Raj Patel

Raj Patel joins us to discuss his latest book "A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet."

High food prices are not by themselves a guarantee that governments will fall, because if it were, we'd see overhauls in the governments of India or China. It's certainly the case tha...

Raj Patel, visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Center for African Studies, fellow at Food First, and author of The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, discusses the global food crisis, and how rising prices are playing a role in the unrest in the Middle East.

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India's economy is on the rise, but with an estimated 421 million people living in poverty, its levels of malnutrition are still staggeringly high. The governing Indian National Congress Party is pushing to enshrine the right to food in the country’s constitution and expand the existing entitlement so that every Indian family would qualify for a monthly 77-pound bag of grain, sugar and kerosene.

We want to hear from you: Should government guarantee the basics of human survival? What would you make a basic human right?

To Raj Patel, visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Center for African Studies, our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. In his new book The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, he discusses the true social and ecological costs ...

Yesterday's devastating earthquake in Haiti is the latest disaster to befall the country. We take calls from Haitians in the area and hear from guests, including Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor-publisher of The Haitian Times, host of the show “Independent Sources” on CUNY TV; Stephanie Bunker, spokesperson for the UN's ...