WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Pastor Doug Pagitt, executive director of the Minneapolis-based national organization Vote Common Good, conducted by Scott Harris. Pastor Doug Pagitt discusses how the resistance community he works with has been doing since the dark days of the ICE invasion in the Twin Cities in January. He talks about the Department of Justice’s recent federal criminal charges against 15 Minneapoli...

Interview with Dion Nissenbaum, senior reporter with VoteBeat National, conducted by Scott Harris. Dion Nissenbaum, discusses his recent news story, “FBI Probe of Ohio Voting Rights Group Expands to Include an Affiliated National Advocacy Network,” and other Trump administration threats to the midterm election he’s been covering for VoteBeat National, a nonpartisan local reporting on elections and...

Interview with David Faris, professor of political science at Roosevelt University and author of The Kids Are All Left: How Young Voters Will Unite America, conducted by Scott Harris. David Faris discusses his recent Nation magazine commentary, “The Framework for the Iran Peace Deal Means Total Humiliation for Trump,” and other developments in the status of U.S.-Iran ceasefire and peace negotiatio...

On this episode of RRT:    Prof. William LeoGrand, expert in U.S. policy toward Latin America and Cuba, discusses the dire conditions in Cuba and that nation's prospects for surviving the Trump regime's oil embargo and threats to "take the Island."    Kary Love, a self-described country lawyer from Michigan, discusses his recent article in Counterpunch, " "Being Honest With Ourselves 250 Years Aft...

Interview with Ofer Neiman, a Jewish-Israeli anti-apartheid activist living in Jerusalem, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Ofer Neiman, an anti-Zionist Jewish-Israeli citizen and a supporter of the international Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel founded by Palestinian civil society. Here he assesses the likely results in Israel’s upco...

Interview with Yanira Arias, advocacy and leadership organizer at Alianza Americas, conducted by Scott Harris. Yanira Arias focuses on Alianza America’s call for elected officials to reject the expansion of a system that spreads fear, destabilizes families, and undermines trust in public institutions. She also describes what can be done now to mitigate the harm ICE agents will inflict across the U...

Interview with David Schultz, distinguished university professor and Winston Folkers Endowed Distinguished Faculty chair at Hamline University, conducted by Scott Harris. David Schultz discusses issues related to extending democracy into the economy and how this debate should relate to U.S. electoral politics. Schultz talks about his recent commentary, “What is Wrong With the American Left: the Ab...

Interview with Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducted by Scott Harris.  Jennifer Loewenstein assesses the announcement that the U.S. and Iran reached an initial agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and further extend a shaky ceasefire in the Iran war; how Israel’s ongoing attacks and invasion of Lebanon could de...

Interview with William D. Hartung, senior research fellow, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, conducted by Scott Harris. William Hartung discusses his recent Nation magazine article, “The Pentagon is Going ‘AI First,’” and issues related to growing concern about the unregulated military applications of AI. Hartung is co-author with Ben Freeman of The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runa...

In  this episode of the Organic Farm Stand:    Diane's Hot Topix    Small Farms Report with Steve Munno    The Honey Bee update    Report: The Westport Farmers Market with Lori Cochran-Dougall, executive director Hosts: Richard Hill and Diane Lauricella

In today's episode of the Organic Farm Stand    Diane's Hot Topics    Small Farms Report with Steve Munno    Honey  Bee Update with Vincent Kaye    The science of soil fertility with Monique Bosch Hosted by Richard Hill and Diane Lauricella

Excerpt of talks by Fredi Guevara and Liam Henrie, crew members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, recorded and produced by Melinda Tuhus. The Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest effort so far to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there, consisted of 52 boats and more than 400 volunteers from 41 countries. The boats were intercepted and boarded by the Israeli...

Interview with Sean Strub, an AIDS activist, founder of POZ Magazine, author, and politician, conducted by Scott Harris. Sean Strub, an AIDS activist, founder of POZ Magazine, author, and politician talks about the nationwide Seven Days in June campaign , June 1–7, organized to raise awareness about the $1.2 trillion in federal cuts to healthcare programs, the fight to restore funding impacting mi...

Interview with Alex Lawson, executive director of the group Social Security Works, conducted by Scott Harris. Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, talks about the increasing number of Social Security offices that are “temporarily closed” while others are chronically understaffed “ghost offices” that only have a skeleton crew left and can’t meaningfully serve the local communit...

Interview with Christina Harvey, Stand Up America's executive director, conducted by Scott Harris. Stand Up America’s Executive Director Christina Harvey discusses her group’s national “Kick Out Corruption” Tour, being organized with End Citizens United, to expose how corruption in Washington is driving up costs for everyday Americans. Harvey offers solutions to cleaning up the waste, fraud and ab...

Interview with Sophia Tesfaye, a senior writer at Salon.com, conducted by Scott Harris. Sophia Tesfaye talks about her recent commentary, “Bari Weiss brings Trumpism to ’60 Minutes,’” regarding the Ellison family’s CBS “murder” of America’s highest rated and most watched news program; issues related to MAGA friendly billionaires’ takeover of media outlets and Donald Trump’s weaponization of the FC...

Interview with Martha Guzman Aceves, former Region 9 EPA administrator, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. On May 21, an overheating chemical tank holding 6,500 gallons of methyl methacrylate at an aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, triggered mandatory evacuations affecting 50,000 residents across Orange County. The tank was later safely cracked and depressurized, ending the immediate threat...

Interview with Sam Rosenthal, political director of Roots Action, conducted by Scott Harris. Sam Rosenthal talks about his recent commentary, “Establishment Democrats Still Don’t Get Why They Lost in 2024,” and the critical importance—in this moment of Donald Trump’s multi-front violent attack on U.S. democracy—of having a viable political party to stand as an alternative to Trump and the Republic...

Interview with Connecticut state Rep. Josh Elliott, deputy House speaker, conducted by Scott Harris. Josh Elliott talks about his candidacy, the policies he’s advocating and his strategy to win the Aug. 11th primary. Elliott represents the 88th District, which comprises residents of Hamden’s Spring Glen, Whitneyville, parts of Centerville and Shepherd Hill neighborhoods.  As deputy House speaker a...

Interview with Ben Grazda, advocacy manager with Reporters Without Borders, conducted by Scott Harris. Ben Grazda examines some of the long-term challenges facing American journalists including economic pressure leading to the disappearance of many local news outlets; concentration of ownership; political attacks on government critics and the January 2026 FBI raid on Washington Post reporter Hanna...

Interview with Peter Kornbluh, author and director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., conducted by Scott Harris. Peter Kornbluh talks about his recent Nation magazine article, “The CIA Goes to Cuba” and what the Trump regime may be planning after its indictment of Raúl Castro in Florida, possibly kidnapping the aging Cuban leader as they did wit...

The Monthly Labor Report welcomes long-time labor leader John Braxton. co-founder of Labor Against the War, to talk about the ongoing fight against the militaristic foreign policy of the US and the systemic structures that support it. Hosts: Michael Zweig and Richard Hill

Interview with David Holtz, coordinator of the Oil & Water Don't Mix coalition, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. David Holtz, coordinator of the Oil & Water Don’t Mix Coalition, talks about the history of the pipeline and the fight to decommission Line 5 before it ruptures and contaminates the Great Lakes, one of the largest sources of fresh water in the world.

Interview with Paul Street, an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian and author of This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America, conducted by Scott Harris. Paul Street talks about his recent Counterpunch.org commentary, “ Why Trump Is So Indifferent to Public Opinion in an Election Year.” Street is author of This Happened Here: Amerika...

Interview with Mel Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and professor of government at Johns Hopkins University, conducted by Scott Harris. Mel Goodman, a former CIA analyst and author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA , discusses the issues raised in his recent Counterpunch piece, “Sino-American Relations and the ‘Thucydides Trap.’”