Old Mole Variety Hour
The Old Mole burrows down to the roots of the great issues of our time – the struggles of ordinary people for democratic and sustainable ways of life. The Mole goes where corporate media fear to tread, supporting grassroots challenges to top-down authority and giving voice to movements that shake the foundations of an unjust society. The Moles' perspective is democratic, broadly socialist, and feminist. (We count Karl Marx as a friend).
Here is why we call this show "The Old Mole"
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Our theme "Mole in the Ground" is a medley of an old (1924) version by Bascom Lamar Lunsford and a new one by dj/rupture, sung by Sindhu Zagoren. It's on the album Special Gunpowder.
Our graphic lettering is by Charlie Ertola.
You can leave comments for the Moles at oldmolevarietyhour@gmail.com or by clicking on the comment section for any of our audio pieces.
Coming Soon
Audio
From Greed to Green
Bill Resnick talks with Charles Derber about his book "From Greed to Green: Solving Climate Change and Remaking the Economy." Derber says, if the relatively mainstream, working-class Boston suburb where he lives can get excited about implamenting green technology and policies, so can the rest of the country. Derber's message is fundamentally optimistic, and he explains why.
Charles Derber teaches at Boston College. From his website: "His recent books focus on climate change, capitalism, globalization, terrorism, the culture of hegemony, and the power of multinational corporations. He has also written extensively on the American Dream and the crisis of individualism that defines American life, showing how our problems of community are organically tied to economic and political forces."
- Title: Bill_and_Derber
- Genre: Talk
- Length: 21:46 minutes (19.93 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
British Punk Under Thatcher
Denise Morris talks with our radical musicologist, Brad Duncan, about British music in the late '70s. Brad explains the way punk, dance and two-tone music helped organize a new generation of young British radicals.
- Genre: Other
- Length: 14:23 minutes (6.58 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 64Kbps (CBR)
Old Mole Variety Hour July 26th
Today's show, hosted by Tom Becker, featured three interviews on green economics, transnational identies in the United States, and the political import of late '70s British music. Related to that last theme, you will hear through out the show music selected by Denise Morris from The Clash "Guns of Brixton", XTC "Respectable Street" and Selector "Too Much Pressure". For specific segments click the links below, and for the whole show click the play button just under them.
1. Bill Resnick interviews Charles Derber about turning the economy and environment around.
- Title: OMVH_July_26th
- Length: 57:25 minutes (52.57 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
Engendering Transnational Ties
Laurie Mercier talks with Luz María Gordillo about her new book, "Mexican Women and the Other Side of Immigration: Engendering Transnational Ties." Luz Maria looked at migratory patterns between western Mexico and Detroit, and how men and women differently participate in it. She also comments on racism in immigration policy and the problem of equivocating undocumented workers with drug-dealers.
Luz Maria Gordillo is an assistant professor of Women Studies and on the graduate faculty for American Studies at Washington State University.
- Title: Luz_and_Laurie
- Genre: Other
- Length: 12:29 minutes (5.72 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 64Kbps (CBR)
Imagining the (climate) future
Linking the pieces of this program about climate change are several songs by Ella Fitzgerald, together with commentary by host Frann Michel on
- the basic issues and concepts of climate change,
- how climate change and other global disasters have played in works of science fiction, and
- how fantasy can help us to imagine alternatives to the current reality of capitalism and environmental degradation.
This segment puts together all Frann's remarks and Ella's songs. You can also read Frann's remarks on her blog.
- Title: Imagining the (climate) future
- Album: July 19, 2010
- Length: 19:40 minutes (11.26 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 80Kbps (CBR)
Surviving on a Volatile Earth
Can technology address the problems posed by climate change? Environmental journalist Dianne Dumanoski is the author of The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Remake Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Earth, and here she talks with the Old Mole's Bill Resnick about what kind of civilization can survive the coming climate shifts. You can read an excerpt from her book here.
- Title: Survival on a Volatile Earth
- Album: July 19, 2010
- Length: 19:19 minutes (11.06 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 80Kbps (CBR)
Movie Moles: "Inception"
Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is about a plot to remake a mind -- but do the film makers give viewers' minds enough to go on? Our Movie Moles Denise Morris and Wendy Webb ask whether this film is up to its appointed task.
- Title: Movie Moles: "Inception"
- Album: July 19, 2010
- Length: 12:55 minutes (7.39 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 80Kbps (CBR)
July 19 Old Mole Variety Hour
Hosted by Frann Michel (pictured here), this program is about climate change, science fiction, and science fiction about climate change, but it is not about the illusion that climate change is itself science fiction. This is a show that should be heard from beginning to end, although the parts are available separately below. Frann Michel's three commentaries are packaged together, along with appropriate songs by jazz great Ella Fitzgerald.
For information about our theme music and our graphics, go to our main page. You can also follow us on Facebook.
To hear the whole show, use the play button below. To hear individual pieces and find more information, follow these links:
3. Movie Moles Wendy Webb and Denise Morris critique the movie experience offered by Inception.
- Title: OMV 7_19_2010
- Album: July 19, 2010
- Length: 54:52 minutes (31.4 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 80Kbps (CBR)
Autonomism Explained
When Marx was writing his grim analyses of Capitalism 150 years ago, workers did not have much if any autonomy. The labor movement gave workers the leverage to determine some of the terms of their livelihood, and since the 1970s progressive management theory has given more credit to self-management. The cybernetic revolution seems to have completed this great levelling, but in today's Well Read Red Joe Clement reads from Rob Horning's very recent "Autonomism Explained." Horning recalls the potential and pitfalls of Nick Dyer-Witheford's vision of worker autonomy in his 1994 essay, "Autonomist Marxism and the Information Society."
- Artist: Joe Clement
- Genre: Other
- Length: 7:52 minutes (7.21 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
Movie Moles: Winter's Bone
Our Movie Moles, Jan Haaken and Brooke Jacobson, talk about hillbilly stereotypes, meth culture and gender in a very recent coming-of-age crime-thriller, "Winter's Bone," Directed by Deborah Granik.
- Title: Winter's Bone
- Genre: Talk
- Length: 9:36 minutes (8.79 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
Comments
commentary transcripts
It's convenient to have the Old Mole audio files available.
Even more useful for some of us would be transcripts of the commentaries (Clayton Morgareidge). Written material allows a person a chance to review, consider, digest and refer to mentioned references & thinkers. The "Well Read Red" commentary from 4 Aug 08 is a good example of a piece I'd like to read at my own pace.
These folks are so profound
These folks are so profound and fascinating, especially the Resnick guy. Wow!
Avatar's Jake Sully is ---- Tarzan - - -
A great review I've seen on Avatar (and how the soldier will save the people):
http://www.progressive.org/mp/danto010510.html
There is a link from there that exposes Cameron's plot as a mirror of Pocahontas, amazing parallel! http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/
Since watching Avatar, I have viewed older videos on DVD and would rate that ahead of Avatar.
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