On the next Story Told, Michael turns eighty years old on the exact day of this program, and for the occasion, he shares “The Summer of Love and War.” Also recognized are the southpaw, counter-clockwork, left-handed, “Children of Satan.”
Michael McCusker
On the next Story Told, Michael McCusker ponders whether nuclear holocost or climate change will get us first. Also, “Earth’s Checklist,” a poem, by Margit L. Bowler, and on a related note, Carl Safina and Paul Greenberg claim “We Need an Infrastructure Package for Nature.” Finally, Eugene Robinson puts it simply by saying, “Ignoring climate change hasn’t made it go…
On the next Story Told, living in the year 76 NA, standing for ‘nuclear age,’ Michael reads the contemporary “Mushrooms in August.” Additionally, Dr. Robert Brake tells the American people to “Put ‘Em Up!” and lastly, a tribute to the Astorian Charles Scott Parker
On the next Story Told, a double diatribe on two American symbols: the vote, and the flag. And from Michael Schaffner, “I’m a reenactor. Critical race theory helps me bring history, good and bad, to life.”
On the next Story Told, Michael McCusker sings a dead bird’s song in telling an abridged history of the North Coast Times Eagle. Additionally “My Mother in Hot Summer,” “Cabbages in the Garden,” “The Sage,” “Picking Pears,” “The City of Sorrows,” and “The Soft Rain” all by Walt Curtis of unofficial Oregon poet laureate fame.
On the next Story Told, all about the Bastille, featuring from Catherine Bridget Snow “Liberty and the Bastille,” and from Michael McCusker “The First and Eternal Freedom.”
On the next Story Told, “Democracy Begins at Home,” by Michael McCusker. Additionally, from Annette Gordon-Reed, “Between Juneteenth and the 4ᵗʰ of July.” Finally Dr. Robert Brake exclaims “So Much for the Heros.”
On the next Story Told, Michael McCusker prepares for 2021’s liberty month beginning with a screed written on the first American terrorists titled “Sons of Liberty.” Additionally, a ponderance on “The Assumption of Freedom,” and to conclude, Dr. Robert Brake claims “We Have No Right to Vote.”
On the next Story Told, Michael McCusker focusses on a war forgotten in American history, sandwiched between WWII and Vietnam, in “Total War Fatigue.” Additionally, by Dr. Robert Brake, “War & Peace,” and in lieu of Juneteenth now being recognized as a federal holiday, Michele Norris asks “Here come the Juneteenth nicknacks. Where are the lesson plans?”
On the next Story Told, Michael McCusker presents a program balancing between the Magna Carta and Juneteenth, featuring, from Kenneth C. Davis “Juneteenth Is for Everyone.”
On the next Story Told, as much about women’s rights as can be packed into a half hour, including, but not limited to, “Leaving abortion to the states makes them agents of oppression,” by Ruth Marcus, and also, “The Virgins of Spring,” by Michael McCusker.
On the next Story Told, Michael takes a look at the “U.S.A. Today.” Additionally, a piece from Andrew Gawthorpe titled “Republicans are trying to rewrite the history of the capital attack. Don’t let them,” and from Coral Murphy Marcos “Five Oregon counties plot to move to Idaho to be with conservative friends.” Finally, poetry from the late, and great, Allen Ginsberg, “Falling Asleep…
On the next Story Told, Michael gives memoriam to the original Memorial Day, before it moved into its current role as a convenient three day weekend in “Recruiting Tomorrow’s Dead.”
On the next Story Told, Michael takes “Pause to mark ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ and it’s lessons for our time,” by Colbert I. King. Additionally, simply put by Eugene Robinson, “Ignoring climate change hasn’t made it go away.” Finally, poetry by Carolyn Dunn, and a dream about an Eastern-European boy.
Out of chaos came The Order, otherwise known as the ‘Aryan Resistance Movement.’ On the next Story Told, Michael delves into the ancient, atrocious, and American issue of white supremacy in “The Propaganda of the Deed.”
On the next Story Told, a program focussing on two persons worthy of indelible respect: a woman, Loyola Marsef in “An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton,” and a man, Arthur Honeyman in “If Cripples Don’t Shape Up.”
On the next Story Told, Michael gives his annual May Day rant, simply titled “May Day 2021,” and, with the war in Vietnam ending on April 30ᵗʰ, forty six years ago, Michael opens the old wound again in “Winter Soldiers.” Finally the program ends with the canonization of freeform radio saint Bob Fass.
On the next Story Told, Michael observes another Earth Day come round, as climate conditions worsen the other three hundred-sixty four days out of the year. Also, “Earth’s Checklist,” a poem, by Margit L. Bowler, and lastly, Carl Safina and Paul Greenberg claim “We Need an Infrastructure Package for Nature,” in their New York Times article.
On the next Story Told, Michael remembers when America’s tax day was 15 April in “Taxing the People’s Democracy.” Also, from Robert Brake, “Ahh . .Freedom,” and from Michael Kazin “The 1776 Follies.” Lastly, “What to do when Stopped by The Police,” published by Portland’s Black United Front in 1980.
On the next Story Told, Michael reads from a 1996 journal he kept, in which he chronicles comet Hyakutake’s unexpected passing over Earth’s night sky.
On the next Story Told, Michael McCusker recounts a young man’s emotions coming “Back Home in the U.S.A.” from a war, the war, simply known as Vietnam.
On the next Story Told, Michael concludes Women’s History Month with “Women’s Equality Day,” along with Alisha Haridasani Gupta’s piece entitled “The Roadblocks to Equal Rights for Women, a Century Later.”
On the next Story Told with Michael McCusker, why “Abandoning Masks Now is a Terrible Idea,” by John M. Barry. Additionally, in more generalized terms Dr. Robert Brake lays out the “Politics of Contempt,” and lastly, a poem by Carolyn Dunne entitled “These Things.”
On the next Story Told, Michael elucidates the solution for just about any environmental or gendered injustice one can think of in “Women Are the Mothers of Earth,” composed in 1991 by the Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet.
On the next Story Told, Michael elucidates through Stacey Abrams on how “Our democracy faced a near death experience. Here’s how to revive it.” Also, Dr. Robert Brake simply asks “Politics: A Noble Cause?” Finally Carolyn Dunne ends the program with a poem, “Invasive Species.”
On the next Story Told, Michael dredges up Oregon’s racist past self in “An Image of Dark, Angry Shadows.” Additionally, in a similar vein from David Horrowitz, “Tales of the North Coast Klan.”
In continual observance of Black History Month, Michael pulls from Ralph Friedman’s 1983 novel “This side of Oregon” on the next Story Told.
On the next Story Told, Michael adheres to tradition and celebrates The Great Emancipator’s 212ᵗʰ natal day in “The Emancipation of Abraham Lincoln,” as is customary this time of year on this program.
On the next Story Told, Michael kicks off Black History Month with “A call for another Great Migration, this one in reverse,” written by Carlos Lozada as a review for Charles M. Blow’s new book “The Devil You Know.” Additionally, Robert Reiche explains “Why Republicans won’t agree to Biden’s big plans and why he should ignore them.”
“Who Will We Be Without Donald Trump?” will be the central question of the next four years, and on the next Story Told, Michael reads an article by that very title written by Frank Bruni. Also, with Deb Haaland now Interior Secretary of the United States, Timothy Egan writes “After Five Centuries, a Native American with Real…