If You Love This Planet, Dr. Helen Caldicott

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In this episode, Dr. Caldicott interviews Ralph Nader, one of America’s most effective social critics. Named by The Atlantic as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the hundred most influential Americans of the twentieth century, his documented criticism of government and industry has had widespread effect on public awareness and bureaucratic power. Nader is an American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and four-time candidate for president of the United States, having run as a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008. For over four decades, Nader has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public (more…)

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On If You Love This Planet this week, Dr. Caldicott interviews Diane D’Arrigo about the massive and ongoing problem of nuclear and contaminated waste. D’Arrigo is the Radioactive Waste Project Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). D’Arrigo, who has been with NIRS since 1986, has a degree in chemistry and environmental studies and has closely followed so-called “low-level” nuclear waste issues for decades. Relevant to this episode, read the 2007 NIRS press release New Report
Finds Nuclear Weapons Materials Released to Landfills Pathways Open for Reuse and Recycling. Read the report written by D’Arrigo and Mary Olson of NIRS, Out of Control — On Purpose: DOE’s Dispersal of Radioactive Waste into Landfills and Consumer Products. (more…)

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This week’s guest, Professor Timothy Mousseau, is Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Education, and Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia. Since 1999, Prof. Mousseau and his collaborators have explored the ecological and evolutionary consequences of the radioactive contaminants affecting birds, insects and people inhabiting the Chernobyl region of Ukraine. In this interview with
Dr. Caldicott, Prof. Mousseau discusses his research, which suggests that many species of plants and animals suffer from increased mutational loads as a result of exposure to radionuclides stemming from the Chernobyl disaster. Of interest, read the August 13 article Chernobyl: The Gift That Never Stops Giving. Also see the BBC slide show, Working in the Chernobyl ‘zone of alienation’. (more…)

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This week, Dr. Caldicott talks with American journalist, author, and war correspondent Chris Hedges about military culture and the consequences of combat. Hedges,
a Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute, specializes in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies, and his most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009). He is also the author of War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, What Every Person Should Know About War, and When Atheism Becomes Religion: America’s New Fundamentalists. In 2002, Hedges was part of the team of reporters at The New York Times awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He also received in 2002 the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University. He currently writes a weekly column for Truthdig.com. Read his latest columns and his earlier work here. Particularly relevant to this program is Hedges’s article, The Pictures of War You are Not Supposed to See. (more…)

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This week, we present a repeat of Dr. Caldicott’s 2009 interview with Colette Livermore, M.D. Dr. Livermore joined Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, a religious organization within the Catholic Church, at the age of 18. After serving for eleven years, Dr. Livermore left the order, and obtained her medical degree from the University of Queensland. She is currently a general practitioner living in Australia. Her memoir, Hope Endures, was published in late 2008, and has been described as a “compelling chronicle of idealistic determination, rigid discipline, and shattering disillusionment.” In this interview with Dr. Caldicott, Dr. Livermore talks about her experiences working with Mother Teresa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the events that eventually led her to leave the order and take her life in a different direction. (more…)