Latest Content for Old Mole Variety Hour

Book Mole Larry Bowlden reviews James McBride’s 2023 novel,The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, which, he argues, deserves all the wonderful press it has gotten. The love and cooperation between poor Jews and Blacks in a small town in Pennsylvania is the backbone of story... Read more

  Why do we hear so much about the supposed failures of recent progressive reforms in Portland?  Why does there seem to be so much panic about downtown?  Local organizer and activist Hyung Nam explains how Trump-era tax breaks have further incentivized the wealthiest de... Read more

  Silhouette of Godzilla looming over silhouette of Broadway bridge against a rainbow background. Image by Mark Nerys. Used with permission. Norm Diamond hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments: Zionism Was Not the Only Alternative! The... Read more

There is a rich history of filmmaking in the Middle East, including a growing number of women filmmakers.  Jan Haaken talks with Professor Yasmeen Hanoosh about the course Hanoosh is teaching this term at Portland State University titled “War and Coloniality in Arab Cine... Read more

    On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court released its Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, now overturned by the 2022 Dobbs decision.  This episode of the Old Mole looks at the history of abortion access in Portland and at the broader context of reproductiv... Read more

  During the century that preceded Roe v Wade in 1973, abortion was illegal in Oregon. Even so, women consistently sought and obtained abortions, including from licensed physicians. But whether the practice was officially tolerated or suppressed fluctuated significantly... Read more

  A few months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to a federal law designed to keep indigenous children from being taken from their families and put up for adoption outside of their tribes. Oregon writer and photographer Matt Witt tells us about a riveting TV... Read more

  At the annual meetings of the American Historical Association in early January, Dr. Carol Anderson joined a panel of scholars tasked with responding to the question, “Is the United States Turning Toward Fascism”? Jan Haaken talks with Anderson about her comments on th... Read more

For MLK Day, the Moles take up the politics of identity, race and racism, and how identity politics alone, including the politics of racial identity, is an insufficient response to the moment. Gary Younge is an award-winning author and professor of Sociology at Universit... Read more

Miracle Theater, Teatro Milagro, opens a play about the life of Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. Norm Diamond talks with Maya Malan-Gonzalez, playwright, about the production and about the tradition of social justice theatre out of... Read more