Laura Flanders and Friends: Solutions-Focused Progressive Perspectives on Politics, News, and Culture

150 years after Congress established Yellowstone National Park, it remains the jewel of a system that comprises some 400 national parks. But for Indigenous Americans, the history is bitter. Thousands were forced to leave, families were massacred, and the Army was brought in to exclude Native Americans. Today, as droughts, floods and fires threaten the parks, many are calling for Indigenous control...

Whether it’s Buffalo, NY, Uvalde, TX or Philadelphia, PA — we are witnessing an unprecedented wave of terror at the muzzle of a gun. But all mass shootings are not covered in the same way. What determines the nature of the coverage? And what is the media getting wrong — or right — on gun violence reporting? In this episode, Laura Flanders welcomes back Mitra Kalita and Sara Lomax-Reese of URL Medi...

When the news broke of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, it was chilling to many people to learn that 40 percent of that small city’s budget was allocated to public safety - a budget allocation that utterly failed to keep the children and teachers at Robb Elementary school safe. What might have been a better way to spend that city’s precious funds? After Uvalde, and in the wake of the police m...

Low wages, precarious jobs, shuttered Main Streets and bleak futures — do towns have a way out of poverty that doesn't involve begging and bribing outside employers to invest?  From Cleveland, Ohio to Preston, England and Scotland, some local governments are experimenting with investing public resources locally in community-held businesses, and public health. They’re calling this approach Communit...

2022 will go down in history for the number of anti-trans bills introduced into state legislatures. Over 300 bills banning books, medical treatment, even access to the bathroom, have been introduced so far. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court seems poised to overturn Roe vs. Wade, allowing states to ban abortion. As extremists crank up the volume on hate — trans people, especially trans women of color, a...

Can you remember the last time when the challenges that inner city public school teachers face were the subject of a popular TV series? Abbott Elementary — which has just been renewed for a second season on ABC — does just that. The Philadelphia school on TV is fictional, but the challenges it faces are all too real. Closely based on the school that series creator (and star) Quinta Brunson attende...

Decades of discrimination have left millions of African Americans shut out of the housing market and at risk of being targeted by predatory lenders and exploitative loans. But capital collectives pool resources and reduce individual risk and can be a way for low-income Americans to buy into a home. One example is the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, in Oakland, CA which stepped in to do...

"A Supreme Court assault on reproductive equity, another racist slaughter, and more Palestinian death. It’s a lot...." The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at https://Patreon.com/theLFShow  Independent Media! Advertising free!   Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:&n...

The January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, intended to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America, “was as close to fascism as I ever want to see our country come,” says Jamie Raskin, Democratic Congressman from Maryland. And he should know -- Raskin is a Constitutional scholar as well as a long-time law school professor, and in the hours after the as...

The American Right is embracing a dangerous extremism, challenging elections, packing courts and aligning with Hungarian prime minister and Putin-ally Victor Orbán. In the midst of a climate catastrophe, with a majority on the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the House preparing to hear from the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, what is at stake and how di...

"Something exciting is happening in McDowell County, West Virginia. There, in what used to be coal country, the American Federation of Teachers is leading a project called Reconnecting McDowell.  It's a program initiated over a decade ago by Gayle Manchin, wife of now Senator (then Governor) Joe, and it makes you think long and hard about her husband."   The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring...

McDowell County, West Virginia, in the heart of what used to be coal country, is one of the most impoverished counties in the US — a place that embodies the challenges facing many American areas in transition. But something new is happening there; it’s called  Reconnecting McDowell , a multi-partner effort, led by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Can education be the driver of local econ...

Complete episode notes, research and reading list and related episodes are at Patreon The fight over what can and can’t be taught in schools is shaping up to be one of the most controversial issues in a pivotal mid-term election year. White voters are being mobilized to ban books, censor honest discussions of US history and current day racism, and organize against a fake spectre of “critical race...

Description:   Red, Republican, anti abortion, anti trans — Texas has certainly been a testing ground for backlash policies and politicians, and that could be what’s happening now, but could it also be a bellwether of a different sort? Why is the reactionary backlash and the resistance to it that’s happening in Texas vital for the rest of the country? Our guests today say that their state could be...

A culture of snitches?  '...We describe it as horrifying when it’s happening in Putin's Russia, but just how different, really, is Texas?' The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at http://Patreon.com/theLFShow  Independent Media! Advertising free!   Laura Flanders...

In this special feature for Earth Day, we focus on just one group: Greenpeace, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The environmental group has been in the headlines again, confronting Russian oil tankers in many ports. They've attracted lots of attention and scored many victories in the years they've been in existence. But it's not enough. The climate crisis is more urgent than ever, the wo...

Patreon supporters receive early access to listen and download the full uncut conversation from our weekly episodes. The latest peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war may lead to an eventual ceasefire but not before displacing millions and damaging the air, water and land of what was known as the bread basket for the world. This week, we’ve assembled a roundtable of human rights advocates from Ukra...

Here at The Laura Flanders Show we are in partnership with the John Jay Justice Fellowship program, where participants work hands-on gaining first hand knowledge about our independent movement media operation producing our TV, radio and podcast productions where participants work hands-on gaining first hand knowledge about our independent movement media operation producing our TV, radio and podcas...

Red, Republican, anti abortion, anti trans — Texas has certainly been a testing ground for backlash policies and politicians, and that could be what’s happening now, but could it also be a bellwether of a different sort? Why is the reactionary backlash and the resistance to it that’s happening in Texas vital for the rest of the country? Our guests today say that their state could be a predictor of...

Civil society must demand peace and diplomacy over war and killing as a global community.   The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at http://Patreon.com/theLFShow Independent Media! Advertising free!   Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders-Executive...

The latest peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war may lead to an eventual ceasefire but not before displacing millions and damaging the air, water and land of what was known as the bread basket for the world. This week, we’ve assembled a roundtable of human rights advocates from Ukraine, Russia & the United States to discuss the ongoing conflict and who highlight models of local resistance and supp...

Making the future while surviving a war. In humanity’s never ending war stories, combat makes the news, but the macho gaze misses the complex reality and tends to ignore the role of women in war. To switch things up, we refocus the lens, with two of the award winning film makers behind the hit series, Women War and Peace II, that aired on Public Television in March of 2019 and continues to serve i...

Laura reports from “He Sapa‘’, the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota where NDN Collective is reclaiming ancestral lands to address homelessness, addiction and violence against Native Americans. Catalyzed in 2020, by an action in which Land Defenders blocked former President Donald Trump’s road to Mount Rushmore, this Landback campaign is about reclaiming, along with stolen land, native ceremonies...

Trans liberation is the latest frontline in the struggle for civil rights. In their new documentary, Disclosure, director Sam Feder and producer Amy Scholder use over a century’s worth of film to show that trans identities have long been at the center of our collective cultural history. They join four-time Emmy nominated actress and Emmy winning producer Laverne Cox in a groundbreaking conversatio...

Here at The Laura Flanders Show we have a comprehensive Internship program where participants work hands-on gaining first hand knowledge about our independent movement media operation producing our TV, radio and podcast releases. Throughout the program our entire staff spends time with each intern sharing their expertise and knowledge from editing to scripting to promotions and technical skills, a...