Podcast

Are American Elections Being Hacked? Jonathan Simon: Code Red & Commissioner Virginia Martin

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Jonathan Simon talks about the shocking vulnerability of our electronic voting machines and the evidence that that vulnerability is and has been exploited to flip elections. His book is Code Red: Computerized Election Theft and The New American Century.

Then, there is one way to make sure your voting machines aren’t being hacked and it’s being used by one county in New York State. We talk with Board of Elections Commissioner Virginia Martin. She’ll tell us how and why they hand count the vote in her county. Continue reading →

Podcast

Runaway Inequality & The Strip And Flip Selection of 2016

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Les Leopold talks about his new book, Runaway Inequality: An Activist’s Guide to Economic Justice. It’s about how wealth and income inequality are strip-mining our economy and destroying communities across America.

Then — with massive voter purges and hackable voting machines, are American elections really clean and fair? We hear a clip from a recent speech from election integrity expert Robert Fitrakis. He’s got a new book out, co-authored with Harvey Wasserman — The Strip And Flip Selection of 2016. Continue reading →

Podcast

George Hodgman, BETTYVILLE & Alan Teel, ALONE & INVISIBLE NO MORE

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George Hodgeman talks about his wonderful memoir of taking care of his mother in her declining years, Bettyville, first published in 2015 and now out in paperback. Then we re-air our 2011 interview with Dr. Allan Teel about his innovative approach to caring for seniors, called Full Circle. His book is Alone and Invisible No More. Continue reading →

Podcast

What Happens When Your Land Gets Fracked?

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Novelist Jennifer Haigh talks about her powerful new book, Heat and Light. It’s about what happens to a small Pennsylvania community when the frackers come to town.

Then Andrew Nikiforuk tells the true story of Jessica Ernst, a Canadian oil patch consultant turned anti-fracking activist. We talk with him about his book, Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry.  Continue reading →

Podcast

Peter Blood and Annie Patterson Rise Again & more

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Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, co-creators of Rise Up Singing, talk about the sequel, Rise Again (Hal Leonard Publishing June, 2015). We talk with them about both songbooks, their work with Pete Seeger and their long collaboration as a musical couple.

Then we talk with journalist and anti-fracking activist, Maura Stephens. Continue reading →

Podcast

Fixing Our Broken Election System

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Can we get real democracy in the US? We talk with political scientist Patrick Barrett about his article, “Can We Change the Political System? Strategic Lessons of the Bernie Sanders Campaign”.

Then we re-air our 2008 interview with muckraking reporter Greg Palast about his book Steal Back Your Vote. We talk about how voters were disenfranchised by voter purging and other voter suppression methods in past elections — and what voters can do about it. Continue reading →

Web Extras

Fighting Fracking’s “Corporate Marauders” In Pennsylvania & New York

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Francesca Rheannon of Writer’s Voice speaks with journalist and fractivist Maura Stephens about:

  • Fracking’s environmental and public health impact in Pennsylvania and New York
  • Use of eminent domain to take private property for fracking operations
  • How the TPP could override local, state and national sovereignty on the issue
  • The fight against fracking
  • The precarious status of New York’s moratorium on fracking and
  • The Democratic candidates’ differing positions on the issue.

Maura Stephens is a founding member of the Coalition to Protect New York and FrackBustersNY.org.

Read the story of the Holleran Farm, whose maple trees were cut down to make way for a natural gas pipeline.

Continue reading →

Podcast

Two Memoirs Celebrate Our Connection With The Earth & Its Creatures

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We talk with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas about her memoir, Dreaming of Lions: My Life In The Wild Places. She writes about her life with the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and other people of the Old Way.

And wildlife conservationist Dale Peterson discusses his latest book, Where Have All The Animals Gone? My Travels with Karl Ammann. It’s about his efforts to document the bushmeat trade and other human impacts threatening extinction for apes, elephants and giraffes. We also speak with him about another of his books, The Moral Lives of Animals. Continue reading →

Web Extras

Historian Donna Murch on The Clintons’ War On Drugs, Mass Incarceration & The Black Vote

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Professor Donna Murch

Rutgers University historian Donna Murch speaks with Francesca about the impact of the 1994 crime bill passed by President Clinton and its devastating impact on communities of color.

Murch’s essay, “The Clintons’ War on Drugs: When Black Lives Didn’t Matter” appeared in the New Republic and is re-printed in False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton, a collection of essays by left feminists and edited by Liza Featherstone.  Continue reading →

Podcast

Is Hillary Clinton Good For Women?

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Liza Featherstone talks about the collection of essays she’s edited, False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Verso Press, June 2016). Then we talk with one of the contributors to False Choices, Rutgers history professor Donna Murch. Her essay is titled, “The Clintons’ War on Drugs: When Black Lives Didn’t Matter.” Continue reading →

Podcast

Backyard Building & The Soul of Shelter

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America’s First Couple of do-it-yourself building projects David and Jean Stiles talk about their latest book, Backyard Buildings: Tree Houses, Sheds, Arbors, Gates and Other Garden Projects. Then we replay our 2013 interview with Howard Mansfield about his profound and delightful book, Dwelling in Possibility: Searching for the Soul of Shelter. Continue reading →

Podcast

Ellen Meeropol: On Hurricane Island & Cecelia Tichi: Jack London

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Ellen Meeropol talks about her new novel, On Hurricane Island. It’s about what happens when an innocent American citizen is abducted to a domestic black site and tortured. Meeropol also discusses how being married to one of the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg has influenced her writing.

Then, a look back at one of the greatest writers and critics of America’s first Gilded Age and his relevance for today, Jack London: Cecelia Tichi talks about her biography of the great writer and democratic socialist, Jack London: A Writer’s Fight For a Better America.
Continue reading →

Podcast

Katy Simpson Smith, Mary Costello & Poet Amy Dryansky

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Katy Simpson Smith talks about her new novel, Free Men. Then in the second half of the show, we replay our 2014 interview with Smith about her acclaimed first novel, Story of Land And Sea. Also, we review Academy Street by Mary Costello and hear two poems by Amy Dryansky. Continue reading →

Podcast

Cicero’s End, Dust Up over Sanders’ Plan, & Remembering Quentin Young

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We talk with novelist Robert Harris about the last book in his trilogy about the Roman statesman Cicero, Dictator. Then, economist James Galbraith tells us why he disagrees with the attacks on Gerald Friedman’s analysis of Senator Bernie Sanders’ economic plan. And finally, we pay tribute to Dr.Quentin Young, who passed away this week, with a clip from an interview Francesca did with him in 2009. Continue reading →