Digging deep into the roots and evolution of the American conservative movement, Sam Tanenhaus talks with Bill Moyers about why he believes that conservatism is dead and how it might yet come back to life. Tanenhaus is the editor of both THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and the Week in Review section of the TIMES. And, with public support for labor unions at its lowest point in 70 years, Bill Moyers talks with experts Bill Fletcher, co-author of SOlIDARITY DIVIDED: THE CRISIS IN ORGANIZED lABOR AN...
Sep 18, 2009•53 min
The JOURNAl takes a hard look at the state of affairs in ever-divided Afghanistan with McClatchy DC Pentagon correspondent Nancy Youssef. And, global health specialist and Dartmouth College president Dr. Jim Yong Kim shares his expertise in public health.
Sep 11, 2009•53 min
Next week, the Supreme Court reconvenes early for a special hearing on the constitutionality of campaign finance limits for corporations. To hear the arguments, Bill Moyers sits down with Trevor Potter, president and general counsel of The Campaign legal Center and a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, and Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment attorney. And, a Bill Moyers essay on health care reform.
Sep 04, 2009•53 min
Bill Moyers Journal presents CRITICAl CONDITION, a film by Roger Weisberg that follows families fighting illness without health coverage. The families discover that being uninsured can cost them their jobs, health, homes, savings, and even their lives.
Aug 21, 2009•53 min
Conservative journalist David Frum worries that Republicans would only win a failing status quo in their fight to kill health care reform. Bill Moyers sits down with the former special assistant to George W. Bush, who is calling on Republicans to come up with a plan for health care reform and suggests changes that conservatives can favor. David Frum is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of NewMajority.com. Also on the program, the JOURNAl sorts fact from spin i...
Aug 14, 2009•53 min
"Change, growth, and new learning" - there's a cultural shift in America, says Sara lawrence-lightfoot. This Friday, Bill Moyers speaks with one of America's leading educators and author of The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50. Sara lawrence-lightfoot is the first African American woman in the history of Harvard to have an endowed professorship named in her honor. She's been on the faculty for 37 years, and her career as a scholar has won her the prestigious M...
Aug 07, 2009•53 min
With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform. And, a Bill Moyers Essay.
Jul 31, 2009•53 min
Bill Moyers sits down with Trudy lieberman, director of the health and medical reporting program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and Marcia Angell, senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. And, what happens when America's airwaves fill with hate? BIll MOYERS JOURNAl revisits a tough look at the hostile industry of "Shock Jock" media with a hard-hitting examination of its effects on our nation's poli...
Jul 24, 2009•53 min
In his new book, THE EVOlUTION OF GOD, bestselling author Robert Wright examines how the idea of God has changed through history. Wright sits down with Bill Moyers to discuss why he thinks the notion of God - real or not - is imperative to a moral society. And, Bill Moyers talks with two environmental activists who are disappointed in Obama's progress on climate change. Plus, a Bill Moyers essay on health care.
Jul 17, 2009•53 min
With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform. And, a Bill Moyers Essay.
Jul 10, 2009•53 min
Bill Moyers talks to Cornel West, Serene Jones, and Gary Dorrien for a fresh take on what our core ethics and values as a society say about America's politics, policy, and the challenges of balancing capitalism and democracy. And, why are America's food banks suffering shortages? Find out what you can do to help.
Jul 03, 2009•53 min
On the heels of winning this year's Pulitzer prize for poetry, W.S. Merwin joins Bill Moyers for a wide-ranging conversation about language, his writing process, the natural world, and the insights gleaned from a much-lauded career of more than 50 years. W.S. Merwin is the author of 21 volumes of poetry and won his second Pulitzer Prize for his most recent collection, THE SHADOW OF SIRIUS. And, what's your vision for the future of the American Dream? Our guests and our viewers speak out.
Jun 26, 2009•53 min
Instructed by a dream and organized in prayer, leymah Gbowee and thousands of everyday women in liberia -- both Christians and Muslims alike -- confronted warlords and a corrupt president to successfully fight for peace and dignity in their war-torn nation. "I realized that every problem we encounter on this journey, I'm going to rise above it and lead these women because they trusted me with their lives and their future," says Gbowee. Journal guest host lynn Sherr interviews leymah Gbowee and A...
Jun 19, 2009•53 min
As Secretary of labor under President Clinton, Robert Reich successfully implemented a higher minimum wage, the Family and Medical leave act, and fought for sweatshop workers. Now, Reich sits down with Bill Moyers to talk about the influence of lobbyists on policy, the economy, and the ongoing debate over public health care. Currently a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, Robert Reich is the author of several books, most recently, Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy...
Jun 12, 2009•53 min
From a billion dollars sought for embassies in Pakistan and Afghanistan to May's highest casualties for US forces in Iraq since September, the wars abroad are taking their toll on our nation. Bill Moyers sits down with award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill to examine the human and financial costs of America's wars. Scahill is author of the best-selling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. And, from headlines surrounding the health care debate to ...
Jun 05, 2009•53 min
Washington's abuzz about health care, but why isn't a single-payer plan an option on the table? Bill Moyers speaks with advocate Donna Smith about how our broken system is hurting ordinary Americans. Then, policy analysts and physicians Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen and David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program join Bill Moyers for a frank discussion about the political and logistical feasibility of a single-payer system amidst the troubled economy and a government dominated...
May 22, 2009•53 min
As the banking stress test results come in, the Journal takes a closer look at money's stranglehold on politics. Bill Moyers speaks with Senator Dick Durbin (D-Il) - who declared last week that banks "are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place" - on campaign finance reform, big lobbying, and making Washington work for the people rather than special interests. Bill Moyers speaks with one of America's leading educators and author of THE THIRD CHAPTER: PASSION...
May 08, 2009•53 min
New debate has emerged from the release of the Department of Justice's Office of legal Counsel memos approving extreme measures of interrogation under the Bush administration. But, as the President acknowledges "a dark and painful chapter," how should he respond to allegations of torture? Bill Moyers sits down with Bruce Fein, former deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, and Mark Danner, who has been reporting on the US treatment and i...
May 01, 2009•57 min
This week, the Senate responded to the growing demand for a new Pecora Hearing, the 1930s investigation into the causes and effects of the Great Depression. ring, the 1930s investigation into the causes and effects of the Great Depression. A 92-4 vote in Senate supported the creation of a bipartisan and independent commission to investigate wrong doing in the lead-up to the economic crisis. For context, Bill Moyers speaks with economist Simon Johnson and Ferdinand Pecora biographer and legal sch...
Apr 24, 2009•57 min
From crime beat reporter for the BAlTIMORE SUN to award-winning screenwriter of HBO's critically-acclaimed The Wire, David Simon talks with Bill Moyers about inner-city crime and politics, storytelling and the future of journalism today.
Apr 17, 2009•57 min
Assassinated on Good Friday, Abraham lincoln was transformed from man to martyr and myth. In this special performance edition of Bill Moyers Journal acclaimed actor Sam Waterston and historian Harold Holzer explore lincoln's legacy and legend in the poetry and prose by great American writers across the decades who have wrestled to define the true lincoln through the lens of their own times.
Apr 10, 2009•57 min
The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with Bill Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout. And, Bill Moyers talks with alternative media heavyweights Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman about what can and can't be addres...
Apr 03, 2009•57 min
The JOURNAl profiles James Thindwa, whose campaign for economic fairness for working people in Chicago has brought him up against the city's powerful political establishment and corporate giant Wal-Mart. For Thindwa, the battle is never over. For years best-selling author William Greider sounded the alarm about Washington's unholy alliance with Wall Street and the failure of the Federal Reserve and other regulators to take preventative measures to avoid disaster. Now, he offers suggestions to th...
Mar 27, 2009•57 min
With the media buzzing over socialism in the Beltway, Bill Moyers sits down with "old-school socialist" Mike Davis for his critique of the government's response to the economic crisis and how he thinks it compares to Roosevelt's New Deal. Mike Davis is a writer and historian, who currently teaches creative writing at University of California, Riverside. And, Bill Moyers talks with Marta Pelaez, president and CEO of a domestic abuse shelter in San Antonio, TX, Family Violence Prevention Services,...
Mar 20, 2009•57 min
With economic, political, and social strife across the globe, prominent religious scholar Karen Armstrong discusses our human commonalities and her work on an international charter for compassion. The renowned author of The Battle for God and The Bible: A Biography, Armstrong is a 2008 recipient of the coveted TED Prize. In a distinguished career encompassing time as a Roman Catholic nun, an academic, and a television broadcaster, Armstrong has become one of the world's foremost commentators on ...
Mar 13, 2009•57 min
He's played heroes, villains, saints, sinners, a ballet-dancing elephant, and a space alien, now actor and children's author John lithgow - best known as Dick Solomon from NBC's hit show 3rd Rock from the Sun - reveals a new side of himself... poetry lover. The award-winning stage and screen star lithgow shares his favorite poems, insights into acting, and thoughts on the enduring power of art. lithgow currently stars in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. He has penned several ...
Mar 06, 2009•57 min
Bill Moyers talks with economist Robert Johnson, who decodes this week's news on the bank bailout, with a hard look at the international ramifications of the plan and a discussion of why nationalization has become a flash point. And, scholar John McWhorter weighs in on whether the U.S. is "a nation of cowards," as Attorney General Eric Holder suggests, on racial issues.
Feb 27, 2009•57 min
Robert G. Kaiser has been following Beltway politics for THE WASHINGTON POST for nearly 50 years. This week on the Journal, Bill Moyers talks with Kaiser about his new book, SO DAMN MUCH MONEY: THE TRIUMPH OF lOBBYING AND THE CORROSION OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. And, Bill Moyers sits down with Parker J. Palmer, founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage and Renewal, for a conversation about maintaining spiritual wholeness even as the economy and political order seem to come apart. Also, i...
Feb 20, 2009•57 min
Former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), MIT Sloan School of Management professor and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Simon Johnson examines President Obama's plan for economic recovery. And, Bill Moyers sits down with renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, whose 27 books have spanned the themes of race, politics, sex and violence.
Feb 13, 2009•57 min
As Abraham lincoln's bicentennial birthday approaches, Bill Moyers sits down with historian and lincoln biographer Eric Foner to discuss the legacy and the legend of America's most studied president. Having just received Illinois' highest honor, the Order of lincoln, Eric Foner is author of Our lincoln: New Perspectives on lincoln and his World and speaks to Moyers about the evolution of lincoln's image from politician to icon. And, news and analysis of this week's events with NYU journalism pro...
Feb 06, 2009•57 min
