March 22 will mark 40 years since Congress ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Unfortunately, we fell three states short of the number required to amend the Constitution to insure that no one in this country would or could be discriminated against due to their sex.  And here we are in 2012 with a war being waged by the Republican party against women.

Since today is International Women’s Day, I invited Roberta Francis – Chair of the ERA task force of the National Council of Women’s Organizations – on the show to bring us op to day.  Although you likely haven’t heard anything about a concerted effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in the corporate media, it is underway.  Listen to today’s show, and visit equalrightsamendment.org to find out more and get involved!

Some time this month, I’ll have my friend Amy Simon back on the show.  Amy is a “cultural herstorian” and is the writer/performer of the one-woman show “She’s History: The Most Dangerous Women in America Then and Now”.  In honor of International Women’s Day, here’s a taste of what her show is all about:

Today’s show was a busy one. I also spoke with Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor, political activist, and author of the bestselling Republic, Lost, is now out with a new e-book, One Way Forward: The Outsider’s Guide to Fixing the Republic. We had what I think was a fascinating discussion about what’s wrong with our country and what needs to happen in order to fix it… a good start is with his new book, which happens to be interactive!  Find out more at oneway.lessig.org.

We wrapped up the week with some laughs with John Fugelsang, who told us about his upcoming web-series Caffeinated, and disagreed with me about what it means to be a progressive!