Virtually Speaking

Ongoing discussion centering on the nature, ideology and political realities of liberalism and conversely on the nature, ideology and political realities of Democratic centrism. No call-ins: recorded the previous Thursday.

Incarceration in America. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Our guests discuss how this monstrous system has come to be, the role the War on Drugs has played, and alterantive approaches.

Peter Moskos and Jesse Walker join Jay for a free-wheeling discussion. The author of In Defense of Flogging, Peter worked as a Baltimore City police officer from 1999 to 2001 while enrolled as a Harvard U grad student. His first book, Cop in the Hood, focuses on the failure of the drug war and its impact on police culture and arrest decisions.

The author of Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in Amercia, Jesse Walker's writes widely about pirate radio, copyright law, political paranoia and more. He can be read in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Salon and numerous other publications,

Recovering journalist and class warrior Susie Madrak explores the impact of current events on the daily lives of working class people. This week, David Dayen and Jay Ackroyd.

Sundays @ 6pm pacific | 9pm eastern •VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS: OUR MEDIA NOT THEIRS | Culture of Truth and David Dayenconsider developments of the week, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts of traditional media. CoT's weekly Bobblespeak Translations decode what passes on Sunday morning traditional media for political talk shows. Dave writes for the News Desk at FDL and has been blooging about state and national issues since 2004.

Hr. 1 - A-Z: Stuart Zechman & Jay Ackroyd discuss 'the week in Liberalism.'

Hr. 2 - Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd | Jay talks with author, teacher, journalist David Ropiek about how we perceive risk, the challenges of communicating risk and overall risk management. His new book is How Risky Is It, Really: Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts.

Recovering journalist and class warrior Susie Madrak explores the impact of current events on the daily lives of working class people.

This week: Richard (RJ) Eskow writes at A Night Light, Huffington Post and OurFuture.org. A former executive with experience in health care, benefits, and risk management, finance, and information technologym, RJ worked for AIG and other insurance, risk management, and financial organizations. He was also a public policy and finance/economics consultant, in the US and over 20 countries.

His Twitter ID is "@rjeskow.

Sundays @ 6pm pacific | 9pm eastern •VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS: OUR MEDIA NOT THEIRS | This week Joan McCarter andCliff Schecterconsider developments of the week, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts of traditional media. Joan is the highly regarded Senior Policy Editor and regular contributor to Daily Kos. Cliff is a campaign strategist, political commentator and principal at Libertas LLC, a full spectrum political and corporate communications company.

This is an edited version of the August 4 program. The podcast features Stuart Zechman dissecting the idea that because many Americans are skeptical of government, therefore we a are center right nation. In fact, people are even more skeptical of the power of large corporations and the lobbyists who represent them--and politicians who neglect public skepticism of the power held by those in the "private sector" are, well, self-serving, perhaps corrupt, liars.

Recovering journalist and class warrior Susie Madrak explores the impact of current events on the daily lives of working class people. This week: Susie talks with Dave Johnson about the stock market and the Democratic leadership and the Congressional Super Committee.

Sundays @ 6pm pacific | 9pm eastern •VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS: OUR MEDIA NOT THEIRS | Two writers from the excellent VSS media panel discuss developments of the week, often highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts. Always informative, always passionate, frequently with a touch of snark.