Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Both born 100 years ago this summer, HOWARD ZINN (08/24/1922) and GEORGE McGOVERN (07/19/1922) were men of wisdom and principle who fought for their beliefs and the common good in the public square. Zinn taught at historically Black Spelman College from 1956-63 and Boston University 1964-88. An anti-Vietnam War leader, he wrote 20 books including A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. McGovern was Director of Food for Peace under President Kennedy, South Dakota Senator from 1963-1981, and Democratic presidential candidate in 1972.

Republicans have won the national vote for President only once since 1988, yet they’ve held the White House for 12 of those years and appointed 6 of 9 Supreme Court justices, who have just ruled against the majority of Americans on religion, guns, climate, and women’s rights. Here’s my new conversaiton with STEVEN HILL, author of 10 STEPS TO REPAIR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY and co-founder of FairVote about one of our gravest and most systemic problems, Minority Rule. Learn more at Fairvote.org, steven-hill.com and his frequent newsletters at democracysos.substack.com

The greatest winner in the history of team sports, BILL RUSSELL died this week at 88. Russell’s Celtics won 11 NBA championships in his 13 years. He was voted MVP 5 times by his peers, was the first Black head coach in a major US sport, and his legacy as a man of principle may be even greater than as an athlete. Here’s my 2010 conversation with ARAM GOUDSOUZIAN on his book, KING OF THE COURT: BILL RUSSELL AND THE BASKETBALL REVOLUTION. In the second half, you’ll hear my 2009 conversation with CORNEL WEST, teacher, philosopher, author, activist, and public intellectual on his memoir, BROTHER WEST. One of my favorite all-time guests. West entered Harvard College a few months after Russell’s retirement from the NBA.

Former 60s radical and longtime editor of Dissent, MICHAEL KAZIN, has written a history of the Democratic Party. Acknowledging their challenging mix of constituencies and their messaging and policy failures, he believes they are at their best – and the US is the better for it – when they articulate and deliver on what he terms “moral capitalism” - an economy and a society that works for working and middle class Americans. The high point was the New Deal era of the 1930s-1960s. Can they win elections by playing that role again? Can they do it soon enough and well enough to save democracy and deal with the major crises we face?

When the American electoral system was created, over 95% of Americans lived in rural communities. Today fewer than 20% do. The 20 senators from the 10 most populous states - home to half the US population - make up only a fifth of the US Senate. When, the solution to minority rule, exemplified by the Senate filibuster and the radical 6-3 Supreme Court, is to vote  - then finding a successful way to connect with, win over, and represent rural voters is more essential than ever. CHLOE MAXMIN, a progressive, has won two elections to the state legislature in rural Maine. In DIRT ROAD REVIVAL, she and campaign manager CANYON WOODWARD share their approach to reversing the slide of rural voters to the GOP.

When the news is fast, furious, and stressful - radically destructive Supreme Court rulings, mass murders, Omicron variants, Russia’s war on Ukraine, inflation, climate crisis, etc. -  here’s my 2005 conversation with JON KABAT ZINN, best-selling author of WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE about his book, COMING TO OUR SENSES: HEALING OURSELVES AND THE WORLD THROUGH MINDFULNESS. Kabat-Zinn is as responsible as anyone for mindfulness going mainstream. Over 200 medical centers and clinics nationwide and abroad now use his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

1973 looms large as we live out the 50th anniversary of the Watergate Hearings and Roe v Wade. Let’s look at the fears and forces in response to ‘60s changes that fueled the long Christo-Authoritarian march to a Supreme Court forcing minority rule on America. In my recent conversation with KEVIN BOYLE about his book THE SHATTERING: America in the ‘60s, he reminds us how generations who’d lived through the Depression and WW II, facing an enemy with nuclear weapons, would cling to a newly found and highly valued sense of security - and how the the challenges and changes of the 60s threatened that security. 

As we witness Russia's targeting of civilians in Ukraine, here’s my 2019 conversation with directors Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts of the Oscar-nominated documentary, For Sama, and with Dr. Hamza al-Kateab, who ran the last hospital in East Aleppo. The film takes us inside the long siege by al Assad and the Russians. In the course of the film, Waad al-Kateab falls in love, marries, and has a baby - all as bombs fall around them. You can learn more and watch this remarkable film at forsamafilm.com  

Five weeks ago my wife suffered a stroke. She’s fine physically, but has language challenges and some processing issues. She improves every day and our connection is stronger than ever. Daily life is punctuated by moments of joy and others of crushing frustration. I share with you my recent conversation with JILL BOLTE TAYLOR, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, who in 1996 at the age of 37, experienced a stroke that left her unable to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. It took Taylor 8 years to recover all physical, emotional, and thinking abilities. She’s author of the bestselling MY STROKE OF INSIGHT: A BRAIN SCIENTIST’S PERSONAL JOURNEY and her TED talk of the same name has been viewed 27 million times. 

Here’s part 2 my 2013 conversation with HAZEL HENDERSON – who as a mom in the 70’s who’d never been to college got upset about pollution threatening her young child, became a local NYC activist, and developed into a global expert on economics and sustainability. She’s creator of the television show and website Ethical Markets, and author of 10 books, including Beyond Globalization and Building a Win-Win World. Hazel passed away May 22 at the age of 89.