“Don’t be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it’s just death.” — Lena Horne

Listen to the entire program

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics, found that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD, are found to have higher levels of pesticides in their system. The findings were called “interesting and provocative” by a UC Berkeley epidemiologist and confirm the suspicions of environmentalists and public health experts, According to the study, the levels of chemicals found in the urine of the children studied have long been thought to be harmless. It also establishes that pesticide exposure reaches far beyond agricultural areas, with residues being ingested through food, air, and water. Findings like these often spur individuals to purchase bottled water as a healthier alternative to potentially contaminated tap-water. But a new documentary film shows that bottled water is not a healthy choice for individuals or communities either. The film, TAPPED, from the …

“Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.” — Albert Szent-Gyorgyi quotes (Hungarian Biochemist, 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine

We’ll feature a new documentary about the world’s water supplies called Tapped. Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig’s debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water. From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car and I.O.U.S.A., this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never become a commodity: our water.

Listen to the entire program

Over the weekend, famed linguist and professor, Noam Chomsky was refused a day permit to enter the West Bank from Jordan to make a scheduled speech at Bir Zeit University in Palestine. After questioning the 81 year-old linguist for several hours, Israeli ministry officials deemed Chomsky a security threat.

The MIT professor is no stranger to controversy. His criticism of domestic and foreign affairs has made him an enemy of the powerful, and a beloved intellectual for generations of progressives. In his eighties, he continues to travel extensively, and lecture widely. Chomsky has famously identified with the political philosophy of anarchism. Recently KPFA programmer Sasha Lilley sat down with him to explore the details of his approach. It is a particularly relevant discussion given the populist grassroots revolts we’ve seen on both sides of the political …

“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.” — Joel Barker

Listen to this segment | the entire program

Even before last week’s announcement of Solicitor General Elena Kagan as President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, a whisper campaign had been started in speculating her sexual orientation. A former Bush administration aide and Republican Senate staffer had written in a CBS news blog last month that Obama’s then probable selection of the former Harvard Law School dean to be “the first openly gay justice,” would please his political base of supporters. The Obama White House has vehemently denied the charges. CBS initially defended the blog post, and then deleted it in the days following after the author, Ben Domenech, admitted that it was just a rumor. The subject of Kagan’s sexual orientation once again became a flashpoint for media discussion as the Wall Street Journal published a front …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

A pipe bomb was detonated outside Jacksonville’s Islamic Center of Northeast Florida during evening prayers last Monday. No worshippers were harmed. A surveillance video shows a middle aged man carrying a can of gasoline and the pipe bomb. Local and state police and the FBI are investigating allegations that ACT! for America, an anti-Islam hate group that has been harassing members of Florida’s prominent Muslim community, is responsible. Brigitte Gabriel, the founder of ACT! for America has made a number of disturbing statements, even claiming that a “practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.” A man who barged into the mosque on April 4th crying, “Stop this blasphemy” and threatening to return may also be responsible. …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

After failing to shut off the oil gush from the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, British oil giant BP, has now installed a small tube into the main burst pipe and claims to be siphoning off 1000 barrels a day. An official estimate of 5000 barrels of oil leaking a day from the exploded rig was arrived at by out-dated means, and has been the official number used by BP and the government. But a more sophisticated analysis has confirmed that it is at least 5 times greater, and likely to be 10 times greater. Meanwhile, the Minerals Management Service, a government agency is being accused of forgoing necessary environmental permits for offshore drilling, including for the Deepwater Horizon rig. In responding to anonymous reports by …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

Brown v. Board of Education

Back in the day on May 17th, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against racial segregation in the nation’s public schools. The landmark Brown v. the Board of Education case resulted in all nine justices unanimously striking down the doctrine of ‘separate but equal,’ as a violation of the 14th amendment of the constitution. The historic lawsuit filed by the NAACP on behalf of Oliver Brown, the father of an eight year-old African-American daughter who could not attend a nearby ‘white school,’ in Topeka, Kansas, also included nearly 200 plaintiffs from four different states. The ruling that followed reversed the Supreme Court’s earlier legal precedence for legal segregation established by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. By deeming separate educational facilities to …