New World Notes - A Sad Heart At the Supermarket

This week on New World Notes: radio program #368, March 24, 2015, from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. (and on Wednesday from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.), host Kenneth Dowst wonders why many people find shopping at the supermarket so tiring and depressing.

Maybe it's the constant vigilance required to prevent your getting fleeced. (Some might see the place as our culture in microcosm.)

K.D. contrasts the supermarket's celebration of deception, swindling, and bad faith (all legal) with the eccentric charm of the small shops of Pittsburgh in the 1970s.

Adding to the critique of corporate agro-marketing are two short talks by Jim Hightower and a song by David Rovics.

Jim Hightower's short essays, both written and spoken, can be found on his Web site, www.jimhightower.com.

English majors may note that I have swiped this installment's title from an essay (1962) by the American poet Randall Jarrell.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both A-Infos Radio Project and (from #90 onwards) the Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chronological listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page; each page has links to the recorded audio; and a handy table of contents will quickly find the installment you want.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want--and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern): 

• Sundays, 12:30 to 1:00 PM, WIEC-LP, FM 102.7 (Eau Claire, WI). Repeats Mondays at noon.
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• Various days & times (multiple times per week), KGIG FM 104.9 (Modesto, CA) & online. Same on KHCF FM 89.9 (Gilroy, CA).

Any time: Listen to or download any installment. Just go to New World Notes and click a link to the audio at the top of the page. (Every installment has a page on the Web site, and every page has links to the audio.)