This week, we’re happy to share with you a podcast we love and enjoy called ‘Building Local Power” produced by the Institute For Local Self-Reliance and hosted by ILSR staff members Chris Mitchell, Stacy Mitchell and John Farrell. The podcast offers new ideas for breaking the hold of corporate monopolies and expanding the power of communities to chart their own future. The following episode is titled “Shining a Light on Anti-Competitive Behavior”. They discuss the AT&T and Timer Warner merge...
May 29, 2019•47 min•Ep. 248
Across the world, renters in cities are being pushed out of neighborhoods because landlords and homeowners can make more money temporarily renting out their spaces to tourists. In 2014 thousands of people took to the streets of BCN to protest Air Bnb. Four years later with Barcelona en Comú represented in City Council the city has successfully passed legislation to limit Air BnB and lay some ground rules for tourist development. What can be learned from the Barcelona example? What strategies do ...
May 23, 2019•19 min
Our city's economy – what is it for? New York's has been very good at piling up profits and building tall buildings. But all that private profit has come at a cost to public services and public trust. Could it be different? On this week's show, we talk about the new conversations that are happening between labor unions and community members. Between residents, workers, and employers about how everyone's economy can move forward. Guests: •J. Phillip Thomson, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Init...
May 22, 2019•29 min•Ep. 247
"white nationalists have been targeting bookstores and libraries across the country for a while"....."It’s not the hate that’s new. It’s the apparent sense of entitlement. ....they’re out in plain sight, and not just in the media’s backwaters but in the nation’s capital...." The F-Word, Laura Flanders' commentary. Support the LFShow! You'll receive a copy of Laura Flanders' Izzy Award acceptance speech on independent journalism and additional audio extras and more by becoming a member for as lit...
May 20, 2019•3 min
This week, two artists who expand our ideas about beauty, risk, mobility, and inclusion. Wheelchair dancer and esteemed choreographer Alice Sheppard, and MacArthur Genius Award-winning action architect Elizabeth Streb. What difference does art make? Should art-making be a human right? What will it take to disable the limits society puts around “normal”? Music Featured: “How Do You Feel?” by Vanessa Daou from her “Welcome to My Blues: Anthology (1994-2017)” released on Daou Music in conjunction w...
May 15, 2019•31 min•Ep. 246
Art organizations and sponsorship dollars have gone hand in hand for decades. But with backlash and protests over donors ethics, should cultural institutions begin looking into new funding streams? We look at the role of private dollars vs. public good in cultural art institutions. PLUS, A AUDIO EXCLUSIVE: The conversation continues with guest Jonathan H. Marks We discuss his new book “Perils of Partnership.” Music Featured: Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, a radical activist perfor...
May 08, 2019•42 min•Ep. 245
"The Attorney General’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and his standoff with the House may be important. Something, sometime, may come of it. But let’s consider the opportunity cost of all that one-note coverage." The F-Word, Laura Flanders' commentary. Support the LFShow! You'll receive a copy of Laura Flanders' Izzy Award acceptance speech on independent journalism and additional audio extras and more by becoming a member for as little as $2 a month. Laura Flanders and Friends...
May 06, 2019•4 min
Recently, a fire at Highlander Center gained national attention for the historic movement institution. Donations, messages of love, and some knee-jerk panic poured in for the co-directors, well known to the Laura Flanders Show. Co-directors Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele join us from Chattanooga to discuss the fire at their home, as well as arsons across the country and world, at Black churches, at Notre Dame, and in Sri Lanka. Has capitalism limited our empathy? More i...
May 01, 2019•30 min•Ep. 244
Search for school cheating stories today and you’ll find a slew of articles and news reports on parents charged in the recent college admissions scandal. But skip back to 2015 and the eyes of the education world were on Georgia, where the state’s longest-running criminal case involved teachers and administrators, predominantly Black, accused and convicted in a RICO case of changing student test results to improve test scores. A new book, None of the Above: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public ...
Apr 29, 2019•17 min
For our Patreon Community , you’ll find more in depth information on this week's show, including research materials and additional links to explore. Read Nate Powell’s About Face connecting paramilitary influence on civilian consumer style as we shrug off the encroaching normalization of fascism. And more on Mohammad Saba’aneh’s book, White & Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine, which draw attention to brutalities of the Israeli occupation and celebrate the Palestinians’ popular resista...
Apr 24, 2019•30 min•Ep. 243
"These days, establishment journalists spend inordinate amounts of time, bemoaning their own welfare and the state of their beleaguered industry. but it’s rarely been journalism fed and watered by the establishment that’s asked anything uncomfortable and McKee called for us to have uncomfortable conversations." The F-Word, Laura Flanders' commentary. Support the LFShow! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothre...
Apr 22, 2019•3 min
Segregation in Education is as bad as ever, and no end appears to be sight. So what approaches might make a difference. What if Segregation, per se, wasn’t the problem? This week, educators speak out, and we visit an Afrocentric school in Brooklyn, where mindfulness and race are not a detail. Music Feature: “Plain Folks” by Alexis P. Suter and T.U.B.A., released on HipBone Records. Guests: -Rafiq R. Kalam Id-Din II, Esq. ,Founder & Managing Partner Ember Charter Schools for Mindful Education...
Apr 17, 2019•30 min•Ep. 242
It’s time to start looking at conflict in a new and different way -- and women are at the forefront. A look into a new PBS film series with an all-female directors that is focusing attention on what we can learn from women who risked their lives for peace -- and changed history in the process. Guests: Julia Bacha, a Peabody and Guggenheim award-winning filmmaker, and director of “Naila and the Uprising”. Gini Reticker, an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who directed “The...
Apr 10, 2019•28 min•Ep. 241
Trump’s hardline policies have all sorts of people asking how our immigration rules got to be so open to abuse - and what alternatives are out there? Is there any country that treats migrants right? And if so, what could we learn from them? Joining Laura to unpack these issues are Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Senior Editor at The Nation magazine and author of “The Cosmopolites”, a book that focuses on the buying and selling of citizenship and John Torpey, Professor of Sociology and History and Dire...
Apr 08, 2019•12 min
The fight for legalization of marijuana has never been easy and it's still not, as evidenced by the recent collapse of a month's long effort in New Jersey and the battle still raging in New York. A key issue in both is how to ensure that legalizing of cannabis doesn't just make for another privatized corporate monopoly. But instead repairs the harm that's been done by the war on drugs. Music in the middle: “Us and Them” by Easy Star All Stars and remixed by Dreadzone from their tribute album to ...
Apr 04, 2019•31 min•Ep. 240
"A collusion crisis. Barr says Mueller says he found no proof of a Russia/Trump Campaign conspiracy to undermine US democracy. Oh no! How are cable companies going to keep their ratings up with an audience that’s collusion-hooked?" The F-Word, Laura Flanders' commentary. Support the LFShow! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications ...
Mar 29, 2019•4 min
Just days before the anniversary of activist Marielle Franco's assassination in Brazil, prosecutors there charged two former police officers with her murder. Those arrests may provide a partial answer to the question of who killed her but many other questions, including who ordered her killing and why, remain unanswered. This week, we talk with Yifat Susskind of MADRE and K.K Verdade of ELAS about the current fight for human rights in Brazil, and the right-wing hate campaign against feminist so-...
Mar 27, 2019•29 min•Ep. 239
The State of Washington has declared a public health emergency due to spreading outbreaks of Measles. The World Health Organization credits "Vaccine Hesitancy" as a cause of the resurgence. And Trump tops it off by tweeting his doubts about vaccines and what he's called doctor inflicted diseases—it looks like more than just the measles are contagious! The F-Word, Laura Flanders' commentary. Support the LFShow! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Ar...
Mar 22, 2019•3 min
The media layoffs are here. It's new media’s sky-is-falling moment. Instead of the promised golden age, we're seeing rolling cutbacks and massive layoffs at digital darlings like Vice and Buzzfeed. Is that it, for workers rights? Are unions any match for advertising pressure from Google and Facebook? Music Featured: “The Awakening” by 4 Hero featuring Ursula Rucker. Support theLFShow ! Guests: Kim Kelly , Council Member, Writers Guild of America, East Albert Samaha , Investigative Reporter, Buzz...
Mar 20, 2019•30 min•Ep. 238
CDFIs grew from church basements and kitchen tables to number more than 1,000 institutions with billions of dollars of capital. Joining us to explain just how CDFI’s make a difference - from inner cities to Native American reservations, is Clifford Rosenthal , an internationally recognized developer of programs to provide financial access for low-income and underserved people, and author of the new book " Democratizing Finance: Origins of the Community Development Financial Institutions Movement...
Mar 18, 2019•10 min
Regulation, degradation, shaming, blaming - enough! Is it time for sexual liberation yet? We talk a lot about sex but not often enough about pleasure, On today's show we try to make up for that and hear from some bloggers, activists and educators who are practicing very positive consent. Music Featured: Allies And Enemies by Zara McFarlane on Brownswood Music; Free by Ultra Naté. Support theLFShow! Featured Guests and their Podcasts: Jaclyn Friedman Unscrewed ; Tina Horn Why Are People Into That...
Mar 13, 2019•32 min•Ep. 237
The same miserable mob that mauled main street banks has plundered and pillaged newspapers across the country. Pursuing only profits, private hedge funds bought and stripped eve n long-lived legacy papers leaving them for dead. One in five local papers has shut up shop in the last 10 years, according to a recent report from the Knight Foundation. Check out Laura Flanders report for the Next System, "Next System Media: An Urgent Necessity " and more coverage at our website in our archives . Help ...
Mar 08, 2019•4 min
Days of wonder, days of rage. We're living through an information revolution as profound as any since Gutenberg and the printing press, but are we the people, the so-called "users", using the technology or is the technology using us and for what ends? How can we harness this particular transformation for good? That’s the question, and we have some answers. Guests: media theorist and author Douglas Rushkoff . His latest book is ‘Team Human,’ based on his podcast of the same name, as well as best ...
Mar 06, 2019•28 min•Ep. 236
Reinventing our cities and re-enchanting the world. Who gets a say in designing where they live? What if more of us did? This week, we visit Mary Miss, a Guggenheim fellow and celebrated artist, whose organization, The City as Living Laboratory , strives to empower people to create not the cliché of the sustainable city, she says, but places of living and breathing, creative sustenance. Then we speak to scholars Silvia Federici and Peter Linebaugh about the promises of "commoning" for our enviro...
Feb 27, 2019•28 min•Ep. 235
"We need to take a long, hard look at the ideology that underpins what we call capitalism," Laura Flanders' commentary, The F-Word. Our goal is to thrive, not just survive. By becoming a member, you sustain our independent, and grassroots-driven content! Become a member today. Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jean...
Feb 22, 2019•3 min
Amazon’s HQ2 in New York City's Long Island City neighborhood of Queens is off. In a conversation recorded before the news broke, we looked at the resistance the plan provoked and why, and considered how development might be possible without displacement? The conversation featured Sasha Wijeyeratne , Executive Director of CAAAV organizing Asian communities, Juleon Robinson , Program Associate of the New Economy Project, and Maritza Silva-Farrell , Executive Director of ALIGN, Then we take a tour...
Feb 20, 2019•30 min•Ep. 234
Like a macho man in the pre-feminist era, Amazon wanted things their way or no way. That’s how monopolies roll. Don’t ask questions, don’t consider options, and whatever you do, don’t conduct a background check. Our goal is to thrive, not just survive. By becoming a member , you sustain our independent, and grassroots-driven content! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-V...
Feb 15, 2019•3 min
As the President sounds off about holy babies born and unborn, we talk about the ongoing criminalization of women who happen to get pregnant. What has been the media’s role and have they done enough to make amends? We’ll talk to Lynn Paltrow , one of the lawyers representing incarcerated women, media critic Janine Jackson , and Suzanne Sellers who fell afoul of one of those laws in the 1990s. Then, a drill down with Lynn Paltrow about the threats to Roe and more. Music Featured: "Mr. President" ...
Feb 13, 2019•30 min•Ep. 233
"It shouldn’t take a week without heat during a polar vortex and hour after hour of hands hammering on windows for hours to sound an alarm about conditions in federal lock up." Our goal is to thrive, not just survive. By becoming a member , you sustain our independent, and grassroots-driven content! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Commun...
Feb 08, 2019•3 min
When you live in the rural South, your story rarely makes the news, but Southern activists are shaking things up, with their votes, and their broadband transmitter too. This week, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, the co-directors of the revered civil rights school, t he Highlander Center , talk about blue waves, black women and broadband. And we revisit Detroit, where residents denied affordable internet meshed servers to serve their neighbors, one rooftop at a time. “As...
Feb 06, 2019•30 min•Ep. 232
