Indy Audio

We will look at Cop City, a massive new police training facility being built on the edge of Atlanta. Atlanta’s political leaders describe Cop City as a progressive response to the George Floyd protests and demands for better police training. However, critics of the $90 million project say it promotes the further militarization of policing. Cop City has become a magnet for protesters not only in At...

We speak with Anthony Sims, who was convicted in the 1998 slaying of Li Run Chen at a Bushwick Chinese food joint in May 1998. The prosecution’s case was built around the testimony of a witness whose story has since been found to be awash in contradictions. Sims was paroled last fall after 24 years behind bars. He is still seeking to clear his name. He has a court hearing on Friday where Judge Dan...

In the first segment, we speak with Anthony Sims, who was convicted in the 1998 slaying of Li Run Chen at a Bushwick Chinese food joint in May 1998. The prosecution’s case was built around the testimony of a witness whose story has since been found to be awash in contradictions. Sims was paroled last fall after 24 years behind bars. He is still seeking to clear his name. He has a court hearing on...

Tenants of 1111 Ocean Ave, a 102-unit, six-story building in Flatbush, announced a lawsuit last week against their landlord, Sam Wasserman, demanding immediate repairs to their apartments and an end to years of harassment. The building now has a record 572 violations, including 157 immediately hazardous conditions that include years-old leaks and massive ceiling collapses. With support from Flatbu...

First segment: Tenants of 1111 Ocean Ave, a 102-unit, 6-story building in Flatbush, announced a lawsuit last week against their landlord, Sam Wasserman, demanding immediate repairs to their apartments and an end to years of harassment. The building now has a record 572 violations, including 157 immediately hazardous conditions that include years-old leaks and massive ceiling collapses. With suppor...

The New York State Senate recently approved the Build Public Renewables Act. If enacted, the bill would supercharge the buildout of wind, solar and geothermal energy in New York and put it under publicly controlled, democratic management. However, some key unions have so far declined to support the measure as it heads to the State Assembly where it is likely to face more resistance.

We spent the full hour with Nicholas Powers about his cover story on Black Love and its transformative impact on American history. Nicholas is a professor of African-American literature at the State University of New York. Our discussion draws on his knowledge of Black history, the Black literary canon and his own experience of becoming a parent for the first time and raising his son as a single B...

We speak with New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé, elected in 2021 at the age of 23 as the youngest-ever member of the council. He played an important role in organizing BLM protests during the George Floyd uprising in NYC and has been one of the forceful voices in the City Council that has pushed back against Mayor Adams' austerity initiatives.

We speak on The Indy News Hour with WBAI’s very own Rachel Hu. She is the co-host of Covert Action, which airs on Wednesdays mornings from 9-10 a.m. She is also a managing editor at Breakthrough News, an independent media project that uplifts critical voices of resistance nationally and internationally. Breakthrough News has a recently-launched program, Breakthrough Disruptors, that brings togethe...

We spend the first half of the show with WBAI’s very own Rachel Hu. She is the co-host of Covert Action, which airs on Wednesdays mornings from 9-10 a.m. She is also a managing editor at Breakthrough News, an independent media project that uplifts critical voices of resistance nationally and internationally. Breakthrough News has a recently-launched program, Breakthrough Disruptors, that brings to...

In this episode, we talk about police accountability and why it’s so sorely lacking here in New York. We speak with John Teufel, the author of This Month in Eric Adams, a column on indypendent.org. Teufel is a savvy observer of New York politics and media and a former investigator at the Civilian Complaint Review Board, where he reviewed dozens of case of police misconduct and saw first-hand how t...

We speak with Kristen Gonzalez, NY's newest Democratic Socialist state senator and, at 27, the youngest woman to ever serve in the NY State Senate. She talks about tech privacy, housing, staying true to socialism, and the NY Supreme Court. We also get updates on co-host Amba Guerguerian's time in Cairo, the new lows the machine Democrats have sunk to, and organizing Amazon.

We speak with Kristen Gonzalez, NY's newest Democratic Socialist state senator and, at 27, the youngest woman to ever serve in the NY State Senate. She talks about tech privacy, housing, staying true to socialism, and the NY Supreme Court.

Yesterday City Council’s labor committee held a public hearing on a measure supported by the Adams administration that would make it possible for the City to transfer 250,000 retired city workers from their current medicare health coverage to privately-run Medicare Advantage. The retirees have put up a fierce battle for over a year. City council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the measure on J...

The Indypendent's Steven Wishnia updates us on the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) strike. He’s been speaking with nurses about their working conditions and demands. Over seven thousand nurses at four private hospitals are on strike. “Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients,...

We take call ins live on the air on The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI 99.5 FM. Callers share their views on the nurses’ strike and how municipal union leaders have set up retired municipal employees to lose medicare benefits.

The Indypendent's Steven Wishnia updates us on the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) strike. He’s been speaking with nurses about their working conditions and demands. Over seven thousand nurses at four private hospitals are on strike. “Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients,...

We speak with The Indy's Nicholas Powers' beautiful essay in our December-January print edition about his mother who passed away last year. She was a radical Nuyorican activist and a child of the '60s generation. "She was born in 1948, in a Puerto Rican Brooklyn enclave and turned 20 in 1968, the peak of anti-Vietnam War protests, the hippie movement, the Young Lords and Black Panther rebellions....

We get the latest on the battle to stop Gov. Hochul's Hector LaSalle nomination to NY Court of Appeals from Peter Martin of the Center for Community Alternatives. We also speak with Nicholas Powers about his radical Nuyorican mother and an article he wrote about her in the current issue of The Indypendent.

We look once again at the epic battle for the Hector LaSalle nomination to be the chief judge of New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. The selection by Gov. Kathy Hochul has earned the ire of progressives. We speak with one of the advocates who has been leading the fight against this nomination about the broad resistance.

We speak with New York State senator and socialist Julia Salazar about the growing revolt in the State Senate against Gov. Hochul's nomination of conservative judge Hector LaSalle to lead NYS's highest court for the next 14 years. We also discuss the role of the judiciary in a capitalist state, whether law can be separate from politics, the uses and abuses of identity politics and why the NY Democ...

On this week's show: We speak New School student organizers Cooper Sterling and Bella Coles. They are members of Student-Faculty Solidarity, the lead group on campus that advocates on behalf of part-time faculty. They report back on the critical negotiations that began last night between ACT-UAW 7902, the union representing striking part-time faculty, and the university. Then, we speak with Beth M...

We speak New School student organizers Cooper Sterling and Bella Coles. They are members of Student-Faculty Solidarity, the lead group on campus that advocates on behalf of part-time faculty. They report back on the critical negotiations that began last night between ACT-UAW 7902, the union representing striking part-time faculty, and the university.

We speak with Beth Miller of Jewish Voices for Peace and Sumaya Awad, co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction. Last week, 12 NYC City Council members traveled to Israel. While there, they were confronted by Jewish anti-occupation activists that urged them to travel to Sheikh Jarrah, which they refused to do. So why are they there, if they are only interested in seeing one half of the situ...

Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Associate Editor Amba Guerguerian chat between segments of The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI-99.5 FM. Interesting updates on subjects local and national.