Category Archives: economics

Housing First Village

What do you call it when a deacon from a local church gets to thinking about how to solve a problem, in this case, chronic homelessness, learns of other communities building tiny houses, goes to the Bozeman city offices to find out about building code requirements, and meets an Architecture Professor, who just happens to direct the MSU Community Design Center? Coincidence? Synchronicity? Serendipity? A God Moment? Whatever you call it, that meeting in the Fall of 2016 led to a collaboration involving local churches, Montana State University’s School of Architecture, the non-profit, HRDC, local businesses and individuals culminating in the creation of The Housing First Village, which is being built on the north 7th area of Bozeman. It is part of an innovative plan to centralize services for those chronically challenged with issues such as homelessness, food insecurity, etc.

We spoke with three members of the Gallatin Valley Interfaith Association, Rev. Connie Campbell-Pearson, who was the St. James Episcopal Church deacon who went to the city offices on that fateful day in 2016, along with Rev. Jody McDevitt of First Presbyterian Church and Amanda Cater of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bozeman. They organized other local religious groups to raise $139,000 to build tiny homes in the Housing First Village.

In part two, we spoke with the head of the MSU School of Architecture, Ralph Johnson, about how graduate and undergraduate students in their Community Design Center contributed to the project.

It has now grown under the aegis of HRDC, which is working to build the Food and Resource Center, a nearly 32,000-square-foot building that will become the new home of the Gallatin Valley Food Bank and Fork and Spoon restaurant, along with other HRDC programs. Of the planned 19 tiny homes to be constructed, 12 are nearing completion with occupancy hoped to begin in the Fall of 2021.

You can view this short video produced by HRDC “The Making of Housing First Village” here: https://vimeo.com/583977147

More details can be found in Professor Johnson’s paper, HOMELESSNESS: A Critical Approach to Architecture and Planning, here: https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/SDP18/SDP18057FU1.pdf

Articles pertinent to this program:

HRDC plans to combat growing food insecurity with new project https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/city/hrdc-plans-to-combat-growing-food-insecurity-with-new-project/article_e3eafff9-268e-5d9b-9187-4a57bc37d996.html

MSU architecture students debut tiny shelter prototype for community’s homeless https://www.montana.edu/news/17716/

Rezoning In Livingston As Cities Consider Tiny Homes As Solution To Housing Shortage https://www.mtpr.org/montana-news/2021-08-19/rezoning-in-livingston-as-cities-consider-tiny-homes-as-solution-to-housing-shortage

Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom rental https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/12/housing-renter-affordable-data-map

Technology services company commonFont makes $500,000 donation to HRDC’s Griffin Place https://www.montanarightnow.com/bozeman/technology-services-company-commonfont-makes-500-000-donation-to-hrdc-s-griffin-place/article_6ff5f74c-d24c-11ea-8b93-5b34465df46e.html

Police, organizations help with homelessness outreach in Bozeman https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/city/police-organizations-help-with-homelessness-outreach-in-bozeman/article_4ae1c7b1-628b-534d-9c6a-76a3303d3503.html

The Great Eliminator: How Ronald Reagan Made Homelessness Permanent https://www.sfweekly.com/news/the-great-eliminator-how-ronald-reagan-made-homelessness-permanent/

Thom Hartmann – The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You & Makes Others Insanely Rich

Thom Hartmann has had a very interesting life, campaigning for Barry Goldwater at the age of 13 with his father in Michigan, and a few years later protesting the war in Vietnam with Students for a Democratic Society, SDS. He’s an ordained Minister with Coptic Fellowship International. In the 1970s, He founded numerous businesses from an herbal products company to The New England Salem Children’s Village. He founded International Wholesale Travel & subsidiary in 1983. He moved to Germany with his family to work with Salem International, a relief agency. He founded the advertising agency, The Newsletter Factory. In 1996, he sold that company and retired to Vermont.

From 1968 to 1978 he worked as a DJ and news director at Lansing Michigan radio stations. In 2003, he started a radio show on a local station in Vermont, which was quickly picked up by IE America Radio Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. He moved to Oregon in 2005, and in addition to continuing his national show, he co-hosted a local talk show in Portland. And he’s also done a tv program.

By my count, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN HEALTHCARE: WHY SICKNESS BANKRUPTS YOU AND MAKES OTHERS INSANELY RICH is number 31.

Some articles by Thom Hartmann or pertinent to this interview can be found here:

When Will We Stop Letting Our Presidents Lie America Into Wars? https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/17/when-will-we-stop-letting-our-presidents-lie-america-wars?

Neoliberal economics have failed, and everyone knows it. But are the Democrats strong enough to seize the moment? https://www.salon.com/2021/08/15/the-crisis-of-neoliberalism-america-arrives-at-one-of-historys-great-crossroads_partner/

Don’t blame Russian trolls for America’s anti-vaxx problem. Our misinformation is homegrown https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/18/facebook-fazze-russian-trolls-anti-vaxx-misinformation

American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/17/american-chief-executive-pay-wages-workers

We Must Fight Privatization of Medicare and Medicaid to Win Single-Payer https://truthout.org/articles/we-must-fight-privatization-of-medicare-and-medicaid-to-win-single-payer/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=94218a9b-fb8d-4f5c-ad48-b0ec4766802b

‘Your child will wait for another child to die.’ Amid Covid-19 surge, Dallas County has no pediatric ICU beds left, county judge says https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/13/us/dallas-county-no-pediatric-icu-beds-left/index.html

No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/19/book-psychology-pandemics-steven-taylor

The Real “Cancel Culture” Scheme By Republicans Revealed https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2021/03/real-cancel-culture-scheme-republicans-revealed

America is full of ‘democracy deserts’. Wisconsin rivals Congo on some metrics https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/13/america-is-full-of-democracy-deserts-wisconsin-rivals-congo-on-some-metrics

Tens of Thousands Sign Petition Calling for Ron DeSantis (Death Sentence) to Be Recalled https://truthout.org/articles/tens-of-thousands-sign-petition-calling-for-ron-desantis-to-be-recalled/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=c2c4a910-3cf5-40b1-8599-85bbf788c2db

Santa Claus Is About To Drop a Bomb On Biden https://hartmannreport.com/p/santa-clause-is-about-to-drop-a-bomb

Alexander Hinton IT CAN HAPPEN HERE: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US

Alexander Hinton is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University. 

He is the author of over a dozen books including the award-winning Why did they Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide; Man or Monster? The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer; and The Justice Facade: Trials of Transition in Cambodia. His new book is It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US published by NYU Press.

He was an expert witness in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia Genocide Trial. Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two, Nuon Chea, was ultimately convicted of charges of genocide. He died in prison on August 4, 2019 at the age of 93.

At the end of the interview, we quoted Ulysses S. Grant:

“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.”

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Is Russia committing genocide in Ukraine? A human rights expert looks at the warning signs https://theconversation.com/is-russia-committing-genocide-in-ukraine-a-human-rights-expert-looks-at-the-warning-signs-180017

A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/ohio-hovater-white-nationalist.html?searchResultPosition=1

The South Must Teach Its Children the Truth https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/opinion/South-slavery-Confederacy-curriculum.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Opinion

A Fight Over Zoning Tests Charlottesville’s Progress on Race https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/us/charlottesville-va-zoning-affordable-housing.html

Fourth Police Officer Who Responded to Jan. 6 Attack Dies By Suicide https://www.huffpost.com/entry/officer-kyle-defreytag_n_61089f3de4b038cedb36e4ae

Tucker Carlson TO Speak at Hungarian Far-Right Conference https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-orban-hungary-far-right_n_6108bbd1e4b038cedb36fa71

Want to Make Jim Jordan Sing About the Capitol Attack? Ask Jefferson Davis https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/02/want-to-make-jim-jordan-sing-about-the-capitol-attack-ask-jefferson-davis

Malignant normality: The psychological theory that explains naked emperors, narcissists and Nazis https://www.salon.com/2021/08/12/malignant-normality-the-psychological-theory-that-explains-naked-emperors-narcissists-and-nazis/

Mark R. Rank POORLY UNDERSTOOD: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty

Mark Rank is the Herbert S. Handley Professor in the Brown School of Social Work and The Department of Sociology at Washington University. Professor Rank is an expert on poverty studies and the author of notable books, such as One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All and Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes.

His most recent book, published in March of 2021 by Oxford University Press, is POORLY UNDERSTOOD: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty, which he co-wrote with Professors Lawrence M. Eppard and Heather E. Bullock. In it they identify and analyze common myths about poverty, compare poverty levels in the United States with other developed nations and propose ideas of how to reduce it.

We spoke with Professor Mark Rank on May 14, 2021.

You can find out more about his work and check out his poverty risk calculator by going to https://confrontingpoverty.org/

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Rich people actually do have trouble understanding what it’s like to be poor https://www.salon.com/2021/05/18/rich-people-actually-do-have-trouble-understanding-what-its-like-to-be-poor/

Poorest Families Could Miss Out On New Monthly Checks For Parents https://www.huffpost.com/entry/child-tax-credit-checks-poverty_n_60a41fb0e4b0909248099f82

Welfare fraud is actually rare, no matter what the myths and stereotypes say https://www.salon.com/2021/04/04/welfare-fraud-is-actually-rare-no-matter-what-the-myths-and-stereotypes-say/

More GOP-Run States Announce Cuts To Federal Unemployment Benefits https://www.huffpost.com/entry/missouri-unemployment-benefits-worker-shortage_n_609adc22e4b0909247fc2221

Suzanne Simard FINDING THE MOTHER TREE: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

University of British Columbia Professor of Forest Ecology, Dr. Suzanne Simard, is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence. Her decades of in-the-field-experimental research have revolutionized our scientific understanding of forests, elucidating how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they perceive one another, learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors and remember the past; how they have agency about the future; elicit warnings and mount defenses, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, characteristics ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies–and at the center of it all,  the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them.

Suzanne Simard’s book, FINDING THE MOTHER TREE: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, was published by Knopf on May 4, 2021.
We spoke together on April 27th.

We end the program with a recent piece commissioned by the Intermountain Opera Company composed by Eric Funk, Requiem for a Forest, Op. 168. It is performed by Roots in the Sky. A video adaptation by Thomas Thomas is available on https://bozemanarts-live.com/event/requiem-for-a-forest/

Requiem for a Forest

In summer heat
And warming world
Storms whip up,
Lightening rolls,
Sparks run to earth.
The wind turns
Through the mountains,
Forests burn.

Fire ends,
Yet fire begins.
As mountains die,
Cones open.
Mors stupebit
et natura
Cum resurgent
Creatura.

Now we must learn
How to live here,
Where fire season
Burns all year.
Blackened earth
With green renew,
May the fires
wake us too.

Fungi Fear http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/fungi-fear

Friendly fungi help forests fight climate changehttps://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61787248

This Is What It Sounds Like When Plants Cry https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/science/plant-sounds-stress.html

USING SCIENCE & CELTIC WISDOM TO SAVE TREES (and SOULS) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/climate/celtic-wisdom-trees-climate.html

Magic mushrooms: how scientists discovered fungi are the secret ingredient for restoring the world’s forests https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/15/biology-mycorrhizal-fungi-map-restoring-world-forests

Plants Feel Pain & Might Even See https://nautil.us/issue/104/harmony/plants-feel-pain-and-might-even-see?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Biden’s Climate Chops Face A Big Test On Old-Growth Forests https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-climate-old-growth-forests_n_60a41b78e4b03e1dd38fc528

‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2021/apr/16/forests-felling-swedens-ancient-trees-biodiversity-sami-environment

USDA May Allow Genetically Modified Trees to Be Released Into the Wild https://truthout.org/articles/usda-may-allow-genetically-modified-trees-to-be-released-into-the-wild/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=da19aa22-8134-413f-a72f-01b72dfd5bb1

‘War in the woods’: activists blockade Vancouver Island in bid to save ancient trees https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/09/canada-logging-old-growth-trees-vancouver-island

Pacheedaht First Nation chiefs in Canada tell anti-logging protesters to leave their lands https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/14/canada-logging-blockade-first-nations-pacheedaht

It’s only natural: the push to give rivers, mountains and forests legal rights https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/01/its-only-natural-the-push-to-give-rivers-mountains-and-forests-legal-rights

How Fungi Move Among Us https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/science/climate-mycorrhizal-fungus-networks.html

John C. Coffee, Jr. CORPORATE CRIME & PUNISHMENT: The Crisis of Underenforcement

After the global financial crisis of 2008 with all the repercussions to our economy and harm to individual lives, not a single high level corporate executive went to prison. Some claimed it was rank politics protecting them, but was there more to the story?

John C. Coffee, Jr., whose book, CORPORATE CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: THE CRISIS OF UNDERENFORCEMENT, was published in 2020 by Barrett-Koehler, is Columbia University Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law. Although he has been a law professor at Columbia University since 1980, this book is written for the lay audience.

Professor Coffee has won many awards for his writing, his work in corporate governance, and exploring the interests of activist investors. He has served on the Legal Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the Legal Advisory Board that oversaw Nasdaq. He is a recognized expert on both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Delaware Court of Chancery, the forum in which the vast majority of American commercial disputes are heard.

Sheldon Wolin DEMOCRACY INCORPORATED: Managed Democracy & the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism

We recently rebroadcast this interview with political theorist, Sheldon Wolin, from September, 2009. His final book, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, was published in 2008, He coined the term inverted totalitarianism in 2003 to describe what he saw as the emerging form of government of the United States. Wolin analysed the United States as increasingly turning into a managed democracy (similar to an illiberal democracy). He uses the term “inverted totalitarianism” to draw attention to the totalitarian aspects of the American political system while emphasizing its differences from proper totalitarianism, such as Nazi and Stalinist regimes.
He died in 2015 at the age of 93.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, beloved poet, founder of City Lights Books and Publishing, and defender of free speech, died on February 22, 2021 at the age of 101 (just shy of his 102nd birthday) in San Franciso. We end with selections of his poetry in his own voice.

Thom Hartmann The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class

Thom Hartmann returned to Forthright Radio on 2/3/21 with the latest edition in his Hidden History series, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN OLIGARCHY: Reclaiming Our Democracy from The Ruling Class, just released on February 2nd by Barrett-Koehler Publishing.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Issac Asimov

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” Voltaire.

Thomas Paine said it best: “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

Richard Kreitner BREAK IT UP: Secession, Division and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union

Within an hour of this interview with Richard Kreitner on January 6, 2021, a mob left a rally in front of the White House in which Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump, Jr. had exhorted them to march down Pennsylvania Ave to the Capitol building and fight.

Kreitner had noted that the world was astounded by the peaceful transfer of power from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1800. Now, 220 years later, for the first time in U.S. history we have NOT had a peaceful transfer of power.

His book, BREAK IT UP: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union, documents how we have been divided from the very beginning of our republic, and his analysis affords a clearer perspective of our current situation.

Three weeks to the day after the death of the last Confederate widow (shown above), insurgents paraded their Battle Flag throughout the nation’s Capitol, which Secessionists had been unable to do during their insurrection in the 1860s.

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” Hannah Arendt

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Harrison Ruffin Tyler, Grandson of the 10th President, Is Dead at 96 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/us/politics/harrison-ruffin-tyler-dead.html

GOP Invokes Nullification In Border Standoff Between The U.S. And Texas https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-border-eagle-pass-abbott_n_65b41051e4b077c17ab525d8

It’s Tempting to Laugh at McCarthy’s Sturggles, but History Shows That This Type of Chaos Is Not a Joke https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/opinion/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-history.html

Civil War: I’m Against It https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/opinion/civil-war-america.html

Imagining a “Second Civil War” Is a Lost Cause https://slate.com/culture/2022/01/stephen-marche-next-civil-war-review.html

Now Is Not the Time for Unity https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-unity-history/

Chaos as Pennsylvania GOP state senators refuse to seat Democrat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoF4iCoTZb4

Last Known Widow Of Civil War Veteran Dies At 101 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/civil-war-veteran-widow-helen-jackson_n_5ff51131c5b6ea7351c66821

Trump won’t attend Biden’s inauguration: Why that’s ominous after his Capitol siege https://www.salon.com/2021/01/11/trump-wont-attend-bidens-inauguration-why-thats-ominous-after-his-capitol-siege/

At least 12 GOP senators to challenge Biden’s win https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/02/ted-cruz-electoral-college-challenge-453430

Rosendale says he’ll oppose certification of some electors https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap_news/montana/rosendale-says-hell-oppose-certification-of-some-electors/article_42f0b298-c022-5d91-b855-b49770a5518e.html

Texas congressman suggests ‘violence in the streets’ after judge rejects bid to force Pence to overturn Biden’s win https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap_news/politics/texas-congressman-suggests-violence-in-the-streets-after-judge-rejects-bid-to-force-pence-to/article_1e6dc8df-da07-5cf4-96b5-a3183c702a31.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-siderail-latest

Sasse Slams GOP Effort to Challenge ElectionResults as a ‘Dangerous Ploy’ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/us/politics/ben-sasse-election-results.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Ben Sasse calls fellow Republicans “institutional arsonists” for Electoral College stunt https://www.salon.com/2020/12/31/ben-sasse-calls-fellow-gop-sen-josh-hawley-an-institutional-arsonists-for-electoral-college-stunt/

Joint Statement from Senators Cruz, Johnson, Lankford, Daines, Kennedy, Blackburn, Braun, Senators-Elect Lummis, Marshall, Hagerty, Tuberville https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=5541

Trump’s Republicans have dumped Lincoln – they’re the Confederacy now https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/04/trump-republicans-electoral-college-sedition-secession-lincoln-confederacy

Trump’s phone call to Brad Raffensperger: six key points https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/04/trumps-phone-call-to-brad-raffensperger-five-key-points

Americans’ acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/26/americans-acceptance-of-trumps-behavior-will-be-his-vilest-legacy

White supremacists declare war on democracy and walk away unscathed https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/10/white-supremacists-war-on-democracy-unscathed

Thomas Frank THE PEOPLE, NO: A Brief History of Anti-Populism

Thomas Frank is an historian, political analyst and journalist. Although he was a college Republican, he became highly critical of conservatism, and as you will hear in this interview, of the Democratic Party as well. A former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper’s, Thomas Frank is the founding editor of the on-line magazine, The Baffler, and he writes regularly for The Guardian. Among his eleven books are WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? THE WRECKING CREW: HOW CONSERVATIVES RULE; PITY THE BILLIONAIRE: THE HARD-TIMES SWINDLE and THE UNLIKELY COMEBACK OF THE RIGHT; and LISTEN, LIBERAL: OR, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE PARTY OF THE PEOPLE? His latest book is THE PEOPLE, NO: A BRIEF HISTORY OF ANTI-POPULISM, published by Metropolitan Books.