Inequality in our society seems somehow natural and permanent. Hence thinking about the inverse -- equality -- may be a bit of a challenge, especially if one lives in the United States. Geographer Danny Dorling discusses the myriad benefits of equality, from housing to education, physical wellbeing to the environment. He explores how societies have been made more equal in the past and explains why he supports the idea of a basic income.

Mexico has a grand revolutionary tradition, a radical lineage that James Cockcroft argues lives on in current-day struggles both within Mexico and among US-based immigrants. Cockcroft discusses the radical visions of the revolutionaries of 1910-1917; the ideological roots of waves of resistance to Mexican and US elites; and the elections-related turmoil that's periodically plagued Mexico. (Holiday encore presentation.)

By illegally occupying huge estates, Brazil's Landless Workers Movement, or MST, has won title to millions of acres of land. The MST has also worked to transform Brazil's schools, in ways that support the movement's socialist goals. Activists there have drawn inspiration from the ideas of Paulo Freire and several Soviet educational theorists. UC Berkeley doctoral student Rebecca Tarlau explains.

As we become more wired, and our lives ever more penetrated by the internet, are we losing something precious? Writer Nicholas Carr provocatively argues that we are, and that what we are losing is our ability to think deeply. Carr contends that probing, and often solitary, contemplative thought -- which was shaped by our interaction with the book -- cannot be replaced by the superficial breadth of information that the web allows us.

Inequalities in wealth and status abound, despite the official rhetoric of equal rights and opportunity. According to Immanuel Wallerstein, the French Revolution had thunderous consequences for the capitalist world-economy and for how struggles between haves and have-nots have played out. Ideals promoted by the French revolutionaries, he argues, generated dynamics that produced a liberalism determined to contain radicalism at every turn. (Encore presentation; audio available here.)

Proponent of the mass strike and socialist democracy, advocate of anticapitalism and anti-imperialism -- Rosa Luxemburg is a thinker for our tumultuous times. Peter Hudis talks about the pioneering Marxist theoretician and leader, and explains why her radical politics and vision endure nearly a century after her assassination. (Encore presentation; audio available here.)