The Real News Podcast

In the latest installment of our special series “Battleground Bessemer,” TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez sits down with Joshua Brewer of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Mid-South Council. Brewer is one of the lead organizers involved with the historic campaign to unionize 5,800 workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama. In this interview, cond...

Jennifer Bates was among the group of warehouse workers who initiated the process of forming a union at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama. Now, nearly a year later, Jennifer has testified in front of Congress and become one of the faces of the historic Amazon union drive that is currently underway. In the latest installment of our special series “Battleground Bessemer,” TRNN Edito...

Why is it so hard to reform the police, let alone hold police accountable for abusing their power? What are the legal and political protections that have put police above the very law they’re supposed to enforce? On this week’s PAR, reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis report on site from Annapolis, Maryland, where a Police Union rally was held to push back against recently proposed legislation...

Video obtained by TRNN reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis highlights American law enforcement officers' lack of de-escalation training and respect for civilians. In this week's PAR, Graham and Janis investigate the questionable arrest of an immigrant cab driver in Toledo, Ohio, caught on body camera, which shows how quickly police resort to using unnecessary force and how much damage it infli...

Maximillian Alvarez 12 minutes ago @Lisa @Dwayne I've gotta be in this damn board meeting at noon so could we get MSS up on Spreaker and then I can publish on the website as soon as I'm out? HED: The debt is too damn high! SUBHED: We talk with Umme Hoque of the Debt Collective about the push to cancel all student debt; then, we examine why we have failed to fight COVID-19 the way we fought polio o...

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...

Every Thursday at 9:00 p.m. EST on The Real News Network, journalists Stephen Janis and Taya Graham premier a new episode of the acclaimed Police Accountability Report, a show that investigates police corruption around the U.S., as well as the grassroots movement to hold police accountable. This week, in lieu of a new episode of PAR, we have a special interview with Janis and Graham about their ne...

California is experiencing a public health disaster by keeping people incarcerated in overcrowded, unsanitary, and violent conditions. TRN Executive Producer Eddie Conway speaks with Amber-Rose Howard, Executive Director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, about how her organization is fighting for prison closures, divestment, and mass releases. Help us continue producing radically in...

All eyes are on Bessemer, Alabama, where 5,800 Amazon fulfillment center workers are currently voting on whether or not to unionize. With the vote counting just weeks away, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez sits down with Darryl Richardson, one of the Amazon workers in Bessemer, to talk about working conditions at Amazon, and about the importance of having a union. This is the latest instal...

In this urgent, unscheduled episode of “Rattling the Bars,” Eddie Conway talks to Pam Africa, legendary Philadelphia activist and head of the International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal, about the health of longtime prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, and about the grassroots push to get him released. Phone numbers mentioned during this episode: P...

Click here to listen to the extended audio interview with Danny Glover and read the full transcript: https://therealnews.com/hammer-and-hope-danny-glover-on-the-amazon-union-drive-in-bessemer-alabama One of the most historic union votes of our era is underway: 5,800 workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, are currently voting on whether or not to unionize with the Retail, Wh...

In a huge win for the left and for democracy, Brazil’s Supreme Court has annulled corruption convictions against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, making it possible for Lula to challenge Jair Bolsonaro for the presidency in the next election. Jaisal Noor discusses the contexts and consequences of this historic ruling with Brazil-based journalist and longtime TRNN contributor Michael Fox...

Since 2002, Greek revolutionary and activist Dimitris Koufontinas has been in prison for his role in the Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N). Labelled a “terrorist” by the Greek government, Koufontinas began a hunger strike on Jan. 8, 2021, and has been refusing water since Feb. 22, in protest of his draconian treatment in prison. With his health rapidly deteriorating, time is running out...

When capitalism chews us up and spits us out, where do we go? How do we carry on? And can we find ways of living that honor the dignity of our humanity when the world we live in so often does not? In this week’s episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” Marc and Inequality.org Founder and Director Chuck Collins explore the important message and soulful artistry of Jessica Bruder’s book "Nomadland," and...

Documents obtained by PAR reveal how an air ambulance (medevac) service has been used repeatedly to fly surveillance missions over the city of Baltimore, raising serious questions about the militarization of American police and the dystopian consequences of law enforcement's growing civic influence. On this week's episode of PAR, hosts Taya Graham and Stephen Janis take a closer look at the decisi...

This week, President Biden announced that, by utilizing the Defense Production Act, the federal government has created an historic agreement between drugmakers Johnson & Johnson and Merck to produce enough COVID-19 vaccines for the entire U.S. adult population by May (months quicker than initially expected). This underscores the ability of the U.S. government to facilitate faster vaccine productio...

One of the most historic union votes of our era is underway right now: 5,800 workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, are currently voting on whether or not to unionize with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. If the union vote is successful, workers at the Bessemer facility will become the first unionized Amazon workforce in the United States. After the Nation...

Until recently, the horrifyingly unjust reality of America’s mass incarceration system has not been a central concern in popular political discourse. In the past few years, however, more people have learned about the brutality and inhumanity of mass incarceration as artists, activists, documentarians, and elected officials have called attention to the broken U.S. criminal justice system—and its di...

From Afghanistan to Niger, the “new normal” of American warfare shows no signs of changing course under President Biden and his hawkish national security team. In this episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” combat veteran and writer Danny Sjursen issues a dire warning about American military policy. Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Friday on TRNN: https://therealnews.com/the-ma...

A Saturday Night Live joke about Israel’s vaccine apartheid sparked outrage from some ardent supporters of the Israeli government, but the controversy speaks to larger threats to free speech in the digital age, especially when it comes to criticisms of Zionism. At this very moment, tech giant Facebook is considering whether or not to respond to calls to ban the term “Zionist” as anti-Semitic hate...

Amazon is intensifying the anti-union campaign at its Bessemer, Alabama, plant, where workers are currently voting to unionize. On Feb. 20, Amazon workers and their allies rallied in cities across the country to demand Amazon halt its anti-union tactics and improve workplace conditions. Current and former Amazon employees who attended the rally in Baltimore County, Maryland, told The Real News tha...

Another Ohio resident has been arrested under the dubious charge of "misconduct during an emergency," which has been used again by Ohio police to incarcerate another person who filmed them in action. The arrest raises vexing questions about an obscure Ohio law that gives law enforcement almost unfettered power to detain and charge bystanders. PAR investigates how this statute may have been abused...

The U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights deep racial inequities in wages, health, and vaccination rates—but it's a century of racist public policy that laid the foundation for these disparities. Dr. Lawrence Brown, author of "The Black Butterfly," joins TRNN's Jaisal Noor to discuss the disproportionate harm caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and argues that radical action is needed...

On the eve of the 56th anniversary of his assassination, we honor Malcolm X’s life and legacy. In this 2015 documentary, “X: Malcolm’s Final Years,” produced by The Real News Network, TRNN Executive Producer Eddie Conway, Angela Davis, Danny Glover, and other voices for justice reflect on Malcolm’s contributions to the global struggle for liberation—a struggle that continues to this day. Help us c...

Trump's attempted coup and increasingly violent supporters are only a surprise to those without a grasp of the U.S.'s racist history, says historian Gerald Horne. Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate . Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support . Help us continue producing radically independent...