KUED Programs

Whatever your take on the recent revelations about government spying on our phone calls and Internet activity, there's no denying that Big Brother is bigger and less brotherly than we thought. What's the resulting cost to our privacy -- and more so, our democracy? On the next Moyers & Company (check local listings), Lawrence Lessig, professor of law and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and founder of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, joins Bill to discuss the implications of our government's actions and Edward Snowden's role in leaking the information. Few are as knowledgeable about the impact of the Internet on our public and private lives as Lessig, who argues that government needs to protect American rights with the same determination and technological sophistication it uses to invade our privacy and root out terrorists. "What do we put into place to check government officials to make sure they behave in a way that respects our most fundamental values?" Lessig asks. A former conservative who's now a liberal, Lessig also knows that the caustic impact of money is another weapon capable of mortally wounding democracy. His recent book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress -- and a Plan to Stop It, decries a pervasive "dependence corruption" in our government and politics that should sound a desperate alarm for both the Left and the Right. On the broadcast, Lessig outlines a radical approach to the problem that uses big money itself to reform big money-powered corruption. How do we protect our privacy when Big Government and Big Business morph into Big Brother? Next on Moyers & Company.

Modern American capitalism is a story of continued inequality and hardship. Even a modest increase in the minimum wage faces opposition from those who seem to show allegiance first and foremost to America's wealthy and powerful. Yet some aren't just wringing their hands about our economic crisis; they're fighting back. In an encore Moyers & Company broadcast, Economist Richard Wolff joins Bill to shine light on the disaster left behind in capitalism's wake, and to discuss the fight for economic justice, including a fair minimum wage. A Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, and currently Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School, Wolff has written many books on the effects of rampant capitalism, including Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. "We have this disparity getting wider and wider between those for whom capitalism continues to deliver the goods by all means, [and] a growing majority in this society facing harder and harder times," Wolff tells Bill. "And that's what provokes some of us to say it's a systemic problem."

This week's encore broadcast of Moyers & Company (check local listings), begins with a report on striking extremes of wealth and poverty on display in California's Silicon Valley. Facebook, Google, and Apple are minting millionaires while the area's homeless -- who've grown 20 percent in the last two years -- are living in tent cities at their virtual doorsteps. These are the human faces of economic inequality. Later, Bill is joined by writer Sherman Alexie. Born on a Native American reservation, Alexie has been navigating the cultural boundaries of American culture in lauded poetry, novels, short stories, screenplays, even stand-up comedy for over two decades. He shares his irreverent perspective on contemporary American life, and discusses the challenges of living in two different cultures at the same time -- especially when one has so much dominance over the other. "I know a lot more about being white than you know about being Indian," Alexie tells Bill.

In December 2008, during the closing weeks of the Bush White House, 27-year-old environmental activist Tim DeChristopher went to protest the auction of gas and oil drilling rights to more than 150,000 acres of publicly-owned Utah wilderness. But instead of yelling slogans or waving a sign, DeChristopher disrupted the proceedings by starting to bid. Given an auction paddle designating him "Bidder 70", DeChristopher won a dozen land leases worth nearly two million dollars. He was arrested for criminal fraud, found guilty, and sentenced to two years in federal prison -- even though the new Obama Administration had since declared the oil and gas auction null and void. On this week's Moyers & Company (check local listings), DeChristopher -- who was released less than a month ago -- joins Bill to talk about the necessity of civil disobedience in the fight for justice, how his jury was ordered to place the strict letter of the law over moral conscience, and the future of the environmental movement. Bidder 70, a new documentary chronicling DeChristopher's legal battle and activism, opened May 17. DeChristopher is co-founder of the grassroots environmental group Peaceful Uprising. Also on the show, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson tells Bill that, five years after the country's economic near-collapse, banks are still too big to fail, too big to manage, and too big to trust. Stockholders' reaffirmation of Jamie Dimon as JP Morgan Chase's chairman and CEO this week -- despite a year of accusations and investigations at the bank -- is further evidence, she says, of an unchecked system that continues to covet profits and eschew accountability, putting our economy and democracy at risk. Morgenson also discusses how behemoth companies like Apple manipulate the system and avail themselves of the biggest tax loopholes money and influence can buy.

Science can be a battleground -- witness the politics of climate change, the teaching of evolution, the uncharted terrain of genetic modification and stem cell research, among other contentious issues. But when industries release untested chemicals into our environment -- putting profits before public health -- our children are the first to suffer. Nowhere is this more troubling than in the ongoing story of lead poisoning. On this week's Moyers & Company (check local listings), Bill talks with David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, public health historians who've been taking on the chemical industry for years -- writing about the hazards of industrial pollution and the neglect of worker safety -- despite industry efforts to undermine them. Their latest book, Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America's Children, is the culmination of 20 years of research. Markowitz and Rosner warn that, for young children, there's no safe level of exposure to this dangerous toxin still lurking in millions of homes. Rosner and Markowitz discuss thwarted efforts to hold the lead industry accountable, failed attempts to find cheap solutions, and the cost to the future of our children. As long as the chemical industry and its powerful lobbies prevail in blocking efforts to reform outdated laws, the authors say, we will continue to float in a soup of toxins -- inhaling, drinking, and absorbing chemicals that we may learn, years later, have put us all in harm's way. Also on the show, Bill is joined by the heads of two independent watchdog groups keeping an eye on government as well as on powerful interests -- like chemical companies -- seeking to influence it. Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and OpenSecrets.org, and Danielle Brian, who runs the Project on Government Oversight, talk to Bill about the importance of transparency to our democracy, and their efforts to scrutinize who's giving money, who's receiving it, and most importantly, what's expected in return.

With our democracy threatened by plutocrats and the politicians in their pockets more than ever, the antidote to organized money is organized people. It takes time and effort, but across the country, grass roots democracy is growing. Individuals are banding together, organizing toward common goals and demanding change - and often delivering it. On this week's Moyers & Company (check local listings), we'll meet three organizers leading the way. Marshall Ganz is a social movement legend who dropped out of Harvard to become a volunteer during Mississippi's Freedom Summer of 1964. He then joined forces with Cesar Chavez of the United Farmworkers, protecting workers who picked crops for pennies in California's fields and orchards. Ganz also had a pivotal role organizing students and volunteers for Barack Obama's historic 2008 presidential campaign. Now 70, he's still organizing across the United States and the Middle East, and back at Harvard, teaching students from around the world about what it takes to beat Goliath. Later on the broadcast, economic equality advocates Rachel LaForest, executive director of Right to the City, and Madeline Janis, co-founder and national policy director of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, discuss with Bill how social action can change both policy and lives. Janis led the fight for a living wage in Los Angeles; LaForest fights for fair and affordable housing across the country. Grass roots democracy clamors for change. Next on Moyers & Company.

Francine and David Wheeler's youngest son Ben was killed in the December 14th attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Their grief has led them to the Sandy Hook Promise, a now-nationwide group founded by Newtown friends and neighbors to heal the hurt and find new ways to talk about and campaign against the scourge of gun violence in the United States. One of their allies is folksinger and activist Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, who joined with the Wheelers and others in a February concert of harmony, resilience and solidarity. On this week's Moyers & Company (check local listings), we see excerpts from the concert, soon to appear on many public television stations. Francine Wheeler and Peter Yarrow discuss with Bill the power of music to create change, and their mission to protect children and adults from gun violence in communities across America. Later, the conversation continues as David Wheeler joins his wife to talk with Bill about what can be done and if the gun issue can be addressed rationally in a way that includes diverse viewpoints and bypasses partisan brinkmanship.