Our main topics today are tyranny & nonviolence. Andrew Fiala is Professor of Philosophy & also director of the Ethics Center at Cal State Fresno.

Lisa Miara is at the center of The Hope Centre/Springs of Hope Foundation in the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq. The Yazidi minority in that area was devastated by the 2014 attack of ISIS on them, and Lisa found a leading to live among and nurture back to wholeness the victims of ISIS, bringing hope & love to reclaim child soldiers and horribly abused & enslaved girls & women.

Throughout his career, Dwight L. Wilson has held many jobs: educator, administrator, chaplain. In each role, he worked to advance equality, opportunity and understanding. He continues this work in his carefully researched historical fiction series Esi Was My Mother, which follows the lives of an enslaved black family from 18th century Africa to the American Civil War. He strives to portray triumphant examples of black stories that will make history come alive for readers.

Many hands were needed to help in the transition for the immense number of Afghans that fled Afghanistan with the fall of the government there to the Taliban last year. Among those answering the call was Sahar Taman, providing legal assistance to the 13,000 Afghans located to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, last fall. The personal situations & the legal requirements were complex, demanding deeply dedicated work of both the heart and head.

Amar Ahmad is a young Muslim who has been working with Mass Peace Action the past 2 years, serving as co-chair of the Legislative/Political Committee as an organizer with the Fund Health Care, Not Warfare

Jane Addams, founder of Hull Settlement House in Chicago, was a powerful inspiration and aid to the poor and downtrodden, like Nellie Wicks, who was great-grandmother to singer/songwriter Kristin Lems.

Bahareh Zare Bahari is distinct in so many ways - as an Iranian woman who, in her early 20's, started her own school, soon shut down by the regime in Iran, who then moved to the Philippines to become a Doctor of Dentistry, and who won 3 beauty queen crowns, using the opportunity to both hold up the beauty & power of the Iranian women and people. Because of her witness, she has been threatened, nearly abducted, and had her nose broken.

Thom Hartmann's completely articulate voice & extensive knowledge & insights all combine to insure his place as the USA's #1 progressive talk show host. His more than 30 books are equally compelling, and today we talk with Thom about his latest, The Hidden one of the most articulate voices of progressive radio in the USA, and he's a compelling writer as well.

Casting out the chest-beating & shade-throwing from the Bible with the skills & insights of a Jewish Trans Educator (Liam Hooper) and a Cantankerous Hermit-ish Mendicant Farmer (Don Durham) is an important goal of Bible Bash.

One of the issues we face in dealing with problems in the USA is the frequent divide between “the common folk” - rural, often farm folks - and the urban populace, often dismissed from the other side as “ivory tower intellectuals”.