SUNDAY 08.31.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
SCHOLARS’ CIRCLE & THE INSIGHTERS: Aug 24 25 US in South Caucasus Armenia Azerbaijan peace treaty (00:58:00)
Will the so called peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan legitimize ethnic cleansing? Will it bring peace to the two nations? Or is it a recipe for future conflict?
Military aggression and violations of of the notion of sovereignty have marked the conflicts in the South Caucuses region over the last three decades. Will the peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue this trend or will it avert claims to sovereignty? This agreement between Armenia & Azerbaijan brings the US directly into the South Caucuses. Will American answer the call if there is further military violence?
EARTH RIOT RADIO: Put the Revolution Back In Evolution! (00:29:00)
The parallel disasters of Global Heatwave and Human War have a positive side, although it feels farther away – you have to imagine it, like stepping into Leonard’s reality: “The superstorms are messages from Mother Earth.”
Positive view: The accelerating death and life of the Sixth Mass Evolution is parallel to a Revolution against Consumerist Capitalism. Is the Earth directing everything? Put the Evolution Back in Revolution!
BARNABY DRUTHERS: Barnaby Druthers: The Train from Calais (00:28:00)
While traveling from Calais to Paris, Barnaby has concerns about his ability to conduct any investigations in a country where he doesn’t speak the language, but an opportunity on board the train presents him with the chance to prove his concerns right or wrong!
https://www.barnabydruthers.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
Best of ATTITUDE with ARNIE ARNESEN August 30, 2025 (00:59:30)
Segment One
We begin the show with Annie Waldman, reporter for ProPublica covering health care. We discuss the various cuts that have been made to federal health agencies. These cuts have decimated the staffing, supplies, and research.
Segment Two
We then sit with Laura Belin, writer at the Bleeding Heartland and KHOT radio in Iowa. We discuss the recent election of a State Senator in Iowa, where Caitlin Drey, a Democrat, replaced a Republican. Iowa Republicans thus lose a supermajority in their State Senate. This may indicate a shift in political opinions in Iowa due to the Trump policies.
https://www.arniearnesen.org/WP
BACKGROUND BRIEFING with IAN MASTERS: August 31, 2025 (00:59:00)
Trump, Hegseth, Ratcliffe, Gabbard, Patel, Bongino and Noem Might as Well be Working For Putin and Xi as They Destroy Our National Security | How the Conspiratorial Mindset of an Entitled Wastrel From a Famous American Political Dynasty is Collapsing America’s Public Health | The Blowback at Home From America’s Killing Machine in the War on Terror
https://www.backgroundbriefing.org
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR: Part 2 Hospicing Modernity with Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (00:59:00)
This is the second half of the interview from last week. Vanessa Machado de Oliveira is a professor at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change, and is a founding member of the GTDF collective, and Weaving the Web of 5 Cures; currently directing research projects and learning initiatives in collaboration with Indigenous communities in Canada and Latin America related to global healing and well-being in these times of unprecedented challenges, and shes the author of the groundbreaking book Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism.
DEEP DIVE CYBERSECURITY SHOW: The Society-Wide Problem With AI (00:58:00)
Elon Musk’s Grok AI has a crazy conspiracist persona that is indicative of all that is wrong with how society is adopting AI, as it will literally create more division in multiple countries. We explore how AI is trained, its biases and what we can actually do about this immediate disinformation and political threat, plus so much more critical information. Please don’t miss this one.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-dive-radio-show-and-nicks-nerd-news/id1262505658
SATURDAY 8.30.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
TECHTONIC with MARK HURST: Webb Keane, author, Animals, Robots, Gods (00:59:30)
AI, robots & other technologies raise thorny ethical questions. Is it OK for people to love their robot pets? How much authority should we give to chatbots? Webb Keane digs deep in his book Animals, Robots, Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination.
KEEPING DEMOCRACY ALIVE: The Trump Era and the Psychology of Moral Courage (00:58:00)
Researchers are beginning to understand why some of us demonstrate what is called “moral courage” and others do not. In fact, most of us actually have a warped sense of our own moral courage. We like to think nothing would get in the way of our morals. But this week’s guest, award winning journalist Alina Tugend has found that, sadly, pretty much everything gets in the way between us and our moral courage. Despite American’s mythic belief in individualism, the fact is we generally go along to get along with the crowd. Especially in these uniquely frightening times of rising violent fascism we can’t be just reactive; there are steps we can take to both avoid violent repercussions and productively act on moral courage.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
AGING MATTERS: Falls Prevention (00:58:00)
Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older adults and can threaten their safety and independence. Through lifestyle adjustments, falls prevention programs, and clinical-community partnerships, the number of falls can be notably reduced for this population.Sara Pappa, PhD, MCHES, Associate Professor, College of Health and Education, Marymount University, Arlington, VA and Director, Northern Virginia Falls Prevention Alliance, https://www.novafallsprevention.com/ talks about causes and risk factors associated with falls-related injuries among older adults, and falls prevention programs and projects to help prevent injury and death.
https://www.agingmattersonline.com
GROWING GREENER: This Year’s Less Lawn More Life Challenge Goes Viral (00:29:00)
Last May Growing Greener featured the challenge that Plan it Wild, a rewilding design and installation firm, posed to American homeowners: to replace 25 square feet of lawn with locally indigenous plants. Today we hear how nearly 10,000 people in 49 states committed to this 12-week online program, how backyard biodiversity flourished as a result, and how the challenge is expanding through neighborhoods to reach people who hadnt previously considered devoting their landscapes to reinforcing the regional ecosystem.
https://www.thomaschristophergardens.com
TUC RADIO: Edward Said: Palestine and the Universality of Human Rights, Archive 2003 (00:29:00)
Among the over twelve hundred programs in the TUC Radio archives this is one of my favorites. That’s based on the respect I have for the speaker, Edward Said, and the ongoing sadness that, to this day, so little is known about the history of Palestine. This is Edward Said’s last major speech on Palestine, the war on Iraq and the Bush administration. On September 25, 2003, a message made its way around the world
THE BOPST SHOW: Nonsensical Types of Things (00:55:00)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear French singing sensation Claudes Channes, legendary British audio assassins Tackhead, and the naked folk of Erica Freas as well as music by King Tubby, Chester Vomit & The Dry Heaves and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR #599 (00:58:00)
Ralph welcomes constitutional scholar, John Bonifaz, co-founder and president of the group Free Speech for People, which has launched the non-partisan campaign Impeach Trump. Again. Plus, Ralph, Steve, and David discuss Donld Trumps servile corporatist agenda and his attempt to rig the midterms by ordering Texas to gerrymander him five more districts.
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/
FRIDAY 08.29.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Friday August 29, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Why a Kansas researcher spent a year living in a poor neighborhood in Korea (00:01:30)
He wanted to study the effects of poverty and extreme weather firsthand.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
THE LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR: Strike While the Needle is Hot (00:55:00)
Shanara Gabrielle on Theater Alliances fire work, then Zoltoid, the Worker Safety Oracle with Jay Herzmark. Plus previews from our Labor Day Special – Strike While the Needle is Hot (Josh MacPhee/Kennedy Blocks strike-record book, featuring Ford Workers on Strike) and Labor 131 with Jessie Wilkerson on the 1929 Elizabethton rayon strike.
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Oligarchs at Home and Abroad (00:58:00)
Putin continues to murder Ukrainians while Trump works to put military in our streets as the fascist rollout continues.. Meanwhile, will yet another school shooting lead to any change in Americans’ easy access to weapons?
SEA CHANGE RADIO: Jeremy Hance: The Fight To Save The Rhino (00:29:00)
Just because we live in an age of science, marked by mobile computing, space exploration, and robot cars, doesn’t mean that people don’t still hold firm to beliefs with no scientific basis whatsoever. Case-in-point: rhinos are dying out, due primarily to a human appetite for the supposed healing power of their horns, even though these horns have been shown to have no medicinal properties and may even contain substances toxic to humans. Rhinoceros horns consist of keratin, a dense protein found in human hair and fingernails, but puzzlingly they’re worth more by weight than gold. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Mongabay senior contributing editor Jeremy Hance about the plight of two extremely rare breeds of Indonesian rhinoceros. We discuss efforts being taken to track and preserve them and take a close look at poaching and the brisk trade in illegal rhino horns.
LAURA FLANDERS AND FRIENDS: Bernie Sanders & AOC: Fighting Oligarchy with People Power (00:28:00)
Can the Democratic party reinvent itself? In this exclusive one-on-one interview with Bernie Sanders, recorded during the Senators Fighting Oligarchy tour, he sits down with Laura Flanders in Las Vegas to discuss what he hopes people will take away from his rallies, and how we can all push back against oligarchy. Sanders message is especially resonating with Americans in this moment, as record-breaking crowds turn out for his tour ” with many first-time activists in the audience. What is driving this phenomenon? Laura Flanders & Friends hit the road to find out, and traveled from Kenosha to Warren and Las Vegas. Along the tour, Flanders spoke with veterans, retirees and many concerned citizens. She also caught speeches from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, and sat in on a town hall meeting with Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus. Will 2025 turn out to be the year that Americans remake democracy? [rewind]
THE BOPST SHOW: Nonsensical Types of Things (00:55:00)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear French singing sensation Claudes Channes, legendary British audio assassins Tackhead, and the naked folk of Erica Freas as well as music by King Tubby, Chester Vomit & The Dry Heaves and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
THE BRADCAST: 8/28/2025 Encore: Trump, Nazis and Trump’s Nazified Elections (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 8-18-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: The Trump Administration’s Dept. of Homeland Security is using actual Nazi book titles and Nazi fonts in their ICE recruitment ads, on top of undermining democracy the way the Nazis did. Texas Democratic state lawmakers who broke the state legislature’s quorum have returned, allowing Texas Republicans to re-gerrymander U.S. House maps to steal five seats from voters, with GOP leaders ordering a 24-hour police escort to prevent the Democrats from leaving again. We debunk Donald Trump’s latest lie-filled rant vowing to end the use of mail-in ballots. It’s his latest attempt to undermine democracy, pre-excuse any 2026 midterm losses, and distract from his failed meeting with Russian President Putin and his refusal to release the Epstein Files. Callers weigh in.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
THURSDAY 08.28.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Thursday August 28, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Art installation amplifies hundreds of voices on climate change (00:01:30)
At Rice University, light and sound immerse visitors in a global chorus calling for climate action.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
RADIO ECOSHOCK: Paul Virilio and the planetary accident (replay) (00:58:00)
As we extend into screen life, we build a digital body. What is this techno-hybrid being you have become? French intellectual Paul Virilio, author of The Information Bomb & The Administration of Fear is our witness, along with guest John David Ebert. With short readings from Virilio by Brent Ragsdale.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Taking Care of Our Own (00:57:59)
Republicans want take away life-saving medicine for the rest of us- whether by signing you up for junk insurance or cutting public assistance. Should Democrats run on expanding Medicare to everyone who needs it? Plus – Pediatrician Dr. Arthur Lavin from the group ‘Grandparents For Vaccines’ has the skinny on the anti-science crowd.
RISING UP WITH SONALI – 2025-08-26 (00:58:30)
This week, well go to Washington D.C. to speak with the lead organizer of the resistance to the Trump administrations hyper militarization of the nation’s capital. NeeNee Taylor is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, a Black-led abolitionist community defense hub. She is also the Co-Founder and Organizing Director of the Free DC Project. Then, well shine a light on the massive expansion of immigrant detention centers in the US and how organizers are confronting this revival of the project of mass incarceration. Stacy Suh will be my guest, program director at Detention Watch Network. Finally, labor historian and author Shaun Richman will close out the hour with a discussion of his latest book, We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers Union, 1912-1953.
https://risingupwithsonali.com
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 24 (00:31:15)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WINGS # 20-25 Unbroken Wing (00:28:32)
Nafisa Khanbhai is the Chief Executive Officer of Dear Diary Initiatives, a Community Based Organization in Mombasa that is dedicated to serving marginalized communities, orphans, individuals with disabilities, and women. Among other causes, they supply and maintain a lot of wheelchairs. Nafisa tells reporter Diana Wanyonyi her story of learning to disregard prejudice against disability, make the most of her talents and encourage and help others to do the same. Her life story was made into a book and then a theatre play. These help spread her philosophy and support the organization.
THE BRADCAST: 8/27/2025 Encore: Timothy Karr of Free Press on corporate media capitulation (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 8-6-2026. On today’s ‘BradCast’: The nation’s founders saw the free press as a key bulwark against monarchs and tyrants, protecting it in the Constitution. But 250 years later, authoritarian Donald Trump and Republicans have launched an unprecedented assault on the freedom of the press. Corporate media companies have largely rolled over and capitulated to Trump’s bogus attacks. TIMOTHY KARR of Free Press explains his new report, ‘A More Perfect Media: Saving Americas Fourth Estate from Billionaires, Broligarchy and Trump,’ on the chilling state of our formerly free press, their new Media Capitulation Index, solutions to restoring press freedom, and much more. Anti-vaccine activist and HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced he is ending federal funding and development of new, groundbreaking mRNA vaccines. Plus: state and local election results this week offer some hopeful news for democracy.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
WEDNESDAY 08.27.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Wednesday August 27, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: What can state governments do about climate change? (00:01:30)
As the federal government withdraws from climate action, states can step up.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
FOOD SLEUTH RADIO: Bullies at the able: Consequences of Understaffing (00:28:00)
Did you know that essential grocery store workers average earnings are less than a living wage? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with John Marshall, CFA, Director of Capital Strategies for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) 3000, and Assistant to the President at UFCW 324. Marshall will discuss the report, Bullies at the Table: Consequences of Understaffing by Kroger and Albertsons. He will also pull back the curtain on unseen challenges faced by grocery store workers, discuss the benefits of labor unions, and compare e-commerce vs. in-store shopping on supermarket bottom lines. Marshall references the role of Wall Street and negative impacts of mergers in this presentation: Kroger/Albertsons merger analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=als1GdcKSzU and Consumer Reports investigation into overcharging at Kroger stores: https://www.consumerreports.org/money/questionable-business-practices/kroger-stores-overcharging-shoppers-on-sale-items-a9659540552/
Learn more about UFCW here: https://www.ufcw.org/about/
Related Websites: Bullies at the Table: https://economicrt.org/publication/bullies-at-the-table/
https://foodsleuth.transistor.fm
THIS WAY OUT #1952: Queer News in TikTok Times & global LGBTQ news! (00:28:59)
Queer news Tik-Toks into the future; Britain’s first trans judge fights the U.K. top courts woman definition in the Euro-Court, a gay Jamaican refugee is freed from U.S. ICE custody, Texas university students beat a campus drag ban in a U.S. appeals court, a Florida district judge un-bans books in the state’s classrooms and school libraries, and Florida activists rebuke the DeSantis removal of rainbow crosswalks.
Those stories and more this week when you find This Way Out.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Voting for Democracy (00:58:00)
What solutions can we reach for to hang on to genuine Democracy despite ascendant fascism and oligarchy in America? – a deep dive with Thom’s callers. Plus, Thom reads from the book “How Bernie Won: Inside the Revolution That’s Taking Back Our Country–and Where We Go from Here” by Jeffrey P. Weaver.
CIVIC CIPHER: John Hope Bryant Takes Us Inside the Mind of a Black Capitalist (00:59:00)
Today’s guest is none other than John Hope Bryant – the leading mind of Black wealth in America.
In the first half of the show, we discuss the ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency and the implications of his second term on the wealth of Black Americans. In the second half of the show, we discuss the new normal for Black Americans and what things can and should be done to create meaningful financial inroads without the support of the political system.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 23 (00:30:06)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
CHOOSE TO BE CURIOUS: Curiosity Becomes the Engine for Learning, with Matthias Gruber (00:28:00)
“What the teachers realized was that curiosity became the engine for learning.” ~ Matthias Gruber
This is a wide-ranging and exciting conversation about neuroscientist Matthias Gruber’s ongoing efforts to understand curiosity’s role in learning and memory. There’s a lot here. You may want to listen more than once — I know I did! We talk about his working definition of curiosity; surprising developmental differences in young adolescents’ curiosity, interest and memory; what we do with moment to moment fluctuations in curiosity and interest; building cognitive maps (spoiler alert: we’re not so different from rats); leveraging curiosity in the classroom; the intriguing role of stress tolerance in how curiosity manifests; and how wonderfully humbling it is for neuroscientists to see the real-world impact of their work.
THE BRADCAST: 8/26/2025 Encore: David Doniger of NRDC on Trump EPA’s ‘kill shot’ to rollback ALL climate regulations (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 7-30-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: The Trump Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced plans to rescind the agency’s own scientific ‘endangerment finding’ that underpins virtually all U.S. climate regulations. Essentially ordered by a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the 2009 endangerment finding concluded that climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide present a danger to public health and welfare, requiring the EPA to regulate them emissions under the Clean Air Act. DAVID DONIGER, Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, explains the history of the endangerment finding, the impacts of the Trump EPA’s move, the legal path forward, and much more. Also today: Historic earthquake in Russia triggers worldwide tsunami alerts. Former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she will not run for governor in California.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
TUESDAY 08.26.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Tuesday August 26, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: She lost her Louisiana home to disaster. Now she’s fighting oil and gas companies (00:01:30)
Roishetta Sibley Ozane is helping her community recover from devastating events ” and then take on the fossil fuel industry.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
ENCOURAGEMENTOLOGY: Purpose Isn’t a Title, Its a Tuning Fork (00:30:00)
On this show we’re tuning into something deeper than ambition, goals, or even success – were exploring purpose. But not the kind that fits neatly on a resume or hangs on a nameplate. Purpose Isn’t a Title – Its a Tuning Fork. Its not about what you do, but how in tune you are with who you are – and how that tone carries into the world around you.
MAKING CONTACT: Culture & Spirituality As Substance Use Treatment in Indigenous Communities (Encore) (00:29:00
In the late 1990s, psychologist Dr. Joseph Gone, a professor and member of the Aaniiih Gros Ventre tribe, returned home to the Fort Belknap Reservation in north central Montana. There, he set aside Eurocentric concepts of psychology and instead asked tribal members how mental illness is addressed using traditional Indigenous practices. Listen to find out how he helped bring precolonial cultural and spiritual practices into substance use disorder treatment in contemporary Indigenous settings. This show first aired in July 2024.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Is Truth Dying? (00:58:00)
Journalist Michael Wolff had privileged access to Trump’s White House and to Jeffrey Epstein himself. He joins Thom to discuss what he discovered. Plus – as Trump tightens the fascist grip, reality is being replaced by a world of false charges and fake crises. Do the Democrats have any hope of punching through the king’s lies?
THE CHILDREN’S HOUR: Journalism (00:53:00)
On this episode of The Children’s Hour, we learn what journalism is and how journalists help us understand the world around us. We meet trailblazing reporters, hear from our Kids Crew, and talk with Pulitzer Prize”winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. She shares what it means to be a good journalist, why she started her career, and how young people can begin telling important stories.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 22 (00:30:06)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WITH GOOD REASON Weekly Half Hour: Education for Everyone (00:29:00)
They say around 20% of students in K-12 schools are considered gifted. But identifying giftedness isn’t exactly a precise science. Chandra Floyd breaks down the inequities in gifted education. Plus: Learning to read is one of those magical childhood experiences. Once you figure it out, its like a whole new world opens up! Sean McDonald studies literacy in special education. He says outside of cognitive ability, there are other lesser-known cultural and psychological factors that have a big impact on reading comprehension.
THE BRADCAST: 8/26/2025 Encore: David Doniger of NRDC on Trump EPA’s ‘kill shot’ to rollback ALL climate regulations (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 7-30-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: The Trump Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced plans to rescind the agency’s own scientific ‘endangerment finding’ that underpins virtually all U.S. climate regulations. Essentially ordered by a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the 2009 endangerment finding concluded that climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide present a danger to public health and welfare, requiring the EPA to regulate them emissions under the Clean Air Act. DAVID DONIGER, Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, explains the history of the endangerment finding, the impacts of the Trump EPA’s move, the legal path forward, and much more. Also today: Historic earthquake in Russia triggers worldwide tsunami alerts. Former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she will not run for governor in California.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
MONDAY 08.25.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Monday August 25, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Nearly a year after Helene, Appalachian communities are still recovering (00:01:30)
A grant program in rural Tennessee is helping people rebuild.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
WHEN THE BIOMASS HITS THE WIND TURBINE #64: Early Homes of America (00:29:00)
The myth of the early American home ” log cabin, etc.
Early homes adapted similar to how native Americans lived. Newcomer Wigwam
dugout, cave home
Mayflower pilgrim myths – Squanto
What are all the various types of homes? Wattle and Daub, stone,
Populations of cities ” life in cities.
1862 Homestead Act ” 160 acres, build 8x 10 home in 3 months ” by 1900 there were 600,000 claims
Sod House (soddy)
Claim Shanties
Nebraska style straw bale
Dugout
Keeping Warm ” inefficient fireplaces
Franklin stove, Rumford fireplace, replaced by coal.
https://bluerockstation.podbean.com
ECONOMIC UPDATE: Best of Economic Update Part 4: Today’s Economic Failures (00:29:00)
In this week’s episode of the “Best Of Economic Update Series,” we examine a comparison between the economic failures we face today caused by the same political forces and capitalists that we have encountered before, as well as the causes and effects of economic policies proven to fail.
https://economicupdate.libsyn.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Retribution: FBI Raids John Boltons House (00:58:00)
Say what?! Trump Admin Reviewing ALL 55 Million People With Visas For Possible Deportation Is a 100-seat majority Trump’s redistricting endgame? A New York appellate court says Trumps Organization committed fraud. The Authoritarians Secret Weapon: They Never, Ever Leave Voluntarily.
SPIRIT IN ACTION: Michael Neely Addresses Domestic Violence in His Home, in the Church, in Florida, & in the USA (00:55:00)
Many of us have been deeply concerned about domestic violence and been heart-broken at people we’ve known who’ve suffered, and maybe died, within a violent marriage, unable to leave. Today’s SIA guest is Michael Neely, and he has testifying power about domestic abuse because of his many years in a marriage where he was badly abused. He’ll talk about that today, but you can also find portions in his book, Black Eyes and Sweet Talk. While most violent abuse is male on female, when Michael has shared his story, it has freed so very many women, and also some men, to find a way to freedom from the torment and fear. In particular, Michael has worked to help churches move away from keeping abused spouses in violent marriages. Micheal Neely is co-pastor at University Baptist Church (Tampa), works and has worked with the Spring of Tampa Bay, Alliance for Hope International, FPEDV (Florida Partnership to End Domestic Violence), and links to find help for domestic violence in your area can be found via the National Domestic Violence Hotline (https://www.thehotline.org or call 800-799-7233) and the Family Justice Centers (https://www.allianceforhope.org/family-justice-center-alliance/find-a-center). Thanks to Andrew Janssen for production help on this show. Michael Neely has so much invaluable story to share that we had to cut around 17 minutes from this broadcast version, which you can find in our podcast version on NSR.org. Right now Micheal Neely joins us via Zoom from Tampa, Florida. bPast/present religious/spiritual influences: Baptist, Jehovah Witnesses, Plymouth Brethren, C&MA-Christian and Missionary Alliance
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 21 (00:27:43)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
GREEN STREET with PATTI and DOUG WOOD: Back to School Special (00:29:00)
This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about the fight over banning a pesticide proven to negatively impact the brains of developing babies, a new firefighting foam made from soybeans that can replace hazardous PFAS-laden products, and the collapse of the UN worldwide plastic treaty, thanks in large part to the United States. Then Patti talks about all the decisions parents have to make as their kids head back to school. From school supplies and backpacks to lunchboxes and snacks to the clothes they wear, avoiding plastic as kids head back to school is a daunting task. Tune in and find out what you can do!
https://www.greenstreetnews.org
THE BRADCAST: 8/22/2025 Encore: Aryn Melton Backus of ‘Fired But Fighting’ on RFK’s war on public health (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 8-11-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: Anti-vaccine activist turned Trump Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced $500 million in cuts to advanced mRNA vaccine research that has saved millions of lives, amid deep cuts to public health programs. Then a mass shooter steeped in anti-vaccine disinformation attacked Centers for Disease Control headquarters. ARYN MELON BACKUS, co-founder of Fired but Fighting, a coalition of fired former health workers, discusses the Trump Administration’s steep cuts to public health research and programs, the negative impacts of RFK Jr.’s lies and disinformation about vaccines, and much more. Israel’s military admits it targeted and murdered journalists in Gaza City. Donald Trump lied when he announced plans deploy National Guard to Washington, D.C., where crime rates are now at 30-year lows. Callers weigh in.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
SUNDAY 08.24.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
SCHOLARS’ CIRCLE & THE INSIGHTERS: Scholars Circle Aug 17 25 Palestine statehood recognition, ending the war (00:58:00)
After nearly two years of a war on Gaza, some countries in the west have indicated that they intend to recognize Palestine as its own state. What would such recognitions mean for the conflict and how can the war end?
Omar Dajanhi was part of the Palestinian negotiation team at Camp David II in 2000 and has worked with the UN in peacebuilding initiatives, with a particular emphasis on building legal and judicial reforms in Palestinian governance.
EARTH RIOT RADIO: Hey Big Crowd… Can We Talk? (00:29:00)
The eight of us now in Toronto, our sixth city. The shows are going wonderfully. The essence of our message to the 80,000 people we’ve shouted and preached at so far: the 26 month global heatwave is a “message from Mother Earth”, as Leonard Peltier told us. The Earth is our lead activist. Question: Can we be strange enough to change enough to escape this culture of totalitarian consumerism? Hey all of you: Let’s ask the Earth what work we need to do? Search in the 26 months of record heat for our instruction! Revisit our personal relationship to this hot living thing called Earth!
BARNABY DRUTHERS: Barnaby Druthers: Spilling Tea and More (00:28:00)
Barnaby Druthers: Spilling Tea
Barnaby Druthers: Dear Mister Druthers
and “I Don’t Know How To Tell You This’
https://www.barnabydruthers.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
Best of ATTITUDE with ARNIE ARNESEN August 23, 2025 (00:59:30)
Segment One
We begin the show with Air Force Veteran, Astronaut and now Texas Senate Candidate, Terry Virtz.
Segment Two
We then sit with Anders Croy and discuss the ongoing and horrific human rights abuses in Florida at the detention center called Alligator Alcatraz.
https://www.arniearnesen.org/WP
BACKGROUND BRIEFING with IAN MASTERS: August 21, 2025 (00:59:00)
Trump Patrols the Streets of the Nation’s Capital as he Wages War on the Truth | A Case For a Real Democracy in the U.S.A.
https://www.backgroundbriefing.org
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR: Hospicing Modernity with Vanessa Machado de Oliveira part 1 (00:59:00)
Vanessa Machado de Oliveira is a professor at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change, and is a founding member of the GTDF collective, and Weaving the Web of 5 Cures; currently directing research projects and learning initiatives in collaboration with Indigenous communities in Canada and Latin America related to global healing and well-being in these times of unprecedented challenges, and she’s the author of the groundbreaking book Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. This is the first half of the interview. It will conclude next week.
DEEP DIVE CYBERSECURITY SHOW: The Society-Wide Problem With AI (00:58:00)
Elon Musk’s Grok AI has a crazy conspiracist persona that is indicative of all that is wrong with how society is adopting AI, as it will literally create more division in multiple countries. We explore how AI is trained, its biases and what we can actually do about this immediate disinformation and political threat, plus so much more critical information. Please don’t miss this one.
SATURDAY 08.23.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
TECHTONIC with MARK HURST: Sara Clemens and Stu Horvath fill in, with guest Brendan Keogh, author, The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist (00:59:30)
In July, the NYT ran a story on the future of generative AI in videogames. Its distortion of pre-programmed avatars like Pac-Man’s ghosts, reveals something about how gen-AI tricks its users. Games researcher Brendan Keogh talks it out with us.
KEEPING DEMOCRACY ALIVE: How Mamdani May Revitalize the Democratic Party (00:59:59)
After 2024, the mainstream of the Democratic Party is in the wilderness, but Zohran Mamdani may lead a way out. This weeks guest Fred Glass, talks about what early 20th century California history can teach us about the 2025 New York City mayors race. The Democratic socialist is connecting and inspiring the people we lost: the working class and especially young men. History has a lot to teach us.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
AGING MATTERS: Relocation Decisions (00:58:00)
Although relocation is often inevitable for older adults, the stress of doing so can prove detrimental to their life satisfaction and longevity. Seniors real estate specialists (SRES) are attuned to the needs and challenges their clients face and can help them make the best decisions. Cathi Coridan, MA, Co-Founder & Co-Chair, Serving Seniors Real Estate Mastermind & Referral Network, talks about issues older adults face when relocating, preparation for the transition, and how a SRES can help, https://sres.realtor/find-an-sres/
https://www.agingmattersonline.com
GROWING GREENER: Americas most beautiful neglected genus of keystone plants (00:29:00)
Nancy DuBrule-Clemente, a pioneer of organic land care, extolls the outstanding aesthetic and ecological contributions of goldenrods, a genus of native flowers too seldom seen in our gardens.
https://www.thomaschristophergardens.com
TUC RADIO: Onkalo “Into Eternity” TUC Radio Archives (00:29:00)
Blasted into bedrock of the island of Olkiluoto in Finland on the shores of the Baltic Sea, Onkalo has to remain secure for 100,000 years. Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen’s documentary of the building in progress of Onkalo is a meditation on eternity, insanity and the impossibility of projecting anything 100,000 years into the future.
The film also proves eloquently and with expert statements the terrible danger that arises from so-called spent nuclear fuel from power plants and makes us see Fukushima with very different eyes. This radio program presents excerpts from the film and its amazing sound design. DATE: film released in 2010
THE BOPST SHOW: Impeach The President (00:54:54)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear the impeach the president funky goodness of the Honeydrippers (twice), DC outsider weirdness from the late great Root Boy Slim, and the dread beat poetry of Linton Kewsi Johnson as well as music by Eddie Palmieri, Eleni Mandell and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR #598 (00:58:00)
Ralph welcomes Ben Cohen (anti-war activist and ice cream entrepreneur) to discuss his new campaign, “Up in Arms,” which advocates for a common-sense Pentagon budget. Then, Ralph speaks to Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi about her recent piece: “When will we finally admit: the Gaza death toll is higher than we’ve been told.”
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com
FRIDAY 08.22.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Friday August 22, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Orphan wells leave toxic legacy across Pennsylvania (00:01:30)
The state has plugged hundreds of the unused wells, but thousands are still leaking dangerous chemicals and climate-warming methane.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
THE LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR: Poems of Work, Songs of Struggle (00:55:00)
On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Poet Martn Espada joins Susan Eisenberg to read from Jailbreak of Sparrows – poems of work, class, and immigrant labor, including Look at This and The Snake. Then we mark the IWWs Little Red Songbook anniversary with four classics: Hold the Fort, The Internationale, Dump the Bosses Off Your Back, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues.
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Trump Just Sent Three US Warships to Venezuela? Distraction from Epstein and Fascist Takeover? (00:58:00)
Did you see that Trump’s new executive order on voting gives him the power to direct states on which votes to count and which to throw away? Why isn’t anybody else talking about this? What JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing is awesome – we need fighters. Phil Ittner – Ukraine Update. Did you know Trump just sent three US warships to Venezuela? Can anybody spell “false flag” distraction from Epstein or his fascist takeover of America? Trump threatens CO over jailing ex-county clerk Tina Peters who tampered with voting machines to prove Trump’s “big lie.”
SEA CHANGE RADIO: Bob Wyss on Black Gold: The Rise, Reign and Fall of American Coal (00:29:00)
In the 1970s, coal fueled over half of the U.S. electric grid. Today, that number has dipped below 10%. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with journalist and author, Bob Wyss, whose new book Black Gold: The Rise, Reign and Fall of American Coal, provides an important retelling of the history of coal in this country. We look at the market forces that shaped coals rise, it’s devastating impact on the environment and human health, and talk about the ludicrous but dangerous attempts by the current Administration to prop up coal even as its on life support.
LAURA FLANDERS AND FRIENDS: Rejecting Fascism Before It’s Too Late Gessen and Stanley’s Warning [rewind] (00:28:00)
What will it take to reject fascism, before it’s too late? Masha Gessen and Jason Stanley are two leading experts on autocracy, and they’re sounding the alarm. They and their families have escaped totalitarian regimes and oppressive governments; today Gessen and Stanley are pulling back the curtain on the attacks against DEI, trans bodies, civil rights, higher education and more. Is authoritarianism here? Masha Gessen is an acclaimed Russian-American journalist, a Polk Award winning opinion writer for the New York Times and the author of “Surviving Autocracy” and The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. Forced to leave Russia twice, in 2024, a Moscow court convicted them, in absentia to eight years in prison for their reporting on the war in Ukraine. Jason Stanley is a best-selling author and professor whose books include Erasing History and “How Fascism Works”. He recently left his teaching position at Yale University to relocate to Canada with his family; noting that he is a child of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany. In this historic conversation ” the first interview between Gessen and Stanley ” the two explore how to be bold in our movements and envision a multi-ethnic democracy. Plus, a commentary from Laura.
THE BOPST SHOW: Impeach The President (00:54:54)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear the impeach the president funky goodness of the Honeydrippers (twice), DC outsider weirdness from the late great Root Boy Slim, and the dread beat poetry of Linton Kewsi Johnson as well as music by Eddie Palmieri, Eleni Mandell and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
THE BRADCAST: 8/22/2025 Encore: Aryn Melton Backus of ‘Fired But Fighting’ on RFK’s war on public health (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 8-11-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: Anti-vaccine activist turned Trump Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced $500 million in cuts to advanced mRNA vaccine research that has saved millions of lives, amid deep cuts to public health programs. Then a mass shooter steeped in anti-vaccine disinformation attacked Centers for Disease Control headquarters. ARYN MELON BACKUS, co-founder of Fired but Fighting, a coalition of fired former health workers, discusses the Trump Administration’s steep cuts to public health research and programs, the negative impacts of RFK Jr.’s lies and disinformation about vaccines, and much more. Israel’s military admits it targeted and murdered journalists in Gaza City. Donald Trump lied when he announced plans deploy National Guard to Washington, D.C., where crime rates are now at 30-year lows. Callers weigh in.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
THURSDAY 08.21.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Thursday August 21, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Training program teaches women how to conduct prescribed burns (00:01:30)
Women make up only about 10% of the fire-related workforce as a whole.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
RADIO ECOSHOCK: Is it already late? Mike MacCracken on Geoengineering now (00:58:00)
One of Americas most eminent climate scientists, Dr. Michael MacCracken says don’t close your ears to Geoengineering. Mike speaks with UK videographer and climate journalist Nick Breeze, in a May 2025 YouTube interview. With Nick’s permission, hear it now. At the end, find other points of view – plus a new song from Radio Ecoshock: Too Late Times.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: The Unsettling of American Politics (00:58:00)
The author of books including Antidemocratic: Inside the Rights 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections, David Daley joins Thom for a deep dive. Will the redistricting fight lead to the restoration… or destruction… of Democracy in America?
RISING UP WITH SONALI – 2025-08-19 (00:58:31)
This week, well go to Texas where Republicans are enacting Donald Trump’s desire to have a GOP controlled House of Representatives by pushing unfairly drawn district maps. Democratic Representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez of District 115 will explain what’s at stake, how she and others are fighting back, and why this is a battle against white supremacy. Then, an activist with the Boycott Home Depot Coalition, Miriam Arghandiwal, will make the case for actions against the hardware chain over its cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Southern California. Finally, well air a conversation with well-known Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour who I spoke with at the recent Netroots Nation conference in New Orleans. Well explore the status of the Palestinian fight for existence in the face of Israeli genocide.
https://risingupwithsonali.com
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 20 (00:27:43)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WINGS #19-25 Galway’s Raging Grannies (00:28:52)
Margaretta D’Arcy is an Irish woman of many talents, one of which is raising hell on behalf of peace. At age 91, she still gets out on the streets in her wheelchair, with her bullhorn, calling Ireland to protect its constitutional neutrality. Here, from our archive, is the radio documentary Margaretta produced for WINGS about founding Ireland’s version of the Raging Grannies.
THE BRADCAST: 8/20/2025 Historian Seth Cotlar on ‘Americanism’ and Trump’s ‘Stalinesque’ plot to whitewash American history (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: The Trump Administration has turned its authoritarian focus onto the independent Smithsonian Institution to ‘ensure alignment’ with Donald Trump’s directive to celebrate ‘Americanism.’ The Organization of American Historians warns the order is ‘in service of authoritarian control over the national narrative.’ Historian SETH COTLAR explains the long, disturbing history of fascistic movements in America, embodied in the phrases ‘Americanism’ and ‘America First,’ and Trump’s ‘Stalinesque’ effort to whitewash U.S. history. Texas Republicans move forward on their extreme gerrymandering scheme to steal U.S. House seats from voters, as both blue and red states examine their own potential redistricting countermeasures. A third federal judge rejected Trump’s attempt to distract from his refusal to release the Epstein Files. A new folk music song hilariously declares that Trump’s Epstein Files problem ‘ain’t gonna go away.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
WEDNESDAY 08.20.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Wednesday August 20, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Global Glacier Casualty List honors ice giants that are melting away (00:01:30)
The website marks the loss of glaciers to global warming.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
FOOD SLEUTH RADIO: Investigative Nutrition with Melinda Hemmelgarn, MS, RD (00:28:00)
Did you know that the food served and sold in prisons and jails contributes to poor mental and physical health? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Daniel Rosen, MA, Co-founder of the Coalition for Carceral Nutrition and Public Health Fellow at the Bard Prison Initiative. Rosen will discuss food and eating conditions in prison and jails, and the food industry that profits from the exploitation of those who are incarcerated. Rosen describes food in prison as dietary malpractice, and describes his personal food experiences while being incarcerated. A TEDx Talk by Lucy Vincent is discussed: Could Healthier Food Solve the Prison Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfItENpMSr8 and Rosens presentation for the Center for Science in the Public Interest is mentioned: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlfRNK0R37M
Related Websites: www.carceralnutrition.org
https://foodsleuth.transistor.fm
THIS WAY OUT #1951: Planet Queer Turns 13 & global LGBTQ news! (00:28:59)
Honoring thirteen years of cabaret play at Planet Queer; foreplay gets gay Indonesian men 80 lashes, an Allah is lesbian t-shirt lands a Moroccan feminist in jail, Nepal carries on with its first post-USAID Kathmandu Pride, trans youth lose gender-affirming healthcare in a second U.S. appeals court, a Virginia school district Trumps the federal trans bathroom ban, and a cis biracial lesbian teen sues a Minnesota eatery over a restroom gender check.
Those stories and more this week when you discover This Way Out. https://www.planetqueer.org/about
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: What Vlad Wants Vlad Gets (00:58:00)
Trump wants Ukraine to abandon its defenses and give Russia much of its land and people. Why in the world is the president of the United States behaving so submissively to the dictator of a minor power?
CIVIC CIPHER: The Resilience of Black Women in America – A Conversation with Areva Martin (00:59:00)
Areva Martin is a Harvard-trained civil rights attorney, author, disability justice advocate, and founder of Special Needs Network. She’s on the front lines of today’s most pressing racial and social justice issues, leading the charge in California’s landmark Palm Springs reparations case and helping Black families navigate systemic barriers in special education. In today’s conversation we cover everything from DEI rollbacks to the intersection of civil rights and disability rights. This inspirational speaker keeps us motivated as we endure a challenging administration and gives us the guidance to be effective in our collective pursuits.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 19 (00:25:28)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
CHOOSE TO BE CURIOUS: Seeing & Being Seen, with Humanitarian Photographer Lisa Kristine (00:28:00)
“Curiosity calls us to be present.” ~ Lisa Kristine Lisa Kristine is a humanitarian photographer and fine artist. She uses her photography to expose deeply human stories and make pictures that tap our curiosity about the people and lives she has documented. We talk about her journey into documenting human trafficking and modern-day slavery, awareness and the importance of pausing, building rapport and reciprocity, visual images taking us from our heads and into our hearts, opportunities to stare, flipping narratives, being present, and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge for the very first time, over and over again.
THE BRADCAST: TX GOP Imprisons Dem State Lawmaker at Capital; Newsmax settles election defamation suit; more (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: Texas Democratic state lawmakers returned to the state capitol, after breaking quorum to prevent Texas Republicans from stealing five U.S. House seats from voters – – then Texas’ authoritarian, Big Government Republicans effectively held Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier prisoner after she refused to sign away her freedoms and consent to a 24/7 police escort. ‘BradCast’ listeners respond to California’s effort to change its voting maps to counter Texas Republicans’ power grab. Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit over the rightwing media outlet’s 2020 election lies. Public TV/radio stations scramble to keep their vital local disaster-warning systems alive in rural areas after Trump and Congressional Republicans rescinded all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Plus Desi Doyen has our new ‘Green News Report.’
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
TUESDAY 08.19.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Tuesday August 19, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Electric car batteries could power both vehicles and the grid (00:01:30)
Massachusetts is testing bidirectional chargers that turn parked EVs into backup energy sources.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
ENCOURAGEMENTOLOGY: Disappointment: Rebuilding Trust with Yourself After Letdowns (00:29:00)
On this show were leaning into the uncomfortable yet universal feeling of disappointment and uncovering how to rebuild trust with yourself after life doesnt go as planned. Its that gut-punch moment when expectations crash into reality, leaving behind a mess of frustration, doubt, and now what? You might feel like youve been knocked off course, your momentum stalled, and your confidence shaken. But what if, instead of seeing disappointment as a dead end, you viewed it as a detour”a nudge toward something you might have missed if things had gone perfectly the first time?
MAKING CONTACT: Crosswinds: Change (00:29:00)
On this weeks show, well continue with the podcast mini-series, Crosswinds from the University of Virginias Repair Lab, which looks at the impact of coal dust pollution on Black neighborhoods in Virginia. In this episode, we’ll listen to how the looming gentrification of a Newport News community might impact the pollution.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Fight Fire with Fire? (00:58:00)
Democrats in California and elsewhere need to recognize that the Supreme Court has changed the rules, and step up the battle before we lose Democracy itself to the fascist takeover.
THE CHILDREN’S HOUR: Birthdays (00:53:00)
Birthdays are something many kids look forward to every year. On this episode of The Children’s Hour, we celebrate everything about birthdays! From candles and cakes to songs, games, and traditions around the globe, our Kids Crew explores what makes a birthday special in different places and cultures. We also find out how birthday customs have changed over time, and where ideas like singing Happy Birthday or hitting a pinata came from.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 18 (00:27:11)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WITH GOOD REASON Weekly Half Hour: Barbie’s Plastic World (00:29:00)
Margot Robbie brought Barbie to life with the 2023 Barbie movie. It was successfully femvertised to women and girls across generations. And not only did they go see the movie, but they made sure that they were seen being a part of Barbies world. They bought a lot of pink, fast fashion pieces to wear to the theatre and film content with and then, they threw it away. But the problem is that a lot of that fast fashion is plastic. Alexandra Villela says that plastic is forever and the landfill tells the story of that Barbie summer. Plus: Advertising firms are starting to use generative AI to make graphics faster and cheaper. Consumers may soon find themselves wondering whats even real. But one things for sure: Meg Michelsen says that consumers want the humans in advertisements to be real. Everything else can be fake.
THE BRADCAST: (00:58:00)
Independent, investigative news, reporting, interviews and commentary.
(episode notes posted when available)
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
MONDAY 08.18.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Monday August 18, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Bowhead whales are losing habitat theyve preferred for 12,000 years (00:01:30)
The whales are typically found in areas of the ocean with 15-30% sea ice cover in the summer months, but the Arctic is changing rapidly as the climate warms.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
WHEN THE BIOMASS HITS THE WIND TURBINE #63: Sustainable Forestry (00:29:28)
Please talk a little about your work with sustainable forestry and how you got involved in that topic.
What’s the first thing I should consider doing if I want my forest land to be more sustainable?
What types of plants should I consider if I want to create a forest garden?
How long does it take for a forest garden to begin producing food?
Are there people I can connect with that could provide me with ongoing advice and expertise in developing a sustainable forest?
Whats the best advice you ever received and how did you use it?
https://bluerockstation.podbean.com
ECONOMIC UPDATE: Best of – Part 3 of 4 (00:29:00)
This week on Economic Update, we take a look back at some of Prof. Wolff’s guest interviews from years past that still echo in today’s global socio-economic setting.
https://economicupdate.libsyn.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Is the Lid Coming Off Inflation? (00:58:00)
People are showing up in Anchorage, Alaska to protest on behalf of Ukraine, Feds make arrests outside Gavin Newsom’s presser – the war is on. Is the lid coming off inflation? Are Americans Being Conditioned by Our Media to Become Good Germans?
SPIRIT IN ACTION: Spirit In Kailash EcoVillage & Paradigm Shift (00:55:00)
Our guest-host today is Jan Spencer and this is his 7th time sharing an episode of Creating A Preferred Future, and this is a rather picturesque guided tour of what kind of change will prepare us for a better future. Many of us have at least ideas of parts of what will make for a healed world in ecological balance, but have are hard time synthesizing the pieces into a coherent picture of life, and so Jan is going to help us do that today. He’ll be voyaging from his home in Eugene, Oregon, up to Portland, Oregon to visit the Kailash Eco Village. You can track down many of Jan’s insights via his YouTube videos and on his website, and those in Eugene Oregon may be able to hear his broadcasts via KEPW. Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Anglican, Non-affiliated
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 17 (00:26:15)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair/
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
GREEN STREET with PATTI and DOUG WOOD: Every Bite You Take: Thriving on a Plant-Based Diet with Dr. Zahra Kassam (00:29:00)
This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about the health hazards of wildfire smoke and how to stay safe, the effort by the United States to undermine a global plastics treaty ahead of the UN conference in Geneva, and the new report showing that Americans are getting a majority of their calories from ultra-processed foods. Then Dr. Zahra Kassam, radiation oncologist and founder of Plant Based Canada, talks about her work educating the public and her patients about the many health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet.
THE BRADCAST: 8/15/2025 Encore: The Prospect’s David Dayen on GOP cuts that are about to cause a ‘catastrophic’ U.S. health care crisis (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 7-28-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: The nation is hurtling toward a Republican-generated health care crisis. Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ budget-busting law slashed more than $1 trillion from Medicaid, but will also trigger automatic cuts to Medicare, and spike the cost of premiums for Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) enrollees, as well, unless Congress passes a fix. Financial journalist DAVID DAYEN, Executive Editor at ‘The American Prospect,’ explains the potentially ‘catastrophic’ impacts that the cuts will have on the entire US healthcare sector and across the economy, and much more. A federal judge blocked Republicans’ attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. The US Supreme Court temporarily blocked a radical appeals court ruling gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
SUNDAY 08.17.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
SCHOLARS’ CIRCLE & THE INSIGHTERS: Aug 10 25 Texas Redisitricting, Grandmothers of Argentina’s disappeared (00:58:00)
First, will Donald Trump’s and the republican party’s efforts to redraw electoral maps give them a permanent majority? Then, during the so called “dirty war,” Argentina’s military dictatorship kidnapped and disappeared its own citizens. But a dedicated group of activists, mothers and grandmothers of the disappeared, dedicated their lives to finding those who were stolen from their families. Who were the Abuelas of the Playa de Mayo? And what happened in their quest to reunite the disappeared with their families? We speak with the author of A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children.
EARTH RIOT RADIO: Leonard Peltier Talks To Us (00:29:00)
In our interview, Leonard says, “Storms are communication from Mother Earth.” He talks with energy and insight, and love, after half a century in political prison. I’m typing here on the bus with seven of us, the Stop Shopping Choir with the Detroit show tomorrow, the next show in the “love earth tour” with Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts. Neil sings, “Love Earth, and your Love comes back to you. It’s such an easy thing to do.” Emma Goldman says, “Love defies laws …the most powerful moulder of human destiny.” The Earth moulds cities, breaks walls, somersaults cars… This is Love that breaks the laws that protect the climate-exploding billionaires. The Earth isn’t afraid of them. The Earth gives us the stormy, fiery force of Love and shows us how to use it.
BARNABY DRUTHERS: Barnaby Druthers: The Disheveled Man (00:28:00)
On board a train south of London, Harper Thorne and Mrs. Kipling attempt to discover the mystery behind the disheveled man.
https://www.barnabydruthers.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
Best of ATTITUDE with ARNIE ARNESEN August 16, 2025 (00:59:30)
Segment One
We begin the show with Ann Johnson, Texas State Representative. We discuss the special legislative session called by Texas governor to redistrict Texas to add five Republican congressional seats. As a means of resistance, the Democrats left the state to deny a quorum. We discuss why, and what the outcome is likely to be.
Segment Two
We then sit with Michael Tomasky, Editor of The New Republic. We discuss the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin, announced as a discussion about the war in Ukraine. We also discuss the impact of Trump on the whole world, through his various policies and actions
https://www.arniearnesen.org/WP
BACKGROUND BRIEFING with IAN MASTERS: August 17, 2025 (00:59:00)
The Shameful Amateurism of Trump’s Reality TV Diplomacy as He Sells Out Ukraine While Fawning Over a Wanted War Criminal | A Specialist on Russian Media on the Summit the Russian Public Saw on Putin-Controlled State Media | The Possibility of Crypto-Corruption Greasing the Skids to the Summit
https://www.backgroundbriefing.org
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR: A Mother’s Journey with her Child’s Gender Transition with Paria Hassouri (00:59:00)
Paria Hassouri is a pediatrician, writer and an activist for transgender rights. She’s also the mother of a transgender child, the challenges and joys of which she writes about in her book, Found in Transition: A Mothers Evolution During Her Child’s Gender Change.
DEEP DIVE CYBERSECURITY SHOW: The FDA’s AI Is Going Get Us Killed (00:58:40)
The FDA’s new AI is being inserted into the approval process for new medications and it’s been caught fabricating studies, misinterpreting meeting conversations and worse… and RFK Jr. wants to use it to speed up the approval process! On top of this, it looks like airlines want to sell our biometrics, a new privacy nightmare of a US Health Database is being built and your AI therapist has no privacy protections. We explore ALL of this and so much more… don’t miss this one!
SATURDAY 08.16.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
TECHTONIC with MARK HURST: Adam Becker, author of More Everything Forever (00:59:30)
Techbro’s plan to escape to Mars, upload their minds, and then colonize the galaxy. Author Adam Becker explains this nonsense in his book More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, & Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity.
KEEPING DEMOCRACY ALIVE: A Blueprint for a Future Israel/Palestine (00:59:55)
Innumerable people have tried over many years to stop the forever wars between Israel and Palestine. With the world now horrified by the use of starvation as a weapon, the urgency of a resolution has never been greater. Even if Israel flattens Gaze and formally annexes the West Bank, there is no victory possible. On this show co-author of the upcoming book From Apartheid to Democracy, a Blueprint for Peace in Israel-Palestine, Michael Omer-Man discusses how it can be done. As he explains, essential to a solution is one justice system for all, where now there are two separate and very unequal systems. Up until now, there’s been a lot of condemnation of what many see as genocide, but no positive steps proposed. Now there is. And it just might work. Of course it’s up to Israelis and Palestinians to make it happen; it can’t be imposed from the outside. Listen in for a bit of reasonable hope.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
AGING MATTERS: Adult Caregiving and Employer Support (00:56:00)
The number of U.S. workers caring for older adults has surpassed those caring for preschool children. Because Americans age 65+ are the fastest-growing segment of the population, the number of elder caregivers will continue to increase. To meet the eldercare challenge, employers must develop new or expanded policies, programs, and benefits. Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, President, The John A. Hartford Foundation, https://www.johnahartford.org/ and Ken Dychtwald, PhD, Founder/CEO, Age Wave, https://agewave.com/ talk about eldercare responsibilities related to caregiving for elder relatives, challenges facing workers who provide eldercare, and elements to be included in a work-life policy.
https://www.agingmattersonline.com
GROWING GREENER: The Path from Traditional Horticulture to Ecological Gardening ” Part Two (00:29:00)
Edwina Von Gal, founder and president of the Perfect Earth Project, completes her interview of Growing Greener host, Tom Christopher, exploring his path to ecological gardening, the hope he finds in the remarkable contributions of young colleagues, and the most effective ways to reach out to the broader gardening public.
https://www.thomaschristophergardens.com
TUC RADIO: Timothy Mousseau: Chernobyl and Fukushima ” Biological Implications of radiation – TUC Archives (00:29:00)
The team studies birds, insects, microbes, and plants at over 1,000 sites, returning year after year. They found significantly increased rates of genetic damage.
When the biologist, Professor Tim Mousseau, concluded this talk by showing heartbreaking pictures of the birds of Chernobyl and their tumors and birth defects, the physician and anti nuclear campaigner Dr. Helen Caldicott stepped up to the podium to thank him. She said: I want to pay homage to Tim Mousseau, who with his colleagues is actually endangering his life by going into extremely high radioactive areas doing pioneering work, which is going to change the concept of radiation exposure to humans. What is happening to the animals, the insects and the plants is going to happen to us.
THE BOPST SHOW: Impeach The President (00:54:54)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear the impeach the president funky goodness of the Honeydrippers (twice), DC outsider weirdness from the late great Root Boy Slim, and the dread beat poetry of Linton Kewsi Johnson as well as music by Eddie Palmieri, Eleni Mandell and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR #597 (00:58:00)
Ralph devotes the entire program to challenging the official count of 60 thousand fatalities reported so far in the genocide Israel, aided and abetted by the United States, has perpetrated on the Palestinians in Gaza. First, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who volunteered twice in Gaza hospitals, presents the various studies that revise estimates into the hundreds of thousands. Then weapons expert, Professor Theodore Postol, backs that up with his knowledge of the destructive power of the weapons being used and the photographic evidence of the rubble.
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/
FRIDAY 08.15.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Friday August 15, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Goodwills Clean Tech Accelerator trains people for clean energy jobs (00:01:30)
The program offers paid training in solar installation, EV charger maintenance, heat pump installation, and more.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
THE LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR: How We Get Free ” Naomi R. Williams on Worker Solidarity in Racine (00:55:00)
On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour, scholar and creator Shana L. Redmond sits down with Naomi R. Williams, Assistant Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University, to discuss her new book A Blueprint for Worker Solidarity: Class Politics and Community in Wisconsin.
Williams takes us into the history of Racine, Wisconsin ” a small industrial city where, in the 1970s and 80s, workers built cross-racial, cross-sector alliances that transformed their community. From total person unionism to coalitions linking labor, civil rights, and women’s movements, Racine’s story offers a powerful blueprint for building democracy and justice today. This episode also features John Lewis Says Freedom, a brand-new song from musical storyteller and political satirist Charlie King.
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Russia, Russia, Russia (00:58:00)
Thom deep-dives with author and former naval officer Malcolm Nance on Trump, Putin, and American fascism. Then Phil Ittner checks in live from Kiev with the latest events there. Is Trump defending- or betraying- the freedom of the Ukrainian nation? Plus – Are Trump and Putin looking to Gaza as the blueprint for a captive Ukraine?
SEA CHANGE RADIO: Tyeshia Wilson and Alex Kotch on Charitable Giving (00:29:00)
This week we dip into the Sea Change Radio archives to re-explore two discussions about charitable giving. First, we speak with Tyeshia Ty Wilson, the Director of Engagement at a nonprofit called Philanthropy Together whose mission is to advance charitable giving that is people-centered and equitable. We learn all about giving circles, how her organization facilitates them, and the importance of Black-led collective giving. Then we turn our attention to learn more about the financial instrument known as a donor advised fund or DAF, from journalist Alex Kotch. We examine the role of DAF fiduciary sponsors, particularly big investment firms like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab and explore the question of who should be held accountable when a donor advised fund facilitates donations to red-flagged hate groups.
LAURA FLANDERS AND FRIENDS: Reflecting on Selma: How Civil Rights Leaders and Activists See the Fight for Justice Today (00:28:00)
60 years ago in Selma, Alabama, state troopers beat peaceful protesters bloody on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they marched for civil rights. The horror of Bloody Sunday and the resilience of the Civil Rights Movement ultimately led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and many of the landmark achievements that are now directly under attack. As civil rights activists look to history to understand ” and prepare for ” the present, Laura walks the Bridge and talks with, among others, Sheyann Webb Christburg, who marched at the age of eight, Black Voters Matter co-founders LaTosha Brown and Clifford Albright; law professor and author Kimberl Williams Crenshaw and Maya Wiley, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. What does people power look like today? Plus, a commentary from Laura on name calling then and now.
THE BOPST SHOW: Long Division (00:55:14)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear the modern garage psychedelic pop of Mattiel, the Nigerian trances of Tal National and the 70s funk of Dennis Coffey as well as music by Dr. Alimantado, 5 All-Star Guitars and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
THE BRADCAST: 8/14/2025 Newsom Unveils ‘Election Rigging Response Act’; Guest Sue Wilson on FCC License Renewal for Sinclair’s Sock Puppets (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: At a lively rally in Los Angeles, California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled the Election Rigging Response Act, to push back against the attempt by Donald Trump and Republicans to re-gerrymander Texas’ U.S. House map in order to steal five seats from largely minority voters. Award-winning veteran journalist-turned-media reform champion SUE WILSON of the Media Action Center explains the latest bizarre twist in the long-running challenge to hold rightwing media giant Sinclair Broadcasting, one of the largest broadcasting conglomerates in the U.S., accountable for violating FCC limits on media ownership through secretly owing additional ‘sock puppet’ TV stations in cities around the country. Plus Desi Doyen has our latest ‘Green News Report.’
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
THURSDAY 08.14.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Thursday August 14, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: An Alabama program paid homeowners to fortify their roofs. It paid off (00:01:30)
The program, funded by insurance companies, helped homes better withstand a 2020 hurricane, a recent study found.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
RADIO ECOSHOCK: Hazards of Wildfire Smoke (new) (00:58:00)
Hundreds of millions of people suffer as wildfire smoke fills cities. New science reveals what is in that smoke, from heavy metals to exotic chemicals – leading to brain damage and early death. Toxic smoke: analysis and interviews with experts in this special edition of Radio Ecoshock.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: American Troops Face a New Enemy- American Citizens (00:58:00)
Kymone Freeman of We Act Radio joins Thom from Washington, DC. As the first troops hit the ground, does Trump have any interest in solving crime?- or is this just an obviously fascist move?
RISING UP WITH SONALI – 2025-08-12 (00:58:30)
This week, I’ll bring you interviews from the 20th annual Netroots Nation conference, which was held in New Orleans last week. First, California Attorney General Rob Bonta will address how and why his office has sued Donald Trump’s administration dozens of times and what it means for the federal government to violate court orders against indiscriminate and racist ICE raids. Then, well turn to SEIU California president David Huerta, who was arrested by ICE in June and faces felony charges. In one of the first interviews he’s given since his release, Huerta will address how and why Los Angeles has risen up against immigration agents. Finally, grassroots activist and author Jay Ponti will discuss why the Democratic Party machine is uniting against its most exciting and visionary candidate in years – New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani – and how to beat back the consultant cadre.
https://risingupwithsonali.com
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 16 (00:24:48)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WINGS #18-25 Water Privatization in Kenya (00:28:47)
Kenyan feminist political ecologist Ruth Nyambura is the Convenor of Ramani -The African Ecofeminist Collective. She is the guest on this episode of the Detroit-based podcast Water Wednesday. She puts water privatization into a context of colonial capitalism, national debt, and the harsh conditions imposed by the IMF and World Bank forcing capitulation to capitalist takeover of all the resources of the people’s commons. And notes that following these orders actually increases national debt. She adds ways to work on reclaiming our commons around the world. The hosts chime in, too.
THE BRADCAST: 8/13/2025 Fred Bauer on how to move beyond the Gerrymandering Wars (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: Republicans used to pretend to oppose ‘big government tyranny’ but now they embrace it, as Donald Trump deploys the U.S. military on American streets in Los Angeles and the nation’s capital. A court trial is now underway to determine the legality of Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard. ‘Liberal Redneck’ comedian Trae Crowder delivers sharp comments on Trump’s ‘soft-launch of martial law.’ Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatens to escalate his gerrymandering scheme to steal far more than five U.S. House seats from voters if Democratic governors respond in kind. How do we end the Gerrymandering Wars? Conservative writer FRED BAUER has some ideas, like proportional representation, expanding the U.S. House, and other structural reforms in which he believes it is possible that ‘everyone wins,’ and much more. https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
WEDNESDAY 08.13.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Wednesday August 13, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: An Alabama program paid homeowners to fortify their roofs. It paid off (00:01:30)
The program, funded by insurance companies, helped homes better withstand a 2020 hurricane, a recent study found.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
FOOD SLEUTH RADIO: Breastfeeding (00:28:00)
Did you know that breastfeeding may be the biological norm, but it is a learned skill for both mothers and babies. Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Jennifer Smilowitz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension in the Department of Nutrition, at the U. of CA, Davis, and Director of Scientific and Strategic Development for the International Milk Genomics Consortium. Smilowitz will discuss the multiple benefits of breastfeeding for maternal, child and planetary health, the policies needed to support breastfeeding, and how breast milk uniquely protects infants’ health as well as contributes to sustainability and community resilience. Note: August is World Breastfeeding Month Related Websites: https://www.milkgenomics.org/splash/
https://foodsleuth.transistor.fm
THIS WAY OUT #1950: Sex Law Victory in St. Lucia & more global LGBTQ news! (00:28:59)
A Caribbean coalition defeats anti-queer colonialism; the U.S. Air Force cheats departing trans troops out of retirement benefits, a majority of surveyed Chinese people support LGBTQ rights, New Hampshire Republicans rob trans youth of gender-affirming care, Massachusetts strengthens trans and reproductive healthcare protections, a U.S. appeals court sites Skrmetti to uphold Oklahoma’s pediatric trans healthcare ban, and a lesbian priest is elected to clean up the Church of Wales.
Those stories and more this week when you choose This Way Out.
[Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality/ECADE = https://ecequality.org/]
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Flooding the Zone, Occupying DC (00:57:59)
Can Trump make everyone forget his long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein by putting troops on the ground in our nation’s capitol city?
CIVIC CIPHER: Who Pays When DEI Disappears and Voting Power Is Stripped? / Black Creators Choosing Community Over Corporate Gatekeeping (00:59:00)
In the first half of today’s program, we discuss the overlooked merits of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and how they benefit a company’s bottom line. We also discuss the implications of a disenfranchised voter base and how these things can – and are shaping society. In the second half of the show, we discuss the importance of speaking truth to power. We delve into the recent DEI rollbacks from Google and highlight some of the creators that are pushing back against the normalization of these divisive undertakings.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 15 (00:35:44)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
CHOOSE TO BE CURIOUS: Making Sense: Curiosity & Smell, with Venkatesh Murthy (00:28:00)
Lean into the language of smell with me: we sniff things out, we follow a scent. We’re nosey!
Is this not curiosity, enacted? Embodied!? So what do we know about our sense of smell, and might studying it offer insights into the way our brains explore, learn and remember? Venkatesh Murthy studies smell. We have fun considering the many facets of smell, the merits of mice, the mysteries of memory, and two pungent truths: the perfume industry is huge and, ultimately, what matters most is survival. “I don’t know if it’s lack of experience and us just not being deliberate about it, versus there’s a fundamental brain limitation. Could be either, but we don’t know.” ~ Venkatesh Murthy
THE BRADCAST: 8/12/2025 It’s Not About the Rule of Law, It’s About Authoritarian Control (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: Donald Trump’s latest stunt to deploy U.S. military troops on American streets against Americans citizens has nothing to do with law and order and everything to do with authoritarian control by a wannabe tyrant. Trump has ignored multiple mass shootings across the country, sprung a triple-murderer from prison, lied about crime rates in the nation’s capital to justify deploying the National Guard, and threatens to send more troops into other Democratically-run cities. Internal documents reveal the Pentagon plans to create a quick ‘reaction force’ of US troops to deploy to U.S. cities. A federal judge excoriated the Trump Justice Department’s attempts to mislead the public about the Epstein Files. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to steal even more seats from voters. Plus Desi Doyen has our new ‘Green News Report.’
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
TUESDAY 08.12.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Tuesday August 12, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Why you might get bumped from a flight during a heat wave (00:01:30)
Hot air makes it harder for engines to get a plane airborne ” a problem that is set to get more common as the climate warms.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
ENCOURAGEMENTOLOGY: Information Overload: Finding Peace in a World That Won’t Stop Talking (00:29:00)
On this show we’re exploring the exhausting reality of modern communication and asking: how do we find peace in a world that won’t stop talking? Every ping, ding, scroll, and swipe chips away at your attention. You’re bombarded with messages – from friends, strangers, brands, and bots. You’re constantly evaluating: Is this urgent? Is it true? Is it for me? Even before you form a thought, you’re nudged to like, reply, share, or shut down. And in the middle of all that noise, its easy to lose your own voice or, worse, your sense of peace.
MAKING CONTACT: Geraldine’s Story: How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia (Encore) (00:29:00)
Black students with dyslexia all too often carry a heavy burden in our public schools. This documentary centers around a grandmother who fought for years to get her grandkids ” particularly her grandson ” properly assessed for dyslexia. Like too many African American boys, Geraldine Robinson’s grandson had been erroneously labeled with an intellectual disability and deprived of proper reading remediation.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: The Brainwashing of My Country (00:58:00)
Does brain science show that the fans of right-wing media are already primed to enjoy the suffering of others?
Plus- As Trump strengthens his grip on our capitol, and distracts us from the Epstein files, is this a win-win for fascism?
THE CHILDREN’S HOUR: Every Kid Outside (00:53:00)
Have you ever wished your classroom could be outside? On this episode of The Children’s Hour, we explore what happens when kids learn in the open air. We visit summer programs across New Mexico where children share how nature helps them feel strong, calm, and curious. We learn how sunshine, trees, birds, and even raindrops can teach us important lessons. The organization Environmental Education of New Mexico wants to make outdoor learning part of every school day for all students.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 14 (00:56:01)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WITH GOOD REASON Weekly Half Hour: Mapping the New World (half) (00:28:58)
After the long French and Indian War, British surveyors fanned out to create maps of their new frontier territories so they could better control the unruly colonists. Max Edelson is author of The New Map of Empire. Plus: A spin through early American Cartographic History by Cassandra Farrell. She describes one map created by Captain John Smith and another by the father of Thomas Jefferson.
THE BRADCAST: ‘BradCast’ 8/11/2025 (Guest: Aryn Melton Backus of ‘Fired But Fighting’ on RFK’s war on public health) (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: Anti-vaccine activist turned Trump Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced $500 million in cuts to advanced mRNA vaccine research that has saved millions of lives, amid deep cuts to public health programs. Then a mass shooter steeped in anti-vaccine disinformation attacked Centers for Disease Control headquarters. ARYN MELON BACKUS, co-founder of Fired but Fighting, a coalition of fired former health workers, discusses the Trump Administration’s steep cuts to public health research and programs, the negative impacts of RFK Jr.’s lies and disinformation about vaccines, and much more. Israel’s military admits it targeted and murdered journalists in Gaza City. Donald Trump lied when he announced plans deploy National Guard to Washington, D.C., where crime rates are now at 30-year lows. Callers weigh in.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
MONDAY 08.11.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Monday August 11, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: A health group launched a climate education course. 3,000 nurses signed up. (00:01:30)
The Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education offers online resources and a free virtual course so nurses can help their patients stay safe as the climate changes.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
WHEN THE BIOMASS HITS THE WIND TURBINE #62: Innovations in Solar Power (00:29:00)
What is solar doing at the moment?
What are some innovations happening NOW
Perovskite
Solar skin (similar to Ad wrap on bus windows) ” adds cost, output?
Longer Life (6-8% loss over 30 years, 85% recycled)
Bifacial Panels (output 25% more, cost reduction 20% per watt)
Robot Cleaning (waterless, low rainfall areas, up to 35% more production)
Smart Inverters
Floating Arrays (10% increase because of cooling)
What are coming?
Solar Fabric (10-15 W per sq ft)
Transparent Solar (now 9.8% efficient, UV and Infrared) coat existing glass
Organic solar (bacteria based)
Battery Innovations
Lithium Ion cost only 15% of 8 years ago
Flow batteries
Liquid metal
Salt Water
Bad Ideas
Space Based Solar
Solar Roads
Wearable Solar
Efficiency not an issue
https://bluerockstation.podbean.com
ECONOMIC UPDATE: Best Of Series Part 2: The Most Viewed Updates (00:29:00)
This week on Economic Update, we revisit two of the most viewed episodes of Economic Update. The first features Professor Wolff’s analysis of the key changes driving the emergence of a new economic world order, and the second provides a look at the causes and effects of China’s economic achievements.
https://economicupdate.libsyn.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour (00:58:00)
E. Jean Carroll joins Thom with the story of how she stood up to the bully- and won. Is it time for lovers of Democracy to do the same before oligarchy takes permanent root? Plus – why are the Epstein conspirators trying to ‘muzzle’ the Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino? And, Thom reads from “Trump U. – My Battle with Trump University” by Stephen Gilpin.
SPIRIT IN ACTION: Fighting Afghan Daughters for Sale with Rap: Sonita Alizada (00:55:00)
Sonita Alizada grew up in Afghanistan under that Taliban, and then later in Iran, in a culture where females faced all kinds of trials, including forced marriage for young girls, and much more. Sonita found refuge and nurture via education by NGOs working in Iran, and through which she discovered a talent as a rap artist, with songs like Daughters For Sale. These and many more stories are told in her new book, SONITA: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom. The wild rise of her music has given her an ever-larger platform for her work for gender equality, combining her voice as a rapper and an activist, what she calls a raptivisit. Although she thrived during her high school and college education in the USA, she resides in Europe, visiting her family regularly in Canada, where they were able to immigrate.
Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Muslim, Non-affiliated
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 13 (00:22:39)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
GREEN STREET with PATTI and DOUG WOOD: Every Bite You Take: Thriving on a Plant-Based Diet with Dr. Zahra Kassam (00:29:00)
This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about the health hazards of wildfire smoke and how to stay safe, the effort by the United States to undermine a global plastics treaty ahead of the UN conference in Geneva, and the new report showing that Americans are getting a majority of their calories from ultra-processed foods. Then Dr. Zahra Kassam, radiation oncologist and founder of Plant Based Canada, talks about her work educating the public and her patients about the many health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet.
https://www.greenstreetnews.org
THE BRADCAST: 8/8/2025 Encore: Texas Dem lawmakers flee to block GOP gerrymandering scheme; Callers ring in (00:56:30)
Encore: original airdate 8-4-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: Democratic state lawmakers in Texas are fighting for democracy for ALL of us, no matter where we live or our political party affiliations. Texas Democrats have fled the state to deny Texas Republicans the quorum they need to ram through a mid-decade re-gerrymandering of U.S. House maps to steal five seats from Democratic-leaning voters. Republicans clearly feel they can’t win on policy, so they are rigging the 2026 midterm elections, with help from the corrupted, activist Republican U.S. Supreme Court majority. Democratic governors are investigating avenues to respond in kind to the Republicans’ scheme to steal the 2026 election from voters. Callers weigh in.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
SUNDAY 08.10.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
SCHOLARS’ CIRCLE & THE INSIGHTERS: Aug 03 25 Public media funding cuts (00:58:00)
Congress has now clawed back the funding it had allocated for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. What does this mean for the future of publicly funded broadcasting in the USA? How will it affect news, public affairs and other vital information delivery? We will explore the role of public broadcasting in a democracy. What role does money play at ensuring an independent media? What is the status of public funding and even government owned media throughout the democratic world?
EARTH RIOT RADIO: Waiting for Neil (00:29:00)
We have the sensation that a general gravity is pulling us toward a highway. Ashtrays and lamps and pillows are sliding in the direction of the Hollywood Bowl. Soon we are being pulled down a special kind of highway that has truck stops and rest areas. When we stop, we turn, and to our astonishment, there are huge crowds that look at us as they wait for Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts to emerge from the men’s bathroom. While they wait, there are songs about the Earth and a shouting man who is wearing a suit like a southern preacher. He doesn’t make sense. He says, “The Earth is Alive!”
BARNABY DRUTHERS: Barnaby Druthers: The Mousetrap plus The Magician’s Last Act (00:28:00)
A newly edited version of the classic Druthers tale with updated music plus a new short story “The Magician’s Last Act”
https://www.barnabydruthers.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
Best of ATTITUDE with ARNIE ARNESEN August 9, 2025 (00:59:30)
Segment One
We begin the show with Matt Angle, the founder and director of the Lone Star Project, Angle has won a reputation as a shrewd and practical problem solver. We discuss the gerrymandering in Texas, and the actions of the Texas Legislature Democrats who have left Texas to protest the assault on minority voters proposed by the Republicans to create five new districts to benefit Republicans and freeze out minority voters.
Segment Two
We then sit with Nicole Foy, who writes for ProPublica. We discuss the violence displayed by ICE when kidnapping and imprisoning people suspected of being aliens. This is especially true when people are being taken from their vehicles. Bystanders are also being threatened and intimidated.
https://www.arniearnesen.org/WP
BACKGROUND BRIEFING with IAN MASTERS August 10, 2025 (00:59:00)
Yet Another Sellout by Trump to His Handler Putin | Since Zelensky Will Have to Reject Trump’s Phony Peace Deal, Will That Be Trump’s Excuse to Abandon Ukraine? | Gabbard’s Ridiculous Revisionist History Aimed to Please the Liar-in-Chief
https://www.backgroundbriefing.org
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR: A Magical Mystery Tour of Creative Chaos Through Music, Spoken Word, Story & More (00:59:00)
This week’s show features an audio collage of creative chaos with music, spoken word, stories and creative mashups, with a piece by Terrence McKenna at the end.
DEEP DIVE CYBERSECURITY SHOW: The FDA’s AI Is Going Get Us Killed (00:58:40)
The FDA’s new AI is being inserted into the approval process for new medications and it’s been caught fabricating studies, misinterpreting meeting conversations and worse… and RFK Jr. wants to use it to speed up the approval process! On top of this, it looks like airlines want to sell our biometrics, a new privacy nightmare of a US Health Database is being built and your AI therapist has no privacy protections. We explore ALL of this and so much more… don’t miss this one!
SATURDAY 08.09.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
TECHTONIC with MARK HURST: (00:59:30)
Novelist Ed Park returns to Techtonic to discuss his new short story collection, An Oral History of Atlantis. Imaginative scenarios abound, from a mythical island, to 90’s internet culture, to a story entirely about passwords & security questions.
KEEPING DEMOCRACY ALIVE: Of All The Crises, the Food Crisis May Be the Toughest to Resolve (00:59:54)
It’s not in the headlines like starvation in Gaza, but in focusing on the billions facing food insecurity or worse, our guest today points out that the world is enacting policies to reduce food production on agricultural lands diverting way too much to make biofuels. And he says while the environmental movement is well-intentioned, it is exacerbating the mounting crisis. Meanwhile Trump’s playing his weird games with tariffs will only make it worse. On this show, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics Richard J. Sexton talks about his new book FOOD FIGHT: Misguided Policies, Supply Challenges, and the Impending Struggle to Feed a Hungry World. As with the climate crisis, which the world has known about for over 50 years but swept it under the rug, we have to ask if it might be any different this time? A solution is possible. Give a listen.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
AGING MATTERS: Aging in Place Housing Options (00:58:00)
For older adults, aging in place means remaining in their homes and communities rather than moving into a residential care facility. A range of creative housing options designed with the unique needs of older adults in mind are becoming available in communities. Michael Bouchard, Management Consultant and Member, Arlington VA Commission on Aging, talks about the need for older adults to plan ahead when considering aging in place and selecting a housing option that helps them maintain independence as long as possible.
https://www.agingmattersonline.com
GROWING GREENER: The Path from Traditional Horticulture to Ecological Gardening ” Pt.1 (00:29:00)
Edwina Von Gal, founder and president of the Perfect Earth Project, interviews Growing Greener host, Tom Christopher, about what led him from an education steeped in traditional gardening to helping found ecological gardening in the United States.
https://www.thomaschristophergardens.com
TUC RADIO: Nuclear War – Annie Jacobsen’s Reasons for Peace (00:29:00)
The investigative journalist and acclaimed author, specializing in weapons and war, Annie Jacobsen, has come closer than other investigators to the razor edge of secrecy that surrounds the current nuclear war machine. Her book, Nuclear War, is based on hundreds of interviews with war planners and engineers – plus recently declassified documents.
BOPST Show: I Know (00:56:43)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear Nigerian legend Fela Kuti, the late great rock surrealism of David Lynch and the 70s soulful goodness of Ace Spectrum as well as music by Winnetka Bowling League, Jackie Mitt and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR # 596 (00:58:00)
Ralph welcomes labor organizer Chris Townsend to discuss the current state of the labor movement under the second Trump administration. Then, Ralph talks to journalist Mariah Blake about PFAS and her new book They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals.
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com
FRIDAY 08.08.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Friday August 8, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: An overlooked benefit of telemedicine: It can reduce climate pollution (00:01:30)
When health workers provide care by phone or internet, fewer people need to drive their cars to the doctors office.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
THE LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR: From Tolpuddle to Texas & Frisco: Labors Long Ride (00:55:00)
On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: We kick off with Billy Bragg singing Power in a Union at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival and end with his moving anthem Help Save the Youth of America. In between, we explore labor solidarity from the streets of San Francisco’s LaborFest to the windswept plains of Texas, where cowboys once went on strike. Plus: labor poetry, cooperative alternatives, and Rick Smith on Reagan vs. PATCO. Music, memory, and the power of collective action – all in one hour.
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Can Rogan Bury the Epstein Story? (00:58:00)
Distractions aren’t working to bury the truth about Trump and Epstein- can JD Vance recruit Joe Rogan to help flood the zone and finally change the subject?
SEA CHANGE RADIO: John Stoehr: Can Dems Fight Fire With Fire? (00:29:00)
A recent Gallup poll found that, as is often the case early in a Republican presidency, Democratic Party affiliation has increased over the past few months, giving Democrats an edge. Paradoxically, the same poll shows the Democratic Party to be quite unpopular at the moment, particularly among Democrats themselves. This week on Sea Change Radio, we welcome John Stoehr of The Editorial Board back to the program to talk about the sad state of American politics. We focus much of this wide-ranging discussion on strategies that Democrats should employ to wrestle away the authoritarian grip that the MAGA right currently has on this country. We touch upon the real-world impacts of kitchen-table economic issues created by tariffs, and look at how Dems should be fighting GOP redistricting schemes.
LAURA FLANDERS AND FRIENDS: Louisiana Survived Katrina. Will it Survive the Petrochemical Industry? (00:28:00)
Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to strike the United States, killing 1,833 people, displacing hundreds of thousands more and causing more than $100 billion in damage. Louisianans wanted change and climate action, but 20 years on, a state ravaged by climate disasters is now ground zero for a whole new kind of storm: liquified natural gas facilities. The Trump administration okayed several new LNG plants on the Gulf this year, but residents are still picking up the pieces after the first LNG plants entered their neighborhood under Democratic administrations. In this episode, Laura speaks to Louisianans whose lives have been turned upside down by the expansion of LNG exports, and an expert who says minority communities benefit little from the jobs in the petrochemical facilities that surround them, yet suffer disproportionate pollution effects. Their message? Climate refugees exist in the U.S., and there will be more: Wake up, open your eyes!
BOPST Show: I Know (00:56:43)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hearNigerian legend Fela Kuti, the late great rock surrealism of David Lynch and the 70s soulful goodness of Ace Spectrum as well as music by Winnetka Bowling League, Jackie Mitt and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
THE BRADCAST: 8/7/2025 Trump’s Wars against clean, renewable energy and American democracy on VRA’s 60th Anniv. (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: Donald Trump is escalating his many wars on Americans, American values, democracy, voting rights, and the planet itself. In Texas, cheap renewable energy prevented blackouts during record electricity demand as coal/gas plants tripped offline. The Trump Administration is escalating its war on renewable energy, while Energy Sec. Chris Wright removed congressionally-mandated National Climate Assessments from government websites and promoted a bogus climate science deniers’ report to justify overturning climate regulations. Texas Republicans’ escalated their threats to arrest Democratic lawmakers blocking their attempt to gerrymander and steal 5 U.S. House seats from voters. Republicans’ attacks on democracy and voting rights shamefully coincide with the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Plus Desi Doyen has our new ‘Green News Report
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
THURSDAY 08.07.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Thursday August 7, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: 4 billion people experienced a whole extra month of extreme heat in the past year (00:01:30)
It’s the direct result of human-caused climate change.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
RADIO ECOSHOCK: Fear, Fire and Floods (New) (00:58:00)
Its almost as though extreme heat and heavy rains amplify one another. As we hear in a new conversation with guest Jan Umsonst in Germany – that is exactly what is happening. Jan explains why with new science. Alex covers breaking science on extremes happening now: fires, flash floods and record smashing heat around the world.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: What Breaks Oligarchy (00:58:00)
As the Trump clown show rolls on, can ‘We, the People’ ever claw back power and rebuild the middle class?
Plus- Thom reads from “Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression ” and the Unexpected Solutions” by Johann Hari
RISING UP WITH SONALI – 2025-08-05 (00:58:30)
This week, well take a look at the recent firing of a commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose economic analysis on the jobs market contradicted Donald Trump’s claims of growth. Kobie Christian from the group Unrig Our Economy will be my guest. And he’ll also share with us a new online tool allowing people to measure inflation in grocery prices in their own states. It’s called Don’t Inflate Our Plates. Then well turn to Anoa Changa, a narrative strategist and southern-movement journalist, who just wrote a piece for News One about American Eagles controversial ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney and her desire to showcase her so-called great genes/jeans. Anoa will delve into the history of eugenics in the US, and debunk claims of innocence by the ads defenders. Finally, well take a deep dive into prison rehabilitation with regular correspondent Dortell Williams. Dortell is serving a life sentence in California without parole and hell analyze what prison rehab is, why it doesn’t work, what does work, and how it can be implemented.
https://risingupwithsonali.com
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 12 (00:20:07)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WINGS # 17-25 The Story of The Story of Stuff (00:29:00)
The Story of Stuff started as a single animated video about economy, consumption, and environment. As of 2025, it is still collaboratively producing and sharing a large cache of well-researched-and-presented stories. Allison Cook, spoke to WINGS contributor Kellia Ramares-Watson in 2011 about their history, aims and process, and how they spread clear information across cultures and around the world. Excerpts from their first film make this show quite lively. More: storyofstuff.org
THE BRADCAST: 8/6/2025 Guest: Timothy Karr of Free Press on corporate media capitulation (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: The nation’s founders saw the free press as a key bulwark against monarchs and tyrants, protecting it in the Constitution. But 250 years later, authoritarian Donald Trump and Republicans have launched an unprecedented assault on the freedom of the press. Corporate media companies have largely rolled over and capitulated to Trump’s bogus attacks. TIMOTHY KARR of Free Press explains his new report, ‘A More Perfect Media: Saving Americas Fourth Estate from Billionaires, Broligarchy and Trump,’ on the chilling state of our formerly free press, their new Media Capitulation Index, solutions to restoring press freedom, and much more. Anti-vaccine activist and HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced he is ending federal funding and development of new, groundbreaking mRNA vaccines. Plus: state and local election results this week offer some hopeful news for democracy.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
WEDNESDAY 08.06.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Wednesday August 6, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Over 50 million Americans struggle to pay an energy bill (00:01:30)
Proposed cuts to the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program may leave people without heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
FOOD SLEUTH RADIO: Tim Schwab, investigative journalist and author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire, questions the influence of the Gates Foundations philanthropy (00:28:00)
Did you know that the Bill Gates Foundation has tremendous influence over global health, journalism, and agricultural policy? join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Tim Schwab, investigative journalist and author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire. Schwab critically examines the influence and impacts of the Gates Foundations philanthropy, as well as how to build a movement against oligarchy. Schwab explains how Gates has successfully paved the way for corporate capture of public goods, and that many of his ventures have ended in failure, leaving communities worse off. Web: https://timschwab.substack.com/about
https://foodsleuth.transistor.fm
THIS WAY OUT #1949: Jamison Green and the History of Trans Medicine & global LGBTQ news! (00:28:59)
Jamison Green tracks the history of transgender medicine; a Caribbean high court tosses Saint Lucia’s anti-queer sex laws, Cuba approves legal gender change without surgery, a world record-breaking crowd marches for Existence and Resistance at London’s Trans+ Pride, Berlins Christopher Street Day Parade includes protests of the Bundestag’s rainbow flag ban, and Hungarian cops grill Budapest Mayor Gergely Karcsony over suspicions that he helped organize the city’s banned Pride march in late June. Those stories and more this week when you find This Way Out.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Is Trump Trying to Destroy America? (00:58:00)
How much do the Republicans have to take apart- the constitution, our rights, the economy, our institutions, our credibility- before America is fundamentally no longer the same country?
CIVIC CIPHER: Melinda Grisby (@BrownGirlPride) on the History of Indigenous and Latino Populations in the United States (00:59:00)
Our guest is Melinda Grisby, known online as @browngirlpride, is a social media activist, Former Air Force Medic twice deployed to Iraq, and a public speaker with a focus on history and decolonization. In the first half of today’s program, Melinda discusses the history of the racial classification of Latino people in the United States that the implications of the Latino vote. She also corrects some widely circulated misinformation and makes a case that the narrative associated with Latino voters is inaccurate and has led to harmful responses from other racial groups.
In the second half of the show, we discuss the implications of this country’s colonialist roots and how Native American populations were (and continue to be) affected. Our Way Black History Fact contains the story of $5 Indians and the massive governmental fraud that further subjected Native peoples.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 11 (00:26:37)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
CHOOSE TO BE CURIOUS: RumorGuard: Curiosity Takes on Misinformation, with Dan Evon (00:28:00)
As much as I champion curiosity, sometimes it can take us down bad paths. Thank goodness there are excellent resources that help us lean into our curiosity and recognize misinformation — then stop it in its tracks.
RumorGuard is an initiative of the News Literacy Project that does just that. It fact-checks viral rumors and offers concrete tips to help us build our news literacy chops.
“Curiosity can help us avoid things like confirmation bias or motivated reasoning, where we’re looking for answers that we want to find. But when we’re curious and we’re just looking for more information — we’re just trying to get more context — that leads us to a better understanding of a situation.” ~ Dan Evon
THE BRADCAST: 8/5/2025 Guest: Valerie Wilson of the Economic Policy Inst. on Trump’s firing of BLS Commissioner (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a negative July jobs report showing a rapid fall in job creation, so Donald Trump pulled a classic strongman maneuver by firing the BLS chief and falsely claiming the numbers were ‘rigged’ to make him look bad. Labor economist VALERIE WILSON of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute debunks Trump’s many lies about the BLS, the critical importance of the agency’s transparent and verifiable data, what it all means going forward, and much more. Trump’s approval ratings are also falling as the public sours on his policies and his expanding trade war against the world. The Smithsonian’s American History Museum will restore a display it had removed that informed visitors about Trump’s historic two impeachments. Plus Desi Doyen has our new ‘Green News Report.’
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
TUESDAY 08.05.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Tuesday August 5, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: A warming climate means more mosquito bites (00:01:30)
As temperatures rise, mosquitoes are thriving. And urban dwellers may be especially vulnerable to mosquito-borne illness.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
ENCOURAGEMENTOLOGY: When You’re Tired of Hurting But Not Ready to Heal (00:30:00)
On this show, were diving into a tough but necessary question: What happens when you’re tired of hurting – but not quite ready to heal? Healing isn’t just a switch you flip or a checklist you complete – its a layered, deeply personal journey that unfolds in its own time.
Maybe you’ve reached that point where the pain is exhausting, but the idea of letting go feels terrifying. Sometimes, we hold on because the hurt is familiar – our pain becomes part of our identity, even a security blanket. We might say we want to feel better, but are we really ready to release what’s been weighing us down?
MAKING CONTACT: Geraldine’s Story: How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia (Encore) (00:29:00)
Black students with dyslexia all too often carry a heavy burden in our public schools. This documentary centers around a grandmother who fought for years to get her grandkids ” particularly her grandson ” properly assessed for dyslexia. Like too many African American boys, Geraldine Robinson’s grandson had been erroneously labeled with an intellectual disability and deprived of proper reading remediation.
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Trumpian Economics (00:58:00)
The scammers are having a field day under the grifter-in-chief, while Trump’s ruinous economic policies are starting to bite. Can Republicans lie their way through and maintain control? Plus- Thom reads from “The Old Is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born” by Nancy Fraser.
THE CHILDREN’S HOUR: Reading & Writing with RL Stine and Marc Brown (00:53:00)
Join our Kids Crew in a conversation with the beloved children’s authors, Goosebumps RL Stine and Marc Brown, the author and illustrator of the Arthur books and TV show. We discover their secrets to creating some of the most widely read kids books of all time. Get reading with The Children’s Hour!
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 10 (00:27:09)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
WITH GOOD REASON Weekly Half Hour: Winning NIL (00:28:59)
NIL sent shockwaves through college athletics when it was signed into law in 2021. Now student-athletes could earn money off of their name, image, and likeness. But there werent any guide-rails to help student-athletes navigate the new NIL landscape. Enter Kim Whitler. She co-wrote Athlete Brands: How to Benefit from Your Name, Image and Likeness. And: In 2020, ShaCarri Richardson was barred from representing Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics because she tested positive for marajuana. Jo Morrison says there are many other elite athletes like Richardson whove had their reputations tarnished for taking banned substances that have little to no evidence of enhancing performance.
THE BRADCAST: 8/4/2025 Texas Dem lawmakers flee to block GOP gerrymandering scheme; Callers ring in (00:58:30)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: Democratic state lawmakers in Texas are fighting for democracy for ALL of us, no matter where we live or our political party affiliations. Texas Democrats have fled the state to deny Texas Republicans the quorum they need to ram through a mid-decade re-gerrymandering of U.S. House maps to steal five seats from Democratic-leaning voters. Republicans clearly feel they can’t win on policy, so they are rigging the 2026 midterm elections, with help from the corrupted, activist Republican U.S. Supreme Court majority. Democratic governors are investigating avenues to respond in kind to the Republicans’ scheme to steal the 2026 election from voters. Callers weigh in.
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
MONDAY 08.04.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Monday August 4, 2025
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Waste from forest thinning gets new purpose in Northern California (00:01:30)
Climate Connections is a 90-second daily (M – F) module that moves climate change away from debate and focuses on how it’s impacting listeners’ lives. The features report on what diverse people and organizations are doing to reduce the associated risks, and “connects the dots” between climate change and energy, public health, extreme weather, food, water, jobs and the economy, national security and more.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
WHEN THE BIOMASS HITS THE WIND TURBINE #61: Vegetarian Vs. Vegan (00:29:00)
So just what is a vegetarian, and what is a vegan? And which is better? And does it matter?
Buddha said To become a Vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to Nirvana
What does a vegetarian diet include?
What are all the various types?
What is the difference between Vegetarian and Vegan?
What else do these crazy Vegans do?
Medical testing
Entertainment
Health benefits
Logistics of being Vegan
https://bluerockstation.podbean.com
ECONOMIC UPDATE: Best Of Series Part 1: Psychology & Trump (00:29:00)
This week on Economic Update, we take a look back at Donald Trump’s first term as president through the lens of psychology with Dr. Harriet Fraad. She explains what could have led people to vote for him instead of the alternative, and provides a backdrop of the socio-economic situation facing his supporters at that time. She is followed by another interview with Professor Wolff and Dr. Arlie Hochschild, a former sociology professor at UC Berkeley and a renowned author. Her research provides insight into the reasons why many still support Mr. Trump, despite their deteriorating socio-economic situation today.
https://economicupdate.libsyn.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Jason Egenberg and the Tower That Tells the Truth (00:58:00)
Trump is building luxury apartments on the site of a NATO bombing in Belgrade that many had seen as a memorial to the Yugoslav war. Substack author Jason Egenberg joins Thom for a deep dive.
SPIRIT IN ACTION: Saving Our Young Men from Fascism (00:55:00)
Though fears about rising fascism in the US are rampant at the beginning of Donald Trump’s 2nd term, there has been a wide-spread increase in fascist movements world-wide over the past few decades, and today’s guest, Craig A. Johnson, has studied them and educates about them through his Fifteen Minutes of Fascism podcast, and through his new book, How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism. Interweaving lessons from history, recent trends & technologies, and sound strategies for dealing with the creep of fascist ideas into our children’s lives, Craig provides much-needed resources to correct course for our country. Craig’s Ph.D. in history from UC-Berkeley, focused on fascism in South America, and he has widened his focus since then, to include what we need to do right here at home. Past/present religious/spiritual influences: UCC-United Church of Christ, Atheist.
LITERATURE ALOUD: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – ch. 9 (00:25:27)
It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. The main character Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually
finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. (Summary by Tom Weiss)
https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair
TEXT: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm
GREEN STREET with PATTI and DOUG WOOD: Big Oil and the Law with CEIL’s Stephen Feit (00:29:00)
This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about the Trump administrations plans to stop making scientific climate reports easily available to the public, and the new study showing that children living near oil and gas drilling sites have a significantly higher incidence of leukemia. Then Steven Feit, senior attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law, talks about the myth of carbon capture technology and how CEIL is using international law to push back against big oils plans for continued pollution of the earth with plastic.
https://www.greenstreetnews.org
THE BRADCAST: 8/1/2025 (Encore: FairVote’s David Daley on TX’s new gerrymandering scheme) (00:58:00)
Encore: original airdate 7-22-2025. On today’s ‘BradCast’: Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson reversed his call for full transparency and recessed the U.S. House until September to block a non-binding resolution calling for the release of the Epstein Files, from the late pedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffery Epstein, former friend of Donald Trump. Texas GOP Gov. Abbott launched a special ’emergency’ session of the state legislature to redraw the state’s heavily gerrymandered U.S. House maps to further disenfranchise Democratic and minority voters. Redistricting expert and author, DAVID DALEY, of the nonprofit Fair Vote, details the GOP plan to subvert democracy, what can be done to fight back, the impact on free and fair elections, and much more. Plus Desi Doyen has our new ‘Green News Report.’
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675
SUNDAY 08.03.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
SCHOLARS’ CIRCLE & THE INSIGHTERS: Private Military (00:58:00)
A discussion of dangers of the profitable mercenary industry.
EARTH RIOT RADIO: The Beautiful View that Made Me Bleed from the Eyes (00:29:00)
The consumer class in many parts of the world – certainly in the USA – has been normalized so thoroughly into a life that is actually suicidal, that to survive at all will mean inventing an alternative science fiction-like life, a completely strange full-scale world. The reality of our physical environment is now seen mostly as a relentless stream of disasters. In fact, it is our own violence that we dont recognize. Or, we notice that we are involved when a pollster asks us on the phone whether we believe that climate change is human-caused. We say yes, thats true. But if we really believed that, we would, when we hung up the phone, be shocked by the new world we will have to build, with the Earth as our creative director.
BARNABY DRUTHERS: Barnaby Druthers: Heartbeat in the Devil’s Acre (00:27:00)
A Classic Druthers story based on the Edgar Allan Poe story “The Tell Tale Heart.”
https://www.barnabydruthers.com
LABOR HISTORY IN 2:00 – On This Day in Labor History
https://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/labor-history-in-200
Best of ATTITUDE with ARNIE ARNESEN August 2, 2025 (00:59:30)
Segment One
We begin the show with Melissa Gira Grant, staff writer for the New Republic. We discuss the “detention centers” being established by the administration. It is unclear exactly how many people are being imprisoned there, under what conditions, and who those people are.
Segment Two
We then sit with Jeff Ernsthausen, reporter for ProPublica. We discuss the builders and operators of the ‘detention camps’, where these camps are located, and who is likely to be running those camps, and the conditions of those camps, given the climate and construction of the camps.
https://www.arniearnesen.org/WP
BACKGROUND BRIEFING with IAN MASTERS August 3, 2025 (00:59:00)
Trump’s Tariff Spree and Shooting the Messenger With the Bad Jobs Report | Trump Accuses Obama of “Treason” As He Tries to Rewrite History Based on Forgeries by Russian Intelligence | American Sociocide in the Misanthropic Era of a Malevolent Sociopath.
https://www.backgroundbriefing.org
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR: The Sacred Medicine of the Heart and the Light & Dark Mother Goddesses with Cissi Williams (00:59:00)
Cissi Williams is an Osteopath, Naturopath, Shamanic Practitioner, Master Practitioner in Hypnosis & a Teacher of Energy Medicine, Mysticism and Shamanic Healing. She’s initiated as a Priestess of Freya and a Tradition Keeper of Norse shamanism and Seidr magic. And she is the author of Your Heart Knows How to Heal You: The Sacred Medicine of the Four Chambers of the Heart. We talk about we can use the archetypal journeys of the mythic Goddesses of light and dark as mythic maps of our own journeys into the underworld to heal the parts of ourselves that have been lost or buried through trauma of any kind, whether sexual trauma, or the religious trauma of separation from our natural connection with our essential divine nature, or any other form of trauma that fragments us, and keeps us from being fully present in our lives.
DEEP DIVE CYBERSECURITY SHOW: Global Threats To Our Privacy Keep Growing (00:58:35)
From massive data breaches to social engineering to government surveillance to crossborder data transfers to lack of transparency in data collection and usage and SO MUCH MORE, here are all the ways our privacy is being violated and what we can do about this…It’s time to fight back.
SATURDAY 08.02.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
TECHTONIC with MARK HURST: Three Emerging Dystopias: Money, Water, and Truth (00:59:30)
Thanks to Big Tech, our dystopian moment grows darker by the day. Our near future will be defined, in part, by a three-headed hydra. Mark Hurst examines the emerging crises of money, water, and trut
KEEPING DEMOCRACY ALIVE: “Just Following Orders”? (00:58:31)
American military service members certainly did not sign up to fight the American people. Yet with the massive deployment of national guard and marines to stop protests in Los Angeles, that was indeed their assignment. On this show, Jacobin and New Republic writer Liza Featherstone reveals that soldiers are starting to bravely take a stand against Trumps abuses. Of course there is great risk in so doing, yet the Constitution requires disobeying illegal orders. And this group: AboutFaceVeterans.org, is leading a Right to Refuse Movement. In America, theres a real necessity of public support for the military. Protest matters. After all, dissident Vietnam vets ended that war; the service members of today still have unique political power.
AGING MATTERS: LGBTQ+ Aging (00:58:00)
America’s older population is growing, and so is the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) adults moving into their later years. Often, this population must cope with unique barriers and inequalities that can impede a satisfying later life. Sophia Ross (They/Them), Digital Media and Grant Program Strategist, Capitol Hill Village, https://capitolhillvillage.org/, and Sherrill Wayland (She/Her/They), MSW, Senior Director of Special Initiatives and Partnerships with Sage, Advocacy and Services for LGBTQ+ Elders, https://www.sageusa.org/, talk about how social stigma can make it harder for LGBTQ+ older adults to live in certain communities, receive health and social services, and find housing. New approaches and resources to address these issues will be discussed.
https://www.agingmattersonline.com
GROWING GREENER: A Female-Owned and Operated Gardening Cooperative Creates a New Business Model With Nature as our foremost collaborator (00:29:00)
Andrea Hurd of Oakland, California describes the way she structured Mariposa Gardening and Design Cooperative, Inc. to provide employee equitability and management experience for women breaking into the field, and the firms commitment to celebrating the local landscape by enhancing habitat and working with indigenous materials.
https://www.thomaschristophergardens.com
TUC RADIO: Nuclear War and the Devastating Power of Nuclear Weapons (00:29:00)
When Penguin Random House prepared the release of Annie Jacobsen’s most recent book: Nuclear War, A Scenario; for early 2024, they did not anticipate that it would appear at a time of heightened risk of a nuclear war.
The risks include casual threats of the use of nuclear weapons over Ukraine or in the Middle East; as well as the actual attacks or threats to the nuclear plants in Ukraine and Russia.
THE BOPST SHOW: Nonsensical Types of Things (00:55:00)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear French singing sensation Claudes Channes, legendary British audio assassins Tackhead, and the naked folk of Erica Freas as well as music by King Tubby, Chester Vomit & The Dry Heaves and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR # 595 (00:58:00)
Ralph and the crew spend the whole hour with Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, who grew up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of his life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and is the author a New York Times op-ed entitled Im a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. Plus, Ralph pays tribute to legendary Washington Post reporter, Morton Mintz.
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com
FRIDAY 08.01.25 PROGRAM Notes
6-hour loop begins at NOON, repeats until following noon
(scroll down for previous notes)
Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman
Friday August 1, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/shows
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: Virtual power plants could transform electricity grids (00:01:30)
The technology lets homes send and receive energy, reducing stress on the grid during peak hours.
www.YaleClimateConnections.org
THE LABOR HERITAGE POWER HOUR: (00:55:11)
On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour, we open with a tribute to the late Tom Lehrer, the sharp-witted satirist who reminded us that protest songs can be powerful and hilarious. His classic The Folk Song Army kicks off a show that digs deep into the contradictions of American progress.
We mark the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal with a revealing conversation between author Mark S. Ferrara and labor educator Linda Donahue, who explore the hidden histories of the immigrant diggers, displaced communities, orphan mule drivers, and working-class women who built and lived along the canal. Ferrara’s book The Raging Erie tells a vivid and unsettling story of how labor shaped ” and was shaped by ” one of the nation’s greatest infrastructure projects.
Then, we turn to Charlie King, who reflects on the chilling echoes of McCarthyism in the 1980s when American Express asked potential Louisville workers: Are you now or have you ever been a member of a union? His response: a stirring modern protest song thats as relevant today as ever.
Plus: your weekly Labor History in 2:00 from Rick Smith.
THOM HARTMANN Best of 1 Hour: Grifter Trump Strikes Again – This Time With the G20 (00:58:00)
New evidence…Was Epstein’s jail video manipulated? Veteran War Correspondent in Kyiv & host of the ‘On the Edge’ podcast Phil Ittner reports on the Ukraine Update. Grifter Trump strikes again – this time with the G20. The word Gestapo literally means state secret police. That’s what we have now with ice. And the guys who are deported to El Salvador are starting to speak out about the horrors of what they experienced.
SEA CHANGE RADIO: Sean Gallagher: Solar Industry Update (00:29:00)
Looking at energy policy under the current administration is a depressing exercise – the reconciliation bill of 2025 passed by the Republicans on July 4th, is a windfall for the oil & gas industry and devastating for renewables. Over 4.5 million homes with solar panels already installed, for example, are losing tax credits and other subsidies. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Sean Gallagher, the Senior Vice President of Policy at the Solar Energy Industries Association, also known as SEIA, about the effects this newly signed legislation will have on the solar industry. Keeping in mind that our conversation with Gallagher preceded the bill’s passing, we discuss the current state of solar and where it’s headed, and learn about the work of SEIA. Then, we dig into the Sea Change Radio archives and hear an excerpt from our interview with Paul Bierman, a geoscientist at the University of Vermont, as he talks about Greenland’s melting ice sheet.
LAURA FLANDERS AND FRIENDS: Mamdani, Black Farmers, USDA & ICE: The Stories BIPOC Journalists Uncover (00:28:00)
Explore the top headlines of the month ” and stories you won’t find in mainstream media ” in this timely episode of Meet the BIPOC Press. From New York City, Documenteds Labor Reporter Amir Khafagy returns to fill us in on mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdanis win in the primary election, and how mainstream media overlooked the immigrant vote. Was this a political upset to journalists from those very communities? And reporting from the U.S. South, Capital B Rural Issues Reporter Aallyah Wright discusses new legislation from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will have devastating impacts on Black farmers. Also in this episode: employers allegedly threatening immigrant workers with ICE and deportation for speaking up about wage theft, the independent media model and holding journalists accountable. As you’ll hear, these reporters are not just covering their communities ” they’re helping to build the infrastructure for more inclusive, accurate storytelling about race, place, and power.
THE BOPST SHOW: Nonsensical Types of Things (00:55:00)
The Bopst Show, the critically acclaimed music radio show hosted by artist, musician, writer, DJ and founding member of GWAR, Chris Bopst, features a wide assortment of audio stimulations from a myriad of genres, eras and inspirations. On this week’s show, you’ll hear French singing sensation Claudes Channes, legendary British audio assassins Tackhead, and the naked folk of Erica Freas as well as music by King Tubby, Chester Vomit & The Dry Heaves and many others locked out of the nation’s largest terrestrial bandwidths.
podomatic.com/podcasts/chrisbopst
THE BRADCAST: 7/31/2025 The Art of the Corrupt, Phony, Unlawful, Pretend Trade Deal (00:58:00)
On today’s ‘BradCast’: The Trump Administration is gaslighting Americans about Donald Trump’s ‘deals’ as he escalates his trade war against the rest of the world and slaps new tariff taxes on imports to the US. YOU pay those tariff taxes, not the nations exporting their products to America. These are not ‘deals’ — they are frameworks for potential trade agreements, at best. The vague frameworks announced by the Trump administration don’t appear to match what each foreign nation actually agreed to during negotiations, and US courts may yet find it all unlawful. Texas Republicans move ahead with their scheme to gerrymander the state’s US House maps to steal as many seats as possible from Democratic voters. Plus Desi Doyen has our new ‘Green News Report.’
https://bradblog.com/?cat=675