Make It Plain MIP with Rev. Mark Thompson

Donna Haskins grew up in poverty in one of the most racially segregated cities in America with seemingly all the odds stacked against her. She was sexually assaulted at 13, and when she had an abortion, she thought she could never fulfill her dream of becoming a nun. Later in life, in a crisis about her identity as a Black woman and on the brink of suicide, she hears a sermon that shook her to her...

What’s the likelihood of an American experiencing poverty? Turns out, it’s the majority. That’s what Mark Rank covers in his new book (co-authored by Lawrence Eppard and Heather Bullock) out now, “Poorly Understood: What Americans Get Wrong About Poverty.” There’s a common misconception that poverty is an issue of “them” when it’s really about “us” -- not an individual failing, but a structural on...

What would it look like to engage in nonviolent direct action consistently, through strategic organizing? That’s what Kai Newkirk (Founder of For All www.forallorg.us) and Rev. Stephen Green (Pastor, Scholar, and Activist) explain in today’s episode, as they discuss the piece they co-authored, “Why Kingian democratic socialism is the best path forward for the progressive left.” This is especially...

In 2002, Julius Jones was wrongfully convicted of murdering Paul Howell. Last week, on the day of his scheduled execution for a crime he did not commit, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commuted the death sentence just four hours before he was set to die. It is a victory that Julius’s life has been saved, but now the work continues to free him from prison. Pastor Mike McBride, Founder of Live Free US...

Happy Holidays MIP family! We're bringing you some of the year's most popular episodes while our team takes a break. Enjoy this throwback episode and a restful, joyful holiday season! Robert P. Jones is the author of “White Too Long” (which recently received the American Book Award), as well as a leading commentator on the crossroads of politics and religion. He brings us his expertise in...

Happy Holidays MIP family! We're bringing you some of the year's most popular episodes while our team takes a break. Enjoy this throwback episode and a restful, joyful holiday season! America is the wealthiest country in the world and yet our federal paid leave, or rather, lack thereof, comes up way short in comparison to other countries. Carol Joyner is the Director of Labor Project for W...

Happy Holidays MIP family! We're bringing you some of the year's most popular episodes while our team takes a break. Enjoy this throwback episode and a restful, joyful holiday season! You know Brittany Temple as the Producer behind the scenes of Make It Plain, but she’s also a writer and publisher of a bi-weekly newsletter, Write All Along. Her most recent issue was inspired by Bill Cosby’...

Jen Miller is the Executive Director at the League of Women Voters Ohio, and she and her colleagues are working alongside the ACLU of Ohio and the A. Philip Randolph Institute to fight gerrymandering in the state. They recently filed a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court to fight against the state’s new Congressional district map and prove the maps are extreme partisan gerrymandering. Executive Prod...

Eric Boehlert of Pressrun.media is back for his biting analysis of what the mainstream media is flubbing these days: this time, they’re following along with Republicans who invented claims about Critical Race Theory. They’re happy to indulge the fabricated GOP fears but fail to mention that CRT is something that is only taught at the college level and higher, not in elementary school. But the Repu...

On December 1st, the Supreme Court heard Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, one of the more troubling attacks on Roe v. Wade and women’s access to healthcare that is currently unfolding in America right now. Daniela Diaz is the Federal Strategies Manager at All* Above All, and she helps us understand what this case means in the grander scheme of protecting reproductive health care and a...

It’s #ThursdayKos and we’re back to strategizing for H.R. 40, the midterms, and democracy at large. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dr. Sherice Janaye Nelson is an Assistant Professor at Southern University and A&M College. She’s from Oakland California and has only been educated at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Her research interests include Black political leadership, women as political agents, and the Black experience throughout the Diaspora. In her latest book, “The Congressional Black Caucus: 50 Years...

Mike Elk was illegally fired from Politico for union organizing, and won a settlement in the aftermath. He used that money to invest in his labor news organization, Payday Report, where they cover the angle of labor unions and workers’ rights that traditional news organizations cannot. It’s through this lens that he examines the MLB owner lockout; Mike helps us understand what, exactly, is a locko...

We learned last week that the United States Department of Justice is closing the case on the murder of Emmett Till, and will no longer pursue an investigation into his horrific death, which sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement. Deborah Watts is Emmett’s cousin and Founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, and despite the DOJ’s disappointing decision, she is continuing to fight for justice...

Gun violence activists, survivors, organizers and advocates rallied in front of the White House yesterday, demanding President Biden finally take a different approach to the public health crisis that is gun violence. Igor Volsky is the Executive Director of Guns Down America, and in today’s episode, he tells us there's not a single staffer in the White House whose full-time job is to address t...

A Politico headline went viral that read “Democrats fall flat with ‘Latinx’ language.” Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos, Civiqs, and Host of “The Brief,” is weighing in with the consideration of his Latino roots (he is from El Salvador), as well as some polling data from within the Latino community, to consider what the best-used term might be, and how President Biden might want to be careful...

We know Donald Trump is corrupt, but how deep does it go? David Cay Johnston’s latest book “The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family” answers that question, detailing just how far the Trump family will go with their schemes to steal. David has been chronicling Donald Trump and his family for more than 33 years and dubs him a master con-artist, laying out...

Senator Rand Paul’s days in the U.S. Senate are numbered, as far as Charles Booker is concerned: he’s running against Senator Paul in the 2022 midterm elections. Charles wants to make moves on the Hill that will serve ALL Kentuckians, as opposed to the wealthy few that Senator Paul is most concerned with. Charles comes from one of the poorest zip codes in Kentucky, and he realizes that the struggl...

This month is special for our jobs report recap, as we have two experts on the subject. First up is Angela Hanks, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at the Department of Labor. She details the work her department is doing to develop more efficient pathways to jobs for those who are looking. Next up is MIP’s resident economist, Chad Stone, Chief Economist at the Center...

Why do Mark and Danielle believe that December do-or-die for Democrats? We’re fighting to save Roe v. Wade, prevent gerrymandering, stop the disintegration of voting rights, and so much more. But that’s exactly why this is NOT the time to get jaded, and Danielle and Mark break down the realities of the moment in order to ignite the fight within each of us. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Produce...

Dr. Tony Allen is the President of HBCU Delaware State University, as well as Chair of President Biden’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs. 65 HBCU Presidents have sent a letter to the Senate demanding action on President Biden’s historic funding to those universities, and Dr. Allen describes how beneficial that investment is and what needs to be done to make it all happen. Executive Producer: Adell Cole...

Do you consider education a human right? Kailee Scales is the CEO of Pencils of Promise and she explains in today’s episode that, as human beings, access to education is our birthright. And with Pencils of Promise, she’s leading an organization that is doing the hard work to expand that access, currently working in Laos, Guatemala and Ghana to build more than 500 schools and serve more than 1,000...

Ever since Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on charges of murdering two people and injuring another, hostility towards protestors is increasing. Scott Roberts is the Senior Director of Criminal Justice for Color of Change, and in today’s episode he explains that more than 100 bills have popped up in states across the country that seek to strip rights from protestors, and even give more freedom to th...

Eric Boehlert of Pressrun.media says the media coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris is completely out of hand. In fact, their coverage of Democrats and their alleged troubles with “messaging” is an overall disaster, with seemingly no self-reflection of what role the reporters themselves play in demolishing the aforementioned Democratic messaging. There also wasn’t any reporting on the White Ho...

Mwalim, also known as Dr. Morgan James Peters or even ‘DaPhunkee Professor,’ is a professor of English and Black Studies at UMass Dartmouth and a Mashpee Wampanoag. Wampanoag was the tribe that met with Pilgrims in the story of the “first Thanksgiving,” but that’s about all that traditional American history got right about that first “holiday.” Mwalim gives us the history lesson we should have had...