Talk Nation Radio: Sarah Williams Goldhagen on How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives

Sarah Williams Goldhagen is a contributing editor at Architectural Record and served as the Architecture Critic of The New Republic from 2005-2013. Her articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The American Prospect, and Art In America, and she has contributed scholarly essays to many publications, including Assemblage, The Harvard Design Magazine, and The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Goldhagen’s new book read more

Take a Knee and a Stand

Remarks at Saint Mary’s Hall, San Antonio, Texas, March 1, 2018
Accompanying Powerpoint.

Thank you for inviting me. What I contended in the article that got me invited here was that one of the biggest taboos in the United States, one of the behaviors treated most as a heresy, as a violation of national religion, is disrespect for the U.S. flag, the national anthem, and the patriotic militarist exceptionalism that accompany those icons.

We’ve just seen a school shooting in Florida by a young read more

I’ve been a target of US propaganda attacks: Washington has Engaged in Information Warfare, Including Fake News and Trolling, for Years

By Dave Lindorff

The howling in government and the corporate media and among many liberals about an alleged Russian information war, with bots, trolls and fake news being placed in social media to mislead and incite Americans against each other, might lead one think, like Sen John McCain, that we are practically at war with Russia. Yet it’s all actually pretty silly. After all, our own government has been playing this game for decades, both abroad, read more

Can You Give Two Days to Stop the Slaughter?

The power of mass demonstrations to mobilize activism and move those in positions of power is minimized, first and foremost, by those opposed to popular power. Do not listen to them. Make them listen to us!

Can you give two days to stop the slaughter of innocents and the shameless profiteering from their blood? If you can give more, so much the better. But by giving two days, you will guarantee that others will give more. You will be part of building the necessary momentum, the key ingredient in read more

Troops To Teachers Is What They’re Gearing Up For As Proposal To Arm Teachers Floods The Airwaves

Display at a national education conference in Washington DC March, 2016

The distraction machine I call the demagogue with bad hair ventured into new territory this week by claiming that teachers could ward off assault weapons if they themselves were adept at using firearms.

Teachers unions and prominent educators immediately denounced the idea of arming teachers.

Experienced teachers pointed out that teenage students could be expected to access teachers’ guns, dedicated teachers said they would resign rather than be trained for concealed carry, and jokesters responded read more

I’d Elect the People on My Facebook Page Over Any Weapons-Funded Hack

I asked my Facebook page which high school teacher they’d least like to have had a gun in their desk. Go read their answers.

I’d elect those people over any recent president or any current member of Congress.

These bursts of public discussion with dashes of sanity thrown in that follow each particularly media-covered mass-shooting are always encouraging. And it’s especially encouraging to have young people being allowed to have a say.

But let’s be clear about the limitations of what’s happened read more

Stepping beyond stereotypes to right wrongs

Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said, “There are two races of men in the world, but only these two – the ‘race’ of decent men and the ‘race’ of indecent men. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society.”

This is a powerful conclusion from a man who witnessed the very best and the very worst of humanity. He gives us a valuable lens to look at the world as we try to make sense of what’s going on around us.

Yet we easily forget Frankl’s read more