Steppin' Out Of Babylon: Radio Interviews

Arcwire.org is a website that functions as a clearinghouse which provides informed news and creates context for what is happening in the green movement. It is a clearinghouse for information regarding various issues and aspects involved in transition to a sustainable global culture including green building design, new transportation, renewable energy, environmental policy, creative capitalism and more. Manley gives a very upbeat, positive presentation. He claims we really need to start asking better questions in relation to where the global culture is headed.For example on peak oil the thing with it is nobody knows whether we hit peak oil last year, two years ago, or will three years from now. The point is it doesn't really matter. The real question is why aren't we switching to the only form of energy this planet survives on which is solar energy. Oil is a form of solar energy. We're taking past solar energy and burning through it as fast as we can in a way that harms our future. Too much of our current focu

Many people in other countries ask Benjamin why more US citizens don't speak out against the war in Iraq and the fact that their government doesn't spend enough money on domestic needs such as basic infrastructure, schools and health. Medea assures them there is a large movement of people organizing, mobilizing and inspiring others and that part of the job of activists is to raise people's spirits since so many feel overwhelmed, disempowered and depressed.Medea explains how "Code Pink" has developed into a movement sending out weekly alerts to its mailing list of 180,000 subscribers. 250 Code Pink groups around the world are working to expose the link between money spent on war and lack of resources for healthcare, education and welfare. Asked how she continues so steadily in her long term activism, she talks of her most recent trip to Pakistan where even though afraid she urged herself to look through the fear to the bigger message. She relates a frightening incident in which she and an associate had their c

Francisco Letelier lives in Southern California. He is a visual artist, poet and was part of "Spoken Word" at the Oregon Country Fair, a huge event with visitors and participants from all over the world and which takes place outside of Eugene, Oregon every July for the past almost 40 years. The Fair of 2007 is Letelier's fourth Fair and he talks about his focus on "cultural memory" and how a group of people come to understand what they have in common and manifest it.His father, Orlando Letelier was assassinated in Washington, DC in 1976. He had been a member of the Salvador Allende government in Chile which had been democratically elected in 1970. It was the first Socialist Government in the Western Hemisphere and was overthrown in 1973 by the Chilean military backed by the CIA. Orlando Letelier spent time in a concentration camp and after his release was killed by a Chilean hit squad in collaboration with anti-Castro Cubans on Sept. 21, 1976 in Washington, DC on his way to work on Embassy Row. An American co

Chanan Suarezdiaz is an Iraq War Veteran and an anti-war activist. He is the President of the Seattle, Washington Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Suarezdiaz was a medic in Iraq from September 2004 until February 2005 when he got seriously wounded in the back by shrapnel. He spent many months in Ramadi, Iraq and recounts some of that experience in this interview. He calls it a "racist war of oppression". He also talks about the important organizing he's doing with Iraq Veterans Against the War both inside the military itself where anti-war sentiment is growing quickly all the time and among veterans. This interview occurred in Eugene, OR in the beginning of 2008 when he and David Solnit were touring and organizing for IVAW and the "counter-recruitment" movement just before the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq where way over a million Iraqis have been killed as well as over 4000 Americans at that time. He reports that the US troops don't want to be in Iraq and Suarezdiaz cites some of

Cynthia McKinney is running for US President on the Green Party Ticket. McKinney served in the US House of Representatives for 12 years, representing the State of Georgia. She also served a term in the Georgia State Legislature before that. She is African American as were many of the people she was representing in her district in Atlanta. She is an amazing woman who has been "speaking truth to power" during her time in Government, before and after. As so many others, especially African Americans, she has suffered repercussions. Her Congressional District boundaries were gerrymandered to include White Republicans who hadn't been there before. To add insult to injury, Clarence Thomas voted to let that continue. She also spoke up about the shoddy investigation of 911 and is asking for more. She voted against the Iraq War and, in the vote to fund the war that happened just after she was "pushed out" of Congress, her presence would have made the vote to continue funding the Iraq war lose.In this interview, McKinne

Bruce Lipton, PhD, author of The Biology of Belief is regarded as one of the leading voices of the new biology. Lipton lectures to conventional and other health and medical professionals as well as lay audiences about leading-edge science and how it dovetails with mind-body medicine and spiritual principles. He also leads his own workshops. He says that many people report having improved their spiritual, physical and mental well being from applying the principles he discusses. Dr Lipton's work shows that the environment, and more specifically, our perception (interpretation) of the environment, directly controls the activity of our genes through a process known as epigenetic control. This new perspective of human biology incorporates the role of mind and spirit which is fundamental in all healing. It recognizes that when we change our perception or beliefs we send totally different messages to our cells and reprogram their expression. Lipton explains that the (self)conscious mind is the "thinking" mind and th

These writings can be found on the internet at http://www.thefinalempirebook.com and http://www.gardenplanetbook.com.William H. Kötke's origins were on a farm in Oregon. He has been a journalist, a radio script writer, a pamphleteer, a novelist, an essayist, and has had many articles published in periodicals. In these 2 half-hour interviews he speaks of how "civilization" is out of the flow of planetary energy. Although tribal people lived within the biological flows of the planet for a million years, "civilization" has meant that the farm was to export as much as farmers could grow from the soil. This practice has resulted in depleting the soil to the point where half the present world's population is fed with food fed by fossil fuel fertilizers. "Civilization" has been a suicidal denigration and using up of our earthly resources for the last 6000 years-- since Babylon. "Civilization" is also equivalent to "Empire" which consists of hierarchy, militarism, materialism and patriarchy. It exhausts and kills the

William H. Kötke is the author of The Final Empire, The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future and Garden Planet: The Present Phase Change of The Human Species, available in paperback and electronic form.These writings can be found on the internet at http://www.thefinalempirebook.com and http://www.gardenplanetbook.com.In this interview Kötke repeats from Program 1 that "civilization" (also called "empire") has swelled the social body by sucking the fertility out of the topsoil and causing the loss of our earth's fertility and therefore our ability to feed ourselves. Just in the 25 years from 1975 to 2000 we lost one fifth of the world's topsoil. (See the summary from William Kötke 1 for more info.) If we look back over 6000 years of this type of exploitation of our environment we see that we have lost the diversity we need. Presently the basic commercial crops in the world are only ten species which include rice, corn and potatoes. This is because, even though we can get more protein out of an a

Dr. Nick Begich, author of 5 books, including Angels Don't Play This HAARP talks about HAARP which is the military's High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project. It consists of an array of antennas that is being used to create a shield of energy around the Earth. This technology could possibly replace bullets and missiles for warfare in the near future and can be used to affect the brainwaves of humans and other living things in a positive or negative way.Dr. Nick Begich is an independent scientist, a doctor of alternative and complimentary medicine, and author of many books including Angels Don't Play This HAARP and Controlling the Human Mind (2007). He is the son of the late Congressman from Alaska and he continues to live in Alaska where HAARP is. He was following what was going on since HAARP was developed and continues to follow what it's doing as much as possible given that now HAARP is considered "top secret". However, since Begich's mission is to track and translate science so that average people c

Lt. Ehren Watada is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to go back to Iraq. He spoke on March 17, 2007 at the Fourth Eugene, Oregon Peace Rally along with others including Kitty Piercy, the Mayor of Eugene.On 3/17/07 Eugene mayor, Kitty Piercy, Lieutenant Ehren Watada, and others came together for peace with one hope -- to unite our global neighborhood, as we are all interconnected and our voices are strong! Hear about The City Council of Eugene's Resolution 4907 to end the war. Listen to the wisdom of Lt. Watada, who publicly refused to go back to the combat in Iraq on 6/27/06, becoming the first commissioned officer to do so.This senseless Iraq War has carried a death toll of 3000 US troops and 650,000 Iraqis. Furthermore, countless innocent civilians have been injured, maimed and traumatized by the destruction of their homes, schools, businesses, sanitation, water, and basic infrastructure. Lt. Watada says, "We must not rest until we insure that every American and then every person has their

Dr. Nick Begich, author of 5 books, including Angels Don't Play This HAARP talks about HAARP which is the military's High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project. It consists of an array of antennas that is being use tocreate a shield of energy around the Earth. He talks about mind control, cell phones & RFID implants in humans in this interview.Dr. Nick Begich, author of Angels Don't Play This HAARP, explains that HAARP stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project. He is also Executive Director of the Lay Institute which deals with technology issues. He states that it's very crucial to he and his colleagues in the Lay Institute to have hard evidence of what they talk about and that they are known for their credibility. He urges others to be as particular about knowing our facts as well.With regard to cell phones- Begich explains that George Carlo did research on cell phones clearly establishing that they were not safe and that this evidence was distorted by the Government. Any chordless phones

Joel Garbon and Steve Kaplan from the New Energy movement of Portland, OR discuss their plan to save our planet with clean, safe, abundant, inexpensive energy for all. We have a choice to become a sustainable society.Joel Garban and Steve Kaplan of New Energy Movement based in Portland, OR talk about their mission to create the world we envision. Here is their mission statement:Our very survival will require a vast and dramatic shift in how human civilization generates and uses energy and the world we envision. It is clean, safe, abundant, inexpensive energy for all; stabilized climate, clean and healthy water, food and air for all, beautiful blue skies over our cities, low impact sustainable forestry and agriculture, beautiful landscapes unspoiled by wires and smokestacks, recycling of virtually all wastes, rivers running free and natural, thriving sustainable local economies, living standards and education rates increasing, birth rates declining, a global culture of sharing unleashed human creativity, a new

John Streicker, a speaker on the Climate Change panel at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon. He lives in the Yukon Territory. He speaks about the direct effects of climate change that can be vividly seen on a daily basis in Alaska.John Streicker, of the Northern Climate Exchange speaks about the obvious effects of global warming and climate change that can be seen on a daily basis in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. He is an activist and artist originally from Canada, who lives with his wife in a cabin on the headwaters of the Yukon River. He has lived in many other countries and has vast experience outside of Canada as well.Climate change is the number one environmental issue of the day as John tells us about how the glaciers melting at such an alarming rate, will negatively impact the food and water supply for our whole planet. There is also the impact of the forest being destroyed because of the higher temperatures and drought that climate change is causing. Nature

Annie Kajir, environmental attorney, activist and Director of the Environmental Law Center of Papua New Guinea. The land of these indigenious people is being logged at a disastrous rate. Although the state legally only owns 3% of the land, while its constituents own the remaining 97%, the "powers that be" continue to destroy the homes and villages of these native and rightful landowners.Annie Kajir is an indigenous native woman of Papua New Guinea. She is also an environmental activist, attorney, and the Director of the Environmental Law Center that she helped to establish. She received the Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco for her work protecting the resources of New Guinea. She gave a keynote speech at the Public Interest and Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon in March 2007.On that occasion she presented a slideshow that showed the horrendous logging in New Guinea. In this show she speaks about the island nation of Papua New Guinea, an area that has 850 dif

Colleen Sisk Franco and Mark Franco have been struggling for their rights to hold their sacred ceremonies on the land of the Winnemem Wintu people. Colleen Sisk Franco is the Chief and Spiritual Leader of her people, the Winnemem Band of the Wintu people who are of the McCloud River area of Mt. Shasta in California. Mt. Shasta is one of the most 20 sacred mountains on the earth. The Winnemem Wintu people are from inside the mountain and came out through the spring in order to take care of the watershed from the spring all the way down until it becomes the McCloud River. The water is very pure and doesn't need to be purified as most of the water in the world does. This is more important than ever these days when there is almost no pure water to drink and water is being privatized. Without pure water we can't live.They've been working with the forest service for thirty years to preserve the meadows where thousands of tourists go to Mt. Shasta to ski and go to the springs often damaging the fragile ecosystem and

Richard Moore is the author of Escaping the Matrix-- How We the People Can Change the World. He talks about the 6000 years of the history of civilization which, in human history, is a story of ever evolving hierarchical systems ruled by elites arriving now at the point there is one regime that can rule the world. "Civilized" man is synonymous with "domesticated' man-the 'masses' do the work, fight the wars to consolidate the take-over of others and consolidate empire. Since it's "we the people" who care about ourselves Moore thinks that the only way we're going to take care of ourselves and our welfare in these challenging times is by creating a truly democratic society for ourselves.One of the main points Moore wants to make in this interview is that things are almost never as they seem. He talks about the 20th century--just before WWI a strategy was formed by Britain and the US based on their understanding that when they control the buying and selling of oil they also control global finance and then control

Richard Moore is the author of Escaping the Matrix-- How We the People Can Change the World. Moore points out that civilization today is heading for disaster and direct engagement of citizens is crucial for our survival now. There is nothing we can do in our current system, ruled by elites, which is set up to divide us from one another and then allow us to choose which brand of elites will control us. We, the people, have to learn to work together and those who disagree need to learn how to solve problems together. Mostly, we don't know how to do that. Moore thinks that the technology of communication is very useful, but most people aren't exposed to it and training them would be most helpful. Moore has had experience that leads him to know that it's possible to take any twelve people from at random and put them together for three days and facilitate dialogue between them and at the end of the three days they'll have bonded, will know and respect each other, hear each other's valid concerns and can start work

Joseph McCormick is the founder of Reuniting America, Engaging Across the Great Divide-meaning the great divide of politics. After leaving the military McCormick studied process work (organizational behavior), and then entered politics and ran for office as a member of the Republican Party. During his time as a politician he became very disillusioned with the possibilities for change. We live in a "democratic republic" he says. Republic is like monarchy and monarch is president. The "democratic" part means grassroots participation.Reuniting America believes that that key is a healthier, more democratic situation is to honor that all points are valid and can fit together. Sometimes we need facilitation to help see this and then we begin to get to "wisdom"-- the truth of what really happened. There you can get the best solution. When people don't hear each other it could even lead to civil war. He says they are applying social technology, i.e. process work, to "re-integrate -- to find ways to re-integrate the t

Timothy LaSalle is the Executive Director of the Northwest Earth Institute based in Portland, Oregon. There are Earth Institutes in Vermont and Texas Earth well. This interview was conducted at the Bioneers in Eugene, Oregon in October, 2006, where LaSalle led a workshop, "Awakening to Ecocide-- An Important Conversation". LaSalle recently completed a PhD in Depth Psychology. He says that he and his wife have seen a lot of suffering and ecological devastation in their travels throughout the planet. He thinks that people who talk about these things (are "awake") are sometimes marginalized, but it's worth it because they face their despair and get into a place of action. The myth we're dealing from from our culture is one of death, insecurity and emptiness. We need a myth that comes from reverence. This destructive culture is really a short blip on the continuum of history of unconscious behavior. Value has to be rooted in earth or is incorrect. We need to realize how we're being manipulated too. I have to beco

Wayne Madsen, of http://waynemadsenreport.com, is a courageous investigative journalist and syndicated columnist whose articles have appeared in publications such as In These Times, The Miami Herald, and the Village Voice. Madsen has appeared on 20/20, 60 Minutes and Nightline. He is the author of Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999 and the Handbook of Personal Data Protection. He was a former Officer in the US Navy. He writes from Washington, DC-"inside the Beltline". In this interview he focuses on his most recent book, Jaded Tasks-Brass Plates, Black Ops, & Big Oil: The Blood Politics of George Bush & Co. Because of his background he has a lot of contact with "insiders" who give him information which he's willing to share with us. Just some of the topics he talks about are: Fundamentalist Christians, the deaths of a list of men who disagreed with the Bush administration and who, though they supposedly died in plane accidents or by suicide, Madsen, along with others, thinks were murdered.He d