WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Greenport, New York's native Candace Hall talks about being Greenport’s Village Clerk along with some candid personal revelations: the complexities of being part of a large family in a small town, being the first young black woman to achieve community prominence and the psychological importance to her of black representation. (WPKN May 7, 2025)

Interview with Gareth Gore, a London-based investigative journalist and editor, conducted by Scott Harris. Gareth Gore talks about his new book, “Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church. He discusses the late Pope Francis’ views on Opus Dei, the conservative personal prelature within the Catholic Church, and the coming college of cardin...

Interview with Kevin Martin, executive director of Peace Action, the country’s largest grassroots peace and disarmament organization, conducted by Scott Harris. Kevin Martin talks about his article, “Trump, the Peace President? More Likely the Proliferation President,” assessing the Trump regime’s foreign policy on Iran’s nuclear program, the Ukraine war, Israel’s ongoing slaughter of Palestinian...

Interview with Dulce Guzmán, executive director of Alianza Americas, conducted by Scott Harris. Dulce Guzmán discusses her group’s concerns about the arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hanna Dugan over allegations she obstructed justice after directing a migrant out of her courtroom as federal agents waited to arrest him. She also addresses the Trump regime’s continued defiance of federal and Suprem...

Interview with Melvin Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, professor of government at Johns Hopkins University, a former CIA analyst and author, conducted by Scott Harris. Mel Goodman talks about his recent article, “The Meltdown of the United States,” where he observes, “The executive branch has taken on powers that are usually associated with wartime requirements. The...

Interview with Sam Rosenthal, political director of RootsAction.org, conducted by Scott Harris. Sam Rosenthal discusses his group and Progressive Democrats for America’s petition calling for the Democratic National Committee to convene an emergency meeting, declaring that “business as usual must give way to truly bold action that mobilizes against the autocracy that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the...

Interview with Ari Paul, a New York City-based journalist and lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, conducted by Scott Harris. Ari Paul discusses his recent article, “Failing to Rise to the Constitutional Crisis,” about the deficiencies of corporate media’s coverage of the Trump regime’s authoritarian coup, and the growing importance of independent, non-comm...

Interview with Svante Myrick, president, People for the American Way, conducted by Scott Harris. Svante Myrick discusses the escalating constitutional as the Trump regime defies or ignores court orders — and the growing concern that the president may invoke emergency powers, such as the Insurrection Act of 1807, to eliminate all remaining checks on executive power, and establish a brutal and viole...

Interview with Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor, an organizer with the Climate Disobedience Center, conducted by Scott Harris. Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor discusses her group’s recent “Call to Courage” campaign — amid concern that the Trump regime may be getting ready to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, which would give the president power to deploy US military on domestic U.S. soil to enforce mass depor...

Interview with Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, conducted by Scott Harris. Jeff Hauser discusses growing concern that people in Trump’s inner circle may have known his changing tariff policy, allowing for insider trading — combined with the fact the SEC is dismantling a key tool in collecting trading data, the Consolidated Audit Trail, which impairs regulators’ abilit...

Interview with Lindsay Koshgarian, program director of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, conducted by Scott Harris. Lindsay Koshgarian talks about her group’s latest annual analysis, the 2025 Tax Day Receipt, highlighting exactly where Americans’ 2024 income taxes went and what those numbers say about our national spending priorities. Overall, in 2024, the averag...

Interview with Micah Sifry, a writer, editor, and organizer, conducted by Scott Harris. Micah Sifry is working on a novel and writing a weekly newsletter on democracy, movements, organizing, and tech called The Connector. Micah will discuss his recent New York Times article, “A Different Kind of Anti-Trump Resistance is Brewing,” and issues related to Trump/Musk’s mass firing of tens of thousands...

Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream, describes her organization's mission and strategy to secure justice and safety for undocumented young people and families in cities and towns around the state. Interview by Richard Hill

Interview with Fawzia Afzal-Khan, visiting professor in gender and sexuality studies, at Princeton University. Fawzia Afzal-Khan discusses her recent article, “Student and Faculty Repression on US Campuses: the Palestine Exception,” relating to the reported 600 international students who have had their visas revoked by Trump’s State Department, and the preliminary ruling by a judge in Louisiana th...

Dr. Isaac Kamola, Director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom with the AAUP, discusses the Trump regime's juggernaut attacks on free speech at colleges and universities; and the budding collaboration with Labor to create a united front against this assault. And Briam Timko, communications and voluteer coordinator with Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA), talks about the demonstration and...

Interview with Mary Yordon, president of the Norwalk, CT Federation of Teachers union and a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers Connecticut, conducted by Scott Harris. Mary Yordon talks about the massive April 5th “Hands Off” protests across the U.S., and the Stamford, CT protest where she spoke in opposition to President Trump and his Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s plan...

Interviews with Hands Off April 5th protesters in New York City, conducted by Scott Harris. The protests, which were organized in more than 1,400 cities and towns across the US, Canada, and Europe sent a message to Trump, Musk and the GOP: “Hands Off” our healthcare, hands off our civil rights, hands off our schools, our freedoms, and our democracy. The interviews in this segment were recorded dur...

Interview with Fred Glass, a labor historian, retired union communications director, and writer/director of the documentary film, "We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day," conducted by Scott Harris. Fred Glass will discuss his recent article, “Best Guess: How Do We Defeat the Fascists?” and the history of general strikes and United Auto Workers’ President Shawn Fain’s idea for a general...

Interview with Omar Ocampo, a researcher at the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, conducted by Scott Harris. Omar Ocampo discusses his recent article, “‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Will Concentrate Wealth Even More,” the repercussions of Donald Trump’s decision to impose massive international tariffs, and the vision for a progressive alternative fair-trade...

Luis Puig Bio: Born in 1965, and raised in La Habana, Cuba under communism, Mr. Luis Puig spent his first 15 years of life living in Castro’s Cuba. Mr. Puig had to live under the rules of that system, even having to be a communist Pionero (communist youth organization) like all the kids are forced to be there. His father served 12 years imprisonment as a political prisoner, and enemy of the state....

UE President Carl Rosen and economist and labor historian Michael Zweig discuss the Trump/Musk fascist coup and what role labor will play in forming alliances with the different silos on the Left and in leading an anti-fascist front. Hosted by Richard Hill

Interview with Greg Palast, Filmmaker and journalist and the author of several New York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, conducted by Scott Harris. Greg Palast discusses his recent article, “Trump-Musk order will cost 21 million their vote,” re: Donald Trump’s March 25th executive order that restructures the way Americans can register to vote and when they can cast the...

Interview with Nader Hashemi, director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and associate professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University, conducted by Scott Harris. Nader Hashemi discusses the campus response to the ICE arrest and attempt to deport Georgetown Univ. researcher and instructor Badar Khan Suri, alleging he has “close connections” to a Hama...

Interview with Sam Pizzigati, veteran labor journalist, Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow, co-editor of IPS' newsletter Inequality.org, and author, conducted by Scott Harris. Sam Pizzigati discusses his recent article, “Could Elon Musk Destroy Social Security as We Know It? — and issues related to the Trump-Musk attempt to sabotage Social Security’s reliability and smooth operation ove...

Interview with Tim Wise, one of the nation’s most prominent antiracist essayists and author of nine books, including his latest, "Dispatches from the Race War," conducted by Scott Harris. Tim Wise, whom scholar and philosopher Cornel West calls “a vanilla brother in the tradition of (abolitionist) John Brown,” assesses Trump and Trumpism since his inauguration on Jan. 20. He focuses on the twice-i...