WZBC 90.3 FM Newton

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s “A More Perfect Union” project is aimed at examining racism in US institutions, including media institutions.

At age 22 (in 1974) Marilyn Waring became the youngest member of the New Zealand Parliament. She chaired the prestigious Public Expenditures Committee and became familiar with the Gross Domestic Product system and decided to disclose its pathologies in a film, her teachings at AUT University in Auckland, and really her life as a feminist economist. The film, “Who’s Counting,” traces her quest to explore how the fate of women and of the earth are irrevocably tied up with the deadly pursuit of economic growth. Marilyn Waring was shocked and dismayed when she learned that all countries that are members of the UN are forced to keep their books and design their budgets under the system of National Income Accounting. This GDP system counts only cash transactions in the market and recognizes no value other than money. This means there is no value to peace, to women's (and others') unpaid labor, or to preservation of the environment.

You may not have seen them running through your yard, but just wait. Feral pigs are everywhere and they’re a growing problem. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Susanne Rust, an environmental reporter from the Los Angeles Times. She talks about the millions – yes, millions of wild pigs roaming the countryside, and the multitude of problems they bring: eating like pigs and breeding like rabbits, these wild swine trample fragile habitats and imperil other animals, ecosystems, and even humans.

Today we explore issues related to Israeli policies in Jerusalem, including ongoing displacement of Palestinian residents and expansion of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, why Jerusalem continues to serve as a catalyst for Palestinian protest (and harsh Israeli violence in response), and how Jerusalem continues to be at the heart of Palestinian and Israeli national aspirations. We will hear portions of a webinar titled “Whose Jerusalem?” featuring: Daniel Seidemann from Terrestrial Jerusalem, Dana El Kurd (Non-Resident Fellow at the Middle East Institute), and Munir Nuseibah from Al-Quds University. It is Co-moderated by Khaled Elgindy of the Middle East Institute and Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

Marples (claimed "expert") says the Russian leadership has reached a point of no return in its conflict with Ukraine. ... Marples argues that to withdraw troops would be humiliating for Putin, who relies on machismo to bolster his popular support! He says Russia will not be satisfied by talks, and there will be another attack on Ukraine in the next few weeks.

The dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky — author of Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights — joins us on this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast to talk about the legal framework behind criminal justice and police reform, and in addition, to remind us why presidents cannot be above the law. Chemerinsky details the long history of the courts in virtually ignoring the rights of defendants. Often counter to the Fourth Amendment and to the Constitution itself, it is very rare for the courts, either federal or state, to champion defendants’ rights. Chemerinsky explains why it was only the Warren Court, in the early- to mid-60s, that ever made any real effort to protect those rights. For most of our history, things like the right to remain silent (the Miranda warning) and the right of a suspect to have a lawyer and to be protected from illegal search, were not the norm.

This week, we’re talking about whether it’s good or bad for a country to have a permanent military. Our guest, Ned Dobos, is Senior Lecturer in Ethics at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. He is the author of Ethics, Security, and the War Machine: the True Cost of the Military.