Dana Frank WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION? Stories of Ordinary People & Collective Action in Hard Times

Dana Frank, Professor Emerita of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is a longtime historian of labor, women, and social movements in the US and beyond. For many years she has worked on human rights and US policy in Honduras. She has been an expert witness testifying in the US Congress, The House of Commons in The Canadian Parliament, as well as the CA Legislature.

Among her seven books are Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism; The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup; and, with Robin D.G. Kelly and Howard Zinn, Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century.

Her work has been published in diverse outlets ranging from the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, to Labor Notes, The Nation, The Baffler, The Jacobin, The Progressive, to Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, to mention just a few, as well as in many scholarly publications.

Her latest book is WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION? STORIES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE & COLLECTIVE ACTION IN HARD TIMES, published by Beacon Press.

We spoke with her on February 24, 2025, the third anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, via Skype from her home in Santa Cruz, CA.

‘Fixing a problem we didn’t cause’: the Black Appalachian activists cultivating community power https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/23/black-appalachia-activists

Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump’s FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/neo-nazi-trump-fbi-chief

No Money, No Milk https://hammerandhope.org/article/black-wet-nurses

You Know About the KKK, but What About the Black Legion? https://jacobin.com/2024/10/black-legion-white-supremacist-violence

Donald Trump Has Already Spent $10.7 Million Of Taxpayer Money Playing Golf https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-golf-doge_n_67b50fbfe4b0319f377e6c6a

Kristi Noem Says $200 Million DHS Ad Campaign Thanking Trump Was His Idea https://www.yahoo.com/news/kristi-noem-says-200-million-035856089.html

Lessons for the resistance 2.0 on how to fight back against Trump https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/21/lessons-for-the-resistance-20-on-how-to-fight-back-against-trump

With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa75V-tdBko

Opinion: Trump says he’ll expel a million immigrants. Believe him — it happened before https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-10-10/donald-trump-immigration-repatriados-depression

America Is Pushing Its Workers Into Homelessness https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/opinion/crisis-working-homeless.html

Cory Doctorow: Picks and Shovels

Cory Doctorow is a multiple awards winning author, blogger, critic and activist. He has co-founded an open software company, been the European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and he helped establish their Open Rights Group.
When he left the blog site, Boing Boing after 19 years of co-ownership, MetaFilter called it “the equivalent of the Beatles breaking up for the blog world.” He metablogs currently at pluralistic.net.
Cory Doctorow popularized the term “metacrap” and created the neologism, “enshitification,” which the FCC does not allow us to use on the air, which we replaced with “enpoopification,” defined as “the process of degradation of an online environment caused by greed.”
He is a prolific author in many genres, fiction and nonfiction.
His nonfiction books include: THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATON; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM: HOW BIG TECH AND BIG CONTENT CAPTURED CREATIVE LABOR MARKETS AND HOW WE’LL WIN THEM BACK (written with Rebecca Giblin); and HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM.

His most recent fiction books include THE LOST CAUSE, A NOVEL OF TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION IN OUR POLARIZED FUTURE, which has been described as “A solarpunk, hopepunk novel of the climate emergency, endorsed by Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Rebecca Solnit and Kim Stanley Robinson.” The first of his Martin Hench books, RED TEAM BLUES, which actually features Mendocino County in a small but crucial role, was published in 2023. This was followed by Bezzle, and the third book, which will be published on February 18, 2025, PICKS AND SHOVELS. We spoke with him about it via Skype on February 11, 2025.

Wired Portrait of Cody Doctorow above by Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud (JUCO) 5

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Picks and Shovels with Yanis Varoufakis (Jacobin/virtual), Feb 15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4LM

With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It (Indiana University/virtual), Mar 7 https://events.iu.edu/mediaiub/event/1783095-with-great-power-came-no-responsibility-how-enshitti

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

Who is helping Elon Musk gut the US government? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/08/elon-musk-doge-team-staff

Russell Vought: Trump appointee who wants federal workers to be ‘in trauma’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/who-is-russell-vought-trump-office-of-management-and-budget

Trump orders USDA to take down websites referencing climate crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/trump-order-usda-websites-climate-crisis

To Obey or Not to Obey (Masha Gessen) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/opinion/trump-power-surrender.html

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

I met the ‘godfathers of AI’ in Paris – here’s what they told me to really worry about https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/14/ai-godfathers-paris-industry-dangers-future

How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa

Jesse Welles Black Hawks and DEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAswA556a8

Lerone A. Martin THE GOSPEL OF J. EDGAR HOOVER: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism

It was really difficult to schedule an interview with our guest today, Dr. Lerone A. Martin, PhD. We emailed back and forth more times than I care to mention, but when we were finally able to find a time which each of our calendars made possible, it was one of those moments when one says to oneself, “well of course that’s when it needed to be!” …. January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump.

You see, Dr. Martin is the faculty director for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, where he is also an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies. His books and scholarship provide critical context for the forces of religion, politics, and race that have shaped the contemporary American political and social landscape.

His appointment to the position of Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor was the result of a national search to succeed the storied King Institute’s founding director after more than 40 years in the role, making Dr. Martin only the second faculty director. Among his responsibilities as the MLK Institute’s director is the ongoing work of editing Dr. King’s significant sermons, speeches, published writings, correspondence and unpublished papers.

It was while researching his award winning first book, Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion, that his second book had its roots: THE GOSPEL OF J. EDGAR HOOVER: HOW THE FBI AIDED AND ABETTED THE RISE OF WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. We spoke with him via Skype.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

‘Contempt is a dangerous way to lead a country’: here is the sermon that enraged Donald Trump https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/24/bishop-mariann-edgar-budde-sermon-that-enraged-donald-trump

Revealed: Trump Pentagon nominee endorsed extremist Christian doctrine on podcast ttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/24/trump-pete-hegseth-extremism

Bulldozers kill man in tent in Atlanta clearing homeless camp near MLK’s church https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/18/atlanta-homeless-encampment-bulldozer-death

Vince Beiser POWER METAL: THE RACE FOR THE RESOURCES THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE

Lately I have been thinking a lot about ecologist and one time presidential candidate, Barry Commoner, and his Four Laws of Ecology, which he enumerated in his 1971 book, THE CLOSING CIRCLE. They are:

Everything is connected to everything else. There is only one Ecosphere for all living organisms, and what affects one affects all.
Everything must go somewhere. There is no “waste” in Nature, and there is no “away” to which things can be thrown.
Nature knows best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon Nature, but such change in a natural system is likely to be detrimental to that system.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of Nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.

Our guest on this edition of Forthright Radio, award winning author and journalist, Vince Beiser, begins his latest book, POWER METAL: THE RACE FOR THE RESOURCES THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE, with the statement, “There is no such thing as clean energy,” so I thought it would be good to find out more about his reporting from “over 100 countries, states, provinces, kingdoms, occupied territories, no man’s lands and disaster zones. He has exposed conditions in California’s harshest prisons, trained with US Army soldiers, ridden with the first responders to natural disasters, and hunted down other stories from around the world.”

His earlier book, The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization, was a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. As well as A California Book Award. He has written for the Oakland Tribune, The LA Times, Village Voice, The Nation and Rolling Stone, as well as being the former senior editor of Mother Jones. We spoke with Vince Beiser from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia, via Skype.

POWER METAL: THE RACE FOR THE RESOURCES THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE is published by Riverhead Books. Vince Beiser also writes on Substack, which you can access here: https://powermetal.substack.com

Due to time limitations, we were not able to discuss his chapter, “New Lives for Old Things,” on the Right to Repair movement. In it he writes about a couple of Cal Poly Tech students, who became so incensed at products designed to preclude owners from repairing them that they created a website iFixit, which hosts a free online repository of more than 103,000 do it yourself repair manuals for some 54,000 separate products. Here is a link: https://www.ifixit.com/

During the broadcast, I referred to the recent 5-2 Montana Supreme Court opinion, which upheld a permit the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation issued to Tintina Montana Incorporated (now Sandfire Resources) to manipulate approximately 250 millions gallons of groundwater in pursuit of a 14 million-ton copper deposit in Meagher County, and which environmentalists fear will endanger the pristine Smith River. I misspoke, mentioning the transnational Rio Tinto mining company instead of Tintina Montana Incorporated.

Montana Supreme Court upholds Tintina’s copper mine permit https://montanafreepress.org/2025/01/02/montana-supreme-court-upholds-tintinas-copper-mine-permit/

Other articles pertinent to this interview:

A Toxic Pit Could Be a Gold Mine for Rare-Earth Elements https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/science/berkeley-mine-pit-rare-earths.html

Playing gods with the cradle of life’: French Polynesia’s president issues warning over deep-sea mining https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/01/french-polynesia-deep-sea-mining-pacific-warning-president-moetai-brotherson

The Surprisingly Lucrative Business of Recycled E-Waste https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-surprisingly-lucrative-business-of-recycled-e-waste?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Revealed: US hazardous waste is sent to Mexico – where a ‘toxic cocktail’ of pollution emerges https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jan/14/monterrey-mexico-steel-us-toxic-waste

‘Live sick or flee’: pollution fears for El Salvador’s rivers as mining ban lifted https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/01/el-salvador-environment-rivers-water-pollution-mining-ban-repealed-authoritarian-nayib-bukele-protest

‘The last drops of our water’: how a mine left some of Peru’s poorest high and dry https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/04/the-last-drops-of-our-water-how-a-mine-left-some-of-perus-poorest-high-and-dry

‘This river is doomed’: Peru’s gold rush threatens waterways and the people who depend on them https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/22/illicit-gold-mining-loreto-peru-indigenous-peoples-fight-protect-amazon-rivers

Thailand bans imports of plastic waste to curb toxic pollution https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/07/thailand-bans-imports-plastic-waste-curb-toxic-pollution

A dedicated cyclist and activist hails a program aimed at reducing car traffic. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/06/nyregion/congestion-pricing-nyc-new-jersey#a-dedicated-cyclist-and-activist-hails-a-program-aimed-at-reducing-car-traffic

Roman Empire’s use of lead lowered IQ levels across Europe, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/06/roman-empires-use-of-lead-lowered-iq-levels-across-europe-study-finds

Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo

Melissa Hornbein & Anne Hedges: MT Supreme Court Ruling Upholds Held Verdict

On December 18, 2024 in a 6-1 ruling, The Montana Supreme Court upheld District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s verdict in favor of the 16 Youth Plaintiffs in the Held v State of Montana case. They had sued the state for violations of their rights to a clean and healthful environment under the Montana State Constitution.

Melissa Hornbein Western Environmental Law Center

After the ruling, I invited Western Environmental Law Center attorney, Melissa Hornbein, a member of the plaintiffs’ legal team, and Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center, whose lawsuits over the decades were cited by Chief Justice Mike McGrath’s opinion, and who had been an expert witness during the trail.

Anne Hedges Montana Environmental Information Center

Below are links to our coverage during the June 2023 trial, as well as other articles, etc. pertinent to the case and our interview.

Text of MT Chief Justice Mike McGrath’s Opinion with Justice Dirk Sandefur’s Concurring Opinion and Justice Jim Rice’s Dissent: https://dailymontanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Opinion-Published.pdf

Text of Helena District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s 2023 Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law : https://mtclimatecase.flatheadbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Findings-of-Fact-Conclusions-of-Law-and-Order.pdf

Testimonies of Witnesses from the June 2023 Trial:

Mae Nan Ellingson http://kgvm.org/show/held-mae-nan-ellingson-testimony-6-12-23/Ricki Held http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-ricki-held-testimony-6-12-23/Dr. Steven Running http://kgvm.org/show/held-dr-steve-running-testimony-6-12-23/Grace Gibson-Snyder http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-grace-testimony/Eva http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-eva-testimony-6-12-23/

Dr. Cathy Whitlock http://kgvm.org/show/held-dr-cathy-whitlock-testimony-6-13-23/Mica http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-mica-testimony-6-13-23/Dr. Daniel Fagre http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-dr-dan-fagre-6-13-23/Badger Busse http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-badge-testimony-6-13-23/

Dr. Lori Byron http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-dr-lori-byron-testimony-6-13-23/

Dr. Shane Doyle http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-shane-doyle-testimony-6-14-23/ Michael Durglo, Jr. http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-michael-durglo-jr/Sariel Sandoval http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-sariel-sandoval-testimony-6-14-23/

Taleah Hernández http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-taleah-hernandez-testimony-6-14-23/ Georgianna Fischer http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-georgianna-fischer-testimony-6-14-23

Kian Tanner http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-kian-tanner-testimony-6-15-23/

Anne Hedges http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-anne-hedges-testimony-6-15-23/

Claire Vlases http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-claire-vlases-testimony-6-15-23/

Peter Erickson http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-peter-erickson-testimony-6-15-23/

Mark Jacobson http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-mark-jacobson-testimony-6-16-23/

Olivia V. http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-olivia-v-testimony-6-16-23/

Dr. Lise Van Susteren http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-lise-van-susteren-testimony-6-16-23/

Lander Busse http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-lander-busse-testimony-6-16-23/

Christopher Dorrington & Sonja Nowakowski http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-christopher-dorrington-sonja-nowakowski/

Sonja Nowakowski & Dr. Terry Anderson https://forthright.media/2023/06/20/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-part-2-cross-examination-of-sonja-nowakowski-final-witness-dr-terry-anderson/

Closing Arguments https://forthright.media/2023/06/21/held-v-state-of-montana-day-7-closing-arguments/

Here are links to the Daily Audio Digests

Day 1 https://forthright.media/2023/06/13/held-v-state-of-montana-day-1-daily-digest/

Day 2 https://forthright.media/2023/06/14/held-v-state-of-montana-day-2-daily-digest/

Day 3 https://forthright.media/2023/06/15/held-v-state-of-montana-day-3-daily-digest/

Day 4 https://forthright.media/2023/06/16/held-v-state-of-montana-day-4-daily-audio-digest/

Day 4 (Peter Erickson) https://forthright.media/2023/06/18/held-v-state-of-montana-day-4-daily-digest-peter-erickson/

Day 5 https://forthright.media/2023/06/17/held-v-state-of-montana-day-5-daily-digest-dr-lise-van-susteren-lander-busse/

Day 5 (Dr. Mark Jacobson) https://forthright.media/2023/06/18/held-v-state-of-montana-day-5-daily-digest-dr-mark-jacobson/

Day 6 (Christopher Dorrington & Sonja Nowakowski) https://forthright.media/2023/06/20/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-daily-digest-christopher-dorrington-sonja-nowakowski/

Day 6 (Dr. Terry Anderson) https://forthright.media/2023/06/20/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-part-2-cross-examination-of-sonja-nowakowski-final-witness-dr-terry-anderson/

Timothy Ryback TAKEOVER: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power

Dr. Timothy W. Ryback, PhD is an historian and director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague. He previously served as the Deputy-Secretary General of the Académie Diplomatique Internationale in Paris, and Director and Vice President of the Salzburg Global Seminar.

Timothy Ryback has written on European history, politics and culture for numerous publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal.

He is the author of numerous books, including Hitler’s Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life, which has appeared in more than 25 editions around the world; his book, The Last Survivor: Legacies of Dachau was a New York Times Notable Book; and Rock Around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

His latest book is TAKEOVER: HITLER’S FINAL RISE TO POWER (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024). It explores the final days of the Weimar Republic and its incredibly rapid transformation into the Third Reich of Nazis Germany in just a few months. We discuss it and two of his other books, HITLER’S PRIVATE LIBRARY: THE BOOKS THAT SHAPED HIS LIFE, and HITLER’S FIRST VICTIMS: THE QUEST FOR JUSTICE.

Although there is some disputing it, Mark Twain is generally credited with observing that “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” In researching that quip, I came across this by humorist, Max Beerbohm from 1896. “History,” it has been said, “does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another.” How many rhymes can you find in this interview with historian, Timothy Ryback, from his home in Berlin, Germany, recorded via Skype on Dec. 3, 2024?

Articles pertinent to this interview:

How Hitler Came To Power, with Timothy Ryback and Jim Bittermann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3HhfPoavwc

What Will Happen To Everyone Who is Not White, Straight, & Male If We Don’t Speak Out? https://hartmannreport.com/p/what-will-happen-to-everyone-who?utm_source=publication-search

Margaret Atwood: Democracy Under Her Eye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hij5MbcICm4

Trump Pentagon pick attacks UN and Nato and urges US to ignore Geneva conventions https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/pete-hegseth-book-attacks-nato-alliances

The deep historical forces that explain Trump’s win https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/30/the-deep-historical-forces-that-explain-trumps-win

Why I’m Not Giving up on American Democracy https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/30/opinion/trump-orban-hungary-journalists-persecution.html

Ex-official exits running for Trump team over Sebastian Gorka appointment https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/sebastian-gorka-michael-anton-trump

Montana supreme court blocks ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/11/montana-blocks-ban-gender-affirming-care-trans-minors

United States v. Skrmetti: The Trans Medical Care Case Before the Supreme Court Is About Bodily Autonomy for Everyone https://www.americanprogress.org/article/united-states-v-skrmetti-the-trans-medical-care-case-before-the-supreme-court-is-about-bodily-autonomy-for-everyone/

Nikki Giovanni poetry reading at Emory University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr7587oAdpQ

Nikki Giovanni Reads her own Poems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFP9ZNYCPs

How Nikki Giovanni’s Black American consciousness changed the world https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/14/nikki-giovanni-black-arts-literary-consciousness

How to Kill a Democracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKlkETrxCkc

Timothy Ryback – Hitler’s Private Library – Part 1 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKKfohBPy7s

Timothy Ryback – Hitler’s Private Library – Part 2 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sOIkTr4aVw

The Books He Didn’t Burn | Inside Hitler’s Private Library. Official Trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uj5O8LDB2k

Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence in the United States: What the Research Says https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2023/09/polarization-democracy-and-political-violence-in-the-united-states-what-the-research-says?lang=en

US founder of neo-Nazi network sentenced to two years of time served https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/13/neo-nazi-founder-robert-rundo-sentencing

Bruce Gourley Americans United for Separation of Church and State

This edition of Forthright Radio marks the 20th anniversary of the first program that day after Thanksgiving in 2004. I am deeply grateful to Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, KZYXfm, and all the listeners who support community radio, for having given me the opportunity to host and produce Forthright Radio.

Bruce Gourely is an historian specializing in American History and the editor of Church & State magazine, the publication of Washington D.C. based Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He is an award winning author and photographer. Among his nine books are Crucible of Faith and Freedom: Baptists and the American Civil War; Diverging Loyalties: Baptists in Middle Georgia During the American Civil War. He also owns and operates the website, Yellowstone.net.

I recently had the opportunity to hear Bruce Gourely speak right after the recent election, and I immediately invited him to share his thoughts as an historian and a person dedicated to to preserving our First Amendment rights to help prepare us for what will surely be challenging times ahead. We spoke with him on November 19th, 2024 in the Beyond the Deep End studio.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

From the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s ‘Body of Liberties’ to today’s ‘Moms for Liberty’: A brief history of the anti-freedom parental rights movement https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/from-the-massachusetts-bay-colonys-body-of-liberties-to-todays-moms-for-liberty-a-brief-history-of-the-anti-freedom-parental-rights-movement/

Supreme theocrats: The anti-freedom, anti-life, biblical worldview of the Christian Nationalist majority on the nation’s highest court https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/supreme-theocrats-the-anti-freedom-anti-life-biblical-worldview-of-the-christian-nationalist-majority-on-the-nations-highest-court/

Legislating inequality: The Christian Confederate roots of Project 2025 https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/legislating-inequality-the-christian-confederate-roots-of-project-2025/

The passing of Pat Schroeder reminds us how far we’ve come https://gazette.com/politics/pat-schroeder-women-trailblazer/article_a09b6882-c38f-11ed-82ef-833044f03ea3.html

““The women in Congress had to wage virtually every battle alone,” Schroeder wrote in her memoir of those early years, “whether we were fighting for female pages (there were none) or a place where we could pee.”
That’s right. For many years, women didn’t have a bathroom off the House floor like the men did. When Schroeder was there, women were forced to use the restroom inside the women’s reading room far off on another floor. Female members of the House didn’t get a women’s bathroom off the House floor until 2011.”

Education or indoctrination? As public schools go back into session, Americans United fights a rising tide of state-sponsored religion https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/education-or-indoctrination-as-public-schools-go-back-into-session-americans-united-fights-a-rising-tide-of-state-sponsored-religion/

Federal Judge Blocks Louisiana Law Requiring Ten Commandments in Classrooms https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/us/louisiana-ten-commandments-ruling.html?searchResultPosition=

Thou shalt not bear false witness https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/thou-shalt-not-bear-false-witness/

Texas Education Board Backs Curriculum With Lessons Drawn From Bible https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/us/texas-bible-curriculum-public-schools.html

Abortion clinics can stay open; judge extends block on license requirement for now https://dailymontanan.com/2024/11/18/abortion-clinics-can-stay-open-judge-extends-block-on-license-requirement-for-now/

Judge strikes down Wyoming’s anti-abortion laws in victory for rights advocates https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/19/wyoming-anti-abortion-laws-struck-down-pills

As nuns disappear, many Catholic hospitals look more like megacorporations https://dailymontanan.com/2024/11/17/as-nuns-disappear-many-catholic-hospitals-look-more-like-megacorporations/

Judge hears case over Montana rule blocking trans residents from changing sex on birth certificate https://montanafreepress.org/2024/11/15/judge-hears-case-over-montana-rule-blocking-trans-residents-from-changing-sex-on-birth-certificate/

Voters Poised to Reject Private School Vouchers in Three States https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/us/private-school-funding-election-rejection.html

Trump Wants to Shut Down the Department of Education? Is That Possible? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/us/shut-down-department-of-education-trump.html

Colorado parolee who refused to take part in Christian worship wins settlement https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/colorado-parolee-who-refused-to-take-part-in-christian-worship-wins-settlement/

Supreme Court abortion ruling fails to provide protection, AU says https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/supreme-court-abortion-ruling-fails-to-provide-protection-au-says/

‘Partisan politics’: how efforts to overturn the Johnson amendment could upend campaign finance https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/14/johnson-amendment-campaign-finance

Christian Nationalist Podcasters Want to Take Over Tennessee County https://www.newsweek.com/christian-nationalists-plans-community-tennessee-county-1987879

Revealed: trans rights case at US supreme court features doctors previously discredited by judges https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/21/supreme-court-trans-rights-doctors-testimonies-bias

Trump’s Pentagon pick Hegseth wrote of US military taking sides in ‘civil war’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-book

Republican bathroom bill targets Congress’s first transgender member https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/19/sarah-mcbride-congress-bathroom-bill-transgender

A lawsuit of biblical proportions: Americans United representing parents, students, teachers and clergy in challenge to Oklahoma state superintendent’s plan to force Bibles into public schools https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/a-lawsuit-of-biblical-proportions-americans-united-representing-parents-students-teachers-and-clergy-in-challenge-to-oklahoma-state-superintendents-plan-to-force-bibles-into-public-schools/

Oklahoma Students Mandated To Watch Video Announcing New Religious Department https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bc-us-religious-freedom-office-oklahoma_n_6738e2bae4b0520a467732ca

Louisiana students who were sent to church will be able to pursue legal action https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/louisiana-students-who-were-sent-to-church-will-be-able-to-pursue-legal-action/

Opinion analysis: Court rules that religious schools cannot be excluded from state funding for private schools https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/06/opinion-analysis-court-rules-that-religious-schools-cannot-be-excluded-from-state-funding-for-private-schools/

South Carolina Supreme Court strikes down school voucher plan https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/south-carolina-supreme-court-strikes-down-school-voucher-plan/

M. V. Ramana NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change

Professor M. V. Ramana, a physicist by training, is Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and the director of the graduate program at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He previously worked at the Nuclear Futures Laboratory and the Program on Science and Global Security, both at Princeton University. He is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Material, The International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group, and the team that produces the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report. His earlier books are The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India, and Bombing Bombay? Effects of Nuclear Weapons and a Case Study of a Hypothetical Explosion.

Increasingly alarmed by more and more reports of well respected climate scientists, such as James Hansen, who promote nuclear energy as an important part of responding to rapidly increasing climate catastrophes, we spoke with Professor Ramana via Skype on November 4, 2024 about his latest book, NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: THE FOLLY OF ATOMIC POWER IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE, published by Verso.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Meta signs deal with nuclear plant to power AI and datacenters for 20 years https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/03/meta-nuclear-power-ai

Dangerous Hype: Big Tech’s Nuclear Lies https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/01/big-techs-nuclear-lies/

Biden Tees Up 2 More Major Nuclear Power Wins for Trump https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-nuclear-pledge-climate-summit_n_67352fc1e4b0958bad3e15f4

The Cost of a Nuclear Arsenal https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/02/opinion/nuclear-arsenal.html

The Price https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/10/opinion/nuclear-weapons-us-price.html

Three Mile Island, Notorious in Nuclear Power’s Past, May Herald Its Future https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/business/energy-environment/three-mile-island-nuclear-energy.html

Big Fire Breaks Out at Nuclear Submarine Plant in Britain https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/world/europe/fire-nuclear-submarine-uk.html

Why even environmentalists are supporting nuclear power today https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1119904819/nuclear-power-environmentalists-california-germany-japan

Robot retrieves radioactive fuel sample from Fukushima nuclear reactor site https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/02/robot-retrieves-radioactive-fuel-sample-from-fukushima-nuclear-reactor

Japanese nuclear reactor which survived earthquake that badly damaged Fukushima power plant restarts https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/japanese-nuclear-reactor-which-survived-19870742.php

Donald Trump can’t stop global climate action. If we stick together, it’s the US that will lose out https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/07/donald-trump-cant-stop-global-climate-action-if-we-stick-together-its-the-us-that-will-lose-out

Trump voters want a revolution. It’s time for progressives to offer their own https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/07/trump-voters-revolution-politics-right

Our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/07/us-progressive-election-trump-maga

Tsunehisa Katsumata, Top Executive in Power Plant Meltdown, Dies at 84 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/business/tsunehisa-katsumata-dead.html

Richard A. Fineberg, Relentless Skeptic of Alaska Pipeline, Dies at 83 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/climate/richard-a-fineberg-dead.html

Yael Bridge THE BIG SCARY “S” WORD & Lois Lipman FIRST WE BOMBED NEW MEXICO https://forthright.media/2024/05/24/yael-bridge-the-big-scary-s-word-lois-lipman-first-we-bombed-new-mexico/

Arlie Russell Hochschild STOLEN PRIDE: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right

Arlie Russell Hochschild is University of California Berkeley Professor Emerita of Sociology. She is the author of many groundbreaking books, including THE SECOND SHIFT, WORKING FAMILIES AND THE REVOLUTION AT HOME; THE TIME BIND, WHEN WORK BECOMES HOME AND HOME BECOMES WORK; and her best selling book, STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND, ANGER AND MOURNING ON THE AMERICAN RIGHT, was a National Book Award finalist. In addition to her many honorary degrees from Harvard, and European universities, She also received the Ulysses medal from University College, Dublin, and the Helmholtz Medal from the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. And if that weren’t enough, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2022.

Her most recent book is STOLEN PRIDE: LOSS, SHAME, AND THE RISE OF THE RIGHT, published by The New Press in September, 2024. In it she explores the question, what happens when a proud people in a hard-hit region suffers the deep loss of pride and are confronted with a powerful political appeal that makes it feel “stolen?” Dr. Hochschild, prompted by CA Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who was working with KY-5th District Republican Congressman, Hal Rodgers, went to Pikeville in the heart of Appalachia in his district, which is the whitest and second poorest in the United States. 30 years ago, it was in the political center, but in 2016 and 2020, Trump received 80% of the district’s vote.

26 year old Neo-Nazi, Matthew Heimbach, sought a permit for a white supremacist march to be held there on April 30, 2017. It turned out to be a trial run for the August Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, for which he was a core organizer. He is just one of the people she interviewed and followed, and whose character actually evolved in surprising ways. We spoke with Arlie Russell Hochschild from her home in Berkeley, CA via Skype on October 22, 2024.

In honoring the passing of Fernando Valenzuela, hero for Dodgers and Mexican baseball fans, who died on October 22, at age of 63, and whose team, the LA Dodgers face the New York Yankees in the first game of the World Series that evening, we ended this edition with beloved poet/publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s ode to Latino baseball, “Baseball Canto.”