The very agencies created to protect our environment have been hijacked by the polluting industries they were meant to regulate. It may just turn out that the judicial system, our children and their children will save us from ourselves, Mary Christina Wood, a legal scholar, tells Bill Moyers this week. Published on Jan 2, 2015

The Tennessee House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on March 31 to approve a bill directing the state's Department of Agriculture to set up a licensing program for people to legally grow hemp. The bill's sponsor, Cosby Republican Jeremy Faison, said the cannabis plant has a long history in American of being used for productive, beneficial uses. Faison noted that in the recent U.S. Farm Bill, signed by President Obama back in February, permission is granted for states to regulate hemp production and allow universities to study it. After the bill passed on an 88-5 vote, Faison handed products made from hemp to the chamber's leaders of both parties. Among the items were breakfast cereal, soap, cooking oil and twine. Published on Mar 31, 2014

Jonathan Rowson is director of the Social Brain Centre at the Royal Society of Arts, a writer, and a chess grandmaster It has been said that the problem with the word ‘spiritual’ is that it means too much to some people and too little to others.

While some see spirituality as a form of psychological depth, others see philosophical confusion or an unhelpful theological relic. Some see the best of religion, free of uncomfortable doctrine; others see a lack of discipline and a loss of institutional support, community and tradition. Some see the profit motive of capitalism exploiting our restless search for wellbeing, identity and experiences; others see a deep critique of materialism in all its forms.