Undercurrents

Ashik Siddique, research analyst at the National Priorities Project, which is a part of the Institute for Justice and Peace, comes on the show to discuss the federal budget and why "somehow there's always more money to go to war." The Project conducts research on fund allocation and advocates for the redistribution of military funds to programs that are "socially useful." Read Siddique's latest article More Military Money, More Problems at https://rosalux.nyc/more-military-money-more-problems/.

Brian Garvey and Amar Ahmed of Mass Peace Action return to the show! This week's episode brings us to the Middle East, and Brian and Amar discuss severing ties with Saudi Arabia, pulling out of Yemen and other forever wars, and putting pressure on the Biden administration to make good on its campaign promises.

Bob Pollin, econ professor at UMass Amherst, returns to the show to discuss the glob al climate crisis and hope for a green economy. Pollin's latest book, written with renowned humanitarian Noam Chomsky, is titled Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal.

Dept. of Geosciences professor Justin Richardson comes to Undercurrents to proselytize– to preach the gospel of soils. But Richardson does more than just dig holes. Listen below to join our conversation around soil toxicity and environmental racism.

Swing Left's Jeff Lobo returns to the show along with his colleague Jeff Angus to talk more about the importance of Swing Left's work, how to replicate successes in Georgia, and why we should listen to grassroots organizers and volunteers on the ground.

UMass history professor Asheesh Siddique talks to Undercurrents about his book, Legal Meanings: Intention and Methods in the US, and analyzes to what degree the January 6 insurrection was at all unprecedented or unforeseeable. Spoiler alert: it's not very high.

Brian Garvey and Amar Ahmad from Mass Peace Action return to the show! This week, we talk about Peace Action's January 25 International Day of Action, a day when "the world says no to war on Yemen."

Alan Robock, climate science professor at Rutgers University, joins our virtual studio to talk about his research on climate intervention and nuclear winter. Robock also works at the Physicist Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction.

UMass economics professor Lisa Saunders brings her decades-long work around women in economics and inclusivity in the labor market to this week's discussion surrounding inclusive and accessible teaching.

Graduate Student Shaina Sadai talks about her work at the UMass Department of Geophysics and helps us understand the impact of high Antarctic ice melt on the global climate.

Organizers Susan Labandibar and Jeff Lobo tell the story of their organization's, Swing Left Greater Boston, humble Amherst beginnings and its efforts to make democracy and progressive legislation more accessible: voter protection efforts, knocking on doors, running phone-banks and regularly registering voters. Swing Left Greater Boston is in the process of becoming Swing Blue Alliance.

Brian Garvey and Amar Ahmad of Mass Peace Action talk about their organization's seventy-year effort to demilitarize from the grassroots up, and expound on the need to constrict the government's inflated military budget and limit our intervention abroad.

UMass Economics professor Gerry Freidman comes onto the show to discuss the economics of flawed polling and this election cycle's unmet expectations.

Emeritus professor Art Keene and professor Jennifer Sandler, both associated with the UMass Department of Anthropology, discuss the state of the nation, structural inequalities in the American voting system, and how disenfranchisement got us here.

UMass professors John Bracey and Bob Pollin, who teach in the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies and the Department of Economics respectively, join us with fewer than 24 hours on the clock until polls close on the 2020 election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Miranda Groux and Hallie Martin from the Resistance Center for Peace and Justice in Northampton join our show to talk about the grassroots movement propelling demilitarization, and how their organization takes preventative action in the Pioneer Valley against militarization.

Traci Parker joins us this week in a discussion around historical barriers to obtaining suffrage and the need for Black activism in the struggle for racial justice. Parker's book, Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement: Workers, Consumers, and Civil Rights from the 1930s to the 1980s, was released last year.

Arlene Avakian of the Movement Voter Project fills us in on the mechanics of grassroots organizing, what happens on the ground once elections are over and how organizations like hers fundraise for the future. Avakian is an emeritus professor from UMass Amherst, and she is one of the founders and former chair of the university's Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality.

Art Keene, UMass professor emeritus of anthropology, joins us in conversation around voter suppression and the precarious state of our democracy. Keene is an editor at the Amherst Independent and a local activist.

UMass professor of economics Gerry Friedman joins us to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic's strain on our healthcare system and the economics of inoculation. His newest release titled The Case for Medicare for All is out in bookstores now.