Host John Risley brings you some highlights of the 2012 Vancouver Folk Music Festival held on July 13-15. Artists included: Lucinda Williams, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Martyn Joseph, Sidi Toure, Holly Near, Ani DiFranco, Stephen Fearing, and many many more. Festival information at: http://thefestival.bc.ca/

Local drummers representing the African, Japanese-American, Native American and Aztec communities are coming together with muralist Rudy Serna for a series of historic performances with PEOPLE OF THE DRUM.

Obo Addy, Medicine Bear, Portland Taiko, Mexica Tiahui traditional Aztec dance circle, and muralist Rodolfo Serna are all in. They have held one event July 15 at Director’s Park in downtown Portland, and upcoming are more on August 19 at the Mt Scott Community Center in SE Portland, and October 21 at University Park in North Portland.

Host Jay Thiemeyer speaks with David McNally about his book Global Slump, which analyzes the global financial meltdown as the first systemic crisis of the neoliberal stage of capitalism. McNally argues that – far from having ended – the crisis has ushered in a whole period of worldwide economic and political turbulence. In developing an account of the crisis as rooted in fundamental features of capitalism, Global Slump challenges the view that its source lies in financial deregulation.

Seven billion humans are alive today, up from one billion in 1900, and the environment is taking a beating. What's next? Nine-plus billion by 2050? Eleven billion? But what happens to these numbers if we educate and empower women? If we provide family planning services? What's stopping us? In "Soaring Past 7 Billion: Population Challenges for a Crowded World," John Seager, president of Population Connection, addresses these issues.  He spoke in Portland last winter for the University of Oregon's Life Long Learning Institute. (Talk edited for time by Stephanie Potter. Music by Kevin MacLeod.)

Host Kathleen Stephenson speaks with William deBuys about his recent article on TomDispatch.com "The Oxygen Planet Struts Its Stuff: Not a “Perfect Storm” But the New Norm in the American West."

William deBuys, a TomDispatch regular, is the author of seven books, most recently A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest. He has long been involved in environmental affairs in the Southwest, including service as founding chairman of the Valles Caldera Trust, which administers the 87,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico.