In his important new book, the influential media critic is ‘Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century.’
Bob McChesney was Thorne Dreyer’s guest on Rag Radio, Friday, February 20, 2015.
Our guest on Rag Radio is Robert W. McChesney, one of the most widely read and honored communication scholars in the world today. On the show we discuss issues related to McChesney’s important new book, Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century: Media, Politics, and the Struggle for Post-Capitalist Democracy.
Download the podcast of our hour-long January 20, 2015, Rag Radio interview with Bob McChesney here — or listen to it here:
Rag Radio is a weekly hour-long syndicated radio program produced and hosted by Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer. The show 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 and streamed live on KOOP every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CDT).
Among topics discussed on the show are the significance and likely fate of net neutrality, the commercialization of the Internet, and the future of our endangered print media and, for that matter, of serious journalism itself; the crippling effect of income inequality and the importance of grassroots activism in countering organized wealth in our society; the continuing encroachment of for-profit corporations into the public sector; and what a “post-capitalist democracy” might look like.
The Rag Blog‘s Roger Baker also participates in the discussion.
Bob McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was the co-founder of the influential media reform organization, Free Press, that has played a major role in the fight for a free Internet. Bob was previously our guest on Rag Radio in February 2011.
The Progressive’s Matthew Rothschild says we should read Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century, “and discover how capitalism is eating our democracy and devouring the web, and what you can do about it.” According to Sen. Bernie Sanders, McChesney “reveals once again why he is one of the thinkers who really matter to American society.”
Coming up on Rag Radio:
- FRIDAY, February 27, 2015: Vocalist Maryann Price, member of the Western Swing Hall of Fame, with live performance.
- FRIDAY, March 6, 2015: Populist progressive pundit and political activist Jim Hightower.
Rag Radio is hosted and produced by Thorne Dreyer. Tracey Schulz is the show’s engineer and co-producer, Roger Baker is our still photographer, and Jesse Spratt is our Rag Radio apprentice.
Rag Radio has aired more than 200 shows since September 2009, on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin, Texas. Rag Radio is broadcast live every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CST) on KOOP — and streamed live on the web — and is rebroadcast and streamed on Sundays at 10 a.m. (EST) on WFTE, 90.3-FM in Mt. Cobb, PA, and 105.7-FM in Scranton, PA. Rag Radio is also aired and streamed on KPFT-HD3 90.1 — Pacifica radio in Houston — on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. (CST).
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 founding “funnel” of the original Rag in 1966 Austin and managed KPFT-FM, the Pacifica radio station in Houston. Dreyer now edits The Rag Blog, hosts Rag Radio, and is a director of the New Journalism Project. Dreyer can be contacted at editor@theragblog.com.]
