Scene on Radio

Latest Episodes:

The New Old Racism: Keeping ScOR#4 Mar 18, 2025

Show notes

Host John Biewen teases Season 8 and reads an installment from his new newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Eight years after our "Seeing White" series, whiteness is still a helluva drug -- and a powerful tool for Trump 2.0.

Music by goodnight, Lucas

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Bonus: Michael Kliën and the Body Politic Jan 22, 2025

Show notes

Michael Kliën wants to help bring about profound change in the world, but not through the usual means. An Austrian-born Dance professor at Duke University, Kliën is a leading social choreographer. He sets up experiments involving people moving amongst each other -- wordlessly -- in pursuit of new ways of being and the "soul democratic."

By Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen. Music by goodnight, Lucas and Blue Dot Sessions.

Scene on Radio is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.

Links:

Michael Klien’s website

Video of Kliën works:

Parliament

Constitution

The Utopians

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S7 E13: CAPITALISM Bonus, Live at Motorco Dec 11, 2024

Show notes

With our Capitalism season and the election behind us, now what? Can we find hope and a way forward? In a live show taped December 5, 2024, at Motorco Music Hall in Durham, North Carolina, Season 7 co-hosts John Biewen and Ellen McGirt are joined by journalism professor, podcast maker, and two-time Scene on Radio co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. They discuss how to move toward a more democratic economy and society – with the live audience, and with Camryn Smith and Courtney Smith of Durham’s Communities in Partnership.

Episode art: Photo by Summer Steenberg. Music by Michelle Osis and Lilli Haydn. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. "Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21.

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Post-election '24 All-Star Special Nov 21, 2024

Show notes

Host John Biewen is joined by Celeste Headlee, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Ellen McGirt, and Amy Westervelt, co-hosts of Scene on Radio's full-length seasons -- Seeing White, MEN, The Land That Never Has Been Yet, The Repair, and Capitalism -- for a free-wheeling conversation about the 2024 U.S. election of Donald J. Trump and what it all means.

Scene on Radio comes from the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.

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S7 E12: Reimagined Economies Sep 18, 2024

Show notes

In our season finale, we visit with people on two continents who are turning core structures of capitalism on their heads – or, at least, sideways.

By John Biewen with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with John Fullerton, Ander Etxeberria, Deseree Fontenot, Corrina Gould, Regan Pritzker, Dana Kawaoka-Chen, Mateo Nube, and Marjorie Kelly. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Music by Michelle Osis; Lilli Haydn; Chris Westlake; Alex Symcox; and goodnight, Lucas. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. Episode art by Harper Biewen. "Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21.

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S7 E11: Better Capitalism? Sep 04, 2024

Show notes

In the first of two episodes looking at responses to capitalism’s failings, we explore reforms aimed at making the current economic system more humane, fair, effective, and sustainable.

By John Biewen with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Lutz Schwenke, Jordi Llatje i Espinal, Marjorie Kelly, Oren Cass, Jayati Ghosh, John Fullerton, and Rick Alexander. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Music by Michelle Osis, Lilli Haydn, Chris Westlake, Alex Symcox, and Goodnight, Lucas. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

"Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21.

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S7 E10: The Extracted Aug 21, 2024

Show notes

A visit to West Africa and Western Europe to look at the cocoa trade. Did the colonial side of early capitalism – Western countries getting rich at the expense of poorer nations – ever change, or does it continue today?

Reported by Ugochi Anyaka-Oluigbo and written by Ugochi and Loretta Williams, with co-hosts John Biewen and Ellen McGirt. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Mixed by John Biewen. Interviews with Achike Chude, Chernoh Bah, Bart Van Besien, and others. Music by Michelle Osis, Lilli Haydn, Chris Westlake, Alex Symcox, and Goodnight, Lucas. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. "Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21.

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S7 E9: At the Tipping Point Aug 14, 2024

Show notes

In 1972, a team of young scientists at MIT published a study exploring what would happen to human civilization if people kept pursuing endless economic growth on a finite planet. They weren’t just disbelieved, they were ridiculed. The story of Donella Meadows and The Limits to Growth.

Reported and produced by Katy Shields and Vegard Beyer, with co-hosts John Biewen and Ellen McGirt. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Archival audio of Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Aurelio Peccei, Jay Forrester, and others. Interviewee: John Fullerton.Original music by Nora Beyer. Additional music by Michelle Osis and Lili Haydn. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. "Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21.

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S7 E8: The People's Pushback Aug 07, 2024

Show notes

S7 E8: The People’s Pushback

Over several decades, a growing number of people in the United States and elsewhere – especially younger people – have turned against capitalism. The reasons are not mysterious.

Reported by Lewis Raven Wallace and produced by John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Esteban Kelly, Josh Bivens, Malaika Jibali, and Evan Caldwell. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Music by Michelle Osis, Lilli Haydn, Chris Westlake, Alex Symcox, and Goodnight, Lucas. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

"Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21.

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S7 E7: Gilded Age 2.0 Jul 31, 2024

Show notes

S7 E7: Gilded Age 2.0

After 40 years of neoliberalism, most Americans of every political stripe agree that the economy is “rigged” in favor of corporations and the wealthy. But we may not know the half of it.

By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Nancy MacLean, Edward Balleisen, Brad DeLong, Marjorie Kelly, and Oren Cass. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Music by Michelle Osis, Lilli Haydn, Chris Westlake, Alex Symcox, and Goodnight, Lucas. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

"Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21.

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