To listen to recent editions of Sprouts, please visit Pacifica.org.
You may also browse archived programs below.

Thursday, November 22, 2007
Produced by Molly Stentz & M.J. LaPlae of WORT in Madison, WI
Music by Sammy Shelor & Ron Stewart, and Talib Kweli

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The 2007 Farm Bill legislation influences the way we — as individuals and as a country — farm, use land, buy food, and ultimately, eat. It effects school lunches, food aid, food stamps, conservation and land use planning, agricultural programs in universities and trade schools. To unpack some of this, we spoke with farmers, farm policy analysts, consumer advocates, and food activists to learn more. In Part 1 of a two part series, we uncover the history of the Farm Bill and why it was started, and begin to break down some of the major components of the bill — mainly commodities. We discuss the Dorgan-Grassley amendment which would limit subsidy payments. We also begin to uncover some needles in the haystack: worthy programs that would fund socially disadvantaged farmers, crop insurance, food aid, organic farming, and country of origin labeling.

Thursday, November 15, 2007
Produced by Dori Smith at WHUS in Storrs, CT

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This week on Sprouts: the journey home of Sudanese Gabriel Bol Deng, who fled his village of birth, alone as a small boy. We follow his story through more than twenty years to the moment when he and two other young Sudanese men realized their dream of returning home to find out what happened to their families and friends. We interviewed Gabriel in October when he was visiting Connecticut to try to raise funds for his project, "Hope for Ariang."

During a civil war in South Sudan that raged during the mid 1980s through the 1990s tens of thousands of kids ran for their lives as attackers on horseback razed their villages. Some 3800 of them made their way to the U.S. and some have just become U.S. citizens.

Upon fleeing his village, Gabriel Bol Deng met up with four other children and a few adults and the little group traveled deep into the jungle. Their journey would take them a thousand miles across the desert and the mighty Nile River to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. A few years later they would have to run away again as Khartoum sponsored forces bombed the refugee camp at Dimma. Gabriel Bol Deng, entered school for the first time at the age of 13.

Thursday, November 8, 2007
Produced by Stevie Converse and Candace Clement, Northampton, MA
Media Minutes, a production of Free Press (www.freepress.net/mediaminutes)

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The Federal Communications Commission - the government agency that manages the public airwaves and sets media regulations - came under heavy fire last week at a hearing in Washington, D.C. on media consolidation and its effect on local programming. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants to allow giant corporations to own even more of our local media outlets.

But the public wants something very different - and was out in force to tell him so.

Featured this week are some of the many voices of those who participated in the rally and subsequent localism hearing, which was held at FCC headquarters in Washington D.C. on October 31, 2007 and Robert W. McChesney, professor of communications at the University of Illinois and Urbana Champaign and co-founder of Free Press.

FARMER SONG

Produced by Ursula Ruedenberg and Nathan Moore, Pacifica Radio
in collaboration with:
Joe Hynek, Ellston Iowa, Grand River Arts Inc.

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By recounting the story of his own family and home town, playwright, musician, and engineer Joe Hynek brings to life Iowa's lost family farms and the tumultuous economic events during the 1980's that destroyed them. Known as the farm crises, this "modern history" as Hynek calls it, ended an era and emptied out small farm communities in much of the Midwest. 

Hynek, himself a product of the 80's, wrote a musical with his mother, Angie Hynek, about these events in order to personally say good-bye to farming. On this Sprouts show, Joe's own family story is accompanied by the music he wrote and performs from "Farmer Song." Joe memorializes American small farm culture and the historic events of the 80's, points out some people and forces responsible for the destruction, and speaks about successfully adapting to change.

BE THE MEDIA!
HISTORIC FILING FOR NONCOMMERCIAL RADIO LICENSES

Thursday, October 25, 2007
Produced by Doug George and Ursula Ruedenberg
Pacifica Radio  in New York City
Contributing producer for interviews was Nathan Moore
Pacifica National Program Coordinator in Washington DC 

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After years of anticipation, The FCC lifted a freeze on applications for full-powered, noncommercial (NCE) radio licenses between October 12 and October 22. During those ten days, more than 200 Americans applied for frequencies on behalf of community radio. NCE frequencies, which reside on the FM dial between 88.1 MHz and 91.9 MHz, are granted to American citizens by the federal government as a public trust at no cost. 

For many Americans, last week was the culmination of months, even years, of preparation.This is a story of great hope and belief in democracy. We bring you the stories of the applicants and the organizers, described in their own words.

LATINO VOICES: THE STRUGGLE FOR REPRESENTATION IN MASS MEDIA

Thursday October 18, 2007
Produced by Mo Roberts and Don Deeley at KPFT studios in Houston, Texas

University of Texas associate journalism professor and historian Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Filmmaker Stephanie Saint Sanchez, Nationally Syndicated Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz and Literary Arts Collective Nuestra Palabra deliver a collective indictment of how mass media are affecting and sometimes destroying the lives of Latinos living in America and the interminable struggle to seize the narrative.

Dr. Maggie Rivas Rodriguez recently made national headlines in her very public battle against PBS and documentarian Ken Burns. Marshaling the collective force of WW2 Latino veterans, families of veterans, and other grass roots organizations through the website Defend the Honor, launched a searing attack against the non-representation of Latinos in Mr. Burns sweeping 14 hour documentary "The War" which aired on PBS. Though Defend the Honor won editorial concessions, it's clear the war rages on.

RADIO ROOTZ YOUTH SHOWCASE

Thursday October 11, 2007
Produced by Kristal Graham and Nate Robinson of Radio Rootz in New York City
Production assistance from Doug George of the Pacifica National Office in Brooklyn, NY

This week we showcase youth-produced, social-justice documentaries:
• Sadia's struggle: to be young, undocumented, and South Asian in the U.S.
• The story of Harpal Singh, a young Sikh student whose hair was cut off by another student. We ask the question: Was it a hate crime?
• Video games -- are they addictive? How do they influence young people?

JOHN TRUDELL:
NOT AN ACTIVIST, POET OR MUSICIAN, BUT SIMPLY A HUMAN

Thursday September 27, 2007
Produced by  Lyla Johnston, El Prado, NM, with Cultural Energy:
A non-profit Organization Creating media Voices for Youth, Arts, & Activism for Northern New Mexico

"The life of John Trudell has meandered and wandered through reality led by a fiery passion for justice and truth. All that he is, can never be written or labeled, and the heart in his chest points to one thing, which is, not that he is an activist or political organizer, not a poet or a musician, not an actor or an icon, John Trudell is, as he puts it, a human."

So begins Dineh (Navajo) youth reporter Lyla Johnston's interview with John Trudell. "The life of John Trudell: born in Nebraska in 1946, he goes to Vietnam in 1963, and when he returns he pursues many forms of Native American activism, and eventually becomes the spokesman for the All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island.   He later serves as chairman of the American Indian Movement (AIM).

OVERSEAS VOICES: PEAK OIL CRISIS

Thursday September 20, 2007
Produced by Mark Stenzler of Overseas Voices in Geneva, Switzerland

Overseas Voices, a Geneva-based radio project founded in 2007, discusses the issue of 'peak oil' production and includes an interview with the Zürich-based makers of the documentary, "A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash."