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Podcast January 2, 2010 [ 3:21:07 | 138.1 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (308)

This is part two of the Best of This is Hell!: 2009.

• #5: From January 24th, Kenneth Saltman is associate professor in the department of Educational Policy Studies and Research at DePaul University in Chicago. He is the author, most recently, of “Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools,” (Paradigm Publishers), and editor of Schooling and the Politics of Disaster (Routledge).
  In December 2008, he wrote the article, “Obama’s Betrayal of Public Education? Arne Duncan and the Corporate Model of Schooling,” with Henry Giroux.
• #4: From October 10, James B. Steele co-wrote the Vanity Fair article, “Good Billions After Bad,” with his investigative reporting partner Donald L. Barlett. Steele and Barlett are the only investigative journalism team to have won two Pulitzers and two National Magazine Awards. They are both contributing editors to Vanity Fair and editors-at-large for TIME magazine. Their most recent book is 2004′s “Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine” (Doubleday).
  Vanity Fair’s sub-headline for “Good Billions After Bad” reads:
  As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system—without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. The authors reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed.
• #3: From April 25, Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist who writes twice-weekly for the UK paper, The Independent. Last year, at the age of 29, Johann became the youngest person ever to be awarded the George Orwell Prize, which the Observer newspaper calls “Britain’s preeminent award for political writing”. In 2007 he was named Newspaper Journalist of the Year by Amnesty International for his reporting on the war in Congo. He is the author of 2003′s, “God Save the Queen?: The Monarchy and the Truth About The Windsors” (Icon Books). His recent writing included, “The Dark Side of Dubai,” “The one lesson of this crisis is the more need for a more equal society,” “Why we should listen to the protesters,” and “How to spot a lame lame argument.” Many of our listeners emailed us about his January article, “You Are Being Lied to About Pirates.”
• #2: From April 18, Henry Giroux is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States. He is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media studies, and critical theory. He is the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at Hamilton, Ontario’s McMaster University. His most recent book is, “The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex.” His recent articles, “Commodifying Kids: The Forgotten Crisis,” and “Disney, Casino Capitalism and the Exploitation of Young Boys: Beyond the Politics of Innocence” were from his then-upcoming book, “Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability?,” which was published later that year, in September.
• #1: From July 4′ live from London, Saskia Sassen is professor of sociology and member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Saskia’s most recent book is 2007′s “A Sociology of Globalization” (WW Norton). She wrote that week’s openDemocracy piece, “The new executive politics: a democratic challenge”. Before that, she wrote April’s openDemocracy article, “Too big to save: the end of financial capitalism.”