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The Laura Flanders Show — Society & Culture
The Laura Flanders Show

Award winning host, author and journalist Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people from the world of politics, business, culture and social movements. The show explores actionable models for creating a better world by reporting on the people and movements driving systemic change. We spotlight the solutions of tomorrow, today. The show airs on PBS stations in over 80% of the US market, and airs on 40+ community radio stations, and is available on YouTube and as a podcast. Online subscribers receive lots of video and audio web exclusives. Recent specials include “Indigenous People’s Power”, “James Baldwin: Lessons for the US”, “Building Public Trust for Public Health”, “Countering the Coup From the Grassroots Up”. Recent special guests include Representative Karen Bass, environmental activist Jane Fonda, economist Robert Reich, author/activist Naomi Klein, agrarian reformer Shirley Sherrod, novelist Arundhati Roy, economist Michael Hudson and ’Next System” theorist Gar Alperovitz.

Latest Episodes:

How We Can End Gender-Based Violence Sep 19, 2019

Show notes

Gender-based violence – why are states so bad at making it stop? This week, in her first appearance since fleeing Brazil, women’s rights advocate Debora Diniz joins fellow activists and philanthropists to discuss what works and what doesn’t in stopping violence against women and girls. Music featured:“Cause I’m a Woman” by Muted Soul Featuring Jess King courtesy of Muted Records.

GUESTS: Debora Diniz, Deputy Director of Rights and Justice; Terry McGovern, Chair of Population and Family Health, Columbia University Medical Center; Kavita N. Ramdas, Director of Women’s Rights Program, Open Society Foundations.

Support theLFShow for as little as $2 a month!

Extreme Cities: Ground Zero for Climate Change Sep 11, 2019

Show notes

No matter how we tackle climate change, cities are key. They emit massive amounts of carbon and they’re ground zero for the climate crisis. But could they also prove to be the sites of our best climate solutions? That’s this week on The Laura Flanders Show.

“It takes a lot of energy to keep buildings cool. In New York City, buildings contribute about 70% of the city’s carbon emissions. So in addition to transportation, those are the major factors in cities, and we’ve got massive cities growing around the planet.” – Ashley Dawson

“I think you have to start with a dream and thinking outside the box. And creating policy that actually directly affects change. And that comes from the ground up. It doesn’t come from the top down.” – Mychal Johnson

“It’s our public environment, it’s our public spaces, it’s our city. If we think that we have the right to the city, we have to actually verify that we have some agency over what happens. And right now we don’t.” – Aurash Khawarzad

Featured Guests:
Ashley Dawson, Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center
“My fields of specialization are cultural studies, environmental humanities, and postcolonial studies. Areas of interest of mine include the experience and literature of migration, including movement from colonial and postcolonial nations to the former imperial center (Britain in particular) and from rural areas to mega-cities of the global South such as Lagos and Mumbai. I have also worked recently on contemporary discourses of U.S. imperialism and on the movement for climate justice.”
Get his book, Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change

Mychal Johnson, Co-Founder, South Bronx Unite
“Mychal Johnson has a long-standing track record in community-based advocacy for environmental and economic justice. Mychal is the co-founder of South Bronx Unite, a coalition of residents, organizations and allies confronting policies that perpetuate harm and building support for viable community-driven solutions in the South Bronx, where one in five children suffer from asthma because of the oversaturation of industrial facilities and diesel truck intensive businesses and decades of neglect.”

Aurash Khawarzad, Artist, Educator and Urban Planner
“Aurash Khawarzad is an Artist, Educator, and Urban Planner. His work uses a combination of research, creative practice, and multi-disciplinary collaboration, as a means of visioning communities. Most recently he created of The Upper Manhatta(n) Project, a model for creating resilience to climate change. He is originally from Virginia and has been practicing in New York City since 2009.”
Get his book, The Upper Manhatta(n) Project

Become a Patron at Patreon. That's also where you'll find research materials related to this episode along with links and more on our guests.

F-Word: From Voice of America to NPR, New CEO John Lansing's Glass House Sep 09, 2019

Show notes

"I don’t know about you but I take a teeny weeny bit of offense when a guy in a glass house lobs a great big stone and expects me not to notice the sound of shattering."

Help us thrive and not just survive, by becoming a member you'll unlock additional audio extras and more.

Special: Our Economy, For and By The People Sep 04, 2019

Show notes

Our city's economy – what is it for? New York's has been very good at piling up profits and building tall buildings. But all that private profit has come at a cost to public services and public trust. Could it be different? On this week's show, we talk about the new conversations that are happening between labor unions and community members. Between residents, workers, and employers about how everyone's economy can move forward.
J. Phillip Thomson Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives, City of New York
Roger Green Executive Director, DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy
Gladys Drew Worker-owner, Cooperative Home Care Associates
Adria Powell President and CEO, Cooperative Home Care Associates
Lynn Benander President, Co-op Power
Rebecca Lurie Coordinator, Community and Worker Ownership Project
Shilpa Nandwani Co-founder, Khao'na Kitchen
Cole Carothers Co-founder, Khao'na Kitchen
Sheila R. Foster Professor of Law and Public Policy, Georgetown Law
the Resistance Revival Chorus

Our economic model is crowd funding, become a member today https://Patreon.com/theLFShow

Alice Sheppard and STREB: Beauty, Risk, Mobility, and Inclusion Aug 27, 2019

Show notes

This week, dance as world-changing movement with two artists who expand our ideas about beauty, risk, mobility, and inclusion. Wheelchair dancer and esteemed choreographer Alice Sheppard, and MacArthur Genius Award-winning action architect Elizabeth Streb. What difference does art make? Should art-making be a human right? What will it take to disable the limits society puts around “normal”? These questions and more this week on the Laura Flanders Show.

Become a Patron at Patreon. That's also where you'll find research materials related to this episode along with links and more on our guests.

Storming the Federal Reserve Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

This week we talk about the way central banks steer world development and for whom. Former Goldman Sachs manager Nomi Prins, author of Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World and public ownership researcher Thomas Hanna of The Democracy Collaborative believe that banking, and development, could be very different. We're Storming the Federal Reserve this week on the LF Show.

Music Featured: "You & Me" written and performed by Danny McGaw. Companion song to Nomi Prins' new book released on May 1, 2018 'Collusion-How Central Bankers Rigged the World'

Become a Patron at Patreon. That's also where you'll find research materials related to this episode along with links and more on our guests.

F-Word: Woodstock Urges Roaming Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

"One-two-three-four/ What are we waiting for? Fifty years on, after a night spent largely on that big wet, now commercialized field in Bethel, New York, I'm pondering what’s happened since. What’s taken so long?"

Take a listen to this week's podcast re-share of a popular interview with music producer Danny Goldberg about the Hippie Revolution – and a performance of Climbing Poetree.

Help us thrive and not just survive, at Patreon.com/theLFShow

Music, Spirit & Protest: The Hippie Idea, Woodstock & Climbing PoeTree Aug 15, 2019

Show notes

Can music make a movement? This week, legendary music producer Danny Goldberg will reflect on 50 years since Woodstock and go in “Search of the Lost Chord”, his book about the hippie summer of 1967. Then, from today's movement music scene, Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman of Climbing PoeTree talk about their album, “Intrinsic”, and perform for us in-studio. Music Featured: “Mantra” by Ram Dass and Kriese off the album ‘Cosmix’ courtesy of Waveform Records.

Become a Patron at Patreon. That's also where you'll find research materials related to this episode along with links and more on our guests.

New Justice: A World Beyond Prisons Aug 07, 2019

Show notes

Prisons, police and punishment through incarceration. Are they with us forever in the land of the free? Sustained campaigns for change are beginning to pay off. At the community level, it turns out that a whole lot of people and places already make peace without cops. Today, we imagine a world without prisons. It may be closer than we think. Music Featured: “If Everyone Were Blind” by Victor Simonelli and Glenn Sweety G Toby, from the “Shelter From the Streets Compilation” courtesy of West Side and Stellar Records.

Guests: Esteban Kelly, Executive Director, US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and a founder and core trainer with AORTA; Kenyon Farrow, Senior Editor, TheBody.com, and works with Queers for Economic Justice, Critical Resistance, and FIERCE!; and Kerbie Joseph, Community Organizer, ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War and End Racism) & The Audre Lorde Project.

Become a Patron at Patreon. That's also where you'll find research materials related to this episode along with links and more on our guests.

Audio Exclusive: Artists as Agents of Change, Celebrating Ben Barber Aug 01, 2019

Show notes

Enjoy a panel discussion moderated by Laura Flanders and a key note address by Oskar Eustis, director of the famed Public Theater in New York, featuring artists as agents of change celebrating the work of Ben Barber, founder of the "Interdependence Movement". The artists, activists and scholars featured were chosen to represent the new and inspiring ways in which the arts, culture, and creativity in particular are giving voice to a new generation of activism, in engaging Barber’s Interdependence Movement philosophy. Panelists included: Cristal Chanel Truscott, Ruchira Gupta, Mohsin Mohi Ud Din, Arturo O'Farrill.

The event took place this past April at New York University’s Skirball Hall and was promoted jointly by the Performing Arts Library, NYU, Asia Society, and Voices of a People's History.

You'll find more information and a link where you can watch the event in its' entirety at Patreon.

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