Three years ago today, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, and triggered a massive tsunami that claimed among its victims the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and thus began a nuclear disaster whose scope is still not fully known, but will continue for generations to come.

The news out of Japan these days is sparse, due to a newly-passed state secrets law that prohibits everyone from discussing the disaster (or any other bad news), and even prohibits journalists from asking questions about it, both punishable by long prison terms.

Over here and in other parts of the world, activists and concerned residents of the planet are doing what they can to get and share information. But it isn’t easy – especially when governments (ours included) aren’t doing anything to test the Pacific Ocean, the air or anything else for that matter.

I started the show today with someone who’s been working hard to educate the world about the dangers of nuclear power for decades. Harvey Wasserman helped coin the phrase No Nukes back in 1974, organized the MUSE (Musician United for Safe Energy) concerts turned movie and album after Three Mile Island in 1979, and has continued on his anti-nuclear quest since, writing dozens of books including Solartopia!, and these days is editor at NukeFree.org.

Today, Harvey, 2012 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, activist David Swanson and others are Fasting for Fukushima.

I feel a bit helpless on this issue as there’s not much information out there. In addition to NukeFree.org, here are some other sites to check in with regularly:

My second guest this morning was Robert Parry. A true investigative journalist in the classic sense of the term, Parry was a reporter for the AP in the mid 80’s and was one of those responsible for breaking the Iran Contra story.  He’s founded Consortium News in 1995, where he’s able to practice serious journalism unfettered by corporate dictates.

So, I started our conversation this morning by asking him how the profession of journalism differs today from when he was breaking big stories in the 80’s. We moved on to talk about how few (read none) of the corporate mainstream media outlets are reporting on the situation in Ukraine as he is, calling attention to the Neo Nazi factions in the Ukrainian opposition, and calling it  ” a U.S.-backed coup”.

I urge you to listen to our in-depth and fascinating interview, and read his coverage of Ukraine here.

During our second hour every Tuesday, I hang with my friend GottaLaff of The Political Carnival. We each bring some stories to chat about… today we talked about the despicable Ann Coulter (who should be shamed for simply being miserable excuse for a human being that she is),  the 22-pound cat who trapped its owners in a bedroom after attacking the baby, the Fake News Channel misspelling the Bee in Spelling Bee (seriously), and a lot more.

And yes, President Obama guested on Between Two Ferns with Zack Galifianakis. See the whole thing here: