Episode 39 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet is about honoring the rebirth of springtime, the workers who bring life to the community, and the elders who have held strong to the harmony of the planet despite centuries of opposition and pollution. Building on the mandate of April’s Earth Day, now is the time to put those good ideas into action, and move forward together to bring peace and justice to an ailing world.
Episode 37 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet is about working together, in communities both small and large, to overcome the multiple assaults on humanity we all experience now – the rise of fascism, the chaos of pointless wars, the degradation of the climate, propelled by corporate greed and political denial. It’s a formidable array of foes we face, but if we keep our eyes on the prize and work as a unified resistance, we shall overcome.
Episode 35 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet is all about holding on in the face of the oppressive forces confronting us. Holding on while we resist the violence and injustice – racial injustice, climate injustice, social injustice – with hope. And with song. Now, as in the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s, music is a way to bond and unify us in whatever acts of peaceful resistance we can muster. No act is too small to confront the enormity of the evils we face. Email your Representative, talk to friends and family, boycott businesses that enable the corruption, above all VOTE. And by all means, sing.
“Ice Breakers” Episode 33 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet strikes a somber note to the chaos unfolding in our streets – violence led by agents of destruction wearing ICE uniforms. These are dark times in our country, around which we hope music can shed some light, echo what’s in our hearts, generate a little catharsis, and maybe even light a spark of resistance.
Episode 31 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet meets the New Year with new resolve to inspire all our listeners to do something healing for our planet. It can be making “good trouble,” as John Lewis once told us; it can be raising awareness with song; it can be coming together in community. Or simply being a caring person to those around you. We dedicate this episode to the future.
Episode 29 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet enters the holiday season with songs and talk about coming together to make things better. Whether it’s finding peace in sharing voices musically, even in the midst of war; of joining hands to combat social injustice; of convening world leaders to confront climate change; or just helping each other through the dark times of recent decades. We enjoin you to dispense with the consumerism of the season, and spend quality time with those you love. Share more – buy less. And have a happy holiday.
Episode 27 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet starts out with a song about ordinary Americans banding together this month to celebrate No Kings Day.
Episode 25 “No Kings” is a mixed bag of tunes, starting out with Pay Attention by Earth Mama. It’s a simple – even childlike – doo-wop kind of song that asks us to pay attention to the earth, and all the wonderful things it gives us. But it also makes clear our responsibility to keep it clean and whole.
Building on Earth Mama’s insistence to take responsibility for our planet, next is Crys Matthews, singing her Waking Up the Dead, a song about our generational responsibility to the slaves, some dead hundreds of years, now buried in the cemetery Crys finds herself walking through. She feels their suffering and celebrates their struggle to achieve the freedom they got only in death.
Dropping September 1 is a special edition of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet – it’s our one year anniversary. We’re offering an expanded show this time, with each of our producers looking back on what we’ve accomplished, and presenting a variety of music videos that stand out as representative of the year gone by.
The August episode of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet is a somber one, commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, 1945, ending World War II and unleashing the atomic age.
This episode of Cool Tunes for a Hot planet is all about the power of music to help bend the arc of the moral universe. Today we highlight songs about social injustice, asking questions like who are we, and where are we going?
Watch Episode 17: Planting Hope
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Mark Lagerwey, Harriet Korim Sophia Mirto, Young Activist Spotlight (Austin, TX), Atlas Soul Hosts: Warren Senders & Purly Rae Gates
Watch Episode 15: May Day
FEATURED ARTISTS: Joselyn & Don, Hilje, Lara Herscovitch, Liz Sunde, Heather Masse, PLUS Global Notes with: Ken Bramman, Sunniva Brynnel & Andreas Jansson, Warren Senders: HOST
Watch Episode 14 : EARTH DAY
FEATURED ARTISTS: PETE SEEGER & Friends: Solartopia, Will Kimbrough & Brant Miller: I Wanna Be Cool, Karla Lara: Que Corra el Rio, PLUS Global Notes with: Ishaan Rao and the Taiwan “Recorder Lovers” Purly Rae Gates: Host
Watch Episode 12: RESIST!
FEATURED ARTISTS: Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon & Friends: Ukranian Now, James Kahn: O the Ocean Rolls, Larry Lobert: Isn’t This a Time , Various Chilean Musicians: The Right to Live in Peace, HOSTED BY Warren Senders
Watch Episode 10 : IMMIGRATION
FEATURED ARTISTS: LAURA BARON: Refugee, WILLY SCHWARZ: The Immigrant Orchestra, PATTY LARKIN: The Fool’s Song, ALISON MOORE: Liberty, HOSTED BY WARRREN SENDERS
Watch Episode 9: WATER
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Kenyan-American jazz vocalist Gabrielle Agachiko
FEATURED SONGWRITERS: GABRIELLE AGACHIKO: When The Water’s Gone, JAMES KAHN: NO More A’Whaling, RICK ARNOLDI: We Are The River (Sung By MaryEdna Salvi), WATERMELON SLIM: Black Water, HOSTED BY PURLY RAE GATES
Watch Episode 8: KEEP HOPE ALIVE FEATURED SONGWRITERS: TIM GRIMM: Broken Truth, JEAN ROHE: National Anthem Arise! Arise!, KIM MOBERG:
WATCH Episode 7 : NEW MOON, NEW YEAR
FEATURED SONGWRITERS: CARRIE NEWCOMER: Sanctuary, SETH HANDELMAN: Prayer for Peace performed by Mark & Deb Bond, PURLY RAE GATES: Wake Up Now! EMMA’S REVOLUTION: Peace, Salaam, Shalom performed by singers & musicians around the world, HOSTED BY JOANNA RUSH AND SETH WILPAN
WATCH Episode 6: HEALING SPIRITS
FEATURED SONGWRITERS: MARK LAGERWEY: Last Winter, JAMES KAHN: Workin’ That ER, TOAD the WET SPROCKET : Starting Now, MELANIE DeMORE: Lead With Love/ One Foot
Watch Episode 5: CHANGE
FEATURED SONGWRITERS: SETH BERNARD : The Time Has Come, EMMA’S REVOLUTION: Our House is on Fire, CRYS MATTHEWS : Changemakers, SETH HANDELMAN: Imagine As You Dream
Watch Episode 4: VOTE!
FEATURED SONGWRITERS: THE THERAPY SISTERS : Do Something, PATTY CARPENTER & VERANDAH PORCHE : Precious Right (Vote), ZOE LEWIS : SMASH (the Glass Ceiling), BABA BRINKMAN & FRIENDS : LOTUS for POTUS, Hosts: Joanna Rush & Seth Wilpan, And special thanks to our hosts and audio/video team.
Watch Episode 3: In Honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Featuring: HOST: muhu’wit, Larry Long with Honor the Earth + many other Pipeline Fighters, Keith Secola & David Huckfelt, Mark Lagerwey
Watch Episode 2: GET OUT THE VOTE!
ABOUT the SONGWRITERS and their SONGS: Roy Zimmerman, Hattie-Purl & the Poll Cats, Distant Thunder—a new American musical, Seth Handelman and Hosts: Joanna Rush and Seth Wilpan
EPISODE 1: A Labor of Love…
Featured Artists:
James Kahn, Eliza Gilkyson, Purly Gates
