John Lomax profile on Into the Music

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In the Footsteps of John A. Lomax: American Folk Song Collector

The publication of Cowboy Songs in 1910 was a landmark in the history of America’s interest in its own folk culture, and it made Lomax a national figure. In addition to cowboy songs, Lomax had a lifelong fascination with African American folk songs, particularly the blues. These two passions drove Lomax to what many consider his greatest achievement, the collection of more than 10,000 recordings for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress.”

In this radio journey, narrated by folklorist Hal Cannon, we retrace the back roads of Texas and Louisiana to discover why the folk music that John Lomax documented in the early 20th century still resonates with us today. Join Cannon as he follows Lomax’s path, listening to the original recordings he made, visiting some of the places where Lomax recorded, and talking with the grandchildren of those he recorded.

Harry Smith profile on The Folkways Collection

The Folkways Collection

A podcast series from Smithsonian Folkways and CKUA Radio

This series of 24 one-hour programs explores the remarkable collection of music, spoken word, and sound recordings that make up Folkways Records (now at the Smithsonian as Smithsonian Folkways Recordings).

• Episode 5: The Anthology of American Folk Music^™ Part II This is the second of three programs which take an in-depth look at tHarry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music^™. This episode tells the fascinating story of the life of film-maker, record producer and anthropologist Harry Smith and his life-long musical odyssey.  Commentary by Greil Marcus, John Cohen, Rani Singh, Anthony Seeger, etc.

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Smithsonian Folkways Archivist Jeff Place talks about Dock Boggs on Sound Sessions

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Archivist Jeff Place is interviewed about Dock Boggs, plays his records and live performances, with excerpts of Dock telling about his life.

Sound Sessions from Smithsonian Folkways is an audio journey into the rich, eclectic, and sometimes eccentric Smithsonian Folkways archive. Host Sam Litzinger and archivist Jeff Place comb the stacks for music and stories about this historic record label for monthly broadcasts that feature newly digitized audio, including rare outtakes, interviews, and never-before-heard recordings.

Joe Bussard on American Routes

Interview with 78 rpm Record Collector Joe Bussard

Segment from the American Routes episode “Recordmen: Collector, Producer, DJ.”

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Jonathan Ward on Norient

Interview with ethnic 78 rpm record collector Jonathan Ward.  Ward runs the Blog Excavated Shellac, where he uploads rare 78 rpm records. Plus he compiled the 4-CD Box «Opika Pende – Africa At 78 RPM», Grammy nominee for best historical album of 2012. In this Norient.com podcast Ward tells me about his fascination with shellac, about how bloggers and ethnomusicologists don’t meet, and about a typical phenomena: «Blogger fatigue».

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Robert Crumb on Down Home Radio Show

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R. Crumb is best known as a cartoonist and illustrator, but what a lot people don’t know about him is that he is a very talented old-time mandolin player and a very serious collector of 78rpm records!  I caught up with Robert Crumb at John and Eden (The East River String Band)’s apartment over on the Lower East Side in Manhattan.  We had a good talk about Crumb’s interest in the old music and his early experiences finding old 78rpm records in the same junk shops where he searched for old comics as a kid. He has traveled extensively in search of records! meeting interesting personalities in strange places, from Delaware and Cleveland all the way to Argentina and Uruguay.  Robert Crumb plays live on the show together with Eden and John’s East River String Band.

 

Joseph Goldstein on Mindrolling

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Joseph Goldstein first became interested in mindfulness as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in 1965. Since 1967 he has studied and practiced different forms of meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma and Tibet. He is the author of A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma,  Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, The Experience of Insight, and co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and Insight Meditation: A Correspondence Course.

Chris Hedges on Moyers and Co.

Capitalism’s Sacrifice Zones

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There are forgotten corners of this country where Americans are trapped in endless cycles of poverty, powerlessness, and despair as a direct result of capitalistic greed. Journalist Chris Hedges calls these places “sacrifice zones,” and joins Bill this week on Moyers & Company to explore how areas like Camden, New Jersey; Immokalee, Florida; and parts of West Virginia suffer while the corporations that plundered them thrive.

“These are areas that have been destroyed for quarterly profit. We’re talking about environmentally destroyed, communities destroyed, human beings destroyed, families destroyed,” Hedges tells Bill.

“It’s the willingness on the part of people who seek personal enrichment to destroy other human beings… And because the mechanisms of governance can no longer control them, there is nothing now within the formal mechanisms of power to stop them from creating essentially a corporate oligarchic state.”

Chris Hedges on Resistance Radio

Chris Hedges Interviewed by Derrick Jensen

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Chris Hedges is a longtime foreign correspondent who was part of a team
that won the Pulitzer prize for their coverage. He has been in combat zones
more times than he wishes to recount. He is a powerful social critic and
critic of capitalism, and is the author of more than ten books, including
War is a Force that Gives us Meaning; Death of the Liberal Class; and Days
of Destruction, Days of Revolt. He is a columnist for Truthdig.

Amy Goodman on Uprising Radio

Listen to the entire program

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The corporate controlled media often stifle the stories which are critical to their business agenda, instead focusing on an extremely sanitized narrow view of the world. Veteran investigative journalist and founder and host of Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, however has focused on grassroots issues outside confines for over 16 years. Now with her new book titled, “The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope” which she co-authored with Denis Moynihan, she puts forth the kind of news and information which is so often missing from the mainstream. The book, a New York Times Bestseller, is a collection of essays drawn from her weekly column with Moynihan, called “Breaking the Sound Barrier”.

Paul Erlich on Background Briefing

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On this 44^th Earth Day we speak with Paul Ehrlich, the President of the Center for Conservation Biology and a Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University. We discuss the state of a planet beset by a record level of CO2 in the atmospheres, the worst in over a million years, and one that is facing projections that the earth’s current population of over seven billion will reach 9 billion by 2050, placing unsustainable pressure on food supplies already threatened by environmental degradation and global warming.

Gerhard Kubik on Afropop Worldwide

 

Africa and the Blues

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When this episode first aired, the recent death of Malian guitar legend Ali Farka Touré inspired a new round of speculation about the roots of the blues in Africa. Touré famously argued that the beloved American genre was “nothing but African”, a bold assertion. Among scholars, Gerhard Kubik’s book Africa and the Blues has gained recognition as the most serious and penetrating examination of the subject.

This program in our Hip Deep series will be produced in collaboration with Kubik, allowing a rare opportunity to delve into his vast collection of recordings. We will listen to Ali Farka Touré and John Lee Hooker through Kubik’s ears, and hear from many lesser known artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Even though the blues is a central component of American music, it is one of the most mysterious, and least understood aspects of our popular music culture.

John Szwed on Radio Open Source

Alan Lomax and the Salvation of American Song

Click to listen to Chris’ conversation with John Szwed.

We’re listening in awe and gratitude to the all-American sounds that Alan Lomax recorded and saved for all time. There’s outlaw minstrel Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly, singing a cocaine ode “Take a Whiff on Me” in 1934. Then Woody Guthrie accompanying himself, Pete Seeger and others on “Bound to Lose,” playing a guitar with a label on it: “This Machine Kills Fascists.” And then there are the strangely uplifting choruses of prison work songs from the Angola Convict Sugar Plantation in Louisiana and the Parchman Farm Penitentiary in Mississippi — songs like “Rosie,” which Lomax recorded in 1947 with prisoners, “C. B. and the Axe Gang.” As John Szwed writes in his vivid biography of the protean Lomax, “This was as close as twentieth-century people were going to come to the sound of slavery.”

James Howard Kunstler on Peak Prosperity

James Howard Kunstler: The Dangers of the Age of Delusion

James Howard Kunstler is concerned. Sure, he still has the same issues with the West’s highly energy-consuming suburban lifestyle that he famously brought to light in his books The Long Emergency, the World Made by Hand series, and Too Much Magic. But beyond our decaying fundamentals, he’s distressed by society’s unwillingness to be honest with itself about the issues it’s facing.

Instead, we are embracing a narrative based in “magical thinking” (e.g., prosperity through the printing press, energy independence through domestic shale) that assures us everything is fine. That we’ll be able to enter the future without having to make any changes to our manner or standard of living, despite our massive debts and depleting resources:

Morris Berman on UnWelcome Guests

Episode 580

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This week we look at what Morris Berman terms “the centuries long programming of American society”. We begin with a talk he gave after the publication of his new book Why America Failed, and conclude by learning how debt has warped the human psyche over millennia, by reading Cruelty And Redemption, chapter 4 of David Graeber’s Debt, The First 5000 Years.

Focusing on US life, Berman looks at a wide range of topics, from the commercially controlled media bubble in which so many US citizens live, the fact that US residents consume twice as much anti-depression medication as the rest of the humanity combined to the fact that president Obama has now claimed the right to summarily execute anyone anywhere, for any reason, or indeed for no reason at all.

He criticizes public discourse about US society as superficial not only because it is too issue-specific and lacks the ‘bigger picture’ of multiple interlocking problems, but also because it lacks an understanding of how US citizens behave on a daily basis. Citing one academic study that concluded there was a ‘48% drop’ in empathy over the last 30 years, he is unflinching in exposing what he terms ‘the sheer cruelty of the American soul’. While his conclusions are stark, his evidence is trenchant.

Matt Taibbi on Letters and Politics

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Matt Tiabbi, author of Divide: American Injustice and the Age of the Wealth Gap.

Todd Purdum, author of An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

Henry Giroux on This Is Hell

Episode 790 (portion)

Click here to listen on Soundcloud.

This was supposed to be an interview about how neoliberalism poisons higher education, but it turned into an interview about how neoliberalism poisons everything – our thoughts, our values, our democratic system. Henry Giroux just lays waste to the privatization of the public good, explains why an education is more than just a line on a resume, brings up C. Wright Mills and Hannah Arendt, tears down the toxic version of freedom pushed on us by the ruling class.

Author and cultural critic Henry Giroux holds the Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies. Henry’s newest book is Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education.

Wes Jackson on The Conversation

 

Episode 22: Wes Jackson

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 Dr. Wes Jackson is the founder and director of The Land Institute, a non-profit dedicated to rethinking agricultural practice and creating new farming systems which result in conservation and ecosystem resilience. Wes’s conversation begins with the soil and rapidly grows to address how we make choices about the massively complex and intertwined systems we live within–there is definitely a hint of resonance between Wes Jackson, Timothy Morton, and David Korten. The problem of scientific fundamentalism makes an extended appearance and Wes presents a thorough critique of many of the ideas put forth by Robert Zubrin, Max More, Ariel Waldman and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Colin Camerer. Hubris, creativity, limits, and the fallacy of unlimited growth are also major themes in our conversation. In fact, nearly everything we have discussed in this project connects to to Wes Jackson’s conversation, whether explicitly or implicitly, and this episode should give you a nice jolt of systems thinking.

John Michael Greer on Kunstlercast

KunstlerCast #217: The God of Progress is Dead

A Chat with John Michael Greer

 

John Michael Greer, author of The Long Descent, The Wealth of Nature and Apocalypse Not, returns to the KunstlerCast to speak with JHK by phone.

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Chris Hedges on The Extraenvironmentalist

 

 

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While the cultural foundations of the United States are unraveling the unconscious programs of American society lay outside of public dialogue. Where there was once an American Dream, a spiritual void remains.  As the framework of consumer society breaks down, will an economic system of inverted totalitarianism reverse become explicit? Why do our elites seem incapable of formulating a rational response to this crisis of civilization?

In Extraenvironmentalist #60 we discuss the current condition of American culture with Chris Hedges and Morris Berman. Chris describes the process of breakdown he’s witnessed in other countries as elites withdraw when they feel their system of control crumbling. Morris reflects the current crisis of capitalism against the breakdown of the feudal system hundreds of years ago to describe a broader historical process. Then, we speak with Dmitry Orlov about his new book: The Five Stages of Collapse. Dmitry talks about the psychological damage created by access to large amounts of money and explains how to think practically about a failing global economic system.

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Jeremy Scahill on Free Forum

In JEREMY SCAHILL’S new best-seller, DIRTY WARS, what begins as an investigation into a US night raid gone terribly wrong in a remote corner of Afghanistan quickly transforms into a high-stakes global investigation into the rise of Joint Special Operations Command, the most secret and elite fighting force in U.S. history. In military jargon, JSOC teams “find, fix and finish” their targets, who are selected through a secret process. No target is off limits for the “kill list,” including U.S. citizens.

It’s the unbounded, unending War on Terror: all bets are off, and almost anything goes. We have fundamentally changed the rules of the game and the rules of engagement. Today drone strikes, night raids, and U.S. government-condoned torture occur, generating unprecedented civilian casualties.

DIRTY WARS 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. No matter how little you know about these actions, they are being done in your name,

– See more at: http://aworldthatjustmightwork.com/2013/05/4035/#sthash.TPB6tIdc.dpuf

Click here to listen.

In JEREMY SCAHILL’S new best-seller, DIRTY WARS, what begins as an investigation into a US night raid gone terribly wrong in a remote corner of Afghanistan quickly transforms into a high-stakes global investigation into the rise of Joint Special Operations Command, the most secret and elite fighting force in U.S. history. In military jargon, JSOC teams “find, fix and finish” their targets, who are selected through a secret process. No target is off limits for the “kill list,” including U.S. citizens.
It’s the unbounded, unending War on Terror: all bets are off, and almost anything goes.

We have fundamentally changed the rules of the game and the rules of engagement. Today drone strikes, night raids, and U.S. government-condoned torture occur, generating unprecedented civilian casualties.  DIRTY WARS 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. No matter how little you know about these actions, they are being done in your name,

 

Nicole Foss on The C-Realm

Building Resilience

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In the era of globalization, we have burst the largest credit bubble in human history. Bubbles are effectively gigantic Ponzi schemes — destined to implode, leading into a period of economic depression. Credit bubbles borrow demand from the future by artificially inflating future worth, but at the cost of a dearth of demand for a long period thereafter. This is why bubbles always end in depression.

 
Consequently, we need to prepare for hard times ahead. There is much we can do to reduce our over-exposure to vulnerable systems. Facing these hard times is best done as close-knit communities. If we work together to build trust at the local level, we can withstand a great deal of upheaval. The sooner we begin, the better the chances of being as prepared as possible for an uncertain future that will not look like the lives we are anticipating.

Nicole Foss is Senior Editor of The Automatic Earth. She previously wrote under the name Stoneleigh. She and co-author and Editor-in-Chief, Raúl Ilargi Meijer, have been chronicling and interpreting the ongoing credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. Nicole is also an international speaker on energy and global finance. She has lectured in hundreds of locations across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and has made numerous media appearances in a variety of countries.

 

Elizabeth Kolbert on Democracy Now

The Sixth Extinction

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In the history of the planet, there have been five known mass extinction events. The last came 65 million years ago, when an asteroid about half the size of Manhattan collided with the Earth, wiping out the dinosaurs and bringing the Cretaceous period to an end. Scientists say we are now experiencing the sixth extinction, with up to 50 percent of all living species in danger of disappearing by the end of the century. But unlike previous extinctions, the direct cause this time is us — human-driven climate change. In “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,” journalist Elizabeth Kolbert visits four continents to document the massive “die-offs” that came millions of years ago and those now unfolding before our eyes.

Kolbert explores how human activity — fossil fuel consumption, ocean acidification, pollution, deforestation, forced migration — threatens life forms of all kinds. “It is estimated that one-third of all reef-building corals, a third of all fresh-water mollusks, a third of sharks and rays, a quarter of all mammals, a fifth of all reptiles, and a sixth of all birds are headed toward oblivion,” Kolbert writes. “The losses are occurring all over: in the South Pacific and in the North Atlantic, in the Arctic and the Sahel, in lakes and on islands, on mountaintops and in valleys

Andrew Harvey on Progressive Commentary Hour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sacred Activism

Andrew Harvey is an internationally renowned religious scholar, teacher, and author of over thirty books.  He is the founder of the Institute of Sacred Activism, an international organization dedicated to inspiring people to become more active and vital in challenging our global crises and to commit themselves to peace and sustainability. Andrew was born in India, studied at Oxford University where he was a fellow at All Soul’s College.

Over the years he has taught at Oxford, Cornell, the California Institute for Integral Studies and other institutions.  He is perhaps best known for having explored all the different religions in depth, particularly Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sufism, and interpreting them in a passionate manner while also preserving their essential meaning and significance for our own time. Andrew has received many awards for his writings including the Benjamin Franklin Award. His most recent book is “Radical Passion: Sacred Love and Wisdom in Action” and before that “The Hope: A Guide To Sacred Activism” which won the Nautilus Silver Award for Social Change.

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David Holmgren on Radio Ecoshock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Despite the hopes and warnings of the last generation, humanity is heading for the darker path of more fossil fuel development. Today’s politicians are all about new pipelines, fracking, tankers, super coal mines and super coal ports, and of course endless oil.

It didn’t have to be that way. We had other choices, but now the co-founder of the Permaculture movement says “Welcome to the Brown Tech Future”. That train to climate disaster must be derailed for us to survive, he says, in a provocative essay called “Crash on Demand”.

When it comes to David Holmgren you’ve either heard of him in an almost reverent way, or you haven’t a clue. Along with Bill Mollison, David started the permaculture movement back in the 1970’s. He’s experimented with it ever since, from ecovillages and food forests to retrofitting suburbia. David is not a huge self-promoter. Outside of Australia, he’s known mainly by people seeking alternatives to the system of endless growth, and pitiless pillage of the land. Find his web site here.

Richard Wolff on No Lies Radio

Capitalism Hits the Fan

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With breathtaking clarity, renowned University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today’s economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself. Wolff traces the source of the economic crisis to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing and debt that ultimately exploded in the mortgage meltdown. By placing the crisis within this larger historical and systemic frame, Wolff argues convincingly that the proposed government “bailouts,” stimulus packages, and calls for increased market regulation will not be enough to address the real causes of the crisis, in the end suggesting that far more fundamental change will be necessary to avoid future catastrophes.