Tag Archives: investigative journalist

Podcast

The Koch Bros. & Their Billionaire Web

We talk with New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer about her acclaimed book about the Koch Brothers and the network they’ve mobilized for political influence, Dark Money:The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

Then, we replay our 2013 interview with filmmaker Tia Lessin, about the documentary she co-directed with Carl Deal, Citizen Koch. It’s about how the Koch Bros. and their rightwing advocacy organization, Americans For Prosperity, helped Wisconsin governor Scott Walker beat back a recall campaign after he devastated public employee union rights. Continue reading

Podcast

Master Thieves & Lethal Legacies

Stephen Kurkjian talks about his new book Master Thieves. It’s about the record-breaking art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990 and who might have done it.

Then, forty years after the end of the Vietnam War, its lethal legacy continues. We talk with George Black about his story, “The Lethal Legacy of the Vietnam War” in the March 16 issue of The Nation. Continue reading

Podcast

The Difference Between Men & Women? The Freedom To Choose

Investigative journalist Jenny Nordberg talks about her book, THE UNDERGROUND GIRLS OF KABUL: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan. It’s about how some young girls in Afghanistan are disguised as boys — an ancient practice in a gender-apartheid society.

And feminist writer Katha Pollitt discusses how access to safe, legal abortions is under threat in America and what that means for women’s rights. Her book is PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights. Continue reading

Podcast

The Four Big Reasons America Is Falling Apart — Plus, The Two Sides of Mario Cuomo

Bob Herbert talks about his penetrating new book, Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America. It connects the dots between our crumbling infrastructure, the jobs crisis, mass defunding of public education and the multi-trillion dollar tab for ongoing wars to explain why America is falling apart.

And former New York Governor Mario Cuomo was buried this week to throated praise for his liberal legacy. But how liberal was that legacy, really? Investigative reporter Greg Palast talks about the two Marios he knew and worked for: the golden throated defender of the working man and the back room dealer.

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Podcast

Paying The Price Of The War On Terror. Also, Talking Climate For Everyone

Journalist James Risen talks about his explosive new book, Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War. And George Marshall talks about what’s been keeping the climate crisis from seizing the hearts and minds of the public — and how to change that. His important book is Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. Continue reading

Podcast

Martin Blank, OVERPOWERED & Greg Palast, VULTURE’S PICNIC

Martin Blank
Martin Blank
Greg Palast
Greg Palast

Martin Blank talks about the dangers of cell phones,microwaves and other devices that emit electromagnetic radiation. His book is Overpowered: The Dangers of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMF) and What You Can Do about It.

And Argentina teeters on the brink of default because of hedge fund vultures like Paul Singer, who buy up national debt for pennies on the dollar and then demand payment in full. Today WV re-airs a 2011 interview with investigative journalist Greg Palast about his book, Vulture’s Picnic. Continue reading

Podcast

Bob Ivry, THE SEVEN SINS OF WALL STREET & Summer Reading List

Ivryphoto
Bob Ivry

IvrySevenSinscoverBloomberg News financial journalist Bob Ivry talks about his book, The Seven Sins of Wall Street: Big Banks, their Washington Lackeys, and the Next Financial Crisis (PublicAffairs.)We also have our picks for summer reading.

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Podcast

Jo Robinson, EATING ON THE WILD SIDE & Wendy Jehanarah Tremain, THE GOOD LIFE LAB

wendy
Wendy Tremayne
Jo Robinson
Jo Robinson

Investigative journalist Jo Robinson tells how to choose the most nutritious plant foods in her book, EATING ON THE WILD SIDE: The Missing Link To Optimum Health.

And Maker and author Wendy Jehanarah Tremain talks about her book THE GOOD LIFE LAB: Radical Experiments in Hands-On Living. It’s about living well by living free or cheaply within Earth’s eco-budget.

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Podcast

Michael Grunwald, THE NEW NEW DEAL & James Steele, THE BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN DREAM.

Michael Grunwald
James B. Steele

Journalist Michael Grunwald discusses his book, THE NEW NEW DEAL: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. It’s about the big, but little-known, impact of the Obama stimulus. And investigative reporter James Steele talks about the latest book he co-authored with Donald Bartlett, THE BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN DREAM: What Went Wrong.  Continue reading

Podcast

Greg Palast, VULTURE’S PICNIC & Marina Sitrin on #OWS

Greg Palast
Marina Sitrin

Marina Sitrin talks about her essay that appears in the book,  THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING — the first book out about the Occupy Movement. And investigative reporter Greg Palast talks about his latest shocker, VULTURES’ PICNIC: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores.

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Podcast

Kim Barker, THE TALIBAN SHUFFLE.

Kim Barker

Journalist Kim Barker talks about being a reporter in Pakistan and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2009. Her book is THE TALIBAN SHUFFLE. And WV airs an excerpt from a 2010 interview with Peter Phillips of Project Censored on the 9/11 controversy.
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Podcast

Comix as Art and Politics: Art Spiegelman and Greg Palast

Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with comix master Art Spiegelman. When Spiegelman’s [amazon-product text=”Maus I: A Survivors Tale: My Father Bleeds History” type=”text”]0394747232[/amazon-product] was published in 1986, (followed by [amazon-product text=”Maus II: A Survivors Tale: And Here My Troubles Began” type=”text”]0679729771[/amazon-product] in 1991), it exploded notions about the limited role of comix as art and literature.

[amazon-product align=”right”]0375423958[/amazon-product]

Winning a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992–the only comic book ever to do so–Maus is a memoir in graphic form of Spiegelman’s father’s experiences in Auschwitz and the impact that had on the artist’s own childhood growing up in New York City. His mother was also a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. In 1968, she committed suicide, soon after Spiegelman himself was released from a mental hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown.

Maus was prefigured in an earlier work, Prisoner on the Hell Planet and in 1978 Spiegelman included that and other works in a collection of his underground comix called [amazon-product text=”Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!” type=”text”]0375423958[/amazon-product]. Innovative and drawn in a variety of styles in large format–the book sank like a stone. But now Spiegelman has “re-birthed it”, as he told me, with a new 20 page introduction and an afterword. We talk to him about BREAKDOWNS and breaking conventions in the comix.

[amazon-product align=”left”]061525781X[/amazon-product]

Also, investigative journalist Greg Palast talks about the new comic book he produced with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., [amazon-product text=”STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE!” type=”text”]061525781X[/amazon-product]. With illustrations by Ted Rall and other artists, the book is about the threat of massive voter suppression in the upcoming election and how to counter it. [Note: the audio to this segment has been removed.]