The Marc Steiner Show

Hy Thurman is one of the founding members of the Young Patriots, a radical group of mostly white working-class Appalachians who, together with the Black Panthers and the Young Lords, formed the first Rainbow Coalition in Chicago. Fifty years later, and 100 years after the Battle of Blair Mountain, how can we revive the revolutionary spirit of radical Appalachia and carry on its legacy today? In th...

A disturbing Buzzfeed report revealed that the FBI played a leading role in orchestrating the same far-right terrorist plot against Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer that it was praised for foiling. Moreover, the incident has been used as a pretext to give the FBI even more power than it had before—power that it has used and will continue to use to crack down on the left. In the second installmen...

When it comes to the extremist violence and anti-democratic, even fascistic, designs of the far right, the threat goes much deeper than visible groups like the Proud Boys. Out of fear and a desire to protect those who are most vulnerable to these threats, some well-meaning allies have shown a troubling willingness to align themselves with repressive institutions like the FBI. But history has shown...

Nearly twenty years after the beginning of the US War in Afghanistan, tens of thousands of lives have been lost, trillions of dollars have been spent, and the Taliban has taken control of the country. What was it all for? Will the US public do anything to disrupt the violent machine of permanent war, care for the veterans whose lives have been forever changed, or atone for the devastation wrought...

Scenes of panic and chaos in the capital city of Kabul have played on repeat around the world as the withdrawal of US troops in Afghanistan has precipitated the swift fall of the government and the Taliban’s takeover of the country. With much fear, anger, and uncertainty throughout the country, it is an open question what the future will hold for Afghans under Taliban rule in the wake of the devas...

In the second segment of this week’s Marc Steiner Show, we bring you the latest installment of our ongoing series “Not in Our Name,” which highlights the diverse voices of Jewish activists, artists, intellectuals, and others who are speaking out against the Israeli occupation. In this installment, Marc talks with Rick Perlstein about growing up Jewish in Milwaukee, the process of unlearning Zionis...

“While there are differences, to be sure, between anti-Semitism and anti-Arab bigotry, the animus that has driven the hostility directed against both Arabs and Jews springs from the same source,” James Zogby argues in a recent piece for YubaNet. In this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc welcomes Zogby back to the show to discuss the intertwined historical roots of anti-Arabism and anti...

President Biden’s plan to secure “security and prosperity” in Central America appears to be a continuation of the longstanding policy of US intervention in Latin America and economic exploitation of its people and resources. Experts not only doubt that the Biden administration’s plan will do much to mitigate the political, economic, and climate-related issues driving migrants to leave their home c...

“Between January 1 and July 14, 2021, at least 18 states enacted 30 laws that restrict access to the vote,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Hundreds of other bills with provisions aimed at restricting voting rights and access have been introduced in 49 other states. Combatting the relentless, top-down assault on our basic democratic rights is one of the most urgent political causes of...

It’s been seven months since Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC in an attempt to overturn the general election results. Was it merely a short but shocking fluke perpetrated by a handful of fanatics, or a sign of the right’s long (and continued) political slide towards open authoritarianism? In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show,...

Back in May, the remains of 215 children were discovered on the grounds of a former residential (boarding) school in Canada that was used to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children. Soon after, over 750 unmarked graves were discovered at another residential school. Given the historical brutality of such schools in their treatment of Indigenous children, it is widely suspected that similar gravesit...

In a brazen effort to make political hay out of the right-wing culture wars, Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has signed a slew of bills into law that, among other things, target transgender student athletes, further criminalize protests, limit voting rights, and surveil the political leanings of college professors, staff, and students. In our first segment for this week’s episode of Th...

In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with Marjorie Cohn about the highly anticipated report from the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States, which issued a blistering indictment of police-perpetrated racist violence in the U.S. As Cohn writes in Truthout, “The Commiss...

Voters in Georgia stunned the nation in 2020 by delivering key presidential and Senate victories for Democrats. In response, Republicans have launched a renewed assault on voting rights that, critics argue, directly targets traditionally non-Republican voters and will be especially detrimental to Black, Brown, and working-class people. Among other provisions, Georgia Senate Bill 202 (the Election...

From Israeli forces attacking worshipers at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, international outcry and condemnation of Israel’s apartheid regime reached new heights last month, seemingly culminating in the recent announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. While the bombs may have stopped for the time being, ho...

The violence of Israeli occupation and apartheid has been happening for many years with unceasing support from the U.S. government. This is why many are rightly skeptical that anything will fundamentally change, even with the recent international outcry over Israeli forces’ attack on worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, renewed airstrikes on Gaza, and the forced removal of Palestinian residents from the...

Appalachia is a region with a rich and complicated political history that is often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented in other parts of the country. In a special “Marc Steiner Show” first, Marc and TRNN audio engineer Stephen Frank take listeners on a narrative journey through the politics and economics of Appalachia today. Guests in this segment include Marie Gunoe, director of the Mother...

While wealthy countries like the United States are rushing to vaccinate their populations and “reopen” their societies, the rest of the world continues to suffer. With hospitals overrun and life-saving oxygen supplies running low, India’s government is reporting over 300,000 new COVID-19 infections every day (though evidence suggests the numbers are even higher). Meanwhile, Brazil suffered 70,000...

It’s been four months since supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building in early January in a thwarted attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. While many in the Republican and Democratic political establishment hoped to move on from the failed Trumpist insurrection by characterizing it as an unrepeatable anomaly, the fact of the matter is the widespread,...

Last week the country watched anxiously as Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd last May, was found guilty of third-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and second-degree unintentional murder. While many breathed a sigh of relief that some modicum of justice had been achieved for Floyd and his family, we were reminded of the continuing inhumanity of th...

Last week, President Joe Biden announced he will be pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2021, seemingly ending the longest war in U.S. history. But what does that really mean? What happens to Afghanistan next? How can we possibly make reparations for the destruction we’ve wrought, and will we do anything to address the machinations of a military-industrial complex that continually...

From endless wars and imperialist violence to racist systems of oppression and climate destruction, the battles poor and working people face around the globe are as daunting as they are numerous. What will it take to build a grassroots movement that not only combats these destructive forces, but understands them as fundamentally interconnected? In the first segment of this week’s blockbuster “Marc...

COVID-19 has put an incredible amount of pressure on higher education and its workers, including graduate students and contingent faculty who shoulder heavy workloads and make poverty-level or near-poverty-level wages. While simultaneously fighting to get universities to recognize them as workers, many graduate students around the U.S. are organizing, demanding, and even going on strike for better...

Americans are currently buried under a staggering $1.7 trillion in student debt, and many see no way out. This is why the Debt Collective, a debtor’s union, has organized the Biden Jubilee 100, a debt strike carried out by 100 people, one for each of Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office. In the first segment of this week’s “Marc Steiner Show,” we talk with Umme Hoque, Organizing Director of the De...

It is an undeniably good thing that films like Judas and the Black Messiah are helping to disseminate the true story of the U.S. government’s coordinated involvement in the murder of Black Panther deputy chairman Fred Hampton. But there are many facets to that story that still need to be told and understood, especially when it comes to the Rainbow Coalition and the people who organized it. In this...