Progressive Commentary Hour

Progressive Commentary Hour - 02.13.18

The epidemic of childhood illnesses due to our agrichemical food industry and the failure of federal policies. 

Dr. Michelle Perro is a veteran pediatrician having been in practice for over 35 years in acute and integrative medicine.  During the past decade, her clinical practice has dealt more with pesticide and food health advocacy.  Recently she has become an important voice warning the public about GMO foods and food toxins, pesticides and their health risks.  Michelle has been both a director and physician at New York's Metropolitan Hospital and University of California San Franciso's Childrens Hopsital in Oakland. She ran Down to Earth Pediatrics, a holistic urgent care clinic for children and more recently is an integrative physician at the Institute for Health and Healing at Sutter Pacific Medical Center in Sacramento.  She is the author of a new and important book, co-written with our next other guest Dr. Vincanne Adams,  which explores the links between GM foods, glyphosate or Roundup, and gut disorders with the serious epidemic of chronic illnesses.  Her website and more information can be found at GordonMedical.com

Prof. Vincanne Adams is a professor and vice chair of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at the University of California medical school in San Francisco. Her areas of specialty have been the history and development of medical anthropology, reproductive health, scientific and medical sociology, health policy, and Asian and Tibetan medical systems and globalization.   She is currently the editor for the Medical Anthropology Quarterly, the flagship.  Earlier, Prof. Adams taught at Princeton University for 9 years, and she graduated with her doctorate in Medical Anthropology from the University of California programs at Berkeley and San Francisco. 

 

Progressive Commentary Hour - 02.06.18

An deep view into the FBI and its role in the Steele dossier and the aftermath   

 

Coleen Rowley is a former FBI special agent who was with the agency for 24 years. From 1990 to 2003, she was the Chief Division Counsel operating out of Minneapolis.  In May 2002, she blew the whistle and later testified before the Senate Judiciary about the FBI’s pre-911 failures to track and investigate Zacarias Moussoui, who has been identified as central to the 911 plot. She stepped down from her legal position with the Agency in 2004 after her unsuccessful issuance of warnings about the dangers of invading Iraq. In 2002, Coleen was selected by Time magazine as one of its 3 Person of the Year award. She ran for Congress to represent Minnesota’s 2nd District in 2006 with the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, and was on the group of whistleblowers, along with Ray McGovern to travel to  Moscow to present the Sam Adams Award for integrity in intelligence to Edward Snowden.  Coleen received a law degree from the College of Law at the University of Iowa, and her articles appear on Huffington Post, Robert Parry's Consortium News, Anti-war blog and other independent commentary sources.  Her website is ColeenRowley.com

Progressive Commentary Hour - 01.31.18

An exploration into Islamic diversity,  the mysticism of Sufism, the extremism of Salafism and Wahhabism, and Muslim violence against Muslims 

Prof Alexander Knysh is a professor of Islamic Studies at the Institute of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan.  His areas of specialty are Islamic mysticism or Sufism, intellectual history, and Islamic movements in North Africa, Yemen, Russia and the Caucasus.  Dr Knysh received his doctorate at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in what was then Leningrad and now St Petersburg.  He was the executive editor for the Encyclopedia of Islamic Mysticism and the author of the recent book "Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism" commissioned by Princeton University Press. 

 

Progressive Commentary Hour - 01.23.18

Ma’ikwe Ludwig is a regular contributor to Communities magazine and a member of the Board of Directors of the Fellowship for Intentional Community. She has lived in community for 20 years. Her latest book, Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption looks at the role of community, cooperation and social justice in addressing and surviving climate disruption, and was awarded the Communal Studies Association 2017 Book of the Year Award.
Ma'ikwe is the former Executive Director of both the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture and Commonomics USA, an economic justice organization. She is in the process of founding Cooperative Revolution, a new group focused on cooperative economics and culture development. Her work integrates ecological, economic, social, political and personal approaches and technologies for a strongly holistic view of what real cooperation and sustainability take. Her 2013 TEDx kicked off a new era for her as public speaker and advocate for communities. She lives in Laramie, WY where a group of fellow economic radicals are working on starting an income-sharing ecovillage in the belly of the fossil fuel beast.

Progressive Commentary Hour - 01.10.18

Saving Planet, Saving Ourselves Part 5

Humanity is faced with its greatest challenges since it evolved on Earth 200,000 years ago.  Rapid climate change and the degradation and destruction of our environment. The Earth has entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene Age, and henceforth all atmospheric and geological changes in the near and long term future will have humanity's footprint on it. It is critical that people begin to understand what we are experiencing now with more frequent droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme weather conditions, and it what portends for the future. 

Progressive Commentary Hour - 01.03.18

Saving Planet, Saving Ourselves Part 4

Humanity is faced with its greatest challenges since it evolved on Earth 200,000 years ago.  Rapid climate change and the degradation and destruction of our environment. The Earth has entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene Age, and henceforth all atmospheric and geological changes in the near and long term future will have humanity's footprint on it. It is critical that people begin to understand what we are experiencing now with more frequent droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme weather conditions, and it what portends for the future. 

 

 

 

 

Progressive Commentary Hour - 12.26.17

Saving Planet, Saving Ourselves Part 3

Humanity is faced with its greatest challenges since it evolved on Earth 200,000 years ago.  Rapid climate change and the degradation and destruction of our environment. The Earth has entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene Age, and henceforth all atmospheric and geological changes in the near and long term future will have humanity's footprint on it. It is critical that people begin to understand what we are experiencing now with more frequent droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme weather conditions, and it what portends for the future. 

Progressive Commentary Hour - 12.19.17

Saving Planet, Saving Ourselves Part 2 

Humanity is faced with its greatest challenges since it evolved on Earth 200,000 years ago.  Rapid climate change and the degradation and destruction of our environment. The Earth has entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene Age, and henceforth all atmospheric and geological changes in the near and long term future will have humanity's footprint on it. It is critical that people begin to understand what we are experiencing now with more frequent droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme weather conditions, and it what portends for the future. 

Progressive Commentary Hour - 12.12.17

Saving Planet, Saving Ourselves

Humanity is faced with its greatest challenges since it evolved on Earth 200,000 years ago.  Rapid climate change and the degradation and destruction of our environment. The Earth has entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene Age, and henceforth all atmospheric and geological changes in the near and long term future will have humanity's footprint on it. It is critical that people begin to understand what we are experiencing now with more frequent droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme weather conditions, and it what portends for the future. 

For the next weeks starting this Tuesday December 12th at 7 pm ET on the Progressive Commentary Hour, Gary will be hosting an in-depth investigation and commentaries on the climate change and its impact upon the environment, our economy, health and well-being.  This will be a one of a kind series, and concluding with possible solutions that we can make as a society, as communities, and as individuals.  

Progressive Commentary Hour - 12.05.17

climate change and the future of humanity

Kevin Hester is a member of the Irish Republican Diaspora born in Aotearoa New Zealand as a result of both his maternal and paternal grandparents being involved in the reunification struggle, forcing  some members of the  family to escape Ireland for both  political and financial reasons. His maternal grandfather completed 28 days on hunger strike in jail in 1920 after being caught with unregistered firearms!  He  lives on an off-the-grid  small island in the Hauraki Gulf, 15 miles from the city of Auckland. Rakino islands' permanent population is  20 humans and thousands of birds The island is predator free if you exclude Homo-Sapiens.
Kevin  has completed 16 Ocean passages on small yachts, over half of them as skipper. He was once arrested and charged with “Obstructing a nuclear ship in the course of its passage” and  was at the bombed Green Peace Rainbow Warrior within an hour of the detonation and the murder of Fernando Pereira in Auckland harbor, carried out by a large contingent of soldiers in the French DGSE in July 1985.
He currently spends his time researching abrupt climate change, the collapse of complex societies, and the real-time unravelling of the biosphere

Kevin is the host of radio program Nature Bats Last on the Progressive Radio Network, which airs every Tuesday at 3 pm Eastern Time. His articles can be found on his website is KevinHester.live. 
He lives to agitate another day.