We dive into higher ed, live on the Asian-American hyphen, get anarchic, go populist, and dig us some honky-tonk.
Kate Catterall, Rich Reddick, and Julia Mickenberg in the KOOP studios, March 25, 2013. Photos by Roger Baker / 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.
♦ ‘The Future of Higher Education’: Julia Mickenberg, Rich Reddick & Kate Catterall
UT-Austin professors Julia Mickenberg, Rich Reddick, and Kate Catterall teach a unique grant-funded experimental collaborative course at the University of Texas at Austin called “The History and Future of Higher Education” that was inspired by the goal “to make UT the smallest big university in the world.” We discuss this innovative course and the larger questions of higher education in America.
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our March 25, 2016 Rag Radio interview with Julia Mickenberg, Rich Reddick, and Kate Catterall, here — or listen to it here:
♦ ‘Living on the Hyphen’: The Asian-American Experience, with Leng Wong, Anu Naimpally, Toshio Mana & cindy soo
Actress and director Leng Wong, dancer/choreographer Anuradha Naimpally, musician Toshio Mana, and the Austin Chronicle’s cindy soo discuss their production of “Living on the Hyphen,” a multi-cultural, contemporary collaboration of Austin-based performing artists of Asian descent — and also discuss the larger issues involved with living the Asian-American experience, including “personal and social topics such as racial identities, forms of communication, immigration, racism and consumerism.”
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our March 18, 2016 Rag Radio interview with Leng Wong, Anu Naimpally, Toshio Mano, and cindy soo here — or listen to it here:
♦ Renowned Anarchist Author and Activist scott crow
Internationally known anarchist thinker, author, and organizer scott crow is known for his work in direct action and civil disobedience, animal liberation, radical environmentalism, anti-globalization, and worker cooperatives. He was co-founder of the anarchist Common Ground Collective in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and is also a filmmaker and musician. The FBI labeled crow a “domestic terrorist,” and had him under surveillance for over a decade.
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our March 11, 2016 Rag Radio interview with scott crow, here — or listen to it here:
♦ Jim Hightower on the Bernie Sanders Revolution, ‘Donnie’ Trump, Corporate ‘Ethics’
Prominent populist pundit and Bernie Sanders surrogate Hightower joins us in discussing the latest twists and turns in the bizarre presidential primary politics, including the special danger posed by the ascendance of the far right in Republican politics, represented not only by Donald Trump, but also by Ted Cruz. We discuss the Sanders campaign and the growing left populist movement in this country and Hightower also talks about corporate “ethics,” including the dangerous doctrine of “shareholder hegemony.”
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our March 4, 2016 Rag Radio interview with Jim Hightower here — or listen to it here:
♦ Austin Country/Folk/Honky-Tonk! The Melancholy Ramblers Live!
Popular Austin band The Melancholy Ramblers, who play an eclectic mix of country, folk, gospel, and honky-tonk — with a progressive political bent — join us in performance and conversation. With us are Brady Coleman on vocals and guitar; Marco Perella on vocals and hummel; and Frances Barton on vocals and accordion. They perform rousing renditions of Woody Guthrie’s “Going Down that Road Feeling Bad” and “This Land is Your Land,” Marco Perella’s original song about the Russian revolution, “Anarchists’ Ball,” and more.
Read the full show description and download the podcast of our February 26, 2016 Rag Radio program featuring live performance by the Melancholy Ramblers — or listen to it here:
COMING ON RAG RADIO:
- Friday, April 8, 2016: Kent State survivor Thomas Grace, author of Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties.
- Friday, April 22, 2016: Peace activist and ’60s New Left leader, Tom Hayden & his wife, the actress, musician, and author, Barbara Williams.
- Friday, April 29, 2016: Historian Paul Buhle, editor of a graphic novel about martyred Irish republican, James Connolly.
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.]
