We talk Austin movie houses, Trump’s ‘foreign policy,’ the success of ‘Viking Economics,’ the failed presidency of Mexico’s Peña Nieto, and the murder of Robert Spike.
Having way too much fun! From left, Rag Radio host Thorne Dreyer, engineer Tracey Schulz, and peace activists Medea Benjamin and Col. Ann Wright. Photo by Alan Pogue / The Rag Blog.
The following podcasts are from recent Rag Radio shows with host Thorne Dreyer. The syndicated Rag Radio program, produced in the studios of Austin’s cooperatively-run KOOP-FM, has an international audience and has become an influential platform for interviews with leading figures in politics, current events, literature, and cutting-edge culture.
♦ Susan Rittereiser & Mike Miller: ‘Historic Austin Movie Houses’ and the stories they tell!
Susan Rittereiser and Mike Miller of the Austin History Center are the authors of Historic Austin Movie Houses. We talk about Austin’s early theaters and the amazing history that surrounded them, including how the civil rights movement in Austin helped integrate them. We visit the world premiere of Batman: The Movie in Austin in 1966, and remember how the roof of the Queen Theater caved in during a Lex Barker Tarzan movie.
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our Feb. 10, 2017 Rag Radio show with Susan Rittereiser and Mike Miller, here — or listen to it here:
♦ Peace Activists Medea Benjamin & Col. Ann Wright: Trump and the World!
Two of the country’s most prominent peace and justice activists — Medea Benjamin and Col. Ann Wright — discuss Donald Trump and U.S. foreign policy and the growing resistance to his presidency. Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CodePink and the human rights group Global Exchange. Ann Wright is a retired United States Army colonel and former diplomat who publicly resigned from the U.S. State Department in direct protest of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our Feb. 3, 2017 Rag Radio interview with Medea Benjamin and Col. Ann Wright here — or listen to it here:
♦ George Lakey: ‘Viking Economics’ and What We Can Learn from the Nordic States
Sociologist, nonviolent activist, and author George Lakey’s latest book is Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right — and How We Can, Too. He points to the extreme polarization that existed in the Nordic countries before their turn towards a now thriving social democratic state and “the Nordic model” — which puts Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden at the top tier of international ratings for education, abundance of jobs, health care, and security for all people.
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our Jan. 27, 2017 Rag Radio interview with George Lakey, here — or listen to it here:
♦ Philip Russell on Mexico’s Peña Nieto: Corruption, Social Inequality & Broken Promises
Author and historian Philip L. Russell, who writes about Mexico for The Rag Blog, says it’s been “another bad year” for Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto. Phillip just published the third in a three-part series about the Peña Nieto presidency which Philip says “has been marked by corruption, social inequality, and broken promises.” We also discuss issues like the Trans-Pecos Pipeline, immigration, and Trump’s great wall (and whether Mexico is going to pay for it!).
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our Jan. 20, 2017 Rag Radio interview with Philip Russell here — or listen to it here:
♦ Paul Spike, Author of ‘Photographs of My Father’ & Bobby Byrd of Cinco Puntos Press
London-based writer Paul Spike is the author of five books, including Photographs of My Father: A Lost Narrative from the Civil Rights Era about his father, civil rights and religious leader Robert Spike, who was viciously and mysteriously murdered — a murder that was never solved. Paul Spike’s book, written when he was 23 years old, was named one of the best books of the year in 1973 by The New York Times. Poet and essayists Bobby Byrd is a publisher of Cinco Puntos Press which reissued the book in 2016.
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our Nov. 18, 2016 Rag Radio interview with Paul Spike and Bobby Byrd — or listen to it here:
Rag Radio, a weekly hour-long syndicated radio program that has aired more than 300 original shows since September 2009, is produced and hosted by Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer. Tracey Schulz is engineer and co-producer.
Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, a cooperatively-run all-volunteer community radio station in Austin, Texas, and is first broadcast live on KOOP every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CDT) and streamed live on the web. All Rag Radio shows are posted as podcasts at the Internet Archive.
Rag Radio can also be heard on WFTE, 90.3-FM in Mt. Cobb, PA, and 105.7-FM in Scranton, PA., on KPFT-HD3 90.1, Pacifica radio in Houston, on KKRN 88.5-FM in Round Mountain, CA, and as a featured podcast at Veterans Today. Find details here.
After broadcast, all Rag Radio shows are posted as podcasts at the Internet Archive.
Rag Radio is produced in association with The Rag Blog, a progressive Internet newsmagazine, and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
Please contact us at ragradio@koop.org.
[Thorne Dreyer is an Austin-based writer, editor, broadcaster, and activist. A pioneering alternative journalist, Dreyer was a founding editor of the original Rag in 1966 Austin and Space City! in Houston, and managed KPFT-FM, Houston’s Pacifica radio station. Dreyer now edits The Rag Blog, hosts Rag Radio, and is a director of the New Journalism Project. Contact Dreyer at editor@theragblog.com.]
