WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Talk by Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student arrested by ICE in March 2025, produced by Melinda Tuhus. The event featured a conversation between Khalil and Stanley Heller, chairman of the Connecticut-based Middle East Crisis Committee and sponsor of Khalil’s appearance.  He began by describing his court cases, both as a plaintiff and a defendant.

Interview with Eric Ross, a Ph. D. candidate in the history department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, conducted by Scott Harris. Eric Ross discusses the rising tensions and violence directed by the Trump regime targeting Venezuela, and his recent article, “The Trump Corollary: U.S. Imperialism in Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to Maduro,” with a view to better understanding th...

Interview with Dr. Robert Steinbrook, director of Public Citizen's of Health Research Group, conducted by Scott Harris. Dr. Steinbrook discusses his views on the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice vote last week changing CDC’s recommendations for administering the hepatitis B vaccine to infants, major Trump administration and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s cuts to research on canc...

Interview with Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, conducted by Scott Harris. Alex Lawson talks about the U.S. healthcare crisis, where Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have refused to restore Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies and if not approved, will cause many of the 24 million ACA recipients to see their monthly insurance premiums double or...

Interview with John Gartner, a prominent psychotherapist, author and founder of Duty to Warn, conducted by Scott Harris. John Gartner shares his concerns about President Trump’s deteriorating mental health as he nears the end of his first year in his second term in the White House. He also addresses the cult-like devotion Trump continues to command from millions of Americans. He cofounded the grou...

Interview with Nell Bernstein, author of In Our Future We Are Free: The Dismantling of the Youth Prison, conducted by Scott Harris. Nell Bernstein recounts the story of how a coalition of parents, activists and prison officials launched a successful campaign in states across the U.S. to end the prosecution of young people as adults, slashing the number of children locked in cages by a stunning 75...

Interview with Maurice Carney, executive director of Friends of the Congo, conducted by Scott Harris. Maurice Carney discusses Africa observers’ concerns over Donald Trump’s recent meeting with the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, where they signed an agreement aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo, while opening the region’s critical mineral reserves to the U.S. gov...

Interview with Matthew Hoh, Eisenhower Media Network fellow, conducted by Scott Harris. Hoh discusses the Trump regime’s announced intention to launch covert CIA operations and airstrikes against Venezuela, as well as the U.S. bombing of suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific seas amid news reports of standing orders to kill survivors of those attacks. Hoh is a former U.S. Marine Corps...

Vermont Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ speech from the floor of the U.S. Senate Feb. 4, 2025. Sen. Sanders denounced the Trump administration’s defiance of the U.S. Constitution and rule of law, describing it as a dangerous move toward oligarchy, authoritarianism and kleptocracy . Rebroadcast of his Feb. 4, 2025 speech from the U.S. Senate floor.

Interview with David Rovics, an internationally known songwriter, musician, writer and podcaster, conducted by Scott Harris. David Rovics talks about his latest album of songs, “Ai Tsuno’s Army of Robots,” created with artificial intelligence. He explores the controversy, skepticism and fear surrounding this new powerful technology regarding job displacement, privacy and the potential for abuse an...

Interview with Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister, former president and current national board member of Veterans For Peace (VFP), conducted by Scott Harris. Gerry Condon talks about VFP’s support for the legislators’ message to active duty military and National Guard men and women, advising them they have an obligation to refuse illegal orders to fight illegal wars at home or ab...

Interview with John Noël, deputy climate program director of Greenpeace USA, conducted by Scott Harris. John Noël talks about the lack of action to phase out fossil fuels at the UN COP30 Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil that ended Nov. 22. He also addresses the Trump regime’s refusal to send a U.S. delegation to COP30 and the global impact of a diminished U.S. role in green energy production, as we...

Interview with Sasha Abramsky, journalist and author, conducted by Scott Harris. Sasha Abramsky discusses his recent Nation and TruthOut commentaries that have tracked Donald Trump’s increasing depravity and erratic behavior which the nation has witnessed in recent weeks. Abramsky also talks about his new book, American Carnage: How Trump, Musk, and DOGE Butchered the U.S. Government, which follow...

Resistance Roundtable features two interviews:   1. Thomas Brzozowski, the former Counsel for Domestic Terrorism in the Counterterrorism Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, will address the looming threat that the US State Department will designate antifa to the level of a foreign terrorist organization;    2. Stan Heller, admin for Promoting Enduring Peace, and Faisal Falah, executive dire...

Interview with Ann Oliva, the CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Oliva talks about the two approaches to ending homelessness and her organization’s opposition to Trump’s recently announced policy that will  cause 170,000 formerly homeless people to lose their federal funded housing. 

Interview with Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, conducted by Scott Harris. Mello discusses his views on Donald Trump’s comment several weeks ago about his intention to resume nuclear weapons testing. He also talks about the danger many see in the expiration and/or violation of long-standing nuclear weapons treaties with Russia, with the remaining New Start treaty expir...

Interview with Greg Palast, investigative journalist, New York Times best-selling author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and filmmaker, conducted by Scott Harris. Palast talks about the recently released emails between Harvard University’s Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex trafficker of minors — emails in which Summers, who is married, seeks advice from the convicted pr...

Interview with Zimyl Adler, senior forest, land and climate finance policy advocate with Friends of the Earth U.S., conducted by Scott Harris. Adler discusses what was and what was not accomplished at the UN COP30 Climate summit in Belem, Brazil, with a focus on FOE’s views on the widening climate crisis, finance and justice gaps blocking real climate progress.

Interview with Dr. Diljeet Singh, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, conducted by Scott Harris. Dr. Singh talks about America’s deepening health care crisis with a focus on the expiring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies and her work at Physicians for a National Health Program advocating for the adoption in the U.S. of a universal, comprehensive, single-payer nation...

In this edition of the Monthly Labor Report, Michael Zweig discusses his book The Working Class Majority--America's Best Kept Secret and why class consciousness/awareness is important as working people struggle for equity and justice. Prof. Zweig also offers his perspective on the Nov. 4 election and what Zohran Mamdani's victory--under the banner of Democratic Socialism--might portend for the pol...

Interview with Nathaniel Raymond, executive director, Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Raymond about the evolution and current state of Sudan’s war, which included the RSF’s 18-month siege of El Fasher, leading to the highest of five levels of famine for the 500,000 people who were sheltering ther...

Interview with Michael F. Brown, an independent journalist, conducted by Scott Harris. Brown’s work and views have appeared in The International Herald Tribune, The Nation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post and elsewhere. Michael Brown discusses his recent article, “Trump Ambassador Pick Vows to Pressure South Africa Over Gaza Genocide Case,” and nominee Brent Bozell’s unwillin...

Interview with Heather Digby Parton, a columnist for Salon.com and winner of the Hillman Prize for opinion journalism, conducted by Scott Harris. Parton talks about the Epstein files legislation and Trump's coverup, and her recent commentary, “Donald Trump’s Enemies List Keeps Growing,” the Epstein files controversy, his increasing number of “pay-to-play” pardons and convicted Jan. 6 insurrectioni...

Interview with Ari Paul, New York City-based journalist and lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, conducted by Scott Harris.  Paul has reported for the Nation, the Guardian, In These Times, Jacobin and many other outlets. Ari Paul discusses his recent coverage for FAIR.org regarding the ongoing MAGA-connected right-wing media takeover in his articles, “As El...

Interview with Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducted by Scott Harris. Jennifer Loewenstein discusses the situation in Gaza and the West Bank that has been mostly absent from news coverage since the ceasefire was signed on Oct. 9, as well as the important current debate in the UN Security Council over the control...