Jon Nelson hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments:
How I Learned to Breathe Through the Apocalypse: How I Learned to Breathe Through the Apocalypse is a serial play/web series written and performed by Desiree Hellegers, and directed and produced by Hellegers, along with Derya Ruggles and Melissa Salazar for air on Open Signalpdx. This black comedy is modeled on Hellegers' meditation-induced hallucinogenic internal monologue at a 2005 Buddhist retreat in the era of Hurricane Katrina and the Abu Ghraib revelations. It mixes memory and hyperbole, pop culture and politics, and finds parallels between an authoritarian, privileged white Catholic upbringing and commodified white American Buddhism, and their shared complicity in accelerating American fascism and climate collapse.
The series will air on 4 Comcast stations serving 400,000 households in Portland Vancouver metro area, via Open Signal, and later be available to watch on YouTube, where an early episode is available. In this segment, Frann Michel talks with Desiree Hellegers about the project.
Don’t be Fooled: Covid, the CDC, and our Health: Four years into the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19/SARS-Cov-2, Long Covid continues disabling millions and the CDC continues to favor business interests over public health. Frann Michel encourages supporting each other in reducing infection.
Tax the Rich: Taxes are the price of civilization. Political theory understands that taxes pay for the public institutions that protect society from capitalism’s single-minded drive for profit, which generates extreme inequality and environmental destruction. Today the capacity of the state to function effectively is in doubt. And the rich, who have pushed through laws and regulations that have reduced their taxes, couldn’t be happier. Recently Ron Wyden of Oregon and the Biden White House have introduced modest but meaningful tax increases on the super-rich, arguing that they will pay for a great expansion of renewable energy and a head start on saving the planet. None of the bills are likely to pass, as the world goes meaner and hotter. Today Bill Resnick talks to Juan Carlos Ordonez of the Oregon Center for Public Policy, who get specific about why so many hugely profitable companies pay no taxes and what should be done about it. This episode originally aired on April 4, 2022.
- KBOO