Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

The horrible curse of MIGRAINE HEADACHES is the subject of a brilliant cinematic work-in-progress from SUSANNA STYRON and JACKIE OCHS.  The award-winning director/producer team explores for us the complex, politically-charged world of a neurological disorder that is imperfectly understood and severely challenging for all who encounter it.

Their film, OUT OF MY HEAD, is working its way through Kickstarter, where clips can be seen and a fuller understanding can be reached.  Jackie and Susanna's previous film, 9/12, about some of the interpersonal aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centers, attracted a powerful audience and won numerous awards.  Count on OUT OF MY HEAD to do the same, and don't miss this riveting Solartopian dialog.

In our second half-hour my long-time co-conspirator BOB FITRAKIS enlightens us on some ugly realities defining yet another bought-rigged-stolen-lynched election.  The corporate GOP has conspired to set the narrative of a Republican victory, and then to make it happen by disenfranchising millions of suspected Democrats while rigging voting machines and blacking out polling places…and that's the least of it.  Brace yourself for the worst as we get to the bottom of how the corporations are killing our democracy.  

PROTECTING THE VOTE and Shutting DIABLO CANYON & NUKE WASTE  light up this hour in Solartopia.

NINA TURNER, Democratic candidate for Ohio Secretary of State, describes the Republican Party's bleak assault on the public's ability to vote, and how Jim Crow is grabbing power with phony charges of voter fraud which essentially does not exist.

Then BILL WALKER of FRIENDS OF THE EARTH updates us on the monumental lawsuit just filed to force DIABLO CANYON to meet earthquake protection specifications.  After an insider report warning that Diablo cannot withstand shaking from the many earthquake faults that surround it, "regulators" changed specifications to allow it to continue to operate.  FOE's lawsuit will be watched worldwide, & especially by millions of downwind Californians whose lives are immediately threatened.

Finally, DIANE D'ARRIGO of the NUCLEAR INFORMATION & RESOURCE SERVICE describes the upcoming (11/10) event honoring the great MICHAEL MARIOTTE, whose decades of activism have made such a difference in the world of atomic energy.  Diane also explains the current state of nuke waste management, including the failure of Yucca Mountain and the disastrous events at NM's Waste Isolation Pilot Project costing millions of dollars and casting a very long shadow on any attempt to deal with atomic power's fiendish residue.  

SHUTTING THE DEVIL'S NUKES with Mothers for Peace veteran LINDA SEELEY gives us a guide to a movement that can save our nation.  Linda has worked in San Luis Obispo, California, for more than thirty years to close the two huge reactors at DIABLO CANYON, half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

These aged, deteriorating nukes are surrounded by earthquake faults.  More people have been arrested there than at any other reactor site in the US.  Should they suffer a major accident, their radiation would pour across the entire North American continent.

But now their owner, Pacific Gas & Electric, is uniquely vulnerable.  A powerful grassroots upsurge is moving fast forward to shut them down.  Hear all about it with this great long-time activist.

The great DR. HELEN CALDICOTT joins us for a thorough excursion into the insane, life-threatening world of atomic energy.

Since 1971 Helen has been leading the charge to rid the planet of the nuclear power and weapons technologies that threaten all life on Earth.  She has studied the impacts of the accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima and has thoroughly documented the biological destruction the atomic power industry continues to do to us all.

Helen also experienced the ultimate hair-rising White House meeting with Ronald Reagan, then in the early stages of Alzheimer's, to discuss the future of nuclear weapons---an epic moment that has impacted us all.

Her new book, CRISIS WITHOUT END (New Press), documents her recent conference on nuclear health impacts just as she is organizing yet another top-level conference on nuclear weaponry, to take place in February.  

Hear all about it at this immensely important excursion in the necessary world of a nuke-free Solartopia….

 The powerful new book from our guest MARK SCHAPIRO lays out the true costs of a fossil-based economy and what it's doing to our global economy, health and eco-sphere.

Mark is a long-time veteran of the contentious issues surrounding fossil fuels.  His unique range of expertise and insight gives him a powerful perspective on what we really confront when we turn that ignition switch or fire up that gas heater.  So Mark explains in frightening detail what FRACKING is doing to the Earth and reminds us that those cold, powerful bean-counters at carbon corporate HQ do take the size and political impact of our marches into account.

Speaking to us from Oakland, California, Mark brings decades of deep insight to an industry that affects us all, where price simply doesn't match cost, and where we need to transition really fast to renewable energy if we're going to survive on this planet.  

NUKES vs GLOBAL WARMING vs RENEWABLE ENERGY as we investigate how King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas) is doing its best to subvert our Solartopian future.

DAVE KRAFT of Chicago's Nuclear Energy Information Service joins CINDY FOLKERS and KEVIN KAMPS of Beyond Nuclear on a total tour of the myths of thorium reactors and the sorry history of uranium.
 
We thoroughly explore why atomic power CONTRIBUTES TO GLOBAL WARMING and why the industry is desperately trying to get public subsidies for its dirty old reactors in the name of fighting climate change while it simultaneous wrecks the Earth with tracking.
 
Don't miss this fascinating, thoroughly informed discussion as we jump through the atomic rabbit hole and emerge with solar panels.

JILL STEIN talks about that massive, magical, mystery tour of a march in New York City this equinox Sunday, and what it means for the future of our climate.

Our Solartopian conversation about the GIANT CLIMATE MARCH, CORPORATIONS and SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE is with DAVID MORRIS of the Institution for Local Self-Reliance and HARRIET BARLOW of the Blue Mountain Center.

These great long-time activists fill us in on the origins of the global 9/21 march on climate change and how it relates to issues of corporate control.  They will be marching with the masses this weekend to end global warming amidst a huge array of meetings and organizing.

David has also authored an important article on this week’s vote on SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE ( http://www.ilsr.org/scotland-sovereignty-corporations/ ) and explains its critical importance in terms of a global movement for smaller countries.  

The corporations will counter-attack, he warns.  But Scotland may open a Third Wave of new country formation that could make our world a better place.  Let’s Hope!!!

SAVING THE INTERNET is critical to a Solartopian future.  But it's under attack from corporate "ISP" providers determined to censor public dialogue and make themselves even richer.  TIM KARR of www.freepress.net and BOB FITRAKIS of www.freepress.org give us the full story on the attack of the corporate elite on the one remaining electronic bastion of a free press---the open, unrestrained internet.  A regulation that would destroy this has been introduced by Thomas Wheeler, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, an Obama appointee.  According to Tim Karr, this proposal has drawn more than 1.4 million public comments, 99% of which are in opposition to allowing corporations to charge websites more money for better access, a provision that would tilt the internet towards big money elites and destroy democratic interplay.  PRN and so much more of what's left of our democracy depend on the defeat of this cynical regulation.  Hear all about it on this show and TAKE ACTION NOW!

THE DEVIL'S NUKE at Diablo Canyon, California, cannot meet basic earthquake, tsunami, fire hazard or water quality standards.    So DAVID LOCHBAUM of the Union of Concerned Scientists (www.UCSUSA.org) and ROCHELLE BECKER of California's ALLIANCE 4 NUCLEAR RESPONSIBILITY (www.A4NR.org) tell us how this pair of gargantuan reactors between Los Angeles and San Francisco threaten us all.  A newly released report from Nuclear Regulatory Commission Insider Dr. Michael Peck warns that the fault lines surrounding these nukes could deliver shocks far stronger than the plant is designed to withstand.  Dave Lochbaum has written than the plant can't meet basic fire protection criteria.  And Rochelle Becker reports that state law requires major changes to the plant's cooling system that would cost billions of dollars to install.    Grassroots citizen action recently shut two San Onofre reactors to the south.  The question is:  will it do the same to Diablo Canyon before disaster strikes?