Talking to the Enemy with Scott Atran

Scott Atran

Scott Atran is an anthropologist and a leading expert on terrorism and violence.  He is interviewed by Chris Mooney. Scott Atran has worked with terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists, as well as political leaders. He is author of the book "Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (un)Making of Terrorists". See the book review by Al Mckay who is an Associate Editor of e-International Relations.

The word "terrorism" is politically and emotionally charged, and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. In today's context, a terrorist would be a Muslim that strongly opposes the U.S. empire.
Source: Point Of Inquiry: Scott Atran - What Makes a Terrorist?

Cesar Chavez

Farm workers have civil rights with Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez was an American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union. His birthday, March 31, has become Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday in California, Colorado, and Texas.
Source: Free Info Society: Cesar Chavez' Commonwealth Club Speech





Next week on Great Speeches And Interviews, Steven Pinker on the decline of violence.


Download or Play Scott Atran Part 1
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Download or Play Cesar Chavez Part 1
Download or Play Cesar Chavez Part 2


Music includes Cranberries - Zombie, Cat Stevens - Peace Train, Peacesong - Sudden Sound, Tom Paxton - George W Told The Nation, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Beatles - The Fool on the Hill, Michael Jackson - History, Buffy Sainte-Marie - Soldier Blue, Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner, Terry Gangstad - Theatre of Whine, The Gladiators - Streets of Freedom, Ronald Reagan 1-20-1981, Joan Baez - Fountain of Sorrow, Annette Hanshaw - Happy Days Are Here Again, willie Nelson Crazy, Godfather Theme Song

Scientology Slavery

Lawrence Wright

Lawrence Wright reports on the Church of Scientology. He interviewed over two hundred former and current Scientologists. He also examined the inner workings of the Church. He also profiles its founder, the late science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard.

Lawrence Wright is the author of many books, including The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.  For more information, visit lawrencewright.com.

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986), beginning in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counselling known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.
Source: BookTV: Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

John F. Kennedy On Civil Rights 

JFK was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
Source: Free Info Society: John Fitzgerald Kennedy: Civil Rights Address

Next week Scott Atran on what makes a terrorist?

Download or Play Scientology Slavery Part 1
Download or Play Scientology Slavery Part 2
Download or Play Scientology Slavery Part 3
Download or Play JFK on Civil Rights


Music includes Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son, Grand Funk Railroad - Let's stop the war, Michael Jackson - They Don't Care About Us, Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers, James Blundell - BACK IT UP!, Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up, Terry Gangstad - Chest Hair Club, Ernest Tubb - Last Letter, Odetta - Sail Away Ladies, Abyssinian Baptist Gospel Choir - Battle Hymn of the Republic, Monty Pythons - The Galaxy Song, Tom Lehrer - Be Prepared, Linda Tillery & the Cultural Heritage Choir - Don't You Ever Let Nobody Drag Yo's Spirit Down, Willie Nelson - Angels Flying too Close to the Ground, John Coltrane - Summertime

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

The Moral Person In The Immoral Society

Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian, ethicist, public intellectual, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. described Niebuhr as "the most influential American theologian of the 20th century".

"The stupidity of the average man will permit the oligarch, whether economic or political, to hide his real purposes from the scrutiny of his fellows and to withdraw his activities from effective control. Since it is impossible to count on enough moral goodwill among those who possess irresponsible power to sacrifice it for the good of the whole, it must be destroyed by coercive methods and these will always run the peril of introducing new forms of injustice in place of those abolished." ~ Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932)

Paul Elie

Jean Bethke Elshtain

Robin Lovin

Krista Tippett talks to Paul Elie, Jean Bethke Elshtain and Robin Lovin.

Elie is senior editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and author of "The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage". Elshtain is an author and Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Lovin is Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, and the author of "Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism".

Next week Lawrence Wright reports on the Church of Scientology.

Source: On Being: Moral Man and Immoral Society: Rediscovering Reinhold Niebuhr

Download or Play Reinhold Niebuhr Part 1
Download or Play Reinhold Niebuhr Part 2
Download or Play Reinhold Niebuhr Part 3
Download or Play Reinhold Niebuhr Part 4



Music includes The Compassionate Conservatives - War And Peace, Gil Scott-Heron - Winter In America, Willie Nelson in Austin Texas, Roy Zimmerman - O Amazon, Tracy Chapman - Heaven's Here on Earth, Tom Lehrer - So Long, Mom (A Song For World War III), John Kennedy - Berlin, Shamarr Allen & Dee-1 & Paul Sanchez & Bennie of Hot 8 - Sorry Ain't Enough No More, Pete Seeger - The Draft Dodger Rag, The Beach Boys - Student Demonstration Time, Dr. King - Nonviolence is the Most Powerful Weapon, Steve Earle - Rich Man's War, Everton Blender - Bush and Saddam, Dave Lippman - Jena, Unreasonable Women, Frank Sinatra - That's Life, Young Ladies - Star Spangled Banner, John Coltrane - Moment's Notice

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs

Overwhelmed By Virtual Realities with Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff argues that we are being overwhelmed by technological advances. He looks at how our society is reacting to this new media world.

People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technologies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, compile knowledge, and connect with anyone, at anytime. We strove for an instantaneous network where time and space could be compressed.

Well, the future’s arrived. We live in a continuous now enabled by Twitter, email, and a so-called real-time technological shift. Yet this “now” is an elusive goal that we can never quite reach. And the dissonance between our digital selves and our analog bodies has thrown us into a new state of anxiety: Present Shock.

Douglas Rushkoff teaches at New York University and The New School and is a technology and media commentator for CNN.
Source: BookTV: Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

Next week Reinhold Niebuhr rediscovered.

Download or Play Present Shock Part 1
Download or Play Present Shock Part 2
Download or Play Present Shock Part 3
Download or Play Present Shock Part 4



Music includes Neil Young - War Song, Odetta - Masters Of War, Crosby Stills Nash Young - Chicago, Pete Seeger - The Draft Dodger Rag, Terry Gangstad - NRAA, Capitol Steps - Still Crazy After All These Years, Ani Di Franco - Self Evident, Ronald Reagan 1-20-1981, In A World Gone Mad - Beastie Boys, Willie Nelson - Stardust, Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again, John Coltrane - Afro-Blue

Great Speeches and Interviews' Past Programs