Mountain Philosopher

The Punisher and The Punished Today’s conversation is with retired Marine corporal Adam Ranke. A decorated Force Recon vet, Adam served in the Corps from 2002 to 2006 and then worked as a private military contractor from 2011 to 2016. Adam is an accomplished heavy metal bassist playing with his band Sign of the Southern Cross (you can find their album, Of Mountains and Moonshine in the show notes,). He is a former Mixed Martial Arts fighter (Muay Thai school), a “one percenter” (the Outlaws...

A conversation with investigative journalist and teacher Justin Parmenter about the players in the merit pay scheme, who is funding the marketing, and the dark connection to menthol cigarettes. Plenty to see in the show notes. https://tinyurl.com/meritpaygate

Deja vu: Another stillborn education reform for the people of North Carolina — a conversation with public education advocate and teacher Kim Mackey. As Yogi Berra said, “it’s deja vu all over again.” And the deja vu is yet another public education reform effort. Yet another proposal which believes the solution to what ails North Carolina public education is lack of tasty carrots for teachers, and the assumption we have too often been spared the beatings from sticks. So, If you’ll give me...

We all know that part of the reason for the extreme red/blue, Republican/Democrat, rural/suburban/urban divide when it comes to actual electoral results lies in the arena of values, sensibilities, traditions. Population densities, geological topographies, and their attendant histories shape our thinking more than we usually, probably always, know. Beyond all of that is an ugly truth which the Democratic Party and progressives are loath to acknowledge. And that truth is they have almost...

Today I'm interviewing two 2016 Franklin High School graduates who are also graduating from Western Carolina University’s Masters in Public Administration program in a few weeks. Erick Mendez and Matt Wilson came back onto my radar after writing columns on racism for WNC publications, and I’ve included those columns in the show notes. The penetrating incisiveness of their writing, their clarity, their call to action pierced the fog of the op ed page. We discussed their time in Macon County...

Episode 2: “Making the Revolution Between Starshine and Clay”, with special guest George Friday Lucille Clifton’s Won’t You Celebrate With Me? Langston Hughes’ Let America Be America Again Nikki Giovanni’s Revolutionary Dreams Nikole Hannah-Jones essay from the 1619 Project collection Etymology of “celebrate” and the Nikole Hannah-Jones segments referenced in the episode Caul Birth Bernard Bailyn’s Ideological Origins of the American Revolution PDF of full text Excellent summary and...

Episode 1 - Eugenics: The Dark Side of American Progressivism Lesson by Lili Vitale lilianarvitale@gmail.com Station One https://www.dropbox.com/s/zlecrhzjiv8ufq2/Station%20One%20%282%29.pdf?dl=0 Station Two https://www.dropbox.com/s/20ktslaf3t3vd91/Station%20Two%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0 Station Three https://www.dropbox.com/s/6eguka88zejzc26/Station%20Three%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0 Station Four https://www.dropbox.com/s/yocrfaejvt3w94y/Station%20Four%20%282%29.pdf?dl=0 Station...