Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour - 06.10.15

PAUL KRASSNER, America's pioneer investigative satirist, takes us partway through his astonishing career.  

We begin with a violin concerto alone on the stage of Carnegie Hall at age 6. Paul spins us through how he scratched an itchy leg with his other foot, drawing the laughs that would define his career.

We meet him at MAD Magazine and carry through the founding of The Realist, American's first adult satirical periodical.  
 
We meet Lennie Bruce, Allen Ginsberg, Abbie and Anita Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and a host of those who've shaped our nation.

We also take an LSD trip on the witness stand of the Chicago 8 Conspiracy Trial, and much more.

At 83, Paul is a national treasure.  Be sure to hear the beginnings of his amazing story, which we will continue at a later date….

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 05.26.15

OIL DISASTER IN SANTA BARBARA!!!

EARTHQUAKE & MELT-DOWN AT DIABLO NEXT?

We talk with BECCA CLAASSEN and DR. JERRY BROWN of the World Business Academy in Santa Barbara about the latest catastrophe from King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes, Gas) as tens of thousands of gallons of oil spill onto pristine California beaches.

For years the region's citizens fought off shore drilling there.  Now, exactly what they predicted has happened---a pipeline company has spewed its crude all over the beaches and into the ocean, killing marine life and harming our planet with still more poisons.

Meanwhile, the company's owners go scott-free.

At the same time new revelations about earthquake faults surrounding Diablo Canyon have upped the ante on those shaky reactors' license.  Amidst chaos and death, we grow ever closer to shutting that horrific power plant.

Listen how from these two great activists, as we struggle to save the eco-systems without which we cannot survive.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 05.19.15

A NUKE-FREE SOUTH PACIFIC and the END TO ATOMIC POWER in California and elsewhere is the domain of JIM HEDDLE and MARY BETH BRANGAN of the Ecological Options Network of Bolinas, California (www.eon3.net).

Mary Beth and Jim tell us first of their award-winning documentary on the resistance of the people of Palau against the incursion of the US nuclear military into their South Sea paradise.  For their troubles, EON was blacklisted by the Reagan Administration but has persevered over the years and is now at the forefront of documenting the fight to end atomic energy in California and make it a Solartopian reality.

EON continues to document the fight to deal with the radioactive waste from the thankfully shut San Onofre reactors, and to force Diablo to obey the law on issues of water quality, seismic safety and fire protection (www.nonukesca.net)

With their brilliant insights and rich history, Jim and Mary Beth's EON operation both documents and makes history (eon3emf.net), and we're honored to hear them tell us how.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 05.12.15

Yet another EXPLOSION AT INDIAN POINT has threatened the entire New York/New England region with a RADIOACTIVE APOCALYPSE.

Another transformer has yet again blown up at Entergy’s rogue reactors on the Hudson River some 40 miles north of Manhattan.

More than $8 TRILLION worth of damage could have followed along with more HUMAN DEATH AND INJURY than could ever be calculated.

Long-time expert activists SUSAN HITO SHAPIRO, GARY SHAW and JUDY ALLEN give us a Solartopian hour’s worth of absolutely essential information on this catastrophe that nearly happened but still lurks in the balance at these unlicensed, unmanageable and unconscionable atomic reactors that YOU can help shut down RIGHT NOW!!!!

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 05.05.15

The escalating campaign to LEGALIZE CANNABIS is the work of our superb guest ERIC STERLING, President of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation and a commissioner on the Maryland state commission implementing medical Cannabis there.

Eric first testified for legalizing cannabis to the Pennsylvania legislature more than four decades ago. He recalls for us the 1972 Schafer Commission, authorized by Congress and appointed by Richard Nixon, that advocated decriminalization. Nixon did his best to suppress the recommendations, which came from a blue-ribbon commission led by a Republican Governor of Pennsylvania. But 43 years later, after more than a million arrests, its wisdom is obvious.

With his decades of leadership on the issue, Eric takes us through the realities of legalization on Colorado and Washington, as well as the recent authorization of medical cannabis in Puerto Rico. He emphasizes that the term marijuana was adopted in the 1930s as a race-based stigmatization for cannabis, which has been used by humankind for a wide range of purposes for many millennia.

Eric also emphasizes the racial and political injustices still being perpetrated by a Drug War whose primary function has been to keep the rich in power while demonizing and disenfranchising those of youth and color.

If youre at all interested in our drug laws, the process of legalizing cannabis and the realities of our criminal justice system, dont miss this show!

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 04.28.15

The fabulous, fascinating FREDA SIDEROFF joins us to describe the GARIFUNA FILM FESTIVAL ( http://garifunafilmfestival.com/2015/03/may-22-25-4th-annual-garifuna-film-festival/ )upcoming May 22-25 in Venice, California.  Freda is a member of the indigenous Garifuna culture, one million humans strong, based largely in the Caribbean regions of St. Vincent, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras….but with “diaspora” representatives through the western hemisphere.    

Currently a resident of Topanga Canyon, Freda tells us in transcendent detail about the ethereal nature of the Garifuna culture, which dates back way before Columbus, has been mixed with African immigration,  and continues to thrive throughout the Americas.

Her festival is a celebration of indigenous cultures, featuring the likes of ALUNA, a gorgeous exploration of native resistance to the destruction of our planet.  GARIFUNA MEDICINE tells us about an indigenous hospital in rural central America, completely off-grid, powered entirely by solar energy.  

The festival also features a talk from Joseph Paulino, the police chief of the San Bernardino City School System, himself a Garifuna.  And a performance by Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl, the resident Aztec dance group at Tia Chucha’s Centro in the San Fernando Valley.

Needless to say, Freda is a brilliant representative of a  beautiful nature-based culture with much to offer to a mass society poised on the brink of self-destruction.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 04.14.15

The ATTACK ON RENEWABLES IN OHIO is dissected and made understandable by the brilliant NED FORD, the Cincinnati-based expert who has translated the state’s mutated energy policies for years on end.

In 2008 Ohio adopted a forward-looking bi-partisan energy policy designed to promote efficiency and renewables and bring Ohio into the 21st Century.  Like other midwestern states, Ohio has been hooked on coal.  But to meet federal air quality standards, many of the old Buckeye coal burners are scheduled to shut down in 2016.  Ohio’s excellent northern wind resource, plus new renewable and efficiency, have been poised to pick up the slack.

But since 2010 and the coming of a new Republican regime, led by Governor John Kasich, an industry attack has gutted Ohio’s green-powered future….and with it the prospects of many other states who are following in the same polluted footprint.

Ned Ford provides us a stunningly clear, concise picture of how this is happening.  If you are interested in a green-powered future, this show is a vital resource.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 04.07.15

RANDY HAYES of FOUNDATION EARTH (FDNEARTH.ORG) give us an astonishing overview of the ecological crisis we now face on planet Earth, and how to solve it.

A founder of the legendary Rainforest Action Network, Randy’s decades of activism and deep green analysis make him a fascinating, erudite witness to what it will take to survive amidst unparalleled challenges to sustaining our life support systems.   

Randy starts with a call to double the planet’s forest cover and then takes us through his brilliant, profoundly vital Nine Planetary Ecological Boundaries.

Full of uniquely articulated insight and hard-fought wisdom, this hour just flows by.  Don’t miss it.

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 03.31.15

MOVE TO AMEND (https://movetoamend.org/wethepeopleamendment ) wants to change our Constitution so corporations can’t buy our elections and run our government.  We’re joined by Frank Hribar of Mentor, Ohio, a long-time Move to Amend activist who tells us about the resolution passed by his small home town demanding an end to corporate domination.  A state-wide convention just held in central Ohio has joined a national wave of activism aimed at finding ways to free our political and economic systems from the curse of corporate personhood.  

In the course of our discussion we read through the actual amendment designed to restore power to the public.  Be sure to take a listen.

We’re then joined by GEORGE SAKHEIM, a 91-year-old Jewish World War II vet, born in Germany, who translated the testimony of Nazi #2 Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials.  An unrepentant Goering made no apologies for his murderous actions.  

Nor did Rudolph Hoess, SS Commandant of Auschwitz, who was personally responsible for at least 2.5 million deaths.  Sakheim tells us that at the end of his life, the rock-hard Hoess confessed his “sins” and asked forgiveness.  

Sakheim’s unique, astounding story from the very core of the post-Nazi inferno must be heard to be believed.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 03.24.15

A SOLAR-POWERED EARTH is our topic with the astonishing STEVE STRONG, one of our great green pioneers. Steve’s SOLAR DESIGN company has blown through many of the corporate and regulatory barriers to bring renewable technologies into the engineering and construction mainstream. Among other things, Steve coordinated the solar installations at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading learning institution for the spread of renewable technologies.

After a stint working on the Alaska pipeline, Steve founded Solar Design in the mid 1970s to push sustainable energy use into a whole new frontier of home, office and industrial construction. Today his company is promoting community-based solar model that can allow people whose rooftops can’t sustain photovoltaic panels to own their own renewable generation with shared solar farms.

Steve makes it clear that the technologies that now plague our planet—coal, oil, nukes & gas—can be effectively replaced with renewables bringing their huge upsides of economy, community control and ecological preservation. 

We are also visited by FRANK DEBAR of MOVE TO AMEND, who announces for us this upcoming weekend’s conference at the Unitarian Church at 95 Weishheimer Road in Columbus, Ohio. Aimed at overturning corporate personhood and all its many plagues, we’ll have a full report on this conference and the on-going work Move to Amend is doing on a later show.