KMUD - Global Stuff

Global Stuff: Jimmy Durchslag with Norman Solomon on “The Blue Road to Trump Hell”

On this podcast of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Norman Solomon, an author, activist and political strategist. Norman returns to discuss how we got to the current state of affairs in our nation and our government. His latest book, THE BLUE ROAD TO TRUMP HELL: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy is a compilation of articles written over the last 10 years that traces the path to the elections of Donald Trump and how the Democrats have enabled this eventuality by failing to support Bernie Sanders and other progressive leaders within their own party who promote policies that will improve the lives of most Americans, not just the wealthy elite. Norman Solomon is IPA’s executive director (accuracy.org). He is the author of twelve books, including War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine and War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, and with Reese Ehrlich, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You. Norman is also the co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. and a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and many other newspapers. A frequent guest on television and radio, he was featured in Bill Moyers’ recent documentary Buying the War and a full-length film adaptation of War Made Easy produced by the Media Education Foundation. Solomon is a recipient of the George Orwell Award, which honors distinguished contributions to honesty and clarity in public language. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 25 years. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

Global Stuff on the Israeli Destruction of Gaza and the US supply of Weapons

On this podcast episode of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Jennifer Lowenstein who lived with her parents in Israel as a child. Loewenstein is a member of the USA board of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. Jennifer clearly describes the devastation of Gaza and the determination of its residents in the midst of the rubble. She gives a perspective on the prospects for a continuing ceasefire and a possible path to the end of the war. The discussion also covers the support that the US gives to the Netanyahu government and how this perpetuates the conflict. Jennifer Loewenstein is a journalist and activist, a member of the USA board of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. She lived in Israel in 1963 as a child when her father played first trumpet in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She returned in 1981 as a junior in college, and later as an adult. Loewenstein has lived in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and traveled in the Palestinian Territories, where she worked for five months in 2002 at the Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City. She has returned to Gaza several times since then.  As a local political activist, Lowenstein has helped organize demonstrations in Madison. On the day after Ariel Sharon's election as Prime Minister of Israel, she was among the organizers of an anti-Likud demonstration. She helped organize protests against the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and she occasionally makes arrangements for political activists or journalists to speak at American universities. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominent scholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and provide suggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

Global Stuff on Burned by Billionaires, How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and the Planet

On this podcast episode of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag brings back Chuck Collins, the Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, to discuss his latest book: Burned by Billionaires, How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and the Planet. Chuck gives a very clear outline of the various tiers of wealth and the many ways those at the very top, that small group that controls most of the country’s wealth, impact every aspect of our daily lives. The power of their assets and their never ending push for more and more damages the climate, health care, social services, racial justice, elections and much more. Chuck emphasizes the urgent need to act now to counteract their rapaciousness and save our Democracy and the planet. Chuck Collins is a campaigner, researcher and storyteller based at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he directs, and co-edits Inequality.org. He is author of over ten nonfiction books about economic inequality, climate disruption, philanthropy, affordable housing and the racial wealth divide, including Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home and Committing to the Common Good. He is co-author, with Bill Gates, Sr., of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. Chuck lives outside Brattleboro, Vermont. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominent scholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and provide suggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

Global Stuff on the Ongoing Bombardment and Genocide in Gaze

This podcast of Global Stuff brings back Stephen Zunes, author and expert on International issues, especially the Middle East and Israel and Palestine. In this live interview with call-ins, recorded on August 22, 2025, Dr. Zunes updates the situation in Gaza and the mounting death toll as Israel targets health care workers, journalists, children and civilians while withholding critical food supplies and other essential aid. Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he served as founding director of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. Recognized as one the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and of strategic nonviolent action, Professor Zunes has served as a senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun until June 2024. From May-June, 2024, Dr. Zunes served as the Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Research Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominent scholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and provide suggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.

Global Stuff on the Devastating Situation in Gaza and Israel's Continued Aggression

On this podcast episode of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks with Kathy Kelly, board president of World Beyond War and a longtime prominent activist for peace, about the ongoing dire situation in Gaza. Kathy has frequently visited the region. She discusses the many thousands killed, the almost total destruction of habitable structures, the extreme starvation and, despite international efforts, the inability of the global community to provide relief. They also consider the emergency conference held in mid-July, when 30 nations met in Bogota, Colombia and all attending agreed that extreme measures must be taken by the international community to end the genocide and atrocities committed by Israel. Kathy Kelly is an American peace activist, pacifist and author, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, and, until the campaign closed in 2020, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. As part of peace team work in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US–Iraq wars.  From 2009 to 2019, her activism and writing focused on Afghanistan, Yemen, and Gaza, along with domestic protests against US drone policy. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of US military bombardment and inmates of US prisons.  Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest driven talk show for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominent scholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and provide suggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a manager of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.