Interview with Vandana Shiva

Around the world civilian rights to food and water are being eroded by the patenting of life forms and by privatization of water systems. Some farmers have been hit with law suits for patent infringement, while they were planting heritage seeds. The outspoken, multi-talented Vandana Shiva, joins us to talk about these and other issues of capitalist globalization. She is a celebrated ecofeminist, grassroots activist, research physicist, author, and international advocate for alternatives to global corporate hegemony.
". . . there is a higher moral order that requires that we save seeds, because we are caretakers of the biodiversity of this planet.” says Shiva.
We talked about:
The roots of Shiva's global activism ● The violence of "The Green Revolution" ● Suicide seeds, farmers, bombers ● False pretenses of industrial farming ● What's at stake in water privatization?● World Bank legacy in India ● Capitalist patriarchy ● The false liberation of convenience foods ● Civil disobedience and seed satyagraha ● Seed saving ● Lies money can buy ● Democracy as an imperative of survival ● Seeing and acting on interconnections ● The good work of the International Forum on Globalization ● Power and the lessons of history ● A singular solution to a triple crisis ● Caring, sharing, and The Commons
Enjoy the show! (The interview is about 45 minutes.)
Listen at your convenience!
Click through to buy some of Vandana Shiva's books on Amazon right from this site in the sidebar to the left.
Visit:
Navdanya
and
The International Forum on Globalization

Interview with Derrick Jensen

"We need to bring down civilization, because it's killing the planet," says our guest, author and activist Derrick Jensen.
Formerly a college professor and a commercial beekeeper, Jensen's prolific career as an author has given us A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, Endgame, Listening to the Land, Strangely Like War and Walking on Water. He also co-authored Railroads & Clearcuts and Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control. He has written for The New York Times magazine, The Sun, Audubon, and many other publications.
In 2008 Derrick Jensen was named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."
We talked about:
Preparation for truth-telling ● Above ground and below ground activism ● The only language destroyers understand ● The essence of Derrick's philosophy and passion ● Normalizing insane behavior ● Reform or revolution? ● What do we need to do? ● Living in the culture of make-believe ● The relationship between eroticism and violence ● Collapse and the shape of things to come ● Hypocrisy in the environmental movement ● Owning prejudices and shifting alliances ● Do we need to harden our hearts or to open them? ● Discernment, compassion, compliance and fierce love
Visit: derrickjensen.org
Enjoy the show! (The interview is about 52 minutes.)
Listen at your convenience!
Click through to buy some of Derrick's books on Amazon right from this site in the sidebar to the left.
This podcast episode contains explicit language.

Interview with Carolyn Raffensperger

The Living Hero Podcast proudly presents an interview with environmental lawyer and public health advocate, Carolyn Raffensperger. Carolyn is executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, where she has worked since 1994.
In 1982, Ms. Raffensperger left a career as an archaeologist in the desert Southwest to join the environmental movement. She first worked for the Sierra Club where she addressed an array of environmental issues, including forest management, river protection, pesticide pollutants, and the disposal of radioactive waste. As an environmental lawyer she specializes in the fundamental changes in law and policy necessary for the protection and restoration of public health and the environment.
We talked about:
• faulty assumptions underlying environmental decision making
• the precautionary principle--what is it?
• a new report on health, aging and the environment
• reversing the burden of proof on the safety of industrial chemicals
• corporate structure and your inalienable right to a clean and healthy environment
• changing laws: rights of future generations and the commonwealth
• reform: the biggest obstacles and the greatest opportunities
• the essential nature of the arts and how they function in the process of change
• genetically altered seeds, the sex of plants, and the farmer-scientist breeding project
• “turning the Titanic,” ecological medicine and the economics of aging
Carolyn is co-editor of Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy published by M.I.T. Press (2006) and Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle, published by Island Press (1999). Together, these volumes provide the most comprehensive exploration to date of the history, theory, and implementation of the precautionary principle.
Carolyn Raffensperger is responsible for coining the term "ecological medicine" to encompass the broad notions that both health and healing are entwined with the natural world. She has served on editorial review boards for several environmental and sustainable agriculture journals, and on USEPA and National Research Council committees. Her bimonthly column for the Environmental Law Institute's journal Environmental Forum appeared from 1999 until 2008.
Our guest has also been featured in Gourmet magazine, the Utne Reader, Yes! Magazine, the Sun, Whole Earth, and Scientific American. Along with leading workshops and lecturing frequently on the Precautionary Principle, Carolyn is at the forefront of developing new models of government, which will depend on precaution and ecological integrity, and guardianship for future generations.
For more information, visit the websites of The Science and Environmental Health Network and of Guardians of the Future .
Enjoy the show! (The program is 45 minutes)
Listen at your convenience!

Interview with Scott Parsons