Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen


Latest Episodes

Ensuring Poverty: Welfare Reform in Feminist Perspective
November 29, 2018

When myths inform legislation, harm often results. So much of today’s welfare reform, based on myth, works to keep people in poverty. It’s been created from a top-down, men-dominant model and it brings not dignity but despair. In her new

Not Learning From History: Franco Not Dead Anymore//WWI Women
November 27, 2018

It’s right there for us to learn from. Not facing history has terrible consequences. With the rise of right wing authoritarian Trumpism in America the long dead Spanish dictator Franco is being reborn. As Spanish political history professor at Oberlin,

Midterms Reveal Dangerous Regional Divides
November 20, 2018

America was not created as one nation. There were, and still are, eleven distinct nations in North America. The recent midterm elections show that we remain more and more like a set of different nations divided by geography. To gain

The Death of Democracy: The Weimar Republic. And America?
November 15, 2018

Antiglobalism. The little guy not feeling heard. City sophisticates and their culture mistrusted by country people. A pretend anti-elite which actually caters to the powerful elites. Intense hatred of the press.

Redlining: Government Policy Makes Racism and Poverty Worse
November 13, 2018

It may not be as blatant as cross-burning but redlining is racism. Federal lending rules encourage banks to discriminate against mortgages for black people moving into white neighborhoods. While it was technically made against the law with the Fair Hou...

Democracy in the US/ Peace in Afghanistan?
November 08, 2018

Success came Tuesday November 6th. It was indeed a blue wave. Now what? On the first half of the show, NH Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley (who ran for national party chair) looks at what was learned, how progressives can

Why Is There the Caravan From Our Ally, Honduras?
November 06, 2018

Who is in the caravan and why don’t they stay in Central America and try to make it better? Because those who do often end up dead. Journalist Peter Tinti reports that in Honduras “Corruption is the operating system and

Decolonizing And Democratizing Philanthropy
November 01, 2018

It’s been said that “the tools that built the master’s house will never dismantle the master’s house.” Philanthropy today reaffirms the culture of colonialism: white saviors, white experts. Recipients are at-effect rather than at-cause of the well-mean...

Grading for Equity: Teaching Humans, Not Rats
October 30, 2018

America’s public education still relies on grading practices geared to the industrial revolution of the early 1900s. This antiquated system undermines effective teaching and learning and inadvertently filters students based on privileges.

The Triumph of Frat Boys//Why Trump’s Lies Are Believed
October 25, 2018

On part one, veteran sports writer Robert Lipsyte shares his valuable and unique insights into the Kavanaugh/Trump “frat boys win” dynamic. The power of the pack: it’s there on sports teams, gangs, and nationalism. And on part two, writer Teri