Podcasts about Jessica Mitford

In this fiery episode of History Rage, host Paul Bavill welcomes back historian, journalist, and author Guy Walters to rage against the sanitized veneration of the Mitford Sisters. These interwar aristocrats have often been glamorized in books, media, and society, but beneath their glittering façade lies a much darker reality.Fascist Fables:Unity Mitford's Obsession with Hitler: Unity stalked Adolf Hitler, met him over 130 times, and became one of his closest British confidantes. Her diaries, recently unearthed and published, reveal her disturbing Nazi sympathies and personal infatuation with the Führer.Diana Mitford's Glamour and Extremism: Diana married Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, in Joseph Goebbels' living room, with Hitler himself in attendance. Despite her aristocratic charm, Diana remained an unrepentant fascist even decades after the war.The Mitford Dynamic:The Extreme Spectrum: With parents steeped in fascist ideology, the Mitford siblings included fascists like Diana and Unity, alongside Jessica Mitford, an avowed communist. Guy explores how political extremism permeated the family's psyche.Romanticisation in Media: From syrupy books to glossy TV dramas, the Mitfords are too often depicted as glamorous, eccentric aristocrats, overshadowing their political extremism and disturbing sympathies.Guy's Call to Action:Stop the Mitford glorification. Shift your fascination to figures like the women of the SOE—glamorous, courageous, and committed to fighting tyranny, not enabling it.Join Guy Walters as he dismantles the myths surrounding the Mitford Sisters and rages against the misplaced admiration for these controversial figures.

(We couldn't resist when Miguel Paniagua proposed this podcast idea and title. And no, you'll be relieved to hear Eric and I did not imitate the interview style of Zach Galifiniakis). We've talked a good deal on this podcast about what happens before death, today we talk about what happens after.  Our guest today is Thomas Lynch, a poet and undertaker who practiced for years in a small town in Michigan.  I first met Thomas when he visited UC Berkeley in the late 90's after publishing his book, “The Undertaking: Stories from the Dismal Trade.” We cover a wide range on this topic, weaving in our own stories of loss with Thomas's experiences, stories, and poems from years of caring for families after their loved one's have died. We cover: The cultural shift from grieving to celebration, the “disappearance” of the body and death from funerals The power of viewing the body and participating in preparing the body, including cremation The costs of funerals  The story of why Thomas became an undertaker A strong response to Jessica Mitford's scathing critique of the American Funeral Industry published in “The American Way of Death” Our own experiences with funerals and burial arrangements for our loved ones Shifting practices, with a majority of people being cremated after death, a dramatic increase This podcast was like therapy for us.  And I got to sing Tom Waits' Time, one of my favorites.   

It's 1963, and famous communist slash journalist slash British ex-pat slash all-around badass Jessica Mitford discovers the American public is being absolutely swindled by the American funerary system. So what's she going to do about it? She's going to write an expose called The American Way of Death, and then she's going to watch patiently as panicked funeral directors and morticians accuse her of being a communist and therefore not worthy of having opinions or something. And after that, she's going to do the funniest thing possible: she's going to die and spend almost nothing on her own funeral.  Also, Hitler (yeah, that one) is in this episode in a bunch of ways you could not expect, which is our version of the worst surprise party ever.  ⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Now with Beyond the Grave, a relaxed talk series with the crew! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on instagram(@deathandfriendspodcast)! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Nash Flynn @itsnashflynn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Angel Luna @GuerrillaJokes ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on TikTok @deathapodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠This is a KnaveryInk podcast.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Have you seen our NEWER and GAYER website? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.deathandfriends.gay/⁠ Happy Pride Month!

In this special bonus episode of the For the Love Podcast, Jen sits down with her literary hero — beloved author and teacher, Anne Lamott, whose candid, humorous writing has inspired millions to embrace their imperfect selves. Anne and Jen explore the hard-won wisdom distilled across Anne's 45-year career and 20 books - from finding radical self-love after a lifetime of shame, to surrendering to life's ordinary miracles during periods of existential crisis. With refreshing irreverence, Anne shares her lessons on unearthing your deepest, truest voice and faith that new paths are waiting, even when the way forward feels hopelessly obscured. Jen and Anne discuss The importance of radical self-love, letting go of shame, and being your own priority before trying to please or gain approval from others Having faith that there is a "shape" or path waiting for you, even if you can't see it yet, by surrendering and doing the work of self-examination The wisdom that comes with age in realizing how little you know The way small, mundane acts can be profound expressions of love and service to buoy you during dark periods For anyone who has ever felt cracked by life's circumstances, Anne's perspective provides a roadmap back to wholeness. Thought-Provoking Quotes: “[I've been] giving myself deeper and deeper permission to use my own voice and to stop trying to get people to like or respect me or to think I'm more educated than I am--which I'm not at all educated--and to just get kind of cleaner in my own being so that I could write the deepest I could go in my own truest voice and just get that day's work done one day at a time. It's like nautilus for the soul. To keep writing your truth with your own weird, quirky, way of expressing yourself and being affirmed that people seem to like it and to keep going.” - Anne Lamott "What love manifests is making more mistakes. Knowing as a writer, that a pile of papers and notes and index cards is a fertile field, and you don't need to know what you're going to do with them. They know what you're going to do with them. The material knows what you're going to do with it, and it's going to get back to you as it trusts more and more that you're a reliable narrator." - Anne Lamott “We do some deep dive into the obstacles to radical self-love and to just surrendering to the path of goodness or God or the holiness. The first thing God says to Moses is 'take off your shoes. Feel the earth beneath your feet. This is holy ground.' And that is what God has for you, starting right now. Take off your shoes and wiggle your toes in the earth. Look up. Breathe in. And when you are restored from what you've been through, all this nautilus for your soul you've been doing, you're going to step forward into that shape.” - Anne Lamott Resources Mentioned in this Bonus Episode:  Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life - https://bit.ly/3K1JZGg Somehow: Thoughts on Love by Anne Lamott - https://bit.ly/3ytWzeK The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford - https://bit.ly/3JZCP5s Hard Laughter: A Novel by Anne Lamott - https://bit.ly/4bFcO7b Five Rules of Being a Grown-Up (Article by CJ Green) - https://bit.ly/4bXbmxl 8 Best Anne Lamott Books -https://bit.ly/3yoWbyj Guest Links: Twitter - https://twitter.com/annelamott/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AnneLamott/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/annelamott/ Penguin Random House - https://sites.prh.com/annelamott Connect with Jen! Jen's website - http://jenhatmaker.com/ Jen's Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmaker Jen's Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Jen's Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmaker Jen's YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker The For the Love Podcast is a production of Four Eyes Media, presented by Audacy.  Four Eyes Media: https://www.iiiimedia.com/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘There was no voicemail. I was the voicemail.' In this out-of-series special episode of the Slightly Foxed podcast Joanna Rakoff, author of the 2008 literary smash hit My Salinger Year (released as a Slightly Foxed limited-edition hardback in March 2024), joins us down the line from her home in Massachusetts for a conversation with our podcast presenter Rosie Goldsmith. From their respective sides of the Atlantic, Rosie and Joanna take a trip back to New York in the freezing winter of 1996 when Joanna Rakoff, aged 24, landed her first job as assistant at one of the city's oldest and most distinguished literary agencies. No matter that she didn't even know what a literary agent was and had lied about her typing speed. She'd also led her parents to believe she was living with a female college friend when she was in fact sharing an unheated Brooklyn apartment with a penniless and unpublished Marxist novelist whose sole and very part-time job was watering the plants at Goldman Sachs.  Rosie and Joanna take us deep into the strange, time-warped world she's strayed into at The Agency, with its Selectric typewriters, filing cabinets and carbon paper, and into her unusual relationship with its best-known author J. D. Salinger, to whose mountain of fan mail it was Joanna's job to reply. Salinger was famously reclusive, wanting nothing to do with his fans and Joanna was supposed to reply with a pro forma letter. But the more heart-wrenching the letters she read, the more she found herself pulled into the senders' lives and, unbeknownst to her terrifying boss (‘whiskey mink, enormous sunglasses, a long cigarette holder'), she replied to every single one and sometimes, fatally, enclosed a personal note herself. Joanna describes how My Salinger Year came to be, from a gem of an idea explored in the confessional 2011 BBC Sounds documentary Hey Mr Salinger to a best-selling memoir that inspired a Hollywood film starring Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley, and how, when Salinger died, she turned to her bookshelves for comfort. Now, twenty years after its first publication, My Salinger Year joins the much loved Slightly Foxed Editions list of memoirs by such authors as Hilary Mantel, Jessica Mitford, Roald Dahl, Graham Greene and many others.  For episode show notes, please see the Slightly Foxed website. Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major by Bach Hosted by Rosie Goldsmith

A presentation from "Censorship and Official Lies: The End of Truth in America?" This event was co-hosted by the Mises Institute and the Ron Paul Institute, and recorded in Lake Jackson, Texas, on April 13, 2024.Full Written Text (Audio link is above): Over the past three years, the word “sedition” has again become popular among regime agents and their friends in the media. It's certainly not the first time the word has enjoyed a renaissance. It's frequently employed whenever the ruling class wishes us to become hysterical about various real and imagined enemies, both domestic and foreign.This time, the regime's paranoia about sedition was prompted by the Capitol Riot in January 2021, when we were told that Trump supporters nearly carried out a coup d'etat. Since then, regime operatives have frequently referred to Trump supporters and Trump himself as seditionists.Yet, out of the approximately 850 people charged with crimes of various sorts, only a very small number have been charged with anything even close to treason or insurrection. Rather, most charges are various forms of infractions related to vandalism and trespassing. However, because these charges have to do with the regime's sacred office buildings, the penalties are outrageously harsh compared to similar acts, were they to occur on private property.For a small handful of defendants, however—the ones the Justice Department has most enthusiastically targeted—the federal prosecutors have brought the charge of “seditious conspiracy.”Why not charges of treason, rebellion or insurrection? Well, if federal prosecutors though they could get a conviction for actual rebellion, insurrection, or treason for the January 6 riot, they would have brought those charges.But they didn't.What they did do is turn to seditious conspiracy, which is far easier to prove in court, and is—like all conspiracy charges in American law—essentially a thought crime and a speech crime. Seditious conspiracy is not actual sedition, or rebellion, or insurrection. That is, there is no overt act necessary, nor is it necessary that the alleged sedition or insurrection actually take place or be executed. What really matters is that two or more people said things that prosecutors could later claim were part of a conspiracy to do something that may or may not have ever happened.Moreover, the regime now routinely employs other types of conspiracy charges for prosecuting Americans supposedly guilty for various crimes against the state. At the moment, for example, Donald Trump faces three different conspiracy charges for saying that the 2020 election was illegitimate.As we shall see, purported crimes like seditious conspiracy are crimes based largely on things people have said. They are a type of speech crime. Now, some may ask how that is even possible if there is freedom of speech in this country.Contrary to what a naïve reading of the First Amendment might suggest, the federal government has never been especially keen on respecting the right to free speech.The federal government has long sought tools to get around the First amendment, and one of them is seditious conspiracy.Now, the term seditious conspiracy contains two pieces. There's the sedition part, and there is the conspiracy part. Let's explore both parts of this in a bit more detail to see what we can learn about this inventive way the regime has developed to silence those who question the legitimacy of the American state.Seditious Conspiracy Was Invented to Get Around Limitations on Treason Prosecutions From the very beginning, federal politicians have sought ways to create political crimes above and beyond the Constitution's very limited definition of treason. This began with the Sedition Act of 1798, and continued with the creation of the Seditious Conspiracy law in 1861, and carried on through to the Sedition Act of 1918, and the Smith Act of 1940, and a plethora of various types of “conspiracy” laws used to punish many different types of antiwar and dissident activities since then.All of these laws, involve restrictions on freedom of speech, and open up suspects to punishments for saying things.The reason why federal politicians believe they need extra sedition laws on top of treason can be found in the fact that the framers of the Constitution defined treason in very specific and limiting terms:Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.Note the use of the word “only” to specify that the definition of treason shall not be construed as something more broad than what is in the text. As with much of what we now find in the Bill of Rights, this language stems from fears that the US federal government would indulge in some of the same abuses that had occurred under the English crown, especially in the days of the Stuart monarchs. Kings had often construed “treason” to mean acts, thoughts, and alleged conspiracies far beyond the act of actually taking up arms against the state.Treason could have been anything the king didn't like, and it how you end up with a situation in which St. Thomas More was executed for treason simply for refusing to say that the king was head of the church.By contrast, in the US Constitution, the only flexibility given to Congress is in determining the punishment for treason.Naturally, those who favored greater federal power chafed at these limitations and sought more federal laws that would punish alleged crimes against the state. It only took the Federalists ten years to come up with the Alien and Sedition Acts, which stated:That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States … or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, … from undertaking, performing or executing his trust or duty, and if any person or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice, or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor.Note the references to “intent,” “counsel,” and “advise” as criminal acts so long as these types of speech are employed in a presumed effort to obstruct government officials. In the twentieth century, we will again see this type of language designed to ensnare Americans in so-called crimes of conspiracy.A great many Americans—some of whom who still took the radical liberalism of the revolutionary era seriously—saw the Sedition Act for what it was. A blatant assault on the rights of Americans, and an attack on freedom of speech. Thanks to the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800 the Sedition Act was allowed to expire,Then, for sixty years, the United States government had no laws addressing sedition on the books. But the heart of the 1798 Sedition Act would be revived. As passed in July 1861, the new Seditious Conspiracy statute statedthat if two or more persons within any State or Territory of the United States shall conspire together to overthrow, or to put down, or to destroy by force, the Government of the United States, or to oppose by force the authority of the Government of the United States; or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States; or … prevent any person from accepting or holding any office, or trust, or place of confidence, under the United States. . . . Shall be guilty of a high crime.Note the crimes here are not overt acts like “overthrowing the government” of “delaying the execution of a law.” No, the crime here is conspiring to do something about it. That is, saying things about it to another person. That is what constitutes “conspiracy” here.Now, some people who have a rather benign view of the state might think, well, people shouldn't conspire to do bad things. Well, in real life, conspiracy as prosecuted, does not necessarily look like a group of bad guys getting together in a dark room and explaining how they're going to blow up some government building. That's Hollywood stuff.In real life, people can be found guilty of conspiring with people with whom they have never been in the same room, or with whom the "conspirator" expressed any actual violent intent.We'll return to this, and this is just something to keep in mind, whenever looking at government conspiracy laws.Given the timing of the seditious conspiracy legislation that I just read—i.e., in 1861, following the secession of several Southern states—it is assumed that the legislation originated to address alleged Confederate treason. This is not quite the case. The legislation did enjoy considerable support from those who were especially militant in their opposition to the Confederacy. However, Rep. Clement Vallandigham of Ohio—who would later be exiled to the Confederacy for opposing Lincoln's war—supported the bill precisely because he thought it would help punish opponents of the fugitive slave laws.” Congress had initially become serious about punishing “conspiracies” not in response to Southern secession, but in response to John Brown's 1859 raid at Harper's Ferry.Thus, there was support for the idea in the South before the war. Soon thereafter, however, the Confederate secession and fears of rebellion helped enlarge the coalition in favor of a new sedition law. The new sedition law represented a significant expansion of the idea of “crimes against the state.” Senator Stephen Douglas, the bill's sponsor understood this perfectly well, statingYou must punish the conspiracy, the combination with intent to do the act, and then you will suppress it in advance. … If it be unlawful and illegal to invade a State, and run off fugitive slaves, [a reference to John Brown] why not make it unlawful to form conspiracies and combinations in the several States with intent to do the act?Others were more suspicious of expanding federal power in this way, however. Sen. Lazarus Powell and eight other Democrats presented a statement opposing the passage of the bill. Specifically, Powell and his allies believed the new seditious conspiracy law would be a de facto move in the direction of allowing the federal government to expand the definition of treason offered by the federal constitution. The statement read:The creation of an offense, resting in intention alone, without overt act, would render nugatory the provision last quoted, [i.e., the treason definition in the Constitution] and the door would be opened for those similar oppressions and cruelties which, under the excitement of political struggles, have so often disgraced the past history of the world.Powell is here describing what George Orwell would later call a “thoughtcrime.” This “crime” Powell tells us, rests “in intention alone, without overt act.” To anyone who actually valued freedom in 1861, this would set off major alarm bells.Even worse, Powell saw that the new legislation would provide to the federal government “the utmost latitude to prosecutions founded on personal enmity and political animosity and the suspicions as to intention which they inevitably engender.”Like so many political crimes invented by regimes, the legislation tends to grant unusual flexibility and discretion in prosecuting the state's perceived enemies. This opens up political dissidents to new kinds of prosecution.Such legislation COULD have been used against opponents of the fugitive slave acts, as well as against opponents of federal conscription during the war. After all, opponents of both the Civil War draft and the Vietnam War draft “conspired” to destroy government property—as with the heroic draft-card burnings of the Catonsville Nine, for example.It would be far harder to prove in court that such acts constituted treason, so sedition laws have paved to way for more frequently prosecuting various acts of resistance against the regime and its crimes.It's bad enough that federal policy makers schemed to insert into federal law new crimes against the state. But, as Powell correctly noted, the greater danger is in the part of the sedition law that enables prosecutions for conspiracy.What Is Conspiracy?So now we look at the other component of seditious conspiracy: the conspiracy part.Now conspiracy laws are used far more broadly than for political crimes. They are also used in the war on drugs and countless other federal legal crusades.Current federal conspiracy laws outlaw conspiracy to commit any other federal crime. Other provisions include conspiracy to commit some specific form of misconduct, ranging from civil rights violations to drug trafficking. Conspiracy is a separate offense under most of these statutes, regardless of whether the conspiracy accomplishes its objective.This latter point is an important distinction. As was explicit in the Sedition Act of 1798, so it is today: it is not necessary that the defendant charged with conspiracy harm anyone —i.e., that there be any actual victim. Indeed, conspiracy charges act as a way of charging individuals with crimes that might occur, but have not.Moreover, it is not even necessary in all cases that a "conspirator" take any affirmative steps toward completion of the alleged conspiracy. While it is true that some federal conspiracy statutes require at least one conspirator to take some affirmative step in furtherance of the scheme, It is also the case that Many have no such explicit overt act requirement. Even in those cases where some "affirmative step" or overt act take place, it is not necessary that the act be illegal. The "act" could be publicly stating an opinion or making a phone call.In a 2019 interview with the Mises Institute, Judge Andrew Napolitano highlighted his own problem with conspiracy charges:If it were up to me, there would be no such thing as conspiracy crimes because they are thought crimes and word crimes. But, at the present time in our history and in fact, for all of our history, regrettably, an agreement to commit a felony, agreement by two or more people or two or more entities to commit a felony and a step in furtherance of that agreement, constitutes an independent crime. ... In the world of freedom, where you and I and people reading this live, conspiracy is a phony crime. For 600 years of Anglo-American jurisprudence, all accepted [that] crime contained an element of harm. Today, crime is whatever the government says it is.Napolitano is right, and the fact that crime is whatever the government says it is becomes apparent in one of the other key problems with conspiracy laws. Namely, as one legal commentator put it, “few things [are] left so doubtful in the criminal law, as the point at which a combination of several persons in a common object becomes illegal.”That is, at what point do a bunch of people talking about things become a criminal act. The law is very vague on this, and it is why it's not so easy to say “well, golly, I won't ever be prosecuted for conspiracy, because I don't plan to do anything illegal.But you are not safe because it is not clear in the law, at what point, statements encouraging legal activities become illegal —or statements encouraging legal activities, but without real criminal intent, become felonies.So, you can imagine yourself mouthing off unseriously and saying “we oughta burn down the offices of the department of education.” And then your friend texts back and says “I agree.” Well, congratulations, a prosecutor could easily use that exchange as a way of building a case for conspiracy against you.Would a single expression of an opinion against the regime be enough to convict? Probably not, but combined with other unrelated acts and legal activities such as a stated plan to visit Washington DC or buy a gun for unrelated activities, a prosecutor could, with enough convincing, tie them together in the minds of jurors to get a conviction for conspiracy.Legislators and the courts have never been able to provide any objective standard of when these disconnected, and often legal acts become crimes, and thus, prosecutors are afforded enormous leeway in stringing together a series of acts and claiming these constitute a conspiracy. For an indictment, the prosecutor merely need convince a grand jury that legal acts are really part of an illegal conspiracy. This is not difficult, as noted by Judge Solomon Wachtler when he cautioned that district attorneys could convince grand juries to "indict a ham sandwich."Not surprisingly, people who are actually concerned about regimes abusing their power have long opposed conspiracy prosecutions.For example, Clarence Darrow wrote on conspiracy prosecutions in 1932, concluding "It is a serious reflection on America that this wornout piece of tyranny, this dragnet for compassing the imprisonment and death of men whom the ruling class does not like, should find a home in our country."Darrow was at least partly joined in this opinion several years earlier by Judge Learned Hand who in 1925 described conspiracy charges as "that darling of the modern prosecutor's nursery" for the way it favors prosecutors over defendants.Crimes of Thought and Speech Vaguely DefinedConspiracy crimes have been a favorite of government prosecutors in going after political opponents historically.And, In the wake of the Vietnam War and the federal government's many attempts to prosecute antiwar protestors and activists for various crimes, many legal scholars took a closer look at the nature of conspiracy charges. Many were skeptical that conspiracy charges are either necessary or beneficial. The elastic and vague nature of conspiracy "crimes" means that, as legal scholar Thomas Emerson puts it, "the whole field of conspiracy law is filled with traps for the unwary and opportunities for the repressor."One of the more famous cases of conspiracy prosecutions running amok was the 1968 prosecution and trial of American pediatrician and antiwar activist Benjamin Spock. Spock and four others were charged with conspiring to aid, abet, and counsel draft resisters. That is, they were charged with saying things. Although prosecutors could never show the "conspirators" committed any illegal acts—or were ever even in the same room together—Spock and three of his "co-conspirators" were found guilty in federal court. The case was eventually set aside on appeal, but only on a legal technicality.Spock was able to avoid prison, but countless others have not been so lucky. Defendants who do not enjoy Spock's level of fame or wealth continue to find themselves locked in cages for saying things federal prosecutors don't like.The legal incoherence of the charges laid against Spock—and against antiwar activists in general—was covered in detail in Jessica Mitford's 1969 book The Trial of Dr. Spock, in which she writesThe law of conspiracy is so irrational, its implications so far removed from ordinary human experience or modes of thought, that like the Theory of Relativity it escapes just beyond the boundaries of the mind. One can dimly understand it while an expert is explaining it, but minutes later, it is not easy to tell it back. This elusive quality of conspiracy as a legal concept contributes to its deadliness as a prosecutor's tool and compounds the difficulties of defending against it.Mitford further draws upon Darrow to illustrate the absurdity of these prosecutions, pointing out that Darrow described conspiracy laws this way: if a boy steals a piece of candy, he is guilty of a misdemeanor. If two boys talk about stealing candy and do not, they are guilty of conspiracy—a felony.Again, we find that the foundation of conspiracy laws are thoughts and words, rather than any actual criminal acts. Or, as legal scholar Abraham Goldstein put it in 1959: "conspiracy doctrine comes closest to making a state of mind the occasion for preventive action against those who threaten society but who have come nowhere near carrying out the threat."This ability to treat this "state of mind" as real crime means, in the words of legal scholar Kevin Jon Heller:the government currently enjoys substantive and procedural advantages in conspiracy trials that are unparalleled anywhere else in the criminal law. Conspiracy convictions can be based on circumstantial evidence alone, and the government is allowed to introduce any evidence that "even remotely tends to establish the conspiracy charged.Conspiracy Prosecutions Are a Means of Quashing DissentConspiracy laws----including seditious conspiracy of course -- have long been used for a wide variety of alleged crimes.However, as the Dr. Spock case makes clear, conspiracy prosecutions are also a tool against those who protest government policies. More specifically, given that conspiracy "crimes" are essentially crimes of words and thoughts, conspiracy prosecutions have long been employed as a way of circumventing the First Amendment. As the editors of the Yale Law Journal put it in 1970:Throughout various periods of xenophobia, chauvinism, and collective paranoia in American history, conspiracy law has been one of the primary governmental tools employed to deter individuals from joining controversial political causes and groups.Or, put another way by the Journal, through conspiracy prosecutions, the "government seeks to regulate associations whose primary activity is expression." Naturally, citizens are more reluctant to engage in expressive activities with others that could later be characterized in court as some kind of conspiracy.So, if you and the other members of your gun club like to get a bit over-the-top in your comments about the crimes of America's political class, be careful. The federal informant in your midst may be taking notes.So it was the case with many government informants placed to investigate groups that opposed the War and the draft. Those who simply agreed with radical opinions could find themselves on the wrong end of a federal indictment.Yet, any strict interpretation of the First Amendment—which is the correct type of interpretation—would tell us that this ought to be protected speech under the First Amendment. Federal courts, however, have long disagreed, and some advocates of conspiracy might claim that speech encouraging a specific crime ought not be protected.Yet, in real-life conspiracy prosecutions, it is not easy to determine whether or not a "conspirator" is actually inciting a crime. As legal scholar David Filvaroff notes, the actual intent and effect of the speech in question in these cases is difficult to interpret. Thus, judgements about whether or not speech counts as protected speech is highly arbitrary:He writes:With a conspiracy to murder, one faces a potential crime of finite proportion and of near unmistakable content. There is little, if any, risk that either the defendants themselves, or the court or jury, will mistake the criminality of what the defendants propose to do. The probability of such a mistake both by the alleged conspirators and by the trier of fact is very high, however, in the case of conspiracy to incite.Back to our case about burning down the dept. of education. Was that casual comment a conspiracy to incite arson? Did the defendant intend it as such? This is largely up to the unilateral interpretation of the prosecutor.Most of the time, it is difficult for a "conspirator" to guess how others will interpret his words and what concrete actions might take place as a result.Under these circumstances, innocent people can end up serving years in prison for expressing their views about what government agents or government institutions ought to do or stop doing.The fact that legal acts can become illegal, and the fact that intent need not be proven makes conspiracy crimes, especially seditious conspiracy an excellent avenue for political prosecutions against perceived enemies of the state. It is not a coincidence that most of the charges against Donald Trump are conspiracy charges. They largely come down to Trump making statement both public and private questioning the validity of the election. Prosecutors have turned these opinions into a legal theory that Trump “incited” others to commit crimes. Thanks to conspiracy laws, it is not necessary that any actual crimes take place, or that any actual victims materialize, to get a guilty verdict.Thanks to his wealth, Trump has been able to mount a defense. Most people accused of various conspiracy laws are not so lucky, and countless Americans have endured financial ruin and prison thanks to the vast and abusive powers handed over to prosecutors by conspiracy laws.These are most dangerous when wielded against political opponents because, conspiracy laws essentially nullify the First Amendment and enable prosecutors to turn words into crimes.End All Political CrimesSo what is to be done? Obviously, conspiracy laws, including seditious conspiracy laws, ought to be abolished. All sedition laws are especially ripe for repeal given that the United States survived for decades without any federal political crimes other than treason, narrowly defined.Yet, if we are to win any meaningful victory against the state, we ought to repeal all political crimes, including treason, altogether.For one, political crimes like treason and sedition are simply unnecessary.It is already illegal to blow up buildings. It's especially illegal to do it with people inside the building, whether those people are government employees or not. It is already illegal to murder people, regardless of whether or not they represent the state. Destruction of property is illegal in every state.What political crimes like treason and sedition do is create a special class of people and institutions: government employees and government property, to send the message—via harsher penalties and punishments—that the destruction of government property, or the killing of government employees is worse than crimes against the mere taxpayers who pay all the bills.Political crimes are often subject to fewer regulations protecting the rights of the accused, and are often prosecuted by authorities more directly under the control of the central executive power. In the United States, the federal government has taken over control of most political crimes, centralizing enforcement and thus strengthening the central state. Certainly this has been the case with sedition laws.This scam that all modern regimes embrace exists not to keep the public safe. It exists for propagandistic purposes. These laws exist to send a message.Treason and sedition laws create the illusion that loyalty to the regime to which on presently pays taxes is morally important.Or, as historian Mark Cornwell puts it, regimes have long used crimes such as these “as a powerful moral instrument for managing allegiance.”Freedom of speech has always been a grave threat to this manipulation of allegiance, and its why sedition and conspiracy laws have so long been employed to weaponize speech against dissidents.The remedy lies in taking a page from those early Jeffersonians who abolished early sedition laws and refused to create new ones. The regime does not need or deserve a way around the First Amendment. The country does not need these “wornout pieces of tyranny” that are sedition and conspiracy laws. Abolish them now.

Could we really have a podcast called “Focus Forward” without eventually covering the topic of attention and focus? Of course not! Rest assured, today's the day, and as a person with ADHD, difficulty paying attention is one of the most frustrating aspects of my brain. Most annoyingly, I seem to notice just about everything that's happening around me but still end up missing so much of what's actually important for me to remember. Luckily, I now know that this is simply a feature of my ADHD, but for most of my life, I thought it was some inherent character flaw. Can you relate to that struggle, too? Well, then this episode is for you. Today, we explore the critical Executive Function skill of attention and examine some of the most effective strategies for supporting focus in people of all learning profiles. I hope you enjoy and gain some valuable ideas to try out in your own life! If you do, be sure to leave us a review (and let me know at podcast@beyondbooksmart.com!)In the meantime, here are our show notes for today's episode: Impact of Meditation on the BrainMindfulness Meditation Is Related to Long-Lasting Changes in Hippocampal Functional Topology during Resting State: A Magnetoencephalography Studyhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6312586/When science meets mindfulnesshttps://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change The Brainhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/Myth of MultitaskingDan Crenshaw's YouTube Video - Try the Myth of Multitasking Exercise!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eQyfirx2HAPsychology and Neuroscience Blow Up the Myth of Effective Multitaskinghttps://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/psychology-and-neuroscience-blow-up-the-myth-of-effective-multitasking.htmlStop Multitasking. No, Really — Just Stop It.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/29/opinion/do-one-thing-at-a-time-management.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NE0.5X_B.EppCuwbpn7YE&smid=url-shareContact Us!Reach out to us at podcast@beyondbooksmart.comIG/FB/TikTok @beyondbooksmartcoachingTranscriptSpace CadetAirheadDaydreamerAbsent-Minded ProfessorDitzyScatterbrainedShe's got her Head in the CloudsDreamerAny of those names sound familiar to you? I can feel my own gut reaction to saying them aloud just now and know that I have either been called them by others or called myself them inside my head. As a person with attention and memory challenges, it's bound to happen that I forget stuff or neglect to pay attention to stuff I really should notice. And, ironically and very annoyingly, I seem to notice literally everything going on around me and at the same time, not notice the important stuff when it's really, really important for me to do so. Now I know that this is a feature of my ADHD, but for most of my life, I thought it was just a character flaw. Can anyone relate to that, too? Well, today's episode is about the EF skill of attention, which as you may know already, is tightly connected to the EF skill of memory. They're like best friends and worst enemies at the same time. Frenemies, as they kids say, wait how long has that word been around? Do people still say it? Am I dating myself by saying it or making myself seem cooler than I really am. Lemme look this up MAKE TYPING NOISE Okay, I just did a quick google search and “frenemy” was first used in 1953! It's often attributed to Jessica Mitford, Queen of the Muckrakers and notorious Civil Rights lawyer who wrote in her 1977 book “Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford” saying that her sister came up with the word. Wait, what's a muckraker…hold on. Ahh, wait, okay, Hannah pay attention and get back to the episode at hand. We can learn about muckrakers later on.Okay yes, so, the connection between memory and attention. When I interviewed Dr. Sherrie All for episode 16 of Focus forward, which was all about memory, she said this: memory is like the storage of information that gets into your brain. Right? That attention is the gateway, you cannot expect yourself to remember things that you didn't notice in the first place. So, if you struggle with remembering stuff, it might be worth an investigation into your attention EF skill. That's what we're going to do today. We'll take a look at how inattention can impact our lives and what we can to do set ourselves up for success. I'll teach you some tools and strategies our coaches like to share with our clients and I'll also spend a little time debunking the myth of multitasking. Sorry folks, it's not a thing. At least, not for most of us. Before we dive in, I want to talk briefly about the connection between EF skills and our emotions. As you have heard me say before and I'll say again and again, our emotions are connected to our executive functioning. If we're stressed, having trouble regulating our emotions, or in a crisis, our EF skills may be, will likely be, harder to access, especially the ones that we struggle with in regular times. So, if you find it hard to pay attention and your memory is anything like mine, go easy on yourself, especially in challenging times. Improving your attention can help with remembering more but the reality is that some people will still have challenges with memory, even if they are fully paying attention. Have some grace, some compassion for yourself. Listening to this episode, learning some strategies, and taking the time to learn and care for yourself is a good way to do this. Okay, so other than the direct impact on memory, how else can inattention impact our lives? Inattention can lead us to overlook important details. This can look like not noticing a negative sign in a math problem, missing a payment to the dentist, entering a wrong number on our taxes or maybe not even paying our taxes at all, missing a meeting with the boss, or putting the waistband on a pair of pants backward. That last one was me. I love to sew clothing and I did that once. Wait, I actually did it twice. In the same day. I noticed that I had put the waistband on backward and then unstitched it all, which if you've ever unstitched something, you know how tedious it is and then I did it AGAIN. So, inattention can have some real consequences on our grades, our finances, our time, and our self-esteem. It can also have a severe effect on our health and safety. In the kitchen, it can result in injuries or fires, while driving it could potentially lead to fatal accidents, while playing sports, we could hurt ourselves or others. We could miss cues our bodies are giving us and unintentionally delay treatment for a health condition. We could miss dangers in our environment, like when I walked head-on into a guy wire. The guy wire was fine. My knee was not. Wait a second. Is it guy wire or guide wire? I've always said guy wire but maybe it's guide wire? Hold on…wait wait wait back to the episode, you can research that later, Hannah.Anyway, there are a ton of other situations I'm sure you can imagine or pull up from your own life experience. The message here is that attention is a critically important, time-saving - and potentially life-saving - EF skill to work on. So, it's good you're here.So, how can we set ourselves up for success? There are a bunch of things we can do to increase our attention and reduce the chance of all that bad stuff I probably just depressed you with from happening. There's hope, folks, there's hope. And a lot of the things we can do are pretty simple. Of course, you actually have to do them, which is the hard part but let's all give it our best shot.First one is a magic trick. At least, for me, it seems to be a magic trick. It's to slow down. Just slow down. It's that simple. And yet, sooooooo hard to remember to do in the moment. But, really, slowing down can make a world of difference for your attention ability. When we rush, we're more likely to miss things. Just this morning, my son was leaving for school and had to be there earlier than normal and had to bring some extra stuff with him. He rushed out the door and 30 minutes later, we got a call from him that he forgot the extra stuff. If he had slowed down, he would have noticed the bag we had oh so thoughtfully left right by the door. And earlier this week, I rushed to send an email to a large mailing list and then my colleague pointed out that I had forgotten to include the link I referenced in the email. In the moment, it feels like slowing down will waste time, but you can see in these two examples, we ended up having to use more time later to fix the consequences of rushing. It can help to repeat a mantra of “slow down” or “take your time”. Slowing down does not come naturally to many people and can take some time to build it into your life. But I think it's a goal worth working towards because it helps us be more proactive and less reactive.This reminds me of that quote by Viktor Frankl: “Between the stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space lies our freedom and power to choose our responses. In our response lies our growth and our freedom”Slowing down allows us to expand that space and take advantage of the many benefits of this kind of thinking. Okay, this naturally leads me to the next tip for improving our attention - mindfulness and meditation practice. I've talked about this before on Focus Forward and you've likely heard about it before. Studies have shown that meditation and mindfulness do actually strengthen our ability to pay attention, focus on what we're doing, and, as you might expect, remember things. You can find links in the show notes if you'd like to learn more. When we meditate regularly, we strengthen the areas of our brain that support attention and focus. The prefrontal cortex actually changes structurally! And, meditation can lower your stress levels, which as you know, will make it easier to access your executive functions. As we learned from Rachel Hulstein-Lowe in episode 12 about maintaining progress during times of transition, mindfulness doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just taking the time to pay attention to the things we do regularly, to slow down and notice what we're doing and the sensations we're feeling. But, if you're interested in a more comprehensive meditation practice, there are so many amazing resources out there in the form of apps, websites, and books. You could check out your local library, gym, and yoga studio to see if they offer meditation classes. If you are skeptical, rely on the science to convince yourself to try it. Your attention will thank you!Okay, next up is something we always hear and probably just go “yeah, yeah, yeah” about. Sleep. Prioritizing it is critical for a bajillion reasons and attention is one of the most important ones. I'm going to be interviewing sleep and ADHD specialist, Marlee Boyle and our conversation will drop sometime in April. We met the other day and I asked her for her top five tips for maximizing our sleep quality. 1) Keep a regular wake up time. Sleep regularity improves sleep quality and helps us fall asleep at a regular time. Even if you have a poor night's sleep, still wake up at the same time to prevent throwing off your sleep schedule for multiple nights2) Try not to stay in bed while you're awake. If you're awake for more than 20 minutes in your bed, try getting out of bed for 20 minutes and do something boring in low lighting until you feel sleepy and then return to bed.3) Get outside in the morning and take breaks outside as much as you can when you're not sleeping well. Sunlight is a strong regulator of sleep so by getting daylight exposure (even on overcast days) will improve your circadian rhythm and help you sleep. And, I just want to add to Marlee's tip here that if you work at night and sleep during the day, installing blackout curtains, using a white or brown noise machine to minimize sounds that might wake you, and using a sunrise lamp for waking might help improve your sleep.4) Don't stress about not sleeping. If you're having difficulty sleeping, try not to let yourself worry about it because that will keep you awake longer. 5) Limit caffeine to just the morning time and use it strategically, rather than habitually. Okay, that's enough for sleep. Try to get more, okay? and come back in April to learn even more from Marlee.Next up are two quick tips I like to teach my clients. Breaking large tasks down into smaller, more manageable steps and paying attention to diminishing returns. I've covered both of these in other episodes so I won't get into them too deeply, but just a reminder that these two strategies can have a huge impact on your ability to pay attention. Okay, so first let's quickly look at breaking things down. When the steps of a project are smaller and clearly defined, it's easier to pay attention to the task. We are less distracted by worries about how long it'll take or how hard it'll be, the requirements of the task are clear to us, and we know there will be a stopping point relatively soon. Slowing down before you start a large task and breaking it down into these smaller steps will give you so much relief down the road. My second tip is to pay attention to diminishing returns - is your effort giving you an equal amount of productivity in return? Instead of setting a timer when you're going to do work, try paying attention to how you're engaging with the work. Are you finding it easy to focus? Keep going! Is your mind wandering and you can't focus? Maybe it's time to do something else or employ some other kind of strategy to support your focus. I recognize that many listeners may rely on urgency to get things done, so this strategy may not work for you. If that's you, you might benefit from the procrastination episode I did - it's episode 11 - awww, back when we were just a baby podcast.I had a college student client who did poorly on a test in an astronomy class. He got half the questions wrong even though he paid attention in class and studied well. When we took a look at what he did during class, he mentioned that he was listening to the instructor but he wasn't taking notes and was only relying on her handouts, slides, and the text for studying materials. He decided he'd try taking notes for the second half of the semester. He got only one question wrong on the final and reported that he truly understood and remembered the material in a way he had never before. Not only did he have more resources to use when he studied for the final, he was fully engaged in the class and because of that, found it more interesting and easier to pay attention. When we engage ourselves in what we're doing, we're less likely to be bored and distracted and we're more likely to remember what we did. This same strategy can be used in a variety of situations - taking notes in a work meeting is likely to help you remember what the heck your boss said, asking questions during a boring conversation with your grandmother might make it more interesting, and taking notes in a class you find boring might trick your brain into actually learning something. Granted, I know this can be a Herculean task when it's a topic you're completely not interested in, but I do think it's worth a try. And you never know, you might find out that astronomy is your jam! Like, did you know that a majority of stars we see are actually binary stars? It's not one star, but two stars orbiting around a common center of mass. Amazing!Ack, okay back to the topic at hand, Hannah - pay attention! Now, let's explore another tool for focus, and this one might not be for everyone: listening to music. Surprisingly, for some, it can enhance attention during focused work, as long as it's the right kind of music. Studies support this, even though it might spark disagreement among parents.Many find lo-fi music ideal for studying. I usually listen to mellow tunes in a foreign language to avoid getting distracted by the lyrics. If music doesn't work for you, be honest with yourself. It can be tempting to listen anyway, even if you know it's detrimental to your ability to focus. Instead, consider brown or white noise to minimize distracting background sounds. Finding what works best for you is key to making potentially mundane tasks more manageable.You might be wondering why I haven't delved into how phones can wreck our attention.I kinda feel like I don't have to. We all know they're distracting, and it's a tough battle to win. Pretty much everything on that phone is designed to leave you wanting more. Instead, let's explore how we can use our phones to help us with attention. Planning apps, to-do lists, and reminders help us focus and break down tasks. Apps like Focus Dog and Forest motivate us to stay off our phones. Meditation apps like Headspace and Smiling Mind teach us to meditate. Note-taking, Pomodoro timing apps, and phone features like digital well-being settings enhance productivity and reduce distraction. Set alarms and timers for focused work without constantly checking the clock. Countdown timers can challenge you to finish tasks within a set timeframe. Embrace your phone as a tool for focus rather than a distraction.I just want to say one more thing about phones and attention. Please, please get off your phone while you're driving. I totally get how easy it is to do. I promise you I'm not trying to preach or act like I'm innocent - I have totally done it myself, but truly - the people in your life need you to stay alive. Other people driving or walking on the roads need to stay alive for their people. So keep your attention on your driving and not your phone. Distracted driving can be more devastating than you could ever imagine.Okay, so let's move on to debunking that multitasking myth. I'm the bearer of bad news for those of you who self-identify as multitaskers. You're actually switch-taskers. We know you can't actually do two things at once and quickly switching back and forth between things may SEEM like multitasking but it's actually still switch tasking. Although, I have to say that when my kids were little, I think I might have actually been able to multitask - somehow I could open a yogurt smoothie bottle for my daughter and answer the never-ending “why” questions she was asking me while cooking dinner and cleaning off the counter and adding new socks for her little brother to the mental list of things I had to get at the store and also wondering when I had last washed my hair. Can anyone relate? Okay, so other than parents of young children, no one is truly multitasking. Every time we break from a task to switch to a new one, we lose focus, which, as we know, slows us down or causes us to miss stuff or make mistakes. Here's a little test you can try to see this in action. I learned this from Dan Crenshaw, whose YouTube video is linked in the show notes. Okay, so You're going to pause me and do two things: one, get a pen and paper and two, open the stopwatch on your phone. Then, come back and I'll tell you what to do next. See, I'm breaking down the task into smaller steps! Practicing what I preach, baby. Okay, hit pause now and come back when you're ready. Yay! You're back! Okay, hopefully you've got your pen, paper and timer ready. Alright, you're going to pause me again and write the alphabet down on your paper. Then, below that, write the numbers 1 through 26 under each corresponding letter. So, when you're done, you'll have two horizontal lines - one with the alphabet and one with numbers 1 - 26. Be sure to time yourself doing it, okay? Alright, go do it, I'll wait again. Okay, yay, you came back again! Okay, now you're going to do the same thing again but this time you're going to write A and then 1, B and then 2, C and then 3, D and then 4 and so on. So the result will look the same - a line of the alphabet with a line of numbers under it, but you'll be switching back and forth between the letters and corresponding numbers. Got it? Okay, do it now and don't forget to time yourself again cuz otherwise this is just a big waste of time. Welcome back! So unless you're magical or a parent of small children, your second time should be longer than the first time. You may have even made or almost made some errors while you were doing it. My point is, if you can, try to work on one, just one, thing at a time. You'll hopefully find it easier to focus, get more done, feel less tired when you're done working, and make less errors. Granted, if you've been really embracing the multitasking life, you'll likely find it challenging to drop this habit. But, give it a shot! You may find you need to use strategies to support this - maybe use a timer to keep you on task, use one of those focusing apps for your phone, or if you meet virtually, try keeping your camera on so you can't sneak off and send an email during a meeting. It can also be motivating to keep track of how you feel when you don't multitask - are you noticing any improvements or benefits? Check out the show notes for more ideas on beating multitasking!Okay, so hopefully you're still with me and I haven't lost your attention yet! And yay for you because you've made it to the end of this episode! I hope it was not too boring and you were able to learn something new. There are a ton more things about attention I could have written about but frankly, I was getting a little bored of this topic myself and was losing my own attention, so that's our show for today! Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen! Please share this episode with anyone who might find it useful which is probably everybody. We're so grateful to everyone who has shared Focus Forward! Word of mouth keeps us alive. If you have questions or topic suggestions, you can reach out to me at podcast@beyondbooksmart.com. Please subscribe to Focus Forward on Apple and Google podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for our newsletter at www.beyondbooksmart.com slash podcast. We've got some super special stuff coming up for our newsletter subscribers, so get your name on that list so you can find out what we're up to. Our patient and kind editor and producer is Sean Potts and our brilliant content marketer is Justice Abbott. Thanks for listening and I wish you all a healthy and happy new year. Oh, and it's guy wire, in case you were wondering. A guy is a rope, cable or cord used to steady, guide or secure. And a muckraker describes a journalist who worked to search for and expose real or alleged corruption, scandal, or the like, especially in politics. Roosevelt used the term as an insult to these writers in a speech in 1906. Hahaha, aren't you glad you paid attention until the end of this episode??

Listen above to an audio version of Why PETA Kills, my book, which tells the story of Maya and those of over 30,000 other animals PETA has put to death. On October 18, you can also download the e-book from Amazon for free. (Ignore Kindle Unlimited and click below where it says “$0.00 to buy.”)On October 18, 2014, two PETA representatives backed their van up to a home in Parksley, VA, and threw biscuits to Maya, who was sitting on her porch. They hoped to coax her off her property and allow PETA to claim she was a stray dog “at large” whom they could legally impound.Maya refused to stay off the property and, after grabbing the biscuit, ran back to the safety of her porch. One of the PETA representatives went onto the property and took Maya. Within hours, Maya was dead, illegally killed with a lethal dose of poison.A PETA spokesperson claimed Maya was killed by “mistake,” and defying credulity, explained that the same PETA representative who had earlier sat on the porch with Maya's family talking to them about her care and who was filmed taking Maya from that same porch mistook her for a different dog. The “apology” was not only a devastating admission of guilt but evidence that killing healthy animals was business as usual for PETA employees — so commonplace that the only excuse PETA could offer for Maya's death was that in taking her life, a PETA representative had mistaken her for another healthy animal they had decided to kill. Was it likewise a “mistake” that five other animals ended up dead from the same trailer park and on the same day, too? Though PETA claimed to be “devastated” by Maya's death, the claim was contradicted by the facts and, given its timing, motivated not by honesty, transparency, or genuine contrition but by political necessity as the Virginia Department of Agriculture had opened an investigation into Maya's killing and Virginia's governor was weighing whether to sign into law a bill overwhelmingly passed by the legislature aimed at protecting animals from PETA. As public outrage over PETA's killing of Maya spread, a former PETA employee came forward, shedding even more light on how disingenuous PETA's claim of being devastated at the killing of Maya was. Explaining that killing healthy animals at PETA was not an anomaly but “standard operating procedure,” Heather Harper-Troje, a one-time PETA field worker, publicly uncovered the inner workings at PETA as no former employee ever had. “I know from firsthand experience that the PETA leadership has no problem lying,” she wrote. “I was told regularly to say whatever I had to say in order to get people to surrender animals to me, lying was not only acceptable, it was encouraged.” The purpose of acquiring these animals, according to Harper-Troje, was “to euthanize the[m] immediately.” Maya's family would ultimately sue PETA, alleging conversion of their dog (theft), trespass, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. PETA, in turn, asked the court to throw out the lawsuit based on several questionable claims.First, PETA argued that Maya was legally worthless because she was not licensed, citing an 1887 law that required a dog “to be properly licensed as a condition of being deemed personal property.” Putting aside the irony of a supposed “animal rights” group arguing that Maya had no value, the statute they cited was repealed in 1966. It had not been the law in half a century.Alternatively, PETA argued that Maya had no value beyond the replacement cost for another dog. In other words, PETA's position was that Maya was like a toaster. If you break it, you throw it away and get a new one.Third, PETA argued that they had permission to enter the trailer park from its owner to remove community cats, so they cannot be guilty of trespassing for entering a private residence in that trailer park to kill a family's dog.Fourth, PETA argued that the theft and killing of Maya was not “outrageous,” a prerequisite to the awarding of punitive damages. Finally, in an argument reeking with racist overtones, PETA demanded to know if Maya's family was legally in the U.S. After arguing and losing most of the pre-trial motions — including rulings that the family's immigration status was not relevant to the theft and killing of their dog and that such conduct was, indeed, “outrageous” — as well as facing the specter of being forced to turn over records and testify under oath about PETA's inner workings, and perhaps trying to put the publicity behind their killing of Maya behind them, PETA settled the case, paying Maya's family $49,000.But the condemnation only grew following a series of articles I wrote about Maya's killing, which ultimately led to the publication of Why PETA Kills, my book. Why PETA Kills tells Maya's story and that of over 30,000 others who have also died at their hands, a number that continues to increase by the thousands every year. In 2022, for example, PETA put to death 1,374 out of 1,737 cats. Another 347 went to pounds that also kill animals. Historically, many of the kittens and cats PETA has taken to those pounds have been killed, often within minutes, despite being young (as young as six weeks old) and healthy. Not only do those records prove the lie that all of the animals PETA rounds up to kill are “suffering,” but if those cats and kittens were killed or displaced others who were killed, that puts the overall cat death rate as high as 99%. They only adopted out 15 cats, an adoption rate of ½ of 1% despite millions of “animal loving” supporters, a staff of hundreds, and revenues in excess of $72 million.While dogs fared a little better, 718 out of 1,041 were killed. Roughly 4% were adopted out. And PETA staff also killed almost 80% of other animal companions: 30 out of 38.To date, PETA has killed 46,364 dogs and cats and sent thousands more to be killed at local pounds, that we know of. The number may be many times higher. According to Harper-Troje,I was told regularly to not enter animals into the log, or to euthanize off-site in order to prevent animals from even entering the building. I was told regularly to greatly overestimate the weight of animals whose euthanasia we recorded, in order to account for what would have otherwise been missing ‘blue juice' (the chemical used to euthanize); because that allowed us to euthanize animals off the books.Following the release of Why PETA Kills, PETA filed a run-of-the-mill defamation lawsuit targeting The No Kill Advocacy Center (NKAC), my organization, and me in an attempt to intimidate me and others into silence. But they didn't sue me directly, as they knew it would ultimately fail: truth, after all, is a defense to defamation. More importantly, they feared doing so as suing me would be dangerous for PETA. Not only would it allow me to force the deposition (e.g., testimony under penalty of perjury) of Ingrid Newkirk, the architect of PETA's killing, as well as others at PETA who do the actual killing, but it would allow me to seek documents from PETA that would augment what public records and the PETA employees I spoke with already revealed: that PETA intentionally seeks out animals to kill and that the majority of those animals are healthy and adoptable. Absent a court case, as a private organization, PETA is not required to release that information under state freedom of information laws and has ignored my requests to do so. Instead, PETA named me as a “co-conspirator” but not as a defendant in the complaint, a procedural gimmick that gave PETA the ability to issue a subpoena to (try to) seek the names of PETA employees who, fearing retribution, spoke to me on condition of anonymity; information that was used to corroborate newspaper articles, on the record sources, government documents, testimony and information from civil and criminal cases against PETA, videotape evidence, and admissions of killing by PETA officials. At the same time, that procedural ploy would prevent me from demanding documents and depositions of PETA leadership and staff in return.But PETA's legal tactic failed to take into account two important factors. First, I would never reveal my confidential informants. Second, I did not have to legally do so, given my First Amendment rights as a journalist. In an attempt to force me to, however, PETA filed a motion in court to compel the disclosure of the names, claiming that as an animal advocate, I was not entitled to the protection of the First Amendment, a point of view they hypocritically reject for themselves and which, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the organization founded to protect the rights of journalists by legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee of Pentagon Papers fame, called “alarming.”In assisting me with my legal defense, the Reporters Committee noted,We're concerned about the legal efforts to require Nathan Winograd to reveal the confidential sources for his reporting on PETA's practices. Both the First Amendment and California's constitution protect those who engage in journalistic activity… and any efforts to limit these protections should be alarming for all newsgatherers.Threatened with a fine and jail time if I refused to reveal my sources, my lawyer argued that California Courts have consistently ruled that the First Amendment protects “investigative reporting.” And investigative reporting includes “authors such as Lincoln Steffens and Upton Sinclair [who] exposed widespread corruption and abuse in American life. More recently, social critics such as Rachel Carson, Ralph Nader, Jessica Mitford, and others have written books that have made significant contributions to the public discourse on major issues confronting the American people.”As my attorney argued,Every crusading journalist in that pantheon of heroes cited by the court would have flunked PETA's putative ‘journalism' test, for their journalism was inseparable from their advocacy. Indeed, Sinclair and Nader took their advocacy onto the campaign trail and sought public office. Winograd and NKAC's intertwined investigative and advocacy work are no different from that done by Nader and his nonprofit Public Citizen.The court agreed. Despite PETA hiring one of the most expensive law firms in the world, the Court denied PETA's motion, not only providing me and, more importantly, the animals an important victory but breaking new ground by extending First Amendment protections to new/non-traditional media.Following that ruling, another whistleblower from inside PETA openly came forward and confirmed what my sources had revealed: that PETA staff lie to people to acquire their animals to kill, kill despite adoption alternatives, and indoctrinate people to kill in a cult-like atmosphere she described as “terrifying.”[A]s most new PETA employees are blooming animal rights activists, freshly plucked from college and determined to do whatever it takes to succeed in this demanding, low-paying activist world, PETA's methodology of indoctrination is quite successful. These employees soak it all in like a sponge, as I did at the age of 21 when I started there, and begin to spout the organization's soundbites at every turn. They will start to do so so naturally that they can't see where they themselves end and the organization begins.“Ultimately,” wrote Laura Lee Cascada, a PETA field worker whose job included rounding up animals to kill, “the culture was terrifying and desensitizing — and I gradually felt that my view of death, of taking animals' lives, was being warped, my emotions being stripped away.”Like Heather Harper-Troje before her, Cascada's chilling account described the method whereby employees are intimidated and emotionally manipulated into participating in the killing of animals, an act that came to be euphemistically called to “take care of” an animal (the words “killing” and even “euthanasia” are not used). Employees “were forced to participate in euthanasias they didn't believe in” or “were fired because they refused to do so.”[I]f an employee, like many animal rights advocates who believe in the rights and autonomy of each individual animal, wanted to critically assess whether a euthanasia decision was truly the best thing for an individual animal in his or her unique circumstances, there was a real, true fear of being branded as an advocate for hoarding or a secret supporter of the enemy. Thus, speaking up could have meant being booted from the tribe.Cascada also described numerous examples of healthy animals who were killed for the “good of all animals”:I rescued and cared for a pair of birds from a cruelty case for weeks, bonding with and growing to love them. When the decision was made to euthanize the boy because of a debilitating medical condition, the girl was also euthanized because it was thought that she would be lonely without him. She was one of those lumped into the ‘unadoptable' category PETA brushes past as it explains its euthanasia statistics each year. I was expected and required to swallow my emotions for her for the good of all animals. I was expected to welcome her death as a positive outcome in order to maintain my employment.Another time, I rescued an unloved dog whose body condition and personality were unremarkable, meaning there was no immediate indication for euthanasia. I quickly heard from my mom that she'd be interested in adopting him. I excitedly emailed the manager of the shelter to make this offer but never received a reply. A few days later, I checked in with her and was told that he had already been killed. She recounted being told to lie to people to acquire animals to kill and getting chastised for trying to find them homes. For example, Cascada wrote that she,[R]esponded to a call from a concerned woman who'd found an abandoned days-old kitten under her porch. When I came to pick up the kitten, I had her sign a generic give-up form that spelled out that euthanasia was a possibility. But I was instructed to repeatedly convey that we would do our absolute best, and so that's what I said, even as the woman described her careful search for an organization she knew would work around the clock to help this tiny being pull through. It was my job to make sure I did not leave without that cat — that I said whatever necessary for the woman not to change her mind.The entire way back to PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters, I sobbed, petting the infant cat in my lap, telling her things would all be OK, even though in my gut I knew it wouldn't, that she never really had a chance. I even began plotting out how I might take a detour and deliver her to a rehabber instead. But how could I explain a missing kitten to the woman waiting with the needle? I couldn't, so I complied without a word.As a result of coming forward, she reported that she was,[C]ontacted by individuals from all over the country expressing their gratitude, and their own fear, about speaking out about their experiences. People who worked at PETA and were forced to lie about euthanasias, people who were forced to euthanize animals they loved as a condition of their employment, and people who were told by leadership that they were worthless. There are dozens, and maybe hundreds, of us. Most are still afraid to break their silence.PETA's lawsuit would ultimately collapse, but four important things came out of my victory against them. First, as noted above, it extended First Amendment protections for investigative journalism to new media for the first time.Second, it demonstrated that PETA may have deep pockets and has no qualms about misusing the court system in an attempt to intimidate people into silence, but their strategy will always be limited by the fact that depositions and the witness stand could compel employees, including Newkirk, to testify under penalty of perjury. Consistent with the overwhelming evidence already available, such testimony would be damning, and PETA knows it. If people stand up to PETA's donor-funded intimidation tactics rather than cower to them, PETA will invariably back down. Third, their empty saber rattling may have led to another whistleblower openly coming forward. Fourth and finally, it led me to Ralph. As fate would have it, on the way to court in the case, my wife and I came upon a little dog who had been hit by a car, bleeding in the gutter. Wrapping him in a coat, we rushed him to the nearest emergency veterinary hospital, where he was given the care he needed, including pain medication. After recovering from his injuries at our house, we found him a loving, new home consistent with our belief in the ethical treatment of animals. Were it not for PETA's meritless lawsuit, we would never have found him. For obvious reasons, I am grateful that it was us and not PETA representatives who saw him on the way to the courthouse. If PETA had gotten to him and history is any guide, Ralph would no longer be alive, put to death with a lethal dose of poison.Because despite all we may still not know about PETA, this much is certain: PETA is letting loose upon the world individuals who not only believe that killing is a good thing and that the living want to die but who are legally armed with lethal drugs that they have already proven — over 46,000 times — that they are not averse to using.To receive future articles and support my fight for the animals, please subscribe. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit news.nathanwinograd.org/subscribe

Meet the Mitfords, memento mori monuments and meanders through churchyards and cemeteries over a few years. Jonty and Laura have been 'graveyard hopping' for many years now, often recording their explorations. But what is graveyard hopping? What's the attraction?  We answer that question, discuss some of the coolest names and most beautiful epitaphs, and take you on alittle tour of peaceful places. It's not a standard episode of Beer Christianity, but it is an insight into what we like to do outside of recordng the podcast - and the lovely churchyards around here.  From a grisly discovery near CS Lewis' grave to beautiful and intersting inscriptions on memorials and a quest to find an interesting grave (and an interesting family) in rural oxfordshire, Laura and Jonty examine what they like about graveyards and remember the people buried there. Check out this episode for a crash course in the Mitfords (including the graves of Nancy Mitford, Unity Mitford, Diana Mitford and Jessica Mitford), the sounds of the Oxfordshire countryside and an elusive hedgehog / mole.  New to Beer Christianity? Welcome! Beer Christianity is an anti-capitalist, pro-BLM, pro-LGBTQ+, post-post-post-evangelical (and apparently republican) podcast where we drink a bit and talk a lot. Our aim is to be real, to be helpful and entertaining. Follow Beer Christianity on Twitter: @beerxianity and find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Stitcher.  If you leave us a voicenote at speakpipe.com/beerchristianity we might air your question on an episode. Beer Christianity also has a newsletter in which Jonty and guest authors comment on the news, theological issues and stuff that matters.  Sign up to the Beer Christianity newsletter on Substack.  There's a connected Show With Music on Spotify called New Old Music. Check it out if you like eclectic music and weird chat. It's not terribly serious.  Jonty's novel, Incredulous Moshoeshoe and the Lightning Bird, is not available in all good bookshops, but if you bought it and left a review that would probably make that more likely.  We don't really want to preach at you, but some people like to know what we believe. It's this: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and came to teach us a better way to be while reconciling us to God and each other in a way we could never do without Him. He also changed water into wine. Nice.   

In today's episode, Deborah Goodrich Royce joins me to talk about her latest book, Reef Road. We discuss the personal story behind her book and the role of generational trauma in her writing niche, which she calls “Identity Thrillers.”  We also covered the explosion of true crime content and got a sneak peek at some details of her upcoming book. Also, Deborah shares her book recommendations — breaking the format by pairing the old and new books together.   This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Highlights A spoiler-free rundown of Reef Road. Deborah's “Identity Thrillers” micro-genre and how it fits her writing style. The real-life crime that inspired Reef Road. Why Deborah chose to write a fictional story instead of a non-fiction account. How she explores generational and conferred trauma. The connection between generational trauma and the obsessive researching that motivates amateur sleuths. The role of residual trauma in the lives of authors Dominick Dunne and Michelle McNamara. The explosion of True Crime content and the public's fascination with it. Deborah shares a story about a recent break-in she experienced and discusses how her thriller author mindset influenced her analysis of the event. Some sneak peek details about an upcoming book she's working on. The meta elements about crime fiction in Reef Road. The real-life details that helped develop the true crime writer character's voice in the story. How the setting and the COVID lockdown played a pivotal role in the development of the story. Deborah's Book Recommendations [33:26] Two Book PAIRINGS She Loves Old Book: The Pursuit of Love; Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:55] New Book: The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict | Amazon | Bookshop.org [35:53] Old Book: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:55] New Book: Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:29] One Book She Didn't Love The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot | Amazon | Bookshop.org [43:27] One NEW RELEASE She's Excited About The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane (May 2, 2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:44] Last 5-Star Book Deborah Read Charming Billy by Alice McDermott | Amazon | Bookshop.org [47:32] Other Books Mentioned Ruby Falls by Deborah Goodrich Royce [1:22] Finding Mrs. Ford by Deborah Goodrich Royce [1:28] I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara [13:35] Unmasked by Paul Holes [13:51] Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson [22:42] Seven Days in June by Tia Williams [22:59] The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles [23:43] The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb [26:21] 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard [32:42] All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr [33:04] The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford [38:13] Kind and Usual Punishment by Jessica Mitford [38:16] The Sun King by Nancy Mitford [38:35] Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford [38:39] Middlemarch by George Eliot [43:53] Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane [45:59] Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry [49:18] About Deborah Goodrich Royce Website | Twitter | Instagram Deborah Goodrich Royce's thrillers examine puzzles of identity. Reef Road hit Publishers Weekly's Bestseller list, Good Morning America's Top 15 list, and was an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association for January 2023. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist in 2021 and Finding Mrs. Ford was hailed by Forbes, Book Riot, and Good Morning America's “best of” lists in 2019.  She began as an actress on All My Children and in multiple films, before transitioning to the role of story editor at Miramax Films, developing Emma and early versions of Chicago and A Wrinkle in Time.  With her husband, Chuck, Deborah restored the Avon Theatre, Ocean House Hotel, Deer Mountain Inn, United Theatre, Savoy Bookstore, and numerous Main Street revitalization projects in Rhode Island and the Catskills.  She serves on the governing and advisory boards of the American Film Institute, Greenwich International Film Festival, New York Botanical Garden, Greenwich Historical Society, and the PRASAD Project.  Deborah holds a bachelor's degree in modern foreign languages and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Lake Erie College.  

In 1917 the design and marketing of American cemeteries would again change, as one man, a former chemist and miner, Hubert Eaton had a vision of a cemetery that was about life, not death. Eaton's unique marketing of the "memorial park" would eliminate gravestones, paint a glowing new-age Christian picture of death as a glorious resurrection, and most importantly monetize burial in ways never before imagined. FacebookInstagram

When we talk about rare books, we speak of books that have a limited supply. There's no single determinant for scarcity. Some books are unique works, like original manuscripts or association copies. Others are considered scarce because the number of interested collectors exceeds the number of copies available on the market. About Florina Jenkins Florina Jenkins is a bookseller based in Buckinghamshire, England. She owns Chase Rare Books, an online boutique specializing in American, British and European literature, and related arts. Florina has a great interest in modern literature, and its influence on the graphic arts, cinema, television, the performing arts, and fashion. Florina launched Chase Rare Books in 2022. The website features first and rare editions by Christopher Isherwood, Truman Capote, Nancy and Jessica Mitford, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Marcel Proust, Olivia Manning, Elsa Schiaparelli, Ernest Hemingway, and Joan Didion. Florina likes to source books with attractive dust jackets, bindings, cover art, books with provenance, and books bearing the author's touch, such as signed and inscribed copies. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tbcy/support

Sophy Roberts is an award-winning author and travel writer.After an unusual start writing about different sides of the pornography industry, she cut her teeth as editor-at-large on the UK edition of Condé Nast Traveller, before joining the magazine's American team as a special correspondent.Sophy shares why the best source for stories is through chance meetings with strangers, albeit on a train or in a Mongolian tent, which formed the backdrop of her Sunday Times Book of the Year (2020), ‘The Lost Pianos of Siberia,' which documents her quest for the classical instrument against the extreme Russian landscape. Recalling her work with Jessica Mitford on one of the most notable exposés in American literature, she compares UK and US newsrooms from a freelancer's perspective.

Peter Stevenson speaks with Dinky Romilly, a Philipstown resident who was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and also has a famous mother, the investigative journalist and writer Jessica Mitford, best known for her book The American Way of Death, and for her eccentric family of sisters, the Mitford sisters, who were Dinky's aunts. 

INTRODUCCIÓN 00:01:55 ENTREVISTA a Laia Ruíz Mingote LIBROS 00:27:40 Amor en la pista de hielo & Palos y piedras. Check please! #1 y #2 (Ngozi Ukazu) 00:31:25 El descenso de los monstruos & El ascenso a lo divino. Tensorado #3 & #4 (Neon Yang) 00:34:40 Herejes de Dune. Dune #5 (Frank Herbert) 00:38:55 Pequeño Alce (Ángela Porras) 00:40:25 El final del verano (Tillie Walden) 00:43:25 El verano en que me enamoré. No hay verano sin ti. Siempre nos quedará el verano (Jenny Han) 00:46:25 Nobles y rebeldes (Jessica Mitford) 00:50:00 Va en el sueldo (Laia Ruíz Mingote) 00:53:45 El género en disputa (Judith Butler) 00:55:55 Fuego y Sangre (George R.R. Martin) 00:58:55 Deberes: Maga Vaga (Laia Ruíz Mingote) PELÍCULAS 01:00:20 Animales Fantásticos III: Los secretos de Dumbledore 01:03:25 Cabaret 01:06:35 Jurassic World: Dominion 01:08:40 Everything Everywhere all at once 01;10:00 Maixabel 01:12:20 Halftime 01:15:05 Spiderhead 01:16:25 La princesa 01:18:05 Ambulancia. Plan de huída 01:19:25 Lightyear 01:25:25 House of Gucci SERIES 01:25:45 The staircase 01:30:15 La mujer del viajero en el tiempo 01:32:55 The dropout 01:34:55 Obi-Wan Kenobi 01:37:10 First Class 01:39:20 Bad Vegan 01:41:35 Baymax 01:42:20 Butterfly 01:44:05 El verano en que me enamoré (T1) 01:46:10 Gentleman Jack (T2) 01:48:00 El suelo es lava (T2) 01:49:05 Love Víctor (T3) 01:50:45 Barry (T3) 01:52:00 The Umbrella Academy (T3) 01:53:45 Stranger Things (T4B) 01:55:30 The Flash (T8) 01:57:30 Deberes: Russian Doll (T2) 01:58:45 DESPEDIDA En este programa suenan: Radical Opinion (ARches) / Siesta (Jahzzar) / Place on Fire (Creo) / I saw you on TV (Jahzzar) / Bicycle Waltz (Goddbye Kumiko)

Bio: Peter Y. Sussman, 80, spent 29 years as an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, leaving in 1993 to pursue an independent career writing and editing. He has continued to devote much of his time to journalism, as a freelance writer and editor, as a teacher and mentor, and – often through professional organizations – as an expert and advocate on issues related to press freedom and journalism ethics and diversity. He has received many local and national honors for his work, both before and since leaving the Chronicle. His most recent book, Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford, was published in October 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf in the United States and a month later by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in Britain. It was subsequently published as a paperback in Britain by Phoenix. Decca was widely acclaimed by critics on three continents. Sussman's first book, Committing Journalism: The Prison Writings of Red Hog, co-authored with onetime bank robber Dannie M. Martin, was published in 1993 by W. W. Norton, receiving favorable reviews in a number of magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post. The paperback edition, published in 1995, also by W. W. Norton, has been in use in journalism, criminal justice and English classes around the country. It was selected by a faculty-student committee as the 1996-‘97 featured book in the campuswide College Book Program of Las Positas College in Livermore, Calif. All academic departments at the college studied issues raised by the book. http://www.peterysussman.com/ This episode is sponsored by Culinary Historians of Northern California, a Bay Area educational group dedicated to the study of food, drink, and culture in human history. To learn more about this organization and their work, please visit their website at www.chnorcal.org If you follow my podcast and enjoy it, I'm on @buymeacoffee. If you like my work, you can buy me a coffee and share your thoughts

Jake and Rob reflect on how they were first made aware of each other in the mid 2000s - Tom Johnson and Google. See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X Podcast. I am Rob Heppell and I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson. Hey there, Jake, how are you today? Jake Johnson: Hey there. Good. Rob Heppell: Good stuff. Hey, that was a great first episode, just reliving the last 18 months of our journey working quite closely to get other more so. But I think I thought in this one and we did talk about it a little bit, but I think there's some great stories about how we first got to know each other, and also too, from our different perspectives too. And basically, what's happened in the last, I guess, 15 years or so of getting to know each other and kind of bringing us up to the point of working with each other a year ago, starting a year ago. Jake Johnson: Right. Rob Heppell: So now to jump right in, I think this... I knew of you and your dad back there in say the mid 2000s. And I was in San Francisco, so this is 2006 and I had been writing some articles for... At that time I was just trying to get exposure. So I was writing some articles for RON HAST. And so Ron used to have the mortuary management magazine and he was hosting a little conference and this still happens today, but there was the CANA event going on in San Francisco so that it's in the summer. And so he decided and since he's from San Francisco to have his own two-day event ahead of that to kind of capitalize on all the funeral folks coming into town. And he had Tom Johnson speaking at this event. Rob Heppell: So I wasn't speaking, I was just attending. But I did have a couple of other goals by attending this event. And then I was actually speaking at CANA a few days later. But what I remember is your dad's at the front of the little conference room that we were at, we're at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, I believe in San Francisco. And so Yes, your dad is presenting and he's having technical issues and everyone, he's looking at Ron and Ron was older than your dad. And so he didn't have the answer so I kind of volunteered. And this has happened. It doesn't happen as much anymore. I think it's because technology's a bit more reliable than it was. So I came up and got him figured out and got on his way. Rob Heppell: And I still... And I remember part of his presentation and I've spoken with you since about this, but where he was talking, and Jake's, were with our business evaluation and he's it's not just simple math and so many calls these times. So many dollars is what we're going to pay you for your business. And he was talking about your little upticks here and there. And since that time, you've shown me to the degree of these things that are just minor, but they can sway evaluation up or down. But it's just kind of neat and I've always remembered that part. And with that, the neat thing about that event was Ron, he had a social time up top of the Drake and he... And I met some folks there. Rob Heppell: I met Mark Matthews and Sean Douglass. And then also then when that wrapped up, right before I left, I interviewed Ron because I was doing my little Funeral Gurus video. And so I interviewed him about Jessica Mitford because Jessica Mitford wrote The American Way of Death, kind of a negative take on funeral service. And so I just wanted to get his take on it because I knew that, and this is kind of a funny thing I said, now Ron, I do know that you had a bit of a relationship with Jessica Mitford. And he said, Rob, I wouldn't call it a relationship the way you're calling it. But he just kind of joked about that. And he went in and went into the detail about how he instead of pushing her away, he gave her a bit of a voice. Rob Heppell: And I think the funeral service overall we're becoming more aware of how other people think than jus...

Stuart and Andie talk with Jason Silva, philosopher, futurist, and host of National Geographic's Brain Games, Shots of Awe, and the Flow Sessions podcast. Their talk is a wild ride through the nature of reality. It's a mind-melting mind-meld of meanings as burners and as earthlings. It's a hint on how to — as Larry Harvey said — “wash your own brain." They discuss life, death and how a bicycle can induce synchronicity and reverie.  They explore how psychedelics can induce pivotal mental states of suggestibility for brainwashing ourselves for the better, or succumbing to delusional thinking, or both. They discuss scheduling nowness and eternity. They try to control their ecstatic surrender, and if you listen closely, you may hear a love story hidden between all the philosophy quotations. Finally, they explore key ingredients to Burning Man's secret sauce that doesn't exist. But then again, does existence even exist? https://www.thisisjasonsilva.com/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYb9NpXnRemxYoWbcYANsAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzm6YkEw8NU

This week is a Bizarro Fest featuring associate editor Marissa Martinelli; June Thomas, senior managing producer of Slate podcasts; and Benjamin Frisch, senior producer, Decoder Ring. First, the panel discusses the bizarre experience of watching Annette. Next, they talk about the BBC miniseries, The Pursuit of Love. Finally, they talk about the board game Wingspan with Slate editor and writer Dan Kois. In Slate Plus, the panel answers a listener question about which board game they would choose to play on a first date. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Cleo Levin. Outro music is "Death Dance" by Luftmensch. Endorsements June: The writing of all the Mitfords. Especially Hons and Rebels and Poison Penmanship by Jessica Mitford. (As well as the biography Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford by Leslie Brody). And The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford. Ben: Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and The London Symphony Orchestra. And the game Disco Elysium. Marissa: “How Science Saved Me From Pretending to Love Wine” by Anne Fadiman in The New Yorker. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week is a Bizarro Fest featuring associate editor Marissa Martinelli; June Thomas, senior managing producer of Slate podcasts; and Benjamin Frisch, senior producer, Decoder Ring. First, the panel discusses the bizarre experience of watching Annette. Next, they talk about the BBC miniseries, The Pursuit of Love. Finally, they talk about the board game Wingspan with Slate editor and writer Dan Kois. In Slate Plus, the panel answers a listener question about which board game they would choose to play on a first date. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Cleo Levin. Outro music is "Death Dance" by Luftmensch. Endorsements June: The writing of all the Mitfords. Especially Hons and Rebels and Poison Penmanship by Jessica Mitford. (As well as the biography Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford by Leslie Brody). And The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford. Ben: Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and The London Symphony Orchestra. And the game Disco Elysium. Marissa: “How Science Saved Me From Pretending to Love Wine” by Anne Fadiman in The New Yorker. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week is a Bizarro Fest featuring associate editor Marissa Martinelli; June Thomas, senior managing producer of Slate podcasts; and Benjamin Frisch, senior producer, Decoder Ring. First, the panel discusses the bizarre experience of watching Annette. Next, they talk about the BBC miniseries, The Pursuit of Love. Finally, they talk about the board game Wingspan with Slate editor and writer Dan Kois. In Slate Plus, the panel answers a listener question about which board game they would choose to play on a first date. Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Cleo Levin. Outro music is "Death Dance" by Luftmensch. Endorsements June: The writing of all the Mitfords. Especially Hons and Rebels and Poison Penmanship by Jessica Mitford. (As well as the biography Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford by Leslie Brody). And The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford. Ben: Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and The London Symphony Orchestra. And the game Disco Elysium. Marissa: “How Science Saved Me From Pretending to Love Wine” by Anne Fadiman in The New Yorker. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts, a bonus segment in each episode of the Culture Gabfest, full access to Slate's journalism on Slate.com, and more. Sign up now at slate.com/cultureplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mit 19 läuft Jessica Mitford von zu Hause weg, um im spanischen Bürgerkrieg zu kämpfen. In den USA tritt sie später der kommunistischen Partei bei, engagiert sich für die Bürgerrechte der Schwarzen und macht als gesellschaftskritische Autorin Karriere.

Jessica Mitford ist schon als Kind eine Rebellin: Mit zwölf eröffnet sie bei der vornehmen Privatbank ihrer Familie einen "running away account", auf dem sie Geld anspart, damit sie einmal von zu Hause weglaufen kann. Autorin: Christiane Kopka

First published in 1963 The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford, later updated in 1998 after her death, challenged the funeral industry and its excess. What does it have to say about cemeteries?tombwithaviewpodcast@gmail.comInstagram: tombwiithaviewpodcastFacebook: Tomb with a View Podcast

Jessica Mitford was the fifth born of the notorious Mitford Sisters. Born into the aristocracy, as a child she had her own language, collected a running-away fund and fought to set herself apart from her fascist siblings. As an adult she was in turn a communist rebel, an investigative journalist, a civil rights activist and pop singer - opening a gig for Cyndi Lauper and recording an unlikely duet with her friend and fellow mischief maker Maya Angelou. She’s championed by Robert Rinder, the criminal barrister and television personality known to many from the reality courtroom series ‘Judge Rinder’ and more recently, ‘My Family, The Holocaust and Me’ who reveals the impact her story has had on his own life. Robert Rinder is joined by guest expert Laura Thompson, author of the New York Times best seller, 'The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters'. Presented by Matthew Parris Produced By Nicola Humphries for BBC Bristol

In 1963, Jessica Mitford wrote the book "The American Way of Death", later she would debate funeral service with Todd Van Beck. Today, Todd joins the show to talk about the history of funeral service and Jessica Mitford. To learn more about Todd visit: http://www.toddvanbeck.com/ To learn more about Undertaking: The Podcast visit: https://www.undertakingthepodcast.com/

We discuss the Wide Awakes - their origins as an Abolitionist movement supporting Lincoln’s 1860 election campaign, and their revival in 2020 as a cape-clad artist network that believes in “joy as resistance “. See links below. Ruth Barnes, Joanne B. Eicher, Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning (first published in 1992): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/dress-and-gender-9780854968657/ Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, V&A, London (to 25 October 2020): https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/kimono-kyoto-to-catwalk Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels (first published in 1960): https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/jessica-mitford/hons-and-rebels/9781474605373/ Nancy Mitford, Love in a Cold Climate (first published in 1949): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/282/2828/love-in-a-cold-climate/9780241974698.html Gerda Taro: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/militiawoman-training-on-the-beach-near-barcelona and https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/gerda-taro?all/all/all/all/0 Jon Grinspan, ‘”Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign’, Journal of American History, 96 (Sept. 2009): http://archive.oah.org/special-issues/lincoln/contents/grinspan.html ‘Connecticut Wide-Awakes’, Connecticut Historical Society (6 January 2011): https://chs.org/2011/01/connecticut-wide-awakes/ 2020 Wideawakes: https://wideawakes.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/wideawakes/ and https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wide-awakes/the-wide-awakes For Freedoms: https://forfreedoms.org/ Hank Willis Thomas: https://www.instagram.com/hankwillisthomas/ and https://www.hankwillisthomas.com/ Wildcat Ebony Brown: https://www.instagram.com/wildcatebonybrown/ Anya Ayoung Chee: https://www.anyaayoungchee.com/ and https://www.togetherwi.org/ Eric Gottesman: https://ericgottesman.net/ Coby Kennedy: https://www.cobykennedystudio.com/ Kambui Olujimi: https://kambuiolujimi.com/ Jose Parla: https://www.instagram.com/joseparla/ Matt Dellinger, ‘A Civil War Political Movement Reawakens — Complete With Capes’, New York Times (15 September 2020): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/style/wide-awakes-civil-war-activists.html Rebecca Jamieson, ‘Without Joy, Nothing is Sustainable: The Artist First-Responders Waking Up Democracy with Play, Billboards, and Capes’, Pioneer Works (10 February 2020): https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/for-freedoms-jamieson/ Jammal Lemy, ‘Wide Awakes’, Dazed (15 September 2020): https://www.dazeddigital.com/read-up-act-up-autumn-2020/article/50410/1/read-up-act-up-autumn-2020-wide-awakes-guest-edit Rujeko Hockley, ‘Joy as Resistance: Artist collective the Wide Awakes takes NYC this weekend. Why we’re marching’, New York Vulture (2 October 2020): https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/wide-awakes-march-nyc.html Brooke Bobb, ‘The Wide Awakes Are the Civil War–Era Activist Group Making a Comeback in Bold, Joyful Style’, Vogue (2 October 2020): https://www.vogue.com/article/wide-awakes-capes

Reporting on wildlife conservation, threats to eco-systems and fragile cultures from remote corners of the world is travel writer Sophy Robert’s passion. She cut her journalistic teeth with Jessica Mitford then ditched an enviable job at Conde Nast Traveller to ‘tell those stories often untold’. She’s diced with danger in Papua New Guinea, protected elephants in Chad, fallen in love with the forests and people of the Congo and for her debut book crossed the wildest parts of Russia in her quest to tell the fascinating stories of The Lost Pianos of Siberia.   On this episode we cover: Growing up with a fish farming father The lust to see what was beyond the horizon When all the worlds she had imagined began to come alive Books having the power to transport Wanting to tell the stories that aren’t told India age 18 on a dollar or two a day Feeling very safe in India as a single female traveller How India stimulates the senses in a profound way Hotels where the windows don’t open How being able to really feel a place gets the blood flowing Luxury travel sealing you off from the real world Cutting her journalist teeth with Jessica (Decca) Mitford (the non-fascist one who went to Spain during the Civil War) Learning from Jessica Mitford that risk and bravery are important Jessica Mitford’s son being one of the world’s great piano tuner Quitting Conde Nast Traveller to travel more Using her writing to go ‘closer and closer to the edge’ Collaborating with brilliant photographers opening up a whole new avenue Stepping into the areas where there is fear The areas marked read on the map Going to Chad to report on an elephant conservation project The matriarch elephants that would circle the baby elephants to protect them being shot African Parks Chad being incredibly poor and having huge challenges Yet also moonscape mountains and ancient rock art Travel being a force for good; economically, philosophically and in creating connections Working in the Congo People increasingly travelling ‘towards issues’ The scary encounter with Russian bikers amid indigenous people in the far north of Russia Papua New Guinea being tricky and risky Being witness to a rape Falling in love with the Solomon seaside of Papua Travelling to Mongolia with her children Being inspired to write The Lost Pianos of Siberia by a local family in the Orkhon valley a few hours drive from Ulaanbaatar The search for the pianos that travelled from the cities in Russia to all corners of Siberia Travelling from the Ural mountains all the way to the Pacific Spending 158 days on the road in Russia How tracing the journeys of the pianos allowed her to tell human solace in times of darkness The mysterious piano in a volcanic caldera in The Kamchatka Peninsula is a in the Russian Far East Piano culture runs through Russian society like blood The Princess who dragged a piano across frozen lakes on a sledge to visit her revolutionary husband in prison The Social Life of Things a book about the how object design can reflect politics and culture The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal being of key influence Combining adventuring with family life The environmental impact of the conflict in Yemen Falling in love with the forests and people of the Congo How one has to learn to watch the trees moving past The Russian priest who sang Russian choral music      

Louise and Virginia discuss three of Nancy Mitford’s Radlett family novels as well as the novel that caused a rift in the family. They also discuss a podcast, a BBC radio programme and a TV series they’ve been diving into lately.Email hello@divinginpodcast.comInstagram @diving_in_podcastVirginia’s Instagram @virginia_readsLouise’s Instagram @louise_cooks_and_readsSong ‘Diving In’ – original music and lyrics written and performed by Laura Adeline – https://linkt.ree/llauraadelinePodcast sound production and editing by Andy Maher.Graphics by Orla Larkin - create@werkshop.com.auBooksThe Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, 1945.Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, 1949.Don’t Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford, 1960.Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford, 1935.Take Six Girls by Laura Thompson, 2015. Head of Zeus Ltd.The Mitford Sisters by Mary Lovell, 2001. Little, Brown and Company.Hons and Rebels, Jessica Mitford 1960. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.PodcastCurrently ReadingBBC Radio 4, BBC iPlayerGreat Lives Series 29 – Nancy MitfordTV SeriesPeaky Blinders

Laney sits down for a discussion with Steve @publiclandshateyou and Rory @dobiesisters about off leash dogs. Specifically, they discuss the responsibilities of social media influencers, their thoughts on call out culture, and the events of the past few weeks. The conversation covers a lot of ground when it comes to thinking about how content impacts others. Please refer to @publiclandshateyou for more information on how you can be respectful of public lands, or publiclandshateyou.com . “You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty” - Jessica Mitford (author, journalist, civil rights activist). Photo for episode originally posted by @vanderfool --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Jessica Mitford was the communist ‘red sheep’ of the aristocratic, fascist sympathising Mitford clan. Known as ‘Decca’, she was the sister of novelist Nancy, Diana (who was the wife of fascist Oswald Mosley) and Unity, who was the subject of our last episode and who was obsessed with Hitler. Her own family, no strangers to bad behaviour and controversy, regarded Jessica as the one who went too far, it was she they regarded as beyond the pale, while at the same time two of Jessica's sisters were card carrying, Jew hating, fanatical Nazis.  Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read This time we read a surprisingly entertaining book about the (unecessarily) high cost of death in America - The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford. Featuring our pal, the musician Levi Fuller!

Intro   Hi everyone! And welcome to Books Between - a podcast for educators, parents and everyone who loves middle grade books!   I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two tween girls, a 5th grade teacher in Central New York, and currently enjoying those magical days between Christmas and New Years when you have no idea what day it is and you spend half your time in your pajamas reading…..ahhhh…..   I believe in the power of books - especially fantasy books - to help you mull over the big moral issues in life and help you discover who you really want to be. And few books have accomplished that for so many better than the Harry Potter series.   This is our final #HappyPottermas episode of December and it is full discussion centered around those topics. First, you’ll hear some clips from Harry Potter fans - editors, authors, teachers, and… my own family.   And then I’ll share with you three conversations that will definitely get your wheels turning - and probably disagreeing. First, #HappyPottermas organizer Erin Varley and I will chat with Dr. Pat Geyer about how she has transformed her school into Hogwarts.  Then librarian Angie Manfredi and I get into some Harry Potter controversies. And then I share some firewhisky with author and KidLitDrinkNight podcast host Amy Skelding who shares her surprising 10 Most Devasting Harry Potter Deaths.   It probably goes without saying that this episode will discuss the ending of the books - but just in case that’s not clear - Spoiler Alert!!   #HappyPottermas - Audio Submissions (2:00)   Cary (@CarytheEditor), Blogger Freelance Editor at The Friendly Editor Adrianna Cuevas (@acuevaswrites) -  MG author   Cassie Thomas (@mrs_cmt1489) - 5th grade teacher, blogger at Teachers Who Read Victoria J. Coe (@victoriajcoe) - author, Fenway & Hattie series Kathy Burnett (@thebrainlair) - Independent Bookstore Owner - The Brain Lair Lena Allen - 4th grade student Angie Allen - 6th grade student Paul Goat Allen (@paulgoatallen) - genre fiction book reviewer   Erin Varley & Dr. Pat Geyer - Interview Outline (17:20)   Our first special guests this week are Erin Varley (teacher and #HappyPottermas organizer) and principal Pat Geyer - who, as you will hear, is doing some amazing Harry Potter themed activities at her school that has inspired me to do some similar things this year as well.   Take a listen…   Topics we chatted about   Introductions Harry Potter Themed Activities at Pat’s School Harry Potter Themed Activities at Erin’s School Harry Pottter as a Read Aloud Kid’s Reactions to Harry Potter now vs. 20 Years Ago Rereading Harry Potter New Harry Potter Covers / Illustrated Versions Our Hogwart’s Houses More Hufflepuff and Slytherin love   Links:   Erin Verley on Twitter - @erinvarley Dr. Pat Geyer on Twitter - @patgeyer Pat’s school on Facebook The Harry Potter books Pottermore website   Angie Manfredi - Interview Outline (32:40)   Next up I am really excited to welcome special guest Angie Manfredi -  librarian and editor of the upcoming anthology - The F Word. We chat about how our views of Harry Potter have changed over the years, our frustrations with Dumbledore and the new direction JK Rowling has taken with the spin-offs, and Angie’s incredible and very accurate one question quiz to sort you into the right Hogwarts House. Plus - she finally convinces me to read The Cursed Child. Which I will tell you - it is taking all of my willpower to do anything else around the house other than finish that book that right now.   Take a listen…   Topics we chatted about   Introductions First memories of reading Harry Potter Rereading Harry Potter Problematic Details Dumbledore & Draco Fantastic Beasts Problematic Systems of Magic involving Native Americans The Cursed Child Scorpius Malfoy Angie’s one question Hogwart’s House sorting quiz Should we sort? The Harry Potter Movies The acting in the Harry Potter movies Fascist Ideology in Harry Potter & the Mitford Sisters Snape, James Potter, the Black Family Controversial Opinions! Fan Fiction Native American Fantasy   Links:   Angie Manfredi on Twitter - @misskubelik Mr. Turner movie Author Adam Silvera Carry On  by Rainbow Rowell Rick Riordan Presents line Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha-Lee Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez The Lost Girl by Anne Ursu The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg   Native American Representation in Harry Potter http://nativesinamerica.com/2016/07/dear-jk-rowling-were-still-here/ http://nativeappropriations.com/2016/03/magic-in-north-america-the-harry-potter-franchise-veers-too-close-to-home.html   And some books by Native authors Angie recommends if you liked Harry Potter For MG readers: Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection How I Became a Ghost   For YA readers Feral Nights Strangers And if you want to read more about the Mitford sisters, who were the very real inspirations for the Black sisters: https://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Saga-Mitford-Family/dp/0393324141?fbclid=IwAR1jhRuVY28a-t1uGDyZa0eOZr8C4byU3YRxEFt1yi09wncPXre4F8Fbs84   Rowling has said Jessica Mitford is a huge inspiration and her oldest daughter is named after her. And Angie quite recommend’s falling down a Wikipedia hole about them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitford_family#Mitford_sisters Amy Skelding - Interview Outline (1:20:00)   For our final #HappyPottermas segment, I am joined by middle grade author and Harry Potter mega fan Amy Skelding! She is also the host of the KidLitDrinkNight podcast. We share a bit of firewhisky and chat about Harry Potter inspiration in the work place, how Harry Potter inspired her family through a challenging time, and… her rather surprising list of the ten most devastating deaths in the Harry Potter series.   Take a listen…   Topics we chatted about   Introductions Firewhisky The adult appeal of Harry Potter The movie adaptations The Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter as a Moral Compass House Sorting Favorite Character Amy’s Top Ten List of the Harry Potter Deaths in Order of Devastation to Me Personally   Links:   Amy Skelding on Twitter - @akskelding Kid Lit Drink Night Podcast   Ogden’s Old Firewhisky Recipe: http://www.inliterature.net/by-author/jk-rowling/2017/06/13021.html   Half Magic by Edward Eager   Closing   Alright, that wraps up our show this week!   If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or a suggestion about a topic we should cover, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.   Books Between is a proud member of the Lady Pod Squad and the Education Podcast Network. This network features podcasts for educators, created by educators. For more great content visit edupodcastnetwork.com   Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of our show at MGBookVillage.org. And, if you are liking the show, please leave us some love on iTunes or Stitcher so others can discover us as well.   Thanks and see you soon!  Bye!  

Stamp our passports because we are in VERSAILLES this week talking about Nancy Mitford’s Madame de Pompadour! We’ve got crazy court rules, a charming mistress, wild English sisters, and a few too many Nazis. Join us! Books mentioned: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, Robert K. Massey; Cleopatra: A Life, Stacey Schiff; Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Siegfried Sassoon; The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford; Hons and Rebels, The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford. Links: Diana Mitford interview, Jessica Mitford interview. Email us at thatbookpod@gmail.com. Friend us on Goodreads and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Dorothy returns once for her 4th Nursing Uncensored Appearance! Actually, this is the second half of our hours-long discussion. You heard the first half in the episode, Dorothy the Medical Examiner Investigator Returns. In this episode, her and I break down palliative care vs hospice.We discuss what they are and the differences between the two, work on dispelling myths and explain benefits.We also talk about the American relationship, or lack of, with death. We venture into what death looks like and how family members can be involved in the care provided at end-of-life.Dorothy gives us a book recommendation on the topic of America and the development of the funeral industry: The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford (not sponsored).We do a PSA for Advanced Directives - if you're an adult with a beating heart, you need one.We talk about end-of-life cultural considerations in the hospital, as well as briefly dip our toes into the topic of Death with Dignity and human euthanasia. If that isn't enough, I'm sure there is more we've forgotten to list here.Enjoy your journey into getting more familiar with one of the few things that unite us all, death.nursinguncensored.com

The Green Reaper: Memoirs of an Eco-Mortician (2017). In her memoir, Elizabeth Fournier writes about her calling to the funeral industry, and how her early struggles helped shape her life ministry: taking care of the dead and preparing more meaningful burials. The Green Burial guidebook: Everything You Need to Plan an Affordable, Environmentally Friendly Burial (2018). Despite the widespread attention garnered by Jessica Mitford's 1963 exposé of the funeral industry, The American Way of Death, the American way of death still includes average funeral expenses of between $8,000 and $12,000. What's more, every year conventional burials in the U.S. bury 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid, containing carcinogenic formaldehyde; hundreds of thousands of tons of wood, steel, copper, and bronze caskets; and millions of tons of concrete vaults. There isa better way and Fournier, affectionately dubbed the "Green Reaper," walks readers through it, step-by-step. With green burial and home funeral basics to legal how and what's; choices in practices (at home, at sea, etc.); and even detours into examples of celebrity green burials; this is comprehensive and compassionate guidance. The idea of a "good death" has been much discussed. Fournier points the way to good post-deaths, ones that consider the environmental well-being of the planet and the economic well-being of loved ones. http://www.elizabethfournier.com/

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter series. We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We continue to examine topics that are present within the NEW academic books that are focused on the literature of the Harry Potter series. Fresh off a fantastic discussion and release of the Ravenclaw Reader, this lesson on MuggleNet Academia focuses on Chapter 11 from Professor Patrick McCauley's new book Into the Pensieve. In this lesson, we discuss a key topic and theme that is prevalent throughout the Harry Potter series but has been overlooked in the past...Violence Against the female characters and their repercussions in the magical world. Joining Professor Patrick McCauley on this show is MuggleNet Creative Team Staff Members, Amy Hogan and Lizzie Sudlow. In this lesson we discuss: Why did J.K. Rowling name her first daughter, Jessica, after Jessica Mitford, a known communist and fascist supporter and author of Hons and Rebels? Rowling's skill of writing to the level of her reader's ages throughout the series. What really happened to the female characters like Katie Bell, Ariana Dumbledore, Lily Potter, Dolores Umbridge, and even Helena Ravenclaw. AND SO MUCH MORE! We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

The Nation magazine is one of America’s most distinguished journalistic enterprises featuring the writing and work of such notable people as Calvin Trillin, Noam Chomsky, Jessica Mitford, James Baldwin and Naomi Klein. The Nation was founded 150 years ago this July. It’s America’s oldest weekly magazine. To mark its 150th anniversary, it’s publishing a daily blog called The Almanac compiled by the magazine’s archivist, Richard Kreitner. The Almanac looks at significant historical events that took place on each day of the year and how The Nation covered them. In this New Books Network podcast, you’ll hear Richard Kreitner talk about The Nation’s coverage of events from May 10 to May 16. Everything from The Nation’s strong backing for Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 to the prowess of boxer Joe Louis and the death of Bob Marley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nation magazine is one of America’s most distinguished journalistic enterprises featuring the writing and work of such notable people as Calvin Trillin, Noam Chomsky, Jessica Mitford, James Baldwin and Naomi Klein. The Nation was founded 150 years ago this July. It’s America’s oldest weekly magazine. To mark its 150th anniversary, it’s publishing a daily blog called The Almanac compiled by the magazine’s archivist, Richard Kreitner. The Almanac looks at significant historical events that took place on each day of the year and how The Nation covered them. In this New Books Network podcast, you’ll hear Richard Kreitner talk about The Nation’s coverage of events from May 10 to May 16. Everything from The Nation’s strong backing for Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 to the prowess of boxer Joe Louis and the death of Bob Marley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nation magazine is one of America’s most distinguished journalistic enterprises featuring the writing and work of such notable people as Calvin Trillin, Noam Chomsky, Jessica Mitford, James Baldwin and Naomi Klein. The Nation was founded 150 years ago this July. It’s America’s oldest weekly magazine. To mark its 150th anniversary, it’s publishing a daily blog called The Almanac compiled by the magazine’s archivist, Richard Kreitner. The Almanac looks at significant historical events that took place on each day of the year and how The Nation covered them. In this New Books Network podcast, you’ll hear Richard Kreitner talk about The Nation’s coverage of events from May 10 to May 16. Everything from The Nation’s strong backing for Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 to the prowess of boxer Joe Louis and the death of Bob Marley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote a poem about them. Amy Tan’s mother was serenaded by them as she lay in state. Jessica Mitford’s memorial procession was led by them. And more than 300 Chinese families a year hire the Green Street Mortuary Band to give their loved ones a proper and musical send-off through the streets of Chinatown.The band traces its roots back to 1911 and the Cathay Chinese Boys Band, the first marching group in Chinatown.

my·thol·o·gy  (mi-thol′?-je) n.pl.my·thol·o·gies1. a. A body or collection of myths belonging to a people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and heroes. b. A body of myths associated with an event, individual, or institution: "A new mythology, essential to the . . . American funeral rite, has grown up" (Jessica Mitford). 2. The field of scholarship dealing with the systematic collection and study of myths.

Robert Peston chooses, 'The Cruel Mother', written by his late wife, Sian Busby. Bernardine Evaristo chooses, 'The Boy Next Door' by Irene Sabatini and Harriett Gilbert's choice this week is 'Hons and Rebels' by Jessica Mitford.

A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South Alex is the author of The Eyes of Willie McGee.  The story is about Willie McGee, a young African-American man from Laurel, Mississippi, who in 1945 was "sentenced to death for allegedly raping Willette Hawkins, a white housewife. At first, McGee's case was barely noticed, covered only in hostile Mississippi newspapers and far-left publications such as the DailyWorker. Then Bella Abzug, a young, New York labor lawyer was hired by the Civil Rights Congress--an aggressive civil rights organization with ties to the Communist Party of the United States--to oversee McGee's defense. Together with William Patterson, the son of a slave and a devout believer in the need for revolutionary change, Abzug and a group of white Mississippi lawyers risked their lives to plead McGee's case. After years of court battles, McGee's supporters flooded President Harry S. Truman and the U.S. Supreme Court with clemency pleas, and famous Americans--including William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, Jessica Mitford, Paul Robeson, Norman Mailer, and Josephine Baker--spoke out on McGee's behalf. By the time the case ended in 1951 with McGee's public execution in Mississippi's infamous traveling electric chair, "Free Willie McGee" had become a rallying cry among civil rights activists, progressives, leftists, and Communist Party members. Their movement had succeeded in convincing millions of people worldwide that McGee had been framed and that the real story involved a consensual love affair between him and Mrs. Hawkins--one that she had instigated and controlled. As Heard discovered, this controversial theory is a doorway to a tangle of secrets that spawned a legacy of confusion, misinformation, and pain that still resonates today. To learn more go to: http://eyesofwilliemcgee.com/index.html    

A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South Alex is the author of The Eyes of Willie McGee.  The story is about Willie McGee, a young African-American man from Laurel, Mississippi, who in 1945 was "sentenced to death for allegedly raping Willette Hawkins, a white housewife. At first, McGee's case was barely noticed, covered only in hostile Mississippi newspapers and far-left publications such as the DailyWorker. Then Bella Abzug, a young, New York labor lawyer was hired by the Civil Rights Congress--an aggressive civil rights organization with ties to the Communist Party of the United States--to oversee McGee's defense. Together with William Patterson, the son of a slave and a devout believer in the need for revolutionary change, Abzug and a group of white Mississippi lawyers risked their lives to plead McGee's case. After years of court battles, McGee's supporters flooded President Harry S. Truman and the U.S. Supreme Court with clemency pleas, and famous Americans--including William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, Jessica Mitford, Paul Robeson, Norman Mailer, and Josephine Baker--spoke out on McGee's behalf. By the time the case ended in 1951 with McGee's public execution in Mississippi's infamous traveling electric chair, "Free Willie McGee" had become a rallying cry among civil rights activists, progressives, leftists, and Communist Party members. Their movement had succeeded in convincing millions of people worldwide that McGee had been framed and that the real story involved a consensual love affair between him and Mrs. Hawkins--one that she had instigated and controlled. As Heard discovered, this controversial theory is a doorway to a tangle of secrets that spawned a legacy of confusion, misinformation, and pain that still resonates today. To learn more go to: http://eyesofwilliemcgee.com/index.html    

Your host for this edition of Radio Free Gunslinger is Jessica MitfordThe ContentFirst Sequence:Ethel Merman - Down in the Depths (On the Ninetieth Floor)Maurice Chevalier - You've Got That ThingThe Six Hottentots (Irving Kaufman, voc.) - I'm in Love AgainBanjo Buddy - Let's MisbehaveOlive Kein - Old Fashioned GardenSecond Sequence:Bobby Short - I'm Throwing a Ball Tonight (live)Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin (live)Ella Fitzgerald - Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) (live)Nat King Cole - Miss Otis Regrets (live)Dean Martin & Sammy Cahn - You're the Top (live)Third Sequence:Sam Butera & The Witnesses - I Love ParisSonny Rollins - It's Alright With MeGil Evans + 10 - Just One of Those ThingsArt Blakey & Paul Chambers - What is This Thing Called Love?Eddy Duchin - RosalieFourth Sequence:Elvis Costello - Love for SaleJames Brown - Don't Fence Me InThompson Twins - Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?George Harrison - True LoveSimply Red - Ev'ry Time We Say GoodbyeSummation:Miles Davis - All of You (live)

For years, biographers have been fascinated by the Mitfords, a quiet aristocratic British family with six beautiful daughters, nearly all of them famous for their controversial and stylish lives. There's Nancy, the novelist who had a love affair with Charles de Gaulle's Chief-of Staff; Pamela, the only sister who opted for a quiet life; Diana, the family beauty who married a Guinness then ditched him in favor of the founder of the British Union of Fascists; Unity, who had a crush on Hitler and unsuccessfully attempted to kill herself on the eve of World War II; Jessica, who eloped with a Communist at the age of 17; and Deborah, who married the Duke of Devonshire. In Leslie Brody‘s Irrepressible (Counterpoint Press, 2010), it's Jessica Mitford–known throughout her life as Decca– who, at long last, has the chance to shine. She was a rebel almost from infancy. As Brody writes, “Soon after Jessica Mitford moved with her family to Swinbrook House in Oxfordshire, she began to plot her escape from it.” Her escape was spectacular, to be sure. As a teenager, she eloped with Winston Churchill's nephew and ran off to the Spanish War. The couple eventually settled in America, where Mitford would remain after his death, later remarrying and becoming a journalist. Ultimately, she would be most famous for her expose of the American funeral industry, which was published in 1963 as The American Way of Death, but her work on civil rights and social justice was equally influential. Throughout Irrepressible, Brody includes direct quotes that let Mitford's unique perspective shine through. And, as a white British woman with Communist leanings, Jessica Mitford provides a view of America- a country with an independent streak as fierce as her own- unlike that of any other. She was a “muckraker” in the truest and best sense of the word. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, biographers have been fascinated by the Mitfords, a quiet aristocratic British family with six beautiful daughters, nearly all of them famous for their controversial and stylish lives. There’s Nancy, the novelist who had a love affair with Charles de Gaulle’s Chief-of Staff; Pamela, the only sister who opted for a quiet life; Diana, the family beauty who married a Guinness then ditched him in favor of the founder of the British Union of Fascists; Unity, who had a crush on Hitler and unsuccessfully attempted to kill herself on the eve of World War II; Jessica, who eloped with a Communist at the age of 17; and Deborah, who married the Duke of Devonshire. In Leslie Brody‘s Irrepressible (Counterpoint Press, 2010), it’s Jessica Mitford–known throughout her life as Decca– who, at long last, has the chance to shine. She was a rebel almost from infancy. As Brody writes, “Soon after Jessica Mitford moved with her family to Swinbrook House in Oxfordshire, she began to plot her escape from it.” Her escape was spectacular, to be sure. As a teenager, she eloped with Winston Churchill’s nephew and ran off to the Spanish War. The couple eventually settled in America, where Mitford would remain after his death, later remarrying and becoming a journalist. Ultimately, she would be most famous for her expose of the American funeral industry, which was published in 1963 as The American Way of Death, but her work on civil rights and social justice was equally influential. Throughout Irrepressible, Brody includes direct quotes that let Mitford’s unique perspective shine through. And, as a white British woman with Communist leanings, Jessica Mitford provides a view of America- a country with an independent streak as fierce as her own- unlike that of any other. She was a “muckraker” in the truest and best sense of the word. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, biographers have been fascinated by the Mitfords, a quiet aristocratic British family with six beautiful daughters, nearly all of them famous for their controversial and stylish lives. There’s Nancy, the novelist who had a love affair with Charles de Gaulle’s Chief-of Staff; Pamela, the only sister who opted for a quiet life; Diana, the family beauty who married a Guinness then ditched him in favor of the founder of the British Union of Fascists; Unity, who had a crush on Hitler and unsuccessfully attempted to kill herself on the eve of World War II; Jessica, who eloped with a Communist at the age of 17; and Deborah, who married the Duke of Devonshire. In Leslie Brody‘s Irrepressible (Counterpoint Press, 2010), it’s Jessica Mitford–known throughout her life as Decca– who, at long last, has the chance to shine. She was a rebel almost from infancy. As Brody writes, “Soon after Jessica Mitford moved with her family to Swinbrook House in Oxfordshire, she began to plot her escape from it.” Her escape was spectacular, to be sure. As a teenager, she eloped with Winston Churchill’s nephew and ran off to the Spanish War. The couple eventually settled in America, where Mitford would remain after his death, later remarrying and becoming a journalist. Ultimately, she would be most famous for her expose of the American funeral industry, which was published in 1963 as The American Way of Death, but her work on civil rights and social justice was equally influential. Throughout Irrepressible, Brody includes direct quotes that let Mitford’s unique perspective shine through. And, as a white British woman with Communist leanings, Jessica Mitford provides a view of America- a country with an independent streak as fierce as her own- unlike that of any other. She was a “muckraker” in the truest and best sense of the word. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, biographers have been fascinated by the Mitfords, a quiet aristocratic British family with six beautiful daughters, nearly all of them famous for their controversial and stylish lives. There’s Nancy, the novelist who had a love affair with Charles de Gaulle’s Chief-of Staff; Pamela, the only sister who opted for a quiet life; Diana, the family beauty who married a Guinness then ditched him in favor of the founder of the British Union of Fascists; Unity, who had a crush on Hitler and unsuccessfully attempted to kill herself on the eve of World War II; Jessica, who eloped with a Communist at the age of 17; and Deborah, who married the Duke of Devonshire. In Leslie Brody‘s Irrepressible (Counterpoint Press, 2010), it’s Jessica Mitford–known throughout her life as Decca– who, at long last, has the chance to shine. She was a rebel almost from infancy. As Brody writes, “Soon after Jessica Mitford moved with her family to Swinbrook House in Oxfordshire, she began to plot her escape from it.” Her escape was spectacular, to be sure. As a teenager, she eloped with Winston Churchill’s nephew and ran off to the Spanish War. The couple eventually settled in America, where Mitford would remain after his death, later remarrying and becoming a journalist. Ultimately, she would be most famous for her expose of the American funeral industry, which was published in 1963 as The American Way of Death, but her work on civil rights and social justice was equally influential. Throughout Irrepressible, Brody includes direct quotes that let Mitford’s unique perspective shine through. And, as a white British woman with Communist leanings, Jessica Mitford provides a view of America- a country with an independent streak as fierce as her own- unlike that of any other. She was a “muckraker” in the truest and best sense of the word. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, biographers have been fascinated by the Mitfords, a quiet aristocratic British family with six beautiful daughters, nearly all of them famous for their controversial and stylish lives. There’s Nancy, the novelist who had a love affair with Charles de Gaulle’s Chief-of Staff; Pamela, the only sister who opted for a quiet life; Diana, the family beauty who married a Guinness then ditched him in favor of the founder of the British Union of Fascists; Unity, who had a crush on Hitler and unsuccessfully attempted to kill herself on the eve of World War II; Jessica, who eloped with a Communist at the age of 17; and Deborah, who married the Duke of Devonshire. In Leslie Brody‘s Irrepressible (Counterpoint Press, 2010), it’s Jessica Mitford–known throughout her life as Decca– who, at long last, has the chance to shine. She was a rebel almost from infancy. As Brody writes, “Soon after Jessica Mitford moved with her family to Swinbrook House in Oxfordshire, she began to plot her escape from it.” Her escape was spectacular, to be sure. As a teenager, she eloped with Winston Churchill’s nephew and ran off to the Spanish War. The couple eventually settled in America, where Mitford would remain after his death, later remarrying and becoming a journalist. Ultimately, she would be most famous for her expose of the American funeral industry, which was published in 1963 as The American Way of Death, but her work on civil rights and social justice was equally influential. Throughout Irrepressible, Brody includes direct quotes that let Mitford’s unique perspective shine through. And, as a white British woman with Communist leanings, Jessica Mitford provides a view of America- a country with an independent streak as fierce as her own- unlike that of any other. She was a “muckraker” in the truest and best sense of the word. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kippenberger: The Artist and His Families (J&L Books) Kippenberger. Der Künstler und seine Familien (Berlin Verlag) Skylight Books and Villa Aurora present Susanne Kippenberger, discussing her biography of her late brother, the artist Martin Kippenberger. The event will feature film clips, images, and audio from Martin's career, and should not be missed! Susanne's book will become available in English in December, but we didn't want to miss the chance to have this fascinating presentation in our store while the author is in the country.  We're hoping to have copies of the German edition of her book available for sale, and will take preorders of the English edition. Over the course of his 20-year career, Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) cast himself alternately as hard-drinking carouser and confrontational art-world jester, thrusting these personae to the forefront of his prodigious creativity. He was also very much a player in the international art world of the 1970s right up until his death in 1997, commissioning work from artists such as Jeff Koons and Mike Kelley, and acting as unofficial ringleader to a generation of German artists. Written by the artist's sister, Susanne Kippenberger, this first English-language biography draws both from personal memories of their shared childhood and exhaustive interviews with Kippenberger's extended family of friends and colleagues in the art world. Kippenberger gives insight into the psychology and drive behind this playful and provocative artist. Susanne Kippenberger, editor at Tagesspiegel Berlin and author of Kippenberger: Der Künstler und seine Familien and Am Tisch, is an accomplished journalist who has been awarded a number of prestigious journalistic awards.  She studied German, English, and American literature in Tübingen and at the Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and film at NYU. She is currently working on a biography of Jessica Mitford, daughter of the 2nd Baron Redesdale, who, unlike the rest of her family, developed left-wing political opinions, became involved in the struggle against the British Union of Fascists and moved to the United States in 1939 where she joined the American Communist Party and was active in the Civil Rights movement. Kippenberger is currently a writer in residence at Villa Aurora in  Pacific Palisades. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 24,2011.

She eloped with Winston Churchill's nephew, severing her ties to privilege. She fought in the Spanish Civil War and joined the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama. She bore witness to the defining history of the 20th century. Jessica Mitford: queen of the muckrakers.

Roy Plomley's castaway is writer Jessica Mitford.Favourite track: Die Moorsoldaten by Ernst Busch Book: Orphan Island by Rose Macaulay Luxury: Supply of gentlemen's relish

Roy Plomley's castaway is writer Jessica Mitford. Favourite track: Die Moorsoldaten by Ernst Busch Book: Orphan Island by Rose Macaulay Luxury: Supply of gentlemen's relish