When Prostitution Was Legal

madame

For 20 years prostitution was legal in New Orleans. Cari Lynn is is the author of Madam which tells that story. Plus David Kukoff talks about his new book Children of the Canyon. Along with Laura House and Steve Skrovan.

Madam tells the story of when vice had a legal home and jazz was being born—the captivating story of an infamous true-life madam

New Orleans, 1900. Mary Deubler makes a meager living as an “alley whore.” That all changes when bible-thumping Alderman Sidney Story forces the creation of a red-light district that’s mockingly dubbed “Storyville.” Mary believes there’s no place for a lowly girl like her in the high-class bordellos of Storyville’s Basin Street, where Champagne flows and beautiful girls turn tricks in luxurious bedrooms. But with gumption, twists of fate, even a touch of Voodoo, Mary rises above her hopeless lot to become the notorious Madame Josie Arlington.

Filled with fascinating historical details and cameos by Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and E. J. Bellocq, Madam is a fantastic romp through The Big Easy and the irresistible story of a woman who rose to power long before the era of equal rights.

Children of the Canyon tells the story of David, a boy growing up in LA’s fabled Laurel Canyon neighborhood as the 1960s counterculture is coming to an end. David’s record producer father works with the reclusive former leader of a surf music band on an album that promises to elevate the legacies of both men to immortal status. His distant, peripatetic mother rides the waves of activism and feminism in and out of David’s life. The elusive Topanga, named for the city’s last remaining Eden, whom David meets on the beach the night of his parents’ separation continues to elude his futile attempts to reconnect with her throughout the decade. Through David’s eyes, we bear witness to the fallout from the California Dream’s malfunction: the ruined families, failed revolutionaries, curdled musical idealism, and, ultimately, the rise of the conservatism that put the country on its present path.

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David Feldman Show: Lindsey Graham’s Secret

lindsey graham

Senator Lindsey Graham doesn’t want us to know about him. Plus Jon Leibowtiz who just wrapped up his four year term as chairman of the Federal Trade Commissioner talks about Ralph Nader, Law Professor Jodi Armour talks about the most recent execution in Texas, Down With Tyranny’s Howie Klein discusses whether Senator Lindsay Graham’s homosexuality will be an issue in this year midterms, Film Critic Michael Snyder tells us about two documentaries we all should be seeing and highlights from our premiere episode of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour.

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Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism

jody armour

The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America with Law Professor Jody David Armour who is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California. He has been a member of the faculty since 1995. Professor Armour’s expertise ranges from personal injury claims to claims about the relationship between racial justice, criminal justice, and the rule of law.  Professor Armour studies the intersection of race and legal decision making as well as torts and tort reform movements.

A widely published scholar and popular lecturer, Professor Armour is a Soros Justice Senior Fellow of The Open Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities and Culture. He has published articles in Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Southern California Review of Law and Women’s Studies, University of Colorado Law Review and University of Pittsburgh Law Review.  His book Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America, (New York University Press, 1997), received the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award. He has just completed a book on the relationship between law, language, morality, politics and the performing arts titled Hearts and Minds in Blame and Punishment.  Professor Armour is a regular legal analyst on KABC, KNBC and KCBS News and a sought-after legal expert on a variety of criminal law and social justice issues in a wide range of other media outlets. At the request of the US Department of State and European Embassies, Professor Armour has toured major universities in Europe to speak about social justice as well as Hip Hop culture and the law.  His work on the performing arts and law recently culminated in a unique interdisciplinary and multimedia analysis of social justice and linguistics, titled Race, Rap and Redemption, produced by USC alumna J.M. Morris, and featuring performance by Ice Cube, Mayda del Valle, Saul Williams, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, Macy Gray Music Academy Orchestra, and Mailon Rivera.

Prof. Armour earned his A.B. degree in Sociology and Philosophy at Harvard University and his J.D. degree with honors from Boalt Hall Law School at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining University of Southern California, he was an associate at Morrison & Foerster, Kirkpatrick and Lockhart and taught at Boalt Hall, Indiana University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Professor Armour currently teaches students a diverse array of subjects, including Criminal Law, Torts, and Stereotypes and Prejudice: The Role of the Cognitive Unconscious in the Rule of Law.

 

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