Your Call 123108 What can we learn from the transformation of our oceans?

What can we learn by paying attention to the transformation of our oceans? On the next Your Call, we'll revisit a conversation we had with Sylvia Earle, one of the most accomplished oceanographers of our time. She's recognized by the Library of Congress as a living legend, called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker, and is Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. She's out with a new book called Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas. Join us on the next Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest: Sylvia Earle, world-renowned oceanographer

Click to Listen: What can we learn from the transformation of our oceans?

Your Call 123008 Why can't animals find their way?

Why is it becoming so difficult for animals to find their way? On the next Your Call, we'll replay a conversation we had with David Wilcove, author of No Way Home: The Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations. A Princeton biologist, Wilcove warns that because of the growing human population and our insatiable demand for resources, the phenomenon of migration is disappearing. What can we do to make sure animals get to where they are going? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: David Wilcove, author of No Way Home: The Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations

Click to Listen: Why can't animals find their way?

Your Call 122908 Who Controls Space?

Who controls space? On the next Your Call, we'll revisit a show we did as part of our series on the commons. Control of space is at the crux of the debate about the future of U.S. military space policy. What rules apply? Do military and commercial uses of space threaten its status as a shared resource? Is it time for a new space treaty? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests: Mike Moore, author of Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance  

Kim Alaine Rathman, member of the Society for Philosophy and Technology 

Click to Listen: Who controls space?

Your Call 122608 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it's our final Friday Media Roundtable of the year. Where did the media shine in 2008, where did it fail, and based on what we're dealing with today, what's in store for 2009? We'll be joined Craig Aaron, communications director of The Free Press, an organization working to reform the media, Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Alan Mutter, longtime newspaper reporter, and soon-to-be journalism professor at UC Berkeley's journalism school. Join us on the next Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Craig Aaron, communications director of Free Press

Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists

Alan Mutter, longtime newspaper reporter, and soon-to-be journalism professor at UC Berkeley's journalism school

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 122508 How do we save seeds?

What's the best way to go about preserving seeds and crop diversity? On the next Your Call, we'll replay a conversation we had about seeds and the Global Seed Vault. The vault was designed to protect the seeds that are essential to food production, but critics say the only way to truly preserve seeds in their natural form is to involve farmers. How can we guarantee that the food we eat today will be available for future generations? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Brewster Kneen, farmer, scholar, and publisher of the Ram's Horn, a monthly journal of food systems analysis

Claire Hope Cummings, author of Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds

Click to Listen: How do we save seeds?

Your Call 122408 Why shouldn't we tax churches?

Should churches be taxed and if they were, how does that affect small churches? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the tax exempt status of churches since they are considered charities providing public benefits. But in the wake of Proposition 8's passage, some argue churches, which supported the ballot measure, violated their tax-exempt status. So what are the laws? What's the history behind tax exemption for churches? And should churches be treated as non-profits? It's Your Call, with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests: Sarah Posner, author of God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters

Steven Waldman, editor-in-chief of Beliefnet

David Belden, managing editor of Tikkun magazine

Click to Listen: Why shouldn't we tax churches?

Your Call 122308 The downturn hits home

How is the economic crisis coming home for you? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the impact of recession on ordinary people. The state's unemployment rate has jumped to 8.4 percent its highest rate since the summer of 1994. Bay Area food banks and charity groups are being overwhelmed by huge jumps in requests for help as they are trying to cope with lack of resources. What unexpected effects is recession having on the way you or your neighbors live? Are you finding ways to cope? And what is in store for the future? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Ken Jacobs is the Chair of UC Berkeley's Labor Center

David Knego, Executive Director, Curry Senior Center

Rev. Cecil Williams, Founder of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. Glide is one of San Francisco's largest nonprofit agencies helping the poor and homeless.

Larry Sly, Executive Director of Contra Costa and Solano Food Bank

Click to Listen: The downturn hits home

Your Call 122208 Commons: Who owns human cultural heritage?

Who owns the artifacts of our human cultural heritage? On the next Your Call, we continue our series on the commons with a conversation on antiquities. Whether antiquities should be retuned to the countries where they were found is one of the most controversial issues in the art world today. For the past two centuries, the most powerful nations of the West have taken treasures of other countries to display in their museums. Who is the ultimate owner of the antiquities? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: McGuire Gibson, Professor in the Oriental Institute and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at University of Chicago.

Sharon Waxman, journalist and author of Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World.

Click to Listen: Commons: Who owns human cultural heritage?

Your Call 121908 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it's our Friday Media Roundtable. Chrysler has announced the closure of its 30 factories for at least one month and G.M. needs $4 billion this month to stay afloat. We will talk about continuing crisis in the auto industry with McClatchy's Kevin Hall. The shoe episode has put Iraq back in the headlines but what is not getting enough attention? We will be joined by independent journalist Dahr Jamail and ProPublica's T. Christian Miller. Where did you get the context you needed to make sense of the week's news? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Dahr Jamail, independent journalist
T. Christian Miller, investigative reporter for ProPublica
Kevin Hall, economic reporter with McClatchy

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 121808 Starving Arts Budgets

As public arts budgets shrink, what should we save? On the next Your Call, we will have a conversation about funding of the Arts during the economic downturn. San Francisco and Oakland are among many cities across the country proposing massive cuts to Arts budgets, and also threaten many cultural and artistic institutions with closure. How are the cuts going to impact the vibrant and diverse arts and cultural scene of the Bay Area? And what should be done to support the Arts? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Marco Barricelli, Artistic Director Shakespeare in Santa Cruz

Nancy Gonchar, Deputy Director San Francisco Arts Commission

Thomas DeCaigny, Executive Director of Performing Arts Workshop

Click to Listen: Starving Arts Budgets

Your Call 121708 Getting off the Gadget Treadmill

As the gift giving frenzy gets into relatively full swing, what happens to the discarded cellphones, computers and televisions? On the next Your Call we're talking all about the joys of holiday e-waste, and what we can do to reduce it. Electronic waste is only 2 percent of America's trash in landfills, but 70 percent of overall toxic waste. But most of the 100 million cellphones and 47 million computers thrown out each year are shipped to the poorest countries. Can you really fix the run down computer? Where can you recycle that extra television? Could someone else use your old cellphone? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Casey Harrel in Oakland
E-waste expert for Greenpeace International. He has been campaigning for over 10 years in the environmental field on toxic chemical reduction and energy issues, both for Greenpeace and other organizations in the Bay Area and Washington DC.

Jim Pucket in Seattle
Executive Director of the Basel Action Network, an international NGO working to end the global trade in toxic eWaste products.

Emy Tseng
Project Director for the Digital Inclusion Programs for the San Francisco Department of Technology. The digital inclusion program works with Goodwill and ReliaTech to collect used computers from City Agencies and businesses, refurbish them and place them in the community for people in need and distributes used cellphones in women's shelters

James W. Kao
Founder, President & CEO of GreenCitizen, a Bay Area eWaste recycling company.

Click to Listen: Getting off the Gadget Treadmills

Your Call 121608 Eating the Sun

As we attempt to design a sustainable world, what can we learn from plants? On the next Your Call, we welcome Oliver Morton, editor of Nature and author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet. Morton argues that photosynthesis is not only the key to humanity's history; it is also vital to confronting and understanding contemporary realities like climate change and the global food shortage. How can understanding the history of science help us change what we're facing today? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest: Oliver Morton in San Francisco
Author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet. He is also the Chief News and Features Editor at Nature, the world's leading interdisciplinary science journal.

Click to Listen: Eating the Sun

Your Call 121508 The Global Footprint

Would simply knowing how much we individually consume be enough to change the way we act? On the next Your Call we welcome Mathis Wackernagel, the executive director of the Global Footprint Network. Based in Oakland, but working around the world, the Global Footprint Network helps governments monitor how much nature we have, how much we use, and who uses what as closely as they monitor the stock market. Could ecological budgets and resource bank accounts make sustainable living more than a dream? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Mathis Wackernagel in San Francisco
Executive Director Global Footprint Network and co-creator of the concept of the Ecological Footprint.

Click to Listen: The Global Footprint

Your Call 121208 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it's our Friday media roundtable where we bring in reporters from the mainstream, alternative and international press to discuss the week in American media. This week was all about firing: the Illinois governor was charged with soliciting bribes for a certain vacant Senate seat and trying to get reporters he didn't like fired; a factory was taken over by fired workers; the parent-company of the Chicago Tribune filed for bankruptcy and NPR canceled two shows and fired dozens of reporters including some old familiar names. We'll speak with Alden Loury, Editor and Publisher of the Chicago Reporter; Lee Sustar, of the Socialist Worker and Barbara Ciara, President of the National Association Of Black Journalists. Where did you see the best reporting this week and where did it fall short? It's Your Call with Ben Temchine and you.

Guests: Alden Loury
Editor and Publisher of the Chicago Reporter, an investigative newsmagazine that has been covering Chicago's race, poverty and culture for 36 years. The Reporter is a project of the Community Renewal Society.

Lee Sustar in Chicago
Lee Sustar writes for the Socialist Worker and is a frequent contributor to CounterPunch and the International Socialist Review on labor issues.

Barbara Ciara in Norfolk
President of the National Association Of Black Journalists, which represents over 4,100 journalists and media professionals; Ms. Ciara is also managing editor at WTKR NewsChannel 3 in Norfolk, Virginia.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 121108 Beyond Prisons

After 30 years of "lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key", does California's fiscal crisis mean prison reform's time has come? On the next Your Call we'll discuss the financial and moral problem posed by prisons. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation consumes about 1 of every $10 in state general fund spending and our prisons are at double capacity. What other models are there for maintaining the peace? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Raquel Marisqual in Watsonville
Sr. Consultant for Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Site Development for the Annie E. Casey Foundation

Elaine Enns
Mediator & educator about restorative justice and conflict transformation. She has worked most recently at the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno Pacific University and the Center for Restorative Justice Works in Los Angeles.

Fernando Geraldo in Santa Cruz
Director of the Juvenile division Santa Cruz Probation department. Not the expert in the adult world.

Click to Listen: Beyond Prisons

Your Call 121008 60th Anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights

What difference does a treaty make? On the next Your Call we mark the 60th Anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights. Are human rights better respected after a country signs on to the Declaration? Does internal change for the better come from within and lead to signing, or do these agreements change the country? And as we leave the dark days of the Bush Administration behind us, what international human rights treaties are waiting for a willing president? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests: Connie De La Vega in Oakland
Professor at University San Francisco Law School. Worked at the UN for more than three decades representing human rights advocates and written extensively on national and international human rights law. Each year Professor De La Vega takes a student delegation to watch the commission on the status of women and the human rights council in Geneva, Swizerland.
 
Jamil Dakwar in New York
Director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program. He has more than 10 years experience in human rights litigation and advocacy in the U.S. and abroad.

Click to Listen: 60th Anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights

Your Call 120908 Crisis in Gaza

What is the International Community doing to help the people of Gaza? On the next Your Call, we'll take a look at the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has warned that its warehouses in Gaza will be totally empty in two or three days if Israel does not open the crossings to allow the entry of humanitarian supplies. Eighty percent of the population depends on humanitarian aid. What is daily life like for people in Gaza? Who is helping? And who has access to Gaza? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Paul LaRudee, the Northern California head of the International Solidarity Movement

Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights to the Palestinian Occupied territories

Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Irish Nobel Peace laureate and co-founder of the Community of Peace People

Karen Abu Zayed, the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza

Click to Listen: Crisis in Gaza

Your Call 120808 Global Commons -- Whales & Sharks

How is the environment for whales and shark changing? On the next Your Call, we continue our series on the global commons, with a discussion about the state of whales and sharks. According to the United Nations about ten million sharks are killed each year for their valuable fins. Whales are also facing ever-increasing dangers despite the 20-year ban on commercial whaling. So what's been done to save these sacred and precious creatures? And can we save them? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: David McGuire, conservation filmmaker, a field associate of the California Academy of Sciences and a shark advocate.

Douglas Long, Chief Curator, Natural Sciences at Oakland Museum of California. formerly chair of the Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences, he is currently teaches in the Department of Biology at Saint Mary's College in Moraga.

Stan Minasian, a naturalist with the Oceanic Society.

Click to Listen: Global Commons -- Whales & Sharks

Your Call 120508 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it's our Friday Media Roundtable when we host a conversation with journalists from the mainstream, alternative and international press about the way the news was reported. This week we'll be joined by Sreenath Sreenivasan, president of the South Asian Journalists Association to talk about coverage of the attack on Mumbai, both here and around the world. We'll also be joined by Mark Hertsgaard, environmental correspondent for The Nation. Where did you see the best reporting this week? It's your call with me, Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: Sreenath Sreenivasan in New York
Dean of student affairs & professor, Columbia journalism school. He is also the tech reporter for WNBC-TV in New York and he is the co-founder and former president of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association

Mark Hertsgaard in Marin
Environmental correspondent for The Nation and the author of many books, including Earth Odyssey: Around the World In Search of Our Environmental Future.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 120408 Understanding the Collapse

Have global efforts to resuscitate our economy done any good? On the next Your Call, we'll discuss what we know about the ongoing financial, consumer and economic crises. By now, most Americans folks have at least a generally accurate understanding of how we got into the mess. Are the agencies crafting a response getting the details right? How have hard times hit your house? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests: John Schmitt in Washington
Senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. He has also worked with the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the Global Policy Network and the International Labor Organization.

Chris Carey
Editor of BailoutSleuth.com, an online publication monitoring the government's purchase, and eventual sale, of bad mortgages and other distressed assets, tracking and analyzing deals and providing information about the companies and people involved in them.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb in Greece
Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University & visiting professor of marketing at London Business School. He is the former managing director and head trader at Union Bank of Switzerland. His most recent book is The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.

Click to Listen: Understanding the Collapse

Your Call 120308 Obama's Foreign Policy Team

Will President Obama usher in a new era of American foreign policy? On the next Your Call we welcome Andrew Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. This week President-elect Obama announced his foreign policy team including Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. What do his choices tell us about how he plans to use American military, economic and soft power? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest: Andrew Bacevich in Boston
Professor of international relations at Boston University and author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

Click to Listen: Obama's Foreign Policy Team

Your Call 120208 A community-based water policy

What should a community-based water policy look like? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the growing push to privatize water. This week, multinationals, including Coca-Cola and Nestle Water, are meeting in San Francisco for a conference called "Corporate Water Footprinting." Environmentalists are having a gathering of their own to challenge corporate control of water. What needs to happen to ensure water remains a fundamental human right and stays in public hands? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests: Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief, Winnemem Wintu Tribe
Amit Srivastava, Coordinator, International Campaign Against Coca-Cola

Click to Listen: A community-based water policy