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Antonino D'Ambrosio joined us this week on GRITtv to talk about the history of protest music, the myth of Johnny Cash, and why music is one of the best ways to carry a progressive message. Then, in a special performance, he was joined by Anthony Roman and David Milone of the band Radio 4 to perform Cash's song "Apache Tears" live. Since it's Friday night, we thought we'd repost the performance here for you.

In honor of the National Book Awards, today on GRITtv we discuss other books we loved. From a biography of progressive icon Molly Ivins to Tracy Kidder's tale of a young medical student from Burundi, Jeannie Vanasco of Lapham's Quarterly, Julian Brookes of the Progressive Book Club and Sir Harold Evans, of The Week magazine and former president and publisher of Random House trade group, talk about the books that they think deserve more recognition.

Salvador Reza, U.S. Air Force veteran, community organizer and renowned immigrants rights activist, joins Laura for an exclusive interview on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's ongoing mistreatment of his community.

Brave New Films has been a tireless advocate against escalation, with the film Rethink Afghanistan exploring the problems there and proposing peaceful and diplomatic solutions and a responsible exit strategy. With this video, they bring together U.S. military veterans to ask Obama not to send more troops to continue a war that is on its way to being America's longest in history.

Adarsha Shivakumar used his proceeds from winning a spelling bee to co-found a project growing sustainable jatropha, a plant that can be used as biofuel, in India. His work provides an ecologically friendly and economically profitable crop for farmers who would otherwise grow tobacco, a much more harmful plant. This video from Rikshaw Films shows the impact Adarsha and his project have had around the world.

According to New America Media, "federal experts estimate that at least 1.6 million juveniles leave or are put out of their homes each year. Other research has found a 40% spike in the number of homeless youth over the past year."

In honor of the release of Palin's book (and Nation editors Betsy Reed and Richard Kim's response book, Going Rouge), our Got Docs feature this week is Return to the Wild: A Modern Tale of Wolf and Man from MoFilms.

Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently stripped of his federal authority to make immigration arrests after repeated complaints that he abuses power and uses racial profiling to target Latinos in his community. Salvador Reza, U.S. Air Force veteran, community organizer and renowned immigrants rights activist, joins Laura for an exclusive interview on Arpaio's ongoing abuses.

Johnny Cash isn't necessarily the first person to come to mind when one thinks about 60s protest music. Yet in his new book, A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears, Antonino D'Ambrosio connects Cash to the tradition of folk and political music in America, from Woody Guthrie to Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan and the 60s scene.

David Harvey, author of A Brief History of Neoliberalism, and Alexander Cockburn, author of End Times: The Death of the Fourth Estate, don't think small when it comes to change. They aren't afraid to think about significant, even radical changes to the social order we've grown so used to, whether it's requiring full employment, reimagining urban living, or repudiating credit card debt and abolishing Wall Street speculation.

In the second half of this video, from Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll of New Left Media, we see election day go from elation to heartbreak as Maine voted, by a thin majority, to revoke marriage rights from gay and lesbian couples.

What are the alternatives to the way we live? Since last fall's financial collapse, we've heard more honest discussion about capitalism's failings than in years. Yet real change is still hard to find. Wall Street is still handing out bonuses, we're still at war, and even Guantanamo might not actually be closed by the deadline Obama set upon taking office. As Americans question whether change is possible in an election cycle, we stop and think about what an alternative social order would look like.

Since Obama is convening a jobs summit and soliciting suggestions on how to put people back to work (that don't involve the dirty word "stimulus"), we had Dean Baker and John Nichols put their heads together and talk about ways to create good, meaningful, well-paid jobs and rethink the way Americans look at work.

Though the Bush administration and many other insiders claimed that no one could've seen the collapse coming, construction workers, whose own pension funds were invested in these companies, knew that there was a housing bubble and feared for their own retirement money. This video from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund takes a look at the rating agencies and their future.

This video, from Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll of New Left Media, gives an inside look at the No On One campaign, from get-out-the-vote training to a rally and candlelight vigil the night before election day. Watch for Part 2 tomorrow!

Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker describes himself as being "aboard the Obama express," and his new book, OBAMANOS!, collects his essays on the Obama generation and the way the campaign changed politics. A year into the administration, Hertzberg is still hopeful, though like many progressives he offers criticisms of the way the health care reform fight and others have been conducted.

16 workers a day die from work-related injuries, according to this latest video from Brave New Films. Charles Jeffress, former Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), notes that there are hardly any consequences to employers for failing to comply with guidelines--and with four million injuries on the job each year, it seems that employers have decided that it's easier to flout the law than to comply.

The unemployment number officially hit double digits recently, though the actual truth is that it's been in double digits for a while. The Nation's John Nichols , author of Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy calls the unemployment crisis a "social, economic and political threat," writing of the growing sense of urgency within an administration facing a purported recovery that hasn't extended to everyday people. Economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and author of Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy agrees, noting that unemployment is still a crisis for the families affected, who struggle to pay the bills and put food on the table.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! joined Laura in the studio to talk about creating independent media in a corporate world, the responsibility of people in the U.S. to be aware and active in the world, and the broken health care system she faced down recently while dealing with her mother's terminal illness.

Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare collects essays from around the progressive media analyzing the mysterious appeal of Sarah Palin. Richard Kim of the joins us along with contributors Rebecca Traister of Salon, Max Blumenthal, Daily Beast contributor and author of Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, and Shannyn Moore of Smart Radio in Alaska to talk about the books, the Right, and why Palin just won't go away.