Jade Sasser CLIMATE ANXIETY AND THE KID QUESTION and Mark Rank THE RANDOM FACTOR

This edition of Forthright Radio features two university professors whose books were published this month by the University of CA Press.

First, we hear from University of California Riverside’s Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies Professor, Jade Sasser, about her latest book, CLIMATE ANXIETY AND THE KID QUESTION: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future. Her award-winning 2018 book, On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women’s Rights in the Era of Climate Change, analyzed the shifting role of environmentalists in shaping activism and international policy advocacy focused on population, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice. In CLIMATE ANXIETY AND THE KID QUESTION, she investigates the impacts of climate change, racial injustice, and other existential threats, on reproductive decisions.


In our second half, we welcome back George Washington University’s Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare, Mark Rank, whose book THE RANDOM FACTOR: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us, was published just this week. His research and teaching have focused on poverty, social welfare, economic inequality, and social policy.

Articles pertinent to this edition:

H.R.957 – Protecting Moms and Babies Against Climate Change Act 117th Congress (2021-2022)
H.R. 3302: Protecting Moms and Babies Against Climate Change Act 118th Congress https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr3302/summary

‘Children won’t be able to survive’: inter-American court to hear from climate victims https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/22/inter-american-court-climate-hearing-hear-from-victims-barbados

‘I am starting to panic about my child’s future’: climate scientists wary of starting families https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/10/climate-scientists-starting-families-children

The Far Right’s Campaign to Explode the Population https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/28/natalism-conference-austin-00150338

‘The Pressure Is Working’: Biden Weighs Climate Emergency Declaration https://www.commondreams.org/news/climate-change-national-emergency?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=b6968bca63-Top+News%3A+Thu.+4%2F18%2F24+w%2F+fundraiser&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-b6968bca63-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Pediatricians say climate conversations should be part of any doctor’s visit https://grist.org/health/pediatricians-advised-talk-patients-parents-climate-change/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=weekly

GOP State AGs Ask EPA to ‘Eviscerate’ Crucial Environmental Justice Tool https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-epa-title-vi?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=4bdd8521e2-Top+News%3A+Wed.+4%2F17%2F24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-37878a46b5-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Sterilization Procedures Have Surged Among Young People Following “Dobbs” https://truthout.org/articles/sterilization-procedures-have-surged-among-young-people-post-dobbs/?utm_source=feedotter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FO-04-15-2024&utm_content=httpstruthoutorgarticlessterilizationprocedureshavesurgedamongyoungpeoplepostdobbs&utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=e9461d45e9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_04_15_08_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-e9461d45e9-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

‘I felt like a freak because I didn’t want children’ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72pnllv8nko

‘Catastrophic’: Biden Admin Approves Largest Offshore Oil Export Terminal https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-offshore-oil-terminal?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=1180bb9681-Top+News%3A+Mon.+4%2F15%2F24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-37878a46b5-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Guest column: Global warming presents more danger than guns https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column-global-warming-presents-more-danger-than-guns/article_7f6d09de-f770-11ee-8032-1f184cd657b2.html

Cecil Williams, reverend who turned a church into a safe haven, dies aged 94 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/23/reverend-cecil-williams-san-francisco-california-dies-aged-94

‘A lot would have to go wrong for Biden to lose’: can Allan Lichtman predict the 2024 election? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/allan-lichtman-prediction-presidential-election

Randy Fertel WINGING IT: Improv’s Power & Peril in the Time of Trump

Randy Fertel is a writer and philanthropist dedicated to the arts, education, New Orleans, and the environment. His philanthropy includes as the President of the Fertel Foundation supporting a number of causes, including The New Orleans Edible Schoolyard, Artist Corps New Orleans, YAYA (that’s Young Artists, Young Aspirations), and The Ridenhour Prizes, which recognize and encourage those who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society.

The prizes memorialize the spirit of Ron Ridenhour, the Vietnam veteran who wrote a letter to Congress and the Pentagon in 1969 describing the horrific events at My Lai, the infamous massacre of the Vietnam War, bringing the scandal to the attention of the American public and the world. Ridenhour went on to become an investigative journalist, and his extraordinary life and career exemplified the fearless truth-telling which the eponymous prizes now recognize. The 2024 recipients are Emma  Pildes and Tia Lessin for their documentary film, The Janes; Congressman Jamie Raskin received The Courage Prize; and The Truth Telling Prize went to Dawn Wooten, the nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center Immigration Facility in Georgia, who filed a whistleblower complaint in September 2020 after being demoted for raising concerns about inadequate medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic and non-consensual gynecological procedures performed on women in detention. Her claims have been verified by a Senate subcommittee, ICE records, and independent medical experts. If it were not for her disclosures, women in immigrant detention would still be at risk of undergoing unnecessary, non-consensual surgeries there. However, Ms. Wooten, a single mother of five, faces ongoing retaliation.


Additionally, The Fertel Foundation organized Dutch Dialogues. South Louisiana, like the Netherlands, must adapt to the threats inherent to living in a subsiding delta. The Dutch Dialogues workshops brought together Dutch engineers, urban designers, landscape architects, city planners and soils/hydrology experts together with their Louisiana counterparts to explore whether Dutch approaches to water management, landscape architecture, flood protection and urban design were relevant to New Orleans as it recovered from Hurricane Katrina.


But More pertinent to this edition of Forthright Radio are his Improv Conferences NOLA, inspired by his life-long fascination with improvisation.
Randy Fertel’s earlier books include, A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation  and The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir. His most recent book is WINGING IT: IMPROV’S POWER AND PERIL IN THE TIME OF TRUMP, just published by Spring Publications.

We spoke with him via Skype on April 9, 2024.

Articles & videos pertinent to this interview:

Inventing Improv: A Chicago Stories Special Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQLIS1ZeNgw

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes

What War by A.I. Actually Looks Like https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/opinion/war-ai-israel-gaza-ukraine.html

Daniel Kahneman, Who Plumbed the Psychology of Economics, Dies at 90 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/business/daniel-kahneman-dead.html

Blender/ The Spanish Inquisition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKcuVQ8dA7c

Stephanie Dray BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY

We steer clear of works of fiction – not only do we want our conversations to be based in facts, but it’s a hassle to dance around spoilers. Maybe like me you vaguely know that Frances Perkins is an important person in Women’s History, mostly because she was the first female to serve in the United States Cabinet, and like me, you have a blurry visual in your mind of an unsmiling, rather severe older woman who had something to do with the New Deal and the Depression. Maybe you never wondered why Franklin Roosevelt appointed her as his Secretary of Labor, or what made her so effective in identifying social injustices and doing things to rectify them.

Stephanie Dray, explained what compelled her to tell Frances Perkins story – that so many of the things we take for granted today: weekends, food and fire safety regulations, unemployment insurance, social security and so much more. Her deep research has resulted in her latest book, BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY, just out from Berkley Books. Her earlier books, many of which were NYT bestsellers, include THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE, MY DEAR HAMILTON, AMERICA’S FIRST DAUGHTER, and THE NILE TRILOGY. In BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY she uncovers the forgotten history of the intellectually brilliant, politically pragmatic and physically courageous woman, who remains the longest serving cabinet member in US History, Frances Perkins.


We spoke with Stephanie Dray via Skype on the Vernal Equinox of 2024.

Long before she became part of New York or the federal governments, Frances Perkins was a “radical” activist to investigate and reform the most lethal aspects of corporate capitalism., as when she worked aas the Director of the NY Consumers’ League in 1909.
Just before the signing of the Social Security Act, Frances Perkins had been informed that her husband had escaped from the mental hospital in which he had been confined. Immediately after the signing, she had to rush to New York to try to find him for his own safety.
Not only has she been honored as a national hero with this stamp, but the Episcopal Church celebrates her as a saint in their liturgy on May 13th.

When Women Lost the Vote https://www.amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/when-women-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story

How Trump Ends Social Security https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-trump-ends-social-security-4bb

Trump Wants to Destroy Social Security, But Biden Plan Would Improve and Expand It https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-vs-trump-on-social-security?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=fc4122f9bf-Top+News%3A+Mon.+3%2F18%2F2024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-37878a46b5-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Adam Shatz THE REBEL’S CLINIC: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon

Adam Shatz‘s latest book, The Rebel’s Clinic: the Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, examines the intersections of the African diaspora in the Caribbean Islands, WWII France and it’s aftermath, and the inevitable violence that colonialism creates and requires to maintain itself. He is the US editor of The London Review of Books and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is also a visiting professor at Bard College and the host of the podcast “Myself with Others.”  He is the author of two earlier books: Prophets Outcast: A Century of Dissident Jewish Writing about Zionism and Israel and Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination.

Perhaps like me, you were aware of Frantz Fanon. You saw his books, particularly THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH, in the bookshelves of people your respected, but you didn’t really know too much about him.

Frantz Fanon was born on the Caribbean island of Martinique in 1925. He was educated to identify as a French man, and as he wrote in his book, BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASK, it was a shock to serve in WWII, be wounded, receive a medal and still be seen as an African, an object of fear. He studied in Lyon, France, and became a psychiatrist in the post-war intellectual ferment of existentialism and the rise of decolonization movements.

He was a playwright, a practicing psychiatrist, the author of numerous articles in scientific journals, a teacher, a diplomat, a journalist, the editor of an anti-colonial newspaper, the author of three books, and a major Pan-Africanist and internationalist, who became a political militant as France efforts to suppress the Algerian independence movement became more violent and vicious. But unlike most militants, he had the training and intellectual capacity to analyze and articulate the processes internal to the individual and external to the culture that lead to the point of violence, and whether violence can be justified or even dis-intoxicating.

Like Ernesto “Che” Guevara–another revolutionary who valued the poetic and was a committed internationalist, doctor, soldier, teacher, and theorist–Fanon’s life has much to inform our understanding of where we find ourselves in struggle today.

Thanks to David Rovics for permission to post his song, “As the Bombs Rain Down” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQbx5zPxGAk&list=OLAK5uy_lNIlbd6R0lC4TICKXq2ylk9-CrjXHDcc4

The World May Be Entering a Much Bloodier Era https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/opinion/international-world/coups-climate-change-africa-sahel.html

Dossier no. 26: Frantz Fanon: The brightness of metal https://mronline.org/2020/03/04/dossier-no-26-frantz-fanon-the-brightness-of-metal/

Marc-William Palen PAX ECONOMICA: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World

As cruel wars rage across three continents and civilian casualties soar, it is easy to forget, or perhaps never to have known, that people have been analyzing the causes of war and organizing and working for peace for a very long time. These days, the term FREE TRADE is associated with right wing free marketers and multi-national corporate globalization, but this was not the story in the 19th century. Beginning in the 1840s, left-wing globalists became the leaders of the transnational peace and anti-imperialist movements of their times.

Marc-Allen Palen is an historian at the University of Exeter specializing in the intersection of British and American imperialism within the broader history of globalization since 1800. He is co-director of The History and Policy Global Economics and History Forum in London. His commentary has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, NBC, the BBC, and the Conversation, among other international journals. He is the editor of the Imperial & Global Forum. His earlier book is The ‘Conspiracy’ of Free Trade: the Anglo-American Struggle over Empire and Economic Globalization, 1846-1896.

His second book, Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World is published by Princeton University Press. In it, he explores how political economy, gender, humanitarianism, religion and ideology have shaped global imperial expansion. He documents the evolution of thinking about the impact of trade policies with social theories and the connections made not only across the Atlantic, but around the world, linking those policies with war and peace. Hard as it may be to believe these days, by the end of 19th century, an unlikely alliance of liberal radicals, socialist internationalists, feminists, and Christians envisioned free trade as essential for a prosperous and peaceful world order. And they struggled, too, with rampant nationalism, protectionism and geopolitical conflict, as well as exploitation of underdeveloped regions. The more I learned about the actual history, which Dr. Palen documents, the more dismayed I was that this history has been hidden, and the more determined I became to share it.
We spoke with Marc-William Palen on February 20th via Skype.

End fossil-fuel era to address colonial injustices, urges prominent historian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/end-fossil-fuel-era-to-address-colonial-injustices-urges-prominent-historian

Polish farmers dump grain in protest as Ukraine dispute deepens https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/20/polish-farmers-dump-grain-in-protest-as-ukraine-dispute-deepens

Martin Luther King Jr memorial vandalized in Colorado park https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/21/martin-luther-king-jr-memorial-vandalized-denver-colorado-park

Fire Burns Down Mississippi John Hurt Museum https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/22/headlines/fire_burns_down_mississippi_john_hurt_museum

Charles V. Hamilton, an Apostle of ‘Black Power,’ Dies at 94 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/18/us/charles-v-hamilton-dead.html

Michael Graetz THE POWER TO DESTROY: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America

Michael J. Graetz is professor emeritus at Columbia Law School and Yale Law School. He is a leading authority on tax politics and policy, having served in the US Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy and been an expert witness on a variety of tax matters before Congressional Committees.

He has written or co-written many books, including DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS: THE FIGHT OVER TAXING INHERITED WEALTH; THE WOLF AT THE DOOR: THE MENACE OF ECONOMIC INSECURITY AND HOW TO FIGHT IT; and TRUE SECURITY: RETHINKING AMERICAN SOCIAL INSURANCE.

His latest book, is THE POWER TO DESTROY: HOW THE ANTITAX MOVEMENT HIJACKED AMERICA, published by Princeton University Press. We spoke with him via Skype on February 6, 2024.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Michael Zweig: An Economicst With an Alternative View of the National Debt https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/01/nyregion/long-island-qa-michael-zweig-an-economist-with-an-alternative-view.html?searchResultPosition=1

It Shouldn’t Be a Crime to Disclose Tax Returns https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/24/opinion/thepoint#trump-tax-return-public

Everyone’s Income Taxes Should Be Public https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/opinion/sunday/taxes-public.html

Former Contractor Who Leaked Trump’s Tax Returns Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/us/politics/irs-trump-taxes-prison.html

Imagine Getting $840,000 a Year. Not as Your Pay—as a Raise. https://newrepublic.com/article/178570/executive-compensation-rising-congress

How Congress is planning to lift 400,000 kids out of poverty https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/1/16/24035922/child-tax-credit-wyden-smith-deal

‘A Mockery’: House Passes Tax Bill That Favors Corporations Over Children https://www.commondreams.org/news/corporations-child-tax-credit?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=34e881a33a-Top+News%3A+Thur.+2%2F1%2F24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-f33353396e-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already?!) by emma’s revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGpRN7ZWlp8

Howell Raines SILENT CAVALRY: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta and Then Got Written Out of History

We hear much these days about how history should be taught. Although the Civil War was fought and supposedly ended 160 years ago, after the last cannon was shot and formal surrender was signed, a new war began. We are living through it still.

Forgive me for quoting William Faulkner once again, but he said it so well, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” The past may not be dead, but there were definitely efforts to bury it, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, Howell Raines, set about over six decades to un-bury some of that past, resulting in his most recent book, SILENT CAVALRY: HOW UNION SOLDIERS FROM ALABAMA HELPED SHERMAN BURN ATLANTA – AND THEN GOT WRITTEN OUT OF HISTORY, published by Crown.

Howell Raines was born in Birmingham, AL in 1943, and as you will hear, his people go way back in the hill country of northern Alabama. You can be forgiven for not knowing that they voted not to secede from the union during the Civil War, and that they were mocked with the moniker “THE FREE STATE OF WINSTON.” They had hoped to be neutral and left alone by both the Union & the Confederacy, but when the latter legislated the first military conscription in our country’s history, and ruthlessly hounded the 22 counties of northern Alabama to purloin their young men, thousands of them fled north and volunteered for the Union army, where they were formed into the bi-racial 1st Alabama Cavalry, and served with distinction. Howell Raines documents the significant role they played in restoring our union, as well as the collusion between northern and southern elites to erase their story.

Howell Raines began his journalism career, 60 years ago as a reporter for the Birmingham Post-Herald. In 1971 he became the political editor of the Atlanta Constitution. He became the NYT national correspondent based in Atlanta in 1979, becoming the Times editorial page editor in 1993 in New York City, where he was known for “the aggressive, colloquial style of his editorials.”


His books include a novel, WHISKEY MAN, set in Depression era Alabama and based roughly on his own family history; and an oral history of the civil-rights movement, MY SOUL IS RESTED: MOVEMENT DAYS IN THE DEEP SOUTH REMEMBERED.
We spoke with him via Skype on January 22, 2024.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History

‘History is not what happened’: Howell Raines on the civil war and memory https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/27/howell-raines-silent-cavalry-civil-war?ref=upstract.com

Longstreet: the Confederate general who switched sides on race https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/03/longstreet-confederate-general-book-elizabeth-varon

Stars Fell on Alabama · Louis Armstrong · Ella Fitzgerald https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Xr4DZudpE

Doonesbury https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2024/02/18

Jon Schwartz and Elise Swain plus David Rovic’s songs

Our guests today on Forthright Radio are two journalists from the non-profit on-line news organization, The Intercept, Jon Schwartz and Elise Swain.

We watched in horror on October 7, 2023 as Hamas gunmen launched surprise attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets along the Gaza border during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. It came 50 years and a day after Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an assault during Yom Kippur to retrieve territory Israel had taken during the conflict in 1967. The New York Times reports that there were about 1,200 deaths, including 766 Israeli civilians, 36 of them children, and 373 members of the security forces, plus approximately 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers taken hostage, including 30 children. The attack is considered the bloodiest day in Israel’s modern history, and the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust.

In response, The Israeli Defense Forces launched and sustained brutal retaliatory bombings and near total restrictions on water, food, fuel and other necessities for life, vowing to continue til Hamas has been destroyed. As of January 11, 2024, more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, the overwhelming majority of them women and children. Unknown numbers of others remain buried beneath the rubble of the obliterated homes, hospitals, mosques, schools, churches, and other crucial infrastructure.

International efforts for a cease fire have been thwarted by the US Government in the United Nations, even as President Biden has gone around Congress to send more US weapons to Israel.

Meanwhile, South Africa has brought a case to the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. In the United States and around the world, huge demonstrations continue to occur in support of g an immediate and sustained cease-fire. Many of these demonstrations are organized by Jewish peace groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Rabbis for Ceasefire.

These things and much more, leave me uncharacteristically unable to process the emotions that arise. The horror, the knowledge that through my government, without whom this could not and would not continue, I am complicit, my feelings of helplessness to affect change. So, the piece that Jon Schwartz and Elise Swain published on The Intercept on Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas! We All Belong in the Hague, spoke to me and moved me to invite them to Forthright Radio.


Elise Swain is Photo Editor of The Intercept. Prior to this role, she was an associate producer for the Intercepted podcast, while working across various mediums for The Intercept, including writing, photography, video, illustration, and audio. Before joining The Intercept, she worked as a freelance artist and has a BFA in photo and video from the School of Visual Arts. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.


Before joining First Look Media, Jon Schwarz worked for Michael Moore’s Dog Eat Dog Films and was a research producer for Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story.” He’s contributed to many publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and Slate, as well as NPR and “Saturday Night Live.” In 2003, he collected on a $1,000 bet that Iraq would have no weapons of mass destruction.

We are especially grateful to David Rovics for permission to include songs from his recent collection, NOTES FROM A HOLOCAUST IN STANDARD TUNING, in the web post of this edition of Forthright Radio. You can find more of his songs here: https://soundcloud.com/davidrovics/sets/gaza

The heading photo is of an American flag flying behind barbed wire and fencing at Guantanamo Bay on June 27, 2023 by Elise Swain. Used with permission.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Merry Christmas! We All Belong in Prison at The Hague. https://theintercept.com/2023/12/24/merry-christmas-war-crimes/

I Calculated How Much of My Money the U.S. Sent to Kill Palestinians. You Can Too. https://theintercept.com/2023/12/28/israel-us-taxes-gaza-war/

‘Truly Shocking’: Daily Gaza Death Rate Shatters That of All Other 21st Century Wars – Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza have also killed more than 10,000 children in nearly 100 days, or 1% of the 1.1 million children in the besieged enclave. https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-death-rate-21st-century?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=9e70fea354-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_01_12_no_tracking&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-77b634d84f-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Ralph Nader on Gaza Ceasefire & Why Suppression of Palestine Advocacy Is the Real Problem on Campus http://democracynow.org/2024/1/5/ralph_nader_on_stopping_gaza_war

White House Faces Calls to Stop Ex-Guantánamo Detainee’s Forced Return to Russia https://theintercept.com/2023/10/03/guantanamo-bay-russia-uae-ravil-mingazov/

What Prison? Censorship Has Never Been Worse at Guantánamo Bay https://theintercept.com/2023/08/27/guantanamo-bay-photo-essay/

Released Guantánamo Detainees Are Still Being Denied Human Rights, U.N. Report Warns https://theintercept.com/2023/06/27/guantanamo-bay-kazakhstan-former-detainees/

Merry Christmas! We’re All Being Murdered by Capitalism. https://theintercept.com/2022/12/24/christmas-capitalism-covid-climate-change/

Merry Christmas, America! Let’s Remember the Children Who Live in Fear of Our Killer Drones. https://theintercept.com/2019/12/25/merry-christmas-us-drone-strikes/

Stakes high as South Africa brings claim of genocidal intent against Israel https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/stakes-high-as-south-africa-brings-claim-of-genocidal-intent-against-israel#:~:text=South%20Africa’s%20request%20for%20an,seemed%20implausible%20a%20fortnight%20ago.

Inside Israel’s plan to quash South Africa’s Gaza genocide case https://www.axios.com/2024/01/05/south-africa-gaza-genocide-icj-israel-plan

Israel Is Terrified the World Court Will Decide It’s Committing Genocide https://truthout.org/articles/israel-is-terrified-the-world-court-will-decide-its-committing-genocide/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=be70a0a56d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_11_16_08_07_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-046450dcb0-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Samantha Power Calls on Samantha Power to Resign Over Gaza https://theintercept.com/2023/12/15/samantha-power-israel-gaza-genocide/

The Gaza Protests Can Save Lives — Maybe Even Your Own https://theintercept.com/2023/11/03/gaza-protest-war/

How Biden’s State Department Conceals Its “Human Rights Black Hole” in the Middle East https://theintercept.com/2023/12/12/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-state-department/

On Top of Everything Else, Henry Kissinger Prevented Peace in the Middle East https://theintercept.com/2023/11/30/henry-kissinger-israel-egypt-soviet-union/

Hillary Clinton Is Lying About the History Between Hamas and Israel https://theintercept.com/2023/11/17/hillary-clinton-hamas-israel/

GOP and Dems Unite to Smear Gaza Ceasefire Supporters as “Pro-Hamas” https://theintercept.com/2023/11/09/republican-debate-hamas-gaza-ceasefire/

Hamas Attack Provides “Rare Opportunity” to Cleanse Gaza, Israeli Think Tank Says https://theintercept.com/2023/10/25/israel-hamas-opportunity/

The U.N. Is Powerless to Help Gaza. That’s How the U.S. Wants It. https://theintercept.com/2023/10/21/security-council-veto-united-nations/

Yes, This Is Israel’s 9/11 Both the U.S. and Israel were stunned to experience the ultraviolence they mete out to others. https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-hamas-september-11/

America Must Face Up to Israel’s Extremism https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/opinion/israel-gaza-displacement.html

Arno J. Mayer, Unorthodox Historian of Europe’s Crises, Dies at 97 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/world/europe/arno-j-mayer-dead.html

Obituaries for Nuremberg Prosecutor Erase His Beliefs About the U.S. https://theintercept.com/2023/04/12/ben-ferencz-obituary-iraq-war/

‘Eradication of Journalism in Gaza’ Continues as Israel Kills Two More Reporters https://www.commondreams.org/news/assassination-gaza-journalists?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=23c34fceb9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_01_01_09_14_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-77b634d84f-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Jon Stewart for Celebrity President. This Is Not a Joke! https://theintercept.com/2023/12/06/jon-stewart-for-president/

My Holiday Wish: Jon Stewart Runs for President https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/my-holiday-wish-jon-stewart-runs-for-president/

Josh Berman: FULL CIRCLE

On Wednesday January 17th, 2024 at the Ellen Theater, The Bozeman Film Society, in collaboration with Eagle Mount, presents an outstanding documentary, FULL CIRCLE. It explores the question, “faced with a traumatic injury that renders you permanently disabled; how would you reinvent yourself?”

It interweaves the stories of two people who not only survived devastating spinal cord injuries, but became inspirations to those who learn of their personal renewal and triumphs. In 2014, 22 year old Trevor Kennison‘s life was forever altered by a broken back. Barry Corbet, an intrepid skier, mountaineer, explorer, filmmaker, and Jackson Hole legend, broke his back in a helicopter crash in 1968. Frustrated by a pre-ADA culture that did not accept or
support the disabled, Barry reinvented himself, becoming a seminal leader in the disability community.
As you will hear in this interview with the film’s director, writer, and cinematographer, Josh Berman, FULL CIRCLE follows Trevor on a path towards post-traumatic growth in parallel with Barry, 50 years later.
Their stories mirror each other, connected through time and space by common locations and motifs; injuries in the Colorado back country, rehab at Denver’s Craig Hospital, fame in Jackson Hole; but also, through their shared resilience and refusal to let their passion for life be limited by their injuries.

FULL CIRCLE is an unblinking examination of the challenges of Spinal Cord Injury, and a celebration of the growth that such tragedy can catalyze.

A guest panel will follow the screening including Adaptive Athletes Drew Asaro, Liz Ann Kudrna, and Beth Barclay Livington.

You can find out more here: https://fullcirclefilm.co/

For more information about the Bozeman Film Society or tickets: https://www.bozemanfilmsociety.org/

Betsy Gaines Quammen TRUE WEST: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America

We interviewed historian, conservationist, author, Betsy Gaines Quammen, in 2020 when her book, AMERICAN ZION: CLIVEN BUNDY, GOD AND PUBLIC LANDS IN THE WEST was published. https://forthright.media/2020/03/18/betsy-gaines-quammen-american-zion-cliven-bundy-god-public-lands-in-the-west/

Her latest book, TRUE WEST: MYTH AND MENDING ON THE FAR SIDE OF AMERICA, was published this Fall by Torrey House Press. She received a doctorate in Environmental History from Montana State University in 2017, her dissertation focused on Mormon settlement and public land conflicts. She has studied various religious traditions over the years, with particular attention to how cultures view landscape and wildlife. The rural American west, pastoral communities of northern Mongolia, and the grasslands of East Africa have been her main areas of interest. She is the president of the Board of Directors of Wild Earth Guardians.

Although TRUE WEST focuses primarily on the intermountain west, what goes on in this region is having tremendous effect on our national politics and well-being. Just two days ago, the Colorado Supreme Court decided in favor of a suit brought by CO Republican and unaffiliated voters, working with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, against CO Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Donald J. Trump, taking advantage of a CO law that allows voters to challenge a candidate’s eligibility. In this case the eligibility was challenged under Section 3 of the 14th amendment, claiming that the former president had engaged insurrection , based on his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack by his supporters at his urging. As you will hear in this interview with Betsy Gaines Quammen, recorded in the Beyond the Deep End Studio on the Winter Solstice of 2023, extremist organizing in this region over more than a decade contributed to that insurrection. We share it with you now.

Oath Keepers’ son emerges from traumatic childhood to tell his own story in a long shot election bid https://apnews.com/article/oath-keepers-stewart-rhodes-dakota-adams-montana-e0b46f25dfe319afe29617fd7325eb10

How Mike Johnson’s creationist beliefs clash with climate facts: ‘He just wasn’t interested’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/13/mike-johnson-creationist-beliefs-clash-with-climate-facts

Christian Nationalism May Not Be Serious, but It’s Dangerous https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/opinion/christian-nationalism-trump-renew-america.html

What the South’s population boom means for 2030 redistricting https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/20/census-population-estimates-reapportionment-00132620

The Myth of the Cowboy https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/20/myth-of-the-cowboy