November 27 – A Pesticide-Free Thanksgiving Meal at Monsanto’s HQ; The Religious Underpinnings of Thanksgiving; Challenges Facing A Divided America

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with a different kind of Thanksgiving celebration taking place at the headquarters of the agribusiness giant Monsanto and speak with the Reverend Billy, an anti-corporatist activist, who in the role of a revivalist minister, leads the Church of Stop Shopping. He joins us to discuss the pesticide-free organic meal he and his choir are participating in and the challenges the environment faces from the production of corporate food that is killing off bee colonies necessary for the production of natural food, and what this veteran activist, who has been jailed more than 50 times defending neighborhood economies and freedom of expression in public places, is thankful for on Thanksgiving.

Part 2

Then we hear from best-selling author Frank Schaeffer, whose parents were world-famous evangelicals and who eventually experienced a crisis of faith that led to his departure from the evangelical movement. We will discuss his latest book “Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God” and the religious underpinnings of Thanksgiving as well as the uncomfortable historical truths associated with this hallowed American tradition of feasting with family and friends.

Part 3

Then finally we examine some of the meta-trends facing the country as a divided America celebrates Thanksgiving.Stephan Schwartz, the editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net, where he identifies and analyses trends that are affecting the future, joins us to discuss the divisions on display in Ferguson, Missouri and the wider Red State-Blue State divide in America, as well as the challenges facing the nation from rising inequality, the hollowing out of the middle class and the denial of climate change, the catastrophic impacts of which will leave an America with little for which to be thanksful.