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Oscar Nominated director Josh Fox (Gasland) continues in his deeply personal style, investigating climate change – the greatest threat our world has ever known.
Speakers at the Summit, taking place June 17-19 in Chicago, comprise a roster of progressive luminaries
John Oliver, the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight, announced on Sunday that he had bought back and forgiven $15m of medical debt. Oliver announced the giveaway during a 20-minute segment on the 'grimey business' of debt collection.
“Climate change and extreme weather events are not devastating a random selection of human beings from all walks of life. There are no billionaires among the dead, no corporate executives living in shelters, no stockbrokers watching their children die of malnutrition.”
How do you get people to do something about climate change? For years, the answer has been to prod people into thinking about their role in causing it, to guilt trip them into action. Because any human who happens to live in North America has taken advantage of central...
My interview with Tiziano Bonini has ben published in Italian at Che Fara. Here is the English version:
Tristan knew the end was near when his dad turned yellow.
The current economic system advances through free trade and deregulation; the American Dream has been outsourced globally. This has created a bureaucratic nightmare, asserts David Graeber in his latest book, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of...
Take them as inspiration, accept them as challenges or follow them as rules. Just remember that the world is open to those with an open mind.
The issue at the core of women’s empowerment is the mother wound
Brilliant comic sums up tough choices around EU Referendum
Companies that purchase debt cheaply then collect it aggressively are shockingly easy to start. We can prove it!
Content warning: rape, Donald Trump, right-wing extremism.
One in every four Americans experiences mental illness, and lack of police understanding can lead to tragedy. Here’s what could happen if we were all trained to deal with depression and anxiety.
In which Trickle Down Economics collides with Impotent Tax Reform to create a super-massive Budget Black Hole.
The campaigns to improve our lot under capitalism are endless. Once one form of oppression is dealt with, there’s always another left to tackle, but while engaging in that new fight, the former is bound to return because no progress is ever permanent under capitalism. Rights...
Opioid addiction has killed a quarter of a million American in the past 15 years. And it often begins with a legal prescription from a doctor.
Huck's Michael Segalov headed down to the Ende Gelände camp in Germany to meet the activists putting their bodies on the line to take the fight against climate change to its very heart.
Unconditional basic income, a policy option that seems radical by American standards, is gaining new traction across Europe, Canada, and even a few places in the United States. Also known as “universal basic income,” the policy mandates a guaranteed stipend to every resident...
On June 2, a few days before the California primary, Hillary Clinton gave up trying to compete with Bernie Sanders on domestic policy. Instead, she zeroed in on the soft target of Donald Trump’s most “bizarre rants” in order to present herself as experienced and reasonable...
Muhammad Ali’s resistance to racism and war belongs not only to the 1960s, but the common future of humanity.
It's easy to think there are more things dividing us than uniting us. But we actually have much more in common with other nationalities than you'd think.
The Climate Changers is a short documentary about civil society engagement during the historic climate conference (COP 21) in Paris in December 2015. Journalist Samuel Schlaefli and filmmaker Esther Petsche joined activists and visited them in their ateliers, in cultural...
A Simpler Way follows a community in Australia who came together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises. Throughout the year the group built tiny houses, planted veggie gardens, practised simple living, and learned how to live in community.
Cultivating a Beginner's Mind With traditional arts in Asia much emphasis is put on long-term practice and effort, so as to reach continuously higher levels of skill development. There is a deeper character training happening as well, to reduce the ego’s voice, let go of...
Let’s play a game. It’s called “Who made it?” and it goes like this: I’ll describe a series of objects, and you guess who made them. If you guess all of them correctly, there will be a special prize waiting for you at the end of this article. Ready? Let’s begin.
As I write this, I’ve just returned from seeing my niece’s newborn baby girl. As I gazed into her eyes, I said a silent prayer hoping we can find a way to shift the systems of government and business that have allowed the sacred system of life to become so out of balance that...
There's a lot of mythology around outlaws, with some viewed as heroes and some as villains. Here are 6 legendary outlaws who you might not have head of.
Imagine a Sunday gathering that feels like a real celebration and inspires you in a deeply authentic way. Imagine dancing (and sweating!) your prayers, rather than sitting on benches & being preached at. Imagine experiencing your inner connection to the Divine, touching your...
The modern era is built on a theory of the Universe as a giant mechanical clock — dead matter with gears and springs.
We seem to have forgotten that the human spirit is not satisfied by material progress alone. It’s time for us to reconnect with nature
A common trope when trying to understand voters who vote differently from you is to simply call them idiots. This is particularly true this year, when discussing Trump voters. The most aggressive (and IMO offensive example of this) is by Jon
Harry Frankfurt on what bullshit is, why there's so much of it, and how it can be a greater enemy to the truth than lies.
They found this refugee baby floating out at sea, reminding many of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old whose body was found washed up on the beach.
Despite our advances in technology and medicine, we seem to be fighting a never-ending battle against a number of diseases and ailments. As viruses become more complex and bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, it seems that the lab-made drugs we have become so dependent...
To be, or not to be: that is the question.” —Hamlet “Psychopaths are capable of taking the perspective of somebody else, but only to take better advantage of you. They’re able to play the empathy game, but without the feelings involved. It’s like an empty shell. The core of...
Inequality represents simultaneously a cornerstone and a weak link in today's capitalism. The idea that wealth creation for the few benefits the many is a core myth of the system. But the expanding inequality divide shreds this theory. In practical terms, the super-rich buy...
United Natures explores the rights of Mother Earth, environmental philosophy, wisdom, spirituality, and the potential for a neo-indigenous future for humanity.
This is the crash-course in 'what the hell is going on here' that we surely all wish we got from our education growing up but probably never did.
For the past twenty years, I have been carrying out experiments to find out how power is distributed in groups. I have infiltrated college dorms and children’s summer camps to document who rises in power. I have brought entire sororities and fraternities into the lab...
Having successfully used the EU to conquer the Greek people by turning the Greek “leftwing” government into a pawn of Germany’s banks, Germany now finds the IMF in the way of its plan to loot Greece into oblivion.
Lucy Purdy explores how the concept of ‘rewilding’ could be applied not just to the natural world, but to ourselves
This documentary closely follows the eco-village Cabrum, a recent community in northern Portugal; Cooperativa Integral Catalana, in Barcelona, which practices self-management with its own coins, the Eco; and finally, the self-sustaining community Tamera also in Portugal. The...
How Do Bourgeois Democratic Elections in the US Work? A decade and a half into the 21st century, the answer is that they work badly. Very badly. The basic function of the government—what Marx called the general staff of the capitalist class--in bourgeois democracies is to...
For decades, we've been taught that economic growth and buying more stuff will make us happy—while trashing the planet. The good news is, there’s a better kind of happy: It starts with meaningful work, loving relationships, and a thriving natural world.
This is a shortened version of the award-winning feature-length documentary film, The Economics of Happiness. Cut down from 68 minutes to less than 20, it provides an introduction to the concept of localization - a systemic alternative to corporate capitalism - and shows how...
Most of us have never taken part in a poll about politics, says Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi, but we will happily believe the results and even let them affect how we decide to vote. Instead, she argues, the media should be helping people come to a decision by...
Universities have become detached places for the pursuit of career advancement — a fantasy world in these turbulent times.
On the surface, things appear normal. The status quo of life in America circa 2016 isn’t to everyone’s liking, but at least the system is still working after a fashion. The price of oil is going up a bit: that means the cost of driving is also creeping higher, but steeper...
In her teens, strangers flashed her on the subway, teachers asked for hugs and boys joked about her breasts. Should she laugh off a lifetime of objectification – or get angry?
Last week a research wing of the International Monetary Fund came out with a report admitting that neoliberalism has been a failure. The report, entitled, “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” is hopefully a sign of the ideology's death. They were only about 40 years late. As Naomi...
All over France people are rising up. A clip from the film Network is followed by footage of the protests, strikes and riots sweeping across France. Read more here.
'Business leaders who refuse to look into the realities of their own supply chains are misguided and irresponsible.'
Fresh out of college, a skinny nerd with little or no social skills, my worldview heavily influenced by an Enlightenment notion of the 'human', I decided to dedicate my academic energies towards proving the existence of the soul. My map was unimpeachably detailed and...
THE WORM IS TURNING tells the story of how corporate agribusiness is taking over the world's food production in the name of 'efficiency' and 'feeding a starving world' - while actually destroying economies, people's health, and the ecology of the world.
Climate change deniers like to style themselves as latter-day Copernicuses and Galileos, lone visionaries bucking the established wisdom of the ages embodied back then in the teachings of the Catholic Church.
The set of ideas we can call Romanticism is responsible for making our relationships extremely difficult. We shouldn’t give up on love; we should just recognize that it’s more a skill we can actively practice, and less an emotion that we have no control over.
Hear arguments from both sides and then vote in our poll
In facing up to the many profound crises of our time, we face a conundrum that has no easy resolution: how are we to imagine and build a radically different system while living within the constraints of an incumbent system that aggressively resists transformational change?...
Eleanor Penny explains why Britain needs to remain in the EU despite it's structural racism and lack of democracy.
A friend recently said to me, “Kyer, if I were in your financial situation, I’d be freaking out.”
My first impression at OuiShare Fest was a weird utopian blockchain mania: a poorly understood but massively hyped technology that will somehow fix all our social, political, and economic inequities. As I got to know some of the people here though, I started to see through...
To defeat the current upsurge in right-wing populism, progressives will need to disrupt, defuse, and – critically – compete for portions of its constituency.
One of my most popular courses at Swarthmore College focused on the challenge of how to defend against terrorism, nonviolently. Events now unfolding in France make our course more relevant than ever. (The syllabus was published in “Peace, Justice, and Security Studies: A...
The Tapajós River is one of the last free-flowing rivers in the entire Brazilian Amazon. But this river in the heart of the rainforest and the people and ecosystems that depend on it face a serious threat.
In the 1964 film classic, Dr. Strangelove, Slim Pickens is seen riding a nuclear bomb down to his certain death – and perhaps to the end of us all – while he calmly inventories his survival equipment.
We fail our duties as citizens if we remain silent about the realities of war
In the last few months basic income—an unconditional cash payment to every member of the population—has been getting more and more attention in the media and social networks. Three items are especially interesting.
“It finally clicked. I have bad self esteem when it comes to men.” — Journal Entry, October 27, 2015
Scientists are increasingly warning of the potential that a shutdown, or even significant slowdown, of the Atlantic conveyor belt could lead to abrupt climate change, a shift in Earth’s climate that can occur within as short a timeframe as a decade but persist for decades or...
“The horror... the horror...”—Apocalypse Now (1979)“You can’t show war as it really is on the screen, with all the blood and gore. Perhaps it would be better if you could fire real shots over the audience’s head every night, you know, and have actual casualties in the...
Returning to the United States in an election year, I am struck by the silence. I have covered four presidential campaigns, starting with 1968; I was with Robert Kennedy when he was shot and I saw his assassin, preparing to kill him. It was a baptism in the American way...
This is my body is a spoken word piece by Agnes Torok, a commentary on people judging, grabbing and commenting on her body. She talks about the all the incredible things she can do with her body and how she shouldn't be seen as a sex object. Support Agnes is her work here.
Comedians James Adomian (Bernie Sanders) and Anthony Atamanuik (Donald Trump) bring two of the most controversial candidates in history, head-to-head, or rather bald-to-toupee, in the debate everyone wants -but Trump is too chicken to agree to!
Trump recently waffled about debating Sanders; he said he would for $10M to charity. He must not have expected the money to materialize. It did; and he bailed. But why? It would only weaken Clinton – which, as the presumptive nominee, Trump theoretically would want.
The Daily Show look beyond the campaign trail rhetoric to find out what Donald Trump had to say about poor people and women before he was trying to become President.
I’m dealing with massive cognitive dissonance right now. Multiple, contradictory beliefs and perceptions inhabit my mind, each compelling on its own terms. How do I choose?
Henry David Thoreau once wrote the words, "In wildness is the preservation of the world." Though Thoreau lived in his cabin on the shores of Walden Pond many years ago, those words hold a deep truth. Wildness can mean so many different things to so many different people, but...
These days, feminism is on fleek. Touted by everyone from Dove to Barbie to Taylor Swift, consumer capitalism has made feminism sexy, fun, cool—and remarkably easy to claim as your own. But the price tag has been the meaning of the movement itself.
To build a lasting movement for climate justice, activists must decouple hope from victory and confront their fatigue head-on
“Yes, it looks bleak. But you are still alive now. You are alive with all the others, in this present moment. And because the truth is speaking in the work, it unlocks the heart. And there’s such a feeling and experience of adventure. It’s like a trumpet call to a great...
An animated look at David Schweickart's proposal for a next system, grounded in democratic worker cooperatives and built around public control of financial capital.
As part of our “New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals” series, Lane Kenworthy delves into a model for Social Democracy that he believes would be beneficial for a next system. Kenworthy claims that higher government involvement – as exemplified by Denmark, Finland, Norway...
Neoliberalism encourages us to treat every aspect of our lives as if it were on sale in a marketplace: is it an anti-spiritual project?
Progressive renewal lies in a deep recognition that we are not choosing our current lives.
It is a sunny April Saturday and I’m running late to an event. This itself is not remarkable – but this time it is because the street I’m looking for in Lambeth is not marked on my map. When I find the launch for Switched On London, I discover I’m not the only one puzzled by...
We can all feel it — the mental disease of late-stage capitalism is causing widespread depression, an epidemic of suicides, chronic feelings of guilt and shame, and a general malaise of powerlessness.
The Try Guys recreate famous photos of male celebrities and are photoshopped with their ideal body types.
Parenthood lies deep within us. We are wired to help our little ones survive and prosper. Modern life, however, has removed us from our natural environment. It can be hard to raise a child in world of fear and distractions. Science and psychology bring back a big dose of...
Many changes happening around us remain unclear. We need better names and stories for them.
More than 1,500 community gardens have been started on vacant land in Detroit alone in recent years.
On Globalization and The Costs of Exporting the American Dream
Among climate change activists, solutions usually center on a transition to renewable energy. There may be differences over whether this would be best accomplished by a carbon tax, bigger subsidies for wind and solar power, divestment from fossil fuel companies, massive...
On Memorial Day, politicians will speak at ceremonies all over the country and repeat their favorite mantra: “Support the troops.”
'What we want today is for this movement to spread,' says unionist.
The second thing NPR wants you to know about Hillary Clinton and foreign policy—after “she’s experienced”—is “she’s more hawkish than President Obama.” White House correspondent Scott Horsley (All Things Considered, 5/17/16) says:
In every community I visited, I found people working hard to lay a different foundation for our society.
1 I’m eleven years old. I’m in the deep end of a swimming pool, small wet hands fastened on to the pool ladder. My instructor bends over. “Let go,” she says. “I will,” I tell her. “Let go now.”
Aaron Bastani, famously pro-Brexit left commentator gives his four reasons why the EU can't be relied upon for democracy, social justice and freedom.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
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