How God Wound Up In the Pledge, and Why Berkeley’s Curbside Recycling Director is Facing Deportation

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is poised to deport Daniel Maher, the director of Berkeley’s Curbside Recycling Program – a man who’s lived in this country since the age of three. And it’s all because of increased cooperation between the US and China. We’ll get the details from an attorney working on his case.

But first: A history of how God made it into the pledge of allegiance, and onto our currency – and what that has to do with the rise of the Christian right. We’ll talk to historian Kevin Kruse.

Finally: Anna Deavere Smith on her new production in Berkeley – it tackles the school-to-prison pipeline, and the audience is half the show.

Guests:

• Kevin M. Kruse, professor of history at Princeton University and author of One Nation Under God: How Ccorporate America Invented Christian America
• Anoop Prasad, staff attorney at Asian Law Caucus in the Immigrant Rights Program, currently representing Daniel Maher in deportation proceedings
• Anna Deavere Smith, award-winning playwright and actor, currently presenting Doing Time in Education at the Berkeley Rep