Latest Content for Old Mole Variety Hour

 There is much to criticize in the Bush administration's education program "No Child Left Behind," a program what has been continued under Obama and Secretary of Education  Arne Duncan.   But what would a truly progressive  education policy be like? What would be the goa... Read more

 What's wrong with Easter as celebrated in the US?  "Easter… for most Christians, is about individual salvation not interpersonal solidarity. It is about personal resurrection from the dead not community restoration for the living. It is about an “open” tomb that is re... Read more

What undermines academic freedom and intellectual inquiry in the University today and what can be done to defend them?  Professor Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, talks with the Old Mole's Laurie Mercier about untenured faculty... Read more

 Psychologist, Film Maker, and Old Mole Jan Haaken talks with Tom Becker about the Oregon State Hospital where she has been making a film, "Guilty Except for Insanity".  How has the institution changed since "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed there?  Who winds ... Read more

 What should policies and goals should replace the test-and-punish approach of "No Child Left Behind"?  How can academic freedom in the University be defended from what threatens it today?  What does the story of Easter mean for the US at war in the Middle East?  What's ... Read more

In our continuing series The Left and the Law, attorney Mike Snedeker and Jan Haaken ask why many are so surprised by this new round of sexual abuse cases when it's no longer news that it's people  with moral authority, like priests and boy scout leaders, who abuse child... Read more

Educator and activist Stan Karp talks with the Old Mole's Bill Resnick about how the administration’s education policies are, in spite of Obama’s campaign promises, just a continuation of worst parts of the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind program -- a program ... Read more

 Book Mole Larry Bowlden reviews Throws Like a Girl by Jean Thompson.   It's a great collection of stories about urban characters who sometimes feel "as if there were a pinhole at the bottom of the world and all the best things were leaking out of it." For more of Larry'... Read more

Activism has consequences.  The peace and anti-nukes movements of the '50s and beyond were the major reason nuclear weapons were never used in war after  1945, according to historian Lawrence Wittner.  In this interview, he talks with Clayton Morgareidge about his resear... Read more

  Hosted by Clayton Morgareidge, this program deals with the role of the peace movement in preventing nuclear war, the new wave of sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church, the Obama administration's version of No Child Left Behind; and Jean Thompson's short story collecti... Read more