Patricia Kullberg hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments:
Atomic Days: The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south central Washington no longer produces plutonium for nuclear bombs. But its lethal legacy remains. In his new book, Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, author Joshua Frank digs into the history of this graveyard of US nuclear policies and why it has been so difficult to clean it up. Jan Haaken talks with Frank about the book and the role of Hanford in current campaigns to revive nuclear power in the Pacific Northwest. Frank will also be speaking at the screening of "Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance" on May 21st at the Hollywood.
River Sing Me Home: Book Mole Larry Bowlden reviews, River Sing Me Home, a novel as beautiful as its title. Says the author Eleanor Shearer, “This is a story that does not shy away from the brutality of slavery, but that ultimately still has something uplifting at its heart.” The emancipation act of 1834, declared by the king of England, did not actually free the slaves of Barbados, it simply changed the name of their condition from slaves to apprentices. Shearer describes herself as a mixed-race writer and granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants.d Theatre.
Fair Testing: Bill Resnick talks to Harry Feder, who taught high school in NYC for 22 years, after leaving a career as a litigator in New York City. He’s now retired from teaching but working as hard as ever as Executive Director of the organization Fair Test, that works “to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing students and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.” Feder offers a radical critique of high stakes testing. He also discusses alternative forms of evaluation that dispose students to values and democratic life choices, thereby demonstrating how children’s education could be a building block of that necessary possible democratic and sustainable world.
- KBOO