Your Call 050208 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it's our Media Roundtable. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright continues to dominate headlines. Is the coverage justified? The American Prospect's Sarah Posner joins us to discuss religion coverage in general. And the Free Press's Harvey Wasserman will talk about coverage of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a law requiring citizens to show an ID card before voting. We'll also talk about the coverage of Iraq. Where did you see solid reporting? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist and the author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq

Sarah Posner has covered the religious right for The American Prospect, The Gadflyer, and AlterNet. Her new book is God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters

Harvey Wasserman, Senior Editor of Free Press

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 050108 Where is Labor today?

Where is Labor today? On the Next Your Call, on May Day, we will have a discussion with Fernando Gapasin, co-author of the book Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice. The book examines the changes in U.S. manufacturing and influence of the environment on labor. How important is organized labor today? And what does it mean to you? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Fernando Gapasin, co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice; A new direction for labor by two of its leading activist intellectuals

Dr. Steven Pitts, a Labor Policy Specialist at Center for Labor Studies at UC Berkeley

Clarence Thomas, co-chair of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

Click to Listen: Where is Labor today?

Your Call 043008 The Vitamin Quandary

Are the vitamins you’re taking helping or hurting? On the next Your Call we’ll talk about recent nutritional research that has shown limited benefits to taking dietary supplements and vitamins. With the FDA not testing the health claims of the manufacturers and peer reviewed studies casting doubt on their efficacy, what do we know about vitamin and mineral supplements? What can they do? Are they ever necessary for people who eat a relatively healthy diet? It’s Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Dr. Stephen Barrett in Chapel Hill
Retired psychiatrist and co-author and editor of 50 books including the textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Choices. He is the founder and editor of quackwatch.org.
 
Dr. Lisa Bero in San Francisco
Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at UCSF and Co-Director of the United States San Francisco Cochrane Center. Dr. Bero is a pharmacologist with primary interests in how clinical and basic sciences are translated into clinical practice and health policy.

Click to Listen: The Vitamin Quandary

Your Call 042908 The Death of Dr. King

Forty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., how relevant is his message today? On the next Your Call, we'll speak with Michael Eric Dyson, author of April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and How it Changed America. Dyson tells personal stories about King, specifically how he thought about and prepared for his assassination. He said he went to bed many nights scared to death. How have King's words impacted the political conversation we're having today? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guest:
Michael Eric Dyson in San Francisco
University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University and author of sixteen books including April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and How It Changed America

Michael Eric Dyson Events:

• Tuesday night in Lafayette


• Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco


• Wednesday night in Oakland

Click to Listen: The Death of Dr. King

Your Call 042808 Controlling Contractors

After years of shocking revelations about their actions in war zones, what roles are contractors playing in America's diplomatic and military efforts? On the next Your Call we'll speak with contractors-turned-whistleblowers and a representative of what they are calling Peace Operation Companies about the laws that have changed, and which still don't apply. Did the bad press about murders, rapes and hefty bills cause a governmental rethink about contractors, or has business returned to normal in the fog of war? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Kevin Lanigan in Washington, DC
Director of the Law & Security Program at Human Rights First. He leads Human Rights First's efforts to ensure a greater understanding of and respect for human rights in U.S. national security policy.

Tara Lee in Reston, VA
Former Navy JAG and former Resident Fellow at the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics at the United States Naval Academy. She currently practices law in the National Security Practice Group of a major U.S. law firm.

Jamie Leigh in Texas
Former contractor for KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, in Iraq who sued KBR after she was allegedly raped by co-workers and imprisoned by her superiors. After two years of investigation, neither the Pentagon nor the Justice Department have filed charges.

Todd Kelley in Texas
Jamie Leigh's Lawyer

Click to Listen: Controlling Contractors

Your Call 042508 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it's our Friday media roundtable when we speak with journalists about the differences between what happened and what was reported. This week we'll speak with Dan Froomkin, writer of the column White House Beat on Washingtonpost.com, and Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher. This week saw a blockbuster investigative reporting piece in the New York Times exposing the financial and personal web that tied the Pentagon to purportedly independent military analysts. Was this just getting the message out as the Pentagon claimed, or a tax payer supported disinformation campaign? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Dan Froomkin in Virginia
Writer of the column White House Beat on Washingtonpost.com

Greg Mitchell in New York
Editor of Editor and Publisher and author of So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits--and the President--Failed on Iraq

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 042408 The Beginning of the End

Why is the American Dollar doing as badly as it is? On the next Your Call we speak with Kevin Phillips, author of Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism. Phillips has been chronicling the effects of imperial America and political religiosity since the beginning of the Bush Administration. As the sun sets on the Bush years, Phillips sifts through the wreckage of our economic system and a legacy built on oil wars, easy credit and financial volatility. Are we losing the American way of life? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Kevin Phillips in San Francisco
Former aid to President Nixon and author of Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism and 13 previous books including American Theocracy and the critically acclaimed The Emerging Republican Majority

Kevin Phillips is speaking tonight at the World Affairs Council in SF at 6:00 pm

Click to Listen: The Beginning of the End

Your Call 042308 McMafia

How do the international black market and national governments collude and cooperate in the black market? On the next Your Call we speak with journalist Misha Glenny, author of McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld. Glenny was correspondent in South-eastern Europe and chronicled the rise of the criminal gangs that prospered during the post-Soviet chaos. The World Trade Organization now estimates that 20 percent of global trade is now controlled by criminal enterprises. Where does the line between illegal arms and drug dealing cross into official state policy? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest:
Misha Glenny in San Francisco
Author of McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld.

Click to Listen: McMafia

Your Call 042208 EPA's Environmental Policies

What's the current status of the Environmental Protection Agency? On the next Your Call, on Earth Day, we'll take a look at how environmental policies have changed under the Bush administration. Since its inception in 1970, the EPA has monitored air, water, land and human health but according to critics, the Agency has put politics and money over science. What's it going to take to get the EPA to do its job? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Dr. William Hirzy, a senior EPA scientist and Ph.D., executive vice president of National Treasury Employee Union Chapter 280.

Kurt Gottfried, co-founder and chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is emeritus professor of physics at Cornell University.

EPA representative to be confirmed

Click to Listen: EPA's Environmental Policies

Your Call 042108 What caused the global food crisis?

What's behind the current global food crisis? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Since 2007, there has been a 40 percent rise in food prices worldwide, making rice, corn, and wheat unaffordable for many people. As a result, food riots are on the rise. How did this crisis happen? Who's been impacted? And where should we look for solutions? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Raj Patel, visiting scholar in the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley

Click to Listen: What caused the global food crisis?

Your Call 041808 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it's our Friday media roundtable. This week saw the worst series of suicide bombings in Iraq in months. We'll talk with the Independent's Iraq correspondent and author of the new book, Moqtada, Patrick Cockburn. This week also saw what is likely to be the final debate between Clinton and Obama. Anything of substance go on there? We'll talk with Danny Schechter of the News Dissector. What was the best reporting you saw this week? It's Your Call With Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests

Will Bunch in Philadelphia

Will is the Pulitzer Prize winning senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, its former political writer and the author of Daily News' blog, Attytood.

Patrick Cockburn in Great Britain

Author of Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq, and the UK Independent's correspondent, Cockburn has spent about half of the last five years reporting, unembedded, around Iraq, a country he's been visiting since 1977.

Danny Schechter

Founder and executive editor of MediaChannel. His work has been honored with Emmy awards, the IRIS award, the George Polk Award, the Major Armstrong Award, and honors from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 041708 Disappearing World- Extraordinary and Endangered Places

Where are the most threatened cultural and ecological places on earth and how can they be protected? On the next Your Call, we welcome Alonzo Addison, author of Disappearing World: 101 of the Earth's Most Extraordinary and Endangered Places. World Heritages sites around the world are at risk from both natural and man-made causes, such as earthquakes in Peru, civil strife in the Congo, and unsustainable tourism in Cambodia. What's it going to take to preserve these remarkable places? Can tourism co-exist with preservation? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests

Alonzo Addison in San Francisco

Special Advisor to the Director of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Centre and author of Disappearing World: 101 of the Earth's Most Extraordinary and Endangered Places

Click to Listen: Disappearing World- Extraordinary and Endangered Places 

Your Call 041608 A People's History of American Empire

How do you teach America's true history to young people? On the next Your Call we discuss the new book, A People's History of American Empire, a graphic novelization of Howard Zinn's landmark book. 28 years ago, A People's History of the United States launched what Zinn called a quiet revolution in American history classrooms. But the battle is not over in the nation's history curriculum. What do you do to correct the story about America's history? It's Your call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests

James Konopacki in Madison, Wisconsin

Illustrator of A People's History of American Empire

Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer from Humboldt

Adjunct professor of History at Humboldt State University and author of Teaching With Voices of a People's History of the United States.

Click to listen: A People's History of American Empire [04.16.08]

Your Call 041508 Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro

What is life like for returning soldiers? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with former talk show host Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro about their documentary, Body of War, the moving story of Tomas Young, a paralyzed veteran, dealing with the aftermath of occupation. Since the occupation of Iraq in March of 2003, nearly 30,000 soldiers have been wounded, some severely. How are Iraqi veterans being taken care of? And how do they cope with physiological and physical injuries of the war? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests

Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, co-directors of the documentary film Body of War

Click to Listen: Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro

Your Call 041408 Joe Burke and Alan Farley of KALW

Who are Joe Burke and Alan Farley? What makes them tick? On the next Your Call we speak with the voices of KALW, your local public radio, Joe "The Morning Guy Who Does the Almanac" Burke and Alan "He's Been Around for a Dog's Age" Farley. You've listened to them for years, maybe decades. What do you want to ask them? Now's your chance. It's Your Call with Rose, Alan and Joe.

Guests:

Joe Burke

Alan Farley

Click to Listen: Joe Burke and Alan Farley of KALW

Your Call 041108 The Reality-Based Community

On the next Your Call, it's a special edition of our Friday Media Roundtable. This week, a panel of progressive independent filmmakers join us to discuss how documentaries are changing the mainstream media conversation. We'll be joined by Jeffrey Springer, co-director of Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, David Redmon, director of Mardi Gras: Made in China, and Laurie Walters, head of film acquisitions for Ironweed Films. What was the best documentary you saw this year? How much power do documentaries have to create social change? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests

Jeffrey Springer in San Francisco

Co-Director, editor and photographer of Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, one of the featured films in an Ironweed Film Release. 

Laurie Walters in Los Angeles

Head of film acquisitions for Ironweed Films, a progressive film distribution company that curates a monthly documentary film festival that it puts on DVD and mails out to its members. Ironweed was a project of Act Now in San Francisco, but is now an independent company.

To submit to Ironweed send DVDs to:
PO Box 636
Ojai, CA 92023 

David Redmon in New Jersey

Director of Mardi Gras: Made in China

Click to Listen: The Reality-Based Community

Your Call 041008 Bill McKibben, Environmentalist

What can we do to save the environment?  On the next Your Call, we welcome environmentalist Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future and The Bill McKibben Reader.  For nearly three decades, McKibben has written about our relationship with the natural world.  He wrote The End of Nature, the first book about climate change, back in 1989.  How much time do we have left, and what changes are necessary?  It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guest:

Bill McKibben in Ripton, Vermont

Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. He is the author of The Bill McKibben Reader, a collection of 44 essays written for various publications over the past 25 years.

Click to Listen: Bill McKibben, Environmentalist

Your Call 040908 Women's Health

What is state of women's health today? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Judy Norsigian, executive director of Our Bodies Ourselves and co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves. Women make up the largest segment of health workers, health consumers, and health decision-makers for their families and communities. So how have women's health care issues been transformed in the past four decades? How much attention is being paid to women's health issues today? And what should women do today to sustain good health for themselves and their communities? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:

Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves and co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves

Click to Listen: Women's Health

Your Call 040808 David Cay Johnston

How are America's richest being subsidized by the rest of us? On the next Your Call we welcome back the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter, David Cay Johnston. Johnston's beat is the inscrutable world of the federal tax system and his new book is called Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill. How do the wealthiest Americans direct subsidies and rig markets in their favor and what can we do about it? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:

David Cay Johnston in Rochester

Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times investigative reporter; author of several books including Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill).

Click to Listen: David Cay Johnston

Your Call 040708 Freeing Tibet

Will the actions around the Olympic torch have any impact on the issue of Tibet? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the recent protests taking place in Tibet and around the world. The Olympic torch's odyssey has been met by large actions against China's recent crack down in Tibet and its wider human rights records. The torch will reach San Francisco on Wednesday, April 9. Where do you stand on this issue? What does it mean to free Tibet? It's Your Call, with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:

John Ackerley, director of the International Campaign for Tibet.

Josh Kurlantzick, the author of Charm Offensive.

Pico Iyer, a longtime essayist and author of The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

Click to Listen: Freeing Tibet