GOOD EVENING: The show begins in Pennsylvania with Salena Zito commenting on the maverick and compelling Senator John Fetterman of Braddock, PA.

The John Batchelor Show

GOOD EVENING: The show begins in Pennsylvania with Salena Zito commenting on the maverick and compelling Senator John Fetterman of Braddock, PA.
1912 Breaker Boys Pennsylvania
CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR
FIRST HOUR
9-915 #KeystoneReport: John Fetterman just didn't care to go to Chicago. Salena Zito, Middle of Somewhere, @DCExaminer Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New York Post, SalenaZito.com
915-930 #PacificWatch: #VegasReport: The Sphere brings in $1 million a day. @JCBliss
930-945 #SmallBusinessAmerica: The Fed and small business. @GeneMarks @Guardian @PhillyInquirer
945-1000 #SmallBusinessAmerica: Boomers sell to Millennials. @GeneMarks @Guardian @PhillyInquirer
SECOND HOUR
10-1015 #CALIFORNIA: Gavin Newsom left off the stage at Chicago, why? Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution
1015-1030 #KURSK: Another nuclear power plant in a war zone. Henry Sokolski, NPEC
1030-1045 #SCOTUS: On "price-gouging" home mortgage "subsidizing" and other micromanagement tools. Richard Epstein, Hoover Institution
1045-1100 #SCOTUS: Both parties and candidates fail on entitlements. Richard Epstein, Hoover Institution
THIRD HOUR
1100-1115 5/8: The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Playbook-Theater-Democracy-Making-Culture-ebook/dp/B0CGTQFQ8H From 1935 to 1939, the Federal Theatre Project staged over a thousand productions in 29 states that were seen by thirty million (or nearly one in four) Americans, two-thirds of whom had never seen a play before. At its helm was an unassuming theater professor, Hallie Flanagan. It employed, at its peak, over twelve thousand struggling artists, some of whom, like Orson Welles and Arthur Miller, would soon be famous, but most of whom were just ordinary people eager to work again at their craft. It was the product of a moment when the arts, no less than industry and agriculture, were thought to be vital to the health of the republic, bringing Shakespeare to the public, alongside modern plays that confronted the pressing issues of the day—from slum housing and public health to racism and the rising threat of fascism.
The Playbook takes us through some of its most remarkable productions, including a groundbreaking Black production of Macbeth in Harlem and an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's anti-fascist novel It Can't Happen Here that opened simultaneously in 18 cities, underscoring the Federal Theatre's incredible range and vitality. But this once thriving Works Progress Administration relief program did not survive and has left little trace. For the Federal Theatre was the first New Deal project to be attacked and ended on the grounds that it promoted "un-American" activity, sowing the seeds not only for the McCarthyism of the 1950s but also for our own era of merciless polarization. It was targeted by the first House Un-American Activities Committee, and its demise was a turning point in American cultural life—for, as Shapiro brilliantly argues, "the health of democracy and theater, twin born in ancient Greece, have always been mutually dependent."
A defining legacy of this culture war was how the strategies used to undermine and ultimately destroy the Federal Theatre were assembled by a charismatic and cunning congressman from East Texas, the now largely forgotten Martin Dies, who in doing so pioneered the right-wing political playbook now so prevalent that it seems eternal.
1115-1130 6/8: The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War Kindle Edition by James Shapiro (Author)
1130-1145 7/8: The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War Kindle Edition by James Shapiro (Author)
1145-1200 8/8: The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War Kindle Edition by James Shapiro (Author)
FOURTH HOUR
12-1215 LANCASTER REPORT: zDiscounts: Jim McTague, former Washington Editor, Barrons. @MCTagueJ. Author of the "Martin and Twyla Boundary Series." #FriendsofHistoryDebatingSociety
1215-1230 #ITALY: Overtourism. Lorenzo Fiori, Ansaldo Foundation
1230-1245 #NASA: Starliner's fate. Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com
1245-100 am MOON: China strikes water. Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com