Schedule for Sunday, Oct 2 through Thursday Oct 6. With help from listener commentary and questions, we talk with some of your favorite writers: political analysts, media critics, technologists, historians, etc. Virtually Speaking is public affairs, progressive voices, current events. Comments and questions courtesy of a digitally present studio audience. Which could include you. (see IRC below) All programs webcast and archived at BlogTalkRadio. Available free at iTunes. See IRC below to participate. I post weekly, so you can go back to previous posts and link through to the juicy stuff. Miss it the first time? Read the intro to Virtually Speaking.

Sunday, Oct 2 | 9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific | digby, Joan McCarter discuss developments of the week, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts,  drawing from their work of the prior week and the wickedly funny Bobblespeak Translations Informative, thoughtful and passionate. Listen live and later on BTR

Tuesday, Oct 4 | 9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking Susie | Stuart Zechman joins recovering journalist, blogger and working class warrior Susie Madrak. The topic is #OccupyWallStreet and what it means for progressives. | Listen live and later on BTR

Wednesday, Oct 5 | 9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking Science | MSNBC’s Alan Boyle (Cosmic Log) talks with Sean Carroll,  Caltech theoretical physicist who focuses on the structure and evolution of the universe. He’s the author of “From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time,” a popular-level book on cosmology and the arrow of time, as well as a graduate textbook on general relativity. He’s blogged for the past seven years and currently hangs out with a few fellow scientist/bloggers at Cosmic Variance. Later this month [OCTOBER] he’ll be talking about “the laws of nature and the meaning of life” at the annual New Horizons in Science conference in Arizona.

Sean and Alan reality check some of the stranger scientific concepts bubbling up in popular culture, ranging from time travel to extra dimensions and faster-than-light particles. Produced in cooperation with MICA. Listen live and later on BTR

Thursday, Oct 6 | Double Header

9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd | Jay talks with Matt Stoller about #occupywallst. Read Matt’s post in NakedCapitalism. An American political activist and writer, from 2009-2011, Matt served as Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida’s eighth Congressional district. As Grayson’s financial services legislative aide, he focused on foreclosure fraud, the financial crisis, and the Federal Reserve. Listen live and later on BTR.

10 pm eastern | 7 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking A-Z: This week in liberalism.  | Stuart Zechman and Jay Ackroyd| In the search for meaningful ways to express Movement liberalism as a registered Democrat, Stuart reports back from ‘Downtown (NYC) Independent Democrats.’ Listen live on BTR. Beginning midnight Friday, listen here.

Tweet along with us: .@JoanMcCarter .@digby56 .@seanmcarroll .@b0yle .@matthewstoller .@stuart_zechman .@jayackroyd .@SusieMadrak .@sherry_reson

Be part of the conversation. Ask questions, chat live with other listeners:
Internet Relay Chat Via chat room, IRC allows you to be part of the real-time virtual studio audience, sharing comments and questions while listening to Virtually Speaking live on BlogTalkRadio. Logs are shared with the show hosts and guests.

Use IRC:

1. Connect to http://webchat.freenode.net/
2. Create a log-in name
3. Enter #vspeak into the channel field.
4. NOTE: ‘Relay Rinq’ is not a person but a bridge to IRC chat.
5. Type into the text field along the bottom of the screen.
6. Begin your question with ‘QUESTION’ so it’s easy to spot.

Show Notes:

• Virtually Speaking Sundays| Can’t bear to watch the Sunday morning talking heads that inspire VS Sundays? Let Culture of Truth boil them down for you with the Bobblespeak Translations. Warning: swallow and put down the hot tea/coffee/cocoa before reading.

The VS Sunday panel draws from Avedon Carol, Cliff Schecter, Culture of Truth, David Dayen, digby, Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler, Stuart Zechman and Susie Madrak. From time to time, the make-up of the panel shifts. Also, every 5 weeks or so, one of our regular panelists invites a guest to join them.

Virtually Speaking is both a labor of love and an act of political imagination. We couldn’t do it without our guests, our hosts, our ‘studio’ audience and our crew. Special thanks to Designer Mark MacKay for weekly and special graphic displays.