Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
| LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | ||
| We begin with the suicide of the 26 year old Internet entrepreneur and advocate for the electronic commons Aaron Swartz, who appears to have been hounded to his death by over-zealous government prosecutors unable to distinguish between malicious hackers and defenders of free speech and freedom of information. His friend and mentor, the Director of the Center for Ethics at Harvard and a Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, Lawrence Lessig joins us to discuss the tragic loss of this young progressive activist. |
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Then we examine the intervention in Mali by French forces to prevent a takeover of the country by Islamists rebels from the north who are alleged to be members of AQIM, Al Qaeda In the Islamic Maghreb. The former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell joins us to discuss the likely short-term outcome and the longer-term possibility of a protracted guerrilla war in a failed state where world heritage sites have already been desecrated by rebels who are cutting off hands in the name of Islam. |
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Then finally we look into the state of working America where wages as a share of America’s gross domestic product fell last year to a record low of 43.5 percent, down from 49% in 2001. Economist, author and analyst Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, joins us to discuss how wages are falling while profits are rising and how much stagnant wages are contributing to the growing income inequality in America. |
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Taking listeners deep into the underlying issues and forces that shape our world.
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