In our 300 year old system of an adversarial combative system of justice, there is no mechanism to prove and protect the innocent. In his newly published book, The Plea of Innocence, author Tim Bakken argues that prosecution really has a duty to find the guilty party and to actually endeavor to protect the innocent. Far too many innocents today languish in our penitentiaries for far too long, and Bakken offers specific reform to address this.

Today’s right encourages and seeks to use men’s anger in the culture war, though their policies actually damage working class men. In their fear and rage at the gains for equality, as Washington Monthly editor William Norris notes, Sen. Josh Hawley and others legitimize violence in an angry attempt to reassert lost white male dominance. And the left is being too quiet about our real solutions that benefit men and everyone.

They claim loudly they’re protecting freedom and innocent children, but the truth is the right is oppressing both. On this show psychoanalyst Avgi Saketopoulou, co-author of Gender Without Identity, argues there is not one true immutable authentic identity with which we are born but instead there is a more active becoming in our lives.

The 19th and 20th century systems of control of the earth have failed; there’s a connection between famines and empire. Especially in the face of climate change, we have a lot to learn from indigenous and peasant systems; the idea of the commons works for a sustainable future. On this show Professor Jo Guldi, whose new book is The Long Land War, explains little known UN efforts and how planning for land use can address the global threat.

In short, it was not about individual rights but about protecting the institution of slavery. It created militias as slave patrols. And despite conventional wisdom, militias were useless in the war for independence. Historian Carl Bogus’s new book Madison’s Militia, the Hidden History of the Second Amendment explains that it all goes back to 1688 England. Bogus says Madison and the other authors would be appalled at how Timothy McVeigh’s twisted interpretation has now become commonplace. And January 6th arises from this history.

The thousands of islands in the global south have been treated as toys by the western “civilizers.” Though they are responsible for less than 1% of greenhouse gas emissions, today their voices are not part of the conversation on dealing with the climate change which most severely and immediately threatens them. In her upcoming book Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean, author professor Christina Gerhardt alerts the rest of us to the need for island people to have a seat at the world table to save the future of our islands and coastal continental cities and prevent more disasters.

We finally get that can’t have infinite growth on our finite planet. The dominant western approach of treating the earth as our playground isn’t working anymore. It’s late but there are still real opportunities for a partnership between humans and the planet. In his new book I Want a Better Catastrophe, author Andrew Boyd offers us positive steps he’s gleaned from many divergent sources for the predicament we’re in. A resilient future.

Is it heresy to support a cease fire; can we both support Ukraine and diplomacy? Our guest on this informative show wonders if the Biden Administration is “trapped in its own stifling, peace-averse domestic political climate.” Jacobin Magazine staff writer Branko Marcetic argues there can be a security architecture put in place for Ukraine in a cease fire and that world opinion is needed to bring that about.

It’s a puzzling mystery why so many working class people in the midwest go for Trumpism. Some answers are in Imagining the Heartland; White Supremacy and the American Midwest  by anthropologist authors Britt Halvorson and Joshua Renoit. It examines the roots of today’s angry violence against The Others. They find a motivating mythic narrative of bucolic peaceful home and hearth, how things used to be but really never were. The “real Americans” versus the coastal elites; multiculturalism as an existential threat. We need to understand this foundation to have any hope of addressing white supremacy. Give a listen.

It was a crime to even be a member of the “One Big Union.” But even Helen Keller was a member of the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World. On this show, Ahmed White talks about his new book Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers. Does “Iron Heel” sound like America? It was author and supporter Jack London who popularized the term. Though crushed by the government, the courage and solidarity of the IWW deserves to be better known as we seek a better world. It’s quite a story.