WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and author of "How Fascism Works," conducted by Scott Harris. Professor Stanley talks about his newest book, “Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite The Past To Control The Future,” and the threat posed to democracy by Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the 2024 election and beyond.

Neil Meyer, contributing writer to Jacobin Magazine, discusses his recent article spelling out a strategy for progressives to steer a Harris-Walz administration to the left should they win on Nov. 5 ( jacobin.com/2024/09/harris-sand…-labor-dsa-strategy ). Neil also co-edits The Left Noes Newsletter ( www.left-notes.com/ ). Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill Sept. 14, 2024

Interview with Robert Creamer, a veteran political organizer and strategist, conducted by Scott Harris. Robert Creamer talks about his new book, “Nuts and Bolts: The Formula for Progressive Electoral Success,” a step-by-step field manual for how progressives can win electoral campaigns and a textbook for anyone who wants to know how electoral politics really works. Creamer has been a veteran polit...

Interview with Andra Watkins, a New York Times best-selling author and editor of the Substack online newsletter, “How Project 2025 Will Ruin Your Life, conducted by Scott Harris. Andra Watkins talks about her recent article, “What Nobody is Reporting About Project 2025 Disaster Response,” and the deadly disinformation that’s being spread by Donald Trump and his supporters that has undermined Hurri...

Interview with Justin Glawe, an independent journalist, frequent contributor to Rolling Stone magazine and the newsletter American Doom, conducted by Scott Harris Justin Glawe discusses the important issues examined in his recent articles regarding GOP threats to undermine the 2024 election with a focus on the conduct of Georgia’s election board and the mass purging of eligible voters in that stat...

Monthly Labor Report hosts, Richard Hill and Michael Zweig, interview Leonard Aguilar, secretary-treasurer of the Texas AFL-CIO, about the reach and growth of union organizing in Texas -- with special focus on Latinx participation and projected voting patterns. Interview by Michael Zweig and Richard Hill, Oct. 1, 2024

  The Resistance Roundtable show interviews Branko Marcetic who discusses his recent Jacobin Magazine articles on Biden's horrific Gaza policy; and the apparent decision by the Harris campaign to keep Tim Walz off the campaign trail. Interview by Scott Harris, Richard Hill and Ruthanne Baumgartner, Oct. 12, 2024

The Brennan Center has reported that in 2023, there were at least 356 voter suppression bills considered by lawmakers in 47 states. No matter what Nancy Pelosi tells me in her emails, chipping in five bucks is not going to increase the health of our democracy. Let's talk about what will and also about how the health of democracy impacts our health as Americans. We'll talk to folks from Fair Count,...

Maria Hinojosa is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, founder of Futuro Media, and anchor of Latino USA. She sat down with Isabelle Barbour for this feature interview that first aired on WPKN Community Radio in Bridgeport in August of 2024. The conversation includes reflections on changes to the democratic presidential ticket in the Summer of 2024 as well as an update on Maria's time at a MAGA gy...

Matt Bruenig discusses the important issues examined in his recent article, “Our Verdict on Kamala Harris’s New Plans,” and issues related to economic policies being debated by Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election campaign.

Greg Palast talks about Georgia’s five-member state election board, dominated by MAGA election deniers, which adopted new rules raising alarm about the potential for confusion and interference in the election certification process this November, examined his article, “Prepare for November’s Quiet Coup.” Palast is also the New York Times best-selling author of “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.”

James Risen will discuss the important issues of race and racism in the 2024 election campaign examined in his recent Intercept article, “Racism Is Why Trump is so Popular,” where he argues: “Trump’s popularity with his base isn’t the result of economic anxiety, as many claimed in 2016. It’s about race and demographics.” Risen is The Intercept’s senior national security correspondent who waged a s...

Nora Benavidez talks about the coalition led by Free Press calling on corporate media outlets to report on rising authoritarianism and threats to democracy during the 2024 election campaign, covering six practices the media should adhere to during moments of crisis.

Brian Tokar discusses his article “Movements for Climate Action: Toward Utopia or Apocalypse?” which examines the climate crisis and how we can chart a new path to a future that is not only sustainable but better than the way we currently live and interact with technology. Tokar will be addressing this topic at Hamden, Connecticut’s Unitarian Society on Sept. 14.  

Mark Green talks about his newest book titled, “The Inflection Election: Democracy or Fascism in 2024,” which warns Americans that this November will be a choice between a Party of Progress and a Party of Dangerous Extremism that may determine the path for American governance for generations.

Jay Young and Cheri Quikmeyer discuss the work Common Cause is doing on election protection, i.e. addressing voter suppression, mass purges of the voting rolls, intimidation of poll workers, GOP election deniers’ threats to delay certification of vote totals and thus sow chaos, and the group’s recruitment of volunteers to be poll watchers.

Wajahat Ali discusses the presidential debate and election campaign, with a focus on Trump’s threat to democracy, his demonization of immigrants and white supremacist rhetoric and action, as well as corporate media’s skewed election coverage.  Ali is also author of “Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American.”

Parker Malloy discusses her critique of corporate media for “sanewashing” Trump’s often unhinged and incoherent speeches and interviews — as well as soft-pedaling or sanitizing Trump and Vance’s advocacy of disturbing policies such as Trump’s ‘violent day’ of policing that will end crime, the lie that Democrats advocate the killing of babies after they’re born, and Trump and Project 2025’s plan fo...

Norman Solomon talks about his latest book, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine,” with a just published revised edition that includes a new afterword on the Gaza War. On the one year anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, he’ll examine the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel in the conflict, and corporate media’s bias re...

Sarah Kendzior discusses the current state of affairs ahead of the 2024 U.S. Election. https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/ SARAH KENDZIOR BIO I am the bestselling author of THE VIEW FROM FLYOVER COUNTRY (2018), HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020), and THEY KNEW (2022). My next book, THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP, will come out in 2025. From 2018 until 2013, I was the co-host of Gaslit Nation, a weekly podc...

Dulce Guzmán discusses how the issue of immigration is being debated by the candidates and covered by the news media in the 2024 presidential election, with a focus on Donald Trump’s demonization of immigrants stoking hate and fear, and an assessment of Vice President Kamala Harris’ stated policies on immigration, with a review of her recent trip to the U.S. Mexico border on Sept. 27.

Julie Houk talks about her group’s work in Georgia, including the filing of a lawsuit to bar enforcement of provisions in a new Georgia law that would permit baseless mass challenges to large swaths of eligible voters, and concern about new rules issued by Georgia’s election board requiring a hand count of Election Day ballots that could cause a consequential delay in certifying the state’s presid...

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent with The Nation magazine, who talks about her recent article, “An Abortion Ban Killed Amber Thurman—and Likely Many More,” with a focus on how these deaths may carry political consequences in this year’s presidential and congressional election.

Chris Antal, Staff Chaplain and Dr. Peter Yeomans, Staff Psychologist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Philadelphia talk about understanding the suffering of moral injury among U.S. combat-deployed Veterans and their facilitation of a 12-week Moral Injury Group and Community Healing Ceremony in which Veterans’ burdens are shared by the community made more more conscious of the realiti...

Robert Massoud ,  Palestinian founder of the Zatoun organization, speaking to us from Toronto about the twenty years he has spent telling the story of Palestine through its olive oil, without being silenced by politicians and media.(First broadcast on WPKN on September 13, 2023.)