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

Few words have had as little presence in the 2016 election as “socialism,” which was raised briefly in one of the earliest primary debates. Yet socialism could have a future in America, our guests this week argue, if we just think about it differently. Joining us this week are Bhaskar Sunkara and Sarah Leonard, co-editors of of a new essay collection titled “The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for t...

The struggle for Black economic independence: Not a lot of people, particularly people of color, have had a chance to design a new community, to be different and equal, co-owned by its residents. In 1969, Shirley Sherrod co-founded a collective farm in Lee County, Georgia. At 6,000 acres, it was the largest tract of black-owned land in the United States. What happened to the New Communities land t...

What the mainstream media didn't show you.   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 Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Developm...

A social justice group that invites white people to fight racism is spreading like wildfire in the US. From 12 to 150 chapters in two years. Clearly a whole lot of white people are interested in fighting systemic injustice. But how? This week's guests have dedicated their lives to grappling with that question, for the sake of making real change. They are both organizers, educators, and feminist an...

In this special episode, the Laura Flanders is at the scene of the Republican National Convention -- but while the party is on inside Quicken Loans Arena, much of Cleveland is still grieving. The 2014 death of Tamir Rice still rests in the minds of many city residents, but it is not the only one. And death is a topic; at the RNC, the rhetoric is targeting those who fear the death of middle class c...

Bernie's success as a mainstream, socialist presidential candidate has taken most commentators by surprise; even after he'd been mathematically counted out of the Democratic nomination race, support for Bernie Sanders kept coming in. One person who wasn't surprised though, is this week’s guest, Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant. Kshama is a teacher, activist, organizer, and a member of Soc...

Palak Shah discusses The Good Work Code, an attempt to bring comprehensive worker’s rights to Silicon Valley. And Yochai Benkler asks why the people who create all the content on Facebook - you and me - don’t own it. All that and a commentary from Laura on Apple's questionable borrowing practices. Palak Shah is Social Innovations Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. In addition to h...

3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico are in dire crisis. The island territory is mired in debt and facing imminent default. Media coverage has blamed the last twenty years - when tax breaks were rolled back and loans extended. But this week’s guests say the root of Puerto Rico's problems go deeper than that - to US colonial rule. If colonialism's at least in part the culprit here, it's pretty iron...

One hundred years after 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 after first reporting on the so-called "Troubles". With photog...

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill talks about the secrets he’s learned about our government’s assassination programs, and how our military policies are leading to more oppression at home as well. Then, Laura visits Ireland for the anniversary of a one hundred year old rising against empire, and her commentary looks at the undeserved power of hedge fund managers. Jeremy Scahill is an award-wi...

A bank founded by a garment workers union, and a global ice cream company founded by a couple of hippies from Brooklyn. Keith Mestrich, President & CEO of Amalgamated Bank, talks about running a big bank with a social justice mission. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream talk about Bernie Sanders and progressive business principles - do they exist? Later in the show, Lau...

Can the wealthy save the rest of us from themselves? Venture capitalist Nick Hanauer tells us what’s wrong with rich people, and former Goldman Sachs Vice President Raphaele Chappe tells us about her work to even the playing field between the 1% and the 99% with the Robin Hood Hedge Fund.   Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer;  Sabrina Artel-S...

On this special Mother’s day episode, guest host Alexis Pauline Gumbs explores revolutionary mothering with a panel of guests including China Martens, Mai’a Williams, Victoria Law, and Cynthia Dewi Oka. Self-described Queer Black troublemaker and Black feminist love evangelist Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the author of Spill: Fugitive Scenes, coming later this year from Duke University press. China Mar...

Author and professor Peter Linebaugh discusses his new book, The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day. Later in the show filmmaker Avi Lewis discusses worker-owned factories in Argentina, and Laura focuses on the intersectional feminism of 19th Century Anarchist Lucy Parsons. Peter Linebaugh is professor emeritus at the University of Toledo, and the author of many books, i...

This Week: Making sense of the election season with a historian. From Confederate monuments to election politics to utopian communities, Eric Foner discusses today’s politics through the legacy of the past, and Laura takes a new look at a hundred-year-old proclamation. Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, is one of this country's most prominent historians, and the f...

The Moral Mondays Movement in North Carolina is building a powerful, grassroots, struggle against the right wing. Laura talks with Reverend Dr. William J Barber II, the architect of that movement about Moral Mondays, Reconstruction, #BlackLivesMatter and morality and LGBT rights. Later in the show, we visit protesting workers from a Trump Casino in Las Vegas and Laura discusses bullies on TV, poli...

Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is the progressive Chicago politician who forced conservative Democrat Rahm Emanuel into the first run-off in that city’s history. Dan Cantor is the cofounder and national director of the Working Families Party. Before co-launching the WFP, he was a union organizer in New Orleans and Detroit; a community organizer in Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri; and Labor Coordinator for Rev....

Single Payer Health Care, Free College for all and an end to subsidies for fossil fuel - if Bernie Sanders’ agenda sounds more progressive than his opponents', why have so few Progressive Congress people endorsed him? Laura asks Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, why so few members of his caucus have supported Bernie Sanders. Also in the show, mi...

Author, activist Sarah Schulman, cofounder of the Act-Up Oral History Project, is out with a new novel, The Cosmopolitans, in which a group of mid-century East Villagers pull together to survive gentrification and modern life. Meanwhile, musician Lupe Fiasco is starting a tech entrepreneur program in one of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods - we have an exclusive report. And with so much to sp...

Author Craig WIllse and organizer Imani Henry discuss housing, homelessness and the role of nonprofits in change-making (or not). Plus, an exclusive report from an upstate New York farm that's feeding people while fighting the school-to-prison pipeline.  All that and Laura, inspired by Chicago’s teachers, wonders when we’ll be ready for a grand national sick out.   Laura Flanders and Friends...

Can residents determine how their cities change? They can certainly have an impact, say Aaron Bartley and John Washington of People United for Sustainable Housing (P.U.S.H.) in Buffalo, New York. PUSH Buffalo brings people together to create sustainable neighborhoods with quality affordable housing, green jobs and next generation infrastructure. Could their model apply where you live? Also in this...

From poisoning Flint to bankrupting Main Street, can residents regain a say in what happens in their communities? In this episode, Laura discusses race, gender, and banking with Gwendolyn Hallsmith, the author of Vermont Dollars, Vermont Sense, and she asks Michigan Congresswoman Brenda L. Lawrence who - and what - failed the people of Flint, MI. Plus an F Word from Laura on shedding light on dark...

Laura Flanders and guest host Pamela Brown learn from pirates, hustlers and hackers about how to build economic alternatives right here, right now. Alexa Clay is a co-author of The Misfit Economy: Lessons in Creativity From Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters, And Other Informal Entrepreneurs. Micky Metts is a hacker, activist and organizer, as well as a member of Agaric, a worker-owned cooperative of web...

Trans South Asian art duo Darkmatter is comprised of Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian. They are deeply engaged in the connection of art and social justice, and have been performing to sold-out crowds in New York and internationally.   Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer;  Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Pr...

Caledonia Curry, also known as Swoon, is one of the most recognized street artists in the world. She has brought her art from the streets to galleries and museums. Among her recent projects include creating musical houses in New Orleans , a ceramic tile factory in Pennsylvania , a floating city on rafts in the Mississippi River, and rebuilding a community in Haiti post-earthquake .   Laura Fl...