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Radio Show

Home» Radio Show (Page 3)

1992 First Critical Mass Ride

Posted on October 10, 2012 by actionspeaksradio in 2012, Private Rights and Public Fights, Radio Show No Comments

Bicyclists take to the streets en mass in a fight over the ‘right to the city’

Live recording held at the café at AS220 on Empire Street, Providence at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 10, 2012.

Action Speaks Scholar Essay Protest and Celebration—The Mystery of Critical Mass By Chris Carlsson

The revolution may no longer take place in the factories but in the streets, as Seattle anti-NAFTA Demonstrations and Occupy Wall Street has shown, in the parks and–to the anger of many–in traffic.

Critical Mass began in 1992 in the city of San Francisco when bicyclists decided to meet monthly in downtown rush hour auto traffic to join the commute home. Beginning with 50 cyclists, Critical Mass gatherings grew into the thousands in cities throughout the world, often engendering police retaliation and motorist anger.  While occasionally members of the ad hoc community fought back against recalcitrant authorities and angry automobile drivers, many evolved an understanding that the best method for recruiting others to a non-fossil fuel economy was to create a sense of joy, celebration and sociability with their ride through the city. Critical Mass’ horizontal (rather than vertical) leadership became a model for subsequent protests, like the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle and, in many ways, Occupy Wall Street. Critical Mass continues to this day and some assert that its battle for the ‘Right to the City’ has been partially responsible for the rise in bicycle friendly policies in both urban and small town US communities.

Zack Furness, Assistant Professor of Communications at Pennsylvania State University and author of One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility.  He is also editor of Punkademics, co-editor of The NFL: Critical/Cultural Perspectives, and has written for several edited collections, journals, and non-academic publications including Punk Planet, Souciant and Bitch Magazine.

David Herlihy, author of Bicycle: The History, which greatly clarified the true origins of the bicycle, and The Lost Cyclist, the story of Frank Lenz’s ill-fated bicycle trip around the world in the 1890s, a Publishers Weekly 100 Best Books of 2010.

Nicole Freedman, Executive Director of Maine Huts and Trails and former Director of Bicycle Programs for the City of Boston under Mayor Thomas Menino. During her tenure for the city (2006-2012), Boston transformed itself from the worst cycling city in the country to a recognized leader in cycling.  Nicole also competed professionally in bike racing from 1994-2005, winning two national championships and competing for the United States in the 2000 Olympics in Sidney.

Listen to an interview with Chris Carlsson, one of the founders of Critical Mass in San Francisco.  Speaking with host Marc Levitt just a few weeks after the 20th anniversary of the ride, Carlsson reflects on the political and social significance of the movement.

Bibliography

  • Critical Mass; Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration, Edited by Chris Carlsson, AK Press (2002)
  • Bicycle by David V. Herlihy, Yale University Press (2004)
  • One Less Car; Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility by Zach Furness, Temple, University Press (2010)
  • Pedal Power; The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public Life by J. Harry Way, Paradigm Publisher (2008)

Now in its seventeenth year, Action Speaks is made possible by generous financial and in-kind support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, AS220, Robinson & Cole, LLP, WGBH 89.7 Boston, RIPBS, and the Providence Phoenix. Action Speaks has been heard on over 175 radio stations across the United States, and is presented by WGBH 89.7 in Boston. If you can’t be at our live taping, you can listen and download each show free from our website ten days following each panel.

community, counterculture, organized protest, transportation

1980 Diamond v. Chakrabarty

Posted on October 3, 2012 by actionspeaksradio in 2012, Private Rights and Public Fights, Radio Show No Comments

The Supreme Court case that helped put a ‘for sale’ sign on our genes

This case that first secured the right to patent ‘life,’ which set the stage for the biotech revolution and a debate about what can be monetized.

Live recording held at the café at AS220 on Empire Street, Providence at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Public Rights and Private Fights: With an expanded eight-week season and a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, this year Action Speaks looks at moments when the rights of the individual have clashed with the needs or beliefs of the public—and where the line between private and public has been defined or blurred.
Don’t forget to check out Monday Night pre-panel documentaries at 9 p.m. on RIPBS.


In 2012, we decided to ask one of our panelists or an additional scholar to write texts for each of our Action Speaks’ topics. Click here for essay by Sophie Kim, JD Candidate, Harvard Law School & I. Glenn Cohen, Assistant Professor, Harvard Law School and Co-Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics.

Panelists:

Ananda Chakrabarty, a Professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. While working at the Research & Development Center at General Electric Company, he was awarded the ‘Scientist of the Year’ award in 1975 by Industrial Research Organization of the United States. This work led to the development of a genetically-manipulated microorganism that was the subject matter of a landmark decision from the Supreme Court of the United States that genetically engineered life forms are patentable.

David Bollier, an author, activist, blogger and independent scholar with a primary focus on the commons as a new paradigm of economics, politics and culture. He has pursued this work for more than ten years, as a founding editor of Onthecommons.org (2002-2010), and co-founder and principal of the Commons Strategies Group, an international consulting project that works with global policy activists.

Glenn Cohen, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Law School and Co-Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Prof. Cohen is one of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of bioethics (sometimes also called “medical ethics”) and the law, as well as health law.

Click here for images from live recording

 
Bibliography:

  • Tissue Economics; Blood, Organs, and Cell Lines in Late Capitalism by Catherine Waldby and Robert Mitchell; Duke University Press 2006
  • Who Owns You? The Corporate Gold Rush to Patent Your Genes by David Koepsell; Wiley-Blackwell 2009
  • Who Owns Life Edited by David Magnus, Arthur Caplan and Glenn McGee; Prometheus Books 2002

Now in its seventeenth year, Action Speaks is made possible by generous financial and in-kind support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, AS220, Robinson & Cole, LLP, WGBH 89.7 Boston, RIPBS, and the Providence Phoenix. Action Speaks has been heard on over 175 radio stations across the United States, and is presented by WGBH 89.7 in Boston. If you can’t be at our live taping, you can listen and download each show free from our website ten days following each panel.

commerce, law, politics, science, technology

1981 President Reagan Fires Air Traffic Controllers

Posted on October 26, 2011 by actionspeaksradio in 2011, Past Radio Shows, Radio Show No Comments

Ronald Reagan-Remarks on the Air Traffic Controllers Strike (August 3, 1981) 1981 President Reagan Fires Air Traffic Controllers

Live recording held at the café at AS220 at 5:30 p.m on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 Click here to see the images from the live recording in AS220

1981 President Reagan Fires Air Traffic Controllers A Shot Over the Bow Thirty Years Ago Lands Today in Wisconsin and Elsewhere

President Reagan’s firing of the Air Traffic controllers for refusing to return to work introduced a battle with labor which is still very much a part of our contemporary political discourse. President Reagan sent a message to unions in general that they would not be dictating the terms of their relationship to corporate America or to federal or state governments and that the era of labor’s victories would be over.

With our panelists, Michael Downey, President RI Council 94 ASCME, Georgetown University Professor Joseph McCartin, the author of a new book on this moment, and Paul Cannon, former PATCO member, we will look at how the President’s decision to punish the controllers for their walkout signaled the beginning of a new relationship between our government and organized labor. We will look at how this moment was nested into the rise of free market philosophy and how it resonates today in the contemporary conflicts in Ohio, Wisconsin and in other states and municipalities.

Panelists:

Dr. Joseph McCartin is an Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University. He is an expert on twentieth century U.S. labor, social and political issues. He teaches courses in 20th Century U.S. Labor History,The U.S. Since 1945, America Between the Wars, 20th Century (and Modern) U.S. State and Society, and 20th Century U.S. Social History. His new book is Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America.

Mike Downey is the president of RI Council 94 AFSCME. He followed his father and grandfather into a career as a plumber. He went to La Salle Academy. After La Salle, he went to plumbing school, a five-year program of work and classes. Downey, of Irish heritage, lives now in Charlestown, where he was on the Town Council, but grew up in Providence and Narragansett.

Paul Cannon was an Air Traffic Controller for 13 years in Boston. He was the President of a PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) local between 1975 and 1979, stepping down to be one of the first “Choirboy” PATCO activists in New England. He resigned as a Choirboy and became campaign manager for George Kerr’s bid to become PATCO president; he then participated in the PATCO strike and stayed active with the local. Later he became a business agent for Teamster Local 122.

Bibliography:

  • Collision Course; Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America by Joseph A. McCartin; Oxford Press 2011
  • Tear Down This Myth; The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy by Will Bunch; Simon and Schuster 2009
  • There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America by Philip Dray; Anchor Press 2011
labor, politics, unions
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About Action Speaks

Action Speaks is a series of contemporary topic-driven panel discussions centered around “Underappreciated Dates that Changed America.” For 17 years, we have provided a live venue for fellow citizens to engage in thoughtful discussions about history, culture and current events. The panels are hosted by Marc Levitt, recorded, edited and broadcast online and on radio stations around the US.

Markos Moulitsas’ Underappreciated Date

Recorded in Providence, Rhode Island, during Netroots conference in June 2012 by Marc Levitt

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