They used to be prosperous Black neighborhoods: less than 2 percent unemployment. But through connected processes over the last 75 years, government and banks worked together to create gentrification. Black people were intentionally left out of the capitalist system, frozen out of participation in the benefits of our traditional real estate value growth. And apparently public housing had been good until Nixon came along. On this show, author and professor of sociology Tanya Golash-Boza talks about her new book Before Gentrification: The Creation of DC’s Racial Wealth Gap. The author research saw signs of hopeful change.

We value the right to control our bodies. But is there really reproductive fairness and justice if those who want to be a parent face unchosen infertility and are denied access and face social stigma?  The new book is called Infertilties: a Curation, and our guest is co-curator Maria Novotny. It’s an important issue often ignored.

Phoenix may not last another 25 years. Whole countries will collapse. The issue is elite control, and that was why earlier civilizations: Chaco canyon, the Mayan culture, and Viking Greenland collapsed; average people had no say. On this show Professor Michael Klare opines that collapse may be inevitable, but maybe not. More democracy is required.

One hundred years old and what’s Henry Kissinger got to show for it? Well, he’s a free man because the US never joined the International Criminal Court. Though he wouldn’t want to travel to the many nations that can prosecute him for war crimes. On this show, Rebecca Gordon of the University of San Francisco, not only reminds a young generation of his legacy in places throughout the globe, but points out that today’s executive disregard for congressional restrictions are a continuing legacy.

It’s been an exceptionally long and bloody stalemate. And with the far right anti-democracy government of Netanyahu turning its wrath on Jewish Israelis, and opinion in the US and the world showing real shift, our guest Mitchell Plitnick of ReThinking Foreign Policy cites reasons why 2023 stands to be a turning point at last.

Is command and control from the top down bureaucrats the best method for teaching kids? How about critical thinking skills? Much of the best results of public education come from democratizing schools, welcoming input from those who best know what they’re doing. On this show author Josh Beach discusses his new books: Can We Measure What Matters Most, Why Educational Accountability Metrics Lower Student Learning and Demoralize Teachers, and The Myths of Measurement and Meritocracy Why Accountability Metrics in Higher Education are Unfair and Increase Inequality. He says for the best education, teachers need flexibility. It’s another case where more democracy yields better decisions.

The Republicans in power are set against themselves: on one hand there’s the revved up old Cold Warriors targeting China. On the other hand there’s the strength of the big business powers who see their futures tied to China. On this show economist Richard D Wolff looks at what this means politically and for the developing world

This book changed my view of US History. He posits that the standard story is not the truth: The surprising reality of America’s founding shows we were created for insider rule, a stable hierarchy but not justice. On this show UPenn Law School professor Kermit  Roosevelt III discusses his eye opening book The Nation That Never Was in which he argues  the Gettysburg Address was the pivotal moment and should be the basis for how we move forward. He says the Confederates and the January 6th are the inheritors of the original intent; to move forward to the nation we can become, it’s really time to leave that behind.

Overwork, uniquely stressful conditions, patients suffering.  Blaming individual caregivers with personal failures results in fewer and fewer professionals when the need by boomers is growing exponentially. On this show, David Schenck author of two previous books on ethics and healing in healthcare, 25 year hospice volunteer tells about his new book Into the Field of Suffering: Finding the Other Side of Burnout. He says the national Covid experience actually offered a clarified, quite useful perspective on  needed systemic change.

If it was only about achieving national security! But our foreign policy is like driving while self-blinded and that undermines both stability and democracy. Our decades old War on Terror only damages America; real national security is weakened. The damage may be secret from us but not from the world. On this show author Norman Solomon talks about his new book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine.