Discussions With David is an hour-long interview program that I've been doing live, livestreaming at davidrovics.com/quarantine and on YouTube, Periscope/Twitter, Facebook and VK at 10 am Pacific most days of the week during the pandemic crisis.  Each episode is also archived here on SoundCloud as well as on a playlist on my YouTube channel, and it goes out as an episode of the This Week with David Rovics podcast, which you can subscribe to on all the usual podcasting platforms.

Discussions With David

Occasional, bite-sized chunks of anarchist commentary and culture.  Each episode consists of an audio essay followed by a song.  Available wherever you get your podcasts.

This Week with David Rovics

There is widespread recognition that Portland's public schools are under-funded and under-staffed (like most of the public schools throughout the United States).  There is an ill-conceived initiative to reform the Local Schools Foundation.  The LSF is the primary reason the better-functioning schools are able to function better, and this reform would kill it, in the name of equity.  But if the answer is taking money from an already under-funded, under-staffed elementary school, then we're asking the wrong question.

An Open Letter to PPS School Board on proposed reform to Local Schools Foundations

Senator John McCain is dead.  Speak good of the dead.  Good -- he's dead.

John McCain

No, not Shakespeare -- Hamlet, North Carolina.  September 3rd, 1991.

Remembering Hamlet

AP is reporting several of the children separated from their parents have been sexually abused in captiviity.  Unfortunately, sexually abusing children after separating them from their parents is as American as apple pie.

Child Separations

The CIA-backed military coup in Chile on September 11th, 1973 resulted in thousands killed and tortured over the course of a brutal dictatorship that began that day.  It also gave rise to some impressive acts of solidarity.  In Scotland, workers at the factory that repaired all the engines for the entire Chilean Air Force refused to touch a fascist engine.  For a time, it was revealed recently, the entire Chilean Air Force was grounded as a result.

September 11th, 1973

The Global Financial Crisis began in earnest 10 years ago this week, and the first of the series of global protests that began with a protest in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan on this date in 2011.  I was there.

Remembering Occupy Wall Street

Here's the audio version of the livestreamed broadcast I did this morning on various platforms, at 10 am Pacific Time.  It's me yapping for an hour about songwriting, mostly, and answering related questions from folks who tuned in live on either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Linked In or VK.  If you'd rather watch it, you'll find it archived on all those platforms.

Pandemic Songwriting

My first interview victim on this new Discussions With David series of livestreamed broadcasts I'm doing from my living room is Peter Werbe, founding editor of the Fifth Estate newspaper, and longtime Detroit-area talk show host.

Discussion with Peter Werbe

In this hour I talked with London-based photojournalist, Guy Smallman, about a wide-ranging variety of subjects that Guy has extensive and very current knowledge of, including mutual aid in London, Afghan refugees in Greece, and the corruption of the ruling parties of the UK.

Discussion With Guy Smallman

In this hour with songwriter and author, Robb Johnson, we talk about school, parenting, being quarantined with children, the history of education, tour cancellations, viral pandemics and other exciting subjects.  Robb has a new book out on PM Press titled The People's Republic Of Neverland: The Child versus the State.

Discussion With Robb Johnson

In this hour with Maire McNally -- revolutionary, history buff, and grandmother from Belfast, Ireland -- we talk about life under quarantine, the plight of essential workers, Irish politics currently and historically, the history of civilization, the IRA, the commonality of liberation struggles around the world, and many other things.

Discussion With Maire McNally

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), libertarian socialist, dad, lover of life.