Equal Time with Carl Etnier & Traven

January 23, 2012

Starting with this show, Mondays on Equal Time Radio present conversations about progressive ideas, featuring state Senator Anthony Pollina and other opinion leaders who are in the Vermont Progressive Party or whose work is consistent with the Progressive ideals. 

Topics in this premiere broadcast included the consequences of Judge Garvan Murtha's decision in Entergy v. Shumlin, the concept of corporate personhood, budget priorities, and more. 

Meg Brook, a long-time activist with the Progressive Party, joined the show as a co-host, with Carl Etnier.

This is the premiere episode of Equal Time's Smart Business Wednesday, sponsored by Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR). Andrea Cohen, executive director of VBSR, described the organization, its mission, and some of its programs. 

State Senator Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden) described a press conference held to support a resolution to Congress, asking them to overturn the legal doctrines the Supreme Court used in its 2010 Citizens United decision. 

VBSR Public Policy Manager Daniel Barlow also reported from the State House on the Administration's bill to set up a health care exchange. 

Carl Etnier hosted.

January 16, 2012

Equal Time Radio celebrates acting up and speaking up on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

John Izzo, author of Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything, described how a little boy's smile on an airplane gave him an epiphany about how simple, positive actions can dissipate negativity and lead people to collaborate and make things happen together. We discussed the MacDonald's hot coffee lawsuit, about which you can learn more in a Democracy Now interview or through the documentary Hot Coffee.

Joseph Gainza, with Vermont Action for Peace, talked about the legacy Martin Luther King, Jr.  on materialism, militarism, and other issues, as seen through the lens of the Occupy movement. 

Carl Etnier hosted.

January 9, 2012

Why is it legal to donate a kidney to someone who needs it--but not to sell the kidney? What is the basis for workplace safety rules--even if workers would be willing to accept higher wages in return for a riskier working environment? University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Leo Katz explores these and other questions in his most recent book, Why the Law is So Perverse. It may sound like a call for reform--but it's actually the opposite. Katz argues that some aspects of the law that seem perverse are, in fact, necessary to a legal system based on reason. 

At the Roots School of traditional skills in East Calais, you can learn tracking--for hunting or just learning what's happening in the woods. They also teach how to make a bow, arrowheads, bone knives, an oil lamp, a grass sleeping pad, and all sorts of other skills useful in the woods. Instructor Nick Neddo describes the mindset necessary for good tracking, plus how to make an oil or fat lamp. 

Carl Etnier hosted.

Do you want to take your money out of Dow Jones-listed corporations and put it into locally owned start-ups? Sorry--that's against the law unless you're a millionaire. Federal rules designed to protect small investors keep us from putting our money where our values are--but new sources of crowdfunding are finding some ways to get around them, and a rare bipartisan effort in Congress is working to change the law. Alex Goldmark, a contributing editor at GOOD magazine, explains how you can use crowdfunding now and the bills to loosen restrictions on crowdfunding. (First broadcast in October.)

Jeffrey Sachs is the director of Earth Insttitute at Colubia University and the author most recently of The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity. He argued that federal tax expenditures need to jump to around 25% of the country's GDP to maintain American greatness---and paying for that is the price of civilization. (Pre-recorded on December 15, but not a repeat.)

Carl Etnier hosted.

Sen Anthony Pollina explains why growing inequality in Vermont is a real issue - one made worse by government policies. He explains the impact on business and the economy as well as on our families and communities. Anthony argues that the legislature should formally recognize and deal with it this session. He asserts the need for a people's budget in contrast to the previous Shumlin and Douglas administrations' budgets. We need grassroots organizing to win a budget that put human needs before any other priority.

Michael Zweig, professor of economics and director of the Center for Study of Working Class Life at Stony Brook University, talks about the subject of his new book: The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret. Michael explores how reversing the imbalance of class power requires the assertion of working class values of co-operation and mutual aid, interests, and power through developing our collective action and knowledge.

December 12, 2011

Why did the Deepwater Horizon blow up last year, kill 11 workers, and cause the massive oil eruption into the Gulf of Mexico? You're likely to get different answers if you talk separately to a petroleum engineer or an anthropologist. When they team up, it gets really interesting. Anthropologist Joseph Tainter (author of The Collapse of Complex Societies) and petroleum engineer Tad Patzek talk about the new book they've co-authored: Drilling Down: The Gulf oil debacle and our energy dilemma.

Carl Etnier hosts.

December 5, 2011

Vermonters are mobilizing around renewable energy and energy security, from town committees to the state energy plan. This past Saturday, December 3, was the annual get-together of VECAN, the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network. Leaders at all levels gathered at Lake Morey, to share and learn from each other. We'll hear from some of the people at the conference, including

Carl Etnier hosted.

In his recent memoir, George W. Bush admitted to ordering the waterboarding of prisoners held by the U.S. Since Bush left office, the Center for Constitutional Rights has pursued torture indictments against George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and four other members of their administration. CCR's Legal Director Baher Azmy discussed how that pursuit has led them to Switzerland, Spain, and most recently, Canada.

According to US Supreme Court case law, corporations have aspects of personhood in the US. The recent Citizens United case gives corporations even more power over political campaigns, including allowing them to secretly fund political ads. Ben & Jerry's Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield will headline a forum on corporate personhood in Montpelier Tuesday night. Jennifer Taub of Vermont Law School will be another speaker; she explained on this show how the concept of corporate personhood developed and why your retirement savings may be used to advocate for causes you disagree with, without you even knowing about it.

Carl Etnier hosts.