In the spirit of upcoming Halloween, the new interview is about a horror graphic novel trilogy. Tim Mulligan adds supernatural forces to the most radioactive site in the United States, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland Washington. In this interview we talk about the real horrors of radioactive releases and the fictional horrors of witches, ghosts and radioactive bats.

Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point, started out as secular, promoting capitalism, free markets and the separation of church and state. All of that changed in 2020 when he embraced the “Seven Mountains Mandate”, a theology promoting a Christian takeover of government, education, media, family, business, arts, and religion. It’s so reactionary that only a small minority of evangelicals agree with its principles. Many of the key players in Donald Trump’s regime are part of this movement and are working to dismantle democracy and replace it with theocracy.

As political events in the United States wobble towards an authoritarian takeover it’s easy to lose sight of the larger picture. The price of food is going nowhere but up as climate disruption, soil depletion and water scarcity take hold. Scientists warn that changes to the earth’s life support systems could trigger irreversible changes to the biosphere. In his book How to Fix a Broken Planet, Julian Cribb describes the interrelated problems and remedial actions that could lead to meaningful change.

As a human rights investigator Michael Shaikh shared many meals with people fleeing war and political persecution. One of the overlooked casualties of this violence is cuisine and hospitality traditions. His book is part history, part travelog and part cookbook where you learn about the world and then re-create the aromas and tastes of other times and places.

As we watch climate chaos and the rise of fascism fundamentally change our world we need to find new ways of structuring society. In her book 'Practicing Social Ecology' Eleanor Finley uses examples of grassroots movements that are rethinking our relationship to the natural world and each other.

PFAS is a group of chemicals that didn't exist in the world until humans created them in the 1940's. They're highly toxic endocrine disruptors that affect the thyroid, liver, kidney and reproductive organs. Now they are everywhere. They're found in the bloodstreams of polar bears and the rain falling on the Tibetan plateau. How did this happen? In her book They Poisoned the World Mariah Blake traces PFAS from the Manhattan Project to the Trump regime.

In Eiren Caffall's memoir she pairs her private grief over learning she has a genetic disease that will end her life prematurely with the collective grief for the collapsing ecosystem.

Before the last election Lee McIntyre published his book On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy. Now that we are dealing with Constitutional collapse his message is even more crucial.