Alternative Radio Hour

Alternative Radio, established in 1986, is an award-winning weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and beyond. AR provides information, analyses, and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in corporate media. With headquarters based in Boulder, Colorado and with only two full-time and two part-time paid staff, AR airs on almost 300 radio stations.

Alternative Radio is hosted by David Barsamian.

One of America’s most tireless and wide-ranging investigative journalists, David Barsamian has altered the independent media landscape, both with his weekly radio program, Alternative Radio—37 years and running— and his books with Noam Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmad, Howard Zinn, Tariq Ali, Richard Wolff, Arundhati Roy and Edward Said. His latest books are Edward Said: Culture and Resistance, Retargeting Iran, Noam Chomsky, Chronicles of Dissent Interviews with David Barsamian 1884-1996. And the latest book with Chomsky is Notes on Resistance: Interviews by David Barsmain 2019-2021. David lectures on world affairs, imperialism, capitalism, propaganda, the media and global rebellions.

As a kid, David was a bit of a rebel himself. He frequently played hooky from school. Growing up in New York in the shadow of the Armenian Genocide sparked an interest in history and politics. His first interview was with his mother, Araxie. That interview was the most difficult that he has ever done. He then conducted a series of interviews with survivors. He was further radicalized when the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team moved to Los Angeles. He said, “That’s all I needed to know about capitalism.”

David Barsamian is the winner of the Media Education Award, the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, and the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. The Institute for Alternative Journalism named him one of its Top Ten Media Heroes. He is the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Democracy Alliance of Vancouver, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and The Radical Desi. He has collaborated with the world-renowned Kronos Quartet in events in New York, London, Vienna, San Francisco and Boulder.