The Real News Podcast

The Norfolk Southern train derailment and "controlled release" of toxic vinyl chloride in East Palestine, Ohio, was an avoidable catastrophe. Long before the train cars crashed on Feb. 3 and residents' lives were turned completely upside down, railroad workers had been warning anyone who would listen that the relentless cost-cutting and profit-maximizing practices implemented on the freight rail s...

Dr. Cornel West's decision to run for President has been embraced with enthusiasm by some on the left, and met with groans of disapproval by others. Disputes over the merits of Dr. West's candidacy have often pivoted on the question of whether it is more effective for him to run as a third-party candidate or as a Democrat. In a recent piece for The Nation , Bhaskar Sunkara and D.D. Guttenplan make...

The revelations of widespread torture of detainees at the illegal US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, rattled the American conscience during the Bush Jr. administration. Two decades later, detainments at Guantanamo continue, but the public has largely moved on. Yet for many former detainees of Guantanamo, release from their former prison has just opened a new chapter of horrors. A recent report fro...

On July 25, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters reached a tentative agreement with UPS just days before the current contract was set to expire on July 31. If a new deal was not reached this week, 340,000 UPS workers were prepared to hit the picket line on Aug. 1 in what would have been one of the largest strikes in US history. The contract negotiations process has been a roller coaster, fil...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Friday, July 28, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us c...

As two-time defending champions, the US is the team to beat in this year's FIFA Women's World Cup. Long considered one of the best soccer teams in the world, the US Women's National Team hasn't always been given its dues. Former captain Julie Foudy joins Edge of Sports for a look back on the evolution of women's soccer. Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino Post-Production: Taylor Heb...

Unionizing—it's what hot right now. Whether you're a barista or a package delivery driver, the wave of militant labor action shaking the US makes a strong case for why every workplace needs a union. Vince Quiles breaks down the logic of forming a union and just what doing so can change. Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino Post-Production: Cameron Granadino Help us continue producing...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Thursday, July 27, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Wednesday, July 26, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help u...

The near-constant barrage of climate disasters pummeling the US is having an unforeseen political effect. As FEMA struggles to keep up with the magnitude and frequency of disasters, far right militias like the Oath Keepers are filling the vacuum to build trust and organize. In a recent article for Grist , Zoya Teirstein looks at what these efforts looked like on the ground in Houston in the wake o...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Tuesday, July 25, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us...

Mass incarceration as we know it today owes much of its existence to the political rationale created by the War on Drugs. Although proffered as a solution to the public health crisis of drug addiction, prisons actually provide little in the way of real care or rehabilitation for people struggling with substance abuse. In Alaska, True North Recovery, an addiction treatment and advocacy organization...

We are less than two weeks away from what could be the second largest single-employer strike in US history. As of this recording, contract negotiations between United Parcel Services (UPS) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have reportedly "collapsed"—and the clock is ticking until the current contract expires on July 31. If a deal is not reached and a strike occurs, what will it look...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Monday, July 24, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us c...

Chalk artist Joshua Hinson was finishing up a community art project in Leon Valley, Texas when local cops confronted him over his art, which they incorrectly described as "graffiti." Hinson's arrest, which was captured on video, has raised questions about the protection of art under the First Amendment, and the overreach and abuse of power exercised by police in regulating public space. The charge...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Friday, July 21, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us c...

The growth of the Black Lives Matter movement through the 2010s catalyzed a resurgence of Black activism in professional sports that had its climax in 2020 with the athletes' boycott following the shooting of Jacob Blake. Just a few years later, this energy seems to have dissipated. What happened, and how can we comprehend these recent events in the longer arc of Black activism in sports? Sports j...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Thursday, July 20, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us...

The Philadelphia Art Museum is an icon of the City of Brotherly Love, and there's no shortage of art lovers who wouldn't consider a chance to work there to be a dream job. But passion and prestige don't pay the bills, as many museum workers have found while being severely undercompensated for their labor. After a public spreadsheet displaying the vast disparities in salaries at the museum was circ...

When we hear the term "whistleblower," we tend to think of names like Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange—people who have risked their freedom, even their lives, to expose government lies, abuses of power, and state secrets that the public needs to know about. But there are a range of federal statutes designed to protect those who blow the whistle on their employers, t...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Wednesday, July 19, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help u...

In the past year, the city of Jenin in the West Bank has become a particularly sharp thorn in the side of the Israeli occupation. On July 4th and 5th, Israeli forces swept into Jenin Refugee Camp in an attempt to suppress a rising armed resistance emanating from the area. Despite slaughtering 12 Palestinians, Israel accomplished little of military value in the operation, failing to flush out resis...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Tuesday, July 18, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us...

Jessup, Maryland is home to the state's only women's prison, the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women, commonly known as "The Cut". For years, advocates fought for a women's pre-release center, which would house prisoners eligible to go out on work release, receive an income, and take family leave. Despite passing a bill into law mandating the construction of a women's pre-release center, the...

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Monday, July 17, 2023. TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate her daily news digest and share it with our audience—tune in every morning on the TRNN podcast feed to hear about the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world. Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed . Help us c...