Category Archives: Radio Show

A casual material history of the United States from Bill, Rachel, and guests. Recorded twice weekly in Newton, Massachusetts.

Aug 19, 2015 – Ep. 139: Interview with Amb. Nicholas Burns

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Posted by Bill on behalf of the team.

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Topics: Guest expert Ambassador Nicholas Burns on the Iran nuclear deal. And: Discussion of the Republican debate and Planned Parenthood. Hosts: Bill, Kelley, Nate. Produced: August 14th and 16th, 2015.

Discussion Points:

– The details and benefits of the Iran deal from Ambassador Nicholas Burns, former lead U.S. negotiator
– Nate, Kelley, and Bill discuss the first Republican debate and the Trump phenomenon
– Kelley explains the latest opposition to Planned Parenthood

Episode 139 (56 min):
AFD 139

Guest Bio: Nicholas Burns

Ambassador Burns is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair for the Programs on the Middle East and on India and South Asia. The Diplomacy Project focuses Harvard’s students, fellows and faculty on the importance of diplomacy in the 21st century global environment. He is also a member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, and Senior Counselor at the Cohen Group.

As a career Foreign Service Officer, he was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008; the State Department’s third-ranking official when he led negotiations on the U.S.–India Civil Nuclear Agreement; and was the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran’s nuclear program. He has also served as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Greece and State Department Spokesman.

Related Links for Segments 2 and 3

– CBS News: Trump on Iraq and Jeb Bush
– Business Insider: “Jeb Bush: ‘Taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal'”
– AFD: “The surge is a lie. A really dangerous lie.”
– AFD: “When The Party’s Over: The 1820s in US Politics”
– Washington Post: “Ben Carson’s tortured defense of his fetal tissue research”
– Washington Post: “How Planned Parenthood actually uses its federal funding”

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And don’t forget to check out The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal, the video blog of our announcer, Justin.

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August 12, 2015 – Arsenal For Democracy 138

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Posted by Bill on behalf of the team.

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Topics: Key news stories from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran (and how it all relates to or affects U.S. policy in the region). People: Bill, Kelley, Nate. Produced: August 10th, 2015.

Discussion Points:

– Syria: The U.S. bombs fictional terror groups and Turkey bombs the Kurds.
– Iraq: On air conditioners and nation-building.
– Yemen: Saudi Arabia’s war and a horrific humanitarian crisis.
– Iran: Will the Iran Deal survive Congress? Will it change US-Israeli relations?

Episode 138 (56 min):
AFD 138

Related Links

– AFD: Syria Archives
– AFD: Iraq’s air conditioner uprising
– AFD: Yemen War Archives
– AFD: Iran Archives

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And don’t forget to check out The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal, the video blog of our announcer, Justin.

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August 5, 2015 – Arsenal For Democracy 137

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Posted by Bill on behalf of the team.

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Topics: Presidential megadonors; Medicare turns 50; Nigeria asks US to close banking loopholes. People: Bill, Kelley. Produced: August 2nd, 2015.

Discussion Points:

– Presidential megadonors: Like ridiculously expensive racetrack betting and equally pointless.
– Medicare just turned 50: Are Democrats pushing Big Ideas in public policy these days?
– Nigeria’s new president argues closing corruption loopholes in the West is more helpful than loans.

Episode 137 (51 min):
AFD 137

Related Links

– NYT: Million-Dollar Donors in the 2016 Presidential Race
– The Hill: President: ObamaCare finishes job started by Medicare, Medicaid
– NASI: Medicare’s Efforts to Reduce Disparities
– AFD: Buhari: Anti-corruption help better than foreign aid, for Nigeria

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July 29, 2015 – Arsenal For Democracy 136

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Posted by Bill on behalf of the team.

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Topics: Nicki Minaj, Sandra Bland, Misogynoir; No Child Left Behind, Illegal Immigration, Prison Reform. People: Bill, Kelley, De Ana, and Guest Maria. Produced: July 26th, 2015.

Discussion Points:

– Why it’s ok to talk about both Nicki Minaj and Sandra Bland in the same week (and how the two stories relate to each other).
– What Pres. Obama is doing on prison reform. Can Congress find a compromise on No Child Left Behind? Texas isn’t handling illegal immigration very well.

Episode 136 (52 min):
AFD 136

Related Links

– AFD: De Ana: Policing Black Women’s Emotions and Opinions
– AFD: Maria: What Happened to Sandra Bland?
– AFD: Bill: Utah’s Homicide by Police Epidemic
– AFD: Kelley: President Obama stands up for second chances
– AFD: Kelley: 8 years late, Congress ready to revisit No Child Left Behind
– AFD: Kelley: 3 Dem Senators say NCLB reforms don’t go far enough
– AFD: Kelley: Texas abandons the 14th Amendment
– AFD: Kelley: Mass graves of immigrants in Texas elicit little response

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July 22, 2015 – Arsenal For Democracy 135

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Posted by Bill on behalf of the team.

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Topics: Wages in America; Iran nuclear deal. People: Bill, Kelley, Nate, and Greg. Produced: July 20th, 2015.

Discussion Points:

– A unified econo-moral argument for the necessity of dramatically higher U.S. wages tied to productivity gains.
– Why the Iran deal is a good one (and why Iran’s nuclear program is not our biggest concern in the region).

Episode 135 (55 min):
AFD 135

Related Links

– The Globalist: “Americans Need Better Pay Before Longer Hours”
– Mic: “How Many Hours You Need to Work Minimum Wage to Rent an Apartment in Any State”
– Clinton Campaign on Twitter: “Hillary called on companies to share profits with workers…”
– LA Times: “Who gave up what in the Iran nuclear deal”
– New York Times: “Congress to Start Review of Iran Nuclear Deal”
– Haaretz: “Lapid: Knesset must investigate Netanyahu’s failure to thwart Iran deal”

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And don’t forget to check out The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal, the video blog of our announcer, Justin.

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July 15, 2015 – Arsenal For Democracy 134

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Posted by Bill on behalf of the team.

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Topics: Supreme Court rulings on marriage equality and Obamacare, order on Texas abortion clinics law; Puerto Rico and Greece debt crises. People: Bill, Kelley, and Nate. Produced: July 13th, 2015.

Discussion Points:

– U.S. Supreme Court: What are the implications of major rulings and orders on marriage equality, Obamacare, and reproductive freedom?
– Debt Crises: What’s next for Puerto Rico and Greece?

Episode 134 (47 min):
AFD 134

Related Links

– AFD by Kelley: “The Supreme Court Order You May Have Missed”
– AFD by Bill: “Marriage Equality Day”
– AFD by Bill: “A Sinking Feeling in Puerto Rico”
– AFD Posts about Greece

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iTunes Store Link: “Arsenal for Democracy by Bill Humphrey”

And don’t forget to check out The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal, the video blog of our announcer, Justin.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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No episode this week, but some site news

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We took a break this week from recording to enjoy the holiday, but also to start introducing some changes at Arsenal For Democracy. Regular and occasional readers and listeners alike are no doubt aware that our coverage has skewed increasingly heavily toward stories outside the United States. That’s partly a result of my own interests, but it’s also because I’ve been a bit short-staffed on both the site and the radio show for some time now, and only Nate and I have regularly been in Massachusetts together.

Fortunately, if you heard last week’s episode then you know that our former regular co-host (and fellow University of Delaware alum) Kelley has returned from the Peace Corps to Massachusetts. She plans not only to re-join the show as a regular (i.e. weekly) co-host with me for WVUD, but also to join the site as a writer about five days a week, for at least the rest of the summer, beginning this week.

Kelley will be focusing on a range of topics, including — but certainly not limited to — U.S. policy and public health issues. These are important to me, but I feel they will be better handled and more regularly covered coming from her on a regular basis than from me every now and then.

Her bio, along with everyone else’s, is available on our About Us page. You can read her articles and hear her episodes here.

I’m very excited to have her not just back on board, but also playing a much bigger role than before. I think we’ll be able to grow the site and the radio show toward our core mission with two of us working on it all week, in addition to the weekly and occasional contributions from everyone else on the team.