In May, Eduardo Galeano sat down with Laura for a rare interview and reading from Mirrors.

Bolivian president Evo Morales cruised to reelection December 6th with 64% of the vote, and a New York Times blogger wrote during the Copenhagen climate talks that he "was the face of poor countries calling for the rich nations, which built nearly all of the existing human-generated blanket of greenhouse gases, to pay a “climate debt” to the world’s vulnerable communities."

This year saw a lot of economic upheaval and at least in the beginning, some militant labor action that the U.S. has grown unused to. Back in May, Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis appeared on GRITtv along with labor activists from around the country to ask the all-important question: Why can't we fire the boss?

You may know Harry Shearer best as the voice of Ned Flanders or Mr. Burns on The Simpsons. Maybe your first exposure to him was in This Is Spinal Tap. You definitely know Harry Shearer.

Both, say our guests on today's show, who've been around the music scene for a while. We think of art as something beautiful, something fun, but in this country it's something that very few people are expected to make a living at. But it's also time-consuming difficult work that takes years of training and practice to do well.

Ganessa James and Mary McBride both stopped by our studio recently to perform for us. To help celebrate, we bring you additional songs they recorded just for us.

It’s that familiar season, full of quaint old false beliefs. Like that crazy Santa Claus notion there’s such a thing as just desserts. Who’s been naughty and who’s been nice? It’s pretty clear in the world of global politics, but there’s no relation between behavior and the consequences. In fact, if there's any relationship, it's downside up.

Maybe it's not technically the end of a decade. But with the switch from Bush to Obama, it seems as good a time as any to look back at the 2000's--whatever you call them. Whether Time is right that it was the worst decade ever, or that's a bit of an exaggeration, progressives can't argue that a lot happened in the past ten years, and a lot of it was depressing.

It's the end of 2009. We're still in two wars, Guantanamo is not yet closed, and the jobless numbers are still sky-high. What happened to all the optimism we started the year with? There have been bright spots and not-so-bright spots, nasty political fights and moments of progress.

Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films has been making documentaries on the biggest progressive issues for the last decade. He's gone from the 2000 election to the Iraq War, Fox News to Wal-Mart, and lately has been a leading voice urging leaders to Rethink Afghanistan. He joins us via phone to talk about progressive organizing through media--what works, what doesn't, and where to go from here.

Happy Holidays from all of us at GRITtv. While you're sitting down with family--or celebrating alone--or not celebrating at all, we've got a special show for you to enjoy tonight.

It's the end of 2009. We're still in two wars, Guantanamo is not yet closed, and the jobless numbers are still sky-high. What happened to all the optimism we started the year with? There have been bright spots and not-so-bright spots, nasty political fights and moments of progress.

The health care bill passed the Senate on Christmas Eve, and is heading for conference committee. While we still don't know what will come out of the committee and go to the President, it's worth watching this week's discussion again.

Sarah Schulman notes that what she calls "familial homophobia" is a common experience that almost every gay person experiences. More importantly, she stresses that instead of dealing with this individually, we need to create community solutions together to deal with these problems.

Most people think of theater as something that happens on a stage, with seated people clapping politely. But Circus Amok take their brand of avant-garde political theater to the streets of New York, even when it's freezing outside.

Payday lenders are often predatory, and their victims are disproportionately people of color--and almost all poor. In this video from our friends at New America Media, we take a look at an alternative program in San Francisco that offers low-cost short-term loans to keep people out of the clutches of the payday lenders.

"If you cheat, you make a lot of money." So says William K. Black, a former senior deputy chief counsel at the federal Office of Thrift Supervision. Black is an expert on the shady dealings of banks and corporations. David Heath of the Huffington Post interviewed him for this report.

During the holidays, New York City's already-wild traffic gets so much worse that the department of transportation and MTA send out Gridlock Alerts to encourage people not to drive. Our friends at Street Films made this list of ten things to be thankful for when Gridlock Alert hits.

The health care bill may have passed the Senate, but there's still heavy debate among progressives as to whether the bill is actual reform. Some of the arguments have gotten heated, personal, but they've also helped to take the framing of the issue away from the Republicans, who have steadfastly remained the Party of No. But the important question remains: without a public option, Medicare buy-in, or other cost-controlling measures, and with Stupak and Nelson holding women's rights for ransom, is there anything good left in this bill?

The Philadelphia Museum of Art security guards have been caught in a labor struggle for years, dating back to the subcontracting out of what were formerly union jobs. They finally held--and won--a union election earlier this fall, but AlliedBarton, the contractor the guards work for, has so far refused to negotiate a contract.