturer on American politics and the presidency, John has spoken on over 150 university campuses throughout the United States, Canada and Israel. John has been a professor at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco since 2004.

John has been involved in many political campaigns on the national, state and local levels including Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign and Senator Frank Church's California Presidential campaign in 1976. He served as Chief of Staff to Senator Milton Marks and as Field Representative for Senator Quentin Kopp, both of San Francisco.

John's passion is his 15,000-volume library, one of the finest private libraries in the country, specializing in American political history and political biography.

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday,

May 19, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

“First they came for the journalists. We don’t know what happened after that.” – Maria Ressa

Project Censored, in their latest book, takes the pulse of the media, highlights the most underreported stories of the past year, and exposes corporate manipulation of the news.

State of the Free Press 2024, brings together some of the most incisive media critics to expose the impact of corporate money and political influence on the press, highlights the top 25 most underreported stories of the past year, and profiles those brave journalists who continue to fight for a media that is free of both for-profit benefactors and political agendas. 

This book comes at a time when trust in the media is at an 

all-time low.

Interview Guest:

Mickey Huff is the director of Project Censored and president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. Since 2009, he has coedited the Project Censored yearbook, including its most recent volume, State of the Free Press 2024. He is also coauthor, with Nolan Higdon, of United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (City Lights, 2019) and Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy

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“Be Bold America!” Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 5:00pm (PT)

Back in 1929 when the market crashed and the Great Depression began, Uber, TaskRabbit, and the gig economy were almost a century in the future. So why are the laws we use to protect the workers who power those businesses unchanged from 100 years ago?

As we learned with startling clarity during the unprecedented economic upheaval of the pandemic, our social safety net legislation is divorced from how Americans on the margins survive today.

Government policies have not kept up with the changing nature of how we work, and too many people—the forgotten jobless of the gig-economy who don’t qualify for government assistance—are falling through the cracks. While the relief money provided during the pandemic was a godsend for millions, for others, namely workers like drivers, delivery people, and handymen, that vital assistance never came due to archaic and pro-business unemployment laws. 

Interview Guest:

Alexandrea Ravenelle, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Her first book, Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy has been translated into Korean, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese.  

Dr. Ravenelle’s research has been published in The New York Times; Regions, Economy and Society; Journal of Managerial Psychology; Consumption Markets and Culture; and New Media & Society.

She is the recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation and Russell Sage Foundation to study the impact of COVID-19 on precarious workers in New York, and funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to study the impact of elite gig work.