Between The Lines - Frances Moore Lappé: “Ecomind: Changing the Way We Think, To Create The World We Want” (Week Ending Oct. 23, 2015)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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New Mindset Needed to Effectively Protect Earth's Ecosystem

Posted Oct. 14, 2015

Interview with Frances Moore Lappé, author of 18 books, including the three-million copy "Diet for a Small Planet", conducted by Scott Harris

When Frances Moore Lappé wrote her first book, “Diet for a Small Planet,” in 1971, little did she know that her research would move a nation to reconsider what they ate and how modern agriculture and factory farming negatively affected world hunger and the planet’s ecosystem. The book, which sold 3 million copies, extolled the virtues of a vegetarian diet and changed the way a new generation thought about food, nutrition and health. You can trace today’s popularity of organic food, the mainstreaming of vegetarianism and healthy food marketing strategies to many of the ideas written in Lappé’s, “Diet For a Small Planet,” published more than 40 years ago.

Lappé would go on to cofound the Institute for Food and Development Policy, known as Food First, with Joseph Collins in 1975, with a mission to educate Americans about the causes of world hunger. Along with her daughter, Anna, Frances Moore Lappé founded the Small Planet Institute in 2001 to promote a concept they called “Living Democracy,” a culture in which citizens infuse the values of inclusion, fairness and mutual accountability into all dimensions of public life.

In her most recent book, “Ecomind: Changing the Way We Think, To Create The World We Want,” Lappé argues that humanity’s capacity for making the world healthier and more sustainable, is undermined by seven "thought traps" that leave us mired in fear, guilt, and despair. She proposes specific "thought leaps," as correctives to the "thought traps," turning challenges into opportunities. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Frances Moore Lappé about the ideas presented in “Ecomind” and her assessment of the movements that have organized in response to the global climate crisis.

FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ: What I'm asking us is to really look at some of the core foundational assumptions of our worldview, what I call our mental map, as regards the environment because I've learned now, that the reason that we are creating together a world that none of us as individuals would choose is because of the big ideas we hold that keep us from seeing solutions and keep us trapped. I flip what I call seven "thought traps" kind of disempowering ideas, and I turn them around on their head in a way, and say, wait a minute, is that really true? Is there another way that is more empowering, that is more ecological, that is more evidence based?

BETWEEN THE LINES: Thanks for that. If I could just read briefly the seven thought-traps that are discussed in the book: The first one is no growth is the answer. Consumer society is the problem. We've hit the limits on finite earth. We must overcome human nature to save the planet. To save our planet, we have to override humanity's natural resistance to rules. Humans have lost the connection to nature. And the seventh dire one: It's too late. It's too late to do anything, just throwing up our hands.

But you know, I was very much encouraged by the first thought trap that you talk about, which was "no growth is the answer." I've always thought that the problems in our economic system – I'm sure I share this with many of our listeners – that this constant drive and race to grow and grow and grow is a huge part of the problem of why we're destroying the planet, bull-dozing forests and burning things up and creating climate change. But you're saying that the framing it like that is possibly detrimental to fixing the problem. And I wonder if you'd just expand on that.

FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ: Yeah, because it sounds common-sensical, right, when you put it that way and how can I possibly disagree with you? And of course, on one level, it's correct. But what I'm suggesting is that it keeps us in the – I think of the non-ecological worldview of quantities, that our problem is additive, that it's too much, too much, that if we just cut back. But of course, if we really look at it deeper, we realize that it's not a quantity problem, it's more of a systems problem, it's a relational problem. And what we're currently doing now is actually more waste and destruction than it is real growth.

But what I'm really saying is that if we just focus on growth as the enemy, then we're blind to the way that our system is actually creating more waste and destruction than growth. So that's where I start in my flipping that around.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Frances Moore Lappé, right now, we have groups like 350.org and many other associated groups around the country trying to work on public consciousness raising around global warming and climate change and trying to prevent the building of the Keystone XL pipeline, and a lot of other fights around mountaintop removal coal mining, things we talk a lot about on this program. How do you think they're doing things right or doing things wrong in trying to raise consciousness, you know, get everybody on board in terms of a consensus that we have to change our policies and change our economy to a great extent to survive what is already coming in terms of these extreme weather conditions – drought, the failure of crops, everything associated with the disappearance of fresh global water and the like?

FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ: Uh, hum. Well, I certainly admire all those folks that you just mentioned. My desire, however, my emphasis,is what I want to figure out how to put all my energies forward better than I have been, is: How do we put a canopy over all that? I'm a child of the 1960s, and I loved being alive during that time, when I felt like I was part of a movement. It went way beyond what I was working on.

I was a community organizer in Philly in anti-poverty organizing in African-American neighborhoods. But I felt I was part of a women's movement, part of an ecology awakening. It was one glorious movement. Whereas, today I feel that there's isn't that sense of a canopy over us all. And I think that canopy, of hope, if you will, it's got to be that we know we're also taxing besides our special interests, our particular issue, that we're also recognizing that we've got to get money out of control of our political system to really break through and shift the whole system. And that is a bipartisan issue. More than 80 percent of us agree that corporations have too much power in our political system. And I call it the mother of all issues, and it's where we can all come together not abandoning our particular environmental or poverty or other issues, but knowing that we're really going to the root of it.

Frances Moore Lappé is author of 18 books, including the groundbreaking “Diet for a Small Planet.” Her newest book is titled, “Ecomind: Changing the Way We Think, To Create The World We Want.” Find out more about Lappé’s books, articles and projects by visiting Small Planet Institute at SmallPlanet.org.