The film is a broad satire of American ignorance of the Soviet Union. The naive American, Mr. John West, played by Porfori Podobed as a Harold Lloyd type (complete with enormous round glasses), is a YMCA president who is planning a trip to the newly founded Soviet Union to spread the idea of the YMCA. His wife, Madge, is worried that Russia is full of savage Bolsheviks who wear primitive rags and fur for clothing, as depicted in American magazines....

Political theorist Justin Lewis examines how polling data presented in the media do not simply reflect what Americans think, but construct public opinion itself. Exploding the myth that most Americans are moderate or conservative, Constructing Public Opinion demonstrates how political elites help to promote militarism, and how mainstream media sustain an electoral system with a built-in bias against the interests of ordinary people.

"In the 1930s, the British public's emotional response to the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, including the bombing of Guernica, shaped the mass-politics of the age. Similarly, alleged German atrocities in World War I against the Belgians and the French had led to campaigns in Britain for donations to support the victims. Why then, was the British public seemingly less concerned with the treatment of Jews in Hitler's Germany? Outlining a 'hierarchy...

A book on how Western nations are often blamed for history's atrocities, while all nations have tarnished histories. This is a thorough argument in the defense of Western values and history.

The math is simple: the fossil fuel industry has five times the amount of coal, gas and oil that even the most conservative governments know is safe to burn. Left to their own devices, they'll push us past the brink of cataclysmic disaster and life as we know it will be irrevocably altered forever - unless we rise up and fight back. In November 2012, best-selling author and environmental activist Bill McKibben and 350.org -- the organization he co-founded...

"Coming Out Polish Style" offers a rare look into the lives of gays and lesbians in contemporary Poland. The film explores the issue of gay and lesbian rights in a conservative society, which is undergoing a very dynamic transformation, allowing for more and more successful liberal changes. The documentary focuses on the diverse and complex identity struggles involved in the process of 'coming out'. It profiles both celebrities who are openly gay...

Red Moon confronts one the world's oldest and most pervasive taboo subjects. With humor and refreshing candor, the documentary provides a fascinating, often ironic, take on the absurd and frequently dangerous cultural stigmas and superstitions surrounding women's menstruation. As educational as it is liberating, the film functions as both a myth-busting overview of the realties of menstruation, and a piercing cultural analysis of the ways in which...

A book about the science, and the experience, of transformation. When David McRaney began a book about how to change someone's mind in one conversation, he never expected to change his own. But then a diehard 9/11 Truther's conversion blew up his theories-inspiring him to ask not just how to persuade, but why we believe, from the eye of the beholder. Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, How minds change explores the...