Steppin' Out Of Babylon: Radio Interviews

Paul Stamets is President of Fungi Perfecti, a mail-order business supplying cultures, equipment and mycotechnologies to mushroom cultivators throughout the world. He has discovered four new species of mushrooms and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation and in "fungal bioremediation". He has authored five books including Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, The Mushroom Cultivator, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World and many articles and scholarly papers. His passion is to preserve, protect and clone as many ancestral strains as possible from the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest where he lives. In 2003 Stamets received a patent on mycopesticides which have the potential to replace most pesticides without harming the environment. He spoke at the 2004 Bioneers in San Rafael, California where this interview was conducted.His 6th book is Mycelium Running. Stamets' work is incredibly important for our health and future!

The Sustainable Solutions Caravan, a biodiesel bus running on pure vegetable oil, is going from the Bay Area to Costa Rica for the second time. It's leaving early Dec. and Zack Zaidman, Abeja Hummel, Tom Shaver and Stephen Brooks will be on it. Sue Supriano talks to them in this interview. On their way down south they will be promoting and popularizing sustainability (lots of permaculture) throughout the countries where they travel, focusing on the use of renewable energies, organic farming and sustainable lifestyles. They will share seeds, information and technologies for sustainable living that are environmentally, economically and socially relevant to local communities. They will connect farmers with organic distributors-- thereby providing economic incentive and technical help for farmers to transition to organic and they will support the creation of a network of people, projects, and organizations involved in all aspects of sustainable living solutions throughout neo-tropical Central America.They wi

Jim Marrs is the author of Inside Job: Unmasking the 9/11 Conspiracies. Jim is a veteran investigative journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of Rule by Secrecy and Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy which has sold 1.5 million copies since 1990. Inside Job examines the evidence for the case that powerful US officials must have acted from the inside to, at the very least, allow the 9/11 attacks to occur, remove or cover up criminal evidence and hamper inquiries into what happened on September 11, 2001.

Martha Dina Arguello is an environmental health coordinator with Physicians for Social Responsibility in Los Angeles. She has greatly expanded PSR's environmental health programs and its involvement with the highly effective Health Care Without Harm Coalition. She serves on many boards, including the board of the Science and Environmental Health Network, the Steering Committee of Californians for Pesticide Reform and the Latino Issues Forum's Water and Energy Advisory group. She is very active at the grassroots level as well and has been a community activist since high school.In this interview she talks about many issues -- toxic food, water, children's health, the importance of local communities controling what happens at the local level, etc.. She particularly focuses on the use of the "Precautionary Principle" which involves not using a method or substance or approach until it is clear that it is not harmful-- putting the burden of proof on the developer of the approach or substance, rather than on the sys

Catherine Austin Fitts is an investment banker who was with The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., Washington, DC, San Francisco, CA, and New York, NY She was President of this firm, responsible for founding and building this broker-dealer/investment bank with special emphasis on financial software technology and advanced decision science. She was also the was Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing (HUD) Commissioner in 1989-1990. While with HUD Fitts was responsible for the operations of the Federal Housing Administration and became a whistle blower going public with information about corruption in HUD and the misuse of these government funds meant for low cost housing. In this interview Fitts focuses on what's happening now with Section 8 housing while explaining what she discovered while working for HUD.She also speaks with great enthusiasm of Solari, Inc., of which she is the President and investment advisor. Solari is based in Hickory Valley, Tennessee where Fitts lives and is the very important p

Ali Sharif is the Project Director of Permacultura Latina America. The organization is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The permaculture approach was designed by Australian Bill Mollison in the late '70's and its methodology has traveled the globe. It is based on the connections between the combined issues of food, clean water, renewable energy, biological sanitation and dignified shelter and how they coalesce into an integrated process.Ali Sharif was born in Iran, educated in Europe and has been working in Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Brazil since 1988 when Permacultura Latina America, under his direction, started to teach this integrated and sustainable approach in Latin America. Most of the time Sharif has lived in the Amazon working with indigenous groups. The main work is to train others in the permaculture approach of harmony and balance. To date they have trained many many thousands of people throughout Latin America with an emphasis on Brazil-- a huge and important country where the disparity in i

Wanjira Mathai is the international liason for the world-renowned Green Belt Movement of Kenya. This movement was founded by Wagari Maathai, Wanjira's lengendary mother who is an attorney and women's and eco and human rights leader, member of a new, democratically-elected government of Kenya, and recent winner of the highly acclaimed, Nobel Peace Prize.Wajira Mathai is part of a new generation of emerging young leaders and is a rising figure in Kenyan and international environmental, women's and social justice movements. In this interview she describes the history of the Green Belt Movement of Kenya and how it functions as a catalyst for grassroots organizing of sustaniable projects in more in more countries in Africa as well as Kenya. She also speaks a bit of the new democratic Kenyan government and touches on that universal issue of sexism which exists in Kenya like everywhere else.

Christine Rose is the producer of the just completed film, Liberty Bound. It's her first film, supported solely by herself, and comes from intense concern and dedication to the getting the word out about what she describes as "the lies and oppression, and corruption that has invaded her country since 9/11". The film is excellent, inspired by the style of Michael Moore, though, of course, Christine Rose is her own dynamic self. In this interview she talks about her background and how she took it upon herself to do this film, many of the experiences, scenes and issues in the film, especially of the harassment of people with disregard for what used to be their constitutionally protected rights. She is a very inspiring person and this comes across in the interview. She wants to distribute the film as widely as possible, especially before the November election, and it's up to us, word of mouth, to distribute it and/or see it in our homes with friends.

Clifford Carnicom is a computer consultant and scientist. He has made it his business to look into the aerosol lines in the sky about which he, and others, are concerned. It is clear that planes are putting lines in the sky very often and in great quantity. It has been impossible to get information about who is doing this or what is in the aerosol material being discharged into our atmosphere. They are definitely NOT vapor trails which come from all planes and disappear very quickly. These stay in the air as they dissipate for many many hours, days, etc.. Carnicom has been researching this matter for something like 8 years and found that there is definitely particulate matter being discharged and it's not good for living things.Listen to this interview and start looking in the sky!www.this-must-stop.com

Ramao daSilva is a leader of the National Coordination Committee of the MST (Landless Workers' Movement of Brazil). In Brazil, 3% of the population owns two-thirds of the arable land resulting in a huge population of landless peasants and hungry people. Clara Long, who works with the US-based, Friends of the MST, translates the interview. DaSilva describes how the MST is democratically organized by being divided into collectives of families which are then part of a larger collective, etc.. The farmers farm organically with an objective of every person having at least one good meal a day.This year is the 20th anniversary of the founding of the MST, the largest grassroots organization of rural workers in the Americas-- perhaps in the world. DaSilva talks about the history of the formation of the MST, how the Workers' Party which was also formed 20 years ago, is now in power in Brazil, how President Lula supports the MST though his hands are presently tied in terms of real action with regard to land distrib

Richard Heinberg, a member of the Core Faculty at the New College of California in Santa Rosa, is the author of several award-winning books, the latest 2 of which are The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies and Power Down: Options and Actions for a Post Carbon World. In this radio show we discuss the issues of "peak oil", meaning that the peak of cheap and affordable oil (and natural gas) has passed and the end of the industrial age is coming to an end. Though the exact date is unknown it is agreed by all the experts it will be within the next ten years, and Heinberg thinks it will be within the next 2 years or so, probably starting in the next few months. How we prepare for this as individuals and as a society will make a huge difference in the ease with which we make this transition and the amount of suffering experienced in this moving out of the "age of oil". The time to start was yesterday, but better late than never.

Richard Heinberg is a writer and teacher whose focus in these times is "peak oil". Presently he teaches Human Ecology at New College of San Francisco in Santa Rosa, California. Two of his several books are The Party's Over-Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies and Powerdown:Options and Actions for a Post Carbon World. In this first of two interviews with Sue Supriano he explains that "peak oil" means that the cheap oil we've had available to build our industrial world is over and our industrialized world has already started coming to the end that is inevitable and which is likely to be a huge dislocation from the way of life to which we are accustomed in the "first world". It will affect the energy that we're used to having and transportation, food supply, common materials that we're used to which are based on oil-- plastic, clothes, buildings and on and on.In this interview he focuses on analyzing the geopolitical issues of who controls the remaining oil as well as the probable wars and political

Ruppert was in town to talk to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Aug. 31. While in the Bay Area he did an interview for Steppin' Out of Babylon. He talks about his upcoming book-- available in about mid-September from www.fromthewilderness.com and from general release in October. The title is Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil. It's a very well documented account of what happened on 9/11/2001 among other things.In this interview Ruppert describes what prevented planes from immediately intercepting the hijacked planes as they normally would have, and he names Cheney as being in charge of the operations of that day from the White House. Don't miss this show!!!

Michael Dorsey is a Professor at Dartmouth College in the Environmental Studies Department. Sue Supriano met him at the Reclaiming the Commons Teach-In in San Francisco in June, 04. Reclaim the Commons was the counter gathering to the biotech companies' conference at the same time. Dorsey talks about biopiracy of indigenous people, and the interlocking of corporations that are attempting to privatize even the genes of people.

Julian Darley is Founder/Director of the Post Carbon Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia, author of High Noon for Natural Gas: the New Energy Crisis. He describes kinds of natural gas, their depletion and scarcity, how they are located in countries not necessarily friendly to the US and the difficulties of transporting natural gas. Darley also focuses on how "relocalization" and living very very simply is the only way to deal with the depletion of oil and natural gas, both of which have already peaked, never to be available again as they have been before. We are nearing the end of the industrialized world, it will be a very big change and it behooves us to prepare starting right now to cushion the move into these new times. www.globalpublicmedia.com

Dr. Leonard Horowitz on the dangers of vaccines: Dr. Horowitz is a graduate of Harvard School of Public Health, an independent researcher, and author of several book and many articles. Emerging Viruses: Aids and Ebola- Nature, Accident or Intentional, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism & Toxic Warfare, Healing Celebrations... and others. In addition he's written many articles, had his own radio show, and appeared many times as a guest on the TV and radio shows of others.In this interview he focuses on the issue of vaccinations and how they can be more harmful than good, and the reasons why. Also on what we can do to educate others and take care of ourselves.

Dahr Jamail is an American independent writer for newstandardnews.net and can often be heard reporting from Iraq on Flashpoints on KPFA Radio. He has been on several trips to Iraq where he has spent months at a time. In fact, he just came from Iraq a couple of days before this interview in California. He speaks very movingly about life on a daily level in Iraq, with bombs going off all day and night. He speaks about the Iraqi people, himself, the US military-- all living in this unbelievably stressful environment where an Iraqi and/or those close to he/she, could be arrested and imprisoned and anyone can be killed at any time-- the pain of war and occupation-- both for the occupied and the occupiers, but especially the invaded and occupied Iraqis who, although they were mostly very hospitable to Jamail, were developing more and more hatred for American occupiers.

John Hepburn works with Greenpeace, Australia on the issue of genetic engineering. He was in San Francisco for the Reclaiming the Commons Teach In and action while the big biotech companies, such as Bayer and Monsanto and many others, were meeting in San Francisco. He speaks about the issues and horrors of genetic engineering, especially genetically engineered food which is so prevalent in the United States, but which is rejected by many countries, including Australia. He also speaks about other environmental issues in Australia that concern Greenpeace and should concern us all such as the cutting of old growth trees, poisoning of the water, oil drilling, genetically engineered seeds, etc.. He also shares his positive impression of activists in the US that he's meeting.

Mario A. Murillo is an assistant professor in the Audio/Video/Film Department of the School of Communication at Hofstra University. He is also the host of Pacifica Radio's Our Americas: The Weekly Report on Latin America and the Caribbean. He is the author of Columbia and the United States: War, Terror and Destabilization which is the focus of this radio interview. Murillo's family is from Columbia and he has spent much of life there as well as in the US. This brings a particular understanding of the situation there and US involvement in it, as millions on the tax dollars of Americans are spent in military "aid" in Columbia, a country where more journalists are killed per capita than in any other country.

Terminator Seeds, Nanotechnology: Hope Shand has been working with the Canadian based, ETC Group (Erosion, Technology and Concentration) for over 20 years. She is the Research Director and has written on agricultural biodiversity, corporate concentration and the the social and economic impacts of emerging technologies and who controls the ownership of the emerging technologies. Shand is the author of Human Nature: Agricultural Biodiversity and Farm Based Food Security. She lives in South Carolina. This interview took place during the Reclaim the Commons-Teach In in San Francisco in June, 2004.In this show the focus is on genetically modified food and on nanotechnology-- a very important, technology for creating from microscopic building blocks. People need to know more about it as it is already present in things we come into contact with, though it is not well understood or sufficiently tested. She especially talks about cosmetics.