The Real News Podcast

Read the transcript of this story and see the full show notes: https://therealnews.com/ask-a-railroad-worker-how-did-railroad-jobs-get-so-bad As we speak, the major railroad companies and 13 different unions representing over 115,000 railroad workers have reached an impasse in contract negotiations that have been going on for years, and we are now closer to a national rail shutdown than we’ve been...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/brazil-on-fire-democracy-and-dictatorship The Jair Bolsonaro presidency has been a disaster for Brazil. Over 650,000 dead from COVID-19. Amazon deforestation. Rising fascism. Budget cuts. Fake news. Threats to democracy. Journalist Michael Fox sets the scene for Brazil’s critical October 2022 presidential elections by looking back on the...

Where did all the good tunes go? Have millennials just gone the way of Gen X and Boomers before them, pining nostalgically for gilded memories of a past that never glittered? Or has the music business—and music along with it—really changed? In this episode of Art for the End Times, Lyta Gold explores the unsavory reality of the capitalist music industry with special guest Torquil Campbell (AKA Tor...

As a country founded on the violence of racial slavery and genocide, the United States has yet to overcome its historical dependence on the ideology of white supremacy. In his new memoir, Inheritance: An Autobiography of Whiteness, author Baynard Woods reflects on the influence of racism and the meaning of 'whiteness' through the lens of his own life. Born and raised in post-Jim Crow South Carol...

Click here to see the notes for this podcast and read the full transcript: https://therealnews.com/chicago-teachers-suspect-mayor-lightfoot-tried-to-fire-them-for-opposing-a-new-scrapyard In July, Lauren Bianchi and Chuck Stark, two teachers at George Washington High School on the Southeast Side of Chicago, were on the verge of losing their jobs. In what Chicago Teachers Union officers suspect was...

Jair Bolsonaro's rise was unimaginable just a few years before his election to Brazil's presidency. With an impending showdown between the incumbent Bolsonaro and popular left-wing former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, many fear Bolsonaro may resort to a January 6-style coup to retain power. In this special limited podcast series from Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox, we’ll take li...

The Weather Underground spent nearly a decade combating the US government. From prison breaks to bombings of the Pentagon and the US Capitol, the 'Weathermen' used any means necessary to fight capitalism, end the Vietnam War, and struggle in solidarity with the Black Panthers and other organizations. A new podcast series created by Zayd Ayers-Dohrn, a child of the Weather Underground, looks back o...

Click here to read the transcript of this story and see full show notes: https://therealnews.com/chipotle-shut-down-its-only-unionized-store-organizers-say-its-retaliation On June 22 of this year, workers at a Chipotle location in Augusta, Maine, made history by becoming the first store in the US to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. Then, on Tuesday, July 19, Chipo...

"Most Americans were shocked by the violence they witnessed at the nation's Capital on January 6th, 2021," as the description of Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry's new book, The Flag and the Cross, notes. "And many were bewildered by the images displayed by the insurrectionists: a wooden cross and wooden gallows; "Jesus saves" and "Don't Tread on Me;" Christian flags and Confederate Flags; eve...

The venerable Star Trek universe is really the only major pop culture property that can be claimed as certifiably leftist. But how do the newest batch of shows hold up? In a special crossover episode, Lyta Gold of Art for the End Times teams up with a lively panel of fellow podcasters and Trekkies—David Banks and Britney Gil (Iron Weeds), Leslie Lee III (Struggle Session), and Aaron Thorpe (Trillb...

Read the transcript and see full show notes for this episode: https://therealnews.com/the-new-lavender-scare-is-an-attack-on-the-working-class Things are getting very dark in this country, and it's likely going to get worse before it gets better. At every turn—as collective society breaks down, as the ruling class continues to rob us blind, as humanity barrels towards climate catastrophe—working p...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/from-haiti-to-minneapolis-anti-colonial-resistance-catches-white-supremacy-by-surprise Resistance is everywhere, but everywhere a surprise, especially when the agents of struggle are the colonized, the enslaved, the wretched of the earth. Anticolonial revolts and slave rebellions have often been described by those in power as “eruptions”...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/mutulu-shakur-former-black-liberation-army-member-denied-compassionate-release-despite-terminal-cancer-diagnosis After 36 years behind bars as a political prisoner, Mutulu Shakur is on his deathbed. The movement elder, healer, and radical Black freedom fighter was diagnosed with stage 3 bone marrow cancer in June of this year. Despite qu...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/inside-airport-workers-fight-for-dignity-and-livable-wages Airport workers have been on the front lines of the pandemic and the labor struggle in recent years. In Florida, for instance, workers in Tampa, Orlando, Miami and beyond have staged multiple actions over the past year to demand a living wage. Many airport workers in Florida earn...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/mainstream-media-says-copwatchers-are-a-menace-heres-why-theyre-wrong In this live conversation and Q&A, Police Accountability Report hosts Taya Graham and Stephen Janis discuss a recent win to protect the right to record police in the second highest court in the land. Guest Abade Irizarry (aka Liberty Freak) joins the stream to discuss...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/police-used-this-dangerous-restraint-during-a-fatal-arrest-so-why-isnt-anyone-talking-about-it The death of Christopher Robert Hensley in the custody of Fletcher, North Carolina, police is raising new questions about the use of deadly restraint by law enforcement. In this episode of Police Accountability Report, Taya Graham and Stephen J...

Read the transcript and see show notes for this podcast: https://therealnews.com/uk-rail-workers-prepare-for-second-round-of-strikes Last month, roughly 40,000 UK rail workers with the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) went on strike for three days, bringing major portions of the British rail system to a halt in a historic show of collective strength. This week, after r...

Read the transcript of this podcast: Marilynne Robinson established herself through some of the most biting critiques of neoliberalism written in her time. Since being identified as Obama's "favorite novelist," she's taken political positions more aligned with the powerful than her readers might have once thought possible. Nevertheless, the searing insight and aesthetic magnificence of Robinson's...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/virginia-revokes-early-release-for-inmates-with-good-behavior Lawmakers in Virginia have approved a draconian budget measure from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin that takes aim at inmates’ eligibility for early release. The new law prevents so-called “violent offenders” from applying credits earned for good behavior towards their earl...

Read the transcript of this podcast: Last week, after months of tortured talks and compromises from Democrats to pass legislation that their extremist colleague and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin would approve, Manchin still blew up all hopes for Congress and President Biden to meaningfully address the climate crisis. Meanwhile, Biden’s budget priorities continue to focus on throwing good money...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/starbucks-and-other-companies-escalate-war-on-unions-with-store-closures The union wave is hitting coffee chains big and small, but the bosses aren’t going down without a fight. In June, after workers there voted overwhelmingly to unionize, Starbucks permanently closed the popular College Ave. location in Ithaca, New York, in a suspected...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/you-cant-think-about-voting-if-youre-thinking-about-feeding-your-kids Voter suppression has been on the rise throughout the country for years, but there are other ways to keep the nation's working poor from the ballot box. The daily grind of surviving poverty itself can shut potential voters from participating in elections. In Georgia, a...

To read the transcript of this podcast and see full show notes, visit: We wish everyone could have been in Chicago for the Labor Notes 2022 conference! But for those who couldn't make it, we convened this comradely panel with some fan-favorite guests of the Working People podcast—Tevita 'Uhatafe, McKenna Schueler, and Jacob Morrison—to share our thoughts and reflections on the gathering, and to ta...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/how-to-make-sure-you-go-home-and-not-to-jail-a-civil-rights-attorney-shares-the-ugly-truth Editor's Note: During the introduction to this podcast, we incorrectly stated the Loveland, Colorado, police department has 19 sworn officers. That was an error: the police department in Loveland, Ohio, has 19 sworn officers; the police department...

Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/roe-v-wade-is-gone-a-wave-of-criminalization-is-coming The recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case achieved something the right has pursued for decades—overturning Roe v. Wade. From legislation recognizing "fetal personhood" in Georgia and Alabama to a new Louisiana law that outlaws sending abortion pills in the mail,...