“There are men who struggle for a day
and they are good.
There are men who struggle for a year
and they are better.
There are men who struggle many years,
and they are better still.
But there are those who struggle all their lives:
These are the indispensable ones.”

– Bertold Brecht – dedicated to Don White

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: George Carlin, the late stand-up comic and social commentator

America’s funniest counter-culture hero, George Carlin, passed away this weekend at the age of 71. He died in Santa Monica of heart failure. The celebrated stand-up comic tackled all the taboo subjects: religion, patriotism, sex, drugs, and death. Combining hilarious delivery with biting social commentary, Carlin’s four-decade-long career influenced top-notch comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock. Carlin was particularly unafraid of offending people. His infamous “seven-dirty-words” routine aired on Pacifica station WBAI in New York, resulting in a landmark lawsuit, Pacifica vs. the FCC. As a result, those words cannot be mentioned on the public airwaves anymore. Carlin was a disciple of Lenny Bruce and found inspiration in Richard Pryor. His brand of comedy was unique …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Tim Robbins, academy award winning actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist, and musician. Robbins is director of “1984″ for the Actor’s Gang

In 1948, British writer George Orwell wrote his seminal novel Nineteen Eighty Four, about a future world where the fictional-sounding country of Oceania was at war. As part of this war, the all-too-real totalitarianism that usually accompanies it, is out of control. Orwell’s protagonist, Winston Smith, is an intellectual worker at the Ministry of Truth, who is arrested by the government’s “thought police” and degraded and psychologically tortured. The government surveillance of citizens and incessant media propaganda are eerily reminiscent of George W Bush’s America. The fact that the terms “Orwellian,” “doublespeak,” and “Big Brother” are part of today’s standard lexicon, is a testament to …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Dave Alberswerth, Senior Policy Adviser for the Wilderness Society

President Bush gave a speech last week in which he called for more domestic oil drilling in order to relieve record high gas prices. As part of his energy proposal, Bush called on Congress to lift a 27 year ban on offshore oil drilling and also to allow for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Pressing Democrats to act swiftly before the July 4th holiday, Bush warned that his critics will be left to explain why they failed to act to alleviate the public from soaring gas prices. However, an assessment by the Energy Information Administration in 2007 found that offshore drilling would not bring about a drop in oil prices until 2030 and …

An hour-long tribute to Don White, our ally, our friend, who unexpectedly died this past weekend at the age of 71. We’ll hear from close friends of Don and from archived interviews with Don. We’ll also open up our phone lines for listeners who knew Don to pay tribute to him on the air.

“All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.” — George Orwell

Listen to the entire program

Support KPFK – Make a pledge at 818-985-5735, or online at www.kpfk.org.

The world’s growing economy continues to be dependent on oil. Meanwhile, the supply is running out and the U.S. the US is fighting a war in Iraq to secure the free flow of oil. In fact, this dependence on Middle East oil is a historical legacy going back all the way to FDR. That’s the premise of a book by Michael T Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies. In his book, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, Klare argues that the nation’s energy behavior dominated by four key trends: “an increasing need for imported oil; a pronounced shift toward unstable and unfriendly suppliers in dangerous parts of …

“Action springs not from thought, but from readiness for responsibility.” — Dietrich Bonhoffer

Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

Audio Stream | Podcast | Mp3 Download

This week on Uprising:

* In light of California’s historic Supreme Court hearing, we broadcast a same-sex wedding on the air: Linda Martinez and Regina Rodriguez, a couple of 8 years, get married on radio.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Historic Same-Sex Wedding Broadcast

GUESTS: Linda Martinez and Regina Rodriguez, the Reverend Neil Thomas of the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles, and Jenny Pizer, Senior Counsel for Lambda Legal, Mary Martinez, Gina’s mother, Joseph Rodriguez, Linda’s father

In May of this year, the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage …

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” -– Andy Warhol