How Did Life Begin on Earth?

A mind-bending, fantastic question: how did life on earth begin? This is a subject not only for speculation, but also for scientific investigation. We explore the leading theories for the origin of life on our planet.

Bernie Sanders Rally in Oregon

Full Speech: Bernie Sanders Rally 'A Future to Believe In' in Springfield, OR, April 28. Bernie challenges the Democratic party to find its soul. 

John Oliver: Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is suffering a massive debt crisis. Lin-Manuel Miranda (author of the musical Hamilton) joins John Oliver to call for relief.

The Long Journey from the Age of Jackson to Harriet Tubman on the Twenty

Catherine Clinton History News Network
When I began my academic career over forty years ago, the idea that a sea change from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman would happen within my lifetime, that my students would come to college familiar with not only Harriet Tubman—but also Harriet Beecher Stowe and Harriet Jacobs—seemed unimaginable. The forgotten voices of women, particularly women of color, are being recovered.

Finally, Campaign Finance Reform Gets Some Political Respect

Kathy Kiely Moyers & Company
Campaign finance reform, long a lonely political backwater frequented only by good government groups, is suddenly becoming a hot new address for some of this year’s candidates. Whether that will lead to a vibrant new political community remains the open question.

Friday Nite Videos -- April 29, 2016

Portside
John Oliver: Puerto Rico. Bernie Challenges Dems. Pres. Obama's Language Games. How Did Life Begin on Earth? Samantha Bee | Twenty-Dollar Tubman.

Trump, Bullying, and the Legacy of White Supremacist Terror: Let’s Call it What it Really Is

Dave Stovall Beacon Broadside
This was written by educator Dave Stovall shortly after Trump was run out of Chicago earlier this year in March and serves as an important reminder: White supremacy predates and will last well beyond Trump. This is not a strange blip in the annals of U.S. history. It is in its foundation. This piece appeared originally on Beacon Broadside.

Stefan Zweig's Messages From a Lost World

Scott McLemee Insider Higher Ed
In the period between the world wars, Stefan Zweig was among the world's best-known authors. His books would soon fuel Nazi bonfires. Zweig held that humanity could no longer afford the belligerent nationalism that had led them into the Great War. Yet Zweig was struck dumb by post 1933 events. That failure, the reviewer says, was of imagination, not nerve. Against the Nazis' depredations, all the consummate writer and speaker could muster was nostalgia for a lost world.