Bruce Shapiro explains the significance of the Comstock Act from 1871 and how it is being used in arguments about contraception and abortion in 2024. And Robert F Kennedy chooses a running mate.

Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine; Executive Director of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

Bruce Shapiro's America - the Comstock Act

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Social class, gender and race are well known as key drivers of life outcomes. But there are also countless ‘ripples of randomness’ that can inexplicably change our direction and shift life’s flow.

Mark Rank: Professor of Social Welfare at Washington University in St. Louis. Author of The Random factor: How chance and luck profoundly shape our lives and the world around us  (University of California Press; April 2024),

How chance and luck profoundly shape our lives

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev cautioned the world “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. Decades later, we're closer to nuclear Armageddon than ever before, and investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen paints a devastating picture of exactly what that would look like.

This is what nuclear war in 2024 would look like

Eleven years after launching an ambitious plan to rid the world's ocean of plastics, Dutch inventor and entrepreneur Boyan Slat talks to Phillip Adams about his mission, the challenges and the wins. 

Guest: Boyan Slat is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organisation developing and scaling technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.

Boyan Slat on ambition, obsession and striving for the impossible

Pre-eminent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson looks at whether international law is capable of appropriately handling the trial of a head of state like Vladimir Putin, should he ever be charged with the crime of aggression for the war against Ukraine. So far, the international community has been powerless to stop the bloodshed, and in other cases like the war on Gaza, the state of Israel has simply ignored order from the International Court of Justice. So what is the role of international law? And should the UN Security Council be replaced with something more effective? 

Geoffrey Robertson KC, author, “The trial of Vladimir Putin”, published in Australia by New South Books.  Geoffrey is also Founding Head of Chambers at Doughty Street Chambers in London.

Geoffrey Robertson on Putin, Netanyahu and Julian Assange

Russia’s decaying Soviet era infrastructure and present day neglect are causing huge environmental problems. Citizens in regional areas not only have to live with the devastation caused by frequent flooding they also endure substandard and unhealthy drinking water.  

Paul Josephson: – Emeritus Professor, Colby College in Maine. Currently at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies. Author of Hero Projects; the Russian Empire and  Big technology from Lennin to Putin.( Oxford Uni)

Bruce Shapiro's America - the Comstock Act

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