Virtually Speaking: Culture of Truth, Ted Rall, Lee Smolin, Susie Madrak, Stuart Zechman, Jay Ackroyd

Schedule for Sunday, Sept 18 through Thursday Sept 22. With help from listener commentary and questions, we talk with  some of your favorite writers: political analysts, media critics, technologists, historians, etc. Virtually Speaking is public affairs, progressive voices, current events. Comments and questions courtesy of a digitally present studio audience. Which could include you. (see IRC below) All programs webcast and archived at BlogTalkRadio.  Available free at iTunes. See IRC below to participate. I post weekly, so you can go back to previous posts and link through to the juicy stuff. Miss it the first time? Read the intro to Virtually Speaking.

Special thanks this week to Social Security Works‘ Alex Lawson who stepped up at the very last minute to fill in on Virtually Speaking Susie and helped us all get clear on what’s real and what’s at risk vis Social Security and Medicare. Has everyone realized that reforming dismantling these programs would be an unmitigated disaster? Listen here.

Sunday, Sept 18 | 9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific |Stuart Zechman and Culture of Truth discuss developments of the week, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts. Informative, thoughtful and passionate. Culture of Truth is the pen name for a constitutional attorney. He writes the Culture of Truth blog and the wickedly funny Bobblespeak Translations, where every week, he decodes the Sunday morning talking heads, telling us “What They’re Really Saying When They’re Saying What They’re Saying.”
Listen live and later on BTR

Tuesday, Sept 20 | 9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking Susie | Journalist, blogger and working class warrior Susie Madrak Susie Madrak talks with political cartoonist and graphic novelist Ted Rall. Check out his latest book: “The Anti-American Manifesto.”| Listen live and later on BTR

Thursday, Sept 22 | Double Header

8 pm eastern | 5 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking A-Z | Stuart Zechman and Jay Ackroyd| This week in liberalism: an ongoing discussion based on the conflict between movement liberals–liberals committed to the principles of Adam Smith and FDR–and the centrist elites who run the Democratic party.  Jay and Stuart consider the nature, ideology and political realities of liberalism and conversely, the nature, ideology and political realities of Democratic centrism.  Listen live on BTR. Beginning midnight Friday, listen here.

9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd | Jay talks with cosmologist Lee Smolin about the nature of time. Best known for devising several different approaches to quantum gravity, in particular loop quantum gravity, Lee  advocates that the two primary approaches to quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity and string theory, can be reconciled as different aspects of the same underlying theory. He has contributed to cosmology, the foundations of quantum mechanics, astrophysics, theoretical biology, philosophy of science and, recently, economics.

The fecund universes theory of cosmology he advanced, also called cosmological natural selection theory, suggests that a process analogous to biological natural selection applies at the grandest scales. Smolin summarized the idea in a book aimed at a lay audience called The Life of the Cosmos, which they plan to talk about. Two later books for lay audiences are Three Roads to Quantum Gravity and The Trouble with Physics. UPDATE: Lee offers this video and this PDF related to his work on the reality of time. Listen live and later on BTR.

Tweet along with us: @stuart_zechman @jayackroyd @SusieMadrak @sherry_reson

Be part of the conversation. Ask questions, chat live with other listeners:
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allows you to be part of the virtual studio audience (aka chat room), sharing comments and questions while listening to Virtually Speaking live on BlogTalkRadio. Logs are shared with the show hosts and guests.

Use IRC:

1. Connect to http://webchat.freenode.net/
2. Create a log-in name
3. Enter #vspeak into the channel field.
4. NOTE: ‘Relay Rinq’ is not a person but a bridge to IRC chat.
5. Type into the text field along the bottom of the screen.
6. Begin your question with ‘QUESTION’ so it’s easy for the host (and me) to spot.

Show Notes: Listen better, listen smarter with some specific and general information.

• Virtually Speaking Sundays| Can’t bear to watch the Sunday morning talking heads that inspire VS Sundays? Let Culture of Truth boil them down for you with the Bobblespeak Translations. Warning: swallow and put down the hot tea/coffee/cocoa before reading.

The VS Sunday panel draws from Avedon Carol, Cliff Schecter,  Culture of Truth, David Dayen, digby,  Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler, Stuart Zechman and  Susie Madrak. From time to time, the make-up of the panel shifts. Also, every 5 weeks or so, one of our regular panelists invites a guest to join them.

Virtually Speaking is both a labor of love and an act of political imagination. We couldn’t do it without our guests, our hosts, our ‘studio’ audience and our crew. Special thanks to Designer Mark MacKay for weekly and special graphic displays.