Episodes

GPM # 86 The first phase of a ceasefire is now underway in war-ravaged Gaza. The tiny enclave’s woe begotten people, now free to return home under the terms of the US/Qatari/Egyptian-brokered deal, are overjoyed. That joy is tempered by the enormous death toll they’ve suffered, and the horrific devastation before their eyes. Numbers speak volumes. When Israel’s assault began, following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 breakout from what informed commentators refer to as a ghetto, an open-air prison,...

GPM # 85 The issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former War Minister, Yoav Gallant, last November 21, descended like a lightning bolt on the two men, neither of whom figured they’d ever face justice for crimes they vehemently deny. Equally shaken up – some ready and willing to fulfill their duty to the world’s top criminal court; others reportedly hedging their bets – were the 125 State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal ...

GPM # 84 Some are cheering. It may be premature. On December 8, after almost 25 years of rule, and against all odds, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was deposed by a small army of Islamist rebels. Assad, a reportedly soft-spoken ophthalmologist, has taken refuge in Moscow. Assad’s ouster brings to an end 54 years of dynastic, authoritarian, and exceptionally brutal rule. Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, seized power in 1971. Memories of his crackdown on grassroots opponents affiliated with th...

GPM # 83 The issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former War Minister, Yoav Gallant, on November 21, descended like a lightning bolt on the two men, neither of whom figured they’d ever face justice for crimes they vehemently deny. Equally shaken up – some ready and willing to fulfill their duty to the world’s top criminal court; others hedging their bets – were the 125 State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), ...

GPM # 82 Eighty years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the real reasons for America’s hideous assault have been unearthed by a small army of scholars. Among these – a guy named Glenn Alcalay, Associate Professor of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, at City University of New York. Back in the mid-1970s, Glenn Alcalay spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Marshall Islands, just north of the equator, in the Central Pacific, site of 67 nuclear tests betw...

GPM # 81 Of all the staunchly pro-Israel Western powers who mouth support for a ‘two-state’ solution to Israel’s ‘conflict’ with the Palestinian people, no one puts its money where its mouth isn’t more than Canada. Ottawa’s formal position appears straightforward, even just-minded. Canada “recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination,” Foreign Affairs Canada declares at its website, and is “committed to the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, includin...

GPM # 80 Wanna destroy a people in whole or in part? In other words, commit genocide – as genocide is defined under international law? You don’t need gas chambers, firing squads, and deep ditches. Just destroy their schools and universities. Bomb their libraries, archives and cultural institutions; seize their historical records. Make it as hard as possible to go to their kids to go to school. According to a late August report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian...

Annihilation Doctrine Over a year has passed since October 7, 2023 — the Palestinian/Israeli equivalent of 9-11. In the course of its vengeful response to the invasion of southern Israel by Gaza-based Palestinian resistance fighters, itself precipitated by 17 years of brutal Israeli siege, Israel occupation forces have killed at least 42,000 Gazans, 16,000 of them children. Palestinian casualties, direct and indirect, are surely higher. Some conflict epidemiologists peg the number at 180,000 ...

GPM # 78 Bacteria are Earth’s most ancient creatures. And there are lots of them, with a total mass a thousand times more than all humans. Microbes — both prokaryotic and eukaryotic — make planet Earth go round. Some of them are dangerous pathogens. Most of them aren’t. Indeed, some bacteria are great kitchen companions. Anna Sigrithur has been harnessing microbial magic, fermenting food and drinks for years. She’s also a writer and artist, focusing on food cultures, food preservation, ferme...

GPM # 77 This past September 11 – an indelibly dreadful date — thirty-four Palestinians were killed in a pair of Israeli airstrikes on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza. Twelve-thousand were sheltering there at the time, most of them women and children. Among the casualties, six aid workers with the UN Relief & Works Agency, UNRWA. Founded in 1949, UNRWA provides humanitarian aid, protection and social services to millions of Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria...

GPM # 76 It’s a staggering statistic. Covid killed almost seven million worldwide. The number is likely higher. Meanwhile, a potentially deadlier pandemic sweeps the planet — Bacterial infections antibiotics can’t cure. According to one UK government study, by 2050, ten million may die annually, infected by multi or pan-resistant microbes no drug will kill. Drug resistance is the ineluctable result of antibiotic overuse or misuse – to treat viral infections, for example. What doesn’t kill in...

GPM # 75 Humanity has never faced a more monumental challenge. After two centuries of burning fossil carbon, trashing the atmosphere, pushing Earth systems to the edge of collapse, industrial societies need to develop other sources of energy that are renewable and clean. The prospects are frightening, but climate angst has an antidote. Wind and solar, for sure. There’s another vast storehouse of energy on half the world’s doorstep — Earth’s oceans. Covering three quarters of the planet’s su...

GPM # 74 Five weeks shy of the first anniversary of October 7, 2023 and the launch of Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza, the GPM sat down with one of the conflict’s most astute observers, Mouin Rabbani. Rabbani shared his thoughts about Israel’s genocidal war, the Palestinian people’s depleted, divided and leaderless ‘national liberation movement’ (a state of affairs much to Israel-USA’s liking), and about the much touted ‘Axis of Resistance’ — a coalition of independent parties that know h...

GPM # 73 “It’s the economy, stupid.” In search of US presidential campaign slogans summing up what concerned voters, this was the catchiest Bill Clinton strategist Jim Carville came up with, back in 1992. “Change vs. more of the same” and “Don’t forget health care” were much less memorable. Thirty-two years and eight presidential campaigns later, another pressing issue is on the minds of those who’d likely vote for Kamala Harris, if she gets on the right page — an arms embargo on Israel, and...

GPM # 72 Seventy-nine years ago, on August 6, 1945, the US dropped a uranium-enriched fission bomb, code named ‘Little Boy’, on the Japanese port city, Hiroshima. Three days later, they dropped a second bomb, a plutonium-implosion device — Fat Man — on Nagasaki. When the dust settled, between 130 and 225,000 people were dead or dying. To this day, casualty numbers vary widely. One thing is clear: they were almost all civilians. Thousands more would sicken and die in the years to come. Ameri...

GPM # 71 On July 19, the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, issued a historic ruling. In an 83-page Advisory Opinion, addressed to the UN General Assembly, the UN’s top court declared that Israel’s 56-year belligerent occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza is unlawful, and that Israel must terminate it in short order. The self-declared ‘Jewish State’ must also stop building settlements, the ICJ advised the UN, evacuate all its settlers, allow Palestinians to...

GPM # 70 Guess what? Mobile phones are covered in germs. Duhh … You talk into them. You spit on them. You touch them with hands you just sneezed or coughed into! You take them into the toilet! The GPM spoke about the dark, dirty side of smart phones with Lotti Tajouri, Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics at Bond University, in Robina, Australia. Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast, or go here. The US anti-abortion movement portrays itself as ‘pro-life’, ‘pro-family’, and con...

GPM # 69 Wheat: genus Triticum. It’s a grass, a cereal, cultivated around the world for its grain, across vast swaths of land. Alongside maize and rice, wheat is the food staple for human beings here on Planet Earth. Wheat has come a long way since humans began cultivating it, 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. Of the dozens of species, Triticum aestivum is the most commonly grown these days. Since the launch of the Green Revolution, sixty years ago, Triticum has come to be bred for a...

GPM # 68 The pollution of Earth’s atmosphere by fossil fuel burning is just one of the insults the planet faces in this human-engineered age of ours – the Anthropocene. In their relentless hunger for food, fiber and fuel, humans have transformed an estimated three quarters of Earth’s vegetated land surface, and appropriated a quarter of its natural productivity. Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production, or HANPP, it’s called. Fridolin Krausmann is an authority on the phenomenon and metri...

GPM # 67 Israel’s assault on Gaza – plausibly genocidal, according to the International Court of Justice – is now into its tenth month. Almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by American bombs and missiles, half of them women and children. Unknown numbers lie dead and rotting beneath the rubble. Ninety thousand have been injured. Apartment blocks, schools, universities, hospitals, places of worship, cultural institutions and most of Gaza’s sewage treatment infrastructure are now in ruins...

GPM # 66 Back in late May, Spain, Ireland and Norway declared their formal recognition of Palestinian statehood. One hundred-forty five out 193 UN member states now do so. In situations like this, Israel doesn’t just fulminate. It doubles down on its illegal activities — activities it knows it can carry out with impunity — all the while turning the screws on Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. One day after Spain, Ireland and Norway’s statehood recognition came into effect, the Israe...

GPM # 65 It’s a living web beneath our feet – a tangled network of microscopic tubes weaving through the soil, pulsating with nutrients, tying the roots of trees and other plants into vast networks. Mycorrhizal fungi they’re called. Most plants rely on them entirely. But, mycorrhizal fungi do more than just feed plants. They cycle carbon from atmosphere to soil and back again, regulating Earth’s climate – and they face a host of threats. Soil scientists have come together to protect fungal ne...

GPM # 64 What makes music sound funky? What makes it sound thrilling, sad, offbeat or downright strange? What makes you hum along, before you even know what notes come next? The ability to ‘understand’ and interpret music is hardwired in your brain. I spoke about this with Roger Dumas. Dumas is a neuromusicologist and brain-audio innovator, with a long, storied career. Having introduced Janet Jackson, Prince and other artists to the Moog synthesizer, Dumas took up research study at the Univers...

GPM # 63 Wanna destroy a people in whole or in part? In other words, commit genocide – as genocide is defined under international law? You don’t need gas chambers or firing squads and deep ditches. Just destroy their schools and universities. Bomb their libraries, archives and cultural institutions; seize their historical records. Make it as hard as possible for their kids to go to school. “With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed,” a group of UN experts declared in an Apri...