John Perkins is the author of the books Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, The Secret History of the American Empire, and Hoodwinked.
I first interviewed Perkins in September 2008 after reading Confessions. It was a thought-provoking conversation about subjects that are of mutual interest… a conversation I taped but subsequently lost in a computer crash.
When Perkins’ media representative sent me his latest book, Hoodwinked, I was eager to conduct a second interview. Hoodwinked is a timely assessment of the economic and political crises we suffered as a human community in 2009, and it’s an eerily prescient warning about what might happen if we don’t work individually and collectively on changing our dreams and directing our energies accordingly.
I wrote briefly about Perkins on Matador Change and will be publishing a review of Hoodwinked on Matador Goods soon, but I encourage you to take some time to listen to our full interview. This 37 minute unedited version–complete with baby Mariel’s gurgling and occasional static caused by incoming emails on the Blackberry–is worth a listen for Perkins’ thoughtful insights about travel, politics, the economy, our goals as individuals and as a human community, and on concrete actions we can take to build more sustainable communities.
I heard the entire interview and thought you asked really pressing questions. He also sounds like a very interesting man!:)