Educational Media Reviews Online

Want to change the world? This three-part series features interviews with some people who are putting their ideas into action on both local and global levels. In Work and Time, host Des Kennedy visits Stewart Brand of Whole Earth fame, progressive entrepreneur Paul Hawken, founder of Smith & Hawken, and anti-biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin. In Food, we meet with Frances Moore Lappe (Diet for a Small Planet), a pioneer of the sustainable food movement. Writer and urban historian Jane Jacobs (The Death & Life of Great American Cities) and ecology writer Bill McKibben appear in Cities. The not-so-famous are featured as well, working in community organizations all over the U.S. and Latin America.

These videos will probably appeal most to high school and college students who want to get involved in social change, although some of the interviewees are a bit on the senior side (Brand, Hawken, Jacobs). The series has a very strong progressive point of view, which should stimulate discussion. Community groups should also find the videos interesting. Recommended for high school and college libraries; public libraries in communities with strong interest in public policy issues.