Old Mole Variety Hour

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Airs at: Mon, 06/05/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced by: 
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News, Views, Reviews, and Interviews

 

Every Monday from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

A program of social and political commentary from a socialist-feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial point of view.

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, anti-capitalist, feminist, anti-colonial and anti-racist.  We count Karl Marx as a friend but are open to other voices from the left. The show includes analyses of global politics and economics, local grassroots activism, segments on the Left & the Law, and reviews of films, books, music, and theater. 

Contributors include: Julian Ankney, Larry Bowlden, Sarah Chivers, Joe Clement, Norm Diamond, Sharon Grant, Jan Haaken, Desiree Hellegers, Patricia Kullberg, Luisa Martinez, Laurie Mercier, Chelsea Ratzlaff, Bill Resnick, Victoria Saucedo, Mike Snedecker, Roben White, Matt Witt

Here is why we call this show "The Old Mole"

For individual segments and more content: View more Old Mole content

Check out our Program Blog

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Our theme song is the traditional "Mole in the Ground," sometimes performed by Clayton & Ernie, sometimes by Joe Clement,  and sometimes blended with other versions, like the one by dj/rupture, sung by Sindhu Zagoren on the album Special Gunpowder, or Blind Boy Paxton  

Our graphic lettering is by Charlie Ertola. Host portraits by Clayton Morgareidge.
 

You can leave comments for the Moles at  oldmolevarietyhour @ gmail.com or by clicking on the comment section for any of our audio pieces.  

Streams: 
KBOO Stream 1
Program status: 
Current

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned

Airs at: Mon, 01/30/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced for Old Mole Variety Hour
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Walter Mosley is much more than a successful mystery writer. He will be remembered by most  readers as the creator of the Easy Rawlins mysteries, but in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, he shows that he is an astute social critic. His lead character, Socrates Fortlow, ... Read more

Tár: a Morality Tale

Airs at: Mon, 01/23/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced for Old Mole Variety Hour
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Movie Moles Jan Haaken and Denise Morris talk about the film Tár, a 2022 psychological drama directed by Todd Field and starring Cate Blanchet. The film charts the downfall of fictional composer and conductor Lydia Tár.  Jan and Denise take up the mixed reviews and reaction... Read more

The Corner That Held Them

Airs at: Mon, 01/23/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
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Book Mole Frann Michel reviews The Corner That Held Them, published in 1948, the sixth novel by British queer communist musicologist and writer Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978). Set mostly in a 14th-century Benedictine convent between the Black Death of 1349 and the Peasa... Read more

Old Mole Variety Hour for January 23, 2023

Airs at: Mon, 01/23/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
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  Patricia Kullberg hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments: Border Patrol: Nearly every year since the 1990s the U.S. Congress has increased the appropriation for the Border Patrol and the whole apparatus of border protection. Yet every ... Read more

Border Patrol

Airs at: Mon, 01/23/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced for Old Mole Variety Hour
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Nearly every year since the 1990s the U.S. Congress has increased the appropriation for the Border Patrol and the whole apparatus of border protection. Yet every year increasing numbers, mostly from the Americas but also from all over, gain entrance by evading the enforcers... Read more

Reconstruction

Airs at: Mon, 01/16/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced for Old Mole Variety Hour
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How does a brief period 150 years ago become a flashpoint in our modern culture wars? It does if the same issues of racial equity, working-class organization and democratic control persist. And if activist groups like Black Lives Matter effectively raise them yet again. In ... Read more

Old Mole Variety Hour for January 16, 2023

Airs at: Mon, 01/16/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
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  Norm Diamond hosts the Moles’ tribute to MLK Day, which includes the following segments: Critical Race Theory: Bill Resnick talks to Malik Miah who made a living as an aviation mechanic and spent most of his life fighting racism in the unions. He has written several boo... Read more

Critical Race Theory

Airs at: Mon, 01/16/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced for Old Mole Variety Hour
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Bill Resnick talks to Malik Miah who made a living as an aviation mechanic and spent most of his life fighting racism in the unions. He has written several books and hundreds of magazine pieces. Bill and Malik discuss Critical Race Theory – what it is, the complex ways raci... Read more

Chasing Me to My Grave

Airs at: Mon, 01/16/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced for Old Mole Variety Hour
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On a day celebrating Martin Luther King, writer and photographer Matt Witt reviews a memoir by another African American from Georgia who also had a day named after him. The memoir is called Chasing Me to My Grave by Winfred Rembert. Growing up in rural Georgia, Rembert near... Read more

Labor Under Siege

Airs at: Mon, 01/09/2023 at 9:00am - 10:00am
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Laurie Mercier talks to Harvey Schwartz about his new book about the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Labor Under Siege: An Oral History of Big Bob McEllrath and the ILWU’s Fight for Organized Labor in an Anti-union Era.  Schwartz  is curator of the Oral ... Read more