WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Katherine Spillar, executive director of the Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. Magazine executive editor, conducted by Scott Harris.  Katherine Spillar discusses her Ms. Magazine article, “Project 2026 Declares Open War on Women’s Rights,” with a focus on Trump administration policies’ impact on women and the SAVE Act—voter suppression legislation designed to disenfranchise milli...

Interview with Raed Jarrar, advocacy director with Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), conducted by Scott Harris. Raed Jarrar discusses the current state of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, escalation of the regional conflict destroying fossil fuel infrastructure and disrupting energy supplies, the prospect of the deployment of U.S. troops to Iran and the consequences for international law.  Jar...

Interview with Sarah Ganong, state director of the Connecticut Working Families Party, conducted by Scott Harris. Sarah Ganong discusses the Working Families Party’s Connecticut legislative agenda, which includes standing up for immigrant rights, advocating for an equitable state budget with higher taxes on the wealthy and demanding fair schedules for workers in hospitality, retail and food servic...

Excerpt of speech by Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, recorded and produced by Repairers of the Breach. In this Nov. 2, 2025 speech, Bishop William Barber talks about the Moral Mondays coalition response to President Trump and GOP’s effort to gerrymander the 1st Congressional district in North Carolina and efforts to rig the 2026 midterm election nationwide. Watch the...

Interview with Branko Marcetic, a Jacobin staff writer and the author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden, conducted by Scott Harris. Branko Marcetic talks about his recent commentaries, “Trump Is in Way Over His Head in Iran,” “The U.S. Is Fighting Israel’s War on Iran,” and “U.S. Military Aid to Israel Is a National Security Risk.”

Interview with Mel Goodman, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and author of American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump, conducted by Scott Harris. Mel Goodman shares his views on the motivation and conduct of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, as well as the short and long term consequences for international law, the world economy and the American empire.  Goodman is a professor...

Interview with Justin Glawe, an independent journalist and editor of the American Doom newsletter, conducted by Scott Harris. Justin Glawe discusses his recent article, “Inside the FBI Raid in Georgia — and What It Really Means,” and his reports on the Trump regime plan to nationalize the 2026 midterm election in a clear effort to employ voter suppression to prevent a Democratic party takeover of...

Interview with Craig Mokhiber, former director of the New York Office of the United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights, conducted by Scott Harris. Craig Mokhiber discusses the catastrophic war launched against Iran by President Donald Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the further dismantling of international law and the resulting death and economic chaos engulfing the re...

Interview with Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller professor of Latin American Studies at Harvard University, conducted by Scott Harris. Professor Levitsky, co-author with Daniel Ziblatt of How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority , talks about his recent article, “The Price of American Authoritarianism,” assessing Donald Trump’s first 12 months back in the White House and the threat he now...

Carol Rizzolo , Co-Founder of CT Shoreline Indivisible, highlights her experience organizing here in Connecticut against the Trump agenda, and gives a preview of the upcoming No Kings rallies that will be taking place across the U.S. and Connecticut on March 28.

Alex Taubes, a Connecticut Civil Rights Attorney , shines a light on the local legacy and landscape of wrongful convictions, including the crisis of corruption in policing and prosecution in the city of New Haven.

Andrea Miller, Founding President of The National Women's Political Caucus of Virginia and Founding Board Member of the Center for Common Ground , talks about the current voter re-districting taking place in Virginia, and what her organizations are doing to reach, educate, and mobilize scores of voters across the southern state ahead of the upcoming April 21st re-districting referendum and beyond.

Stanley Heller, Chief Administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace and Executive Director of Middle East Crisis Committee, examines the US-Israeli military strikes on Iran over the past 72 hours, and the mass casualty events they've created, including the more than 160 children and teachers killed when an airstrike hit an elementary school in the southern city of Minab.

The Labor Report welcomes with Gene Bruskin, veteran labor organizer, anti-war activist, and play write, known for leading one of the most significant private sector union victories of the 21st century, namely the successful effort to unionize 5,000 workers at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in North Carolina -- a victory which is documented in the film Union Time . Gene Bruskin shares...

Interview with Ben Linden, Amnesty International’s advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Ben Linden, Amnesty International’s advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia, who assesses the current state of the war and prospects for a lasting peace.

Interview with Lily Mercado, a Connecticut activist with Dare to Struggle Connecticut conducted by Scott Harris. Lily Mercado talks about anti-ICE student protests that took place across the U.S. on Friday, Feb. 13 — and the organizing going on now among national student groups for the ‘Spring Surge to Melt Ice’ campaign.

Interview with Kamolika Das, local policy director with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, conducted by Scott Harris. Kamolika Das talks about a current nationwide effort to raise revenue in states to replace billions of dollars in vital local and state funding for social safety net programs that were lost in last year’s Trump-GOP budget mega-bill that dramatically cut social programs...

Interview with Andrea Pitzer, journalist and author of the book, One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, conducted by Scott Harris. Andrea Pitzer examines Donald Trump’s current violent mass deportation campaign and the haunting similarities to Germany’s rounding up, brutalizing and imprisoning immigrants, Jews and other minority groups in concentration camps in the 1930s.

Interview with Amanda Hollowell, chief of campaigns with Color of Change, conducted by Scott Harris. Amanda Hollowell talks about her group’s 20 years of critical work advocating for racial justice. She assesses the Trump administration’s aggressive attack on America’s long struggle to achieve a multi-racial democracy and implementation of discriminatory federal policies, underscored by President...

Interview with Josh Ruebner, policy director with the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Josh Ruebner, an adjunct lecturer in Georgetown University’s Program on Justice and Peace. Here he talks about the continuing humanitarian disaster in Gaza and implementation of the deeply flawed second phase of the ce...

Interview with Kevin Gosztola, publisher of the Dissenter Newsletter and author of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange, conducted by Scott Harris. Kevin Gosztola talks about his recent Dissenter article, “FBI Spied on Washington Post Reporter Prior to Raiding Their Home,” the related Trump regime attacks on the First Amendment with the recent arrests of Don Lemon and Ge...

Interview with Helena Olea, deputy director, Alianza Americas, conducted by Scott Harris. Helena Olea discusses concerns about the growing humanitarian crisis impacting the Cuban people resulting from Donald Trump’s recent executive order blocking oil shipments to the island, shutting down their energy-generating capacity while threatening secondary sanctions on any nation that provides Cuba oil s...

Interview with David Daley, senior fellow in communications at the group FairVote and author of the national best-seller Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count, conducted by Scott Harris. David Daley examines Donald Trump’s recent threats to “nationalize” this November’s midterm elections and Steve Bannon’s recent warning that ICE agents will surround polling places — all driven by MAGA’s false cl...

Interview with Christopher Vials, professor in the English Department at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, conducted by Scott Harris. Professor Vials, who studies the cultural impact of the U.S. far right, is the author of Haunted by Hitler: Liberals, the Left and the Fight against Fascism in the U.S. and co-editor of The U.S. Antifascism Reader. He assesses Donald Trump’s first 12 months b...

Interview with Silvia Baldwin, elected bargaining delegate and a strike captain with Starbucks Workers United union, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Silvia Baldwin, a barista who’s worked at a Starbucks store on the university of Pennsylvania campus in West Philadelphia for the past 3 1/2 years. She’s an elected bargaining delegate and a strike captain. Here...