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BARBARA EHRENREICH asks: Is it a crime in America to be poor? “You won’t be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store,” she says, “but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you’re well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life — like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering.” Barbara wrote about poverty for the New York Times op-ed page; her most recent book is This Land is Their Land.

Plus: JOHN NICHOLS on “the Cheney-like secrecy of the Obama White House.”  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

And MICHAEL POLLAN and his Eater’s Manifesto: he says “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly vegetables.” He will also provide his critique of the “Nutritional Industrial Complex.” Michael Pollan is the author of the number one-bestseller IN DEFENSE OF FOOD — it’s out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 2/13/08)

Also: who will serve on Obama’s death panels — the ones Sarah Palin says will give the thumbs-down to her baby Trig?  We’ll have a report.

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Are people really turning against Obama’s health care plan? That’s what polls say.  That’s what Republicans are working on.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he’s an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.  Also: Gallup Poll shows only 5 Republican states.

And  JANE MAYER of The New Yorker talks about the “vast, secret regime of pain and torture” created by the Bush White house.  Her award-winning book The Dark Side is out now in paperback.  This is part 2 of my conversation with her in the downtown LA Public Library ALOUD series.  (Thanks again to Louise Steinman and the ALOUD staff for making this audio available for broadcast.)

And we’ll talk about bottled water: do you really need to drink bottled water?  Water from Fiji, or France, or the Sierras?  Do you really need nine glasses a day?  How bad is municipal tap water?  Elizabeth Royte has some answers – her book Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America’s Drinking Water is out now in paperback. (originally broadcast 7/30/08)

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“The Dark Side” – that’s where Dick Cheney said we would have to go to “achieve our objectives” in the White House’s war on terror. JANE MAYER has been investigating what “the dark side” really means.  I spoke with her before a live audience at the LA Public Library ALOUD series recently; we have the tape.  Her book is out now in paperback.  (Thanks to Louise Steinman and the ALOUD staff for making this audio available for broadcast.)

Also: Los Angeles in 1950 was a city known for freeway sprawl and unplanned growth.  But Los Angeles was NOT “unplanned” – there had been a battle between different utopian visions of what the city could be, starting in the 1920s. That story is told by Jeremiah Axelrod in his new book Inventing Autopia: Dreams and Visions of the Modern Metropolis in Jazz Age Los Angeles.

Plus: KATHA POLLITT is best known for her political columns in The Nation and her personal essays in The New Yorker, but she’s also an award-winning poet – her first book of poetry, Antarctic Traveler, won the National Book Critics Circle award, and her poems are published in The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Atlantic, and many other places. Now she has a second book of poetry out – The Mind-Body Problem. We’ll talk about poetry and politics, and she will read some of my favorites.

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TOM WAITS is the brilliant singer/songwriter with the growly voice and the haunting music.  Barney Hoskyns will talk about his life and music — he’s written the first bio, titled Lowside of the Road.  Playlist: “Jersey Girl,” “16 Shells from a 30 ought six,”  “I’m Big in Japan,” “Get Behind the Mule.”

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment; David Carr, the great New York Times columnist, talks about his days as a drug addict in Minneapolis.  His book, Night of the Gun, is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 9/10/08)

Also: Official government websites turn out to provide a treasure trove of insights into the uses of power and the possibilities of citizen political action — that’s what Elizabeth Losh says.  Her new book is Virtualpolitik: An Electronic History of Government Media-Making in a Time of War, Scandal, Disaster, Miscommunication, and Mistakes.  Liz blogs about electronic bureaucracy and institutional subversion on the Internet HERE.

For the record — my show today at 4pm will feature a guest host.

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The Minnesota Supreme Court has finally ruled — unanimously — that AL FRANKEN is the winner of the recount in his Nov. 3 Senate race with Republican Norm Coleman — and Coleman has conceded.  It’s all over —  Senate Democrats can seat Franken  next week, giving them 60 votes as the move to consider global warming and  health care.   JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation comments; and we listen to our 2003 interview with Al Franken — he was funny.

Plus: The Slave Next Door — KEVIN BALES talks about human trafficking and slavery in America today–in the most mundane middle class suburbia.  He’s president of Free the Slaves in Washington, D.C.  and Professor of Sociology at Roehampton University, London.

Also: Can one reporter change the world? I.F. STONE thought so – he’s the subject of a terrific new biography, American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone –written by D. D. GUTTENPLAN.  He’s London correspondent for The Nation and an award-winning former writer for New York Newsday and other publications.  Izzy of course edited I.F. Stone’s Weekly, now archived at its own website; he also had an amazing career before he launched the Weekly.

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What’s going on right now in Iran — what the protests tell us about the new generation of Iranians, and about the future of the Islamic Republic — and what Obama, and the American Left, should do to support democracy and oppose tyranny.
MARK LeVINE will explain. He teaches the history of the modern Middle East at UC Irvine and has written four books, including Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989.

Also: “The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan” – JAMES MANN talks about the hidden history of the end of the Cold War, and about Reagan’s split from the Republican right in his second term, and about his fear of nuclear war. Mann is the author of the much-admired book Rise of the Vulcans, on the Bush White House; his new book is The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War.

for the record: I did not have a show today at 4 on KPFK — where the fund drive continues!

‘3 Days of Peace & Music’: that was Woodstock, summer of ’69, a climactic moment of the sixties and an unforgettable concert film.  In the KPFK fund drive today, we feature a new DVD “Woodstock Ultimate Collector’s Edition” with an all-new cut of the film, plus some fabulous extras: concert footage from two great bands, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Grateful Dead, that didn’t appear in the original film.  Also: performances from two other acts that weren’t included in the original film: Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter — along with additional numbers by several artists that did appear in the movie, including Joan Baez, Joe Cocker and the Who.  And of course Jimi Hendrix.  This glorious 3 DVD set, released today, can be yours for a pledge of  $150.   call 818-985-5735 during the show, 4-5pm,  or pledge online www.kpfk.org/pledge/catalog/