Episode 31 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet meets the New Year with new resolve to inspire all our listeners to do something healing for our planet. It can be making “good trouble,” as John Lewis once told us; it can be raising awareness with song; it can be coming together in community. Or simply being a caring person to those around you. We dedicate this episode to the future.

Episode 30 (Season 2) is a profile of the legendary activist collective The Church of Stop Shopping, led by Reverend Billy (William Talen) and Savitri D. Beginning with anti-consumerist actions in New York's Times Square in the 1990s, the church grew into a powerful performing force, with infectious gospel grooves, dozens of voices in harmony, and Reverend Billy's heartfelt, eloquent anti-consumption message delivered in true prophetic voice.

Warren Senders' interview with Reverend Billy and Director Savitri D is interspersed with video of the Church's music-filled activism and activism-filled music, and supplemented with historical and cultural context.

To learn more, go to revbilly.com.

Music and Video

"I Am Not The Only One"
The Stop Shopping Choir
from "The Sun Is A Star That Keeps Me Warm"

Richard Nixon, Lloyd Shopping Center
Portland, Oregon, September 13, 1960
KGW Vault, Portland
George W. Bush
CNN, December 2006
"On The Road!"
Reverend Billy and the
Church of Stop Shopping

"Bye, Bye Buying"
Reverend Billy
December, 2013

Billy Graham Crusade
Film recorded 1957
Billy Sunday Warns America
Film recorded 1926
"It's The End of the World"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Joe's Pub, Public Theater, New York
Sep 18, 2014

"Can We Be Strange Enough to Change Enough?"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 22, 2025

"Paradise Now"
The Living Theater
Berlin Sports Palast
January 10, 1970
from "Signals Through The Flames"
Mystic Fire Video
Augusto Boal clip
Centro de Teatro do Oprimido
"Money Makes The World Go Around"
Bread & Puppet Theater
Glover, VT
September, 2019
(Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)
"Reverend Billy Exorcises BP At Tate Museum"
London, UK
Jul 19, 2011

"Love Earth"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 22, 2025

"The Fabulous Unknown"
Reverend Billy and
the Stop Shopping Choir
from "The Sun Is A Star That Keeps Me Warm"

"Monsanto's Deadly Secret in Central Park"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
New York City, Apr 1, 2016

"Fabulous Bad Weather"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Lyrics by William Talen & Savitri Durkee
From "The Earth Wants You"
Brooklyn, Apr 7, 2016

Interview with
William Talen & Savitri D
November 17, 2025

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Episode 25 is a mixed bag of tunes, starting out with Pay Attention by Joyce Johnson Rouse, singing with her group, Earth Mama. It’s a simple – even childlike – doo-wop kind of song that asks us to pay attention to the earth, and all the wonderful things it gives us. But it also makes clear our responsibility to keep it clean and whole.

Building on Earth Mama’s insistence to take responsibility for our planet, next is Crys Matthews, singing her Waking Up the Dead, a song about our generational responsibility to the slaves, some dead hundreds of years, now buried in the cemetery Crys finds herself walking through. She feels their suffering and celebrates their struggle to achieve the freedom they got only in death. But she also offers her gratitude for all they went through toget her to her own freedom – and wonders: Who were they? It is a moving ode to freedom and responsibility.

And speaking of freedom, our next song, No Kings, comes with a montage of all the demonstrations that arose on No KingsDay last June 14 – one of the largest protests in US history. The song says “No Kings in the USA,” and we all know it’s talking about that corrupt Man Who Would Be King, sitting in the White House. It’s a boisterous, rousing piece of soul music, rejoicing in the knowledge that “No man owns the USA.” It’s a good reminder that the second No Kings Day is coming up soon, on October 18. And courage is contagious, so tell all your friends.

Finally, we round out today’s episode. with something of the spoken word – Come Write a Song With Us, by Lu Aya, co-founder of The Peace Poets – a hip-hop and spoken word crew from the Bronx. Lu is an educator, musician, and champion of social justice. His poem tells us we are all interwoven, and songs have the power to embody that idea.