The Montana DSA Podcast

Montana DSA Podcast Episode 31 (Sept 1, 2023), features eminent legal scholar and analyst/activist Marjorie Cohn (articles and commentaries and bio at https://marjoriecohn.com/ ) discussing the U.S, government's efforts to force the United Kingdom to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange to the United States. Cohn describes these U.S. actions as ones that illegall...

Anne Hedges, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs for the Montana Environmental  Information Center (MEIC,  https://meic.org , https://www.facebook.com/MTEIC )  is the  featured guest in Montana DSA’s 30th podcast July 26, 2023.  MEIC, founded in 1973, is Montana's premier environmental organization and is celebrating 50 years of work protecting Montana's environment).  Hedges direct...

This 29th episode of the Montana DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast series features a conversation with Darrell Ehrlick of Billings, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Montanan (TDM), https://dailymontanan.com/ , founded in January 2021 as a nonprofit, independent, nonpartisan source for news, commentary and insight into statewide policy and politics beneath the Big Sky. TDM's guidin...

Montana DSA  Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast Episode 28 features Nick Engelfried ( https://nickengelfried.com/about-nick/ ) -- environmental educator and climate activist since the early 2000s and author of Movement Makers: How Young Activists Upended the Politics of Climate Change ( https://nickengelfried.com/movementmakers/ ), the first major book to comprehensively examine more than t...

Veteran feminist social justice activist Tootie Welker of Hot Springs, Montana is featured in this June 7th conversation with DSA's Frank Kromkowski of Helena in Episode 27 of the 2023 Montana DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) Podcast Series. Welker describes herself as a "Radical socialist fighting for justice for all, dog, cat mom. Small business owner @mayarisingshop" -- Face...

This Montana DSA Podcast (episode 26) features a conversation with screenwriter, filmmaker, essayist and long-time social and environmental justice and anti-capitalism, anti-war and anti-US imperialism activist Paul Edwards of Helena. A prolific essayist, writing in critical, alternative on-line journals such as CounterPunch and Information Clearing House, Edwards (with his long-time collaborator...

Montana DSA Podcast episode 25 (May 30) features a conversation with Paul Lachapelle of MSU in Bozeman, founder of Climate Smart Montana   (⁠https://www.montana.edu/communitydevelopment/csm/⁠).  scholar and climate activist, working for the last 16 years as a Professor in ⁠the ⁠ Department of Political Science at Montana State University-Bozeman (⁠https://www.montana.edu/plachapelle/⁠) . His teach...

In Episode 24 of Montana DSA's 2023 Podcast Series on May 25, Rose Bender, Director of Research at  the Montana Budget & Policy Center (MBPC, https://montanabudget.org/ ), analyzes the 2023 Legislature's actions in the areas of social and economic justice in tax policy/structure, the Montana affordable housing crisis, policies affecting Montana's Native American children and famili...

The 23rd Montana DSA Podcast is a conversation with community development activist Jeff Buscher of Helena, Community Impact Coordinator for the United Way of the Lewis and Clark County Area (UWLCA).  Buscher described the work of the new Helena affordable housing coalition and working teams he has created to address the affordable housing crisis (“Move the Dial on Housing” – United to Solve the He...

Our dialogue partner in episode 22 of the Montana DSA 2023 Podcast Series is Shani Henry of Helena, a statewide leader of two Montana groups working to prevent gun violence -- Montana Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense and the Montana Chapter of Giffords Gun Owners for Safety (MT-GOS), founded by former member of Congress Gabby Giffords of Arizona, a gun violence attack victim now committed to endin...

    The Montana DSA Podcast’s 21st episode is a dialogue with Rep. Zooey Zephyr of Missoula --  a progressive, bisexual trans woman who fought for social and economic and environmental justice in the 2023 Montana Legislature, working tirelessly to defend our health care, our housing, our human rights, the rights of trans people and democracy itself. The GOP supermajority’s undemocratic censure of...

In this May 2, 2023 Montana DSA Podcast interview with Keegan Medrano, a queer Indigenous (Mvskoke) mixed race person who joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana as Policy and Advocacy Director in June 2021, Medrano describes the important struggles of the ACLU of Montana during the 2023 Legislature -- combating the ideologically far right Supermajority GOP's multi-faceted activit...

"Join Us in the Urgent Work of the Montana Coalition to Solve Homelessness": Montana DSA and Helena Progressive Action Network interview April 13th with Sam Fortsag of the Montana Coalition to Solve Homelessness, founded in fall 2022 to advocate for policies and resources to effectively and compassionately support people living without shelter in Montana. Forstag describes Montana's...

The Montana Environmental Information Center (meic.org) has been one of the leading organizations lobbying the Montana Legislature to uphold our state's constitutional guarantee to a clean and healthful environment for current and future generations. Cari Kimball, MEIC's Executive Director, provides an overview of the bills the organization is focused on, while also advocating for the publ...

HB 651, "Generally revise ballot initiative laws" passed by the Montana Legislature in the 2021 session, was just the beginning of the Montana Chamber of Commerce's campaign to end direct democracy in Montana. SB 93, "Generally revising ballot issues," again backed by the chamber and other business lobbies in the 2023 session, is designed to kill the ability of citizens to...

Mark Anderlik, co-chair of Western Montana DSA's Labor Committee, most recently was a union organizer and central labor council officer for a couple of decades in Missoula. In this episode of the Montana DSA Podcast, Mark talks about the support work that socialists and progressives can provide for a possible Teamsters Union strike against United Parcel Service this summer. Mark also briefly o...

Jim Nelson was an Associate Justice on the Montana Supreme Court from 1993 to 2012. Justice Nelson has perhaps most affected the State's privacy jurisprudence in the area of personal autonomy. As a result of cases like Armstrong v. State (on abortion rights) and Gryczan v. State (on marriage rights)—both Nelson-authored opinions—Montana's right to privacy now more fully encompasses persona...

Jonathan Motl is Montana's senior public interest attorney. He's written nine ballot initiatives and was from 2013-2017 Montana's Commissioner of Political Practices. He talks with the Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski about how Senate Bill 93, "Generally revising ballot issues," continues the corporate attack on our citizen initiative process, an attack that was pass...

Danny Tenenbaum was a legislator in the 2021 session, representing a House district in the Missoula area. Now he serves as an Associate Justice on the Court of Appeals for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He talks to Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski about the importance of defending an independent judiciary, the Montana Indian Child Welfare Act, and bipartisan efforts to right...

Mary Caferro, representing House District 82 and the longest-serving legislator in the Helena area, talks with Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski about where progressive legislation stands as the Legislature breaks to transmit bills from one house to the other. While Republicans focus on lining the pockets of their wealthy donors and three-pieced-suited lobbyists, additional legislation may...

This episode features a conversation with Elizabeth Marum of Belgrade, MT. Elizabeth has been at the forefront of the affordable housing fight in Gallatin County, one of the fastest-growing areas of the state, for decades. She talks about current legislative approaches—all of which favor landlords because so many legislators are in fact landlords—as well as options that could be pursued to establi...

What the Funk is a blog started last summer by several long-time residents of Great Falls in reaction to the news desert in which they found themselves. They cover a broad range of topics but recently have focussed on the legislature, especially the extremism of the representatives that Great Falls voters have sent to Helena. They do this with a refined and often outraged sense of humor. (Please e...

Billings City Council member Denise Joy joins podcast host Frank Kromkowski to discuss how the Montana Legislature is impacting how our communities are governed. First among them is that the current legislature continues to take away powers that her constituents think the city council should have. Denise, who is also Co-Chair of Billings DSA, also discusses how democratic socialism can be a releva...

In the seventh episode of The Montana DSA Podcast, host Frank Kromkowski talks with Chance Standish of Butte, America. Chance worked in Albertsons for several years, and eventually became a statewide union organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), representing grocery store workers and meat cutters. A couple of years ago, he was introduced (by a customer at work) to DSA and imme...

The Montana DSA Podcast host Frank Kromkowski has a conversation with Jan Strout, President of Montana NOW (National Organization for Women), about the broad range of issues and bills that Montana NOW members, leaders, and coalition partners are working on at the Montana legislature.