For this edition of BCR's Park Bench Chat, Rebecca and I sat down to talk with good friends -- Maria and Barry Kessler -- and our neighbors strolling in Riverside Park's "You've Got Mail" garden -- about the state of our U.S. American democracy. We handed out bags of chips to anyone who could answer a trivia question about the US government. Our focus gravitated to a consideration of the three words that open the Preamble to the US Constitution -- "We the people ..." -- and who this group is now and in the past.

Alan Winson

barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Politics on the UWS is in a liminal place where a new reality is aborning. Of course, this nation exists in "between" places where possible versions of democracy are tried and then abandoned.

This week the social democratic version has gained a foothold in our Upper West Side neighborhood – and maybe American politics. Eli Northrup – Bronx Public Defender and justice policy wonk -- was elected the new State Assembly person for UWS’s District 69.

We spoke with Eli and his campaign manager – Courtney Curd -- on the Sunday before the Tuesday Primary in Riverside Park – opening our mics to citizens to talk to the politician. Then, we recorded at the Northrup After-Election Party at Amity Hall Bar in Morningside Heights.

Here are the sounds of an iteration of American politics – one that we at Bar Crawl Radio hope takes hold on our country’s disperse imaginations and future governance.

Alan Winson

barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Columbia University’s “College Walk” -- on West 116th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue -- became part of the University’s campus in 1953 with the understanding that "College Walk" would remain available to pedestrians.

Massive iron gates, put up in 1967, were designed as an ornamental decoration which would not be used to restrict access. But the gated closed on Oct. 12, 2023, when the University restricted campus access to Columbia ID holders ahead of planned demonstrations over the war in Gaza. And have remained closed until now – May 2026.

We talked with leaders of Morningside Heights community who want Columbia's gates unlocked.

This four-part program includes:

1. Dave Robinson -- President of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition -- talks about the goals of the MHCC and why his neighbors want Columbia University Campus opened. 00:00:00
2. Skyler Gluck -- former senior reporter of the Columbia Spectator -- summarizes the history of the creation of "College Walk" and its closing three years ago and his reporting why it remains closed. Mohsen Mahdawi -- Palestinian activist and Columbia student targeted by Trump for deportation. 00:08:41
3. Skyler Gluck, Michael Thaddeus -- faculty in Columbia Mathematics Department -- and Cody Stuart Madsen -- VP of Operations for Book Culture -- describe the impact of the closing of the Columbia campus on the student body, faculty, business and those who live and work in Morningside Heights. 00:24:32
4. Toby Golick -- Professor Emeritus of the Cardozo Law School -- covers the legal case to open the campus. And Ian Boldiston -- the Communications Director for City Councilperson Shaun Abreu who represents Morningside Heights -- explains NY City's position on the closing of the Columbia campus. 00:50:42

Contact: Alan Winson -- barcrawlradio@gmail.com

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In Elon Musk’s “dark MAGA” there is no truth.—which for historian Jill Lepore creates a fear that everything might collapse because everything is so fragile and so fake, so untrustworthy -- and so -- unreal. For Lepore -- it is a fear created by the “Artificial State.”

Back in January of this year – 2026 -- BCR hosts spoke with William Hartung about his political stand-up routine and his recent book “The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Hone.”

It was a BCR episode in which jokes and world destruction did a cha cha.

Hartung is an expert on the US military industrial complex at The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Recently, Bill emailed his Substack readers several articles on Silicon Valley’s hard right tilt towards advanced militarism. He had been reading a copy of Jill Lepore’s soon-to-be-released book – “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.” Bill’s email was somewhat scary. It appears that Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey have embedded themselves into US government policy-making -- and profiting from dismantling our democracy. Their “firms are enabling genocide and aggression abroad and profiting from repression at home.”

I replied to Bill’s email and asked if he wanted to meet and talk about what he was finding – his response was immediate: “YES” – all caps with exclamation – “Let’s do something, the sooner the better.”

Alan Winson

barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout human history the political dissident has been imprisoned, tortured, murdered. Today’s dissident opposing the U.S. war machine is silenced by corporate media and punished by U.S. courts. And mostly – unseen. Why do they do it – when there is no chance of success? BCR podcast has been asking American dissidents that question for years.

For BCR #273, we asked Gal Beckerman of The Atlantic about his new book – “How to Be a Dissident.” We wanted to explore why a person would purposefully break the law to engender human rights and world peace. Mr. Beckerman's book is organized by ten qualities of the dissidents now and in the past. We focused on three: The dissident practices "hopeful pessimism" -- faces imprisonment and death as an individual but within a community of fellow protestors -- has little concern for outcomes and is thus "reckless" in their actions.

What I got from our conversation: Gal's journey in writing "How to be a dissident" began with a nightmare of being interrogated for some act of civil disobedience he committed which led him to the question: Should I be a dissident--to help bring about a humane future for my young daughters? I suggest that readers of Beckerman's book start with this question.

Alan Winson

barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This BCR conversation with Carl Dix was recorded at Gebhards Beer Culture Bar on the UWS. Mr. Dix is a leader of the RevCom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity. Our conversation focused on his his experiences with the U.S. military when our country was at war North Vietnam.

In a recent email, Mr. Dix wrote me: “My experience with the US military was an important part of what formed my political perspectives … [It] is relevant to what is happening today given that people in the military are being ordered to carry out war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Carl Dix is a co-founder of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the USA. He has worked against police brutality and was part of the campaign to end “Stop and Frisk” in NYC and has protested the Trump administration as a member of Refuse Fascism which works against authoritarianism through mass demonstrations.

I asked Mr. Dix about the link between his work now and his experiences of the U.S. military during the war in Vietnam which included a 2-year imprisonment in Leavenworth Penitentiary for registering as a conscientious objector.

Alan Winson

BCR Producer and Co-Host

barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For many of us, our country is walking a tightrope between democracy and autocracy.

I am a US American civilian. I avoided serving in the US military during the Vietnam War. My father and son were in the military – one in WWII – the other a never-deployed Marine. Despite these secondary contact with our armed forces, I do not understand the US military mind and culture. I do know it is the most lethal force in human history.

For this BCR series -- "Nature of the U.S. Military" -- I ask US Veterans to help me understand the nature of our armed forces.

And ask them -- if push comes to shove -- will our military uphold this republic of and by the people – or follow the orders of a corrupt Commander-in-Chief

Captain Matthew Hoh helped get me starte. Matthew Hoh is a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy and a member of the Eisenhower Media Network.

Matthew Hoh served nearly a dozen years as a US Marine with experiences in overseas wars in the American occupation of Iraq between 2004 and 2007 -- and Captain Hoh contributed to US policy and operations at the Pentagon and State Department. In 2009, Matthew Hoh resigned his position with the State Department in Afghanistan in protest of the escalation of that war.

Alan Winson

barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I spoke with Steven Fechter about his newest novel -- "The Big Breeze" -- the story of Joseph Bye a phenom baseball pitcher who at the peak of his career was hit by a car and crippled. Eventually, he became a painter of baseball pitchers. Many years after the accident, he learned that he was run-over intentionally. In part this is the story of what Breeze will he do about it. But I did not want to ask Mr. Fechter about attempted murder but about baseball -- and an American culture obsessed with its heroes. “The Big Breeze” is a primer on the mind and spirit of the baseball pitcher – and how fame is treated in this country.

Mr. Fechter also wrote the play «The Woodsman» which he adapted for the film starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.

Fechter’s reputation was established when he won first prize in the 2001 Slamdance Screenwriting Competition for “The Woodsman.”

His website states his goal is to “write daring stories that take audiences into unfamiliar emotional spaces.”

Recorded at 5Napkins Burger on Broadway and W. 84th Street in Manhattan.

Alan Winson

barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.