Connecting the Dots
Connecting the Dots
Kevin
To enhance our collective and individual consciousness is to raise our political potential. Developing consciousness is the first step towards creating radical change for our intense, enduring, and interrelated social issues. But political consciousness is not given, it is claimed. So, I ask you to claim it. May this podcast, these books, these articles, these authors, these songs, and these resources merely serve as a step towards your proclamation. It is my belief that society can transform itself if the people can transcend themselves. Nothing changes, if we as a people do not first change
Earth's Mightiest Heroes
If you're a Marvel/Disney fan, this episode may piss you off.   If you glorify the military/empire, this episode may piss you off.  If you love propaganda,  this episode may piss you off.   PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATIONS: Dead Prez- Propaganda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhIsHEAM8w  Immortal Technique- Freedom of Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAEbWSSo9AQ  BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:  Edward Bernays- Propaganda  https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/propaganda_edward-l-bernays/271440/?resultid=bf3aa14a-7371-4e7f-81d0-9e0a3bb7ab54#edition=14599611&idiq=46473416  Noam Chomsky- Manufacturing Consent https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/manufacturing-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-mass-media_noam-chomsky_edward-s-herman/250546/?resultid=a5ad3ad5-f38f-40c7-b5a9-c89f5e80fe1e#edition=3389416&idiq=10196061  Paulo Freire- Education for Critical Consciousness https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/education-for-critical-consciousness_paulo-freire/285357/?resultid=63ba8060-c876-49e5-8ebc-10dbf7c9cae8#edition=4382559&idiq=4611527  ARTICLES:  https://therealnews.com/cop-land-is-still-one-of-the-best-hollywood-depictions-of-police-corruption  https://www.yipinstitute.com/article/how-do-the-marvel-movies-promote-the-us-military  https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/11/05/new-marvel-film-puts-spotlight-on-hollywoods-military-ties/ https://mronline.org/2022/02/08/the-pentagon-and-cia-have-shaped-thousands-of-hollywood-movies-into-super-effective-propaganda/  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/the-great-war-master-of-american-propaganda/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/09/wandavision-pentagon-propaganda-marvel-disney-fbi  https://www.liveabout.com/pentagon-support-for-war-films-3438458  https://www.newsweek.com/captain-marvel-superhero-movies-air-force-comic-book-military-promotion-1348486 https://www.blackagendareport.com/wakanda-must-fall  https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/01/05/captain-marvel-effect-air-force-academy-sees-most-female-applicants-5-years.html  THEATERS OF WAR LINK:  https://vimeo.com/ondemand/theatersofwar  LINK FOR THE INTRO/OUTRO:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML3qYHWRIZk  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAykOz1gWi4&t=50s GO FUND ME LINK: Please consider donating (if you can) to my friends daughter who is currently battling stage 3 cancer. https://www.gofundme.com/f/jazzy-and-rivera-family?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
Feb 3, 2023
50 min
Revelations
Just some thoughts for thought.   BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:  Bruce Lee- Striking Thoughts https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/striking-thoughts-bruce-lees-wisdom-for-daily-living-the-bruce-lee-library_bruce-lee/296561/?resultid=4dd9bac5-0ba2-47e4-93bc-3296be88a015#edition=3673054&idiq=4467350  Marcus Aurelius- Meditations https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/marcus-aurelius---meditations-adapted-for-the-contemporary-reader_marcus-aurelius/27292127/?resultid=b43aaddd-1bb9-468e-868f-528b5d64bc5d#edition=14781957&idiq=28997502  Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga- The Courage to be Disliked https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/kirawareru-yuki_-_ichiro-kishimi/10893847/?resultid=7e6a22ce-69e4-47d2-9a67-4f274229aa92#edition=19865634&idiq=30126954  PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATION:  U2- Rejoice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JxRGvzwzxc GO FUND ME LINK: Please consider donating (if you can) to my friends daughter who is currently battling stage 3 cancer. https://www.gofundme.com/f/jazzy-and-rivera-family?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
Sep 23, 2022
32 min
Release
This episode is meant to tie together our two worlds, the internal & the external. It emphasizes how the political, economical, and social issues of this country are capable of inducing mass trauma & mental suffering. I want to acknowledge how this affects us as individuals and as a society when we internalize it. More importantly, as a result of this reality, I want to emphasize the necessity for radical change and societal/personal RELEASE.   BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:  The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk  Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine Transforming Trauma With Jiu Jitsu by Jamie Marich & Anna Pirkl  Health Justice Now by Timothy Faust  What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles by Eliot Weinberger https://www.thriftbooks.com/  PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATIONS:  Fort Minor- Kenji   Muse- Psycho  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW09k8P0zTc  Pearl Jam- Release  Pearl Jam - Release (Official Audio)  The Rolling Stones- Doom and Gloom  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPFGWVKXxm0  U2- Bad  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCdltGg4EzM  LINK TO THE SPEECH:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN8ej4k2ilc  RESOURCES:  https://www.verywellmind.com/effects-of-collective-trauma-5071346  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6095989/ https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/mortality-rates-u-s-compare-countries/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6603306/ https://oie.duke.edu/inter-generational-trauma-6-ways-it-affects-families https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/ https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/9-11-twenty-years https://www.aclu.org/other/surveillance-under-usapatriot-act https://www.cato.org/commentary/make-america-safer-shut-down-department-homeland-security GO FUND ME LINK: Please consider donating (if you can) to my friends daughter who is currently battling stage 3 cancer. https://www.gofundme.com/f/jazzy-and-rivera-family?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
Aug 27, 2022
52 min
Reckoning
MAYDAY!!!  Protest Song Recommendations:  Paolo Nutini- Iron Sky,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF_PkvMm9_c  Bob Marley- Work, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKHdvDkDAHk  U2- Red Hill Mining Town, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yafHtWzWx0s  Jefferson Airplane- Volunteers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xaw--HWHecg  Pete Seeger- Solidarity Forever, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW_1hP0SHSQ  Book Recommendations: Labor’s Untold Story, by Richard O' Boyer, https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/labors-untold-story_richard-o-boyer_herbert-m-morais/264902/?resultid=c56b445e-fff8-4237-962b-4fe946c22c1b#edition=724864&idiq=5115529  Fight Like Hell, by Kim Kelly, https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/fight-like-hell-the-untold-history-of-american-labor_kim-kelly/29057042/?resultid=2f141869-e5c8-4ee4-9d56-d0fae834ff4c#edition=60148856&idiq=47185332  The Meritocracy Trap, by Daniel Markovits  Beyond Outrage, by Robert Reich  The People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn  Articles:  https://www.americanprogress.org/article/its-a-good-jobs-shortage-the-real-reason-so-many-workers-are-quitting/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-15/u-s-labor-unions-are-having-a-moment https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/business/economy/treasury-competition-report.html  https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2021-10-07/the-labor-market-is-undergoing-a-seismic-shift-as-markets-await-septembers-jobs-report https://theconversation.com/union-battles-at-amazon-and-starbucks-are-hot-news-which-can-only-be-good-for-the-labor-movement-172932 https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/san-francisco-general-strike-1934 https://archive.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday/ http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/the-haymarket-affair http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/outlines/economy-1991/labor-in-america-the-trade-unions-role/current-labor-issues.php https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/police-unions-minneapolis-kroll.html https://www.huffpost.com/entry/amazon-anti-union-consultants_n_62606f2ce4b041ee26501ca2 GO FUND ME LINK: Please consider donating (if you can) to my friends daughter who is currently battling stage 3 cancer. https://www.gofundme.com/f/jazzy-and-rivera-family?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
May 1, 2022
1 hr 4 min
all about love
LINK FOR THE BOOK: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/all-about-love-new-visions-bell-hooks-love-trilogy_bell-hooks/248913/?resultid=595b688d-e936-4181-b121-65b31be6db0b#edition=2337244&idiq=10183064  PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enmitbt3yAs  LINK TO THE SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0uEVTh0ios GO FUND ME LINK: Please consider donating (if you can) to my friends daughter who is currently battling stage 3 cancer. https://www.gofundme.com/f/jazzy-and-rivera-family?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
Feb 15, 2022
56 min
Decadence
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:   1) Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-sorrows-of-empire-militarism-secrecy-and-the-end-of-the-republic-the-american-empire-project_james-carroll_chalmers-johnson/257596/?resultid=fb0f7e1f-fa69-44cd-8991-f7fa1b27c13d#edition=3677168&idiq=2963848  2) Imperial Ambitions by Noam Chomsky https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/imperial-ambitions-conversations-on-the-post-911-world_noam-chomsky_david-barsamian/383572/?resultid=7f48e7ee-1619-4d3c-a16c-756b49659170#edition=3781570&idiq=672750  3) The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-one-percent-doctrine-deep-inside-americas-pursuit-of-its-enemies-since-911_ron-suskind/431152/?resultid=b3d2eeb8-23fc-462e-bfaf-44cfb067e957#edition=3511383&idiq=5851242  PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATION:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IKOVG8hitk  LINK TO THE SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGRcgSz-jqI&t=11s  LINK TO THE ARTICLES:   https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-assassination-complex/  https://www.ogj.com/pipelines-transportation/pipelines/article/14188746/tapi-pipeline-afghanistan-construction-to-start-in-herat https://www.upstreamonline.com/production/taliban-tapi-gas-pipeline-is-a-priority-project/2-1-1053761  https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/afghanistan-war https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/asia-jan-june11-timeline-afghanistan --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
Sep 18, 2021
1 hr
Health Justice Now
This book by Timothy Faust, takes a critical look at the American Health"care" System, covering issues related to private insurance, uninsurance, racism, sexism, poverty, and disability within the industry and issues related around mental health, trans health, immigration, and work. There are so many levels at play in this one book and the author does an excellent job of honing in on them nicely. This podcast episode is much more general and mostly covers the profit motives of the "health" industries biggest players such as hospitals, CEO's, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and device manufacturers. This book and this episode also advocate for the Federal Universal Single Payer system. These are the primary topics of this episode but the book itself holds so much more valuable insight and information that are worth understanding. The author does a phenomenal job of making so much expansive and complicated material very digestible for people that just want to learn more about the injustices and greed that is pervasive within the industry. I cannot advocate for this book more intensely than I already do.  LINK TO THE BOOK: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/health-justice-now-single-payer-and-what-comes-next/18669773/?resultid=a3544daf-c636-4f60-b409-65254d347594#edition=19896149&idiq=33910542 PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyOsJWE_GbY LINK TO THE SCENE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oceYG6ogT_E --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
Jun 19, 2021
55 min
The Other America
This is one of the oldest books we've covered so far, The Other America by Michael Harrington, first published in 1962. As the title implies, it covers the other side of America, specifically regarding poverty. Harrington's personal experiences, analyzation, and critical perspective offer some truly insightful looks into the depths of the other America. The book also covers alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health, trauma, social stigmatization, and many other aspects related to poverty. This book is extremely powerful and moving and has been deemed a true classic. It's a light read, easy to follow, and powerful to have.  LINK TO THE BOOK: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-other-america_michael-harrington/276861/?resultid=f0ba225d-b383-48a8-b389-fbf2e210d795#edition=3405243&idiq=10249063 PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyJLh_zXXvM LINK TO THE SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20NQQr2Iu_E --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
May 24, 2021
43 min
Beyond Outrage
Out of all the books this podcast has covered, this one may be one of, if not the easiest to read and follow along. This doesn't mean the content is simple or easy to understand even, but Robert Reich, the author, is a phenomenal writer and he has the ability to make complex information easy to understand. This is important for the majority of people. He puts things in a way that allows for people to obtain an understanding, myself included. He explains why and how so much of our country's wealth continues to flow to the top of the economy and how this is detrimental and harmful to everyone else. He explains the "rigged game", the impediment of conservatives, how income inequality is distorting our democracy, and how we can take action and he of course offers some guidance and proposed solutions to the issues we face. This book is called Beyond Outrage and i'm sure that after reading it and obtaining an understanding of the grander scheme of things, you too will be outraged.  LINK TO THE BOOK: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/beyond-outrage-expanded-edition-what-has-gone-wrong-with-our-economy-and-our-democracy-and-how-to-fix-it_robert-b-reich/342642/?resultid=af046e76-4270-4b60-8642-da6b97a2bef4#edition=7087922&idiq=3873125 PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dq9q6afIP8 LINK TO THE DOCUMENTARY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T9E2DBzAaI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9REdcxfie3M --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
May 16, 2021
44 min
Winners Take All
This episode is centered around Anand Giridharadas' book: Winners Take All. Anand is a phenomenal speaker, writer, analyst, and he has incredible insight and understanding regarding contemporary social issues, especially pertaining to our elites. I recommend following him on social media/twitter if you want more exposure to his insights and perspective. This book covers issues with inequality, extreme hoarding and extreme charity, opportunist, and self exalted leaders who insinuate change, but preserve the status quo. Although this book was not one of my favorites, I still recommend it due to the power of its content.  LINK TO THE BOOK: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/winners-take-all-the-elite-charade-of-changing-the-world_anand-giridharadas/18603433/?resultid=2c2bec34-a635-446b-8b8f-8f7676f2be87#edition=21309754&idiq=40895548 PROTEST SONG RECOMMENDATION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUGE8Y07-2k LINK TO THE SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H32z45o0WxA --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kevin-garci/message
May 2, 2021
48 min
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