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Archive 13: 2020

Shows Available from Pirate Television

Pirate Television is a weekly 58 min television program nationally syndicated on Free Speech TV.  In addition it is broadcast on Seattle Community Media and several  Public Access stations in the US.  Pirate TV challenges the Media Blockade by bringing you alternative information and independent programming that is unavailable on the Corporate Sponsor-Ship.  The show features talks, interviews and documentaries.  The purpose of Pirate TV is to put back what corporate media filter out.

These links are to the online version of these programs which are usually longer than the broadcast versions. Some of the material seen on Pirate TV is obtained from other sources but most of it is locally produced and owned by us.  We are offering to sell copies of this material to support the operation.  If you would like to support the Pirate Television project you can obtain a copy of any of these discs for a $20 donation (includes postage) in advance.  To obtain videotapes or DVDs, contact us first by email:

PirateTVSeattle(at)gmail.com

We like to expand Pirate Television to other broadcast venues.  If you would like to get on the Pirate Television schedule notification list-serve, or if you have questions, drop us a line.

Shows are listed in reverse chronological order:

Samuel Woolley: The Reality Game, Monday 1/20/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM

Despite Samuel Woolley’s warnings as early as 2013, the problem of online disinformation stormed our political process in 2016 and has only worsened since. Woolley shares urgent perspectives from his book The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth. He cautions that technology may soon play an even deeper role in the rise of disinformation—with human-like automated voice systems, machine learning, “deepfake” AI-edited videos and images, interactive memes, virtual reality, and more. Information literacy is an essential ingredient in a healthy democracy, and Woolley shows how the breakneck rate of technological change is making it nearly impossible. Woolley argues for a new culture of invention, one built around accountability and transparency. Sit in for a treatise on preventing technological manipulation in our future, and a call for us to use our new tools not to control people but to empower them.

Samuel Woolley is a writer and researcher with a focus on emerging media technologies, propaganda and politics. He is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas-Austin. Woolley’s work looks at how automation, algorithms and AI are leveraged for both democracy and control.

Thanks to Town Hall Seattle and Elliott Bay Books. Recorded 1/9/20

Michael Lerner: A Political Manifesto to Heal the World, Monday 1/13/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM

Many liberals and progressives yearn for coherent alternatives to capitalism, but previous visions of socialism do not necessarily account for anything beyond material benefits. Social theorist and psychotherapist Rabbi Michael Lerner talks about his strategy for a new socialism built on love, kindness, and compassion for one another. Drawing from his book “Revolutionary Love”, Lerner proposes a method to replace what he terms the “capitalist globalization of selfishness” with a globalization of generosity, prophetic empathy, and environmental sanity.

Lerner challenges liberal and progressive forces to move beyond politics and build a movement that can reverse the environmental destructiveness and social injustice caused by wanton pursuit of profit. Revisiting the hidden injuries of class, Lerner shows that much of the suffering in our society- including most of its addictions and the growing embrace of right-wing nationalism and reactionary versions of fundamentalism- is driven by frustrated needs for community, love, respect, and connection to a higher purpose in life. Yet these needs are too often missing from liberal discourse. Lerner contends that even if progressive programs are smartly constructed, they cannot be achieved unless they speak to the heart and address the pain so many people experience. Join Lerner to explore his idea of a “Caring Society” and develop the courage to stop listening to those who tell us that fundamental social transformation is unrealistic.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is the editor of Tikkun magazine. He is the author of eleven books, including two national bestsellers, “Jewish Renewal” and “The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right”. Lerner, who has PhDs in philosophy and social and clinical psychology, was chosen for the 2019 Humanitarian Award by the International Association of Sufism. He has also received Morehouse College’s King-Gandhi Award for his work for peace and nonviolence.

Thanks to Town Hall Seattle & University Book Store. Recorded 12/12/19

Joshua Douglas: How to Take Back Our Elections, Monday 1/6/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM

In contrast to the anxiety surrounding our voting system, with stories about voter suppression and manipulation, there are actually quite a few positive initiatives toward voting rights reform. Professor Joshua A. Douglas, an expert on our electoral system, examines these encouraging developments in this talk discussing his new book "Vote for Us: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting". We learn how regular Americans are working to take back their democracy, one community at a time.

Told through the narratives of those working on positive voting rights reforms, Douglas gives examples of citizen activists expanding voter eligibility, easing voter registration rules, making voting more convenient, enhancing accessibility at the polls, providing voters with more choices, finding ways to comply with voter ID rules, giving redistricting back to the voters, pushing back on big money through local and state efforts, using journalism to make the system more accountable, and improving civics education. At the end of his book, Professor Douglas includes an appendix that lists organizations all over the country working on these efforts.

Professor Douglas gives anyone fed up with our current political environment the ideas and tools necessary to affect change in their own communities.

Thanks to the League of Women Voters WA, Fix Democracy First & Third Place Books. Recorded 7/2/19