Refuse Fascism

Sam Goldman interviews Leah Litman, Assistant Professor of Law and University of Michigan and cohost of Strict Scrutiny podcast, discussing the past, present and future of the Trump-appointee dominated SCOTUS. Follow Leah Litman on Twitter at @leahlitman . Plus: Merle Hoffman, one of the co-founders of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights speaking at the Society for Ethical Culture. Follow @RiseUp4Abortion a...

Sam interviews Dr. Henry Giroux, renowned educator and author of recently published pieces The Nazification of American Education and The US Is Descending Into a Crisis of Overt Fascism. There’s Still a Way Out .  Also see Florida students return to schools reshaped by Gov. DeSantis' anti-'woke' education agenda . Follow Dr. Giroux on Twitter at @HenryGiroux and visit his website at henryagir...

Sam interviews writer and pundit Danielle Moodie about the current state of fascism in the United States and how to actually stand up to the fascist bullies (hint: it’s not what the Democrats are doing right now). Listen to Danielle every weekday on her podcast Woke AF and every week on Democracy-ish (with Wajahat Ali). Follow her on Twitter at @deetwocents on Instagram @deetwocents at and on TikT...

Sam speaks to the Rachael Wachstein (first interviewed on Episode #35 in December 2020 - find her on Facebook ) again, this time to discuss Robert Crimo, Jr., the mass shooter who murdered people at the Highland Park July 4 parade this year, 2022. Wachstein witnessed not only this horrific event but recognized Crimo as one of the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" fascists she had been counter-protesting...

It's just a few weeks into the hellscape that is a post-Roe United States... Sam and Mark chat about just a few of the stories that have come out in recent weeks illustrating the growing catastrophe. Donate to support the Indiana doctor currently under fire from fascist forces for providing abortion care to a 10 year old rape victim who traveled from Ohio here . Recommended Reading: They Will Neve...

Sam interviews Dr. Thomas Lecaque about apocalyptic Christianity, the GOP in 2022 and the medieval roots of support for secular fascists like Trump from Christian nationalists. Read his recent articles Patriot Front and the Next Stage of the Culture War , "Jesus, guns, babies": Religious violence is now at the core of the Republican Party , and this piece from 2019 in The Washington Post: The apoc...

Sam and Coco Das discuss Coco's new article for The Independent: Roe has been overturned and women’s bodies are no longer their own in America. Here’s what to do now . Follow Coco at @Coco_Das . Over the past couple weeks SCOTUS has issued a series of rulings that flag that they are no longer concerned with the appearance of legitimacy: rights no longer need to be read to people arrested by the po...

On our first post-Roe episode, we share some of the voices from the streets over the last couple days outside the Supreme Court demanding the federal government restore the fundamental right to abortion across the country NOW, including Sunsara Taylor ( @sunsarataylor ), Paxton Smith ( @paxtonsmith ) and youth organizers. Then, writer and pundit Wajahat Ali talks to Sam about the January 6 hearing...

Sam Goldman takes a break from protesting outside the Supreme Court to interview writer Jill Filipovic about the looming abortion rights disaster. Follow Jill’s work at jill.substack.com and follow her on Twitter at @JillFilipovic . Then, Sunsara Taylor interviews lawyer and host of the Amicus podcast Dahlia Lithwick about the legal rationale behind overturning the right to abortion and the many o...

Sam Goldman interviews Dr. Federico Finchelstein on the recent Op Ed he wrote with Dr. Jason Stanley in the LA Times: White replacement theory is fascism’s new name . Follow @FinchelsteinF on Twitter and check out his newest book, Fascist Mythologies: The History and Politics of Unreason in Borges, Freud, and Schmitt . Recommended reading: The first January 6 hearing served up surprising revelatio...

In the aftermath of the horrific massacre of schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas, which was close on the heels of a white supremacist killing spree in Buffalo, NY, we’re re-sharing the extremely relevant interview Sam Goldman did with Dr. Carol Anderson in November 2021. Dr. Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University and the author of Whi...

Coco Das @Coco_Das and Sam Goldman @SamBGoldman have been busy rallying people in the streets with RiseUp4AbortionRights.org over the past couple weeks - we share some of those speeches today. Join in nationwide protests this Thursday May 26 to raise your voice and raise hell as SCOTUS is on the verge of overturning Roe and allowing many abortion bans to go through. Find or organize a protest here...

More than 400 cities on Saturday May 14 saw protests demanding the Supreme Court not overturn Roe. We share some of the voices from a protest in NYC including Merle Hoffman, Founder/CEO Choices Women's Medical Center and an initiator of RiseUp4AbortionRights.org, Rosita Romero, Executive Director, Dominican Women's Development Center, Elizabeth Holtzman, former U.S. Representative and District Att...

A draft version of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe on the most retrograde basis has been leaked, authored by Samuel Alito. Coco Das ( @Coco_Das ) interviews Susana Chiarotti, Latin American Liaison for the Sisterhood is Global Institute about the global implications of this ruling and the immediate challenge facing the abortion rights movement in the US. Read her recent article for the...

Coco Das interviews Boston Globe columnist Marcela García about her recent piece about the “Green Wave” movements in Latin America that have decriminalized abortion in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. Read Latin America moves forward in legalizing abortion as the US rolls back access. What gives? Follow Marcela on Twitter at @marcela_elisa . Listen to the solidarity statement from Ana Cristina Gonz...

We share voices from activists with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights who traveled to Kentucky, the scene of the latest state-level showdown against abortion rights. Then: Trump is shoring up support in local legislatures in preparation for his 2024 run for the presidency while revelations of the continuing domination of the GOP continue (including Kevin McCarthy’s lies and craven subservience to Trump in...

Sunsara Taylor interviews young activists from around the country who helped organize #RiseUp4AbortionRights protests this past weekend about what fuels their determination to stand up for the right to abortion and how in fact, it's not too late to turn the tide.  Find out more about the national week of action May 18 - 15 at riseup4abortionrights.org . Refuse Fascism is more than just a podc...

Sam Goldman interviews Juniper Porter, an activist with Trans Resistance of Texas (TROT) - an organization that recently held a die-in on the steps of the Texas State Capitol in support of trans rights ( see press coverage ). Follow @TRoT on Twitter and find more actions against the tsunami of anti-trans laws in states across the country at tearitup.org . One correction from Juniper on the number...

Sunsara Taylor ( The RNL Show , We Only Want the World on WPFW and WBAI ) interviews feminist, novelist, playwright and director Sikivu Hutchinson about the abortion crisis and more. Follow her work at sikivuhutchinson.com and on Twitter: @sikivuhutch . If the US Supreme Court overturns or guts Roe v. Wade, 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion. April 8: Wear #Green4Abortion April 9: Mar...

We share the presentation from a recent webinar held with historian and writer Paul Street, member of the Refuse Fascism editorial board. Paul's most recent book is This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America . Follow his work at paulstreet.org and @Streetwriter17 . Read his recent article On Putin, the Ukraine War, the United States and Fascism on Counterpunch. If th...

Sam Goldman interviews Annika Brockschmidt, German freelance journalist and podcast host, author of America's Holy Warriors: How the Religious Rights Endangers Democracy . Follow Annika on Twitter at @ardenthistorian . If you speak German you will want to check out her podcast (co-hosted with recent Refuse Fascism podcast guest Thomas Zimmer), Kreuz und Flagge (Cross and Flag). Read her recent pie...

Sam Goldman interviews student organizers of recent walk-outs in Florida against the new law excluding LGBTQ people from primary school curricula. Then, voices from the International Women's Day march for abortion on demand and without apology including: Michelle Xai, Merle Hoffman, Lori Sokol, Kathy Najimy, Dr. Bruce Price, Beila, Betty, Araceli Herrera, Sunsara Taylor, Rev. Jacqui Lewis, and V (...

Sam Goldman interviews Marc Eliot Stein with World Beyond War about Russia's attack on Ukraine and what comes next. Follow Marc on Twitter at @asheresque and listen to the World Beyond War podcast here: worldbeyondwar.org/podcast . Recommended reading: A Hellish War in Ukraine: Where the Hell Did This Come From? Then, we share voices from the abortion rights speakout Feb. 27th in front of St. Patr...

Sam Goldman shares thoughts and commentary on the latest fascist developments domestic and international. Then we share Sunsara Taylor's remarks from an event Feb. 16 at Revolution Books in Harlem on the abortion rights emergency in the US and a powerful call to action now - before Roe is overturned.  Original video of Sunsara Taylor's remarks Recommended reading on the crisis with Russia and...

Coco Das interviews Steven Mesaros on the fascist trucker convoys that have been harassing and terrorizing residents of Ottawa for several weeks. Mesaros is a Canadian political science Ph. D student studying emerging far-right authoritarian movements. Follow him on Twitter at @RestoreTheReal . Then, Coco talks to some of the activists who mobilized in Ottawa against the convoys after the authorit...