Nicola Nicoletti

Asylum: Author Umberto Nicola Nicoletti,  Introduction by Filippo Grandi Claudia Cragg speaks here with author, Umberto Nicola Nicoletti, about his fine-art book Asylum. We  discusses the phenomenon of LGBTIQ+ refugees, asylum seekers, and those subject to discrimination in their home countries based on their gender or sexual orientation. More the 40 percent of the countries in the world today still impose prison sentences or the death penalty just for being LGBTIQ+. Asylum is an international project that arose from a collaboration between five associations around the world and photographer Umberto Nicola Nicoletti.  Through the use of beautiful “glossy images,” such as those used in fashion and advertising, the project seeks to engender empathy for the subjects involved and their stories. Asylum seekers become celebrities, idols, and heroes as they are. Therefore, it is not photographic reportage but, rather, an art project focused on restoring their dignity.  LGBTIQ+ refugees often face double discrimination: in their home country and in their destination, as they are both immigrants and LGBTIQ+. This is especially true in refugee camps, where they are subject to assaults by other migrants. The aim of this project is to give these individuals the identity they are often deprived of when they are reduced to an indistinct mass—and to show the world their true beauty. Umberto Nicola Nicoletti is an Italian photographer and director. He specializes in portrait photography in the fields of advertising, music, fashion, and publishing. He has created international ad campaigns, commercials, book covers and music videos.  The introduction in the book, Asylum, is written by Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Related organizations:    The 519 TORONTO /  CIG Arcigay MILAN /   The DC Center WASHINGTON DC /   Rainbow Migration LONDON /   RusaLGBT NEW YORK

Asylum, Umberto Nicola Nicoletti on 

'Trickle Down' does NOT work. For KGNU 'It's The Economy' host, Claudia Cragg spoke with SteadyState.org's Rob Dietz. He brings a fresh perspective to the discussion of economics and environmental sustainability with a diverse background in economics, environmental science and engineering, and conservation biology (plus his work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors). His expertise has given him an unusual ability to connect the dots when it comes to the topic of sustainability.  Rob is the author, with Dan O’Neill, of . Rob has tried, he says, to align his personal life with the principles of a 'steady state economy'.  He lives with his wife and daughter in a co-housing community striving for development rather than growth. Rob Dietz is the Program Director at Post Carbon Institute, where he is responsible for guiding projects from conception to completion. With training and experience in ecological economics, environmental science, and conservation biology, he has built a career aimed at moving society in sustainable directions. Prior to joining Post Carbon Institute, Rob worked as a project manager at Farmland LP, helping to transition conventional farmland to organic. He was also the first executive director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (), taking it from an unfunded start-up organization to an internationally respected leader on new economic thinking.  He is the lead author of , a popular book on steady-state economics that Noam Chomsky called “lucid, informed, and highly constructive.” Rob also has produced dozens of articles and presentations on a variety of topics related to sustainability. Rob is a former Presidential Management Fellow, with appointments at the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  He was the first person at the Fish and Wildlife Service to serve as a Conservation Goals Coordinator, a position that combined long-range planning and landscape modeling for the National Wildlife Refuge System. He also did time as an economic analyst at two Washington, DC, consulting firms. His educational background includes a master’s degree in environmental science and engineering from Virginia Tech and an undergraduate degree in economics and environmental studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

'Trickle Down' does NOT work. For KGNU 'It's The Economy' host, Claudia Cragg spoke with <a href="http://SteadyState.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SteadyState.org</a>'s Rob Dietz. He brings a fresh perspective to the discussion of economics and environmental sustainability with a diverse background in economics, environmental science and engineering, and conservation biology (plus his work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors). His expertise has given him an unusual ability to connect the dots when it comes to the topic of sustainability.  Rob is the author, with Dan O’Neill, of . Rob has tried, he says, to align his personal life with the principles of a 'steady state economy'.  He lives with his wife and daughter in a co-housing community striving for development rather than growth. Rob Dietz is the Program Director at Post Carbon Institute, where he is responsible for guiding projects from conception to completion. With training and experience in ecological economics, environmental science, and conservation biology, he has built a career aimed at moving society in sustainable directions. Prior to joining Post Carbon Institute, Rob worked as a project manager at Farmland LP, helping to transition conventional farmland to organic. He was also the first executive director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (), taking it from an unfunded start-up organization to an internationally respected leader on new economic thinking.  He is the lead author of , a popular book on steady-state economics that Noam Chomsky called “lucid, informed, and highly constructive.” Rob also has produced dozens of articles and presentations on a variety of topics related to sustainability. Rob is a former Presidential Management Fellow, with appointments at the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  He was the first person at the Fish and Wildlife Service to serve as a Conservation Goals Coordinator, a position that combined long-range planning and landscape modeling for the National Wildlife Refuge System. He also did time as an economic analyst at two Washington, DC, consulting firms. His educational background includes a master’s degree in environmental science and engineering from Virginia Tech and an undergraduate degree in economics and environmental studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

The End Of Truss, The End of The GOP? The End of 'Trickle Down'.

@claudiacragg (DM Twitter) speaks here with Samuel J Redman @samueljredman about his new book, A Short History of Crisis and Resilience. The work, Professor Redman says, celebrates as he sees it the resilience of American - and it must be said many worldwide - cultural institutions in the face of nationl crises and challenges. On one afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum’s castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first —and certainly would not be the last—disaster to upend a museum in the United States. Beset by challenges ranging from pandemic and war to fire and economic uncertainty, museums have sought ways to emerge from crisis periods stronger than before, occasionally carving important new paths forward in the process. Redman explores the concepts of “crisis” as it relates to museums, and how these historic institutions have dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty. Fires, floods, and hurricanes have all upended museum plans and forced people to ask tough questions about American cultural life. With chapters exploring World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Great Depression, World War II, the 1970 Art Strike in New York City, and recent controversies in American museums from the COVID-19 pandemic to race and gender issues, this timely book takes a novel approach to understanding museum history, present challenges, and the future. By diving deeper into the changes that emerged from these key challenges, Samuel J. Redman argues that cultural institutions can—and should—use their history to prepare for challenges and solidify their identity going forward. The work is a captivating examination of crisis moments in U.S. museum history from the early years of the twentieth century to the present day, The Museum offers inspiration in the resilience and longevity of America’s most prized cultural institutions.

The Museum, Repositories of Controversy and The Stuff of Life

Sarah Kendzior

NB THE OPINIONS IN THIS BROADCAST ARE ENTIRELY THE OPINIONS AND ALLEGATIONS OF INTERVIEWEE SARAH KENDZIOR AND DO NOT REFLECT THOSE OF THE INTERVIEWER HERSELF.   THIS INTERVIEW HAS NOT BEEN BROADCAST TILL NOW.    In May 2020, @claudiacragg spoke for @KGNU  to @sarahkendzior about  her book    On    she said the former president was installed to weaken America’s international posture for the benefit of    and  . Then    ? But it was NOT    In May 2020, Claudia Cragg spoke with Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior about her book ''. She was previously the author of '' Her opinions were at the time often considered 'hyperbole' or 'fanciful nonsense.' If only they had been? Just recently, as a regular MSNBC guest Sarah Kendzior claimed Donald Trump was “installed” as former president to weaken America’s international posture for the benefit of Vladimir Putin and Russia. New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior documents the truth about the calculated rise to power of Donald Trump since the 1980s and how the erosion of our liberties made an American dema­gogue possible. The story of Donald Trump’s rise to power is the story of a buried American history – buried because people in power liked it that way. It was visible without being seen, influential without being named, ubiquitous without being overt.  Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals the inherent fragility of American democracy – how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades.  In Kendzior’s signature and celebrated style, she expertly outlines Trump’s meteoric rise from the 1980s until today, interlinking key moments of his life with the degradation of the American political system and the continual erosion of our civil liberties by foreign powers. Kendzior also offers a never-before-seen look at her lifelong tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – living in New York through 9/11 and in St. Louis during the Ferguson uprising, and researching media and authoritarianism when Trump emerged using the same tactics as the post-Soviet dictatorships she had long studied.  It is a terrible feeling to sense a threat coming, but it is worse when we let apathy, doubt, and fear prevent us from preparing ourselves. Hiding in Plain Sight confronts the injustice we have too long ignored because the truth is the only way forward.

Sarah Kendzior "Hyperbole" "Too Hot To Broadcast" in May 2020?

Jack Devine

Claudia Cragg spoke at length just last May with , @JackDevine_TAG, author of  Spymaster’s Prism.  In this book, Devine the legendary former CIA spymaster details the unending struggle with Russia and its intelligence agencies as it works against our national security. (.) Devine tells this story through the unique perspective of a seasoned CIA professional who served more than three decades, some at the highest levels of the agency. He uses his gimlet-eyed view to walk us through the fascinating spy cases and covert action activities of Russia, not only through the Cold War past but up to and including its interference in the Trump era. Devine also looks over the horizon to see what lies ahead in this struggle and provides prescriptions for the future.  Based on personal experience and exhaustive research, Devine builds a vivid and complex mosaic that illustrates how Russia’s intelligence activities have continued uninterrupted throughout modern history, using fundamentally identical policies and techniques to undermine our democracy. He shows in stark terms how intelligence has been modernized and weaponized through the power of the cyber world.  Devine presents his analysis using clear-eyed vision and a repertoire of better-than-fiction spy stories, giving us an objective, riveting, and candid take on U.S.-Russia relations. He offers key lessons from our intelligence successes and failures over the past seventy-five years that will help us determine how to address our current strategic shortfall, emerge ahead of the Russians, and be prepared for what’s to come from any adversary.

The Prescience of Former CIA Spymaster Jack Devine on Russia and Putin

In this repost of a previous interview, Professor Antony Beevor speaks here with Claudia Cragg about his book ''.    It is, horribly, more relevant today than it should be. Why do 'those in power' constantly push for war, and what about the aftermath, the 'cleanup' with the so-called 'Win'.  History ALWAYS repeats itself.  The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. The most vivid and well-researched account yet of the battle of Normandy. As with  and , Antony Beevor's gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war.  His best known works prior to this include the best-selling  and  and recount the  battles between the  and . They have been praised for their vivid, compelling style, their treatment of the ordinary lives of combatants and civilians and the use of newly disclosed documents from Soviet archives.Beevor's works have been used as sources and credited as such in many recent  about . Another one of his best known works is  for which he won the , administered by the  for stimulating interest in  and culture. Beevor is descended from a long line of women writers, being a son of  (born Carinthia Jane Waterfield, 22 December 1911 – 29 August 1995), herself the daughter of Lina Waterfield, and a descendant of  (author of a travelogue on ). Kinta Beevor wrote A Tuscan Childhood. Antony Beevor is married to Hon. , daughter of Duff Cooper, granddaughter of . He was educated at  and . He studied under the famous military historian . Beevor is a former officer with the  who served in  and  for five years before resigning his commission. He has published several popular histories on  and the 20th century in general. Professor Beevor has encountered criticism on his work in . The Russian ambassador to the UK denounced the book as "lies" and "slander against the people who saved the world from Nazism". , a professor and President of the , has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of  historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes"In an interview with , Rzheshevsky admitted that he had only read excerpts from Berlin: The Downfall 1945 and had not seen the book's source notes. He claimed that Beevor's use of phrases such as "Berliners remember" and "the experiences of the raped German women" were better suited "for pulp fiction, than scientific research." Rzheshevsky also defended Soviet reprisals against Germans, stating that the Germans could have expected an "avalanche of revenge". Beevor responded to Russian criticism on his book .  This criticism centres on the book's discussion of atrocities committed by the Red Army against German civilians – in particular, the extremely widespread rape of German women and female Russian forced labourers, both before and after the end of the war. Beevor stated however that German women were part of a society that supported Hitler and thus can't be seen as victims in the same way than Jews, Poles and Russians. Beevor, though, stated that he was accused by the Russian media of being the "chief slanderer of the Red Army" for describing repeated and relentless rape by the  of young women taken from the Soviet Union by the Nazis for slave labor. Beevor states that he used excerpts from the report of General Tsigankov, the chief of the political department of the , to cite the incident. He responded to Rzheshevsky by saying, "Professor O.A. Rzheshevsky even accused me of repeating Nazi propaganda, when in fact the bulk of the evidence on the subject came from Soviet sources, especially the NKVD reports in GARF (), and a wide range of reliable personal accounts." Beevor hopes Russian historians will take a more objective approach to material in their own archives which are at odds to the heroic myth of the Red Army as "liberators" in 1945. "Other historians such as , (see here also an interview with Richard Overy on his latest book) a historian from , have criticised Russian "outrage" at the book and defended Beevor. Overy accused the Russians of refusing to acknowledge , "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history.

The Drumbeat of War: No Real Attention To Devastating Consequences

Peter Hessler

In view of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics (officially the XXIV Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Beijing 2022) this interview is a repost.  In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years, he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming China. Hessler writes movingly of the average people—farmers, migrant workers, entrepreneurs—who have reshaped the nation during one of the most critical periods in its modern history. Country Driving begins with Hessler's 7,000-mile trip across northern China, following the Great Wall, from the East China Sea to the Tibetan plateau. He investigates a historically important rural region being abandoned, as young people migrate to jobs in the southeast. Next Hessler spends six years in Sancha, a small farming village in the mountains north of Beijing, which changes dramatically after the local road is paved and the capital's auto boom brings new tourism. Finally, he turns his attention to urban China, researching development over a period of more than two years in Lishui, a small southeastern city where officials hope that a new government-built expressway will transform a farm region into a major industrial center. Peter Hessler, whom The Wall Street Journal calls "one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China," deftly illuminates the vast, shifting landscape of a traditionally rural nation that, having once built walls against foreigners, is now building roads and factory towns that look to the outside world. Hessler, a native of Columbia, Missouri, studied English literature at Princeton and Oxford before going to China as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1996. His two-year experience of teaching English in Fuling, a town on the Yangtze, inspired , his critically acclaimed first book. After finishing his Peace Corps stint, Hessler wrote freelance pieces for  and the  before returning to China in 1999 as a Beijing-based freelance writer. There he wrote for newspapers like the , the  and the  before moving on to magazine work for  and the .

Peter Hessler, the former longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker,

What better way to jump into 2022 than with a boost from a rebroadcast of our Maya Angelou interview? This month the US Mint will start shipping quarters featuring Angelou, the first black woman to ever grace the coin. The program was conceived in 2017 and was officially signed into law in 2020. Potential honorees were nominated by the public last year. A fitting tribute to a remarkable person and a remarkable talent.  In May of 2013, the then  News Director, Joel Edelstein, generously invited colleague Claudia Cragg Twitter: @claudiacragg to speak by phone with Dr. Maya Angelou for a one on one interview. It turned out to be one of the very last she ever gave to talk about her then latest book. Explored here is the influence the great woman has had on another Maya, Maya Carter. She was then a 19 year old from Denver,(now just finishing her College freshman year) and, listening to the original KGNU interview, young Maya here tries to explain the effect that Dr.Angelou's life, work, poetry and thinking has had on her and in her initiation of the  Movement she has founded in her honour.

A Boost From The Late Great Maya Angelou

Joe Manchin Grinch

(That Senator may have made damn sure they'll be NO Child Tax Credits for you coming up, Kiddos!) The authors, Joanne Samuel Goldblum, (@jgoldblum), founder of the National Diaper Bank Network, and journalist Colleen Shaddox argue that the systems that should protect our citizens are broken and that poverty results from flawed policies—compounded by racism, sexism, and other ills—rather than people’s “bad choices.” Federal programs for the poor often fall far short of their aims: The U.S. has only 36 affordable housing units available for every 100 extremely low-income families; roughly 1 in 3 households on Navajo reservations lack plumbing; and inadequate counsel by public defenders can lead to harsher penalties for crimes or time in “debtors’ prisons” for those unable to pay fines or court fees. An overarching problem is that the U.S. determines eligibility for government benefits with an outdated and “irrationally low” federal poverty level of $21,720 for a family of three, which doesn’t take into account necessities such as child care when women work outside the home. The authors credibly assert that it makes more sense to define poverty as an inability to afford basic needs in seven areas—“water, food, housing, energy, transportation, hygiene, and health”—each of which gets a chapter that draws on academic or other studies and interviews with people like a Baltimore resident who had to flush his toilet with bottled water after the city shut it off due to an unpaid bill. This plainspoken primer in the spirit of recent books like Anne Kim’s Abandoned and Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Tightrope, Goldblum and Shaddox interweave macro analyses with examples of micro interventions that might work in any community. A Head Start teacher in Lytle, Texas, says her program saw benefits just from giving toothbrushes (and a chance to use them at a classroom sink) to children who had none at home: “They come here, and they scrub like there’s no tomorrow.”

Hey, Joe Manchin Grinch! How's your Christmas going..... (Well, you're not Broke In America.)

Tanja Hester

, @TanjaHester is the author of  (November 2021). Clear-eyed and practical, #WalletActivism helps angry, overwhelmed, and disillusioned consumers cut through the marketing lies of companies that have rebranded their problematic practices as “green,” “woke,” and “ethical” to learn how to use their financial power to fight back.  Hester doesn’t offer easy solutions or simple answers. Instead, she helps readers (1) understand the complex, nuanced impact their financial decisions have on both people and the planet, (2) define their own personal financial values, and (3) begin to make better (not perfect), more intentional money moves (from deciding where you live to where you bank and more).  Hester can help your listeners channel their anger into meaningful, realistic wallet activism through an excerpt or interview on:  How to define your financial values and decode marketing messages to make more ethical money decisions Where your money lives dictates exactly what you’re funding: How to mindfully choose financial partners (banks, lenders, investments) Former political consultant on how to vote with your wallet Where to channel your energy and activism between elections Understanding scale of food waste + why we have to take it seriously Tips on how to "rightsize" your household consumption to minimize waste How to travel responsibly: Considerations for destination, lodging, and transportation Questions you should ask yourself when choosing companies to work for Sustainable gift giving practices (including secondhand &amp; experiential gifts) Understanding the dark side of decluttering

For The Holidays, Become a 'Wallet Activist' with Tanja Hester

Feature interviews from journalist and broadcaster, Claudia Cragg

(REPOST of June 2018 Interview with Dunya Mikhail) This week, a German court on Tuesday jailed a former Islamic State militant for life after convicting him of involvement in genocide and crimes against humanity over mass killings of minority Yazidis by IS in Syria and Iraq.   It was the first genocide verdict against a member of the , an offshoot of al Qaeda that seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014 before being ousted by US-backed counter-offensives, losing its last territorial redoubt in 2019.    Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia) speaks here for KGNU (@KGNU) to the acclaimed poet and journalist  () In her latest work, '', Mikhail - who is herself an Iraqi exile, tells the harrowing stories of (mostly) Yazidi women from across Iraq who have managed to escape the clutches of ISIS. ISIS persecuted the Yazidi people, killing or enslaving those who would not convert to Islam. The women have lost their families and loved ones, along with everything they've ever known. Dunya Mikhail weaves together the women's tales of endurance and near-impossible escape with the story of her own exile and her dreams for the future of Iraq. In the midst of ISIS's reign of terror and hatred, an unlikely hero has emerged: the Beekeeper. Once a trader selling his mountain honey across the region, when ISIS came to Sinjar he turned his knowledge of the local terrain to another, more dangerous use. Along with a secret network of transporters, helpers, and former bootleggers, Abdullah Shrem smuggles brutalized Yazidi women to safety through the war-torn landscapes of Iraq, Syria, and Western Turkey. Mikhail was born in Baghdad and earned a BA at the University of Baghdad. She worked as a translator and journalist for the Baghdad Observer before being placed on Saddam Hussein’s enemies list. She immigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s and earned an MA at Wayne State University. Mikhail, a Christian, is the author of several collections of poetry published in Arabic. Her first book published in English, The War Works Hard(2005), translated by Elizabeth Winslow, won the PEN Translation Award, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and was selected as one of the 25 Best Books of 2005 by the New York Public Library. Elena Chiti translated The War Works Hard into Italian in 2011. Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea(2009), which Mikhail co-translated with Elizabeth Winslow, won the Arab American Book Award. Mikhail's collection of poetry The Iraqi Nights (2014) was translated into English by Kareem James Abu-Zeid and published by New Directions.

First Genocide Verdict against Islamic State For Killings of Yazidis 

The holiday season can be fraught for all kinds of reasons for so many. But just imagine how very alarming and emotionally harrowing it must be for those whose family members are in a cult. Perhaps you are, or perhaps you have friends or family who are (they may even be seeking to LEAD a cult themselves!) but at this time of year you'll more than likely have to spend time with them. What to do? Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here for @ Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins with  about this book, ' but this content is helpful to all those in this situation.  This is a thorough discussion of how #Trump, #QAnon and others use cult-like mind-control techniques to manipulate and maintain an unwavering support base. How is it that even now, post-election, Trump, with his highly documented failures, lies, anti-social behavior, remains the darling of right wing politics in the US. Hassan breaks it down delving into Trump's early influence of Norman Vincent Peale's "positive thinking", prosperity Christianity, to hisnsymbiotic relationship with Fox News. The combination of such odd bedfellows as the NRA, Christian fundamentalists, Russia and the Catholic Church, who form the basis of Trump's peculiar appeal makes for fascinating, but occasionally frightening listening and reading of the book. Steven A. Hassan, PhD, MA, M.Ed., LMHC, NCC is one of the foremost authorities on cults and mind control. He has been involved in educating the public about mind control, brainwashing, and destructive cults since 1976. He holds a Master's degree in counseling psychology from Cambridge College, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC). Steven received a Master's in 2020 from Fielding Graduate University. He later earned a doctorate in the Organizational Development and Change (ODC)program at Fielding’s School of Leadership Studies. Hassan did a TEDxBeaconStreet talk in 2018 entitled: Is Technology Controlling Your Mind? He was a participant in the "Dismantling QAnon" TEDXMidAtlantic program in 2020.

The Holiday Season Throws Cults Into Sharp Focus?

Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) speaks here with Dr Leonard Rubinstein. @JohnsHopkins @bermaninstitute #CentreForPublicHealthAndHumanRights #CentreForHumanitarianHealth  Bringing together extensive research, firsthand experience, and compelling personal stories, Perilous Medicine also offers a path forward, detailing the lessons the international community needs to learn to protect people already suffering in war and those on the front lines of health care in conflict-ridden places around the world. Rubenstein―a human rights lawyer who has investigated atrocities against health workers around the world―offers a gripping and powerful account of the dangers health workers face during conflict and the legal, political, and moral struggle to protect them. Pervasive violence against hospitals, patients, doctors, and other health workers has become a horrifically common feature of modern war. These relentless attacks destroy lives and the capacity of health systems to tend to those in need. Inaction to stop this violence undermines long-standing values and laws designed to ensure that sick and wounded people receive care. In a dozen case studies, he shares the stories of people who have been attacked while seeking to serve patients under dire circumstances including health workers hiding from soldiers in the forests of eastern Myanmar as they seek to serve oppressed ethnic communities, surgeons in Syria operating as their hospitals are bombed, and Afghan hospital staff attacked by the Taliban as well as government and foreign forces. Rubenstein reveals how political and military leaders evade their legal obligations to protect health care in war, punish doctors and nurses for adhering to their responsibilities to provide care to all in need, and fail to hold perpetrators to account.

The Struggle to Protect Health Care from the Violence of War

Claudia Cragg (Twitter: @claudiacragg) talks to Celine-Marie Pascale  @cmpascale about her new book, '' published by . For the majority of Americans, hard times have long been a way of life. Some work multiple low-wage jobs, others face the squeeze of stagnant wages and rising costs of living. Sociologist Celine-Marie Pascale talked with people across Appalachia, at the Standing Rock and Wind River reservations, and in the bustling city of Oakland, California. Their voices offer a wide range of experiences that complicate dominant national narratives about economic struggles. Yet Living on the Edge is about more than individual experiences. It’s about a nation in a deep economic and moral crisis. It’s about the long-standing collusion between government and corporations that prioritizes profits over people, over the environment, and over the nation’s well-being. It’s about how racism, sexism, violence, and the pandemic shape daily experience in struggling communities. And, ultimately, it’s a book about hope that lays out a vision for the future as honest as it is ambitious. Most people in the book are not progressives; none are radicals. They’re hard-working people who know from experience that the current system is unsustainable. Across the country people described the need for a living wage, accessible health care, immigration reform, and free education. Their voices are worth listening to. As a sociologist who studies language, Dr. Pascale's research concerns culture, knowledge and power. Her most recent book,  is forthcoming in 2021 from Polity. Living on the Edge draws from conversations and in-depth interviews with people across Appalachia, on Standing Rock and Wind River Reservations, and in struggling communities within the bustling city of Oakland, California. Dr. Pascale is also the author of three other books. Her first, Making Sense of Race, Gender and Class: Commonsense, Power and Privilege in the United States (Routledge, 2007) won the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Sociology Association Section on Race, Class and Gender. Her second book, Cartographies of Knowledge: Exploring Qualitative Epistemologies (Sage 2011) won the 2012 Distinguished Book Award from the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry for “charting new territories." Pascale’s third book Social Inequalities &amp; The Politics of Representation: A Global Landscape was published in 2013, has been recognized as a field defining collection of original scholarship. For more information see: https:cmpascale.org

Claudia Cragg (Twitter: @claudiacragg) talks to Celine-Marie Pascale  @cmpascale about her new book, '' published by . For the majority of Americans, hard times have long been a way of life. Some work multiple low-wage jobs, others face the squeeze of stagnant wages and rising costs of living. Sociologist Celine-Marie Pascale talked with people across Appalachia, at the Standing Rock and Wind River reservations, and in the bustling city of Oakland, California. Their voices offer a wide range of experiences that complicate dominant national narratives about economic struggles. Yet Living on the Edge is about more than individual experiences. It’s about a nation in a deep economic and moral crisis. It’s about the long-standing collusion between government and corporations that prioritizes profits over people, over the environment, and over the nation’s well-being. It’s about how racism, sexism, violence, and the pandemic shape daily experience in struggling communities. And, ultimately, it’s a book about hope that lays out a vision for the future as honest as it is ambitious. Most people in the book are not progressives; none are radicals. They’re hard-working people who know from experience that the current system is unsustainable. Across the country people described the need for a living wage, accessible health care, immigration reform, and free education. Their voices are worth listening to. As a sociologist who studies language, Dr. Pascale's research concerns culture, knowledge and power. Her most recent book,  is forthcoming in 2021 from Polity. Living on the Edge draws from conversations and in-depth interviews with people across Appalachia, on Standing Rock and Wind River Reservations, and in struggling communities within the bustling city of Oakland, California. Dr. Pascale is also the author of three other books. Her first, Making Sense of Race, Gender and Class: Commonsense, Power and Privilege in the United States (Routledge, 2007) won the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Sociology Association Section on Race, Class and Gender. Her second book, Cartographies of Knowledge: Exploring Qualitative Epistemologies (Sage 2011) won the 2012 Distinguished Book Award from the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry for “charting new territories." Pascale’s third book Social Inequalities &amp; The Politics of Representation: A Global Landscape was published in 2013, has been recognized as a field defining collection of original scholarship. For more information see: <a href="https:cmpascale.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https:cmpascale.org</a>

Celine-Marie Pascale Discusses 'Living On The Edge'

Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg - Twitter) talks with Heather Hurwitz about her book, '." Despite cries of “We are the 99%,” signaling solidarity, certain groups were unwelcome or unable to participate. Moreover, problems with racism, sexism, and discrimination due to sexuality and class persisted within the movement. The protestors that comprised the #OccupyWallStreet movement came from diverse backgrounds. But how were these activists—who sought radical social change through many ideologies—able to break down oppressions and obstacles within the movement? And in what ways did the movement perpetuate status-quo structures of inequality? Are We the 99%? is the first comprehensive #feminist and intersectional analysis of the Occupy movement. Heather McKee Hurwitz considers how women, people of color, and genderqueer activists struggled to be heard and understood. Using immersive first-hand accounts of activists’ experiences, online communications, and media coverage of the movement, Hurwitz reveals lessons gleaned from the conflicts within the Occupy movement. She compares her findings to those of other contemporary protest movements—nationally and globally—so that future movements can avoid infighting and deploy an “intersectional imperative” to embrace both diversity and inclusivity. Dr.  is currently a Project Staff Researcher at  and can be reached on Twitter at @heathermhphd (with related info. at @funwsoc and  @BarnardCollege.)

Solving The Essential Racism and Sexism In The Occupy Movement

"'I came to see the mountains as an outpouring of our modern lives,' Roy writes, 'of the endless chase for our desires to fill us.' Readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers will be drawn to this harrowing portrait." — Publishers Weekly Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) speaks here with journalist Saumya Roy about her new non-fiction work, .  All of Mumbai’s possessions and memories come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. Towering at the outskirts of the city, the mountains are covered in a faint smog from trash fires. Over time, as wealth brought Bollywood knock offs, fast food and plastics to Mumbaikars, a small, forgotten community of migrants and rag-pickers came to live at the mountains’ edge, making a living by re-using, recycling and re-selling.   Among them is Farzana Ali Shaikh, a tall, adventurous girl who soon becomes one of the best pickers in her community. Over time, her family starts to fret about Farzana’s obsessive relationship to the garbage. Like so many in her community, Farzana, made increasingly sick by the trash mountains, is caught up in the thrill of discovery—because among the broken glass, crushed cans, or even the occasional dead baby, there’s a lingering chance that she will find a treasure to lift her family’s fortunes.   As Farzana enters adulthood, her way of life becomes more precarious. Mumbai is pitched as a modern city, emblematic of the future of India, forcing officials to reckon with closing the dumping grounds, which would leave the waste pickers more vulnerable than ever.   In a narrative instilled with superstition and magical realism, Saumya Roy crafts a modern parable exploring the consequences of urban overconsumption. A moving testament to the impact of fickle desires, Castaway Mountain reveals that when you own nothing, you know where true value lies: in family, community and love.        Saumya Roy is a journalist and activist based in Mumbai. She has written for Forbes India magazine, Mint newspaper, Outlook magazine, wsj.com, thewire.in and Bloomberg News among others. In 2010 she co- founded Vandana Foundation to support the livelihoods of Mumbai’s poorest micro entrepreneurs by giving small, low interest loans. She has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, Blue Mountain Center, Carey Institute for Global Good and Sangam House to write this book. She attended a conference on environmental humanities at KTH, Stockholm in 2017 to share her research, and contributed a chapter to Dharavi: The Cities Within/ (HarperCollins, 2013), an anthology of essays on Asia’s largest slum. Roy was a fellow of the National Foundation of India in 2012, and has Masters Degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and Mumbai’s Sophia College, where she teaches magazine writing.

"'I came to see the mountains as an outpouring of our modern lives,' Roy writes, 'of the endless chase for our desires to fill us.' Readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers will be drawn to this harrowing portrait." — Publishers Weekly Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) speaks here with journalist Saumya Roy about her new non-fiction work, .  All of Mumbai’s possessions and memories come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. Towering at the outskirts of the city, the mountains are covered in a faint smog from trash fires. Over time, as wealth brought Bollywood knock offs, fast food and plastics to Mumbaikars, a small, forgotten community of migrants and rag-pickers came to live at the mountains’ edge, making a living by re-using, recycling and re-selling.   Among them is Farzana Ali Shaikh, a tall, adventurous girl who soon becomes one of the best pickers in her community. Over time, her family starts to fret about Farzana’s obsessive relationship to the garbage. Like so many in her community, Farzana, made increasingly sick by the trash mountains, is caught up in the thrill of discovery—because among the broken glass, crushed cans, or even the occasional dead baby, there’s a lingering chance that she will find a treasure to lift her family’s fortunes.   As Farzana enters adulthood, her way of life becomes more precarious. Mumbai is pitched as a modern city, emblematic of the future of India, forcing officials to reckon with closing the dumping grounds, which would leave the waste pickers more vulnerable than ever.   In a narrative instilled with superstition and magical realism, Saumya Roy crafts a modern parable exploring the consequences of urban overconsumption. A moving testament to the impact of fickle desires, Castaway Mountain reveals that when you own nothing, you know where true value lies: in family, community and love.        Saumya Roy is a journalist and activist based in Mumbai. She has written for Forbes India magazine, Mint newspaper, Outlook magazine, <a href="http://wsj.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wsj.com</a>, <a href="http://thewire.in" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">thewire.in</a> and Bloomberg News among others. In 2010 she co- founded Vandana Foundation to support the livelihoods of Mumbai’s poorest micro entrepreneurs by giving small, low interest loans. She has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, Blue Mountain Center, Carey Institute for Global Good and Sangam House to write this book. She attended a conference on environmental humanities at KTH, Stockholm in 2017 to share her research, and contributed a chapter to Dharavi: The Cities Within/ (HarperCollins, 2013), an anthology of essays on Asia’s largest slum. Roy was a fellow of the National Foundation of India in 2012, and has Masters Degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and Mumbai’s Sophia College, where she teaches magazine writing.

Human and Material Detritus at Mumbai's Deonar Waste Mountains

In this (reposted) interview,  talks to Claudia Cragg @KGNU about 'Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good. This iconic  also explores why some jobs offer fulfilment while others leave us frustrated. It answers the question as to why we so often think of our working selves as separate from our 'true' selves? Over the course of the twentieth century, Dr. Crawford argues that we have separated mental work from manual labour, replacing the workshop with either the office cubicle or the factory line. In this inspiring and persuasive book, he explores the dangers of this false distinction and presents instead the case for working with your hands. It will also force many a parent to question why today they are only pushing their kids hard towards academic (grade-based rote-learning, mulitple choice) success, turning them only into knowledge workers many of whom will be doomed to remain for an eternity on the very bottom of the pile. The publishers believe that Dr Crawford "delivers a radical, timely and extremely enjoyable re-evaluation of our attitudes to work" and no doubt a great many listeners to this interview might well agree.  Matthew B. Crawford majored in physics as an undergraduate, then turned to political philosophy (Ph.D. Chicago). His writings for , A Journal of Technology and Society, bring the two concerns together, and consider how developments in the sciences influence our view of the human person. Currently a fellow at the  at the University of Virginia, he also runs a small business in Richmond. He earned his PhD from the . He is a contributing editor at , and is also a motorcycle mechanic.

Isn't The Case For Us All To Work With Our Hands Not Stronger Than Ever Now?

Claudia Cragg (Twitter: @claudiacragg) speaks here with William Sargent about his book, , now out in a newly revised edtion. Surviving almost unmolested for 300 million years, the horseshoe crab is now the object of an intense legal and ethical struggle involving marine biologists, environmentalists, US government officials, biotechnologists, and international corporations. The source of this friction is the discovery 25 years ago that the blood of these ancient creatures serves as the basis for the most reliable test for the deadly and ubiquitous gram-negative bacteria. These bacteria are responsible for life-threatening diseases like meningitis, typhoid, E. coli, Legionnaire’s Disease and toxic shock syndrome. Because every drug certified by the FDA must be tested using the horseshoe crab derivative known as Limulus lysate, a multimillion dollar industry has emerged involving the license to “bleed” horseshoe crabs and the rights to their breeding grounds. Since his youthful fascination with these ancient creatures, William Sargent has spent much of his life observing, studying, and collecting horseshoe crabs. 'Crab Wars' is a thoroughly accessible insider’s guide to the discovery of the lysate test, the exploitation of the crabs at the hands of multinational pharmaceutical conglomerates, local fishing interests, and the legal and governmental wrangling over the creatures’ ultimate fate. In the end, the story of the horseshoe crab is a sobering reflection on the unintended consequences of scientific progress and the danger of self-regulated industries controlling a limited natural resource. In his '' Sargent delves into the murky, often intertwined worlds of medical research and biological warfare to determine if Covid-19 was caused by accidents similar to those that have occurred from 1617 to the present.

COVID19, Its Possible Lab Origins and the indispensable Horseshoe Crab

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks with Robin Broad and 's John Cavanagh, authors of  In a time when countless communities are resisting powerful corporations: from Flint, Michigan to the Standing Rock Reservation, from Didipio in the Philippines to the Gualcarque River in Honduras, The Water Defenders presents the inspirational story of a community that took on an international mining corporation at seemingly insurmountable odds and won not one but two historic victories. In the early 2000s, many people in El Salvador were at first excited by the prospect of jobs, progress and prosperity that the Pacific Rim mining company promised. However, farmer Vidalina Morales, brothers Marcelo and Miguel Rivera, and others soon discovered that the river system supplying water to the majority of Salvadorans was in danger of catastrophic contamination as a result. With a group of unlikely allies, local and global, they committed to stopping the corporation and the destruction of their home.  Based on over a decade of research and their own role as international allies of the community groups in El Salvador, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh unspool this little-known story – a tale replete with corporate greed, a transnational lawsuit at a secretive World Bank tribunal in Washington, violent threats, murders and – surprisingly – victory. The husband-and-wife duo immerses the reader in the lives of the Salvadoran villagers, the journeys of the local activists who sought the truth about the effects of gold mining on the environment, and the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of the corporate mining executives and their lawyers. The Water Defenders demands that we examine our assumptions about progress and prosperity, while providing valuable lessons for those fighting against destructive corporations in the United States and around the world. Robin Broad and John Cavanagh are a husband-and-wife team who have been involved in the Salvadoran gold mining saga since 2009. Robin is an expert in international development and won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on this project, as well as two previous MacArthur fellowships. A professor at American University, she served as an international economist in the US Treasury Department, in the US Congress, and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. John is Director of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, an organization that collaborates with the Poor People’s Campaign and other dynamic social movements to turn ideas into action for peace, justice and the environment. He previously worked with the United Nations to research corporate power. Broad and Cavanagh helped build the International Allies group that spearheaded the global fight against mining in El Salvador. They have co-authored several previous books together.-

How Ordinary People Saved a Country From Greed

Joanne Greenberg

No apologies. She is always just delightful.  Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here with Joanne Greenberg (born September 24, 1932 in ) is an American  who published some of her work under the  of Hannah Green. She was a professor of anthropology at the  and a volunteer . Greenberg is best known for the semi-autobiographical bestselling novel  (1964). It was adapted into a 1977  and a 2004  of the same name. She received the Harry and Ethel Daroff Memorial Fiction Award as well as the  for Fiction in 1963 for her debut novel The King's Persons (1963), about the massacre of the  population of  at  in 1190. Greenberg appears in the  documentary Take These Broken Wings (2004) about recovering from schizophrenia without the use of psychiatric medication. Her book In This Sign (1970) was made into a   titled , aired on  in December 1985.

Just Because.... Joanne Greenberg, One Of Our Most Interesting Past Guests

ChatChat - Claudia Cragg

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here with Jennifer Steinhauer @jestei @nytimes about her lively study, “ The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress.” In January 2019, the largest number of women ever elected to Congress was sworn in—87 in the house and 23 in the Senate - this was a dress rehearsal for the 2020 primary and general election. Democratic women won largely on painting the GOP as incompetent especially around health care.  This history-making Class of ’19 included many remarkable firsts: the youngest woman ever to serve; the first two Muslim women; the first two native American women, one openly gay; a black woman from a nearly all-white Chicago suburb; and a Hispanic woman from a heavily Republican border region. In many instances, these were the first women and/or persons of color and/or youngest persons to serve from their state or district. Veteran New York Times Capitol Hill reporter Jennifer Steinhauer has been following this historic transition from day one. She uses her rare vantage point to take a behind-the-scenes look at these newcomer’s individual and collective attempts to usher in real change in Washington.Offering expert historical context, intimate detail, and you-are-there access to the halls of the Capitol, Steinhauer followed these women closely for their first year, interviewing them and their staff and colleagues.  With her seasoned political eye, she assesses not only how these women are doing, but whether their election will have a long-term impact…  Will the issues they and their constituents most care about—such as health care, childcare, and pay equity—finally get a permanent place at the table? Can these women, many already social media stars and political punching bags, find a way to break through the partisan stalemate and hidebound traditions of Washington, DC? Which is a more salient marker of change—their gender, or the diversity of age, race, religion and economic status they bring to Congress? Who will have staying power in our era of twenty-four-hour news cycles and nonstop social media feeds, and who will be gone in two years?  Jennifer Steinhauer has covered numerous high-profile beats in her twenty-five-year reporting career at the New York Times, from City Hall bureau chief and Los Angeles bureau chief to Capitol Hill. She won the Newswoman’s Club of New York Front Page Deadline Reporting Award in 2006 for her reporting on Hurricane Katrina. She has also written a novel about the television business, and two cookbooks.

The Congressional 'Squad' vs. 'Badasses' Take on Rebalancing Values

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here with  @ValWalkerAuthor about her friendly, candid, and comforting guide for isolating times when we have no one to count on,  As we potentially enter a time for mass isolation, the guide may just help some to cope a little more and also encourage those who ARE coping to help those who are not.  Despite the inclusive promise of social media, loneliness is in any case, even in far more 'normal' times, a growing epidemic in the United States and throughout the world. Social isolation can shatter our confidence. In isolating times, we’re not only lonely, we’re also ashamed because our society stigmatizes people who appear to be without support. As a single, fifty-eight-year-old woman, Val Walker found herself stranded and alone after major surgery when her friends didn’t show up. As a professional rehabilitation counselor, she was too embarrassed to reveal how utterly isolated she was by asking for someone to help, and it felt agonizingly awkward calling colleagues out of the blue. As she recovered, Val found her voice and developed a plan of action for people who lack social support, not only to heal from the pain of isolation, but to create a solid strategy for rebuilding a sense of community. 400 Friends and No One to Call spells out the how-tos for befriending our wider community, building a social safety net, and fostering our sense of belonging. On a deeper level, we are invited to befriend our loneliness, rather than feel ashamed of it, and open our hearts and minds to others trapped in isolation.

ISOLATION - Community and Love in a Time of Coronavirus

Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) speaks here with Dr. Richard J. Davidson (@healthyminds) about the book he co-wrote, ' In the last twenty years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it. Sweeping away common misconceptions and neuromythology to open readers’ eyes to the ways data has been distorted to sell mind-training methods, the authors demonstrate that beyond the pleasant states mental exercises can produce, the real payoffs are the lasting personality traits that can result. But short daily doses will not get us to the highest level of lasting positive change—even if we continue for years—without specific additions. More than sheer hours, we need smart practice, including crucial ingredients such as targeted feedback from a master teacher and a more spacious, less attached view of the self, all of which are missing in widespread versions of mind training. The authors also reveal the latest data from Davidson’s own lab that point to a new methodology for developing a broader array of mind-training methods with larger implications for how we can derive the greatest benefits from the practice.

How Are You Coping Right Now?

Anne Kim

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here with @Anne_S_Kim about those millions of young people Kim considers 'Abandoned'.  Anne Kim is a writer based in northern Virginia and the author of . She was special projects editor at the  in 2013 and senior writer from 2015 to 2018. Americans under the age of 25 grab headlines when they launch flashy startups or become activists for social change. However, as Washington Monthly Anne Kim shows, both in this discussion and her book, the success of such leaders masks an alarming reality ill-served by current public policy: “In 2017, as many as 4.5 million young people” ages 16-24 were neither in school nor working. Social scientists call them “disconnected youth” (or, in Europe, s, for “not in employment, education, or training”), and many of them have aged out of foster care or spent time in prison and lack the support of trusted adults. A vice president of the , Kim shows clearly how their plight tends to result from years of systemic failures.

ABANDONED: Up to 4.5 million young people, ages 16 - 24, Anne Kim

Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) speaks here with Frederic Martel (@martelf) for the new paperback publication of his latest book, In The Closet of The Vatican. Pope Francis declared that "behind rigidity there is always something hidden, in many cases a double life." These are the disturbing words that the Pope himself has used to unlock the “closet.” In the new paperback edition of this New York Times bestseller,(Bloomsbury Continuum; 9781472966186; paperback now out), author and renowned French journalist Frédéric Martel reveals new events that have occurred since the original text’s publication.   In the Closet of the Vatican provides a shocking and detailed account of the abuse and malpractice—sexual, political and financial—in the Catholic Church. Now in a revised translation and with updated material, this brilliant piece of investigative writing is based on four years’ authoritative research, including extensive interviews with those in power.

"Power, Homosexuality and Hypocrisy" in The Closet of the Vatican

Soulful jazz singer Billie Holliday is remembered these days for her unique sound, troubled personal history, and a catalogue that includes such resonant songs as  and  Claudia Cragg, @claudiacragg, speaks here with  about the surprising ways in which Holiday and her music were also strongly shaped by religion.  is not a new biography of the jazz legend, nor does the book come up with many new findings about the life of the much-studied singer or the thoroughly documented jazz milieu she inhabited. Rather, the book offers a subtle recontextualization of Holiday’s life. It presents a vivid portrait of an iconic jazz artist not known for piety or ties to organized religion. Fessenden does investigate in greater detail than previous books the influence of Holiday’s Catholic upbringing, in particular her two stints at the . Mixing elements of biography with the history of race and American music, she will explore the multiple religious influences on Holiday’s life and sound, including her time spent as a child in a Baltimore convent, the echoes of black Southern churches in the blues she heard in brothels, the secular riffs on ancestral faith in the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, and the Jewish songwriting culture of Tin Pan Alley. Growing out of Fessenden’s most recent publication, Religion Around Billie Holiday (Penn State UP, 2018), the lecture aims to illuminate the power and durability of religion in the making of an American musical icon. Tracy Fessenden holds the Steve and Margaret Forster Professorship in Comparative Mythology at Arizona State University, where she is a member of the faculty of Religious Studies. She is a scholar of American religion and the secular who focuses on literature and the arts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  In addition to Religion Around Billie Holiday, Fessenden is the author of Culture and Redemption: Religion, the Secular, and American Literature (Princeton UP, 2007) and co-editor of The Puritan Origins of American Sex: Religion, Sexuality, and American Literature (Routledge, 2001), and Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference (Columbia UP, 2013). She is Editor of Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation and General Editor of the North American Religions series at New York University Press.

What Made 'The Lady Sing The Blues'?

Michael Korda

(At the end of this interview, Cleo Z. reads s poem, ''. To learn more or contact Cleo Z., please DM @claudiacragg) Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here with #MichaelKorda about his new book, #. It is a legendary editor's unflinching love song about his radiant wife, #MargaretMogford, and her battle with cancer.  Born in London, Michael Korda is the son of English actress Gertrude Musgrove, and the Hungarian artist and film production designer . He is the nephew of film magnate  and brother , both film directors.Korda grew up in England but received part of his education in France where his father had worked with film director  Michael Korda is Editor-in-Chief  for  where he ruled for 48 years. Among the many books Korda has written personally are Charmed Lives, the story of his father and his two uncles, and the novel , which is a  about his aunt, actress , which was later adapted into a television miniseries. His mother, Gertrude Musgrove was an actress known for The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), The Fugitive (1939) and The Girl from Maxim's (1933). Korda said he felt that Charmed Lives was the book he was born to write, "as if I had been observing and storing up memories with just that purpose in mind for years.  But it was a warm April in  when  Korda, normally a fearless horsewoman, dropped her horsewhip while she was riding. Such a mild slip was easy to ignore, but when other troubling symptoms accumulated, she confided to her husband, "Michael, I think something serious is wrong with me."  Within a few rapid weeks, the fiercely independent, former fashion model was diagnosed with brain cancer, while Michael, once reliant on her steeliness, became her caregiver, deciphering bewildering medical reports and packing her beloved toiletries for the hospital.  An operation performed by a renowned surgeon allowed Margaret to ride her favorite competition horse Logan go Bragh a few more times, but Margaret's tumors quickly returned - leaving her to grapple with the reality of impending death. In rapturous prose, Korda, a modern-day Orpheus, braids her heroic story with heartrending details of their final year together.  Passing, a tender memoir, is a testament to the transcendent possibilities of love.

Literary Lion, Michael Korda Speaks of Love and Loss

Today is the 127 anniversary of what many Hawaiians consider to be an "illegal occupation" of their lands.   On Jan. 17, 1893, Queen Lili`uokalani of the independent kingdom of Hawai`i was overthrown as she was arrested at gunpoint by U.S. Marines.  Native Hawaiians say they are now fighting to stop the construction Thirty Meter Telescope on sacred Mauna Kea. As Patrick Wolfe theorized, "settler colonialism is a structure, not an event. The violence of colonialism — and the fight for Indigenous sovereignty — continue. " (visit ) #neweconomycoalition In this interview, Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks with Hawaiian journalist, AK Kelly (@KealaKelly)

An "Illegal Occupation" Celebrates Its 127th Anniversary

Max Klau

As of production time, the 2020 Presidential Race has only 'Old White Men' contenders. We could debate why endlessly, but perhaps something deeper is at play? Claudia Cragg (@ClaudiaCragg) speaks here with , (@maxklau) who as a Harvard doctoral student was researching the topic of 'youth leadership'. Klau stumbled upon a provocative educational exercise, he says, that changed the course of his life. Klau is an author, leadership scholar, educated and Chief Program Officer @NewPoliticsAcad. To inquire about joining the New Politics Leadership Academy team, email . This is a a non-profit, Klau says, is dedicated to recruiting and developing military veterans and alumni of national service programs to seek political office. The education-focused AmeriCorps program that engages more than 3,000 young adults across 27 U.S. cities in a year of demanding, full-time citizen service. But, back to Klau's epiphany, on the last morning of a week-long residential youth leadership program focused on teaching about social justice, high-school aged participants gather before breakfast for what they think will be normal day. Instead, something unusual happens: They are told by the Program Directors to separate into groups: Whites, Asians, Jews, Latinos, LGBTG, Latinx, Black. They are instructed not to make eye contact with other groups or talk with other groups, and then they are told to go to breakfast: The White group goes in first, sits at a big table and gets double servings, and every group lower in the hierarchy gets less food and a smaller table. The Black group ends up sitting on the floor with almost nothing to eat. It’s called the Separation Exercise, and it’s an attempt to simulate a hierarchical, segregated, Jim Crow-style social system. Over the course of the morning, the participants begin to challenge these unjust norms, and events unfold that mirror events of the real-life civil rights movement in surprising ways. , it turns out, provides a remarkable opportunity to observe the unfolding of social change using the tools of empiricism and social science. Arguably, it also inhibits, nay interferes with, candidates who rise to the top of US Politics? Klau spent the next four years of his life engaged in rigorous research of three more of these Separation Exercises in a quest to discover what might be learned from observing the unfolding of multiple simulated civil rights movements. This book describes the personal journey that led to this effort, the ethical considerations surrounding this kind of study, the surprising findings that emerged from this inquiry, and the implications that all this has for matters of race and social change in the real world today. Klau's 'quest' is one best adopted sooner rather than later if true democracy is ever to be realized.

A Much-Needed Antidote to Racism, from Max Klau

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