Kate's guest is Aaron Bobrow-Strain, author of White Bread: A Social History of the Store Bought Loaf.

Oregon and Washington have dramatically reduced coal-powered energy generation. As a result coal companies are pushing to export tens of millions of tons of coal from Montana and Wyoming, through Pacific Northwest ports, to Asian markets. The coal would pass through dozens of communities in Oregon and Washington by rail, barge, or ship. Mercury and other toxins from Asian fired coal returns to the Columbia valley as blowback and acid rain.

Bill Resnick concludes his interview with Chris Toensing about the Arab Spring and its implications for the West.

You can find Part One here.

Frann Michel reviews Mark Fisher's book Capitalist Realism, which argues that the idea that only capitalism is realistic is itself a distorted ideology. Fisher tries to make complex theory accessible, and highlights the contradictory impacts of capitalism on mental health (declining) and bureaucracy (increasing). You can read Frann's  comments here.