Latest Content for Old Mole Variety Hour

 How does music work as a form of organizing?  What's the difference between protest songs sung by a musician from the stage and a song everyone sings together?  Josh Wise, director of the Twin Cities Labor Chorus, discusses the music heard on this program (all of which ... Read more

Hosted by Clayton Morgareidge, this program looks at how medical care is improved when delivered by people who are cooperating rather than being managed from the top; whether charity keeps us from dealing with the real probems; the new Todd Solandz movie Life During Wart... Read more

 Wealthy people often give large amounts to charity, and everyone is encouraged to contribute to charities.   But does charity, besides whatever good it does in the world, distract us from solving the real problems that charity so inadequately deals with?  Joe Clement dr... Read more

 With the help of the Old Mole's  radical musicologist Brad Duncan, we sample and discuss some music that keeps alive memories of lost battles that can nevertheless point the way to a better future.  Among the battles are the Spanish Civil War, the 1984 British miners' s... Read more

Work done cooperatively and among equals gets better results than what comes out of a top-down, hierarchical organization.   According to Dr. Robert Reid, this is demonstrated by the medical care provided by Group Health Cooperative, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health... Read more

 Denise Morris and Wendy Webb find a lot to discuss in Todd Solondz’s new film Life During Wartime, which follows up on his earlier film Happiness.  This latest movie "pokes fun at the hypocrisy around American notions of freedom and democracy."  Read more

 Frann Michel surveys the news, blogs and scientific agencies to make sense of the unusual floods that have been happening in Pakistan. She makes the case for understanding these natural disasters as social phenomena. Read more

Book Mole, Larry Bowlden, reviews Pat Barker's award-winning "Ghost Road." It's the third in a trilogy about World War I. Larry explains: "This is not a glorification of war book. Instead, it talks of the the war and battlefield in graphic and horrible detail that shows th... Read more

Bill Resnick interviews Catherine Badgley about organic and sustainable agriculture. Frann Michel looks at the global and governmental response to widspread flooding in Pakistan. also a review of Pat Barkers award winning book Ghost Road and a discussion of the new crime... Read more

Bill interviews Catherine Badgley about her research into the comparative outputs of organic and conventional agriculture. In an article she wrote with seven other colleagues, "Organic Agriculture and the Global Food Supply," she makes the case for organic agriculture fe... Read more