Living With The Islamic Republic of Iran

Hillary Mann and Flynt Leverett

Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett argue that the U.S. needs to change its policies towards the Iranian government, because Iran will play a leading role in the Middle East for many decades to come. The Leveretts state that the U.S. has misunderstood the Islamic Republic of Iran since its 1979 revolutionary inception by erecting myths (of irrationality, illegitimacy, and isolation) as the basis for a foreign policy that ill serves U.S. interests.

The Islamic Republic of Iran

Flynt Leverett is a professor of international affairs at Penn State. From 1992 to 2003, he worked on Middle East policy at the National Security Council, The State Department, and the CIA.

Hillary Mann Leverett is a senior professorial lecturer at the American University in Washington, DC and a visiting scholar at Peking University in Beijing, China. She served as director for Iran, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, and has negotiated with Iranian officials on behalf of the U.S. government. For more, visit: goingtotehran.com.
Source: Book TV: "Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran"

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Music includes Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth, Capitol Steps - Gun Nuts Boasting They Can Open Fire, Dave Lippman - Jena, Capitol Steps - Battle Hymn of the Tea Public, Hungry Beast - I'm A Climate Scientist, Capitol Steps - Someone Dumber Might, Jesus of Nazareth - Movie 1977, Leadbelly - Bourgeois Blues, 350.org - Radiowaves Mix 1.0 Edit 11-13, Reverend Billy - They Have Sold, R-Three - Something To Believe In, Capitol Steps - Drop My Baby One More Time, Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son, The Celebration Of The Lizard - The Unknown Soldier, Blur - Out Of Time, Peter La Farge - As Long as the Grass Will Grow, Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground, Michael Jackson - Why You Wanna Trip On Me, The Interior Castle - Amazing Grace, Mission Impossible Theme, L. Niehaus - Mosaics For Saxophone Quartet, Mariachi - Adelita, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Mexican Shuffle

Reinventing The US

Michael Lind

Michael Lind explains how the U.S. has reinvented itself economically and politically a number of times as a result of new technologies. Michael sees a pattern of each new technology overwhelming the political and regulatory system with the U.S. government lagging a generation or two behind the technologically-induced economic changes. Michael contends that change requires a crisis or a war or both to overthrow the old regime and usher in the new.

Michael is interviewed by Terrence McNally a journalist and radio host. Michael Lind is Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., Editor of New American Contract and its blog Value Added, and a columnist for Salon magazine.
Source: Q&A: Michael Lind, Co-Founder of New America Foundation

Danielle Droitsch

British Columbia Rejects Tar Sands Pipeline

Canada is still looking for alternative export routes for Tar Sands oil. Danielle Droitsch of the Natural Resource Defense Council's Canada Project tells Steve Curwood that British Columbia has rejected a proposal to send a pipeline through their pristine British Columbia.
Source: Living On Earth: British Columbia Rejects Tar Sands Pipeline

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Music includes Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It, The Bergerfolk - Masters of War, Judgement At Nuremberg - The Prosecution Gives Its Opening Statement, Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz, Capitol Steps - Biden Hide 2012, Frank Zappa - I'm The Slime, John Kennedy, Capitol Steps - Reverend Robertson, Carly Simon - Haven't Got Time For The Pain, The Producers Soundtrack - Springtime for Hitler, Capitol Steps - Bush Arrested, Leave Jerusha - The Tarsands In The Ground, Jack Black Earth To America, Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane, Celtic Woman - Someday, Terry Gangstad - Soap Mouthwash, Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson - Drive On, Arborea - This Little Light Of Mine, Stephen Longfellow Fiske - Earth Anthem, Phillip Glass - Thirteenth Dalai Lama

The World is a Battlefield

Jeremy Scahill

Jeremy Scahill takes us inside America’s covert wars. The soldiers in these battles operate globally and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do anything necessary to hunt down, capture or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies.

The United States has a military presence in more than 110 countries around the world, including more than 700 bases it maintains in some 40 countries. Each of the selection of territories named here is followed by the number of U.S. military personnel said to be there. JAPAN TIMES GRAPHIC

Jeremy Scahill reveals covert operations unknown to the public and carried out across the globe by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress, raising questions about freedom and democracy, war and justice, morality and politics. Terrence McNally is the interviewer, journalist and radio host.
Source: Terrence McNally podcast - Free Forum Q&A w/ JEREMY SCAHILL (#5 NYTimes Best-seller) DIRTY WARS: The World is a Battlefield

Jennifer Morgan

The U.S. and China Strike A Climate Deal

The world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters, the United States and China, have forged an agreement to work together to cut their use of climate-disrupting hydrofluorocarbons. Jennifer Morgan, director of climate and energy programs at the World Resources Institute, joins Steve Curwood to discuss the significance of the deal.
Source: Living On Earth: The US and China Strike A Climate Deal

Copenhagen, Denmark - December 18, 2009
United States President Barack Obama meets with Premier Wen Jiabao of China during a bilateral at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, December 18, 2009.
Credit: Pete Souza - White House via CNP

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Music includes The Bergerfolk - Masters of War, Amy Martin - Consequences, The Producers Soundtrack - Springtime for Hitler, Dreas - Bells Of War, Rise Against - Hero Of War, David Rovics - Operation Iraqi Liberation, Poison - Something2Believe, SUV, Crosby; Stills; Nash; & Young - Deja Vu, Capitol Steps - Away With The Manger, Zinn - Patriot, The Chambers Brothers - Love Peace, John Lewis, Eagles - Hotel California, Snowboy & the Latin Section - Mambo Rage

Inside The Mind Of A Conspiracy Theorist

Justin Gerdes

Carbon Neutral Copenhagen

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark has an ambitious plan to become the world's first carbon neutral capital by 2025. Reporter Justin Gerdes tells Steve Curwood, the Danish city has already an ocean-water cooling system, a bike super-highway and many wind farms. Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark with a population of nearly two million.
Source: Living On Earth: Carbon Neutral Capital

Stephan Lewandowsky

Inside The Mind Of A Conspiracy Theorist

Stephan Lewandowsky talks to Chris Mooney about conspiratorial thinking. How does one become a conspiracy theorist? Conspiratorial thinking clearly plays an important role in science denial, on matters ranging from the connection between HIV and AIDS, to the safety of vaccines, to global warming.

Stephan Lewandowsky is a professor of psychology and he's the author of a recent study "NASA Faked the Moon Landings, Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science (PDF)". It was followed by a second study of the conspiracy theorists who rejected the first study for, yes, conspiratorial reasons.
Source: Point Of Inquiry: Stephan Lewandowsky - The Mind of the Conspiracy Theorist

Tyler Sommers

Does The Canadian Government Gag Scientists?

Canada's Harper Administration is allegedly restricting environmental government scientists' communication with journalists, according to academics and media watchdogs. Steve Curwood talks to Tyler Sommers, coordinator of Democracy Watch.
Source: Living On Earth: Canadian Government Gag Order for Scientists?

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Music includes Elvis Costello - What's So Funny Bout Peace Love and Understanding, Roy Zimmerman - California Couldn't Pay Our Education, Buffy Sainte-Marie - Soldier Blue, Black Sabbath - War Pigs, Capitol Steps - Monster Cash, JFK 6-10-1963, Dreas - Bells Of War, Earthalujah - Explained, Terry Gangstad - Federali Express, Margaret Mead, Roy Zimmerman - Mitt's America, Sylvia Mason James - Music Is The Food Love, Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle, Carly Simon - So Vain, The Beatles - USSR, Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come, Creedence Clearwater Revival - Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog, Stephen Longfellow Fiske - Earth Anthem, Herb Alpert - Mexican Shuffle, Coleman Hawkins - Self Portrait (Of The Bean)

The End Of “We’re All In This Together”

George Packer talks to Tom Ashbrook about a great American era coming to an end. The era of a strong middle class and “we’re all in this together.”

George Packer

George is an American journalist, novelist, and playwright. George Packer is a writer at the New Yorker and author of the new book “The Unwinding: An Inner History Of The New America.” His book tells about American democracy is beset by a sense of crisis. "The Unwinding" shows a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.

Stephen Colbert

Commencement Address by Comedian Stephen Colbert

He addressed University of Virginia’s graduating students at its 2013 Valedictory Exercises.
Source: George Packer On America’s ‘Unwinding’

Barack Obama

Barack Obama 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Speech
Source: Obama, Barack: 2004 DNC Keynote Speech

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Music includes Roy Zimmerman - America, Capitol Steps - Netanyahu Hava Nodeala, U2 - Peace On Earth, Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz, Pink Floyd - Us And Them, Herbert Hoover, Tom Lehrer - So Long Mom (A Song For World War III), Hank Williams Jr - Take Back Our Country, Martin Luther King Aug 1963, Ryan Harvey - The Day They Caught Saddam Hussein, Bernice Johnson Reagon - We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder, Creedence Clearwater Revival - Mississippi Queen, Willie Nelson - Peaceful Solution 2, John Demarkis - Nowhere Man, Marvin Gaye - What's Going On Remix (Prod. by Beatnick & K-Salaam), The Producers Soundtrack - Goodbye!, Snowboy & the Latin Section - Mambo Rage