This week we interviewed John Perkins, author, public speaker, and founder of two non-profit organizations, Dream Change and The Pachamama Alliance.

While working as Chief Economist for a consulting firm in the 1970s, Perkins advised the World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF), U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. When he realized he had become an 'economic hit man' playing a dishonorable role in the economic colonization of the world on behalf of elite multinational corporations, banks and the United States government, Perkins decided he wanted to become part of the solution, not the problem.

Perkins' book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - published in over 30 languages, and selling over 1.2 million copies worldwide - is a startling first-hand exposé of international corruption on a gargantuan scale, while his Secret History of the American Empire, another New York Times bestseller, details the clandestine operations that created the world's first truly global empire.

Our guest's latest book, Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded - And How To Fix It, offers a blueprint for a new form of global economics, away from predatory capitalism and into an era more transformative than the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions.

Running Time: 02:12:00

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The following video contains footage of some of the extreme weather, fireballs and seismic activity from around the world in February. Think the weather's crazy where you live? Check out what's happening elsewhere...

January's 'polar vortex' returned to bury most of the US in snow... despite a record number of 'winter wildfires' breaking out as far north as Oregon.

Mount Sinabung in Indonesia erupted spectacularly... then a string of volcanoes followed the ensuing pyroclastic cloud down the mountain, while another major volcanic eruption occurred in Ecuador.

Severe flooding, tidal surges and hurricane force winds hit Western Europe, while Eastern Europe was hit by heavy snow and ice-storms.

A wildfire broke out in Wales between winter storms... as Atlanta, Georgia was knocked out by snow.

There were record snowfalls in Iran and Tokyo, more 'strange sky sounds' and the Great Lakes almost completely froze over.

A waterspout was filmed off the Australian coast, a major heatwave hit Brazil, and sinkholes opened up all over UK...

Is this normal?!

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All anti-imperialists that have been secretly longing for the day when the last great Empire of our 'modern' era would finally do what all the 'best' Empires have done - overextend itself in both reach and hubris for all to see and usher in its collapse - should be looking at the situation in Ukraine with hope and expectation.

Well, maybe I'm getting a little carried away there, but the US-Ukraine-Russia debacle does seem to be presenting 'we the people' with a rare opportunity to see the great American Empire as the monolithic edifice, composed largely of lies, propaganda, rhetoric, fear and public credulity that it is. There is, perhaps, a chance to see that the emperor really is naked, and that our overblown overlords and their "greatest democracy on earth" exist and persist only because we all believe their carefully crafted lies served up to us in the yellow journalism of the Empire's fourth estate, the mainstream media.

As the empire fades and the hubris of its leaders increases however, it seems even those carefully crafted lies aren't having the desired effect. This week, both Obama and John Kerry exposed America's vaunted 'exceptionalism' as being based on exceptional dishonesty when they made statements about Russian intervention in Ukraine. The funny thing is, both Obama and Kerry were actually trying to do the opposite - present themselves as paragons of righteousness. Apparently the Neocons from whom they take their orders failed to mention to these two spokesmen for Empire that 'chutzpah' should never be pushed too far, lest you expose your unmitigated effrontery and impudence for all the world to see.

In the following SOTT Talk Radio show from October 20th 2013, we discussed high drama in high places, the all-too-brief rise and fall of the Ride for the Constitution protest in Washingotn, DC, ongoing climate chaos and incoming meteor fireballs from space.

We took a look at the contrived theatre of Republicrats dogging it out on the political stage in the first US 'government shutdown' in 20 years, while a drama unfolded in which a mother with her young child in her car was accused of "ramming the White House gates" and ended up riddled with bullets near the Capitol building.

Meanwhile spectacular fireball sightings throughout the Fall produced some notable overhead explosions in the U.S. You know folks are noticing that something is 'up' when Anderson Cooper dedicates an episode of 60 Minutes to the topic of "cosmic roulette"...

Running Time: 02:09:00

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This week we'll be, once again, discussing the situation in Ukraine but this time in the context of international politics and if the pathocrats really are insane enough to push the world to the brink of all-out war.

Ukraine's population is split, roughly 50/50, between those who are "pro EU/US" and those who are "pro Russia". The recent "revolution" and change of government in Ukraine has exacerbated political, ethnic and religious divisions (as all US-inspired provocations do, and are designed to do) among the Ukrainian people. At present, the US-backed government in Kiev and its supporters in Western Ukraine are lobbying the UN security council and NATO (the US military mainly) to "look at all ways to protect its territorial integrity." At the same time, the newly declared 'independent' parliament in the Crimean peninsula has called on Russia to protect its 'integrity'. All of which appears to shape up as the opening gambit in a possible soon to come military confrontation between the USA and Russia. So, is the real war that never came during the 'cold war' about to kick off?

We'll be giving our perspective on this interesting question. We'll also be looking at recent worldwide weather and 'environmental' anomalies and bringing you a new theory of cloud formation and its link to "global warming" and a never before heard explanation of what is causing those pesky sinkholes that have been swallowing cars and people for the past several years. We'll also be explaining why, given that there has been a stark reduction in solar activity in recent years, there have been more severe storms on the planet, when, according to official science, less solar activity should mean a quieter planet, weather-wise.

Running Time: 02:04:00

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When the US government sanctioned the beating and arrest of US citizens for swaying from side to side in the Jefferson Memorial a couple of years ago, it provoked no response from the Western media (and therefore the Western zombie-citizens who rely entirely on the media for their 'opinions'). Yet the Russian government, sorry, 'Putin' (because everyone knows Putin is a dictator, right?) is broadly denounced as a 'tyrant' by these same Western zombies (again because their 'outraged opinion' was deftly inserted into their brains by the Western media) for putting a stop to the ugly spectacle of deranged Russian women sticking chickens up their vaginas in supermarkets, daubing outlines of phalli on bridges, staging 'orgies' in a museum and defiling the peace and tranquility of Russian Orthodox churches as part of their three year long international attack on the Russian government.

Disconnect? For sure, but, like I said, don't expect any logic from the collective mind of the citizens of Western zombie nations. All you can hope to do is understand the psychopathic logic of Western governments and the way it infects the minds and manipulates the emotions of Western citizens.

'Pussy Riot', or 11 Russian women between the ages of 20-33, has received direct moral support from the US State Department and likely indirect financial support, and appears to be one aspect of the US government's decade-long attempt to undermine Russian society and its president, Vladimir Putin.

This week we took a closer look at the unfolding chaos in Ukraine. Is it really 'chaos'? Or is their method behind the madness?

In the context of 100+ years of U.S. intervention abroad, the worsening situation in Ukraine is just another in a long line of manipulated and bloody conflicts the U.S. elite has brought about.

This time, however, the U.S. is facing a strong opponent in the form of a resurgent Russia. How will Putin respond to the unfolding mayhem on his doorstep? Will he play dirty like the Americans? Will he just try to keep it contained within Ukraine's borders?

Running Time: 02:10:00

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Weird title, huh? How in the world can "fear of strangers", which is touted by our revered leaders as our best protection, be the cause of self-destruction? And what does it have to do with the Odyssey, the Old and New Testaments?

It's pretty simple, actually.

One of the dominant themes of the Odyssey, which also appears in the Old and New Testaments, is hospitality and knowing how to treat a stranger if you are the host, and knowing how, as a guest, you ought to respond to good or bad hospitality.

We recently had an interesting discussion with two 'spirit healers', Patrick Rodriguez and Heather Hayes. Rodriguez is an intuitive healer and hypnotherapist with many years' experience. With the help of a highly gifted psychic medium, Heather Hayes, Rodriguez practices 'Spirit Release' and 'Soul Therapy', helping 'earthbound spirits' and people with 'attached spirits'.

What do these terms actually mean? Does one have to 'believe in the spirit world' for such therapeutic modalities to work? As Rodriguez emphasises, it's not a magic wand that will transform your life for the better overnight, but people do have improvements in their lives with the help of such 'unconventional' therapy, if only from learning a bit more about themselves.

Listen as Rodriguez, Hayes and former hypnotherapist Laura Knight-Jadczyk compared notes in this lively SOTT Talk Radio show.

Running Time: 01:54:00

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This week we unwound a little to have a musical interlude and discuss some of the great 'protest songs' that became anthems of liberty during the otherwise bleak 'American Century', inspiring many with hope for Truth and Justice.

What makes a 'protest song' anyway? We also talked about some lesser known songs that didn't quite 'make it', but nevertheless struck a powerful chord with some because they record a truer version of history the victors would prefer we forget.

We were joined by Tim Trepanier, singer-songwriter and travelling troubadour from the prairie lands of Canada. Lead singer and guitarist for folk band Relic, we even convinced Tim to play a couple of his tunes for us live on air!

Running Time: 02:19:00

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