Living in the USA

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Bob Dylan: Another Self Portrait 1969-1971: 35 previously unreleased tracks.  After Blond on Blond and then Nashville Skyline, Dylan was done with fitting into other people’s categories. While the sixties were crashing, he retreated to Nashville and Woodstock to play with musicians who loved the sweet and weird old songs as much as he did. We’ll listen to key cuts and speak with SEAN WILENTZ, the official historian-in-residence at the official BobDylan.com website and author of Bob Dylan in America.

Also Valerie Plame is the former CIA officer who was outed in 2003 by the Bush White House after her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, challenged Bush’s rationale for invading Iraq.  Now she has a new book out, her first work of fiction – it’s titled Blowback.  We’ll speak with her about fact and fiction about the CIA.
Valerie Plame will be in conversation with Robert Baer  Wed., 7:30pm, at New Roads School, 3131 W. Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica; Tickets, $25  HERE.
WATCH the  Global Zero video HERE .

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ANDREW BACEVICH has grim and eloquent critique of our military system—he was an army officer for 23 years and now teaches at Boston U.  His new book is Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed their Soldiers and Their Country. READ Rachel Maddow’s review in the NY Times Book Review, HERE.

Also: Maybe you heard the news: Republicans shut down the government.  JOHN NICHOLS will comment: he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and his most recent book is Dollarocracy.

Plus: The project of restoring and protecting the L.A. river has reached a crucial turning point, as the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to a $453 million plan to restore 11 miles of the river but leaving the rest hard to reach.  LEWIS MacADAMS will explain – he’s the cofounder and president of FOLAR, Friends of the LA River.

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RY COODER has released his first live record in more than 35 years—Live in San Francisco, recorded in 2011. “One of those nights when you wish you’d been in Row A,” said the Sunday Times of London.  We’ll speak with Ry and listen:  PLAYLIST: “Crazy ‘bout an Automobile”; “Do Re Mi”; “Lord Tell Me Why”; “School is Out.”

Plus: Fighting foreclosure: cities can reclaim foreclosed houses from banks under eminent domain, and sell them at reduced prices—PETER DREIER will explain—he’s Distinguished Professor of Politics and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His latest book is The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century.  He wrote about cities seizing property from banks at TheNation.com, HERE.

Also: Hollywood and Hitler: in the 1930s, the studios cancelled several explicitly anti-Nazi films planned for production, and deleted anything that could be construed as critical of the Nazis in several other movies.  And yet the studios were run by Jews.  DAVID DENBY of The New Yorker says that the studios had “an enormous power base that makes their timidity regarding Nazism a matter of psychological, cultural and political interest.”

And: “Capitalism works for me!” – STEVE LAMBERG’s neon in Times Square asks people to vote “True” or False”: HERE.

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The wonderful novelist JONATHAN LETHEM talks about Communists in Queens in the 1950s, Hippies in the Village the 1960s, and the Occupiers of two years ago – all in his novel Dissident Gardens.
Jonathan will be reading at the Skirball, Tues. Sept. 24, 8pm; admission is free,  reservations  recommended – online  HERE .

Plus: Today Liberal education is under assault as never before—everyone from President Obama to Thomas Friedman are saying American business needs people in science, technology and engineering.  TOM FRANK will comment – he writes for Harper’s and The Baffler – and he has a PhD in history.

Also: The world’s first big all-girl teenage hard rock band was The Runaways, from L.A., featuring Joan Jett –EVELYN MCDONNELL will talk about the real story of The Runaways, and we’ll listen to some of their music from the seventies.  Her new book is Queens of Noise.
Playlist: “Cherry Bomb”;  “Gotta Get Out Tonight”;  “Queens of Noise.”

For the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, we are featuring an hour of special programming: First, the forgotten history of the March on Washington—it aimed to end much more than racial segregation in the South.  For that we turn to WILL JONES, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of the new book The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights.

Also: the behind-the-scenes battle over censoring the speech planned by John Lewis, the spokesman for SNCC, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee – today’s he’s a member of congress and the only surviving speaker from that day. Stanford university historian CLAY CARSON will explain–his classic history of SNCC is In Struggle.

Plus: a new perspective on what people DO remember from that day: “The Speech” by Martin Luther King. GARY YOUNGE, the award-wining columnist for the Guardian and The Nation, will comment on the way the speech has been profoundly misunderstood—how King emphasized the need for economic redress for centuries of discrimination.  His new book is The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream.

for the record: my KPFK show is pre-empted 8/14 and 8/21 for special Fun Drive programming

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North Carolina has passed the country’s worst voter ID bill.  It’s provoked widespread protest: thousands have marched in  the “Moral Monday” movement, and more than 700 have been arrested. We will talk to two of them, both history professors in North Carolina, both former presidents of the Organization of American Historians: JACQUELYN DOWD HALL of UNC-Chapel Hill and WILLIAM CHAFE of Duke. READ their op-ed about being arrested: HERE.

Also: “Life and Death in Assisted Living”: the shocking story of  the multi-billion dollar for-profit elder care industry.  We’ll speak with investigative reporter A.C. THOMPSON on the revelations from ProPublica and PBS Frontline.  WATCH the Frontline documentary by Carl Byker HERE.

Plus: “The Act of Killing” is a chilling  documentary about the death squads in Indonesia that killed more than a million people in 1965.  In the film, some of the leading executioners reenact real-life mass-killings for our benefit—in the style of the Hollywood movies they love.  The film is playing now in LA at the Nuart, and moves to the Landmark on Friday. We’ll speak with filmmaker JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER. WATCH “The Act of Killing” trailer HERE.

Today’s news from Edward Snowden & Glenn Greewald: XKeyscore, the NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’ —  HERE.

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The Romans captured and killed Jesus because the revolutionary movement he launched challenged the most powerful empire the world had ever known: That’s what REZA ASLAN says – his amazing new book is ZEALOT: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.
Reza will be in conversation with Rainn Wilson tomorrow/Thurs at 8pm at All Saints Church in Beverly Hills at 504 North Camden Dr. – it’s a benefit for the LA Review of Books. tix $20 HERE .
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Plus: Today Obama talked about the economy in “a major policy speech.”  He said “we have more work to do,” and that he “hopes we can do it together.”  Wow!  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and he’s editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: Big news in the art world: Jeffrey Deitch is resigning as head of MOCA, the Museum of Contemoprary Art in LA.  CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT explains why Deitch failed–also why MOCA matters, and what’s next for the struggling museum.  Christopher is art critic for the LA Times.

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DAN SAVAGE, a leading voice of gay America: “Savage Love” sex advice columnist, and award-winning author now of AMERICAN SAVAGE.  There are 50,000 “It Gets Better” videos: WATCH the very first, with Dan and Terry: itgetsbetter.org/#7IcVyvg2Qlo .
Other favorites: Ke$ha www.itgetsbetter.org/#DV4EmSviDfQ ;
Stephen Colbert www.itgetsbetter.org/#BThRZbCs-p8 .

Also: EDWARD SNOWDEN has set off a worldwide debate about the spying practices of the US. TOM ENGELHARDT says that, as a result, the US is losing the public opinion battle globally.  Tom is the legendary editor of TomDispatch.com.

Plus: Plutonium is the most dangerous substance on the planet.  The US manufactured it in Hanford, Washington, and the Soviets manufactured it in Ozersk, Russia.  Now we have an amazing history from the ground up of the two plutonium production projects: PLUTOPIA: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters. The author is KATE BROWN—she teaches at the U of Maryland Baltimore County.
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Today in History: how the President of Purdue tried to ban the books of Howard Zinn: HERE.