Rip Current

A federal agency comes to the Pacific Northwest to hold hearings that could severely limit logging of redwoods. With the Ecotopia in the center of media attention, both Earth First! and the timber corporations see an opportunity to to get their message to the public. The result is a week of tension, confrontation and violence, with Judi Bari in the center of it all.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By the 1980s, about 95% of the redwood forest in California is gone, the result of 150 years of timber cutting. In 1985, a Texas businessman named Charles Hurwitz buys Pacific Lumber Co, plunging the company into debt. Pacific Lumber is the largest private owner of the remaining old growth redwood forest. It soon becomes clear that Charles Hurwitz intends to clear cut the trees, which would be an environmental catastrophe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb detonated in the white Subaru driven by radical environmental activist Judi Bari. The bomb malfunctioned and Bari, though critically injured, survived. She was the most visible leader of Earth First! in the northernmost counties of California. At the time, Earth First! was in a tense and violent conflict with major timber corporations who planned to clearcut large swaths of the remaining Redwood forest. The person who planted that bomb has never been identified. Who tried to kill Judi Bari?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A further examination of the brief, violent existence of the SLA.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We talk with Historian Dan Berger about activism in California prisons in the 1960s and 70s.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Interviews with co-host Mary Catherine Garrison conducted before and after her work on Rip Current.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early morning hours of September 22nd, the Secret Service questions Sara Jane Moore about whether she intends to kill President Ford. Later that day, she purchases a gun, drives to San Francisco and takes a shot at Gerald Ford.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Popeye Jackson’s execution, a debate is carried out among radical groups on whether or not he should have been killed. As the police investigation focuses on a group called Tribal Thumb, Sara Jane Moore perceives herself to be in increasing danger.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.