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A bimonthly podcast discussing international human rights and environmental issues around the world from public policy, legal, theoretical and ethical viewpoints with academics, lawyers, activists and community organizers on the ground. Our episodes discuss and dissect impediments to substantive democracy, equality, public health, reproductive, refugee, sexuality and free speech and protest rights and the proper intersection of competing rights. Our environmental episodes look at freshwater and food security, threats to biodiversity, climate change effects and mitigation strategies and the environmental consequence of impending large scale projects around the world.
62 Episodes
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American Resistance and Repression, Identity and Intersectionality and the LGBTQI+ Rights MovementDiscussion with Professor Timothy Patrick McCarthy on American radicalism and the need for multivocality rather than metanarratives in analyzing history. We discuss the construction and interpellation of identities, their historical contingencies and intersectionality. We discuss the power dynamics of identity construction, in entrenching the status quo and serving to cleave mass mobilization and conversely in empowering marginalized groups. We discuss the need for origin myths in the context of the Stonewall uprising and its significance to the LGBTQI+ rights movement. We also discuss the AIDS epidemic as a health and housing crisis, the callousness and myopia of the Reagan administration’s lack of response and how the epidemic also led to solidarity and fostered community. Additionally, we discuss the movements for marriage equality and transgender rights. We also discuss polarization, disassociation, the need for active listening and brave communication. For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/62
The History of Voting Rights in the United States, the Electoral College and the Value of the Vote Discussion with Professor Alex Keyssar on the origins of democracy and the history of the right to vote in the United States. We discuss the lack of an affirmative right to vote under the U.S. Constitution, amendments prohibiting abridgement and voter suppression. We also discuss the value of the vote in the context of gerrymandering, party mechanics, the impact of different voting systems and the influence of money in politics. Additionally, we discuss the history and distortive impact of the Electoral College in Presidential elections.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/61
Circular Economy, Community Buy-In and Compassionate LeadershipDiscussion with Hon. Maria Kamma-Aliferi, Mayor of Tilos and Jenny Giannopoulou on the need for and implementation of a circular economy. We also discuss renewable energy infrastructure, the Greek energy pricing system, sewerage infrastructure, freshwater conservation and navigating different levels of government bureaucracy. Additionally, we discuss the need for environmental literacy and community buy-in. We also discuss refugees, the need for compassionate leadership and how immigration can be a revitalization for the community.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/60
Exposing, Investigating and Inoculating Against HateDiscussion with Lisa Borden and Susan Corke from the Southern Poverty Law Center on hate and extremism groups throughout the United States. We discuss rising right radicalism, including religious and white nationalist groups and their means and methods. We also discuss \"parental right groups\" and their anti-inclusive stance and disruption of public school governance. Additionally, we discuss the school-to-prison pipeline, continuing systemic racism and disenfranchisement and how to help inoculate youth against radicalization. We also discuss the benefits of establishing a national human rights institution. For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/59
A Celebration of Civics and Connection Amidst Crises and ConsternationDiscussion with Shannon A. Mullen on her recent book In Other Words, Leadership: How a Young Mother’s Weekly Letters to Her Governor Helped Both Women Brave the First Pandemic Year which looks at agency, representative democracy, socioeconomic and environmental crises within a portrait of leadership. The book is based on the true story of Ashira Knapp’s exchange of letters with Maine Governor Janet Mills during the pandemic. We discuss civics, representative democracy, leadership, reigniting our agency, reconnecting over polarity, what defines a crisis and media responsibility.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/58
How Grassroots Movements for Climate and Environmental Justice Are Critical to Surviving the Climate CrisisDiscussion with Vivek Maru on the importance of community paralegals in extending access to the law, enforcing rights and aiding in structural change. We discuss the Customary Land Rights Act in Sierra Leone, the Community Land Act in Kenya and environmental justice action in Myanmar. We also discuss environmental injustice within the United States, the need for cumulative impact in any environmental assessment and the importance of having both expert input on legislation as well as the lived experience of affected communities. Additionally, we discuss the importance of prior informed consent and moving from extractive to regenerative practices. We also discuss climate justice as an integral pathway toward climate mitigation and adaptation.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/57
Climate Change, Subterfuge and Building a Broad Climate CoalitionDiscussion with Dr. Michael Mann on the subterfuge tactics by the fossil industry to prevent systemic and structural decarbonization. We discuss how the fossil fuel industry promotes doomsday theories to engender apathy and deny agency. We also discuss how the fossil fuel industry fosters division between different social groups to prevent a climate alliance and needed structural change. Additionally, we discuss how the focus on individual accountability and hypocrisy shaming can impede and deflect from needed structural change. We also discuss pertinent issues in carbon offset accounting, the circular economy and what the paleoclimate record can tell us about the state of and projections for climate change. For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/56
Cattle Ranching, Palm Oil Plantations and Other Agrobusiness Drivers of Deforestation, Fraud and Violence Against Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples, Bolsonaro's Crimes and the Need for Due Diligence and Accountability in Financing and Supply ChainsDiscussion with Gabriella Bianchini on the importance of the Amazonian biome to the local environment and our planet and the current threats to the rainforest. We discuss the history of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon, including the ecocide under Bolsonaro and the current agrobusiness drivers, with a focus on cattle ranching and palm oil plantations. We also discuss land grabbing and violence against local communities and indigenous peoples and threats to and murder of environmental defenders. Additionally, we discuss how companies and financial institutions in the Global North are trading with and financing Amazonian destruction and violent land grabbing and legislative efforts to require accountability for failing to undertake due diligence in supply chains and investment. For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/55
Neocolonialism, Democratic Deficits and Regulatory Chill of the Investor State Dispute Settlement MechanismDiscussion with Lisa Sachs on the regulatory chill and democratic deficit of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS). We discuss the structural issues of ISDS, including conflict of interest, lack of transparency and lack of accountability as well as its neocolonial origins and entrenchment. We also discuss the proliferation of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, the expanding investor protections of international investment law, treaty shopping and how ISDS is distorting the investment climate in favor of fossil fuels. Additionally, we discuss the fragmentation of international law and the need to have holistic international jurisprudence and governance.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/54
Palestinian Human Rights Defenders, SLAPP Suits, Anti-Boycott Laws and Human Rights Abuses in Israel and the OPTDiscussion with Maria LaHood on the curtailment and criminalization of advocacy on behalf of Palestinian human rights and criticism of Israeli government policies and their conflation with antisemitism. We discuss SLAPP suits, prevention of academic freedom and debate and anti-boycott laws and their effect on chilling speech. We also discuss the importance of the right to boycott for our democracy and the increasing criminalization of dissent in the U.S. Additionally, we discuss human rights abuses and war crimes in the OPT.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/53
Regulatory Capture, Lobbying, Astroturfing, Greenwashing and the Failure to Clean up LA’s Toxic SecretDiscussion with Daniel Hirsch, Denise Duffield and Melissa Bumstead on the history and current contamination of the nuclear experiment and rocket testing site, Santa Susana Field Lab, above Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. We discuss how the responsible parties- NASA, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Boeing have failed to clean up the site, the tactics they have utilized to not do so and the current status of the cleanup. We discuss Boeing’s litigation against cleaning up to background levels, Boeing’s greenwashing campaign to limit its clean up by restricting the land use to a conservation zone and its astroturfing efforts to legitimize its greenwashing campaign. We also discuss the Department of Toxic Substances Control, its failure to hold polluters to account and the wider problems regulatory capture and lobbying present to our democracy. For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/52
The Nexus Between Environmental Health and Social JusticeDiscussion with Dr. Jimena Díaz Leiva on the health and environmental impact of fracking, forever chemicals, flame retardants and glyphosate. We discuss how trade secrets are being utilized to protect against disclosure of all toxic chemicals in fracking, the exemptions the industry obtained from environmental laws and how the First Amendment is being utilized against mandated government health warnings for glyphosate. We also discuss the tobacco and chemical industries’ deception respecting flame retardants and how CEH worked to ban flame retardants in children’s products, mattresses and upholstered furniture in CA. Additionally, we discuss the nexus between environmental health and social justice and the importance of fostering community partnerships and citizen science. For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/51
Drafting and Establishing the 5th International Crime Against PeaceDiscussion with Darryl Robinson and Kate Mackintosh on the history of ecocide and the gravity and culpability elements necessary for it to be the fifth international crime against peace. We also discuss the process of establishing ecocide as an international crime, including the process of its adoption by the International Criminal Court. We discuss the differences between the definitions of the independent expert panel of international criminal and environmental jurists and the Promise Institute’s expert working group, which advised the panel. We also discuss the problem of intersecting international criminal and environmental law. Additionally, we discuss salient issues of the ICC, including lack of jurisdiction over corporate actors, lack of dominant state parties and selectivity.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/50
Adam Hochschild's Ghosts of Rapacity and ResistanceDiscussion with Adam Hochschild on the historical movements and moments throughout Adam’s books. We discuss the First World War, the Spanish Civil War, the turmoil and anti-immigrant and anti-labour purges in the United States during and after the First World War, apartheid, the Stalinist purges and the Russian people’s attempt to reconcile with this rapacity, the British emancipation movement and King Leopold II’s genocide in the Congo.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/49
The Noxious Nexus of Environmental Destruction, Corruption, Conflict and Human Rights AbuseDiscussion with Patrick Alley on the intersectionality of environmental destruction, human rights abuse, conflict and corruption. We discuss how our banks and institutional funds finance deforestation while concomitantly publicly rallying against it. We discuss greenwashing by the fossil fuels industry and its influence on COP26. We also discuss the intimidation, attacks and murder of frontline environmental defenders. Additionally, we discuss the environmental destruction, corruption and human rights abuses of the palm oil industry in Papa New Guinea.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/48
Democratic Resistance in Hong KongDiscussion with Alex Yong-Kang Chow and Brian Leung on China’s increasing control over Hong Kong and its breaches of the Sino-British Declaration. We discuss the student democratic protests in 2014 and 2019 and the arrest and trials of the protestors. We discuss the enactment and use of the National Security Law to target free speech and the free press. We discuss the ransacking and closure of the June 4th Museum and the prohibition of the Tiananmen Square vigil and attendant arrest of its organizers. We also discuss the Greater Bay Area initiative and the integration of Hong Kong into the mainland, the recent “elections” of the Legislative Council, the utility of Magnitsky sanctions and China’s use of soft power.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/47
Abandoned Australians, Cultural Restitution and Human Rights AccountabilityDiscussion with Geoffrey Robertson QC on how Australia’s COVID response, including its border closure to citizens abroad, has violated human rights and Geoffrey’s petition on behalf of abandoned Australians before the Human Rights Committee. We also discuss the lack of constitutional rights in Australia and the need for a bill of rights. Additionally, we discuss the secret, political trial of barrister Bernard Collaery. We also discuss cultural restitution and the case of the British Museum’s refusal to return the Parthenon sculptures to Greece. Additionally, we discuss the importance of social and economic rights, corporate accountability for human rights, the Magnitsky Act and its adoption by numerous states as a way to target human rights violators.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/46
Cobalt, Chocolate, Blood and Corporate ImpunityDiscussion with Terry Collingsworth on forced child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC and his Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) case against American tech companies which knowingly benefit from the cheap cobalt mined by children. We discuss the legal issues in the case as well as the facts on the ground in the DRC, including the environmental impact of cobalt mining and the maiming and killing of child miners that are lured to extremely hazardous and toxic work in the mines. We also follow from our 2017 episode with Terry, “Chained to Chocolate”, to discuss Terry’s continuing case against Nestlé and other confectionary companies for the knowing use of child slave labor on their cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. We discuss Terry’s TVPRA case and the increase in child enslavement since the filing of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) case against Nestlé et. al. as well as the pending ATS decision before the United States Supreme Court. We also discuss whether the decision will gut the ATS by exempting corporations from liability under it and the future of ATS claims.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/45
Expanding the Rights Rubric: Adding Rights and Rights Holders for a Good SocietyDiscussion with Sushma Raman on The Coming Good Society: Why New Realities Demand New Rights, her book with William F. Schulz. We discuss the need for specific rights to redress the needs of LGBTQIA+ communities and why adding new rights reinforces rather than dilutes traditional human rights. We also discuss the risks posed to our rights by technological advancement, including algorithmic decision-making and CRISPR and how to address these from a rights perspective. Additionally, we discuss the need to view corruption as a human rights violation per se. We also discuss the need to ascribe rights to non-humans, including the environment, AI and a tiered approach to animal rights.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/44
Chevron’s Carious Crusade Against Steven Donziger, SLAPP Suits and the Defense of Climate NecessityDiscussion with Lauren Regan on corporate SLAPP suits and in particular the oil and gas industry’s utilization of RICO against grassroots environmental activists. We also discuss the miscarriages of justice in Chevron’s RICO action against attorney Steven Donziger and the criminal contempt case against Steven, whom Lauren is defending on the criminal contempt charge. Additionally, we discuss Lauren’s defense of the “Valve Turners”, their reasoning behind civil disobedience and Lauren’s establishment in Washington and Minnesota of the climate necessity defense. Finally, we discuss police misconduct and crowd control by private security firms, including at Standing Rock and the way forward for attorneys in supporting and advocating for grassroots activists.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/43
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