Medicare Meltdown

Rosemary Gibson

Rosemary Gibson talked about her book, "Medicare Meltdown: How Wall Street and Washington are Ruining Medicare and How to Fix It", in which she looks at the future of Medicare.

Rosemary Gibson was Senior Program Officer at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has led national initiatives to improve the quality of America’s health care and reduce the harm from medical errors.
Source: C-SPAN: Book Discussion on Medicare Meltdown

Chris Dodd

Chris Dodd's FISA Speech

Chris Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist and U.S. Senator representing Connecticut. He served in Congress from 1975 to 2011.

FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which regulates the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of intelligence within the U.S by the government.
Source: Free Info Society: Dodd, Chris: FISA Speech



Next week Douglas Rushkoff talks about how the U.S. is reacting to technology.



Download or Play Medicare Meltdown Part 1
Download or Play Medicare Meltdown Part 2
Download or Play Medicare Meltdown Part 3
Download or Play Chris Dodd's FISA Speech


Music includes George and Julius - I Don't Want To Be a Soldier, Peacesong - Enemy Me, FDR - Pearl Harbor, Queen - We Are The Champions, Johnny Cash And Friends - Power And The Glory, The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Glen Campbell - Galveston, Cisco Houston - Pastures of Plenty, Young Ladies - Star Spangled Banner, Odetta - Don't Think Twice It's Alright, Merle Haggard - Rainbow Stew, Frank Sinatra - Thats Life, Dead Heart Bloom - Letter To The World, Elvis Costello - What's So Funny Bout Peace Love and Understanding, Charlie Parker - Confirmation

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

Mario Cuomo on liberal politics

Mario Cuomo

Mario Cuomo is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party. He was the Governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. In this speech he explains his view of liberal politics.
Source: Free Info Society: Cuomo, Mario: Keynote Speech at 1984 DNC

Gretchen Morgenson

Why Wall Street Rules with Gretchen Morgenson

Gretchen C. Morgenson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes the Market Watch column for the Sunday "Money & Business" section of the New York Times. She is interviewed by Chris Martenson.
Source: Gretchen Morgenson: Wall Street Really Does Enjoy A Different Set of Rules Than The Rest of Us

Robert Byrd

Robert Byrd's Iraq Speech, The Arrogance of Power

Robert Byrd was a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 2010. He represented West Virginia. He was the longest-serving senator and the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress.
Source: Free Info Society: Byrd, Robert: Arrogance of Power

Next week Rosemary Gibson talks about her book, Medicare Meltdown: How Wall Street and Washington are Ruining Medicare and How to Fix It

Download or Play Mario Cuomo Part 1
Download or Play Mario Cuomo Part 2
Download or Play Morgenson On Wall Street
Download or Play Robert Byrd


Music includes Al Gore - Gov't Spying, Freedom People - People Let's Stop The War, Pete Seeger - Protest the BP oil spill in gulf coast, Capitol Steps - Shoe Bomb, Makana - We Are The Many, Woody Guthrie - Tom Joad Part 2, Johnny Paycheck - Take This Job And Shove It, Poison - Something2Believe, The Maid Freed from the Gallows, Simon and Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence, Joan Baez - I Shall Be Released Any Day Now, Willie Nelson - Angels Flying too Close to the Ground, Herb Alpert - Mexican Shuffle

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

Can The U.S. Stop Being The Global Cop?

Mark Schleifstein

Update on the Impact of the BP Oil Spill

More than 1,000 scientists and government officials met in New Orleans to share research on the effects of the 2010 BP oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico. Steve Curwood talks to Mark Schleifstein, a reporter for the Times Picayune, about what scientists have learned.
Source: Living On Earth: Research Update on the Impact of BP Oil Spill

Barry Posen

William C. Wohlforth

The Global Cop

For more than a half century, the United States has been the world’s big, globe-straddling superpower. Once again questions are being raised about whether the U.S. can still afford that role. Tom Ashbrook talks to Barry Posen and William C. Wohlforth.

Barry Posen is professor of political science and director of the security studies program at MIT. William C. Wohlforth is professor of government at Dartmouth College.
Source: On Point with Tom Ashbrook: Outlining A New Foreign Policy

Steve Brill

Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Steve Brill has reviewed a handful of bills from hospitals around the country. He comments about the crazy thicket of high prices and hard-to-decipher codes that he discovered. He talks about what it means for the price of health care in America. For more information see Time Magazine: Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us By Steven Brill.
Source: Planet Money: Episode 439: The Mysterious Power Of A Hospital Bill

Download or Play BP Oil Spill & Global Cop Part 1
Download or Play Global Cop Part 2
Download or Play Global Cop Part 3
Download or Play Hospital Bills



Music includes Robert Ross Solo - Brother Can You Spare A Dime (2008), Wildman - Like A Wave, Everton Blender - Bush and Saddam, Martin Luther King 3-8-1965, James McMurtry - We can't make it here, The Slackers - Propaganda, David Freyer - Rise Up!, Crosby Stills Nash Young - Chicago, Phil Ochs - There But for Fortune, Amy Martin - Consequences, Youngbloods - Get Together, Georff Scott - Change the story, Abraham Martin & John, New American Brass Band - Palmyra Schottische

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

Should We Prohibit Genetically Engineered Babies?

Genetic engineering makes promises of a world free of genetic diseases. Parents might be able to control their offspring’s height, eye color and intelligence. But is the science of genetic engineering advanced enough? Could there be unintended consequences and new diseases that result?

In the movie Gattaca, the vast majority of people were genetically engineered but those of natural birth were treated as if they were disabled people. Is the genetic engineering of babies morally wrong? Could it lead to eugenics and a stratified society where only the wealthy enjoy the benefits of genetic enhancement?

Nita Farahany and Lee Silver argue against the motion "Prohibit Genetically Engineered Babies"
Photo: Samuel LaHoz

Robert Winston argues in favor of banning genetic engineering of babies.
Photo: Samuel LaHoz

Sheldon Krimsky argues in favor of banning genetic engineering of babies.

Nita Farahany and Lee Silver argue against the motion. Sheldon Krimsky and Robert Winston argue for the motion.
Source: NPR: Should We Prohibit Genetically Engineered Babies?

Andy Worthington discusses Guantanamo with Scott Horton.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantanamo Files and the article “Eleven Years after 9/11, Guantánamo Is a Political Prison”. Despite being long-ago cleared for release, the many Gitmo prisoners are still imprisoned. Why has Attorney General Eric Holder’s not prosecuted Bush-era torturers?
Source: Scott Horton's Radio Show: 9/7/12 Andy Worthington

Download or Play Genetically Engineered Babies Part 1

Download or Play Genetically Engineered Babies Part 2

Download or Play Genetically Engineered Babies Part 3 & Guantanamo Part 1

Download or Play Guantanamo Part 2

Music includes Peerless Quartet - I Didn't Raise My Boy To be A Soldier, Steve Earle - Jerusalem, Ryan Harvey - The Violence of War, John Kennedy, Simon & Garfunkel - Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream, Steven Taylor - Go Down Congress, Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, It's The End Of The World As We Know It - R.E.M., Pete Seeger - Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, Shirley Bassey - Gold Finger, Gene Kelly - Singing In The Rain, Clark Gable - Puttin' On The Ritz, Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World, Jackson Browne And Joan Baez - Guantanamera, George Krupa and His Orchestra - Drum Boogie

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

The Global War on Tribal Islam

Akbar Ahmed comments on the recent debate over the use of drones by the Obama administration.

U.S. Government firepower and its vast anti-terror network have turned the war on terror into a global war on tribal Islam. And too often the victims are innocent children at school, women in their homes, workers simply trying to earn a living, and worshipers in their mosques. Battered by military attacks or drone strikes one day and suicide bombers the next, the tribes bemoan, "Every day is like 9/11 for us."

Akbar Ahmed, professor of Islamic Studies in the School of International Service at American University. Ahmed is also a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and a visiting professor at the United States Naval Academy.
Source: Book TV at American University: Akbar Ahmed, "The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam"

Pollution in China (photo: bigstockphoto.com)

Jocelyn Ford

Dr. Tracey Woodruff

Killer Smog

Beijing has the world’s thickest smog, and the health problems are serious. Beijing journalist Jocelyn Ford tells Steve Curwood about the air she’s breathing. Dr. Tracey Woodruff explains her new study linking air pollution to low birth weight.
Source: Living On Earth: Deadly Smog

Dana Milbank

Brendan Nyhan

Alicia Shepard

Who cares about the facts?

Research suggests that misinformed people rarely change their minds when presented with the facts and often become even more attached to their beliefs. This finding questions the value of well-informed voters in a democracy. Neal Conan talks with Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College and Alicia Shepard of NPR.
Source: NPR: In Politics, Sometimes The Facts Don't Matter

Download or Play Global War Part 1
Download or Play Global War Part 2 & Killer Smog
Download or Play Who cares about the facts? Part 1
Download or Play Who cares about the facts? Part 2


Music includes Almanac Singers - C for Conscription, Kathryn Williams - Why Must We Be So Brutal, Network Soundtrack - Death of Democracy, George Carlin - Euphemisms, Creedence Clearwater Revival - Mississippi Queen, R-Three - That's OK (head out of the sand), Dr. King - Nonviolence is the Most Powerful Weapon, The Producers Soundtrack - Springtime for Hitler, Steven Taylor - Go Down Congress, SUV, Joan Baez - House Of The Rising Sun, Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out, Mariachi - Bang Baby Shot, Stan Whitmire - Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs