Latest Content for Old Mole Variety Hour

Bill Resnick talks with economist David Weiman about the political forces encouraging the growth and maintaining of prisons and punitive policing in the USA. They consider not only media influence and legislators desire to keep jobs in their areas but also the fear-enha... Read more

Larry Bowlden reviews the novel Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple , and finds the young narrator's story of life with her professional-class parents, and her mother's disappearance, very funny and engaging. Read more

Alan Wieder talks with local singer-songwriter-activist David Rovics about his work, about living in Oregon, where the police have killed more black men per capita than anywhere else, about releasing songs online for free download, and about his new online book Have Gui... Read more

Tom Becker shares Alex Himmelfarb's essay about The Trouble with Austerity: Cutting Is More About Ideology than Economics. Read more

 Alan Wieder hosts this episode, featuring music from David Rovics as well as an interview with him, a discussion of the economics and politics of mass incarceration, a review of a recent comic novel, and a commentary on the ideology of austerity.  Bill Resnick talks wit... Read more

  Iven Hale hosts this episode and we hear: Alan Wieder talks about Soccer and Societal Bigotry - Israeli style - by way of Dave Zirin's newest book. Bill Resnick talks with Ben Goldacre about how the pharmaceutical industry has influenced so much of mental heal... Read more

Alan Wieder analyzes racism and crypto-apartheid in Israeli soccer as symptomatic of racism in Israeli society directed against Arabs. He takes as his starting point AC Milan player Kevin-Prince Boateng recent gesture of disgust with Israeli fan's racist chants, reverber... Read more

  Iven Hale hosts this President's Day episode. Please note that an unforseen glitch in the recording clipped the first 30 or so seconds from the beginning. Once it can be recovered it will be re-inserted. All that was lost was the intro-music and some of Iven's opening ... Read more

Alan Wieder talks with Marcia Meyers, founder of Rethinking Psychiatry. They discuss the organization and it's mission to educate people about the diversity of ways to deal with emotional disturbances, as well as interrogate the money-making and exploitive motivations be... Read more

Joe Clement talks with Jason Read about psychoanalytic philosopher Slavoj Zizek and Sophie Fiennes philosophical documentary: The Pervert's Guide to Ideology. This is the second film Zizek and Fiennes have made together, the first being The Pervert's Guide to Cinema. Bot... Read more