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

With the news around Brexit, we revisit an episode filmed last year in Ireland and reflect upon the Easter Rising of 1916. The question of Irish sovereignty still looms large. New challenges face the Irish in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and slashes to public spending in the North have ignited fresh waves of resistance. In this special report, Laura Flanders returns to Ireland, 30 years...

The chorus for radical action demands a versatile effort: it needs people power, initiative, and funding, but if we're caught between offense and defense, how do we take time to insure the well-being of our most vulnerable communities?   The Laura Flanders show this week features Adaku Utah, founder of healing collective Harriet's Apothecary, and J Bob Alotta, executive director of the Astraea Les...

This week, Angela Glover Blackwell, executive director of PolicyLink and former Obama advisor, has a long history of using policy for progressive, radical, change. Blackwell says this is a moment to protect and resist, certainly, but also a time to return to the roots that are our local neighborhoods, our cities, our suburbs and build something better with them. People must make demands of the sys...

We’re living in a time of economic babble, where politicians and economists throw out words like “reform,” “privatize,” and “austerity” to prop up corrupt capitalist opportunists. So says our guest this week, economist Michael Hudson, author of J is for Junk Economics. Plus, a report from Diverse Filmmaker’s Alliance on the Yemeni bodega workers who went on strike in New York to protest the Muslim...

Laura is joined by celebrated academic, organizer, and advocate Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, who is perhaps best known for coining the term intersectionality. And later in the show Laura is joined by Tarso Ramos of Political Research Associates, a  human rights think tank that studies threats to democracy coming from various right wing sources, to discuss what all of us need to know about...

When feminism has come so far, how do modern day strikes, marches, and protest reflect the evolving and complex aspects of the movement, as well as its radical herstory? Featuring Jodeen Olguín-Tayler (Demos), Sarah Leonard (The Nation) + Cinzia Arruzza (Women's Strike, New School) + Nelini Stamp (Working Families' Party)         Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders-Executive...

Donald Trump's tweets and divisiveness on Capitol Hill tend to draw the money media in and hold them there, but if progressives and the Left focus only on the beltway and the binary party debate, we'll never escape. In this episode, Laura interviews organizers about going beyond Trumpism and Trump, with Color of Change director, Rashad Robinson; immigrant rights advocate Kica Thomas, and anti-war...

With the Trump administration embracing private prisons, and a crackdown on all crimes, how police departments operate will come under scrutiny.  We treasure what we measure so why do police metrics count captures and kills but not conflicts resolved? Could a change in metrics change police practice? And is "progressive policing" an oxymoron with no place in a radical agenda?   Laura sit...

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is 25 years old, and yet, the shadow of a Trump administration looms over its vision to advance a progressive agenda. In this seemingly discouraging time, what does the CPC offer, and how does it stay progressive? In the ramp-up to the DNC Chair nomination, for which Keith Ellison (D-MN), chair of the CPC, has hotly campaigned, Laura travels to the 2017 P...

Trump has been critiqued, among other things, as the troll-in-chief. His presidential win can be credited to the rise of alt-right internet 'trolls,' complex bots, and the online harassment of his opponents. Our guest this week, Thenmozhi Soundararajan​, a Dalit organizer, filmmaker, and activist, says the spread of online attacks comes with vast offline risks for communities in danger. When Steve...

Guest host Bhaskar Sunkara (editor of Jacobin Magazine) engages political voices Kate Aronoff and Jonah Birch in a conversation about the future of the Left: were the election results a testament to the decline of the Left, or is this a moment for a new left movement? When 13 million people in America cast a vote for a self described Democratic Socialist, is there hope to be found in a political m...

Under the Trump regime, we’ll certainly have to be on the defense to protect the communities most likely to be attacked -- but we’ll also have to build powerful, alternative models where POC, Muslim, undocumented, disabled, and queer folks have leadership. In this week’s episode, Laura speaks with Aaron Tanaka, founder and director of the Center for Economic Democracy about his longtime advocacy a...

Capitalism looks different to those who were once commodities, and that has implications for how we build a future not based in domination.   Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer;  Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Di...

Supposedly, the far right have won. So what now? We ask our guests this week the same question, taking from a mixed pot of loss and success. Whether it's about the fight for reproductive justice in the South, or a movement for rural agency in progressive work, our guests offer some wisdom on what's happening now, and what's next as we head into the new administration. The Facing Race conference, c...

Supposedly, the far right have won. So what now? We ask our guests this week the same question, taking from a mixed pot of loss and success. Whether it's about the fight for reproductive justice in the South, or a movement for rural agency in progressive work, our guests offer some wisdom on what's happening now, and what's next as we head into the new administration.  The Facing Race conference,...

At the Laura Flanders Show, we want to find the common ground that unites Americans, stories of progress, equity, and resilience -- to discover that there is more evidence of congress, than of division. Our guest this weeks speaks to some ways he has built a career on these very philosophies of equity and unity.  Joining us for last new show of the 2016 year, is Anthony Flaccavento, founder of SCA...

The Facing Race conference, coordinated by Race Forward this November in Atlanta, brought together some of the most noteworthy names in progressive organizing right now. This week on the show, we have a special compilation of interviews from the conference with a couple of these very activists.  On today's show we have Stephanie Guilloud from Project South and Suzanne Pharr, who founded the Woman'...

In the aftermath of the election, much has been said about what liberal government, media, businesses failed to do: contextualize his rise to office and connect with his voters to change their minds. In this episode, Laura interviews Adam and Arlie Hochschild, who have each spent their careers documenting the complexities of political behavior.   Arlie Hochschild, with pragmatic energy, undertook...

On this week's episode, a special call to action against post-election complacency. Although many of us affected by this election will be embittered and jaded by the "nightmarish" election season, our guests this week, activists ranging from many backgrounds, communities, and ages have a thoughts on how we can continue to mobilize #AfterTheElection. Featuring words from a radical duo: Ma...

2016 is an exciting -- and precarious -- time to be an entrepreneur, particularly when you’re queer women. Serafina Palandech and her wife Jennifer Johnson, the founders of organic food startup, Hip Chick Farms, had to deal with a lot when they wanted to start their business. Now they’ve been able to secure an investment from Whole Foods (and Johnson’s cooked at the White House). But it hasn’t bee...

At the Laura Flanders Show, we say we talk with “tomorrow’s heroes today.”  One of those could well be forward-thinker Pramila Jayapa l, Washington State Senator, now running for Congress. If elected, Jayapal be the first south Asian woman in the House of Representatives.  Jayapal describes herself as a “proud immigrant from India .” She founded Hate Free Zone (now OneAmerica) in response to hate...

Are we stuck in a two-party gridlock, or is there still room for democracy? Ralph Nader, former presidential candidate and famed political maverick, joins us to discuss what really constitutes “people power” when it comes to this election. Known for his lifetime advocacy for electoral reform and corporate accountability, Nader talks about what the 2016 election’s taught us about the need for a gov...

It may seem at times like theres a thousand movements to be a part of, a thousand and one tragedies in the news. How do we keep ourselves accountable to the communities we truly care about? Is "diversity" enough? And how do we stop ourselves from panicking? Our guest this week, celebrated journalist and author Jeff Chang takes on some of these questions. According to Chang, hope isnt yet...

This week, we are joined by economist and professor Pavlina R. Tcherneva, who says the current practice of gender-blind and race-blind fiscal policy lacks visions and helps no one. Congress, according to Tcherneva is focusing on the wrong things. A self ascribed feminist economist, Tcherneva says feminist fiscal policy is real, not simply ideological, and should be a central part of the American e...

Part 1 of our field reports from the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, or Seven Council Fires Community, at  #StandingRock  in Cannonball, North Dakota. Representatives from hundreds of nations have travelled to  #StandingRock  to defend their right to clean water, and more, to preserve their sovereignty against a state that has illegally decided to take this land. They are protectors, not protesters. Their histor...