Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen Burt Cohen

After decades in a coma, the nuclear industry is back. But the truth is nuclear power is not an acceptable stopgap measure, it’s a diversion from real, actually economic, safer solutions. On this show policy analyst Paul Gunter tells the truth behind the new nuclear PR campaign. He really knows his stuff.

In the current American version of capitalism, all of us are “thingified:” our only value being as digits on the way to corporate profits. This reflects a core bias in the system toward serving the very richest. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In her new book Wealth Supremacy; How the Extractive Economy and Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today’s Crises, author co-founder and former president of Business Ethics magazine Marjorie Kelly explains how capitalism can and must evolve to serve the common good. It can happen.

It’s basic to the very essence of America. On this show Constitutional Law Professor John O. McGinnis argues that commerce was the mother’s milk of the American Revolution and that the virtues of commerce and idealism need not conflict. Listen in and let him explain how it worked. And still does.

We’ve built all the dams we need and that nature can handle. Development in flood zones is still happening faster than more sustainable locations. In his new book; Seek Higher Ground, The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis, award winning author and conservationist Tim Palmer argues there can be a bipartisan solution…if we take it seriously. We do have to find a different way, and in this podcast Palmer spells it out.

Most of us can guess but there’s nothing like serious scientific research when it comes to understanding political change. In her forthcoming book  How the Heartland Went Red, Harvard’s Stephanie Termullo shares her findings from extensive field research in three small mid-western cities. How does sense of place supplants party policy positions which may be actually better for those communities? Fear and reassurance play a major role. What can Democrats do…anything? Give a listen.

It’s a systemic problem: what is “reasonable,” what is acting “in good faith” when America’s police violate citizens rights or even kill them? As of now, police are protected, enjoying unique immunity which no one else has. In this show UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz talks about her new book Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable and why America needs to take on and solve this big problem. Now.