We also talk about the U.S. Postal Service and grassroots efforts by workers and supporters to fight back against privatization.
Jim Hightower on Rag Radio, Friday, March 6, 2015. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.
Progressive populist writer and radio commentator Jim Hightower, for years a major force on the populist left, is our guest on Rag Radio. On the show we talk about our “authoritarian corporate plutocracy” and what Hightower sees as a growing “populist rebellion” in the United States.
We discuss issues raised in his recent article, published at the Hightower Lowdown, entitled, “What Occupy, the Climate March and #BlackLivesMatter have in common — and why that should inspire us all.” Jim talks about the rise of an authoritarian plutocracy in the United States — and what he sees as “diverse rebellions by those battling everything from poverty wages to police brutality, from fracking to bank fraud, [that] are fundamentally altering the nature, language, content, and context of America’s political dialogue and dynamics.”
And he believes those diverse rebellions are seeing common cause and are coming together into a larger grassroots populist movement.
We also talk about the unique importance of the U.S. Postal Service and grassroots efforts by the postal union and community groups to fight back against privatization.
Download the podcast of our March 6, 2015, Rag Radio interview with Jim Hightower 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).
Jim Hightower, flanked by Rag Radio’s Tracey Schulz, left, and Thorne Dreyer, in the studios of KOOP-FM in Austin, Texas, March 6, 2015.
Jim Hightower, who was twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, has for years been a major force on the populist left. Jim broadcasts daily radio commentaries, publishes the Hightower Lowdown, and is the author of Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow and Thieves in High Places.
Listen to our earlier Rag Radio interviews with Jim Hightower here.
This show was broadcast during Austin community radio station KOOP-FM’s spring membership drive and solicitation for financial support for the station has been removed.
Coming up on Rag Radio:
- FRIDAY, March 13, 2015: Ellen Sweets, author of Stirring it Up With Molly Ivins, on her coverage of the Guantanamo trials, on writing about food and culture, and on the issue of gentrification in Austin.
- FRIDAY, March 20, 2015: Vocalist Maryann Price, member of the Western Swing Hall of Fame and the Texas Music Hall of Fame — with live performance.
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 250 shows since September 2009, on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin, Texas. Rag Radio is broadcast live every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CDT) on KOOP — and streamed live on the web — and is rebroadcast and streamed on Sundays at 10 a.m. (EDT) 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. (CDT).
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. Contact Dreyer at editor@theragblog.com.]
