With our country mired in its worst economic collapse since the great depression, history can be a guide for what actions our nation should or shouldn’t take to provide for its citizens and whether or not it is time to re-set our priorities.

1993 The Creation of Hilary Clinton’s Taskforce on Healthcare - Is the patient stable, improving, or failing? What are the chances of survival for a nation divided on health reform?  As we enter into what will be the next big stretch of our nation’s effort to reform the health care system, Action Speaks looks back on Hilary Clinton’s 1993 Healthcare Taskforce. What can past failures tech us about the present stakes, struggles, and special interests in the health care arena?  AVAILABLE: October 19th (on PRX and Content Depot) & November 2nd (on CD)

1932 The Highlander Center Opens Its Doors – First door-to-door, now e-mail-to-email, will community organizing have the same power in a virtual community? How will we organize for change in the 21st Century? How has mobilizing the public changed in the world of Web 2.0 from the days of the Highlander Center’s multiracial labor and Civil Rights organizing? Does Internet based organizing mean less or more ‘Bowling Alone’? AVAILABLE: October 26th (on PRX and Content Depot) & November 9th (on CD)

1972 Nixon Visits People’s Republic of China – What began as a Ping Pong match is now a game of ‘Chicken’…the US and China; partners or enablers? In the past 30 years, China has transformed from agricultural superpower to manufacturing giant, from capitalist enemy to the biggest U.S. lender. To understand the impact of the relationship between the U.S. and China on the future of our economy and its foreign relations, Action Speaks is heading back in time to follow President Nixon on his historic visit to China. AVAILABLE: November 2nd (on PRX and Content Depot) & November 16th (on CD)

1951 The Birth of Levittown – Can the suburbs be fixed? What does sustainability look like in a land of 3 car garages, shopping malls, single use zoning and houses on steroids? Action Speaks takes a look at the birthplace of suburban utopia, Levittown. In just over 50 years, the American suburbs have physically transformed the landscape of our country and redefined the middle class. Will the suburbs be able to turn ‘green’? Can bastions of ‘white flight’ and individualism reflect our nation’s demographic diversity and the need for community? AVAILABLE: November 9th (on PRX and Content Depot) & November 23rd (on CD)

Marc Joel Levitt is the Host/Creative Director of the nationally award winning, 12 year old radio show, Action Speaks!: Underappreciated Dates That Changed America, a topic driven panel based radio show taped at downtown Providence, R.I.’s community art space AS 220.  Originally broadcast on Providence’s NPR affiliate, WRNI, the programs are now heard on over 100 stations across the country.

The goal of Action Speaks is to use less appreciated moments in United States history as points of departure for discussions around their context and contemporary implications. Another goal for Action Speaks is to make these cross-disciplinary discussions available to a general public.

Marc is a writer, storyteller, educator, radio host, TV host, filmmaker and land use activist living in Wakefield, RI and NYC. He has won awards for his story recordings, for work in his unique musical/narrative historical storytelling style, for his work in radio and for his work in the arts and in the humanities.

A 1971 graduate of Cornell University, Marc has also created the nationally recognized Charles Fortes Elementary School Museum-in-a-School Project and the educational philosophy called Site Specific Education.
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The Spring Season of Action Speaks. With our country mired in its worst economic collapse since the great depression, history can be a guide for what actions our nation should or shouldn’t take to provide for its citizens and whether or not it is time to re-set our priorities.

1933 The Creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps – Did building dams, planting trees and taking the boys from the city help end a depression or were we then, as now, just pretending? What exactly does ‘Shovel Ready’ projects mean for those who are not part of the ‘Shovel Ready’ construction force?
AVAILABLE: May 4th
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1949 Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ First Produced – What does it mean to ‘fail’ in America? Have we failed or has the ‘American Dream’ proven to be hollow? Is there an alternative?
AVAILABLE: May 11th
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1937 The Flint, Michigan United Auto Workers Sit-In – Banks, Auto and Insurance Companies bailed out, lay-offs abound and yet…Where’s the anger of the past? The Auto Industry, unions and the drive to protest; has it stalled and are union’s pot-holes on the road to recovery?
AVAILABLE: May 18th
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1961 JFK Calls for the Moon! – President Kennedy called for a Moon Landing. President Obama wants a ‘Green’ Nation. Are solar panels and wind turbines as exciting as ‘One Giant Leap for Mankind?’ How do we re-energize and re-mobilize America?
AVAILABLE: May 25th
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Action Speaks looks at contemporary issues through the lens of history by using under-appreciated dates of the twentieth century that have changed America. Join host Marc Levitt and guest panelists for some old-fashioned community exchange in the heart of downtown Providence’s arts and cultural district.

AVAILABLE: Content Depot, PRX, CD (Please note that CDs will be available about a week after they are available on PRX and Content Depot)
COST: Free
LENGTH: 58 minutes

Action Speaks: What’s Race Got to Do With It? - Action Speaks, from WRNI, looks at contemporary issues through the lens of history, using under-appreciated 20th-century dates that have changed America. Host Marc Joel Levitt and guest panelists discuss the 2000 Census where, for the first time, individuals could identify themselves as mixed-race citizens of the United States, blurring “traditional” racial and demographic lines in the U.S. and the world.
COST: FREE;  LENGTH: 58:50;  AVAILABLE: CD, PRX,CONTENT DEPOT

Elizabeth and Roger Wilkins: On Hope and Obama
Civil rights pioneer Roger Wilkins is joined by his daughter Elizabeth to discuss their reactions to Obama’s election.
Roger, 76, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, historian, and teacher.  Elizabeth was field manager for the Obama campaign in Michigan. They’re interviewed by host Mike Cuthbert. From AARP’s Prime Time Radio series.
AVAILABLE: CD, Content Depot, mp3 downloads, and Podcast; LENGTH: 59:00; COST: FREE

What’s the Word? Black History Month Specials

Texts of Resistance
How did slaves resist their oppression? Three works explore what it means to resist and to survive.
* John Bugg talks about an eighteenth-century slave narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah     Equiano;
* Russ Castronovo tells us about Frederick Douglass’s novella, The Heroic Slave;
* Natasha Barnes discusses the novel The Known World by Edward P. Jones.
AVAILABLE on CD, PRX, and CONTENT DEPOT; LENGTH: 29:00;  COST: FREE

W. E. B. Du Bois
Considered by many the most important African American leader of the early twentieth century, sociologist, historian, author, teacher, and activist W. E. B. Du Bois had a profound effect on the way we talk about race.
* David Levering Lewis speaks about Du Bois’s early life and the years that led up to the publication of his groundbreaking The Souls of Black Folk;
* Marlon B. Ross explores the historical events that shaped Du Bois’s book and shares memorable passages;
* Cheryl Townsend Gilkes discusses the book’s continuing influence.
AVAILABLE on CD, PRX, and CONTENT DEPOT; LENGTH: 29:00;  COST: FREE