2005.12.31

Stem Cells Now!

Dr. J. chats with Christopher Thomas Scott about his book Stem Cell Now, which examines the scientific, medical, ethical and political dimensions of human stem cell research.

Christopher Scott

Basic Instinct

Dr. J. chats with behavioral neuroscientist Mark Blumberg, author of Basic Instinct: The Genesis of Behavior which discusses the interplay of genes, hormones and environment in creating behavior. He debunks the notion of selfish genes and some fundamental human nature.

Knocking on Heaven's Door

Dr. J. chats with Mark Oppenheimer, the editor of the New Haven Advocate, author of Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture and the forthcoming Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America.

Mark Oppenheimer

How to Survive a Robot Uprising

Dr. J. chats with Daniel Wilson, a roboticist and author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising.

Eve, Speed
and the Fall of Man

First, an interview with Aurelio O'Brien about his satiric novel Eve, about a gene-tweaked and robotic future. Second, a conference call on human enhancement and human rights. Third, a snippet of a Southern Baptist take on the sin of getting too smart.

Aurelio O'Brien

Listen or download

Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law

Dr. J. chats with Santa Clara law professor Kerry Lynn Macintosh, author of Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law.  Professor Macintosh argues that most objections to cloning are false or exaggerated and based on stereotypes that injure the egalitarianism upon which our society is based. "Anti-cloning laws violate the equal protection guarantee and are unconstitutional."

Listen or download

Fighting Modern Slavery

Dr. J. chats with Derek Ellerman, co-founder and director of the Polaris Project, an organization combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

Building the Post-Oil Society

Dr. J.  speaks with Richard Eidlin, Business Outreach Coordinator for the Apollo Alliance, a a coalition of labor, environmental, and civil rights groups with a bold 10-year, 10-point plan to move the country away from foreign oil dependency through investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Defending Human Enhancement

Ron Bailey

The Problem with Transhumanism

Political scientist Larry Arnhart, author of Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature, critiques transhumanism at the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences  meetings, Washington D.C., Sept 1, 2005.

Listen or download

The Republican War on Science

First Dr. J.  chats with Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science.

Control of Emotions and the TechnoLiberation

Dr. J.  presents a lecture on the chemical control of emotions by philosopher David Wasserman, an op-ed on Katrina and jobs policy, and an invitation to the technoprogressive movement.

Listen or download

Posthuman Conflict...

Dr. J.  chats with Alex Alaniz, a nuclear weapons physicist at Los Alamos and author of the novel Beyond Future Shock.

Listen or download

...and the Student Left

Then Dr. J.  chats with Lucas Shapiro, national organizer for the Young Democratic Socialists. They discuss the state of the student left, and the priorities for democratic socialist students this fall.

Critical BioArt

Dr. J.  chats with Steve Kurtz, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, a group focused on on "biotechnology, its colonising effects and ideological layering, and the biorevolution in global capitalism." Kurtz and CAE are engaged in a legal battle with the US District Attorney over a politically motivated investigation of alleged bioterrorist activities.

Liberation Biology

Dr. J. chats with Ron Bailey, author of Liberation Biology: The Scientific And Moral Case For The Biotech Revolution.

Genetic Enhancement of Children
Dr. J. chats with Nicholas Agar, a philosopher at the University of Wellington, and author of  Liberal Eugenics: In Defence Of Human Enhancement.

Dream of the Perfect Child
Dr. J. chats with Joan Rothschild, professor emerita from UMass Lowell, and author of The Dream of the Perfect Child.

Smart, Naam, Orgasms, Food and Utopia
Dr. J. serves up a fruit salad of the tail end of an interview with John Smart, a short interview with Ramez Naam, some Betterhumans news articles and some thoughts on Marx and utopianism.

2005.6.18 - Part 1

2005.6.25 - Part 2

The State of the Future
Dr. J. chats with Jerry Glenn, a futurist, development consultant, and the Director of the Millennium Project and the American Council of the UN University.

Listen or download

Accelerating Social Change
Dr. J. chats with John Smart, Founder-President of the Acceleration Studies Foundation.

Listen or download

Joel Garreau

Listen or download

Feed the World
Dr. J. chats with Channapatna Prakash, a biotechnologist at Tuskegee University and founder of AgBioWorld, a science-based information service on agricultural biotechnology issues.

The Politics of Bioethics
Dr. J. interviews Glenn McGee, editor of the American Journal of Bioethics, producer of blog.bioethics.net, professor of philosophy at Albany Medical College, and author of many books including The Perfect Baby and Beyond Genetics.

Listen or download

View streaming video

Are You a Transhuman?
Remembering FM2030
Dr. J. narrates a review of the life and work of FM-2030 (born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary). FM-2030 was a pioneer of radical futurism, the founder of the Upwinger movement and an ongoing inspiration for transhumanist thought.

Listen or download

Class Analysis
Dr. J. chats with Erik Olin Wright,  professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is a foremost scholar of class analysis, and author of many books including Class, Crisis and the State, Class Structure and Income Determination, and Classes, Class Counts and  Deepening Democracy.

Gray Panthers
Dr. J. chats with Susan Murany, Executive Director of the Gray Panthers. The Gray Panthers are a group working for universal social policy solutions that unite instead of divide younger and older people.

Procreative Liberty
Dr. J. chats with Susanne Martinez, Vice President for Public Policy of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Ms. Martinez also served as policy director for the Children's Defense Fund and as a Congressional staffer.

Human Capabilities
Dr. J. chats with Sabina Alkire, secretary of the Human Development and Capability Association, founded by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Dr. Alkire is an economist and author of Valuing Freedoms: Sen’s Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction.

Listen or download

Co-Creator Theology
Dr. J. chats with Ted Peters, a theologian at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and Graduate Theological Union, and author of Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom and For the Love of Children: Genetic Technology and the Future of the Family.

Ted Peters

Tech for People, not for Corporate Control
Dr. J. chats with Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters Magazine, The Media Foundation, and The Powershift Ad Agency, TV Turnoff Week and Buy Nothing Day, author of Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge--And Why We Must and co-author of the spoof Cyborg Manifesto.

Kalle Lasn

Mighty Mice
Dr. J. chats with April Smith, the new fundraiser for the Methusaleh Mouse Prize, a project to encourage life extension research. April is a former labor organizer and a practitioner of Caloric Restriction.

April Smith

Fear and Loathing in a
Brave New World
Dr. J. chats with Wesley J. Smith, author of Consumers Guide to a Brave New World, Senior Fellow with the Discovery Institute, consultant to the Centers for Bioethics and Culture, and attornery for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide .

Forever for All:
Cryonics and Spirituality
Dr. J. chats with Mike Perry, a staff person with Alcor and president of the Society for Universal Immortalism, a transhumanist church. Perry is also author of Forever For All Moral Philosophy, Cryonics, and the Scientific Prospects for Immortality. 

Mike Perry

Aging, Death, and the Quest for Immortality

  Part 1: Listen or download

TechProgressives
Dr. J. chats with Dale Carrico, the Human Rights fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He writes the "Progressive Futures" column for Betterhumans.com, and blogs at Cyborg Democracy and Amor Mundi.

 WorldChanging
Dr. J. chats with Jamais Cascio, blogmaster of WorldChanging.com, a blog devoted to promoting technologies that are changing the world for the better.

Jamais Cascio

Humanist Bioethics at the UN
Dr. J. chats with Ana Lita, Director of International Humanist and Ethical Union's Appignani Humanist Center for Bioethics.  Ana is basically the liaison from the world humanist and freethought movement to the United Nations, attempting to connect with other progressive voices among the NGO and governmental community there.