Virtually Speaking

Sherry Reson & Jay Ackroyd talk with Gaius Publius, contributing editor at AMERICAblog.com, about the recent Jeffrey Sachs Financial Times column in which Sachs plays the "both sides' economists do it" card. The column exposes the neoliberal ("centrist" / elite) view of what must drive public policy — the need to abandon the New Deal for good.

Jay and Gaius also discuss Gaius' recent column on "rent-seeking" economies — what they are; why ours is killing us.

See Krugman's comment: Magneto Muddles

Follow @gauis_publius @JayAckroyd @AmericaBlog

Rerun from June 24, Avedon Carol and David Dayen discuss the likely and counter productive limiting of the Social Security system during the upcoming lame duck session; self-censorship of liberal political institutions, upcoming SCOTUS case, and the nature of meritocracy.

Read @Avedon_Says at http://www.sideshow.me.uk/

Read @DDayen at http://news.firedoglake.com/author/dday/

From the VSS Media Panel: Avedon Carol, Cliff Schecter comment on the corporate media's Sunday morning talk shows and their own observations from the past week. Plus this week's ridiculous moment from Culture of Truth.

Follow @Avedon_Says @CliffSchecter

Daniel Marans of Social Security Works and Jay Ackroyd discuss the latest salvo in the catfood commission wars, ginning up a generational conflict between those over 50 and those under 40. Follow @nosocseccuts @DanielMarans @Jayackroyd

Links

http://strengthensocialsecurity.org/social-security-works-0

From the VSS Media Panel: Joan McCarter (DailyKos) andDigby  (Hullabaloo)  SCOTUS the PPACA and Chris Hayes' Twilight of the Elites Plus this week's ridiculous moment from Culture of Truth.

Follow @JoanMcCarter @digby56 @bobblespeak @jayackroyd

Pre-recorded. No call-ins.

Gaius Publius, political writer and Contributing Editor to AMERICAblog.com, went to Netroots Nation with five questions and a list of people. The result is a series of thought-provoking chats, posted originally at AmericaBlog and reproduced here for the Virtually Speaking audience.

Today's interviews are with: Tom Tomorrow, cartoonist & commentator; Cliff Schecter, a regular at Virtually Speaking & Majority.fm; Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net & VS Sunday media panel. The first four questions were the same for each. The fifth is tailored.

These interviews were less optimistic than the first three we aired, but extremely thoughtful.

Tom Tomorrow's interview first appeared here, Schecter's here, and Wheeler's here.

Follow: @Gaius_Publius @TomTomorrow @CliffSchecter @emptywheel @americablog

Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) MSNBC host of the weekend talkshow Up With Chris Hayes (hashtag #uppers) joins Jay to talk about his new book, Twilight of the Elites

Host Alan Bolye (Cosmic Log) talks with Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, and the 2004 winner of the Klumpke-Roberts Award awarded by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.

Before his involvement with SETI research, Seth used radio telescopes in the USA and the Netherlands, searching for clues to the ultimate fate of the universe by analyzing galaxy motion.

Hosted in Second Life by MICA

Follow @b0yle @SethShostak @SETIInstitute @SETILive @SETIHome

Gaius Publius, political writer and Contributing Editor to AMERICAblog.com, went to Netroots Nation with five questions and a list of people. The result is a series of thought provoking chats, posted originally at AmericaBlog and reproduced here for the Virtually Speaking audience.

Gaius introduces three here: former Cong. Alan Grayson, Josh Orton of Feingold's Progressives United and Alex Lawson of Strengthen Social Security. Other interviews will appear here in the coming weeks. The first four questions are asked of each. The fifth is tailored.

Each man was positive and optimistic about the future. Each is involved in Democratic politics at the national level, which adds an interesting perspective.

Grayson's interview first appeared here, Orton's here, and Lawson's here.

Follow: @Gaius_Publius @AlanGrayson @JoshOrton @nosocseccuts @americablog

Jay talks with Joan Slonczewski, Professor of Microbiology at Kenyon College and auther of The Highest Frontier, a hard science science fiction story involving genetic experimentation in a space habitat.  Joan and Jay discuss a future characterized by do-it-yourself (DIY) genetic engineering, a future described by Freeman Dyson in his NY Review of Books essay "Our BioTechFuture."

Those joining us in Second Life can observe an ultraphyte first hand.