Resources for September 1, 2017

Aronczyk, Amanda, et al. "The Birth of Climate Denial." The United States of Anxiety #2 (May 11, 2017) ["Starting with the 1925 Scopes Trial — also known as the "trial of the century" — we look at one of the most controversial topics in our time: the debate over evolution versus a Fundamentalist understanding of the Bible. It started with a substitute teacher in Tennessee who believed that evolution should be taught in the classroom. What followed was a fiery debate that rocketed around the world. The Scopes Trial reminds us that science has often upset the establishment. Kai Wright explores how the powerful have tried to convince us that science gets it wrong. Then Amanda Aronczyk looks at just when we began to doubt the whole idea of climate change. She’ll take us back to that day in 1988 when NASA scientist James Hansen warned the United States Congress that climate change was real. And she reminds us that Republican President George H.W. Bush touted himself as being pro-environment. 'I’m an environmentalist... And I always will be,' he said. 'And that is not inconsistent with being a businessman. Nor is it with being a conservative.' She then brings us to to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, when action on climate change led to a political divide within the Republican party. Today, President Trump considers climate change a 'hoax' and is considering withdrawing from the Paris climate accord. It's a radical change in 25 years. We'll tell you how we got there."]

Bloomekatz, Ari. "Victory for Mexican American Studies in Arizona: An Interview with Curtis Acosta." Rethinking Schools (August 31, 2017)

Bozung, Justin, et al. "The Swimmer (1968)." The Projection Booth #338 (August 29, 2017) ["The 1968 film by Frank and Eleanor Perry, The Swimmer (based on the John Cheever short story of the same name), stars Burt Lancaster as Ned Merrill, a Connecticut executive who decides to head back home by swimming through the pools of his neighbors, a "river" which he names "Lucinda" after his wife. Along the way, Ned is met with drinks, laughs, reminders of his affairs that went sour, and maybe even reminders that what he pretends to be may be no more. Elric Kane and co-host emeritus Rob St. Mary join Mike to discuss the troubled production and ground-breaking ideas of The Swimmer."]





Cassidy, Brendan and J.D. Duran. "There Will Be Blood, Top 5 Movies of 2007." InSession Film #236 (August 29, 2017)

Crow, Scott and Jackson Katz. "The Red Cross Won't Save Houston. Texas Residents Are Launching Community Relief Efforts Instead." Democracy Now (August 30, 2017) ["Hurricane Harvey has sparked comparisons to Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans 12 years ago yesterday. The devastating storm killed more than 1,800 people and forced more than 1 million people to evacuate. Both the government and major aid agencies like the Red Cross were widely criticized for failing to respond adequately to the disaster. Instead, local residents took matters into their own hands, launching relief, recovery and mutual aid efforts such as the Common Ground Collective. For more on the Red Cross’s failures and local grassroots relief efforts, we speak with Scott Crow, author and anarchist who helped found the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and Jonathan Katz, director of the Media and Journalism Initiative at Duke University and former Haiti correspondent for the Associated Press. He’s the author of "The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster" and a new article headlined "The Red Cross Won’t Save Houston.""]

Galloway, Geoffrey. "Finger-Licking' Lulz." The Baffler (August 30, 2017)

Get Out (USA: Jordan Peele, 2017) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Left of Liberalism: Marxist-Socialist Newspapers, 1900 - 2015) (Ongoing Archives)

Morris, Errol. "Conflicting Narratives." On the Media (August 30, 2017) ["In 1977, a former beauty queen with a 168 IQ named Joyce McKinney became British tabloid fodder when she supposedly kidnapped her Mormon boyfriend at gunpoint and, for four days, kept him as her sex slave. Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris' 2011 documentary Tabloid looked into the claims and the tabloid coverage."]