Our world is replete with problems, calling out for repair and change. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have solutions at the ready – tech fixes and innovations that they claim will make a difference. Scholar Julie Guthman discusses the problem with such solutions, and the mindset that has permeated institutions of higher learning which reward the development … Continued
They are among the biggest companies in the world: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon have an outsized impact on the global economy and on our daily lives. Rob Larson examines the companies that have become synonymous with the glories and ills of contemporary capitalism. He makes the case for online socialism. Resources: Rob Larson, … Continued
The San Francisco Bay Area is known equally for Silicon Valley, and the vast wealth generated by tech, and the history of protest and struggle. Yet popular understandings of social movements in the region are often limited to the cities of San Francisco and Berkeley. A new guide shows that dissent and struggle have marked … Continued
Innovation, grit, creativity, flexibility, choice — these words are ubiquitous in US society and yet, according to John Patrick Leary, they’re not neutral. Leary weighs in on the language of 21st century capitalism and how certain keywords are a slippery way to avoid calling thing what they are. Resources: John Patrick Leary, Keywords: The New … Continued
Donald TruTrump’s new Executive Order on US-Cuba relations aims to undo all of President Obama’s advances on a detente with the island nation. On today’s show we’ll speak with Netfa Freeman of the Institute of Policy Studies to find out what exactly it means. And, with the resignation of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, author Steven … Continued
In a busy show, tax expert and Trumpologist, David Cay Johnston joins us to discuss the President-elect’s fitness for office, the “Deal Professor” Steven Davidoff Solomon unveils corporate shenanigans in Silicon Valley, and ocean conservationist, David Helvarg, tells us how Marco Rubio and Rick Scott deny climate change while their state of Florida sinks.
David Bacon delivers a labor history of Silicon Valley, and how it helps explain the massive diversity problems facing most jet-setting tech firms. Plus: Katherine Isbister on the multi-billion dollar video game industry, and what it is doing to the people – especially children – who play them. Guests David Bacon, veteran labor journalist and … Continued
Violence has increased in Palestine: we look at the causes, and the future. Plus: peace activism was successful in ending the Vietnam War over 40 years ago. Now activists write about how they did it. AND:how the sharing economy is ripping you off. With host Kris Welch.
