Extraction and Exploitation in the Global South under the Decarbonization Consensus and Theories and Praxis for a Just Transition Discussion with Professor Miriam Lang and Mary Ann Manahan on how current energy transition efforts are framed under a colonialist narrative that continues and entrenches extraction, exploitation and interference in the Global South. We discuss how the Global North is utilizing emergency framing to create sacrifice zones across the Global South, rife with environmenta...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 49 min
How a Community on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis Took its Story to the Screen and Forced a Land-Grabbing Corporation to Go Off Script Discussion with writer and director Seán Devlin on his recent genre-busting films, which were made in partnership with typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) survivors, who participated and ad-libbed in his films. We discuss how art can be interventionist and serve a frontline community’s needs, by allowing a community to direct the narrative. Additionally, we discuss ho...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 24 min
Perils to the Deep Sea From Bottom Trawling, Climate Change and Mining and the Need to Protect Its Stunning Biodiversity Discussion with Matt Gianni from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition on the critical importance of the deep sea to our air, climate, the marine food web, our food security and health. We discuss the biodiversity of the deep sea and our continual discovery of new extremophiles. We discuss the threat of bottom trawling, which indiscriminately catches a multitude of bycatch and d...
Jan 12, 2025•1 hr 36 min
American Resistance and Repression, Identity and Intersectionality and the LGBTQI+ Rights Movement Discussion with Professor Timothy Patrick McCarthy on American radicalism and the need for multivocality rather than metanarratives in analyzing history. We discuss the construction and interpellation of identities, their historical contingencies and intersectionality. We discuss the power dynamics of identity construction, in entrenching the status quo and serving to cleave mass mobilization and c...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 48 min
The History of Voting Rights in the United States, the Electoral College and the Value of the Vote Discussion with Professor Alex Keyssar on the origins of democracy and the history of the right to vote in the United States. We discuss the lack of an affirmative right to vote under the U.S. Constitution, amendments prohibiting abridgement and voter suppression. We also discuss the value of the vote in the context of gerrymandering, party mechanics, the impact of different voting systems and the ...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Circular Economy, Community Buy-In and Compassionate Leadership Discussion with Hon. Maria Kamma-Aliferi, Mayor of Tilos and Jenny Giannopoulou on the need for and implementation of a circular economy. We also discuss renewable energy infrastructure, the Greek energy pricing system, sewerage infrastructure, freshwater conservation and navigating different levels of government bureaucracy. Additionally, we discuss the need for environmental literacy and community buy-in. We also discuss refugees,...
Sep 15, 2024•1 hr 11 min
Exposing, Investigating and Inoculating Against Hate Discussion with Lisa Borden and Susan Corke from the Southern Poverty Law Center on hate and extremism groups throughout the United States. We discuss rising right radicalism, including religious and white nationalist groups and their means and methods. We also discuss \"parental right groups\" and their anti-inclusive stance and disruption of public school governance. Additionally, we discuss the school-to-prison pipeline, continuing systemic...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 20 min
A Celebration of Civics and Connection Amidst Crises and Consternation Discussion with Shannon A. Mullen on her recent book In Other Words, Leadership: How a Young Mother’s Weekly Letters to Her Governor Helped Both Women Brave the First Pandemic Year which looks at agency, representative democracy, socioeconomic and environmental crises within a portrait of leadership. The book is based on the true story of Ashira Knapp’s exchange of letters with Maine Governor Janet Mills during the pandemic. ...
Jan 29, 2024•1 hr 21 min
How Grassroots Movements for Climate and Environmental Justice Are Critical to Surviving the Climate Crisis Discussion with Vivek Maru on the importance of community paralegals in extending access to the law, enforcing rights and aiding in structural change. We discuss the Customary Land Rights Act in Sierra Leone, the Community Land Act in Kenya and environmental justice action in Myanmar. We also discuss environmental injustice within the United States, the need for cumulative impact in any en...
Nov 12, 2023•1 hr 12 min
Climate Change, Subterfuge and Building a Broad Climate Coalition Discussion with Dr. Michael Mann on the subterfuge tactics by the fossil industry to prevent systemic and structural decarbonization. We discuss how the fossil fuel industry promotes doomsday theories to engender apathy and deny agency. We also discuss how the fossil fuel industry fosters division between different social groups to prevent a climate alliance and needed structural change. Additionally, we discuss how the focus on i...
Sep 16, 2023•45 min
Cattle Ranching, Palm Oil Plantations and Other Agrobusiness Drivers of Deforestation, Fraud and Violence Against Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples, Bolsonaro's Crimes and the Need for Due Diligence and Accountability in Financing and Supply Chains Discussion with Gabriella Bianchini on the importance of the Amazonian biome to the local environment and our planet and the current threats to the rainforest. We discuss the history of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon, including the ecocide un...
Aug 07, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Neocolonialism, Democratic Deficits and Regulatory Chill of the Investor State Dispute Settlement Mechanism Discussion with Lisa Sachs on the regulatory chill and democratic deficit of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS). We discuss the structural issues of ISDS, including conflict of interest, lack of transparency and lack of accountability as well as its neocolonial origins and entrenchment. We also discuss the proliferation of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties,...
Jun 09, 2023•1 hr 15 min
Palestinian Human Rights Defenders, SLAPP Suits, Anti-Boycott Laws and Human Rights Abuses in Israel and the OPT Discussion with Maria LaHood on the curtailment and criminalization of advocacy on behalf of Palestinian human rights and criticism of Israeli government policies and their conflation with antisemitism. We discuss SLAPP suits, prevention of academic freedom and debate and anti-boycott laws and their effect on chilling speech. We also discuss the importance of the right to boycott for ...
Apr 23, 2023•1 hr 20 min
Regulatory Capture, Lobbying, Astroturfing, Greenwashing and the Failure to Clean up LA’s Toxic Secret Discussion with Daniel Hirsch, Denise Duffield and Melissa Bumstead on the history and current contamination of the nuclear experiment and rocket testing site, Santa Susana Field Lab, above Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. We discuss how the responsible parties- NASA, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Boeing have failed to clean up the site, the tactics they have utilized to not do so and the...
Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 28 min
The Nexus Between Environmental Health and Social Justice Discussion with Dr. Jimena Díaz Leiva on the health and environmental impact of fracking, forever chemicals, flame retardants and glyphosate. We discuss how trade secrets are being utilized to protect against disclosure of all toxic chemicals in fracking, the exemptions the industry obtained from environmental laws and how the First Amendment is being utilized against mandated government health warnings for glyphosate. We also discuss the...
Sep 12, 2022•1 hr 11 min
Drafting and Establishing the 5th International Crime Against Peace Discussion with Darryl Robinson and Kate Mackintosh on the history of ecocide and the gravity and culpability elements necessary for it to be the fifth international crime against peace. We also discuss the process of establishing ecocide as an international crime, including the process of its adoption by the International Criminal Court. We discuss the differences between the definitions of the independent expert panel of inter...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 15 min
Adam Hochschild's Ghosts of Rapacity and Resistance Discussion with Adam Hochschild on the historical movements and moments throughout Adam’s books. We discuss the First World War, the Spanish Civil War, the turmoil and anti-immigrant and anti-labour purges in the United States during and after the First World War, apartheid, the Stalinist purges and the Russian people’s attempt to reconcile with this rapacity, the British emancipation movement and King Leopold II’s genocide in the Congo. For Mo...
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 45 min
The Noxious Nexus of Environmental Destruction, Corruption, Conflict and Human Rights Abuse Discussion with Patrick Alley on the intersectionality of environmental destruction, human rights abuse, conflict and corruption. We discuss how our banks and institutional funds finance deforestation while concomitantly publicly rallying against it. We discuss greenwashing by the fossil fuels industry and its influence on COP26. We also discuss the intimidation, attacks and murder of frontline environmen...
Dec 12, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Democratic Resistance in Hong Kong Discussion with Alex Yong-Kang Chow and Brian Leung on China’s increasing control over Hong Kong and its breaches of the Sino-British Declaration. We discuss the student democratic protests in 2014 and 2019 and the arrest and trials of the protestors. We discuss the enactment and use of the National Security Law to target free speech and the free press. We discuss the ransacking and closure of the June 4th Museum and the prohibition of the Tiananmen Square vigi...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 34 min
Abandoned Australians, Cultural Restitution and Human Rights Accountability Discussion with Geoffrey Robertson QC on how Australia’s COVID response, including its border closure to citizens abroad, has violated human rights and Geoffrey’s petition on behalf of abandoned Australians before the Human Rights Committee. We also discuss the lack of constitutional rights in Australia and the need for a bill of rights. Additionally, we discuss the secret, political trial of barrister Bernard Collaery. ...
Sep 16, 2021•1 hr 22 min
Cobalt, Chocolate, Blood and Corporate Impunity Discussion with Terry Collingsworth on forced child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC and his Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) case against American tech companies which knowingly benefit from the cheap cobalt mined by children. We discuss the legal issues in the case as well as the facts on the ground in the DRC, including the environmental impact of cobalt mining and the maiming and killing of child miners that are lured ...
May 21, 2021•1 hr 31 min
Expanding the Rights Rubric: Adding Rights and Rights Holders for a Good Society Discussion with Sushma Raman on The Coming Good Society: Why New Realities Demand New Rights, her book with William F. Schulz. We discuss the need for specific rights to redress the needs of LGBTQIA+ communities and why adding new rights reinforces rather than dilutes traditional human rights. We also discuss the risks posed to our rights by technological advancement, including algorithmic decision-making and CRISPR...
Feb 12, 2021•59 min
Chevron’s Carious Crusade Against Steven Donziger, SLAPP Suits and the Defense of Climate Necessity Discussion with Lauren Regan on corporate SLAPP suits and in particular the oil and gas industry’s utilization of RICO against grassroots environmental activists. We also discuss the miscarriages of justice in Chevron’s RICO action against attorney Steven Donziger and the criminal contempt case against Steven, whom Lauren is defending on the criminal contempt charge. Additionally, we discuss Laure...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 7 min
The Need for a Unified, Holistic Approach to Environmental, Animal and Human Health Discussion with Professor Dr. Christine Kreuder Johnson on anthropogenic ecosystem drivers of disease emergence in wildlife and spillover into the human population. We discuss how habitat destruction, including from changing land use patterns and industrial and agricultural intensification and effects of climate change have contributed to epidemics of zoonotic infections. We also discuss how biodiversity loss lea...
Jul 02, 2020•54 min
Regulatory Gaps and Conflicts in the Fertility Industry Discussion on regulatory gaps and issues in the fertility industry with Professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone. We discuss the marketing of egg freezing, brokerage of egg donation and surrogacy and issues surrounding informed consent, vulnerability and inequality in the fertility industry. Additionally, we discuss clinic mislabeling mishaps and mistaken implantation, the legal recognition of parental rights and the ownership of embryos when...
Apr 23, 2020•1 hr 24 min
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, Little Gitmo and Corporate SLAPP Suits Discussion on the terrorization of activists and the criminalization of dissent with Rachel Meeropol. We discuss the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, how it may operate to violate the First Amendment and its chilling effect on activism. We also discuss corporate SLAPP suits including Energy Transfer Partner’s suit to bring a RICO claim against environmental activists at Standing Rock and the entire EarthFirst! environmen...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr 25 min
Ag-Gag Laws and the First Amendment, Carious CAFOS and the Endangerment of the Endangered Species Act Discussion with Cristina Stella on the advent and continuance of Ag-gag laws that criminalize undercover reporting at animal enterprises and their violation of First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. We also discuss the First Amendment violation of “food censorship” laws that prohibit meat and milk alternatives from using “milk” and “meat” in the name of their products. We discuss humane washing ...
Oct 16, 2019•1 hr 16 min
Democratizing the Colonial Space of International Law Discussion with Rachel López on the colonial development of international law and its continuing hierarchical structure. We also discuss the duty to refrain from assisting states in committing grave crimes and its interrelation with the responsibility to protect people from grave crimes under international law. Additionally, we discuss the concept of “gravity” as the counterweight to sovereignty, its development under international law and it...
Jul 17, 2019•1 hr 28 min
U.S. and European Complicity in the Yemeni Conflict Discussion with Radhya Al-Mutawakel on the war crimes committed in Yemen by all parties, including the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian sites and civilians and the destruction of religious and cultural heritage. We discuss U.S., U.K. and other Western countries’ participation in the conflict through arm sales to the Saudi and Emirati coalition and logistical support. Additionally, we discuss the plague of landmines, the economic ...
Apr 30, 2019•1 hr 16 min
Incarceration Rates and Sentencing Policies Throughout the United States Discussion with Nazgol Ghandnoosh on the high rates of incarceration and state differentials of incarceration throughout the United States and their causes, including the “war on drugs”. We discuss racial disparity in arrests and sentences, private prisons and legislative and executive encroachment on the judicial function by the imposition of mandatory sentences. We also discuss the impact of prosecutorial power and plea b...
Dec 28, 2018•1 hr 12 min
