Refuse Fascism

This week's episode is the recording of the webinar on October 25 with  Robert Held  (President of the Chicago Council of Lawyers),  Will Potter  (investigative journalist),  Sergio Alcubilla (Director of Community Engagement at the ACLU of Hawaiʻi), and  Drew Harmon  (Minnesota 50501): From NSPM-7 to political prosecutions and the threat of lengthy prison sentences, the Trump Regime is expand...

In the early months of 2026, thousands of people around Minnesota gathered together to protect their neighbors from ICE's campaign of terror. Months later, the Trump administration indicted 15 of those people on federal charges for their involvement in rapid response, mutual aid, and protest. Sam talks to Isaac Sant, one of the Minnesota 15. While the agents who murdered Minneapolis residents...

Sam talks to Dr. Bradley Onishi about his new book, American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy. "Bradley Onishi has issued an alarming and urgent warning for the future of democracy.  American Caesar  reveals how a movement of white Christian nationalists, Silicon Valley plutocrats, postliberal philosophers, and reactionary monarchist theologians are hid...

Relying on the midterms to stop fascism?   They’re already moving to steal them. Leaders of Refuse Fascism break down the many-sided rolling coup already underway—from voter suppression and election subversion to the weaponization of federal power—and confront the urgent question: What will it take to stop it? The Trump fascist regime is moving to lock fascism into place—including through a rollin...

Sam and Mark discuss the Trump regime's escalating fascist project—from moves to subvert the elections and ICE withholding detainees' locations to the normalization of Trump on the world stage. Mark provides commentary on two drastically different ways of understanding Trump and MAGA, why telling the truth about the fascist nature of what we face matters, and how those different understand...

Sam talks with Father David Gierlach about white Christian nationalism, Trump MAGA fascism and what it means to recognize fascism as a moral reality demanding action. How can moral outrage become organized resistance? What does this moment demand of people of conscience—religious or not? And what would it mean to act on the principle: In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America?...

The warnings are becoming more extraordinary, while the response remains remarkably ordinary. As the Trump Regime makes increasingly overt moves around the midterms, Sam talks with historian, author and Refuse Fascism leader Paul Street about where we are now: how far fascist consolidation has advanced, how extraordinary acts become normalized even as more people recognize the danger, and why reco...

As the Trump regime moves to subvert the midterms, thousands marched on Washington this week to defend voting rights. What will it take to defend those rights—and to stop the fascist regime attacking them? Sam talks with fellow Refuse Fascism leader Coco Das about the escalating assault on the elections, where the power to stop fascism actually lies, and what history can teach us about moments whe...

Newly revealed government documents expose Operation Puppet Master , an expansive DHS surveillance and infiltration operation targeting people and organizations opposing ICE in Minnesota. This week, we dig into what was exposed and the escalating criminalization of dissent under the Trump fascist regime, drawing on conversations with Stop Cop City organizer Keyanna Jones , legal scholar Dr. Mary A...

Sam talks with David F. Walbert, renowned constitutional lawyer and author of the book, Stealing Elections, American Style , coming out this September. Walbert writes, "Applying Trump’s playbook from 2020 leads to a grim path in November. " Pre-order the book here . Follow his work at davidfwalbert.com . Mentioned in this episode: I’ve spent decades fighting for fair elections. Trump is...

Sam talks to scholar and activist Dr. Scott Kurashige, author of the new book American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism . "This is a must-read book to understand the multifaceted history of anti-Asian violence not only as individual attacks but through the context of war, militarism, imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and the postindustrial urban crisis. Through captivating story...

Sam talks to investigative journalist Will Potter about the Prairieland case and the alarming new repressive turn this represents for everyone. Follow his work at willpotter.com and on Instagram , and read his latest book Little Red Barns: Hiding the truth, from farm to fable . Recommended Reading: Statement from RefuseFascism.org From Prairieland to All of Us: Unite to Defeat Fascist Political Re...

Those who insist that lobbying and the midterms will stop Trump fascism are asking people to place their hopes in a future the regime is actively working to foreclose. They are not preparing people to stop fascism—they are preparing them to live with it. Sam and Mark break down why that's true, what the regime is doing to consolidate power, and what actually aligns with the stakes of this mome...

On the eve of July 4th, against the backdrop of Independence Hall and the Trump-censored President’s House memorial—where enslaved Africans were held in bondage as the foundations of the American republic were laid—Refuse Fascism convened an urgent outdoor public panel discussion, discussing: What does it mean to celebrate “America 250” as fascism is consolidating?  Why is rewriting history so imp...

Trump’s presidential memorandum NSPM-7, designating “antifa” as a domestic terrorist threat, was just deployed successfully against eight anti-ICE protesters in Texas, almost one year after a small noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention center. This is a horrifying precedent accelerating the fascist attack on ALL dissent, and the sentences issued that stack sentences to cumulati...

This week, Sam talks with Paul Street about the continuing danger that comes from an increasingly embattled Trump regime in the aftermath/continuing horror of the Iran war "operation" debacle. Follow Paul Street on Substack at ⁠paulstreet.substack.com⁠ . Mentioned in this episode: America at 250: Ruled by An Illegitimate Fascist Regime On Track to Destroy the World June 26 at 6pm in Phil...

It has been six years since we started this podcast (during the height of the Covid pandemic and directly before the nationwide uprising demanding justice for George Floyd), and our mission to refuse fascism has never been more needed! Thank you to everyone who has been with us for the past few years and welcome to new listeners. To get involved with and support the movement that this podcast is j...

Sam speaks on the events of the week including the fascist coup fund, the theocratic extravaganza on the national mall, the neo-Nazi mass murder, new green card restrictions, and how to have hope in the face of all that. Then, she speaks with acclaimed historian and author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi about his new book, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age . Mentioned in this episode: Sasha...

Sam speaks to members of the Tennessee state legislature about the state's immediate redistricting designed to disempower Black communities in response to the SCOTUS overturning of the VRA, including Sen. Charlane Oliver (who stood on her desk in the chamber with a banner reading "No Jim Crow 2.0" during proceedings) and Rep. Gloria Johnson. Related episode: Will The People Accept Th...

Sam and Coco discuss the recent SCOTUS ruling that essentially overturned the Voting Rights Act and re-disenfranchised Black voters, the latest step in nailing together a form of fascist rule in this country. Then they chat about the right way to respond to this crisis. Is it by somehow "voting harder..." or through expanding our imagination to envision and act to bring into being a gras...

Sam speaks with Omer Aziz, journalist, lawyer, and former foreign policy advisor. His latest book (published April 28) is Shadows of the Republic: The Rebirth of Fascism in America and How to Defeat It for Good . Stephen King wrote, "Omer Aziz has written a book that should be an alarm bell announcing that the American house is on fire." Aziz is also the author of Brown Boy , and he has...

This week Sam speaks with Wayne Besen, longtime activist with Truth Wins Out , the pioneering LGBTQ rights organization that has led the fight against so-called "conversion therapy." They talk about the recent (terrible) Supreme Court ruling on this cruel and anti-scientific quackery and the movement that is needed to stop fascism in the US now. As MAGA attempts to consolidate fascism ac...

This week we're sharing the recording of the organizing webinar held April 19, hosted by Sam Goldman featuring Refuse Fascism leaders Coco Das and Andy Zee. From the statement posted to refusefascism.org on April 19: This May Day must be a day of no business as usual—walking out of work and school and taking to the streets in nonviolent protest to raise the demand TRUMP MUST GO NOW. That is ho...

Sam recaps the moral challenge before all of us living in a country led by a president who just this week explicitly threatened to unleash genocide against a whole people, saying he would "end the whole [Iranian] civilization" unless they bow to his demands. Join the Refuse Fascism webinar next Sunday April 19 ALL OUT FOR MAY DAY: TRUMP MUST GO NOW! Read/distribute the new flyer Then, we...

Dr. John Donoghue discusses how the Trump regime’s fascism is rooted in deep white supremacist historical currents running from colonial North America through the present. Confronting this history is essential if we are going to determine what it will take to defeat MAGA fascism, which poses a grave menace to freedom, decency, and the common good at home and abroad. John Donoghue’s work has focuse...