Progressive Commentary Hour

Progressive Commentary Hour - 11.27.19

Dawn of Day is a historical documentary about the Underground Railroad in Kansas that brings to light Wabaunsee County’s unsung heroes who traversed one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history. Faith, family, and politics united a community of neighbors who lived and died to ensure Kansas was a free state. Richard Pitts, director of the Wonder Workshop in Manhattan, Kansas, narrates the film and interviews educators, historians and descendants of abolitionists whose shared heritage lives on in the freedom we enjoy today.

Progressive Commentary Hour - US paramilitary interference in the Bolivian coup and Haiti & The Bolivian Coup and the Creation of a Latin American Police State

Dr. Jeb Sprague is a Research Associate at the University of California at Riverside specializing in globalization trends, transnationalism, political sociology and their effects in the Caribbean and Latin America.  Dr. Sprague is the co-founder of the Network for the Critical Studies of Global Capitalism and has previously taught at the University of Virginia and at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the latter academic institution being where he received his doctorate in sociology.  He is the author of "Globalizing the Caribbean" and earlier "Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Hait."  His articles have appeared in many academic journals as well as the Grayzone, The Canary and Counterpunch.  His website is JebSprague.Blogspot.com 

Prof William Robinson is Professor of Sociology and Latin American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is also on the university’s faculty in its Global and International Studies Program. William is a scholar activist, deeply involved in Third World struggles for social justice, the Latin American left, popular empowerment of populations and participatory democracy and government.  His areas of focus include globalization, transnationalism, political economics, immigration and a variety of sociological issues. William received his graduate degrees from the University of New Mexico. In the 1980s he worked as a journalist and activist during the revolution in Nicaragua. He has published nine books, his latest being “Into the Tempest: Essays on the New Global Capitalism," which investigates how global capitalism is now controlled by a multinational capitalist class and is contributing to draconian policies in the US and other developed nations giving rise to nationalist police states.  His forthcoming book scheduled for release next year is "The Global Police State." His website is SOC.UCSB.edu/Faculty/Robinson 

 

 

Progressive Commentary Hour - CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE MINDS Recovering the experience of spiritual wonder in an age of scientific materialism.

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is a British biochemist and plant physiologist who has experimented with innovative field theories in plants and animals, including humans, to account for the causative formation of the deeper structures of biological development and collective consciousness.  Dr. Sheldrake has been a fellow at Cambridge University, a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard and a Research Fellow of he British Royal Society. His research has included efforts to reach a greater understanding of memory, perception, cognition and the debate over consciousness.  For two years he lived in a Benedictine Christian ashram in South India under the guidance of the late sage Father Bede Griffiths.  Over the past several decades Rupert developed his theory of morphic resonance and morphogenic fields.  He has written extensively on morphogenic theory since the publication “A New Science in Life “in 1981.  His most recent book is "Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work," which presents various spiritual practices and ways that for everyday activities to have spiritual meaning for the scientific age we have now entered.  His website is Sheldrake.org

 

 

Progressive Commentary Hour - Google's covert operations to undermine democracy, freedom of speech and manipulate our lives

Zach Vorhies is a former Google engineer who worked with the Silicon Valley giant for over 8 years. Much of that time was spent in Google's YouTube division before he discovered Google's artificial intelligence program known as "Machine Learning Fairness." After investigating this program through internal Google documents in his possession, Zach turned whistleblower and delivered 950 pages of company documents to the Department of Justice and released the same to the public. Having departed from Google, Zach is now devoted to helping raise awareness about Google's covert activities.  This includes the likelihood of meddling in the forthcoming elections and collaborating with China by giving that country access to it's "Manhattan" project known as Deep Mind. 

Dr. Robert Epstein is the Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology.  The institute researches roles of parenting, stress management, maturation and the internet's influence and manipulation of our lives. He is the former editor in chief of Psychology Today and has specialized in the psychology of maturity. Dr. Epstein holds a doctorate in psychology from Harvard, has taught at the University of California at San Diego and was the founder of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts. He has been a commentator on NPR's Marketplace and has written for the Washington Post, Time, The Sunday Times London, Parenting, and other magazines and newspapers. Robert is the author of 15 books, and his forthcoming book is "How Google and Facebook Ate Your Brain, and How You Can Get a New One."  The Institute also produced a documentary film, "The Creepy Line" which reveals how Google and Facebook impact the behaviors of billions of people worldwide. For more info on his writings about Google, his website is MyGoogleResearch.com