The work of television pioneer, Arlene Francis, went far beyond her 25 years on the famed game show, “What’s My Line.” From hosting NBC’s first morning show, “Home,” to decades in radio and acting in Broadway shows and feature films, Francis’ career covered all bases. Narrated by Cherry Jones with stories from Arlene’s friends, Betty White, Carl Reiner, Walter Cronkite and many others, this film retraces the career and life of Television’s first leading lady.
Although largely forgotten to history, Alice Guy-Blaché was one of the very earliest pioneers in moving pictures, exploring and innovating from the late 1890s til the 1920s, when Wall Street and Trust capitalism squeezed her out of the art and business of filmmaking.
Pamela Green’s film resurrects her work and re-establishes her place in film history.
To this day, Alice Guy-Blaché is the only woman to have ever built her own film studio.
Although French, Alice Guy-Blaché was one of the pioneers of The Western genre. Hers were distinguished by the strong women who were featured in principle roles.
Although she had originally written The Fool and His Money for an inclusive cast, because the actors of European descent declined to participate, Alice Guy-Blaché became the first writer/director/producer of an all African American cast.
David Treuer is Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. The author of four previous novels, most recently Prudence, and two books of nonfiction, he has also written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Slate, and The Washington Post, among others. He has a Ph.D. in anthropology and teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California.
David Treuer’s latest book, THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE: NATIVE AMERICA FROM 1890 TO THE PRESENT, is published by Riverhead Books.
Here is an edited extract from The Heartbeat at Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, referenced in this interview, which was published in The Guardian.
The rightwing supreme court has another target: Native American rights https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/21/supreme-court-native-american-rights-target
From casinos to cannabis: the Native Americans embracing the pot revolution https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/mar/15/from-casinos-to-cannabis-the-native-americans-embracing-the-pot-revolution
Native Americans are at the heart of Yellowstone. After 150 years, they are finally being heard https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/native-americans-are-at-the-heart-of-yellowstone-after-150-years-they-are-finally-being-heard-aoe
This Supreme Court Case on Hunting Is Really About a 150-Year-Old Treaty and Wyoming’s Existence as a State https://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-case-hunting-really-180053748.html;_ylt=AwrVrN4eDjZc_FIAK6YPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw–
A Tribal Camp in South Texas Is Vowing to Resist Trump’s Wall https://truthout.org/articles/a-tribal-camp-in-south-texas-is-vowing-to-resist-trumps-wall/
European colonization of Americas helped cause climate change https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/31/european-colonization-of-americas-helped-cause-climate-change
Julian Brave NoiseCat is an enrolled member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen in British Columbia. He is a graduate of Columbia University, and received a Clarendon Scholarship to study global and imperial history at the University of Oxford. He was formerly the native issues fellow at The Huffington Post. He writes for The Guardian, The Nation, The Paris Review, CBC, Vice, Pacific Standard, Dissent, Jacobin, Fusion, Indian Country Today, Salon, High Country News, Canadian Geographic, Frontier Magazine, World Policy Journal as well as other publications.
Julian Brave NoiseCat, a contributing editor of the newly unveiled Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada, points on a giant map at a launch event in Toronto, Wednesday August 29, 2018. The Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada includes a four volume print atlas, an online atlas, an app, and a giant floor map. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch)
To find out more about the Tribal Canoe Journey for the 50th anniversary of Alcatraz : https://www.canoejourney2019.com/
Here are links to articles referenced in this interview:
How a River Was Granted Personhood https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/587689/river-me/
His side of the story: Nathan Phillips wants to talk about Covington https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/04/nathan-phillips-his-story-hate-division-covington
‘This is my home’: growing anger in Canada over projects on indigenous lands https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/11/canada-pipeline-indigenous-trudeau-treaty
Trans Mountain pipeline halted after Canadian court overturns approval https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/30/trans-mountain-pipeline-latest-canada-court-overturns
The Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Hikianalia Journey to Californiahttps://bombmagazine.org/articles/the-polynesian-voyaging-societys-hikianalia-journey-to-california/
The Tribal Canoe Journey, an odyssey to reclaim tradition and territory https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/tribal-canoe-journey-odyssey-reclaim-tradition-and-territory
After grisly murder, stop delaying passage of Savanna’s Act http://www.startribune.com/after-grisly-murder-stop-delaying-passage-of-savanna-s-act/503171711/
Missing and Murdered http://www.frontier.is/missing-and-murdered/
Disruption Beyond Standing Rock https://www.vanalen.org/stories/disruption-beyond-standing-rock/
Standing Rock inspired Ocasio-Cortez to run. That’s the power of protest https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/14/standing-rock-ocasio-cortez-protest-climate-activism
Native Americans Take Power http://inthesetimes.com/features/native-american-voters-government-political-revolution.html
Indigenous Struggle Is Key to a Green New Deal https://truthout.org/articles/indigenous-struggle-is-key-to-a-green-new-deal/
We first had Dahr Jamail on Forthright Radio in March, 2005 with Mark Manning, to discuss what was going on with the U.S.’s Second Siege of Fallujah, Iraq. He courageously went there un-embedded and defied the military information blockade to report what had actually happened there. Since then he has been our guest five times over the years.
For the past few years, he has been focusing on Climate Disruption in various journals, including truthout.org, where he had been publishing monthly Climate Dispatches.
And now his book, THE END OF ICE: BEARING WITNESS AND FINDING MEANING IN THE PATH OF CLIMATE DISRUPTION has been published by The New Press. He goes to many places around the world and speaks with indigenous people and scientists on the front lines of what can only be described as an accelerating global disaster of human caused climate disruption, geological change and mass extinction. Unlike most other narratives of climate disruption, not only does he document the science, but he also addresses the emotional, psychological, philosophical and ethical dimensions.
I was struck by a simple observation he makes between the outlook of dominant settler colonialist cultures, which speak of rights, and of most indigenous cultures, which emphasize obligations. That lead to what one of your interviewees called “the con job of hope and hopelessness,” and what you say is “the necessity of unblocking grief.”
Thus, our interview began..
Articles pertinent to this Interview:
When the Ice Melts: The Catastrophe of Vanishing Glaciers (Dahr Jamail) https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/08/when-the-ice-melts-the-catastrophe-of-vanishing-glaciers
Huge ‘hot blob’ in Pacific Ocean killed nearly a million seabirds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/16/hot-blob-ocean-seabirds-killed-new-zealand-north-america
Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating accelerates https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/ocean-temperatures-hit-record-high-as-rate-of-heating-accelerates
Polar Vortex Clobbers Midwest With Record-Breaking Cold https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/polar-vortex-2019-midwest-northeast_us_5c504437e4b0d9f9be691b6e
Children’s climate rallies gain momentum in Europe https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46999381
The New Language of Climate Change https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/27/climate-change-politics-224295
We Are Destroying Our Life Support System https://truthout.org/articles/we-are-destroying-our-life-support-system/
This Could Be The Biggest Scandal Of The Climate Change Era https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-change-plan_us_5c41c704e4b0bfa693c2a90b
Legality of Drilling Permits Issued During Shutdown Challenged https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-24/senate-votes-on-ending-shutdown-threaten-a-return-to-deadlock
North American glaciers melting much faster than 10 years ago – study https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/18/north-america-glacier-melt-study-climate-change
Study: Yellowstone’s forests could become grasslands by mid-century https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/yellowstone_national_park/study-yellowstone-s-forests-could-become-grasslands-by-mid-century/article_501326d6-190d-5300-96be-84e82ab63bf4.html
Google, Facebook And Microsoft Sponsored A Conference That Promoted Climate Change Denial https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/google-facebook-microsoft-climate-denial_us_5c48dfcbe4b083c46d650d9f
Corporate America Is Getting Ready to Monetize Climate Change https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-22/muggy-disney-parks-downed-at-t-towers-firms-tally-climate-risk
IN SEARCH OF THE CANARY TREE: THE STORY OF A SCIENTIST, A CYPRESS, AND A CHANGING WORLD, published by Basic Books, chronicles the six years Lauren E. Oakes, PhD, spent beginning in 2010, as a young Stanford University scientist, doing doctoral research in South East Alaska, studying the mysterious die-back of ancient yellow cedar trees. Hers was a multi-disciplinary approach. In addition to the grueling field work studying thousand of trees, and countless other plants in the changing forests, she also interviewed local folks, including native Tlingit weavers, timber operators, other scientists, and just regular folks who enjoy the forests for recreation. There were many surprises along the way, which she shares with us in this interview.
Yellow cedar rejected for threatened species listing https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap_news/us/yellow-cedar-rejected-for-threatened-species-listing/article_746560f2-a98d-58da-9058-4ab90e154225.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-siderail-latest
Trump Denies Protection to Ancient Alaskan Cedar Trees Threatened by Climate Crisis, Logging https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-denies-protection-ancient-alaskan-cedar-trees-threatened-climate-crisis-logging-2019-10-04/
In her latest book, FEMINISM’S FORGOTTEN FIGHT: THE UNFINISHED STRUGGLE FOR WORK AND FAMILY, Fordham University Associate Professor of History, Kirsten Swinth, corrects many myths and misconceptions about Second Wave Feminism, demonstrating that it isn’t feminism that has betrayed women, but the society that failed to make the far-reaching changes for which feminists fought in the period 1963 to 1978.
It is published by Harvard University Press.
Her first book was
Given the unauthorized release of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center on May 2, 2022, we revisited this interview from October, 2018. Rebecca Traister joined us again to update us on the evolving situation, which can be heard at the end of the archived interview.
Rebecca Traister is writer at large for New York magazine, whose latest book is GOOD AND MAD: THE REVOLUTIONARY POWER OF WOMEN’S ANGER, published by Simon & Schuster. . Her earlier books include ALL THE SINGLE LADIES, and the award winning BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY. Her work has been published in The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the New York Observer among other publications.
The New Kavanaugh Documentary Changes Nothing https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/01/new-kavanaugh-documentary-what-it-will-do.html
Anita Hill: Kavanaugh confirmation hearing ‘disservice to the American public’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/10/anita-hill-brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-response
‘Vile hatred, hero worship’: Christine Blasey Ford faces an unsettling future https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/10/christine-blasey-ford-faces-unsettling-future
Black Women Have Never Had The Privilege Of Rage https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-angry-black-women_us_5bbf7652e4b040bb4e800249
With Kavanaugh Confirmation, GOP Commits Again To Patriarchy, Misogyny https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-party-brett-kavanaugh-patriarchy-misogyny_us_5bbaaf43e4b01470d05284ca
Kavanaugh once lobbied for judge now handling ethics complaints against him https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/22/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-tim-tymkovich-ethics-complaints
The Republican party is about to face the wrath of women https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/25/republican-party-face-wrath-women
Christine Blasey Ford’s Attorneys Reveal Statement From Corroborating Witness https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christine-blasey-ford-attorneys-keith-koegler_us_5bb82805e4b0876eda9e3d85
Christine Blasey Ford’s Lawyers React To Brett Kavanaugh’s Expected Confirmation https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christine-blasey-ford-reaction-kavanaugh-confirmation_us_5bb68963e4b0876eda9ca3ea
I Know Why Evangelical Women Support Brett Kavanaugh. I Was Raised To Do The Same. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-evangelical-women_us_5bb3a28de4b0ba8bb211985b
(1981) Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” http://www.blackpast.org/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism
Finally, angry women are the solution and not a problem – but we still have far to go https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/24/angry-women-solution-nanette-metoo-emilie-pine
We Still Haven’t Learned from Anita Hill’s Testimoy https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/opinion/anita-hill-clarence-thomas-brett-kavanaugh-christine-ford.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Kavanaugh’s opening remarks are a master class in a common sexual abuser defense tactic https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/27/1799292/-Kavanaugh-s-opening-remarks-are-a-masterclass-in-a-common-sexual-abuser-defense-tactic?detail=emaildksc
Brett Kavanaugh’s Testimony Was A Spectacle Of Angry Male Bonding https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-testimony-angry-male-bonding_us_5bad9b54e4b09d41eba00a32
Here’s where Kavanaugh’s sworn testimony was misleading or wrong https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/28/heres-where-kavanaughs-sworn-testimony-was-misleading-or-wrong/?utm_term=.3675b54144b5
This was the very first edition of what would become Forthright Radio. It was originally broadcast in November, 2004. We spoke with John M. Barry, author of the book, THE GREAT INFLUENZA: THE EPIC STORY OF THE DEADLIEST PLAGUE IN HISTORY. 100 years ago, in 1918, as a war weary world sought to bring those years of horror we call World War I to an end, another horror arose – a new, virulent and highly contagious strain of influenza, which within, a year spread rapidly around the world. We’ll never know the exact number of those killed, but it is estimated that a minimum of 50 million, and as many as 100 million died. At today’s population level, that would be between 150 million and 300 million dead worldwide. As we begin the annual flu season, our guest, John M. Barry, tells us what we know about this pandemic and warns of the possibility of such a global pandemic occurring again in our own time. But this is not just a history of a medical disease, his depiction of the politics of the war-time situation has disturbing foreshadowing of some of the same polarized dynamics with which we find ourselves grappling today, where truth is dismissed as an arbitrary term and “the force of an idea lies in it’s inspirational value. It matters very little whether it is true or false.” As Mark Twain put it so well, History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Although this interview was conducted in 2004, when George W. Bush was president, and we were 9 months into our invasion of Iraq, and the parallels to the Wilson administration are noted, some of those parallels seem even more pertinent today under the current administration.
As Bird Flu Looms, the Lessons of Past Pandemics Take on New Urgency https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/opinion/coronavirus-disease-2019-health-care-pandemic.html
Skeletons of 1918 Flu Victims Reveal Clues About Who Was Likely to Die https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/health/1918-flu-skeletons.html
What We Can Learn From How the 1918 Pandemic Ended https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/opinion/covid-pandemic-end.html
Post-Covid America Isn’t Going to Be Anything Like the Roaring ’20s https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/18/roaring-2020s-coronavirus-flu-pandemic-john-m-barry-477016?utm_source=pocket-newtab
America’s response to coronavirus pandemic is ‘incomprehensibly incoherent,’ says historian who studied the 1918 flu https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/americas-response-to-coronavirus-pandemic-is-incomprehensibly-incoherent-says-historian-who-studied-the-1918-flu/2020/05/22/1906391a-7b53-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html
‘We take no risks at all’: a voice from the Spanish flu outbreak https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/22/we-take-no-risks-at-all-a-voice-from-the-spanish-flu-outbreak
Herd Immunity? Or ‘Mass Murder’? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/opinion/coronavirus-herd-immunity.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Dr. Johan Hultin Dies at 97; His Work Helped Isolate 1918 Flu Virus https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/health/dr-johan-hultin-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries
Dean Baker co-founded The Center for Economic and Policy Research in 1999. His areas of expertise include housing and macroeconomics, intellectual property, Social Security, Medicare and European labor markets. Before that, he worked as a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, and was an assistant professor at Bucknell University. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, and the OECD’s Trade Union Advisory Council. He is frequently cited in economics reporting in major media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, and NPR. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian Unlimited (UK), the Huffington Post, TruthOut, and his blog, Beat the Press, features commentary on economic reporting.
He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer; Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better Bargain for Working People; The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive; and The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer. He was last our guest on Nov. 15, 2017.
Publications mentioned in this edition of Forthright Radio include:
Frontline: The Warning https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/warning/
U.S. consumers to be hurt by tariffs by Doug Palmer https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/18/consumers-tariffs-trump-china-795159
Lehman anniversary: The five most surprising consequences by Kim Gittleson https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45478670
Ten years on from the financial crash, we need to get ready for another one by Robert Skidelsky https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/12/crash-2008-financial-crisis-austerity-inequality
Ten Years After The Financial Crisis, The Contagion Has Spread To Democracy Itself by Zach Carter https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/financial-crisis-10-years-later-ben-bernanke-hank-paulson-timothy-geithner_us_5b9d7dc8e4b04d32ebf92396
Four Reasons Why Los Angeles’s Upcoming Public Banking Ballot Initiative is a Huge Deal by Pheonix Goodman https://truthout.org/articles/why-los-angeles-upcoming-public-banking-ballot-initiative-is-a-huge-deal/
To Stop the Next Financial Crisis, We Need Public Ownership of Banks—Now by Thomas Hanna https://truthout.org/articles/to-stop-the-next-financial-crisis-we-need-public-ownership-of-banks-now/
Donald Trump’s currency confusion continues by Jeffrey Frankel https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/21/donald-trump-currency-confusion-continues
Forthright Radio 