Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Ever since he dropped out of college to sample the Summer of Love, DANNY GOLDBERG has been an active participant in culture, counterculture, and politics. In addition to his career in the music business - manager of artists from Bonnie Raitt to Nirvana, chairman of Warner Brothers records - he was co-producer/director of the rock doc No Nukes and CEO of Air America. We talk about all of that as well as his latest book, In Search of the Lost Chord:1967 and the Hippie Idea.

New Episode!Nukes - How do we deal with North Korea, Iran, Russia, and Trump? Remember 2015 when the big nuclear weapons news was the deal negotiated by the Obama administration with Iran? Why is the UN now voicing fears of catastrophe? What role is the new Trump administration playing in the escalation of provocation? Are the UN's fears real and if so, what can we do about it? JOE CIRINCIONE is President of the Ploughshares Fund which supports people and organizations working to reduce and eventually eliminate the dangers posed by nuclear weapons.

Prior to the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Rob Johnson served as Chief Economist of the US Senate Banking Committee and a DIrector at Soros Fund Management. He also worked in the music and film industries (Exec Producer, Oscar winning doc, Taxi to the Dark Side). "The concentration of wealth and power that created a twin crisis of representation - in politics and in expertise - set the stage for Donald Trump's election victory, and has put America's founding principles at risk."

NEW SHOW!According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, "The number of hate groups in the United States rose for a second year in a row in 2016 as the radical right was energized by the candidacy of Donald Trump." Of a spike in reported incidents of "hate" violence, SPLC reports, "37% of them directly referenced either President Trump, his campaign slogans, or his infamous remarks about sexual assault." CHIP BERLET has investigated hate groups, theocratic fundamentalism, civil liberties violations, police misconduct, surveillance abuse, other anti-democratic phenomena.

Currently organizing where he grew up in Lancaster PA (as a Menonite), he was involved with Occupy Wall Street and has a lot to say about what worked and what we can learn from what didn't. Example: The rituals of assembly ended up standing in for strategy, becoming an end rather than a means. Smucker questions the left's tendency to identify as "the righteous few", where purity can become an obstacle to amassing enough power to win. He doesn't use the term "activist" because he believes that (self-)identification separates fighting for peace and justice from the rest of life, and creates an us which can leave out others. Insightful stuff. Join us.

Originally Aired in 2004They noticed trends, asked questions, offered warnings and gave advice. "Why does the pro-life factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically?" - Thomas Frank"In politics framing is about making sure the debate takes place in language that fits your worldview. Framing trumps facts and self-interest." - George Lakoff Twelve years later their worst fears came true.

Originally aired June 2013In 2008 TIM DeCHRISTOPHER disrupted a highly disputed BLM auction, effectively safeguarding thousands of acres of land. Tim outbid industry giants on land parcels (which, starting at $2 an acre, were adjacent to national treasures like Canyonlands National Park), winning 22,000 acres of land worth $1.7M Two months later, incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar invalidated the auction. Yet DeChristopher was tried on two federal felonies and spent 21 months in prison.

I recently broke my two-year hiatus with a show of reflections on the election and the path forward. I couldn’t resist again this week, following the inauguration of Donald Trump and the millions around the US and the globe who marched yesterday. in protest. I discuss recent events and the meaning of the marches with: • Richard (RJ) Eskow (www.patreon.com/thezerohour), host of the syndicated radio show The Zero Hour, was a writer for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. • Drew Dellinger, Ph.D. (drewdellinger.org), founder of Planetize the Movement, is the author of the award-winning poetry collection, Love Letter to the Milky Way, and the upcoming book, Martin Luther King—Ecological Thinker: Toward a Cosmology of Connection. • Mark Hertsgaard (markhertsgaard.com), Veteran journalist, Investigative Editor of The Nation, and the author of seven books including HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth and On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency.

After hosting and producing this show for 17 years, I stepped away from recording new live interviews nearly two years ago, but I couldn't resist commenting about Trump's election and our path forward confronting his administration. The Courage Campaign is spearheading resistance in California with a mix of online and ground organizing and action. Colby Devitt shares her experience at Standing Rock and her work in the campaign to divest from banks funding the pipeline.

Originally Aired August 2002BILL McKIBBEN is a great writer - hundreds of New Yorker articles (1982-87), The End of Nature (1989), The Age of Missing Information (1992), Deep Economy,(2007) and Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist (2013). He is an impactful if reluctant activist, founder of perhaps our most effective climate change organization, 350.org. In this 2002 interview, meet him 6 years before the founding of 350.org.