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| Rick West at the NMAI Circa 2007 Image by Wayne King |
Episode 74
W. Richard West Jr.. is the Founding Director of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and a Director Emeritus.
Apple Podcast
Youtube:
The Radical Centrist Podcast explores a politics that steps outside of the realm of the poisonous partisanship that has infected our country in recent years and seeks ways to place the American voice - and the American idea - above tribalism, partisan politics and blind allegiance to ideology and to challenge ourselves to ask question and seek answers that can bridge the divides between people, parties and ideologies.
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Ep 74 W. Richard West Jr. Founding Director of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian
Episode 74
W. Richard West Jr.. is the Founding Director of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and a Director Emeritus.
Apple Podcast
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Ira Shapiro: "We're in a Dark place" - The Damage Runs Deep
Episode 73
The Radical Centrist
Ira Shapiro: "We're in a Dark Place" The Damage Runs Deep
In this podcast we catch up with Ira Shapiro after just 150 days of the Donald Trump administration including the challenges ahead for democracy.
As is always the case, for those who listen through the full podcast there are always gems to take away from the experience and this podcast is no exception.
https://feeds.podetize.com/5UMllOtsR.mp3
https://youtu.be/3SG9BxPx0oQIra Shapiro, Brandeis University 1969, first cut his political teeth when he landed an internship in Washington with Senator Jacob Javits of New York. Supported by a $600 stipend from Brandeis, it was a good way to spend the summer between Brandeis and Berkeley, where he's been accepted to study politics on a National Science Foundation fellowship.
But Washington — and the Senate, in particular — had captured Ira’s imagination. So, he did one year at Berkeley and then switched to the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
After practicing law for a short time in Chicago, he returned to Washington in 1975 as the legislative legal counsel to Wisconsin’s Democratic powerhouse Senator, Gaylord Nelson.
Over the next 12 years, Ira worked for several Senate committees and other individual members in what he wouls come to call "The Last Great Senate" not coincidentally the name of his first book. He had a front-row participant-observer seat to see the men and the few women of the Senate listen to their colleagues with respect, learn from one another, change their minds, compromise and find solutions to national problems.
Then, from the same place, he watched it all start to erode.
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| We are the New Sons and Daughters of Liberty |
Today, Ira is the President of Ira Shapiro Global Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in international trade, U.S.-Japan relations, and American politics, which he founded in 2014. He brings to the firm 40 years of experience in senior staff positions in the U.S. Senate, the Clinton administration, and private law practice. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis, published in 2012. He has also written "Broken - Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country?" and most recently, his newest book: "The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America"
He also publishes regularly from his new Substack: Truth be Told.
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Shapiro is not only among the foremost experts on the United States Senate in the country, he was also the lead negotiator for the US/Canadian talks during the NAFTA process and he has continued to provide commentary and consulting on International trade. A regular friend of the podcast, we check in with Ira from time to time for his brilliant analysis and highly quotable observations.
In this podcast Ira shares not only his observations on the current state of the Senate but also some ideas for fixing these problems. Green shoots we call them.
His latest book The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America details the ways in which the Senate has gone astray in recent years.
The Last Great Senate
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| Order The Last Great Senate |
Mr. Shapiro Goes to Washington
Courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office
Democrat Edmund Muskie, Republican Jacob Javits and Democrat Hubert Humphrey were among the most significant policymakers in the U.S. Senate during the 1970s.
by John Weingart ’70
I first met Ira Shapiro ’69 on the campaign trail. We were both on the ballot that year, though for different offices, when we bumped into each other canvassing for votes in a dorm in North Quad. He was hoping to represent the junior class on the Student Council while I was seeking one of the sophomore seats. For the record, we both won.
Podcasts produced at Anamaki Studios in Bath, NH. Sales of art and merchandise from our galleries help cover the costs of production at Anamaki. They also help us to avoid placing commercials in the podcasts.
This land lies in N’dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Sokoki, Koasek, Pemigewasset, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude those who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.
Images by Wayne D. King
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Signed Limited Edition 27" x 36"
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Affordable unsigned posters in various sizes are available .
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| Spirit of Freedom Buffalo |
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| A Great Day to Fly A Great Day to Fly Original Art Available in two sizes > > |
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| A Galaxy of Sunflowers in Langdon Woods |
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| Chapel in the Blue Lupine Signed Originals 5 Each - Total Edition of 10 |
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Elliot Berry - Retired but still leading by example
Episode 72
Elliott Berry - Retired but Still Leading by Example
From the Radical Centrist and NH Secrets Podcasts.
Listen here:
https://feeds.podetize.com/wZ87AkHlp.mp3
Elliott Berry recently retired after nearly fifty years in the same job as a lawyer for New Hampshire Legal Assistance. I hesitate to even identify his job this way because the trail that Elliott Berry has blazed over those years has burnished a reputation and accomplishments across the country.
While Elliott chose New Hampshire as the venue for his life's work as an advocate for low-income families, his service and impact have been broadly hailed for creating innovative solutions to daunting problems, especially around homelessness and affordable housing.
The show notes for this podcast highlight his legal achievements, but just as important, especially in today's environment, is the man behind the achievements: his humanity, his search for common ground, and his willingness - really eagerness - to share the joys of success with others who stood with him over the years.
It is a rare person who elicits such admiration from both those who fought beside him as well as those who (at least began) on the other side of the battle.
I know all too well these things about Berry, who served as a mentor to me when I was a New Hampshire State Representative and State Senator in the 1980s and 1990s. We fought side by side to create the very first funding to address homelessness, and to establish legal rights for tenants facing eviction.
A landmark law creating a "Right to Purchase" option for tenants of manufactured housing parks would become a national model and today boasts thousands of such tenant-owned parks throughout the country. Both Wayne and Elliott were founding board members of the NH Community Loan Fund - along with Director Juliana Eades. The Loan Fund - and especially the "Right to Purchase" innovation has blossomed into a national movement for tenant-owned cooperatives.
Any conversation with Elliott Berry can't ignore that he is not only a giant in his own right but also part of a progressive power couple from the last fifty years - alongside his wife Campbell Harvey who in 1981 founded the state's very first all female law practice and was the author of New Hamphire's Domestic Violence statute.
We hope to have the chance to interview Campbell soon, but word is that she is a far more private person and may require some convincing.
It has been a great honor in my life to work with Elliott Berry. To me his work is summed up best by the words of the Chinese Philosopher Lau-Tzu:
The Best Leader
A leader is best
When people barely know
That he exists,
Less good when
They obey and acclaim him,
Worse when
They fear and despise him.
Fail to honor people
And they fail to honor you.
But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
they will all say,
'We did this ourselves.’
Lao-Tzu
Chinese philosopher
Donate to the Elliot Berry Fund at NH Community Loan Fund
You can donate directly to a special fund established in honor of Elliot Berry at the link below. You can also purchase any of the art displayed here and proceeds will be shared with the Berry Fund.
Donate directly:
NH Bar Association Profile
Prominent NHLA Advocate, Elliott Berry, to Retire After 47 Years of Exemplary Service
By Tom Jarvis
NHBA Staff
In December, friends, colleagues, and family gathered to celebrate Elliott Berry upon his retirement after 47 years at New Hampshire Legal Assistance.
Elliott Berry, NH's longest-serving legal aid lawyer, to retire
Oct 7, 2022— Berry, an attorney at NH Legal Assistancefor his entire career, has worked for the agency since 1975, starting as a VISTA volunteer after ...
Fighting for Housing Justice Elliott Berry & Lauren Greenwald, NH Legal Aid
The concept of housing justice is ever evolving as new challenges (think AirBnB) add to a long list of unresolved problems. While the concept encompasses far more than the law, lawyers have a meaningful role in the fight. For over 50 years New Hampshire Legal Assistance (NHLA) has worked on multiple fronts in the pursuit of housing justice for low-income people — from defending against evictions to legislative advocacy, and from challenging exclusionary zoning by municipalities to combating housing discrimination.
Elliott Berry, who retired from NHLA in 2022 after 47 years and Lauren Greenwald, NHLA’s current Director of Housing Justice, will share some of NHLA’s successful efforts to help NH tenants obtain greater housing opportunity and security. They will also address some of the thorniest lingering problems and hope to facilitate a lively discussion of where we go from here.
Images by Wayne D. King
Your purchases of images from the gallery benefit the Podcast
and make it possible to produce these podcasts without advertisements.
Purchase any of the art displayed here and proceeds will be shared with the Berry Fund.
No room for a new piece of art? All these images are available as cards, mugs, puzzles, shower curtains, phone cases, clothing, totes, and more. Click here for merch.
Piglet at the Powwow
Paper Birch Milan NH
Autumn in the Beet Green Forest
The Wonderous Lightness of Early Spring
Appaloosa Grazing Under Stormy Skies
Balancing on a Log
The Ball Box
Woods Walk to Livermore
Light Fades on Broadacres Farm
Cloud Over Loveland
A Merger of Clouds
Cloud Lens Over Ossippee Mountains
Cloudy, Cloudy, Day
Waiting on a Purple Breeze
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