Joshua Frank is co-editor, along with Jeffrey St. Clair, of the radical magazine and website CounterPunch, found online at CounterPunch.org. His most recent book, Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion was published by AK Press and co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair. Their forthcoming book, due out next fall, is Heatstroke: Earth of the Brink. Today we talk about the role of Democrats in giving this country Bush and Trump.

Katharyn Boyer's work is focused on the ecology and restoration of coastal habitats, primarily salt marshes and seagrass beds. She is particularly interested in how species interact to structure their environments and influence fundamental ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. Such basic ecological research has important implications for the restoration of damaged habitats. Today we talk about seagrasses.

George Wuerthner is the former Ecological Projects Director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. He is an ecologist and wildlands activist. He has published 38 books on environmental issues and natural history including such environmentally focused books as Welfare Ranching, Wildfire, Thrillcraft, Energy and most recently Protecting the Wild. Today we talk about the right wing assault on public lands

Eve Ensler is the Tony Award winning playwright, activist, performer and author of the theatrical phenomenon and Obie Award winning, The Vagina Monologues, which has been published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Ms. Ensler’s plays include Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man, Extraordinary Measures, Necessary Targets, OPC, The Good Body, and Emotional Creature. Her books include Insecure at Last: A Political Memoir, New York Times best seller I Am An Emotional Creature and her critically acclaimed memoir In the Body of the World. Eve adapted In the Body of the World into a play that she performed and debuted at the American Repertory Theater, directed by Diane Paulus. In January 2018, she will be premiering it in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Her play, Fruit Trilogy was performed at the Women of the World Festival in London and The West Yorkshire Playhouse.  Her film credits include an HBO film version of her performance of The Vagina Monologues (2002). She also produced the film What I Want My Words to Do to You, a documentary about the writing group she led at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, which premiered and won the Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival and premiered nationally on PBS’s “P.O.V.” in December 2003. Ms. Ensler is the founder of V-Day, the almost 20-year-old global activist movement to end violence against women and girls which has raised over 100 million dollars for grassroots groups. V-Day led Ms. Ensler to also found One Billion Rising, the biggest global mass action campaign to end violence against women in human history in over 200 countries. She writes for The Guardian, Time Magazine, the International Herald Tribune and many other outlets.  She was named one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and The Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.”

John Feffer is the author of Splinterlands. He is the director of Foreign Policy in Focus, and the author of several books and numerous articles as well as a half-dozen one-man shows. Today we talk about the ends of empires.

George Wuerthner is the former Ecological Projects Director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. He is an ecologist and wildlands activist. He has published 38 books on environmental issues and natural history including such environmentally focused books as Welfare Ranching, Wildfire, Thrillcraft, Energy and most recently Protecting the Wild. Today we talk about what “healthy forest” means, and the role of dead trees in a healthy forest.

Bernie Krause is an American musician and soundscape ecologist. In 1968, he founded Wild Sanctuary, an organization dedicated to the recording and archiving of natural soundscapes. Krause is an author, a bio-acoustician, a speaker, and natural sound artist. He helped define the field of study of soundscape ecology.

Luigi Boitani is chair of the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE). He is also a professor in the Department of Animal and Human Biology at the University of Rome. Prof. Boitani is a world leading authority on wolves, and many papers and books are centered on wolf biology, wolf management and human attitudes towards wolves. Today we talk about large carnivores in Europe.

Annette Smith is executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, an organization she co-founded 15 years ago with Vermont citizens when a large energy project was proposed for her region.  After successfully defeating that project, Annette has worked with Vermonters throughout the state to defeat large quarries, landfills, farms, and other large energy proposals while also improving Vermont's groundwater protection laws.  Annette has lived off-grid with solar in Vermont for more than 20 years, hand milks a cow, has a flock of chickens, grows most of her own food including citrus in a greenhouse, and seeks change through collaboration when possible and opposition when necessary 

Josh Schlossberg is editor of The Biomass Monitor, the nation’s leading publication investigating the whole story on bioenergy, biomass, and biofuels. Subscribe to quarterly email issues at TheBiomassMonitor.org, like them on Twitter or follow them on Facebook.