Latest Content for Old Mole Variety Hour

  Jon Nelson hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments: Democracy in Portland: Portland is embarking on a great experiment, a pretty radical change in the how the city council and mayor operate, thanks to the Charter Commission and a 58%... Read more

Portland is embarking on a great experiment, a pretty radical change in the how the city council and mayor operate, thanks to the Charter Commission and a 58% approval from the voters. But will it work to democratize city governance and can city elites be defeated in the... Read more

Norm Diamond speaks with Patricia Kullberg about the ambiguous role of so-called medical populism as it has played out during the Covid epidemic and earlier during the mid-twentieth century polio epidemic in this country. Medical populism often rises up out of legitimate... Read more

Patricia Kullberg as our Well-Read Red, reads excerpts from an article by epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, who finds that Covid-19 disinformation is coordinated, effective, lucrative, and cost lives. The article was originally published on a Substack Newsletter called Yo... Read more

Desiree Hellegers revisits an earlier segment on the life and 2021 death from Covid of Palesa Mofokeng, adopted daughter of playwright, actor, and Portland street photographer Kendall. Given the choice of a life of relative privilege in the U.S., and serving as an LPN an... Read more

  Patricia Kullberg hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments: Covid, Polio, and Medical Populism: Norm Diamond speaks with Patricia Kullberg about the ambiguous role of so-called medical populism as it has played out during the Covid ep... Read more

  Norm Diamond hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments: Left and the Law on the Supreme Court: On June 29th, the Court delivered on the long standing goal of rightwing politicians to overturn affirmative action. In deciding against Har... Read more

On June 29th, the Court delivered on the long standing goal of rightwing politicians to overturn affirmative action. In deciding against Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, the Court ruled that race could no longer be an explicit factor in college and u... Read more

Right-wing demagogues in the mold of Donald Trump or the Ku Klux Klan gain traction when there are underlying economic insecurities and cultural resentments they can exploit. That’s true today and it has been true before in the state of Oregon, as historian Jeffrey LaLan... Read more

In part two of her interview with Mexican journalist Jose Luis Granados Ceja, Luisa Martinez continues to explore the distorted coverage of that country in US media. She and Jose Luis talk about how life in Mexico is changing and the current government’s efforts in that ... Read more