A World of Possibilities

The Promise and Perils of Nanotechnology

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:00:00 PST

Today, nano particles are in our food, cosmetics, and hundreds of other items. And this is just the beginning of what is projected to be a $1 trillion nanotech industry within a decade. Yet its presence and perils are only on the radar screens of a handful of environmental activists. To date, the U.S. has established no regulations on the development or proliferation of nano particles -- and the European Union is just starting to examine the issue.This hour we’ll hear from four experts who will spell it out for us, starting with the one question on all of our minds: What is Nano-technology?

Fractivists: Slowing the Gas Rush

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:00:00 PST

In the past few years, natural gas fracking has become a near-household word as landowners in the path of drilling have mounted efforts to slow its rapid pace of development in the U.S. and worldwide. We continue our coverage of this crucial issue with a program about citizen efforts across partisan lines to raise questions about the downsides of fracking and promote what they consider to be cleaner, greener alternatives.

Ruin and Resilience in Northern Uganda

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:00:00 PST

War has shaped the lives of people in northern Uganda for the past two decades. Impunity for widespread crimes and grave violations committed during the war is pervasive, and there has been very little victim/community input into top-down plans to implement justice and accountability. Yet sustained peace depends on recreating communal solidarity, building advocacy networks, giving rape survivors, ex-child soldiers and orphans a voice and enabling them to be agents of recovery. For the last few years, researchers with the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University have been documenting what war-affected communities are doing themselves to acknowledge the violations and move forward as a community --using photography, story-telling, chanting, dancing, songs, theatre, and writing. What do communities themselves do to rebuild their lives? These communities have much to teach us about accountability, remedy, and addressing the effects of grave violations that for many will play out over a lifetime. We’ll hear from those who have been actively involved in helping communities heal from decades of mass atrocities in northern Uganda.

911 + Ten: From Unity to Enmity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 13 Sept 2011 08:00:00 PST

Journalist Laurie Garrett was there, in the streets with her notepad and her camera just minutes after the World Trade Center came under attack on September 11th, 2001. She’s written a new book -- a ten-year effort -- called I Heard The Siren's Scream. This hour she’ll share with us her recollections of the 911 attack and what it meant for New Yorkers and for all of us...how it still shapes our relationships to each other as Americans.

Conversations With the Earth

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:00:00 PST

Global climate change is here. And only now, as our nation is ravaged by hurricanes, floods and droughts, is this new reality becoming all too obvious. But indigenous people in isolated communities around the world have been sounding the alarm for decades. This week we’ll meet indigenous messengers from Alaska and Peru who say it’s not too late to use traditional knowledge to reconnect with Mother Earth. And we’ll learn about a powerful new exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian launched to amplify their message to the world.

Healing Arts, Healing Hearts: Lily Yeh in China

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — 16 Aug 2011 08:00:00 PST

At a time of increasing turmoil and despair, artist Lily Yeh takes her work out of the white-walled galleries of high culture and into the streets and hearts of those most traumatized and marginalized by modern life. In this, our second visit with Lily, she describes her most recent work with the children of migrant families at the Dandelion School in Beijing.

Cooling Our Jets: Reversing the Climate Meltdown

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — 02 Aug 2011 08:00:00 PST

The science of man-made global climate change is irrefutable. New heat records, drought worse than the Dust Bowl, epic floods, hurricanes and tsunamis: the signs of ecological collapse are everywhere. Yet politicians financed by climate change deniers continue to delay action, fearing its effect on bottom-line profits. What, then, can we do to reverse course without wrecking our economies? Today we’ll speak with two eminent scientists, a conservation biologist and an environmental engineer, engaged in projects that could help us avert global climate collapse.

Bot, will you be my friend?

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — 14 June 2011 08:00:00 PST

Is your best friend a bot or a Facebook pal? How much time do you spend in online interaction with digital beings and how much face-to-face with real ones? MIT professor Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together, poses penetrating questions about the dangers of embracing our human inventions as if they were themselves human. Why do we turn to the simulation of intimacy in place of the stimulation of real contact? Are we afraid of the complications of real relationships, the melodramas of misunderstanding, the heartbreaks and infidelities? In this program we probe the migration of human affections from people to machines and the trade-offs that entails.

Two Grains of Sand

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — 07 June 2011 12:20:00 PST

The crunch is on. Nature and humanity are both running off the rails and governments stand seemingly helpless before the juggernaut. But all is not lost. Into the breach are stepping new players, inventing strategies to transform the way we do things on many levels at once. And they’re forging surprising alliances in the process. In this program we’ll hear about two initiatives that seek to move the needle on issues of increasing urgency, one by influencing governmental policies on climate change, the other by changing corporate practices in the global tea industry.

Crosswinds: A Community Wind Farm Divides an Island

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — 17 May 2011 08:00:00 PST

When residents of an isolated island off the coast of Maine found their utility bills rising to three times what mainlanders paid, their local energy cooperative turned to wind as a clean and affordable energy alternative. It seemed like the perfect solution, but residents now find themselves bitterly divided over noise. Wind advocates are asking what needs to be done to deal with the downsides of what has long been viewed as a benign source of renewable energy.

Vanishing and Re-emerging: Reviving Biological and Cultural Diversity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — 03 May 2011 08:00:00 PST

Around the world, languages, cultures and ecosystems are disappearing at an alarming rate, erasing richness vital to our survival. Based on interviews conducted at a major international conference on biocultural diversity held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in April 2008, this program examines how diversity is also re-emerging even as the old ways are dying.

Hong Kong, China's Green Gateway?

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:00:00 PST

Hong Kong has always been a world unto itself. But today it's a city uncertain of its identity. As mainland China surges to the front rank of the global economy, its vast industrial base has upstaged Hong Kong. Many civic leaders are now asking what's left for Hong Kong to do that makes use of its unique gifts and strengths. In this program we hear two civic leaders share their far-reaching visions of how a densely industrialized capital of high finance could become a model for urban green revitalization.

Full Circle Innovation

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:00:00 PST

In its breakneck pursuit of modernization, China has given nature a back seat to its turbo-charged industrial development. Now, with drought, desertification, and extreme pollution, China's leaders are beginning to realize that better treatment of its natural capital is vital to the country's survival. Today we'll speak with a leading Chinese landscape architect who is redefining the relationship between humans and nature with an ingenuity that sets a new standard for innovation itself and with a long-time observer of the country who places China's "green rush" in historic perspective.

Take Me For A Ride In Your E-Car!

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:00:00 PST

These days we think of electric vehicles as futuristic inventions, coming our way just a little before commercial flights to the moon. But actually, they preceded the infernal combustion engine by more than half a century. Now, as we choke on the exhaust, we turn once more to electricity. Only this time, the momentum is building not in Detroit but in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and California.

Better Together? Chinese Innovators on Green Tech Partnerships

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:00:00 PST

Like "Made in Japan" a generation ago, the "Made in China" label has long been viewed by Americans as a low-cost, low quality knock-off of a costly original designed and manufactured in more advanced nations. But these days China is transforming itself from the world's factory into the world's laboratory. That's creating vast new opportunities for green innovation. Two leading Chinese entrepreneurial innovators in renewable energy ask why the nation that pioneered many such technologies is now so slow to respond to the vast green opportunities emerging in the next economy.

China's Great Green Wager

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:00:00 PST

China today is the most polluted nation on earth. But it's also on its way to becoming the most environmentally advanced. And it's no coincidence. Long seen as the Great Replicator, China is now becoming the Great Innovator in all things environmental. Join us as we explore how the world's most populous nation is betting that the next economy will not be gray but green.

The Gas Rush

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:00:00 PST

Host Mark Sommer continues his journey across the communities lying above the Marcellus Shale Play, a gigantic natural gas deposit stretching under the Northeast United States. In this program we hear the conflicting ideas and conflicted emotions of those living and working in the Southern Tier of New York State, where gas "fracking" is proposed but not yet underway.

Slow Money: Reducing Velocity, Increasing Value

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:00:00 PST

Each day, billions of shares flash through stock markets worldwide. Fortunes are made and lost at the flick of a keystroke, wreaking havoc on millions of people far from the trading floor. Meanwhile, both value and values are wantonly destroyed. Today we'll hear from two pioneering economists, one of them a Nobel Prize winner, who seek to slow the pace of business in order to reclaim value and values.

Gross National Happiness: From Private Wealth to Public Well-Being

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:00:00 PST

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This most famous phrase from the U.S. Declaration of Independence places happiness at the front and center of the role of government. Today we'll hear from the Minister of Happiness in the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan, where Gross National Happiness, rather than Gross National Product, is the preferred measure used to guide national policy. We also hear from a Seattle city councilman who's been inspired by Bhutan's example to propose similar indices to shape policies for his prosperous high-tech hometown.

Fractured Bedrock, Fractured Communities

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:00:00 PST

Nine thousand feet beneath the surface of several Northeastern states lie vast deposits of shale impregnated with natural gas. The Marcellus Shale play, as it is called, is being touted by energy analysts as one of the largest in the world. For a chronically hard-pressed region in a season of recession, the promise of mailbox money just for signing a simple lease to subsurface rights is almost irresistible. Almost, that is, until they've signed and discover the implications of their decision. In this program recorded on site in northeastern Pennsylvania, we follow the Marcellus Shale trail and find the fracturing of the bedrock under this gas-rich region mirrored by the fracturing of communities divided by the the benefits and blights that it brings.

Food and Forests: Reviving Diversity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:00:00 PST

As we seek ways to make both our economies and food supplies more sustainable, we would do well to look at what worked for hundreds of years before modern technology gave us both greater productivity and greater vulnerability. In this program we visit with specialists from around the world who are combining the newest techniques of sustainable agriculture with ancient practices of subsistence forest farming to create food production systems robust enough to weather the unpredictable extremes of climate change.

Transforming Misfortune

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:00:00 PST

It's clear now that the economic collapse of 2008, the second "September shock" after 2001, will have a more enduring impact than most of us once supposed. Today we'll meet two individuals who've pursued and long advocated ways of life based not on lifestyles of the rich and famous but on our enduring capacities for creativity, imagination and love. And, they've traced how what we choose to do as individuals can reshape the nature of the larger world.

Toxic Legacy: Healing from Agent Orange

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:00:00 PST

Thirty-five years ago the war in Vietnam came to an abrupt end, yet for millions of Vietnamese soldiers and citizens and for thousands of American veterans and their descendants, a legacy of diseases, disabilities, and unexplained symptoms echo down the decades. During the war, some 4.5 million Vietnamese were exposed to highly toxic dioxins sprayed by the American military. Today we'll hear from a range of individuals from varied sectors and backgrounds who've gathered together in support of a ten-year plan of action to clean up toxic hotspots in Vietnam and expand humanitarian services to people with disabilities as a result of exposure to Agent Orange dioxins.

Back to the Garden: Cacao's Role in Reviving Biodiversity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:00:00 PST

Species of both plants and animals are dying out at unprecedented rates. Overpopulation, industrialization, and mono-cropping are stressing the world's food supply. Now radical shifts in climate change could conceivably trigger ecological and economic collapse. Today we'll hear from specialists worldwide in the new science of agro-biodiversity who are combining the best of both ancient and organic agriculture and using cacao's charismatic attraction to inspire the replanting of tropical rainforests, stabilize the climate, raise incomes for farmers, and improve human health.

Life in Slo Mo

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:00:00 PST

In a global culture dominated by the impatience of youth, counted in nanoseconds and fueled by "just-in-time" supply chains, everything needs to be done "yesterday" since today is no longer soon enough. Today we'll hear from two individuals who've slowed their pace even as they've quickened their creativity and deepened their appreciation for those things that speeding causes us to miss.

Growing Pains: Organics Come of Age

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:00:00 PST

Organic agriculture has grown up. A once-marginal movement of plucky and slightly eccentric home gardeners has bloomed into mega-farms that ship around the world selling at premium prices. In this program we'll examine both ends of the organic industry food chain -- a mid-size organic farming family and the world's largest organic food retailer. We'll see what growing mainstream has done for - and to -- organic farmers, and what remains to be done to give farmers and consumers the sustainable food system we urgently need.

Saving Sacred Lands

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:00:00 PST

Our failure to protect and respect innately sacred natural places is a direct reflection of our loss of connection to the land and water that sustain us - and a harbinger of self-destruction. These sacred places are sometimes known only to their ancestral guardians and the peoples that have long revered them. Others are those special places in our own neighborhoods where we go for solace, reflection and refreshment. Today we'll travel to remote regions of the planet where indigenous peoples safeguard the wellsprings of their - and our - well-being.

Blowin' the Blues Away: The Healing Power of Music

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:00:00 PST

Today we explore the remarkable power of soulful music to transform sorrow into solace and sadness into joy, not just for the singer but for the listener as well. We'll hear from two remarkable musician/songwriters who grew up in challenging circumstances and found music to be the life raft in stormy weather and the vessel to calmer waters. Whether you play an instrument, dance, or simply listen, explore with us the healing power of music.

Hearts Broken Open

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:00:00 PST

Most of us take life for granted. But what happens when we're forced to think hard about whether we want to live? Suicide and the impulse to attempt it are a great unacknowledged epidemic in public health today. It not only scars those who try it, but all those who care about them, often for life. This is the story of Steve Fugate, a self-described ordinary guy who found himself thrust into the crucible of suicide at close hand and chose to express his grief and redemption in a most unusual way: walking nearly 22,000 miles across America while carrying a sign over his head saying, simply, "Love Life."

Building Cathedrals: The Slow Work of Social Transformation

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:00:00 PST

When Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008, both supporters and critics saw it as a watershed in political and social transformation. But a year later, a seemingly unstoppable tide appears to have reversed and surged in the opposite direction. Many progressives feel frustrated, even betrayed by policies that seem only marginally different from those that came before while conservatives have found new energy in strategic obstruction and militant resistance. Over the years, in the United States and around the world, the ebb and flow of politics, revolution and reaction has broken more than a few hearts set on human progress. But social activists who have committed their lifetimes to the task say one needs to take the long view, looking not at the tumultuous and often cyclical dynamics of partisan politics but at deeper currents of change that stir from below. Some liken it to the labor of building a cathedral, a task that sometimes took six hundred years and engaged the lifetimes of thirty successive generations. This week we hear from a chronicler of social activism and a legendary social activist who provide a different time sense for those impatient souls hoping for rapid yet profound social transformation.

International Trade: Free, Fixed, or Fair

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:00:00 PST

In the view of its proponents, free trade as promoted by the United States and other leading industrial powers is the swiftest and surest route to global economic development. But in from the perspective of many in the developing world, it is the most effective means of extracting natural resources, exploiting low-wage labor, and producing goods from the world's poor at the lowest cost while keeping the value added for those who already have more than enough. In response to these critiques, a market-based fair trade movement has sprung up in recent years from international development aid, social, religious and environmental organizations seeking to establish a more level playing field for international commerce. Focusing initially on such products as handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate and flowers, certified fair trade accounted for $4 billion in 2008. Though still a tiny fraction of global trade, in some commodities it represents 20-50% of the total volume. Criticized from the right as a subsidy that constrains free trade and from the left as too timid a response to the inherent inequities of the global trading system, fair trade is still in its infancy but growing by more than 20% a year. In this program we hear about the challenges of growing the movement from the founder of a leading fair trade certification organization and a farmer whose products are fair trade-certified.

From Victims to Victors: Transcending Tragedy

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:00:00 PST

Why is it that while many of us are discouraged and some devastated by life's losses, a rare few not only survive but thrive in their wake - transcending tragedy, growing not despite but through it. We've all known such people -- a cancer survivor, someone who's lost loved ones, maybe someone who experienced war, incarceration or abuse and somehow came out of it finding life all the sweeter for being so fragile and fleeting. Such individuals don't simply endure; they transform. And through this transformation, they gain a new appreciation for life. In this program, part of our LoveLife series, we meet three remarkable individuals and communities: a female minister in Zambia who lost nearly every member of her family to AIDS, then broke the taboo of silence by revealing to her congregation that she too was HIV positive; a fourteen-year-old student abducted with scores of classmates in Northern Uganda and held captive in Sudan for eight years before freeing herself when powerful people had tried and failed; and a mother in Colombia who lost nine members of her immediate family to the army, paramilitary forces, and guerrillas before dedicating her life to helping other grief-stricken mothers find purpose and meaning again. Each of these women has found a way not just to survive but to turn her misfortune into renewed strength and a gift to the larger world. In an age of widespread skepticism about human possibilities, it's heartening to hear from those who, despite losses often far greater than our own, have found ways to embrace life and convey that inner joy to others.

Heavy Weather

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:00:00 PST

In this special edition of A World of Possibilities, we present a documentary by Portland independent radio producer Barbara Bernstein. Heavy Weather explores the connections between increasing extreme weather and our changing climate and landscapes. For a hundred years people have transformed the landscape to suit their needs. At the same time we've pumped enough greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere to transform the climate, forcing us now to rethink the shape and placement of our built environments. As the climate changes due to global warming, the burden of past decisions rests on our shoulders. Heavy Weather looks at what kinds of choices we can make to lighten that burden for future generations.

Winning The Peace: From West Point to War Zones

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:00:00 PST

For years, lieutenants in the U.S. armed forces have been leading tasks with strategic influence in some of the most challenging environments imaginable. Assisted by a multitude of organizations and countries, junior officers are expected to help resettle displaced populations, restart economies, form local governing councils, lead town hall meetings, rebuild schools, train local security forces, and rebuild the basic physical and societal infrastructure. While the U.S. armed forces are technologically superior and professional, this does not necessarily translate into success in stability, security, transition, reconstruction (SSTR) or peace operations. The Winning the Peace course aims to fill that gap by creating strategically minded soldier statesmen for the United States Army at the Company Grade level and beyond. In this program we follow West Point cadets who have taken the "Winning the Peace" program at the U.S. Military Academy to their classroom peacebuilding studies into challenging American inner city environments and still more conflicted circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan to see what they've learned by putting theory into practice.

Forgiving the Unforgivable: Community Reconciliation in Sierra Leone

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:00:00 PST

Civil wars in Africa, Asia, and Southern Europe have left long-festering wounds in communities where victims and perpetrators continue to live side by side with little acknowledgment of crimes committed and no means of achieving reconciliation. But in some places, innovative programs have been created to achieve closure. They blend traditional rituals with 21st century conflict resolution techniques and have achieved remarkable results. This program profiles reconciliation initiatives in war-ravaged societies. Fambul Tok, a community reconciliation program in Sierra Leone, is especially inspiring. The program will feature leaders in organizations that are orchestrating these initiatives and the principal figures in these heartbreaking and heartening stories.

Climate Collision: What Comes After Copenhagen?

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:00:00 PST

The Copenhagen climate summit saw fierce jockeying for advantage among the great powers but few tangible results. Smaller nations and indigenous peoples were left out in the cold. Yet for them it's not a matter of power politics. They face the power of nature thrown out of balance by heedless human activity. Seas and temperatures continue to rise, disrupting their ancestral livelihoods. In this program, native peoples from the Arctic and the Amazon to Pacific islands under siege by rising waters testify to what's happening to them and will likely happen to many others in the decades ahead. Their responses to these changes offer much-needed guidance about how to develop the resilience and inventiveness that are essential to our long-term survival. We also hear from climate activists, including well-known representatives of indigenous peoples, about what can be done to build momentum for essential transformation outside the UN process in the wake of stalled international negotiations.

Victims No More: Seeking the Middle Way in the Middle East

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:00:00 PST

The Middle East is the ground zero of human conflict. Here the competing claims of three of the world's great religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - collide in an unforgiving landscape, a triple junction of tragedy and trouble. Yet it hasn't always been so, and need not be so forever. Against all odds, peace came to Northern Ireland and apartheid was dismantled in South Africa. Nirvana didn't follow, but these were still impressive accomplishments. What would it take to unravel this Gordian knot? Can Barack Obama succeed in re-starting a process that has defeated so many other peacemakers? This program features candid conversations with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, independent analysts and professional mediators, all intent on finding ways to make the Holy Land whole again.

Beauty In Broken Places: The Healing Arts of Lily Yeh

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:00:00 PST

Lily Yeh is a remarkable woman who has found a way to love life that is both ingenious and inspirational. As an artist, she has taken her work altogether out of the studio and into the streets. Not just any streets, but the mean streets of inner city Philadelphia, where vacant lots riddle a ruined landscape.

Designing With Nature

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:00:00 PST

Fasten your seatbelts. Now put on your thinking caps; you'll need them. And while you're at it, tie on those wings of unfettered imagination. We're about to enter a different kind of twilight zone. This is not your biochem class nor a biotech lab. This is biomimcry, an emerging art and science of a very different kind that uses the evolutionary genius of nature to inspire new approaches to some of our most vexing problems. Today on A World of Possibilities, "Designing with Nature." We'll explore how green design is being applied to environmental challenges ranging from toxic carpets to contaminated wastewater. What are the possibilities and constraints in appling these principles more broadly to help clean up both what we use and how it's made?

Poultry: Pure and Simple

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:00:00 PST

Today on A World of Possibilities, "Poultry Pure and Simple." We'll hear from turkeys, chickens and the farmers who raise them --as their grandparents did-- free-range and free of antibiotics, growth hormones and other additives. We'll also hear from a supplier of sustainably raised meat --- and the founder of a fast food chain that serves only the real deal and finds many customers ready to pay a premium to taste the difference.

Riding the Tiger: Asia Ascending

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:00:00 PST

China, India, Southeast Asia: Asia's high-octane economies, though impacted by the global recession, are on a long-term trajectory to expand their influence. Their energy and determination are challenging the economic supremacy of the United States not only in the region but wherever key natural resources are in play. China alone holds the commanding share of U.S. debt in a complex relationship that yokes the two economic titans together in a tense, unpredictable partnership. President Obama says the U.S.-Chinese dynamic is "as important as any bilateral relationship in the world." Is it a zero sum game where either they or "we" prevail or can it be reframed as a quest for shared prosperity? Protectionism and xenophobia threaten to derail the relationship to the detriment of both. How can American foreign and economic policies avoid such mutually destructive outcomes and instead encourage a healthier mix of competition and cooperation?

Tightrope in Teheran: Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Option

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:00:00 PST

A disputed election, street demonstrations, open dissent from founding fathers of the Islamic Republic, brutal repression, revelations of a nuclear enrichment plant. Events that would have seemed unthinkable just months ago are now daily news. When candidate Barack Obama pledged to open unconditional negotiations with Iran, he could hardly have imagined they would take place in such a minefield. Located in one of the world's most volatile regions, Iran is bordered by Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. It's also an oil superpower and a key player in regional and now global politics. Nuclear negotiations with Iran must take into account relations with Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the European Union. No one said this would be easy. But is it even possible? With hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-installed as president of the Islamic Republic, what options, if any, remain for the U.S. to move forward with Iran? We'll hear from both Iranian and American analysts about the possibilities and perils of nuclear negotiations.

Starting Out Right: Upgrading Early Childhood Education

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:00:00 PST

We're just now finding out that the first few years of life do much to determine how the rest of it unfolds. That's a scary thought. For those who enjoy the good fortune of being born into affluence, no effort is spared to provide them with the advantages of high-priced childcare, private tutors, and diverse opportunities. But for a great many less advantaged kids and their struggling parents, the options are far more limited. They face a gauntlet of hurdles with few resources to overcome them. Failing early, they come to believe success is not even possible. They, and we, all suffer the consequences. Today on A World of Possibilities, "Starting Out Right: Upgrading Early Childhood Education." We'll hear from program directors and parents about innovative initiatives that extend early support to children who, through no fault of their own, might otherwise fail to adapt to the challenges of school. And in so doing, they help ensure their prospects for success; not just in education but in life itself.

Detox! The Movement to Reform Chemicals Policy

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:00:00 PST

It's not a very comfortable thought: We live, eat, and breathe in a complex brew of industrial chemicals, some eighty thousand of them. And all but a handful have never been tested to find out it they're safe. At the same time, all kinds of diseases and disabilities, ranging from autism to asthma, are on the rise. What, if any, connection might there be between chemical exposure and eventual disease or disability? We really don't know. The laws that regulate the use of chemicals in consumer products and the environment were passed thirty years ago and remain unchanged. They're nicknamed ToSCA, short for the Toxic Substances Control Act. Passed in 1976, even at the time the legislation was viewed by many as inadequate to regulate a rapidly evolving industry. Today on A World of Possibilities, we'll look into that cauldron to find out more about the chemicals we're ingesting and what we know, and don't yet know, about what they're doing to us.

Nuturing Creativity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:00:00 PST

It's often said that to be employable in a 21st century economy we'll all need to be wired to our computers and one another. Maybe so, but we'd still be missing the qualities of mind and heart that enable us to understand the world and get along with one another. In an information glutted culture, how do we cultivate empathy, ingenuity, and resilience?

Bombs Away

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:00:00 PST

The cold war's been over for nearly twenty years, but the U.S. and Russia still aim thousands of nuclear tipped missiles at each other, ready to fire at a moments notice. Meanwhile, economies collapse, the climate cooks, militants terrorize, and none of these threats can be deterred by nuclear bombs. So why do we keep maintaining them, and at what cost?

Bad Medicine: Overusing Antibiotics in Meat Production

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:00:00 PST

What part do we consumers play in driving the priorities of an industrial meat production system that puts cheap meat on our plates, but at rising costs to human health, animal welfare, and environmental integrity? Farmers have turned to feeding antibiotics to their animals to prevent outbreaks, but are they unwittingly selecting for the most virulent superbugs, while putting humans at risk?

Wasting Away

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:00:00 PST

On both land and sea, human activities are inflicting damage on a scale that may well be irreversible. Our future is imperiled by the heedless pursuit of energy and development to feed a civilization that has still to learn to conserve as well as consume. Two winners of the prestigious TED Prize examine our impacts and urge us to embrace a conservation ethic to return vitality and diversity.

Game-Changing Innovation

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:00:00 PST

The U.S. designs nifty iPhones and deadly weapons, but in measures that really matter, like education and green tech, we're being upstaged by other nations. In recent years, we have been systematically dis-investing in our collective capacity for innovation. Why is the engine of American ingenuity running off the rails, and what needs to be done to get us back on track?

Of Pigs and People

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:00:00 PST

The indiscriminate use of antimicrobials in large-scale industrial meat production is building bacterial resistance to the most effective antibiotics on which our national and global health systems depend. Recorded largely on location on Midwestern hog and poultry farms, this program features interviews with farmers and others who are raising hogs by healthier and more humane ways.

Two Grains of Sand

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:00:00 PST

Nature and Humanity are running off the rails and governments stand seemingly helpless before the juggernaut. Into the breach are stepping new players, inventing strategies to transform the way we do things, and they are forging surprising alliances in the process. Two initiatives are seeking to move the needle on urgent issues: one on climate change, the other on the global tea industry.

Crowd-Sourcing Innovation

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:00:00 PST

There have always been brilliant innovators working outside established institutions. With the emergence of open systems of innovation made possible by the Internet, now a far wider range of individuals, teams and institutions can participate in the problem-solving process. Not only for technical challenges, but for those thorny social problems which have eluded the best minds of our time.

The Miner's Canary: First Peoples' on Climate Change

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 PST

Indigenous peoples, living closest to nature, feel the threat of climate change first. They have a potent message to deliver to the climate treaty negotiators meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009. The climate is changing the way they've lived forever, so they're adapting in order to endure. Do the rest of us have the wisdom and ingenuity to change along with the changing climate?

Sick and Tired: The Movement for Paid Sick Days

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:00:00 PST

The first advice given in response to any health emergency such as SARS, swine flu, etc., is to stay home if you feel yourself getting sick. But half of all working Americans can't afford to miss work. Most work in low wage jobs where close interaction with others is constant and unavoidable. 127 countries provide at least a week of paid sick days a year - but not the United States.

Open Source Science

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:00:00 PST

The outbreak of potential pandemics has driven home the urgent need for more rapid responses to public health threats. In order to respond more effectively, we need to create a more open system for the exchange of vital health information. Medical and scientific research pioneers are laying the foundation for a global health commons to accelerate the pace and effectiveness of crucial discoveries.

Peace, Justice - or Both

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:00:00 PST

Peace or Justice? That question takes on an anguished poignancy these days in war ravaged societies from Bosnia to Sierra Leone. Peace negotiators and human rights advocates struggle to end the bloodshed and obtain justice for the victims. How does this work in societies whose weak and often corrupt legal structures have been decimated by war?

Building an Innovation Ecosystem

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:00:00 PST

Everywhere we look our systems are collapsing in terminal dysfunction. It's forcing us to reinvent the way we do just about everything. But the infrastructure in place to catalyze the kinds of breakthrough innovation we need is still haphazard and inefficient. What kinds of institutions and incentives need to be put in place to spur the innovations we most need to be more efficient and effective?

Putting Our Heads Together

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PST

The open source movement launched over the past few decades by computer programmers has morphed into a parallel "open innovation" movement. The emergence of cross-sectoral "distributed intelligence" points to the promise of broader and more inclusive networks as the brightest future for the kind of innovation that will be necessary to address our most urgent challenges.

Reviving the Forgotten Continent

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PST

To many Americans, Africa is a continent of universal, unmitigated suffering, plagued by disease, famine, misgovernance, poverty, and war. While there are more than enough such tragedies on the continent, those who know it well say there's an energy and resilience among Africans that enables them to make much of what little good fortune comes their way. Africa sits on some of the world's most precious mineral wealth. But foreign nations have historically plundered for their own benefit and that of corporations, leaving regions like the oil-rich Niger Delta, Sudan and Chad poorer and less self-sufficient than before their wealth was first discovered. As the U.S., China, India and other industrial powers scour the continent for mineral treasure, we examine how and whether African nations, spurred by a younger generation demanding a different destiny, can negotiate a better deal for their people that benefits the impoverished majority, and not just the few in positions of power who have consistently stolen the proceeds.

Who's This Economy For?

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PST

As our savings plummet and our debts soar, many of us are starting to wonder not only when we'll get back on track, but whether the track we've been on all these years is the right one to follow. Author, economist and former labor secretary Robert Reich asserts that rather than resuscitate an unjust and unsustainable economy, we should reinvent it to meet a wider range of needs and possibilities.

Impunity and Accountability in Colombia

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:00:00 PST

For more than 40 years, Colombia has been caught in the cross fire of "La Violencia": thousands dead, millions more driven from their homes. Impunity remains the law of the land. Now a series of tribunals and truth commissions are seeking to discover what really happened; to give victims a chance to express their anger and sorrow and perpetrators a chance to confess and serve time or be amnestied.

Fostering Ingenuity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:00:00 PST

If necessity is the mother of invention, there's certainly plenty of necessity to go around these days. But are we doing all we can to incubate the innovations we most urgently need? We'll learn about how to harness our collective genius to address our most urgent needs, and about new threats that could derail our best efforts.

Pan America's Promise

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:00:00 PST

Over the decades, U.S. policies towards Latin America have lurched between intervention and apparent indifference, demonstrating its dominance while leaving a residue of resentment. Now, on both sides of the border, new hope emerges for an era of warmer relations. What have been the impacts of U.S. policy, and how are they likely to change in an era of renewed hope but severe economic distress?

Growing the Green Collar Economy

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:00:00 PST

In hard times most of us are grateful for any job, but as we face increasing unemployment, poverty, and climate change, the Obama administration proposes to put thousands of Americans to work insulating homes and public buildings, installing solar panels, and reclaiming industrial wastelands. Majora Carter and Van Jones have helped place green collar jobs near the top of the national agenda.

Failing Our Way to Success

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 PST

At a moment when most all the systems that govern our lives have lost their grip on reality, we're forced to rethink and reinvent the way we do just about everything. Crucial to that transformation is learning how to innovate faster and better than ever before. In this weeks show, two leading students of innovation consider the pivotal role that experimentation plays in achieving eventual success.

Share Values or Shared Values: Re Thinking our Priorities

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:00:00 PST

Hard economic times aren't good for much, but they do get us thinking. As we sort through the wreckage of our private dreams, we ask ourselves how we could have done it differently - and how, given the chance, we might create an economy more equitable and reliable than the last one.

When the Music Stopped: Economy 2008

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:00:00 PST

It seemed the good times would never end. Pennies from heaven even rained down on Wal-Mart shoppers. Until one day in the fall of 2008, it all came crashing down. This week we sort through Wall Street's ruin and Main Street's rubble to find what went wrong, and what needs to be done to replace a system of brutal trade-off's between affluence and poverty, with a balance of shared prosperity.

Geektopia: Google's Innovation Culture

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:00:00 PST

Even in hard times, the search engine giant Google continues to boom while GM bites the dust. Is this another dot-com fantasy or could this culture of innovation, informality and antic spirit be a harbinger of the next economy? We take a tour of the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, and sit down with Alfred Spector for an intriguing conversation about how to grow a culture of innovation.

The Power in Your Person: Dolores Huerta's Farmworker Odyssey

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:00:00 PST

She raised 11 children and co-founded the United Farmworkers Union with Cesar Chavez. At age 78 she still criss-crosses the country to ignite her singular passion for social justice among youth two generations younger. Dolores Huerta is on a restless path to inspire the "Power in Your Person", tempered by a healthy sense of humor about herself and the world.

Green Purchasing

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:00:00 PST

What we buy individually is small potatoes beside the quantities purchased by large firms and governments. Little noticed by the rest of us, the market for green products is being decisively boosted by the deliberate choices of city governments, universities, hospitals, and corporations. Filling the supply chain with "green" products can benefit both the environment and the bottom line.

Long Time Coming: Bernard Lafayette's Civil Rights Journey

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:00:00 PST

Today we hear how a close associate of Martin Luther King, together with a pioneering generation of activists, led the desegregation of lunch counters and intercity buses, voter registration movements and Poor People's Campaigns. And we'll hear why, despite the many unfulfilled promises of that era, Bernard Lafayette remains as active and optimistic as ever about human possibilities.

Green Chemistry: Better Living Through Nature

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:00:00 PST

Currently, there is woefully little research and development in the green chemistry field and there are no universities teaching it. We need massive investments to make it viable. This week's program will feature leading researchers who will delineate the vision of a green chemistry economy and how green chemistry is presenting solutions to toxic problems.

Second Chances: Finding Purpose in the Second Half of Life

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:00:00 PST

Now that the sixties generation is entering its sixties, we'd all better take a deep breath and stand back. Author and cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien has written a wise guide to The Second Half of Life, and asks questions about the elder quest when youthful ambition or abandon no longer suffice. This conversation will resonate not only with those of a certain age when meaning meets mortality, but also those who have confronted, or will eventually face, finding purpose in the second half of life.

Nobody's a Nobody: Renouncing Rankism, Defending Dignity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:00:00 PST

At one time or another just about all of us have endured someone pulling rank on us. In this insightful and provocative conversation, Robert Fuller affixes the name "rankism" to the full range of diminishing behaviors that infect our personal and professional relationships and calls for the creation of a "dignitarian society" where rank may remain but does not serve as a weapon to demean another.

Foundations as Catalysts

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:00:00 PST

Foundations work in a wide range of fields and often with quite different strategies. In this program we follow philanthropic initiatives in two very different realms -- foreign policy and venture philanthropy. In each we see how foundations use their independence to catalyze new solutions to pressing problems at both the local and global level. In the process, their initiatives often attract others in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to invest additional resources.

Teach Your Children Well: Reforming Education in Schools and Society

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PST

There's no more powerful way to transform society than through education. But all too often, we fail to adequately prepare our children for life's challenges. In four stories, we'll explore successful initiatives to transform patterns of dysfunction, from public health campaigns to community building through digital media, from early literacy programs to efforts to repair a broken school system.

Replenishing the Breadbasket: Food and Philanthropy

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PST

Today's rapidly rising food prices and warnings of food scarcity evoke a haunting echo from a generation ago. Join us as we examine a new "Green Revolution" and the "Blue Revolution", two major foundation-supported initiatives to address two troubling food production trends: low productivity amid growing populations in Africa, and over fishing amid diminishing fish stocks worldwide.

Philanthropy and Health: The Challenge of Effective Giving

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:00:00 PST

We all see the urgent unmet needs out there, and many of us come up with great ideas to address them. In this, the second in a series of five programs examining the role of foundations as key partners with communities, we'll hear how local civic organizations are inventing ways to deal with the challenges of giving birth, growing up safe and secure, and, at the end of life, dying with dignity.

Shattered Dreams: The Struggle to Reconstruct Iraq

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:00:00 PST

While the White House seeks to persuade the American public that the "surge" is reducing violence and enabling Iraqis to create a self-governing democracy, Iraqi and international NGO's are struggling to make that goal a reality. We speak with aid workers, conflict mediators and development specialists as they encounter hostility playing midwife to a new democracy in the "cradle of civilization".

Foundations as the Fifth Estate: Private Wealth for Public Benefit

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:00:00 PST

Foundations don't always make back their bets, but at their best they are readers and seeders of promise. In this five-part series on foundation philanthropy, we'll trace the impact of such catalytic grant making on American society. We'll see why foundations play an indispensable role in addressing needs met in no other way: challenging society to live up to its highest aspirations.

Studs Terkel: A Heart as Big as the World

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:00:00 PST

Despite his best efforts, like the very establishments he excoriates, Studs has become an American institution. A man of the people, he is also an unapologetic liberal and intellectual in a country that respects neither. In this program, drawn from a nonstop three-hour conversation, Studs reflects on a life spent listening to the battered but unbowed spirit of ordinary and extraordinary Americans.

Resilience: Adaptation and Transformation in Turbulent Times

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:00:00 PST

Resilience ... the capacity to absorb shocks to the system without losing the ability to function. Can whole societies become resilient in the face of traumatic change? In April 2008, natural and social scientists from around the world gathered in Stockholm, Sweden for a first-ever global conference applying lessons from nature's resilience to human societies in the throes of unprecedented transition.

Hard Power / Soft Power: Peace Building at the Pentagon

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:00:00 PST

A landmark 2005 directive issued by the U.S. Defense Department for the first time placed post-conflict "reconstruction and stabilization" on the same level with the U.S. military's role as war-fighter. But the implementation of this directive has led many to fear that in embracing "peacebuilding", the Pentagon is actually militarizing and commercializing it.

Women Who Wouldn't Listen: Wangari Maathai and Frances Moore Lappe

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:00:00 PST

Continents apart, in entirely different contexts, two remarkable women took it upon themselves to make a difference. While still in their twenties, Wangari Maatthai, founder of Kenya's pioneering environmental initiative, the Greenbelt Movement, and Frances Moore Lappe, author of the pathbreaking food manifesto and vegetarian recipe book, Diet for a Small Planet, redefined the nature of "women's work" without, in the manner of so many women politicians, relinquishing the nurturing values that give special value to women as leaders. In this special edition of A World of Possibilities, two lives spent breaking the mold of both traditional and feminist perspectives are recounted in candid conversation, each with a focused sense of purpose - to use their unique sensibilities and life experiences to help heal a species and planet grievously wounded by fear, greed and ignorance of its own positive potential.

What Good Are These Things For? The Pragmatic Push to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:00:00 PST

In a landmark January 4, 2007 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, former Defense Secretary Bill Perry, former Sen. Sam Nunn, and former Republican secretaries of state George Schultz and Henry Kissinger called for "a world free of nuclear weapons." While this goal has been around since the invention of nuclear weapons six decades ago, never before has such an establishment conservative consensus formed around the proposition. Now an international team of experts is drafting a plan for a phased, decades-long elimination of nuclear weapons. At the same time, Russia has threatened to abrogate a series of arms control treaties in response to Bush administration moves, and trade frictions and growing mutual suspicion between the U.S. and China are souring relations between the two nations. The U.S. war in Iraq and threatened attack on Iran could galvanize open opposition to U.S. strategic plans and spark renewed military competition. These countervailing trends could adversely affect new opportunities for nuclear disarmament. This program assesses these new opportunities and the best ways of overcoming the obstacles to exploiting them.

Russia Resurgent: The Once and Future Super Power

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:00:00 PST

Fueled by rising revenues from its vast oil reserves, Russia is experiencing a sudden comeback from its economic and political collapse just sixteen years ago. This program will consider what Russia's re-emergence as a global force could mean for the already diminishing constraints of arms control and for a renewed power struggle between Russia and the U.S. in an increasingly multi-polar world.

Orphans of Conflict: The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:00:00 PST

We are all aware of the plight of refugees driven from their homes by war or natural disasters across international borders to huddle in crowded camps in a foreign country. What we hear less about is those who have been uprooted from their homes and abandoned by their governments to wander within their own borders. Referred to by the abstractly bureaucratic term, "internally displaced persons" or IDP's, some 25 million people in 50 countries fall between the cracks of international law, overlooked and under-served by both their governments and international agencies already overstretched to deal with refugees driven outside their own countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, some 4 million IDP's have been made homeless by decades of fighting and in Iraq several million more. In this program, some of the world's leading experts in forced internal migration describe the nature and scale of the challenge and what is and can be done to meet the needs of these "orphans of conflict."

Home From the War: Re-integrating Ex-Combatants

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

One of the most difficult challenges facing governments, communities and families in the aftermath of civil or international conflict is re-integrating soldiers into civilian life. In recent years, the international community has faced many such situations in Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Kosovo. Gradually a body of knowledge, skills and techniques is accumulating to inform and guide future efforts. This program highlights the most successful of these re-integration initiatives as identified by leading practitioners in the field and will examine what has made them successful when so many have failed.

Regrowing Community (One Tomato at a Time): The Remarkable Return of Farmers' Markets NEW VIDEO PODCAST!

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

Join us for a stroll through the throngs, the music, the aromas, colors and laughter of The Arcata Farmers' market.

Regrowing Community (One Tomato at a Time): The Remarkable Return of Farmers' Markets

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

Farmers' markets: From four hundred to four thousand in less than two decades. They're sprouting like sunflowers in parking lots, town squares and plazas all across the country. They represent signs of life, connection and community in a culture of isolation and alienation. Join us for a stroll through the throngs, the music, the aromas, colors and laughter of farmers' markets.

A Dream Deferred: The Uncertain Future of Affirmative Action

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

Race: America's taboo topic. It's difficult to talk about and a struggle to address continuing inequities. And now, affirmative action, the set of policies designed to dismantle institutional barriers to equal opportunity, is being curbed and restrained by referenda and judicial decisions. Join us to examine a set of policies that began opening doors of opportunity a generation ago, why some of those doors have been closed, and what it would take to reopen them.

Quite Early Morning: The Life, Times and Legacy of Pete Seeger

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 08:00:00 PST

At age 88, legendary folksinger and social activist Pete Seeger is receiving long-delayed appreciation for his immense contribution to American music and culture. An often controversial figure for his uncompromising stands on social and political issues, he was censured in the fifties by the House Un-American Activities Committee, blacklisted from appearing in mainstream media, and consigned to singing in summer camps till the 1960's, when he led a folk revival that served as the soundtrack for the social movements that shook the conscience of the nation. In the seventies he turned his attention to cleaning up the Hudson River that ran by his Beacon, New York homestead from his sloop, The Clearwater. In this intimate conversation, Pete recalls it all through the prism of mellowed memory, his personal reflections on his life, times and his country's future laced with the sounds of his now-quavering but still strong voice and his eternally tuneful banjo. A classic affirmation of human possibilities from the stubbornly hopeful spirit of an American folk icon.

Iraq Redux: The Consequences of a U.S. Attack on Iran

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:00:00 PST

Four years after its war of choice on Iraq, the White House is once again planning an attack on a Muslim nation. This time it's Iran, a powerful and ancient culture with the world's second largest oil reserves. What would be the impact of a U.S. attack? Join us to assess the likely consequences of the Bush Administration's third war of choice on a Muslim country in six years.

Food Deserts: Nutritional Starvation in the Land of Plenty

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:00:00 PST

They're called food deserts, neighborhoods in our inner cities where it's almost impossible to find healthy, fresh, sustainably grown fruits and vegetables. Neighborhoods where all that's available is what's at the gas station mini-mart. Join us this week to examine why food deserts exist in the land of plenty and what they tell us about inequities in our food production and distribution system.

Manhattan Mecca: Muslims in New York

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:00:00 PST

New York City is home to as great a range of Muslim adherents as Mecca itself. Africans, African-Americans, South Asians, Central Asians, Southeast Asians, Latinos, Jamaicans, Europeans, Russians, Chinese and more. Many speak with the accents of their native tongues while others talk with a decidedly American twang. Join us to explore the microcosmic diversity of Muslims in New York.

Empire of Corn: From Cornucopia to Corporate Commodity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:00:00 PST

Corn: that most American of grains. These days corn is feed, fuel and ubiquitous sweetener, the biggest of business and some say the core of an industrial food system that's unhealthy for people, livestock and soils. Join us as we trace corn's origins back to Mesoamerica and conduct a forensic exam on the hybridized, genetically modified corn we know today.