Bar Crawl Radio

A conversation with three men who recently traveled to Palestine to witness the state of Palestinian Christian communities living in Israel-occupied West Bank. What they experiences was horrific and hopeful. Horrific in the brutality of the young Israeli settler gangs and hopeful in the readiness of the Palestinian Christians to be accepted into a peaceful, co-existence with their Israeli neighbors. Their sojourn was organized by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center located in Jerusalem. Sabeel organizes "Witness Visits" to Israel and Palestine; participants experience life under occupation in the West Bank firsthand, engage with Palestinian Christians and other activists, and then share their experiences in order to motivate positive change.This BCR program was recorded at Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar.Alan Winson -- Hostbarcrawlradio@gmail.com

William Hartung -- senior researcher at The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft -- reads from his new book "The Trillion Dollar War Machine" and talks about The Big Five -- the U.S. military industrial complex using American tax dollars to arm the world and make enormous profits.In the first half of the program Mr. Hartung talks about the insanity and stupidity of the U.S. arms policy. In the second half -- Bill shares a bit of the stand-up routine he will be delivering at the New York Comedy Club directly after our recording.Recorded Dec. 27, 2025 at Gebhard's Beer Culture Barbarcrawlradio@gmail.com

Anjali Mehta is a 31 year-old mountain climber challenging the "seven summits" to support international agencies fighting gender-based violence and to bring attention to the rights of transgender girl athletes. In the first part of this two-part BCR program, we asked Anjali about her mountain climbing experiences. See BCR #265. This program is the second part of our conversation; Anjali told us about her organization "What is the Power of We?" working to unite the efforts of the many agencies around the world working to end gender-based violence. For her next climb, Anjali will carry postcards with their stories to the summit of Mt Vinson -- the highest peak in Antarctica. If you would like to share your story or that of a loved one, you can use this form.Featured in this series is Nancy Kangas' rendition of Mary Oliver's "The Poet Dreams of the Mountain" and music from Wade Ripka's "Eastern Blokhedz" , "Four Celtic Voices" and "The Shrill Collective."Alan WinsonBCR Producer and Co-Hostbarcrawlradio@gmail.com

Anjali Mehta is a 31 year-old mountain climber challenging the "seven summits" to support international agencies fighting gender-based violence and to bring attention to the rights of transgender girl athletes. In this first part of a two-part BCR program, we asked Anjali about her mountain climbing experiences. She told us about falling into a crevice and overcoming the challenges and the joy of reaching the summit.In the second part of our conversation Anjali told us about her organization "What is the Power of We?" working to pull unite the efforts of the many agencies around the world working to end gender-based violence. For her next climb, Anjali will carry postcards with their stories to the summit of Mt Vinson -- the highest peak in Antarctica. If you would like to share your story or that of a loved one, you can use this form.Featured in this series is Nancy Kangas' rendition of Mary Oliver's "The Poet Dreams of the Mountain" and music from Wade Ripka's "Eastern Blokhedz" , "Four Celtic Voices" and "The Shrill Collective."Alan WinsonBCR Producer and Co-Hostbarcrawlradio@gmail.com

This BCR program opened with a bit of Richard Harris' rendition of "MacArthur Park" and then quoted Daniel Libeskind -- whose architectural firm rebuilt the World Trade Center site; he described the slurry wall that held back the Hudson River after the collapse of the Towers as “an engineering wonder” and like the US Constitution – was a symbol of the “the durability of democracy and the value of human life.” We then asked is our democracy a melting cake or an indomitable slurry wall?In the fall of 2011 – young Americans took over a private park near Wall Street -- they set up camp and built a thriving community -- and for 59 days the 99% protested the 1%.   Could Zuccotti Park happen today?Rebecca McKean and I had a ranging conversation with Lynne Elizabeth the founding director of the New Village Press -- publishing progressive books in the humanities and social sciences. Ms. Elizabeth was a past president and active member of Architects, Designers, Planners for Social Responsibility, which produced programs for peace, environmental protection, and social justice. And we talked with Wendy E. Brawer, a designer, social innovator, consultant, speaker and the creator of Green Map System. Wendy is one of UTNE’s [ chutney ] ”50 Visionaries Changing Your World.” She was the Designer in Residence at the Smithsonian National Design Museum and a 2017 TED Resident. And she is an active cyclist.Our conversation focused on the New Village Press 2012 book -- "Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space" and Occupy Wallstreet.Alan Winsonbarcrawlradio@gmail.com

For this Park Bench Chat edition of Bar Crawl Radio podcast we talked about the changing nature of the New York City theatre review and how Tik Tok might be dumbing down the craft of the NYC theatre critic. Joining us on a park bench in the "You've Got Mail" Riverside Park Promenade are two NYC Theatre Critics -- David Cote and Zoe Kaplan. David Cote is a playwright, librettist, song writer, actor and director -- and the longest serving drama critic of Time Out New York. His reviews have appeared in Opera News, The Village Voice, The Guardian and The New York Times – and elsewhere.  And with us is Zoe Kaplan whose day job is as a Content Marketing Manager.Earlier, Zoe demystified the world of work for Gen Zers and before that she managed reproductive and hormone health content for OOVA. Zoe writes a theater Substack called -- Not to Be Dramatic.