Clay Shirky, NYU professor and leading thinker on the future of the Internet and communication technology, has opinions on everything from the “Twitter revolution” in Iran and GitHub’s collaborative coding process to the death of newspapers and the rise of the Pirate Party in Europe. Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations and his subsequent work have focused on the way people can organize online for real-world effects without the need for more traditional institutions.

Shirky spoke with GRITtv on Monday about the way everyday citizens can use the same technology that brings us videos of a kitten on a treadmill to achieve results that strengthen and spread democracy and engagement around the world.

In Max Blumenthal’s book Republican Gomorrah and in his GRITtv appearance, he introduced us to Francis Schaeffer, one of the important figures in the anti-choice and religious right movements in the United States.  Frank Schaeffer, Francis’s son, wrote a book about growing up in the religious right, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back.

Schaeffer has a new book now, Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism), and in it he takes on both the “incipient fascism” of the religious right and what he called “proselytizing” atheism of Richard Dawkins and others.  He joins Laura on GRITtv for a fascinating interview about his own journey, and how people, religious or irreligious, are all looking for answers to the same questions.

The Dow might be up and the economy might be growing, but where are all the jobs? With a multibilliondollar stimulus package facing criticism from Republicans for growing the deficit and from some on the left for being too small, we wonder just where the money did go.

Kate Clinton talks about the LGBT equality measures that passed in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Washington State, and the marriage equality law that was overturned in Maine on Election Day. "We're not just like you. You've got rights; we don't," she notes, calling for heterosexuals to have to ask people to vote on their rights.

Green for All is leading the charge for sustainable jobs that support working people; this video from Green for All and GOOD magazine takes a look at companies weatherizing homes in New York and the benefits to consumers, workers, and the world.

"Movies are about movement," says documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, and in his newest film, La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet, he examines the movement of ballet.

Any real economic stimulus needs to make sure that the jobs created are good, with good benefits, living wages, and targeted to the people who need them the most.

Last year on election day, we discussed the election and the future of America; hoping for an Obama victory and with it some restoration of the things we'd lost under Bush. This year, we look back with some of our guests from that day on what they said then and what they think now.

What did election 2009 results have to do with Obama? Our panel agrees on one thing: Democrats neglected the base that Obama worked so hard to build up.

GRITtv's Natalia Ospina and Sophie Gore-Browne hit the streets to talk to New Yorkers about the anniversary of Obama's election and what it means for them, one year later. Are they disappointed, pleased, still hopeful?