On the Brink: Homelessness Before and During COVID-19
On the Brink: Homelessness before and during COVID-19 When the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. many of us were told to “shelter in place” in order to minimize the spread of disease. But, for a lot of people who are forced to live on the street, its not possible to just close the door and retreat into safety. Today’s show is about homelessness. We start by following two women as they undergo several evictions, even...
Witch Hunts and Enclosures: Bodies, Land and Women
Witch Hunts and Enclosures: Bodies, Land and Women How are witch hunts and Capitalist economies linked? Silvia Federici, wrote the groundbreaking book, Caliban and the Witch. In that book she argues that the witch hunts of the fifteenth century were a necessary pre-condition for Capitalism to flourish. Just as the enclosures of the middle ages created a population of landless peasants, women were experiencing a...
COVID-19 and Lessons from the Spanish Flu
COVID-19 and Lessons from the Spanish Flu In 1918, humanity faced a deadly global pandemic– the Spanish Flu. The CDC estimates that the disease killed at least 50 million people and infected a third of the world population. Today, hand-washing and physical distancing are a part of daily life, as are grim tallies of the sick and the dead. Even though science has made tremendous advances since then, our methods for slowing the...
Bio Hackers versus Big Pharma: Tackling the Rising Cost of Insulin
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many Americans are worried about their health insurance. The cost of treating the illness, if a patient ends up in the ICU, can run into the tens of thousands of dollars without coverage. Which most people just can’t afford. Today we bring you a piece we produced last year about a related topic -the rising cost of insulin, and the effectiveness of medicare for all. As the cost of insulin...
The Great Divide: Racism, Wealth Inequality, and Elections
Coronavirus and the precaution of social distancing is on our minds. Ian Haney Lopez says what we need is social solidarity instead of Trump’s dog whistle politics. In The Great Divide: Racism, Wealth Inequality, and Elections Acclaimed author Ian Haney López talks about his new book – Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America. He explores...
Election Protection and Democracy, with Women Rising Radio
Election Protection and Democracy, with Women Rising Radio Election protection is increasingly seen as a critical issue in the US. Since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court, there have been problems with voter purging, voter ID laws, what some call modern-day ‘poll taxes’, precinct closures, and difficulties with voting machines. Congress has noted serious attempts to hack into voting systems in the...
