WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Sean Strub, an AIDS activist, founder of POZ Magazine, author, and politician, conducted by Scott Harris. Sean Strub, an AIDS activist, founder of POZ Magazine, author, and politician talks about the nationwide Seven Days in June campaign , June 1–7, organized to raise awareness about the $1.2 trillion in federal cuts to healthcare programs, the fight to restore funding impacting mi...

Interview with Alex Lawson, executive director of the group Social Security Works, conducted by Scott Harris. Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, talks about the increasing number of Social Security offices that are “temporarily closed” while others are chronically understaffed “ghost offices” that only have a skeleton crew left and can’t meaningfully serve the local communit...

Interview with Christina Harvey, Stand Up America's executive director, conducted by Scott Harris. Stand Up America’s Executive Director Christina Harvey discusses her group’s national “Kick Out Corruption” Tour, being organized with End Citizens United, to expose how corruption in Washington is driving up costs for everyday Americans. Harvey offers solutions to cleaning up the waste, fraud and ab...

Interview with Sophia Tesfaye, a senior writer at Salon.com, conducted by Scott Harris. Sophia Tesfaye talks about her recent commentary, “Bari Weiss brings Trumpism to ’60 Minutes,’” regarding the Ellison family’s CBS “murder” of America’s highest rated and most watched news program; issues related to MAGA friendly billionaires’ takeover of media outlets and Donald Trump’s weaponization of the FC...

Interview with Martha Guzman Aceves, former Region 9 EPA administrator, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. On May 21, an overheating chemical tank holding 6,500 gallons of methyl methacrylate at an aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, triggered mandatory evacuations affecting 50,000 residents across Orange County. The tank was later safely cracked and depressurized, ending the immediate threat...

Interview with Sam Rosenthal, political director of Roots Action, conducted by Scott Harris. Sam Rosenthal talks about his recent commentary, “Establishment Democrats Still Don’t Get Why They Lost in 2024,” and the critical importance—in this moment of Donald Trump’s multi-front violent attack on U.S. democracy—of having a viable political party to stand as an alternative to Trump and the Republic...

Interview with Connecticut state Rep. Josh Elliott, deputy House speaker, conducted by Scott Harris. Josh Elliott talks about his candidacy, the policies he’s advocating and his strategy to win the Aug. 11th primary. Elliott represents the 88th District, which comprises residents of Hamden’s Spring Glen, Whitneyville, parts of Centerville and Shepherd Hill neighborhoods.  As deputy House speaker a...

Interview with Ben Grazda, advocacy manager with Reporters Without Borders, conducted by Scott Harris. Ben Grazda examines some of the long-term challenges facing American journalists including economic pressure leading to the disappearance of many local news outlets; concentration of ownership; political attacks on government critics and the January 2026 FBI raid on Washington Post reporter Hanna...

Interview with Peter Kornbluh, author and director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., conducted by Scott Harris. Peter Kornbluh talks about his recent Nation magazine article, “The CIA Goes to Cuba” and what the Trump regime may be planning after its indictment of Raúl Castro in Florida, possibly kidnapping the aging Cuban leader as they did wit...

The Monthly Labor Report welcomes long-time labor leader John Braxton. co-founder of Labor Against the War, to talk about the ongoing fight against the militaristic foreign policy of the US and the systemic structures that support it. Hosts: Michael Zweig and Richard Hill

Interview with David Holtz, coordinator of the Oil & Water Don't Mix coalition, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. David Holtz, coordinator of the Oil & Water Don’t Mix Coalition, talks about the history of the pipeline and the fight to decommission Line 5 before it ruptures and contaminates the Great Lakes, one of the largest sources of fresh water in the world.

Interview with Paul Street, an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian and author of This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America, conducted by Scott Harris. Paul Street talks about his recent Counterpunch.org commentary, “ Why Trump Is So Indifferent to Public Opinion in an Election Year.” Street is author of This Happened Here: Amerika...

Interview with Mel Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and professor of government at Johns Hopkins University, conducted by Scott Harris. Mel Goodman, a former CIA analyst and author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA , discusses the issues raised in his recent Counterpunch piece, “Sino-American Relations and the ‘Thucydides Trap.’”

Interview with Heather Digby Parton, Salon columnist and Digby’s Hullabaloo blogger, conducted by Scott Harris. Heather Parton discusses her recent commentary, “Trump’s antiwar claims blow up in his face after Iran fiasco.” Opposition to the president’s war with Iran among Gen Z MAGA members could help create positive political change regarding U.S. foreign policy, political history and a possible...

Interview with David Faris, professor of political science at Roosevelt University and author of The Kids Are All Left: How Young Voters Will Unite America, conducted by Scott Harris. Professor Faris talks about the issues examined in his recent Nation Magazine article, “Why Ending the Iran War May Be a Never-Ending Story.” As Trump’s “excursion” veers into quagmire territory, he may just try to w...

Prof. Richard Wolff, economist and author, discusses the current state of the US economy in the face of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the A.I. juggernaut. Community organizer Seth Garbin, talks about a new initiative, Danbury Unites for Immigrants launched to support immigrant communities in Danbury, CT. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill

Interview with Jon Copeland, an organizer with Hold the Line, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Two companies, Oracle and Open AI, have plans to build a huge artificial intelligence data center in southern New Mexico, near its border with Texas. To power the center they call Project Jupiter, the companies plan on using methane, which is 100 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide emission...

Interview with John Miksad, a member of Veterans for Peace and World Beyond War, conducted by Scott Harris. John Miksad talks about a coalition of groups sponsoring two events in Norwalk, Connecticut on Memorial Day, May 25 to promote peace, honor the fallen and support our current troops by keeping our soldiers out of harm’s way in endless disastrous wars, including Trump’s disastrous war on Iran...

Interview with Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director with the Campaign for New York Health, conducted by Scott Harris. Melanie D’Arrigo talks about the campaign dedicated to passing and implementing universal, single-payer health care in New York state. Supporters of the New York Health Act say that New Yorkers will pay less and get more by cutting out waste and using the negotiation power of 20 mi...

Interview with Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and author of three books including, Woe to Women: The Bible Tells Me So," conducted by Scott Harris. Annie Laurie Gaylor talks about the taxpayer-funded Trump regime religious rally in Washington, D.C., “Rededicate 250,” that featured white Christian nationalist rhetoric from speakers including...

Interview with Dan Vicuña, senior policy director for Voting and Fair Representation at Common Cause, conducted by Scott Harris. Dan Vicuña talks about the consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais case that eviscerated the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the disenfranchisement of millions of people of color, and ways in which our nation can work toward achieving a multirac...

I made this piece as a gift to myself and to you. It is so tough right now-- so I called in some big friends. You will especially like this offering if you have a sweet spot for the amazingness of horses.

What is it like to be a queer religious leader in Florida right now? Isabelle follows up on her March 2023 piece, There’s a Bright Spot in Florida with a March 2026 interview with the incomparable Bishop Dr. Durrell Watkins. 

Interview with Thomas Meyer, strategic organizing projects director for Food & Water Watch, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Data centers require enormous amounts of energy and water, create noise and air pollution depending on how they’re powered—and create very few jobs. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Thomas Meyer, strategic organizing projects director for Food & Water Watch and...

Interview with Robert Greenwald, founder and president of Brave New Films, conducted by Scott Harris. Robert Greenwald talks about his important new documentary film, “ICE: No One Is Safe at Work,” which highlights how ICE immigration raids affect workers’ and their family’s lives and how listeners can view the film and support Brave New Film’s important work. Brave New Films is a nonprofit produc...