Latest Content for Old Mole Variety Hour

Since the founding of the US, the postal service has delivered mail quickly and securely from any place in the country to any other place in it, all for a price anyone could afford.  Now many corporations and members of congress want to break up this birthright and hand ... Read more

A healthy economy is one that is growing; but how long can a healthy planet sustain a growing economy?  In a recent blog post, Alyssa Röhricht lays out the contradiction between capitalism and the survival of life on Earth.  Tom Becker reads it for us.   Read more

The Old Mole's Literary Critic Larry Bowlden review  Portland writer Tom Spanbauer's 2006 coming of age novel Now Is the Hour about a boy growing up and away from his small hometown.  Larry finds that Spanbauer "captures both the humor and the heartache of trying to grow... Read more

Today's Old Mole features the music of Fred Ho, composer, saxophonist, writer, and radical political activist who died in April.  In this segment, we hear some of the musical selections played on the show, the first with an introduction by Ho himself.  These are followed... Read more

Tom Becker hosts this latest report from the Old Mole, and we hear about threats to privatize our Postal Service; the contradiction between capitalism and a survivable planet; a novel about coming of age in a small town; and the music and radical politics of saxophonist ... Read more

Joe Clement hosts and we hear: Bill Resnick talks with Yong Zhao of the University of Oregon. They compare and contrast the Chinese and US response to the failure of high-stakes testing and the neoliberal education paradigm. Frann Michel and Iven Hale review the l... Read more

Joe Clement speaks with two communist organizers, Stephanie Martin and Daniel Frontino Elash, about their plans to hold a meeting at Central Library 801 SW 10th (and Yamhill) on Monday June 23rd from 6-7pm in the US Bank Room. They are calling for local independent commu... Read more

Bill Resnick talks with Yong Zhao about high-stakes testing and related neoliberal education paradigms in China, and why there is resistance to it. They consider the danger of narrowing education with definitions of success tied to tests and quantifiable methods. Yong Z... Read more

Frann Michel and Iven Hale take a second critical look at the latest season of Orange is the New Black (click here to hear season one review). They discuss its potential merit, including just increasing the exposure of the prison industrial complex in popular culture, bu... Read more

Joe Clement hosts this episode about neoliberal education in the Chinese context, the latest season of Orange is the New Black, We Are BRAVE (a reproductive rights & justice project aimed at serving women of color), and a proposed Communist Party of Cascadia. Bill R... Read more