On this edition of Parallax Views, Prof Stephen Zunes, noted Middle East scholar and politics professor at the University of San Francisco, returns to discuss the latest events unfolding in Israel/Palestine with a focus on the Hamas attack and the Israeli response. Prof. Zunes will also offer a history lesson about how Hamas originally gained power and political prominence in the Middle East. This will include an examination of U.S. foreign policy under George W. Bush. We'll also be discussing a...
Oct 09, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 807
On this edition of Parallax Views, Prof. James M. Dorsey of the Turbulent World of MidEast Soccer blog returns to discuss the latest news on Israel/Palestine, specifically the deadly attack on Hamas and what it pertains for the future of Middle East geopolitics. The attack has been described as "Israel's 9/11" and incurred civilian causalities. Among the issues tackled in this conversation: - Hamas' motivations for the attack - Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morro...
Oct 09, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 806
On this edition of Parallax Views, Jonathan Marshall, author of the book Dark Quadrant: Organized Crime, Big Business, and the Corruption of American Democracy , returns to discuss his recent Lobster Magazine piece "The Watergate break-ins and the Howard Hughes connection" as well as, briefly in the latter portion of the program, his scholarly article in the Journal of Cold War Studies entitled "U.S. Cold War Policy and the Italian Far-Right: The Nixon Administration, Republican Party Operatives...
Oct 06, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 804
On this edition of Parallax Views, Matt McManus, a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan and the author of The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism , joins the show to discuss his new book The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity . Matt gives a sweeping history of the political right that tries to grapple, from a left social democratic perspective, with conservative thought since the French Revolution. In doing so Matt g...
Oct 04, 2023•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 803
On this edition of Parallax Views, Alfred de Zayas, a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and the UN Independent Expert on International Order from 2012-18, returns to the program to discuss the current worrying situation of Nagorno-Karabakh from an international law and human rights perspective. In the course of this conversation de Zayas offers sweeping history of why Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh fear aggression by Azerbaijan enough to flee. We delve into the history of Turkish ...
Oct 02, 2023•37 min•Ep. 802
On this edition of Parallax Views, Mark Movsesian, Director of the Center for Law and Religion at St. John's University, joins us to discuss his Compact Magazine article "The Second Armenian Genocide" . The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has come to a close with Azerbaijan taking control, thus leaving many Armenians to flee the region in what many are calling an ethnic cleansing. Mark argues that these events unfolded due to 21st century Great Power competition and that Armenians are the ones that ar...
Sep 29, 2023•51 min•Ep. 801
On this edition of Parallax Views, Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in the topic of right-wing conspiracy culture, joins us to discuss his new book Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories . A follow-up of sorts to his previous book The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything , Jewish Space Lasers delves into the history of virulently antisemitic conspiracy theories concerning the wealthy Rothschild banki...
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 800
On this edition of Parallax Views, Noah Kulwin joins us to discuss the fourth season of his and Brendan James's highly lauded podcast series Blowback. In previous seasons Noah and Brendan have covered the Iraq War, the Cuban Revolution, and the Korean War. For season four they're tackling the mammoth topic of Afghanistan from the era of the Cold War to the U.S.'s invasion of the country after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and eventual withdrawal 20 years later. In the course of our ...
Sep 25, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 799
On this edition of Parallax Views, Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, joins the show to discuss his new book Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times . Samuel examines and dissects the beliefs of Cold War intellectuals like Karl Popper, Judith Shklar, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Lionel Trilling, Isaiah Berlin, and Hannah Arendt to argue that liberals of the Cold War in many ways ended up undermining the progressive and Enli...
Sep 21, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 797
On this edition of Parallax Views, longtime antiwar movement voice and peace activist Norman Solomon joins Parallax Views to discuss his book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of It's Military Machine . We also debate/conversate about Ukraine and where things should go from here in regards to the Russian invasion, Ukraine's continued resistance, the question of diplomacy, and how the U.S. should be responding to it as well as how weapons manufacturers on both sides are the big...
Sep 19, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 798
On this edition of Parallax Views, Hanna Homestead, a policy analyst for the Center for International Policy, joins me to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024 in relation to climate change, carbon emissions, and emission reductions efforts. We delve into the Congressional efforts to block Department of Defense emission reduction endeavors and the reasons for that. We also delve into the paradoxical nature of U.S. militarized foreign policy "national interest...
Sep 15, 2023•54 min•Ep. 796
On this edition of Parallax Views, we just passed the anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As such this episode is devoted to the subject of 9/11 and the guest is Ray McGinnis, author of Unanswered Questions: What the September Eleventh Families Asked and the 9/11 Commission Ignored . Ray tells the story of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee and the Jersey Girls, a group of widows whose husbands perished in the 9/11 attacks, and their pressure campaigns that led to the form...
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 795
After a break due to Hurricane Idalia, Parallax Views is back! Earlier this year I spoke with Matt Clement, editor of the recent zer0 books anthology No Justice, No Police?: The Politic of Protest and Social Change . Matt and I discussed the radical movements seeking to reform or even abolition policing in the U.S. and U.K. since the advent of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement took off. We'll discuss where these efforts are today and the different perspectives on policing, police brutality, ...
Sep 04, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 794
On this edition of Parallax Views, Sohrab Ahmari of the online magazine Compact joins the show to discuss his intriguing new book Tyranny Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty--and What to Do About It . Sohrab is a self-described "man of the Right". As such one may expect that Tyranny Inc. is another addition to the growing cottage industry conservative diatribes about "woke capitalism". That's what makes the book so interesting though. Rather than offering an extended invective again...
Aug 24, 2023•43 min•Ep. 793
On this edition of Parallax Views, long-time Hawaii-based journalist Albert Lanier makes his return to Parallax Views to discuss the Maui wildfires that have ravaged Lahaina. The death toll is currently at 114 with 800 or more unaccounted for at the time of this episode's release. And that doesn't even get into the financial damages to Maui. Homes have been destroyed and lives displaced. This raises the question: Could this tragedy have been, if not prevented, handled better? Could lives have be...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 792
On this edition of Parallax Views, historian Luke A. Nichter, author of such books as The Nixon Tapes (w/ Douglas Brinkley), The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War , and Lyndon B. Johnson: Pursuit of Populism, Paradox of Power , joins the show to discuss his new book The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 . Although many think of the 1960s as the "summer of love", it was in truth an era of great turbulence and tumult...
Aug 19, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 791
On this edition of Parallax Views, progressive radio host Thom Hartmann joins the show in the first half for a 30-minute conversation about his latest book The Hidden History of American Democracy . Hartmann argues that if American citizens look back deep into the history of the United States, going back to the Founding Fathers, they will find that "democracy is in our veins" despite the country's many faults over its history. We'll delve into some of the key points of the book, the Constitution...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 790
On this edition of Parallax Views, freelancer writer Bertrand Russell joins me to discuss the issue of black poverty, which he grew up in, and his article for The Atlantic entitled "The Failure of Affirmative Action" . This article has led to Bertrand appearing on media outlets like MSNBC and Slate. It doesn't argue that Affirmative Action didn't help black Americans, but rather that Affirmative Action didn't adequately address the plight of the black poor in America. In this discussion we'll di...
Aug 12, 2023•1 hr 54 min•Ep. 789
On this edition of Parallax Views, on May 6, 2023 a mass shooting occurred at Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas. Nine people, including the shooter, perished in that incident with others being injured. The perpetrator was a man by the name of Mauricio Garcia. Despite his Latino background, Garcia identified as a neo-nazi. How, some thought, could a Latino man hold the views of neo-nazi, fascist, white supremacists? Antifascist researcher and antifascist skinhead Isaac join me to discuss this...
Aug 08, 2023•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 788
On this edition of Parallax Views, Peter Grinspoon, MD joins the show to discuss his new book Seeing Through the Smoke: A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth About Marijuana. Peter is the son of Lester Grinspoon, who was one of the top researchers into cannabis and psychedelics at Harvard. Peter's approach to marijuana is a bit different and unique as he takes aims at the myths perpetuated by reefer pessimists (those who think marijuana is the devil's plant) and cannatopians (those who consi...
Aug 06, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 775
On this edition of Parallax Views, Neil Howe, coiner of the term "Millennial", joins us to discuss his new book The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End . Howe, alongside his late colleague William Struass, came up with a generational view of history that emphasized history being cyclical rather than linear. This came about when Howe began to wonder about the differences between Baby Boomers and the GI Generation. Strauss and Howe's ...
Jul 31, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 787
On this edition of Parallax Views, Grant M. Gallagher of the upcoming history podcast New Disorder: a History of the 21st Century returns to discuss his June 5th, 2023 Newsweek op-ed "Why AI Panic is Not About Safety" . We delve into how Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI and a signatory of the Center for AI Safety's recent statement about the potential dangers of AI, has been at the forefront of calling for safety regulations in lieu of current concerns about the rapid development of artific...
Jul 26, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 783
On this edition of Parallax Views, the Angel Studios movie Sound of Freedom , starring The Passion of the Christ 's Jim Caviezel and Academy Award-winner Mira Sorvino, has become the sleeper indie hit of the summer. It purports to be based on the true life exploits of Tim Ballard, a former Department of Home Security official, and his fight to save children from the scourge of human trafficking in Colombia. The movie has been described as akin to the First Blood / Rambo movie or the Liam Neeson-...
Jul 23, 2023•2 hr 31 min•Ep. 786
On this edition of Parallax Views, Richard Silverstein of the Tikun Olam blog returns to discuss the latest news in Israel/Palestine. We beging with a breakdown of the latest Israeli raid on Jenin and it's significance, the U.S. response, the resiliency of Palestinians, and related issues. From there we move onto the troubling story of an autistic Palestinian man who was killed by an Israeli police officer. Charges against said police officer were recently dropped and Israeli Minister of Nationa...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 785
On this edition of Parallax Views, Sam Fraser, researcher and senior communications associate at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins us to discuss the Biden administration's nomination of Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. A few years ago Abrams, who was at that time appointed as the U.S. special envoy to Venezuela by the Trump administration, was in the news when Rep. Ilhan Omar confronted Abrams on his involvement in the I...
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 784
On this edition of Parallax Views, geneticist Adam Rutherford joins us to discuss his new, timely book Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics . British philosopher John Gray, author of Stray Dogs , praised Control saying, "[Rutherford's] scientific demolition of the eugenic project is brilliantly illuminating and compelling. His book will be indispensable for anyone who wants to assess the wild claims and counter-claims surrounding new genetic technologies." Believe it or no...
Jul 11, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 782
On this edition of Parallax Views, 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of V: The Original Miniseries. A two-part sci-fi television event that brought in around 33 million homes, V was ostensibly the story of reptilian alien invading earth to steal it's resources and turn the human population into a food source. However, beneath the surface it acted as a parable about how fascism and authoritarianism can take hold in a country. In fact, it was inspired by Sinclair Lewis' classic novel ...
Jun 28, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 781
On this edition of Parallax Views, we dive into the wild world of pro wrestling, the parallels it has with politics, and even a diversion into Freemasonry with former pro wrestling manager turned political podcast extraordinaire Kenny "Starmaker" Bolin. Kenny Bolin worked as a heel (bad guy) manager in Ohio Valley Wrestling, the one-time developmental promotion for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that produced such stars as John Cena, Dave Bautista, Rico Constantino, and Rene Dupree among ot...
Jun 26, 2023•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 780
On this edition of Parallax Views, Charles Henry, President of the Council on Library and Information Resources, joins us to discuss the importance of preserving cultural memory and history in the digital age. Massive amount of information, if not properly maintained in this new digital era, could be lost to the sands of time. This incredible loss of knowledge, like the burning of the Library of Alexandria, would be catastrophic.. Simply put, it would amount to a digital dark age. In this conver...
Jun 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 773
On this edition of Parallax Views, Marcus Ryder, a media a UK-based representation/diversity expert and Head of External Consultancies for the Sir Lenny Henry Centre, recently gained a bit of notoriety or his critique of Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. In a tweet and blog Ryder critiqued the movie for taking place in the 18th century Carribean, but ignoring the existence of slavery in that period. At the same time he said that he found the film's normalization of black beauty ...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 779
