Carbon Math

The Aboriginal Nations Oppose Expansion of Canada’s Tar Sands

Shell Canada is planning to expand its Jackpine tar sands mining operations, but several Aboriginal Nations who live there fiercely protest these plans. Steve Curwood hears why from Chelsea Flook, Executive Director of the Sierra Club Prairie Chapter.
Source: First Nation Challenges Expansion of Canada’s Tar Sands

Bill McKibben & John Hofmeister

Carbon Math

Activist Bill McKibben and former president of Shell Oil Company John Hofmeister discuss the current state of energy and the technology. While both McKibben and Hofmeister agree that the world needs better energy alternatives, they disagree on when the needed changes will happen.

Bill McKibben is the founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. John Hofmeister is CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy and Former President, Shell Oil Company.
Source: Carbon Math

David Blackwell

Tapping Volcanoes for Energy

Scientists are exploring technologies to harness the power of volcanoes for geothermal energy. David Blackwell, an earth sciences professor at Southern Methodist University, tells Steve Curwood about volcano energy.
Source: Tapping Volcanoes for Energy

Download or Play Canada's Tar Sands & Carbon Math
Download or Play Carbon Math Part 2
Download or Play Carbon Math Part 3
Download or Play Carbon Math Part 4 & Volcano Energy


Music includes John Lennon - Imagine, Green Day - 21 Guns, Harry Truman 1948, Capitol Steps - Al-Jazeera, Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, David Rovics - Operation Iraqi Liberation, John Prine - Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore, Celine Dion - Titanic, Carly Simon - You're So Vain, Herb Alpert - Bittersweet Samba, Louis Armstrong - Heebie Jeebies

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America

Fossil Fuel Divestment

Students Demand Fossil Fuel Divestment

A generation ago students demanded their universities pull investments out of South Africa to fight Apartheid. Today, activists want to fight climate change emissions using the same tactic. Steve Curwood talks to Harvard students who are asking the college to pull investment from all fossil fuel stocks.
Source: Students Demand Fossil Fuel Divestment

A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America

Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, American Cancer Society; Co-author, How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America
Lisa Aliferis, KQED Health Editor - Moderator

Brawley asserts finance is inextricably linked to health care in America’s current system. Even the very procedures patients undergo are frequently determined more by doctors’ expected payment for performing them than their actual appropriateness in mitigating the ailment with which the patient is afflicted.
Source: Dr. Otis Brawley: Fighting Patient Mistreatment in America

Beluga Whale

The Whale that Spoke Human

A new paper from neurobiologist Sam Ridgway argues that at least one beluga whale could imitate human speech patterns. Emmett FitzGerald reports on Noc, the cetacean with the remarkable vocal powers.
Source: The Whale that Spoke Human

Steve Dishart

The Cost Of Climate Change

Scientists expect more severe storms like Sandy as a result of climate change and insurance companies are paying attention. Steve Dishart, former communications manager for reinsurer Swiss Re, tells host Steve Curwood that rates will rise and some properties will be uninsurable as climate change brings about more weird weather.
Source: Insuring for Climate Change

Download or Play Fossil Fuel Divestment & Otis Brawley
Download or Play Otis Brawley Part 2
Download or Play Otis Brawley Part 3
Download or Play Part Whale Talk & Paying For Climate Change


Music includes Symphony of Science - Our Biggest Challenge, Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth, Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone, FDR - 1937, Molly Mason & Russ Barenberg - Angel Band, David Rovics - After The Revolution, Roymond - Just Blue, Excerpt from the movie Clueless, Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues, Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground, Chilly Winds - Odetta, Jose Alfredo Jimenez con Mariachi Vargas - Mexican Hat Dance

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges On Change

Preschool For Every Child

Meet a self-described robber baron who decided to spend his billions on finger paints and changing tables. Visit a decades-long studies that found preschool made a huge difference in the lives of poor children. Listen to a Nobel prize-winning economist who says that spending public money on preschool produces a huge return on investment.
Source: Episode 411: Why Preschool Can Save The World

Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges

Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges On Change

Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges met in front of Occupy TVNY's cameras to discuss their vision of change.
Source: Occupy The Courts - A Conversation with Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges

Sheila Bair

Sheila Bair talks about her role on the Systemic Risk Council and her assessment of the U.S. financial crisis.

As FDIC chair, Sheila Bair has an extensive background in banking and finance that has taken her from Capitol Hill to academia to the highest levels of government. Bair topped The Wall Street Journal's annual 50 Women to Watch list in 2008 and is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. She now chairs the nonpartisan, private sector Systemic Risk Council, which monitors and encourages regulatory reform of U.S. capital markets, and also offers her perspective on the U.S. fiscal crisis.
Source: Tavis Smiley - Former FDIC chair Sheila Bair

Download or Play Preschool Part 1
Download or Play On Change Part 2
Download or Play On Change Part 3
Download or Play Sheila Bair Part 4


Music includes Phil Ochs - Talking Pay TV, Micheal Jackson - Earth Song, No War, Eric Clapton - Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Jimi Hendrix If 6 Was 9, Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The Matrix, Coleman Hawkins - Crazy Rhythm, Herb Alpert - Besame Mucho

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

No Fracking Way Debate

Will natural gas serve as a bridge to transition from oil and coal to renewables? The ability to extract natural gas from shale formations through a method called hydraulic fracturing has increased the supply of energy. Does the U.S. have a 100-year supply of natural gas? Has contamination from toxic chemicals used in the fracking process increased health and environmental hazards?

The proposition is The Natural Gas Boom Is Doing More Harm Than Good. Hear the debate with Deborah Golderg and Katherine Hudson for the proposition and Joe Nocera and Sue Tierney against.
Source: No Fracking Way: The Natural Gas Boom Is Doing More Harm Than Good

Download or Play No Fracking Way Part 1
Download or Play No Fracking Way Part 2
Download or Play No Fracking Way Part 3
Download or Play No Fracking Way Part 4


Music includes Jerusha - Leave The Tarsands In The Ground, Pete Seeger & James Maddock - New Protest Song About BP Oil Spill In Gulf Coast, Gore - Govt Spying, Yikes McGee - Propagandy, Pretenders - Middle of the Road, Eric Weissberg - Dueling Banjos

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs