The Cuban Missile Crisis at 60: Was JFK Really A Hero?

October 29, 2022Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History, Uncategorized

60 years ago this month, in October 1962, Americans anxiously heard news for almost two weeks straight about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, less than 100 miles away from the U.S. Nuclear War was possible, to some imminent.

In this episode we offer a brief history of the Cuban Missile Crisis and, more importantly, a remembrance and reconsideration of the events of October and JFK actions throughout the crisis.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/3fjZRbi

JFK has been praised for his firm resolve, courage, and strength in handling the crisis but the reality is that he was provocative and almost caused a war against Russia. In this episode we’ll start by giving a background on JFK’s aggression toward Cuba, then we’ll offer a brief narrative of the crisis, and finally we’ll discuss how Kennedy continued his subversion against Castro’s government after the Missile Crisis.

We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes. Cold War Culture in the Reagan Era w/ Prof. Andrew Hunt

October 24, 2022Posted inPeoples' History, pop culture

In an amazing new interview, we talk with Prof. Andrew Hunt (@aehunt) about Cold War culture during the Reagan years.

Listen in: apple.co/3FcFTd2

We talk about the array of protest movements in the 1980s that took up issues such as the nuclear arms race, U.S. intervention in Central America, and American investments in South Africa. And we discuss the “cultural resistance” of the time– film, television, music– that critiqued Washington’s Cold War policies and posed a challenge to the Cold War’s excesses of the Reagan era.

The Protests in Iran w/ Professor Giuseppe Acconcia

October 11, 2022Posted inForeign Policy

The “hijab protests” in Iran have continued and intensified for weeks now, and we talked to a journalist and scholar with a longtime familiarity with the country. Giuseppe Acconcia, @stradedellest, professor at Padua University, has been a journalist working out of Iran and is the author of “The Great Iran,” and most recently co-authored, with Lorenza Perini, of “The Arab Uprisings: Protests, Gender, and War, 2011-2021.”

Listen in: https://apple.co/3S1zt3d

Acconcia here provides us with background to the new conflict, the critical role Iranian women have played in the resistance in Iran for some time now and the current state of the uprising, and other factors, like the Iranian economy and sanctions, that are affecting the current protests.

Defending Mendocino’s Sacred Sites

October 5, 2022Posted inClimate

The “Mendocino War” was a bloody conflict between the Yuki tribe and white settlers in Northern California. White settlers raided and stole Yuki lands and massacring hundreds of Yuki in the process. The Yuki fled to “The Mountain” in what is now known as the Jackson Demonstration State Forest to escape the violence. Those villages in the forest are now sacred sites to the Coastal Yuki and Northern Pomo tribes.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3elKNcQ

The state of California is allowing logging companies to log the 50,000 acre Jackson Forest for profit to finance CalFire’s operations fighting wildfires. Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s direction for California state agencies to co-manage state lands with local Native American tribes and seek opportunities to return State lands to Native American tribes, the Dept. of Natural Resources has only designated 75 acres as “sacred sites.”