Podcasts about meeropol

3/28/24:  Millicent Jackson, E.D., Voices from Inside, & novelist Ellen Meeropol on  WriteAngles. Rapper Durch Rebelle & Michael Lawrence-Riddell, E.D., Self-Evident Education:  The Power of Truths Festival. Rev. Carole Bull on Holy Week & our souls. Renown journalist Stryker Maguire on Gaza & antisemitism.

Director Ivy Meeropol's expansive documentary, After the Bite focuses on the impact that a 2018 fatal shark attack on a boogie boarder has on the town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts rocked visitors and residents in the idyllic summer community of Cape Cod, forcing them to respond to the encroachment of apex predators. With the numbers of sharks increasing every year, Ivy Meeropol's expansive documentary AFTER THE BITE explores the repercussions for this beach community when rapid changes in the natural world begin to clash with a cherished way of life. Great white sharks have dominated headlines in recent years, as their deadly interactions with people have increased in the waters stretching from Maine to the Cape and Islands. Those charged with protecting the public have been forced to address the risk of serious injuries with stop-the-bleed kits mounted at public access beaches, warning billboards, the use of shark-tracking apps, spotter planes and new training programs and protocols for lifeguards. A portrait of an interconnected community of people and wildlife, AFTER THE BITE features a range of voices from different sides of these issues and considers the larger question of how far humans can push nature before it bites back. Director Ivy Meeropol (Bully. Coward. Victim. The Roy Cohn Story. Indian Point) joins us to talk about blending into the Cape Cod community of Wellfleet, enlisting the experts like Lisa Sette from the Center of Costal Studies; Dr. Greg Skomal and Meg Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservatory, to talk about the science and the lifeguards, conservationists, fishermen, journalists, paramedics, town residents, and activists to talk about the impact of the dramatic changes taking place since the tragic death of Arthur Medici. For more go to: hbo.com/movies/after-the-bite Subscribe to MAX.com

Sometimes peoples' lives intersect with history in a way you never forget. That's the case with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. They died in the electric chair in 1953, leaving behind two young children, Robbie and Michael, who miraculously grew up to be successful adults. I spoke with Michael about his childhood and the controversial choices his parents made. “Now What?” is produced with the help of Steve Zimmer, Annika Hoiem and Alex Wolfe. Audio production is by Nick Ciavatta.

Der Text für Strange Fruits entsteht 1936 als Gedicht mit dem Titel Bitter Fruit. Abel Meeropol schreibt dieses Gedicht als Protest gegen die Lynchjustiz in den Südstaaten Amerikas, der viele Afroamerikaner*innen zum Opfer fielen. Meeropol spricht in seinem Gedicht von seltsamen Früchten, die an den Pappeln hängen. Um gleich darauf die Verbindung zu den Gelynchten herzustellen, deren Körper vom Wind bewegt, von der Sonne verwest schließlich abfallen, wie reife Früchte. Der Song Strange Fruit ist schmerzlich aktuelle und verweist auf eine, nach wie vor erschreckende gesellschaftliche Realität. Unser Redakteur Leonard nimmt sich der Geschichte dieses Songs an und zeigt, wieviel Künstler durch diesen Song schon diese Thematik aufgegriffen haben. - - -

Today we celebrate a man who found all the answers to life in nature, and we still learn from his profound observations today. We'll also learn about a botanist and publisher who found fame and forged meaningful connections with top botanical illustrators and horticulturists of his time. We’ll hear an excerpt about spring in Paris from an American author and journalist who lives in France. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fun fiction book about a botany major who feels a kinship with plants on the brink of extinction. And then we’ll wrap things up with a little article published on this day in 1985 about ferns from the great garden writer Frances Perry.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News The 7 Best Indoor Herb Gardens | Bustle | Scarlett James   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events April 21, 1838 Today is the birthday of the Scottish-American naturalist, conservationist, and author John Muir. Muir was known by many names: "John of the Mountains,” “Father of Yosemite,” and "Father of the National Parks.” In particular, John’s work to preserve Yosemite resulted in a famous picture of Muir posing with President Teddy Roosevelt on Overhanging Rock at the top of Glacier Point in Yosemite in 1903. And, when I was researching Charles Sprague Sargent (the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston), I stumbled on a fun little story about John and Charles that was featured in a 1915 article.  It’s a favorite of mine because it highlights the personality differences between the extroverted John Muir and the very serious Charles Sargent. It turns out that the two men had gone on a trip one fall to hike the mountains in North Carolina. John wrote, "The autumn frosts were just beginning, and the mountains and higher hilltops were gorgeous. We climbed slope after slope through the trees till we came out on the bare top of Grandfather Mountain. There it all lay in the sun below us, ridge beyond ridge, each with its typical tree-covering and color, all blended with the darker shades of the pines and the green of the deep valleys. . . . I couldn't hold in and began to jump about and sing and glory in it all. Then I happened to look round and catch sight of [Charles Sargent] standing there as cool as a rock, with a half-amused look on his face at me but never saying a word.   "Why don't you let yourself out at a sight like that?" I said.  "I don't wear my heart upon my sleeve," he retorted.  "Who cares where you wear your little heart, man?" I cried. "There you stand in the face of all Heaven come down on earth, like a critic of the universe, as if to say, Come, Nature, bring on the best you have: I'm from BOSTON!" It was John Muir who said these wonderful quotes: The mountains are calling, and I must go. In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.   April 21, 1864 Today is the anniversary of the death of the English bookseller, printer, publisher, pharmacist, and botanist, Benjamin Maund. Benjamin had a large garden where he enjoyed cultivating seeds from around the world. He had a special curiosity about wheat and was interested in crossing and growing different wheat cultivars. He even exhibited wheat and gave talks on it when he had time. In 1846, an English newspaper reported that Benjamin was the first botanist to attempt to improve wheat through hybridization. On Christmas day in 1813, after his father died, Benjamin bought a bookstore and publishing house. The entrepreneurial move would set the stage for his greatest work - a monthly publication designed to be both useful and affordable called, The Botanic Garden. Despite the publication’s London imprint, Benjamin lived and worked in the small market town of Bromsgrove all of his life. Published between 1825 and 1850, The Botanic Garden brought Benjamin notoriety and authority. Benjamin became a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and he even corresponded with other top botanists like Darwin’s mentor, John Stevens Henslow of Cambridge University. Benjamin’s main goal was to share “hardy ornamental flowering plants, cultivated in Great Britain.” Each monthly edition of The Botanic Garden featured a colored illustration of four different flowers, along with four pages of descriptive text. As a result, Benjamin worked with some of the best botanical artists of his time, including Augusta Withers, Priscilla Bury, and Edwin Smith. In fact, Benjamin’s own daughters, Eliza and Sarah, experimented with botanical illustration, and their work was also featured in the publication. Today, all of the issues of The Botanic Garden, along with over 1200 pieces of original botanical art produced for publication, are preserved at the Natural History Museum in London.   Benjamin also introduced a biennial to Britain - the Spiny Plumeless Thistle or Welted Thistle (Carduus acanthoides "KARD-ew-us "ah-kan-THOY-deez"). As with most thistles, the Welted Thistle is an invasive herb that can grow one to four feet tall. It has a thick taproot that can grow to a foot long, and the purple to pink flower can appear individually or in clusters. Although it is a thistle, the Welted Thistle bloom is really quite pretty. Poignantly, sixty-four years after his death, Benjamin’s hometown memorialized him with a tablet showing his head surrounded by a wreath of Carduus acanthoides. Unearthed Words Spring had come to the market as well. Everywhere there were young green things, the tips of asparagus, young leeks no bigger than scallions. There was crisp arugula, curled and tangled, and fresh green peas, plump in their pods. I had no idea what I wanted to make for dinner. This didn't pose a problem; on the contrary, it was an opportunity, a mini-adventure. The season's new ingredients brought new ideas. The first baby tomatoes were coming in from Sicily. I bought a box of small red globes still on the vine and a red onion in my favorite childhood shade of royal purple. Maybe I would make a salsa for the dorade (do-rahd) I'd picked up at the fishmonger. I imagined a bright confetti, the tomatoes mixed with freshly chopped coriander, maybe a sunny mango. ― Elizabeth Bard, American author, Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes   Grow That Garden Library Kinship of Clover by Ellen Meeropol This botany-inspired fiction book came out in 2017 with a theme centered around endangered plants and a premise that examines how to stay true to the people you care about while trying to change the world. In this book, Ellen Meeropol tells the story of a botany major at the University of Massachusetts, named Jeremy who feels a kinship with plants that are nearing or have become extinct. Jeremy first appeared in Ellen’s book House Arrest as a nine-year-old child who had survived family trauma and found safety in the family greenhouse where he loved to draw plants. This book is 248 pages of one young man’s struggle to fight for the environment and climate justice without losing the people he loves. You can get a copy of Kinship of Clover by Ellen Meeropol and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $5   Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart April 21, 1985 On this day, the garden writer, Frances Perry, shared a charming article in her regular gardening column in The Observer about how to grow a fern spore. She wrote: My father-in-law, Amos Perry, once told me that if I pushed a stopperless bottle upside down in moist shady soil, a fern would grow inside it. So I did just that and then forgot it.  Two years later, while separating some large hellebore plants, we came across the old bottle. Sure enough, there was a baby fern growing inside. The spores; can survive in their millions until conditions for growth are right.  Next, Frances shared how to propagate ferns: The best way to propagate [ferns] is by division. This is a good time both to plant and divide.  Propagation by means of spores is more laborious. Towards the end of summer, the spores are found on the backs of mature fronds. When ripe, they can be shaken off, then sown on fine soil in a pot or pan. Do not cover with soil, but lay a pane of glass over the top to maintain humidity. Stand the pot in a saucer with a little rainwater at its base. Keep the temperature at about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and remove the glass for about an hour daily to change the air. Wipe it dry before returning.  Eventually, green cushion-like bodies will appear… Later, first tiny green leaves... It will be at least another 12 months before good plants are produced.  Finally, Frances highlights a variety of ferns. Regarding Queen Victoria’s fern, she wrote, Queen Victoria's Fern, Athyrium filix-femina 'Victoriae' ("ah-THEER-ee-um FY-lix--FEM-in-uh”), which has its 3-foot fronds and all their pinnae (segments) crossed to form V’s as well as boasting crested edges, was found near a Scottish cart track more than a century ago. Regarding the Royal Fern, Frances said, No waterside fern is more regal than the Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis ("oz-MUN-duh ray-GAH-lis"), the 8- to10-foot fronds once sheltered an ancient British king, Osmund, from marauding Danes. Then Frances shared her favorite ferns for wet gardens and indoor spaces. She wrote: Good ferns for soggy spots include all of the Heart's Tongues; the Netted Chain Fern, Woodwardia areolata ("wood-WAR-dee-ah arr-ee-oh-LAY-ta"), a creeping plant for swampy ground, and the Dwarf Oak Fern, Gymnocarpium dryopteris 'Plumosum' ("jim-n-oh-KAR-pi-um dry-OP-ter-is ploom-oh-sim").  Ferns suitable for indoor culture include most Maidenhairs, Adiantums ("AYE-dee-ANT-ums") — which incidentally loathe tobacco smoke — the Hare's Foot [or the Squirrel's Foot fern], Davallia fejeensis, (“duh-vall-ee-uh fee-jay-en-sis”) — ideal for hanging baskets with its brown exposed tubers like animal paws, the long-fronded aptly-named Ladder Ferns (Nephrolepis "nef-ro-LEP-iss" varieties - like the sword fern or Boston fern) and the Bird's Nest Fern, Asplenium nidus "as-PLEE-nee-um Nye-dis"; which produces 24-inch fronds shuttlecock fashion in a wide circle.  In nature, Asplenium perches on trees, but our 20-year-old does very well in a large flower pot. I only water into the center of the plant, not into the soil.   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Ellen Meeropol's gorgeous novel is a must read—even if I'm still skeptical that the 1960s qualify as historical fiction! A story of sibling love and tensions set against a backdrop of protests of the Vietnam war. We had a great conversation, and she'll be joining me and Lee Wicks for a virtual reading on Thursday, December 3, hosted by Writers in Progress.Find out more about Ellen's books and where to buy them at her Web site! 

Interviewer: MATTHEW BERKMAN. In her discussion with political scientist Matthew Berkman, documentarian IVY MEEROPOL describes the stories she was obliged to cut from her 2019 HBO film, Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, for lack of definitive proof. This included a quickly buried investigation in the 1980s into Cohn’s involvement in the Jeffrey-Epstein style trafficking of minors. Meeropol also pursued a lead suggesting that a statement by one of his acquaintances, that “Roy could have you killed,” was not at all figurative. Cohn appeared in Meeropol’s own family story as the prosecutor who framed her grandmother, Ethel Rosenberg, and then urged that she be executed. He went on to assist Joe McCarthy in his anti-Communist witch hunt, and then to become a Republican power broker whose influence rested on favors, threats, media savvy, and connections. It was Cohn’s support that paved Donald Trump’s entry into political life. While many have simply declared him evil, however, Meeropol never loses sight of the ways his actions were motivated by self-protection in a society deeply hostile to gay men.

Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels Her Sister's Tattoo, Kinship Of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest. Recent short fiction and essays are in Solstice Magazine, Lit Hub, Ms Magazine, and Lilith. She grew up in the D.C. area and lives in Western Massachusetts.* * *Her Sister's TattooRed Hen Press, 2020

Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels Her Sister's Tattoo, Kinship Of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest. Recent short fiction and essays are in Solstice Magazine, Lit Hub, Ms Magazine, and Lilith. She grew up in the D.C. area and lives in Western Massachusetts.Her Sister's TattooRed Hen Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Larry Tye on Demagogue & Ellen Meeropol on Her Sister's Tattoo The post Larry Tye, DEMAGOGUE & Ellen Meeropol, HER SISTER’S TATTOO appeared first on Writer's Voice.

The pandemic has slowed the speed of life under capitalism, Naomi Klein suggests in her recent conversation with Katrina vanden Heuvel—and that has created greater empathy and solidarity, expressed in the unprecedented support for the Movement for Black Lives. But the “Screen New Deal”—the virtual classroom and workplace—are bringing greater isolation and increasing corporate power. Plus: Zoë Carpenter reports from Portland on the ominous developments there involving federal agents in camouflage in the streets attacking protesters—over the objections of local and state officials—which Trump says he will take to other Democratic cities. Also, how Roy Cohn gave us Donald Trump: Ivy Meeropol talks about her new documentary on Roy Cohn, “Bully. Coward. Victim.” It’s playing now on HBO on demand.

Ivy Meeropol directed and produced the HBO documentary Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, which premiered at the 2019 New York Film Festival. She was the senior story producer for the 2017 CNN Films feature-length documentary The End: The Final Days Inside the Obama White House. In 2016, Meeropol produced and directed two short films for the Emmy Award-winning climate change documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, which aired on The National Geographic Channel. Meeropol directed and produced the feature-length documentary Indian Point, which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival and received the 2016 Frontline Award for Journalism in a Documentary Film. Meeropol is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and was a 2013 Sundance Institute Fellow.

Ivy Meeropol ("Heir to an Execution") returns to the podcast to discuss her latest documentary "Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn" which is currently available on HBO. Also, making his 1st appearance on the podcast, filmmaker Marco Williams ("The Two Towns of Jasper") for a frank conversation on current affairs as well as teaching both film and ethics to his students at Northwestern.

BULLY. COWARD. VICTIM. THE STORY OF ROY COHN takes an unflinching look at the life and death of infamous attorney Roy Cohn. Cohn first gained prominence by prosecuting Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in what came to be known as the "atomic spies" case. The documentary draws on extensive, newly unearthed archival material to present the most revealing examination of Roy Cohn to date. Director Ivy Meeropol ("Indian Point," HBO's "Heir to an Execution") brings a unique perspective as the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, having  spent much of her life feeling both repelled and fascinated by the man who prosecuted her grandparents, obtained their convictions in federal court, and then insisted on their executions. The documentary is a riveting profile chronicles Cohn's life from the late 1950s as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy, when he first began wielding political power, through the 1980s, when he became a darling of the Reagan White House, a rabid anti-homosexuality activist and political mentor to Donald J. Trump before meeting his death from AIDS in 1986. BULLY. COWARD. VICTIM. THE STORY OF ROY COHN includes numerous interviews, including John Waters, Cindy Adams, Alan Dershowitz, Nathan Lane and Tony Kushner, whose 2018 Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning revival of "Angels in America" featured Lane as Cohn. Lane offers insight into how devastatingly dangerous the actual Roy Cohn was and how he wielded power through invective and innuendo.Director Ivy Meeropol joins us to talk about one of the most renowned and reviled political figures of the last 60 years as well as the lasting impact he had on her own life, family and the country.   BULLY. COWARD. VICTIM. THE STORY OF ROY COHN debuts on HBO Friday, June 19 and will also be available to stream on HBO GO, HBO NOW, and on HBO via HBO Max and other partners' platforms. June 19 marks the 67th Anniversary of the execution of Meeropol's grandparents, the Rosenbergs.

Ivy Meeropol - grand daughter of Julias and Ethel Rosenberg - brings to the surface an important historical figure in the realm of '50s communist persecution: Roy Cohn. Mentor to Donald Trump, Cohn's story is a fascinating journey through a tragic life.

Ivy Meeropol - grand daughter of Julias and Ethel Rosenberg - brings to the surface an important historical figure in the realm of '50s communist persecution: Roy Cohn. Mentor to Donald Trump, Cohn's story is a fascinating journey through a tragic life.

In this episode of Freedom Speaks Podcast, I tell the story of Thomas Ship, Abram Smith, and James Cameron. Learn about the iconic photograph that would forever place the town of Marion, Indiana on the map of lynchings in America.

Ivy Meeropol is a documentary filmmaker whose emotionally and politically charged films explore social and cultural injustice from the inside out. Her work in TV and film ranges from an exploration of the threat posed by the nuclear power industry to the good, bad and ugly of the American political system, particularly as it relates to her family (more on that in a moment). But what distinguishes her work most is her disarming refusal to judge the characters in her films as heroes or villains– a process Ivy describes as an “active pursuit of empathy.” The result is a deeply nuanced body of work that reverberates with wisdom, intimacy and socio-political nuance. That empathy infuses every scene of her latest film, Bully, Coward, Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn, which recently premiered at the New York Film Festival. Combining archival footage with original reporting, the HBO film explores the complicated, controversial, and enduring legacy of Cohn, the closeted right-wing political attack-dog who was an early mentor to Donald Trump. Cohn launched his notorious career as the young prosecutor who convicted Ivy’s grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, of spying for the Soviet Union at the height of the Red Scare. Cohn succeeded in his quest to send both of them to the electric chair, leaving their two young sons (one of whom was Ivy’s father) orphaned. Over the course of an intimate and animated Change Lab interview, she explored the personal and political forces at play in her work, her willingness to allow her films the freedom to dwell in ambiguity and her sense of responsibility to ask questions previous generations never could.   Related links: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1532413 https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2019/films/bully-coward-victim-the-story-of-roy-cohn/ http://indianpointfilm.com/ https://www.sundance.org/projects/heir-to-an-execution

We speak this week to Michael Meeropol, whose parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed by the US government in 1953. We talk about his efforts to clear his mother's name and the importance of the Brooklyn Dodgers in their lives. Meeropol reads from the letters of his parents where they discuss baseball. I also have choice words about rap icon Kurtis Blow and his underrated importance to the development of the NBA as a global phenomenon. Finally we have a tribute to the late Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, via a t-shirt on our weekly Kaepernick watch.Dave in Seattle with Seahawk Michael Bennett on January 5, 2017: https://townhallseattle.org/event/dave-zirin/ http://fb.com/events/1139387102852694Michael and Robert Meeropol, We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Exonerate our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg: http://www.rfc.org/ethelChange.org petition: https://www.change.org/p/president-obama-exonerate-our-mother-ethel-rosenbergThe Assassination of Fred Hampton: http://www.hamptonbook.com/The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: http://theblackpanthers.com/music: The Show - Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew | We the People.... - A Tribe Called Quest | Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday (Words & music by Abel Meeropol) | Blood on the Leaves - Kanye West | Basketball, 8 Million Stories  - Kurtis Blow | Peter Piper - Run DMC | Starboy - The Weeknd

NDIAN POINT takes an unblinking look at the dramatic debate over nuclear power by going inside the aging plant that looms just 35 miles from New York City. With over 50 million people living in close proximity to the facility, it has stoked a great deal of controversy in the surrounding community, including a vocal anti-nuclear contingent concerned that the kind of disaster that happened at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant could happen here. At the same time, its continued operation has the support of the plant’s operators and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) as they campaign to relicense Indian Point for another 20 years of operation. INDIAN POINT presents a complex story through the people who are most invested in the nuclear industry—the owners of the plant, the workers at the plant and the activists who want to shut it down. The debate at the center of INDIAN POINT is more timely now than ever. In February of 2016, news broke that the groundwater below Indian Point had been contaminated with radioactive material, prompting a state investigation.
 Director and producer Ivy Meeropol takes full advantage of her unprecedented access to the plant at the center of the most contentious relicensing process in the history of the industry. Her even-handed approach to the history and issues surrounding nuclear energy in general and INDIAN POINT specifically makes the film compelling filmmaking and indispensable viewing for anyone who cares about our energy future. For news and updates go to: firstrunfeatures.com/indianpoint

“Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, for the sun to rot, for a tree to drop. Here is a strange and bitter crop.” -Abel Meeropol Poet and songwriter Abel Meeropol wrote that lament after seeing a photograph of two black teenagers hanging from a tree, after being lynched in Marion, Indiana, on August 7, 1930. Meeropol’s song, “Strange Fruit” was later made famous by Billie Holiday. A secret, missing from the photograph, is that a third black boy was supposed to die that fateful day. James Cameron is believed to be the only African American to have survived a lynching. Listen to our story (and be advised that it is disturbing.)

Episode 2: Interview with documentary film maker Ivy Meeropol about her documentary film 'Indian Point' about the Indian Point nuclear reactor just north of New York City. Discussion of the German raspberry spirit 'Himbeergeist'. Original air date June 3, 2015 For more about 'Indian Point', go to: www.indianpointfilm.com 'Like' us at www.facebook.com/cinemawithatwist

Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake.com and Rania Khalek of the "Dispatches from the Underclass" blog are joined by Rachel Meeropol of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Meeropol is a senior staff attorney, who argued in court this week that the FBI should not have rounded up Muslims in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and former US officials should be held responsible. Meeropol also discusses developments in a CCR lawsuit involving Communications Management Units (CMUs) in two US prisons. The units impose restrictive conditions and disproportionately affect Muslims and prisoners who maintain their political beliefs while imprisoned. During the discussion portion of the show, Gosztola and Khalek discuss John Kerry's now-blasphemous comment—his use of the word "apartheid" (oh my!), Prince Georges Police Department's plan to live tweet a prostitution sting, a rather troubling instance of larger organizations policing dissent during the May Day march in Chicago. We also share some thoughts on surveillance panels dominated purely by white men. 

"Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root..." Billie Holiday's famous song expresses the horror and anguish of those communities subjected to a campaign of lynching in the American South. Soul Music hears the stories of people whose relatives were lynched by white racists and of the various forms of grief, anger and reconciliation that have followed. These include the cousin of teenager Emmett Till, whose killing in 1955 for whistling at a white woman, added powerful impetus to the civil rights movement. Despite its association with the deep south, the song was actually composed in 1930's New York by a Jewish schoolteacher, Abel Meeropol. Meeropol adopted the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after they were executed in 1953 as Soviet spies. One of those children, Robert, talks of his adopted father's humanity and his belief that the Rosenberg's were killed in a 'state sanctioned lynching by the American government'. For him, Strange Fruit is a comforting reminder of his adopted father's passionate belief in justice and compassion. Producer: Maggie Ayre.

A palace guardsman speaks for his battalion in Ellen Meeropol’s “Watching Her,” describing how the soldiers’ affection for a young noblewoman must give way to obedience during a civil war. Following orders, they must punish the woman’s allegiance to the rebel cause, and to her rebel lover.