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From pole dancer to Ph.D.: one woman’s empowering memoir

Early in her life, author Lacy M. Johnson was made aware of her good looks. When she was only 7 years old, her mother entered her lovely blonde daughter into a beauty pageant: “In the pictures, I don’t look like a child of 7. I walk in that sashaying page ...

19 Nov 2014 - Joe Martin
Gandhi's early years

The death of Karamchand Gandhi in 1885 would have momentous consequences. At the time, his son Mohandas was in his teens and already married. In the wake of his father’s death his mother Putlibai became the family’s matriarch. She must have been remarkabl ...

23 Sep 2014 - Joe Martin
All fall down: Is the United States the next Third World?

At last count, the U.S. had more than 500 military bases in other countries. It spends as much on its armed forces as the rest of the world combined. According to author John Michael Greer, that’s because the United States is an empire and its military do ...

19 Aug 2014 - Mike Wold
Blame it on Rio: Journalist Dave Zirin on the consequences of “celebration capitalism”

Millions of Americans witnessed Brazil’s $11 billion World Cup party on television. But few will see the hangover. In his new book, “ Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy,” sports journalist Dave Zirin re ...

11 Aug 2014 - Hart Hornor
Drug shortage threatens Death with Dignity rights

A spat between a drug manufacturer and states that use the death penalty could soon be impinging upon residents’ right to die. Pharmacists I’ve spoken with from Portland to Seattle, report the manufacturer of pentobarbital, the drug used under Washington ...

16 Jul 2014 - Hunter Marshall
Rethinking the wagon: with new methods alcoholics can moderate their drinking

Alan sometimes drank until he blacked out. When he regained consciousness, he’d find himself at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Wash. The 54 year-old, who requested his last name be withheld, has tried to quit drinking several times. He attended Alc ...

2 Jul 2014 - Aaron Burkhalter
Myth buster: Exposing the mythical origins of racism

Jacqueline Jones teaches at the University of Texas and has been awarded a MacArthur “genius” fellowship and other prizes. She’s an intellectual heavyweight, who specializes in African-American history, particularly as it relates to labor. I suspect that ...

18 Jun 2014 - Jim Douglas
Drawing a controversy: Victor S. Navasky traces the radical roots of political cartoons and their power to provoke

Throughout modern history, political cartoonists have been threatened, censored, jailed and even murdered because of their art. In his book, “ The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power ” (Knopf), writer and editor Victor S. Navas ...

5 Jun 2014 - Robin Lindley
The climate has changed, we haven’t. French artist Philippe Squarzoni brings us a fresh take on global warming

Can we change? Can civilization mount an adequate response to human-caused global warming and climate change? Do we still have time? These questions sometimes lurk in the background and sometimes hit us in the face in “ Climate Changed,” a groundbreaking ...

3 Jun 2014 - Tom Watson
Growing pains: The imperative to understanding labor’s decline

Sociologist Jake Rosenfeld, author of “ What Unions No Longer Do,” describes union decline as if he were a building inspector describing the key weaknesses in an aging building where unions are a failing structural element. In sharp contrast, Steve Early’ ...

14 May 2014 - Mike Wold