Thursday, June 27, 2013

Can the World Tolerate an Iran with Nuclear Weapons Capability?

Amos Yadlin, Fareed Zakaria, Charles Krauthammer, Vali Nasr 

The background of the Iranian conflict with the U.S. is that after WWII, the U.S. replaced the British in dominating the Middle East. After the Shah of Iran was replaced in 1979, the Iranian government has at times refused to obey Washington, D.C. Since then the U.S. Government and Iran have been in a conflict.

Panelists debated how the world should respond to Iran’s nuclear program. Topics included the U.S. and Israeli positions in the Middle East, the consequences of launching a war against Iran, and Iran’s influence in the region. After opening statements the panelists cross-examined each other. The audience in the hall voted on the question before and after the debate.

Amos Yadlin and Charles Krauthammer argued in favor of the question, “Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions: Be It Resolved the World Cannot Tolerate an Iran with Nuclear Weapons Capability.” Fareed Zakaria and Vali Nasr argued against.
  • Rudyard Griffiths, Co-Organizer and Moderator, Aurea Foundation, Munk Debates
  • Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary (Former), Department of State
  • Charles Krauthammer, Columnist, Washington Post
  • George J. Mitchell, Special Envoy (Former), Department of State, Middle East Peace
  • Vali R. Nasr, Dean, Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
  • Amos Yadlin, Director, Tel Aviv University, Institute for National Security Studies
  • Fareed Zakaria, Host, CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPS
Results

Be it resolved the world cannot tolerate an Iran with nuclear weapons capability. The pre-debate results was 60% Pro, 16% Undecided, 24% Con. The post-debate result was 58% Pro 42% Con. Therefore Con wins as it gained by 18%.
Source: C-SPAN: Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

Download or Play Nuclear Iran Part 1
Download or Play Nuclear Iran Part 2
Download or Play Nuclear Iran Part 3
Download or Play Nuclear Iran Part 4


Music includes Judith - Fools rule the world (Dance against war mix), Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain, Coleman Hawkins - Driva Man, David Rovics - I Wanna Go Home, Stevie Wonder - Superstition, David Rovics - The War Is Over, Carly Simon - Haven't Got Time For The Pain, Charlie Parker - Embraceable You

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs


Thursday, June 20, 2013

Slaying The Monsters of Healthcare

Carol Browner
The Trouble With Climate

The third National Climate Assessment finds humans unquestionably responsible for recent climate disruption, and warns that global temperatures could rise as much as ten degrees by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions go unchecked. Steve Curwood talks about the climate report with Carol Browner, President Obama’s former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy.
Source: Living On Earth: A Troubling Climate Assessment

Donald Berwick
Slaying The Monsters of Healthcare

Dr. Berwick studies the management of health-care systems to improve the tradeoff among quality, safety and costs. Dr. Berwick concludes that "Any health-care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional."

Donald Berwick, M.D. is a former President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Source: Commonwealth Club Radio Program: Modernizing Medicare and Medicaid: How to Upgrade America's Health Care

Bruce Blumberg
Chemicals That Promote Obesity Down the Generations

Diet and exercise are seen as the key factors that cause obesity, but new research suggests that certain chemicals called obesogens contribute to the global weight problem. Bruce Blumberg, professor of developmental and cell biology at the University of California at Irvine tells Steve Curwood that the effects of an obesogenic chemical he studied seem to persist for several generations.
Source: Living On Earth: Chemicals That Promote Obesity Down the Generations

Download or Play Climate & Healthcare Part 1
Download or Play Healthcare Part 2
Download or Play Healthcare Part 3
Download or Play Healthcare Part 4 & Obesity


Music includes Yikes McGee - Propagandy, Katharine Hepburn - The Lion in Winter, Stephan Smith - Business, Capitol Steps - Electile Dysfunction, Jackson Browne - The Drums of War, Pete Seeger - It Takes a Worried Man, Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues, Woody Guthrie - Tom Joad Part 1, John Lee Hooker - Red House, Stephen Longfellow Fiske - Earth Anthem, Dixie Chicks - Roanoke

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

Thursday, June 13, 2013

What To Do About Climate Change?

Vicki Arroyo
2012 was another year of incredible weather such as drought, wildfire, ice-melt, Hurricane Sandy, and 70-degree temps in Chicago in December. Tom Ashbrook talks to Vicki Arroy and Anthony Leiserowitz about climate change

Vicki Arroyo is executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center of Georgetown University Law Center where she is also a Visiting Professor.

Anthony Leiserowitz is a research scientist, lecturer, and director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.
Source: NPR On Point with Tom Ashbrook: What To Do About Climate Change?


The Whitehouse Coup

Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler claimed that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization and use it in a coup d'état to overthrow U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Butler as leader of that organization. In 1934, Butler testified to the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Congressional committee.

The coup planned to toppling President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell House & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.
Source: BBC Radio 4: The Whitehouse Coup

Download or Play Climate Change Part 1
Download or Play Climate Change Part 2
Download or Play Climate Change Part 3 & Whitehouse Coup
Download or Play Whitehouse Coup Part 2


Music includes propublica - The Great American Foreclosure Song, Beastie Boys - In A World Gone Mad..., Dave Lippman - Jena, Country Joe & the Fish - I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag, The Producers Soundtrack - Heil Myself, Bob Dylan - With God on Our Side, Muriel Hogan - Agent Orange, Phil Ochs - There But for Fortune, Terry Gangstad - National Institute of the Blonde, Odetta - Another Man Done Gone, David Rovics - Two Mommies & Two Daddies, Theme From Jaws, Antrim Mennonite Choir - Amazing Grace, Linda Tillery & the Cultural Heritage Choir - Don't You Ever Let Nobody Drag Yo's Spirit Down, Louis Armstrong & Savoy Ballroom Five - Mahogany Hall Stomp

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

Thursday, June 6, 2013

How Big Companies Rob You Blind

David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston talks about his book "The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use 'Plain English' to Rob You Blind" with Jayne O'Donnell, USA Today Money Reporter.

“No other modern country gives corporations the unfettered power found in America to gouge cus­tomers, shortchange workers, and erect barriers to fair play. A big reason is that so little of the news . . . addresses the private, government-approved mechanisms by which price gouging is employed to redistribute income upward.”

David Cay Johnston is an American investigative journalist, author and a specialist in economics and tax issues. Mr. Johnston won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for beat reporting.
Source: BookTV - After Words: David Cay Johnston, "The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use 'Plain English' to Rob You Blind," hosted by Jayne O'Donnell, USA Today Money Reporter

Clayborne Carson
Historian Clayborne Carson on Tavis Smiley Show

Historian Clayborne Carson is director of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University and has devoted much of his professional life to the study of Dr. King. He helped design the King National Memorial. In his memoir, Martin's Dream, he traces his evolution from political activist to activist scholar.
Source: PBS: Historian Clayborne Carson on Tavis Smiley Show

Download or Play Big Companies Part 1
Download or Play Big Companies Part 2
Download or Play Big Companies Part 3
Download or Play Clayborne Carson

Music includes Judith - Fools rule the world (Dance against war mix), Michael Jackson - We Are Here To Change The World, Dave Lippman - Pity 4, Steven Taylor - Go Down Congress, Its A Beautiful Day - White Bird, Terry Gangstad - Theatre of the Whine, Joan Baez - Saigon Bride, Beatles - USSR, Shirley Basey - Goldfinger, Louis Armstrong - Chimes Blues

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs