WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Mike Tork, Veterans for Peace treasurer, and Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. Special Forces officer, conducted by Scott Harris. Mike Tork and Anthony Aguilar discuss the Veterans For Peace education campaign, including billboards, and reaching out to active-duty U.S. soldiers and National Guard troops, urging them to “follow the law and their conscience” and refuse to obey illegal o...

Interview with Jon B. Wolfsthal, director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists, conducted by Scott Harris. Jon Wolfsthal discusses the Bulletin of the American Scientists’ announcement that their Doomsday Clock was recently set at 85 seconds to midnight, “the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its history, while calling for urgent action to limit nuclear arsenals, cr...

Interview with Steve Descano, Fairfax County Virginia Commonwealth’s attorney and co-founder of the new group, Fight Against Federal Overreach, conducted by Scott Harris. Steve Descano talks about the mission of the Fight Against Federal Overreach (FAFO) national coalition of district attorneys collaborating to ensure federal officials are held accountable when they exceed their lawful authority—v...

Interview with Pastor Doug Pagitt, executive director of the Minneapolis-based organization Vote Common Good, conducted by Scott Harris. Pastor Doug Pagitt talks about the extraordinary courage and resilience the nation has witnessed among his city’s ordinary citizens standing up to the brutal and cruel ICE secret police force that engages in lethal violence. He discusses what people across the co...

Interview with Eddie Lejuine, a 62-year-old fisherman from Cameron, Louisiana, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Under the Trump administration’s push for U.S. “energy dominance” — albeit one that excludes renewable sources like wind and solar — there’s a building frenzy along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast where construction of six liquified natural gas or LNG export terminals are now underway or p...

Interview with Stan Cox, a research scholar in ecosphere studies at the Land Institute, conducted by Scott Harris. Stan Cox, who formerly served as lead scientist at the Land Institute for 20 years, talks about his new book Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth, which indicts our obsession with endless expansion and poses a new model of degrowth to protect the Earth from climate collapse. Stan is th...

Interview with Greg Palast, filmmaker, journalist and author of several New York Times bestsellers including "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," conducted by Scott Harris Greg  talks about his recent investigation, “How Venezuela’s New President Will Save Us from Trump’s Crazy: The Radical Pragmatist versus Rubio’s Vulture,” explaining how billionaire and Trump donor Paul Singer is one of the prim...

Interview with Madison McVan, a reporter with the Minnesota Reformer, an independent, nonprofit news organization where she covers the impact of the Trump administration in her state, conducted by Scott Harris. Madison McVan talks about Minnesota residents’ response to Trump’s deployment of a flood of ICE agents to the state; the federal agent killing of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old intensive care...

Interview with Melvin Goodman, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy,  a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University and a former CIA analyst, conducted by Scott Harris. Melvin Goodman, whose most recent book is titled, American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump, talks about President Trump’s disastrous foreign policy including his attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of its p...

The Monthly Labor Report interviews Faye Guenther, president of United Food and Commercial Workers (Local 3000), who leads over 50,000 members across Washington state, northeast Oregon and northern Idaho. Faye discusses her progressive union's strategies that led to victories in five strikes in the past two years. Special guest: Michael Zweig Host: Richard Hill

Interview with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat serving on the Federal Communications Commission, conducted by Scott Harris. Commissioner Gomez talks about her concerns regarding the concentration of media ownership, FCC censorship and interference in the exercise of First Amendment right to free speech, the future of public media and the expansion of broadband access.

Interview with Tamika Middleton, chief political and strategy officer with Women's March, and Saniyah Yolanda, student leader, conducted by Scott Harris. Tamika talks about the Jan. 20th Free America Walkout protest and other important work Women’s March is prioritizing. Student leader Saniyah Yolanda of the group Get Free, a youth-led progressive activist movement, talks about the work they’re do...

Interview with Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, conducted by Scott Harris. Rabbi Jacobs talks about her group T’ruah’s condemnation of the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, as she and religious leaders call for accountability, justice and an end to ICE brutality nationwide.

Interview with Yint Hmu coordinator of Public Citizen's democracy campaign, conducted by Scott Harris. Yint Hmu discusses the work her group is doing to challenge and resist the Trump authoritarian agenda both at home and abroad, including their many lawsuits and national protest organizing. She talks about the explosive situation in Minneapolis in the aftermath of the ICE shooting death of Renee...

The Organic Farm Stand presents:    Hot Topics with Diane Lauricella    Small Farms Report with Steve Munno    Nutrient-rich soil and how it produces nutrient-dense food with Monique Bosch  Hosts: Richard Hill and Diane Lauricella

Resistance Roundtable interviews:   1. Sandra Levinson, executive director of the Center For Cuban Studies, about Trump's recent threat to crush Cuba in the wake of the invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro (www.centerforcubanstudies.org);    2. Costanza Segovia, director of CT For All (www.connecticutforall.org), an immigrant rights group, discusses the increased thr...

Interview with Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild, conducted by Scott Harris. Marjorie Cohn discusses her recent commentary, “Trump Will Try to Defend Aggression Toward Venezuela. It’s Still Illegal,” and a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators that advanced a war powers resolution that ultimately failed. She also comment...

Interview with Victor Pickard, the C. Edwin Baker professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, where he co-directs the Media, Inequality & Change Center.    Victor Pickard talks about recent mega-media mergers, spinoffs and the effort by Trump-supporting oligarchs to buy up media properties that could dramatically impact...

Interview with Pastor Doug Pagitt, executive director of the Minneapolis-based national organization Vote Common Good, conducted by Scott Harris. Pastor Doug Pagitt talks about this moment of crisis in the aftermath of the ICE shooting death of ICE observer Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of 3. Vote Common Good organizes religious activists to take action against the Trump administration’s mass d...

Interview with Alexander Main, director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, conducted by Scott Harris. Alexander Main talks about President Trump’s regime’s illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, imposition of a naval blockade, seizure of oil tankers and the president’s declaration that the U.S. will run Venezuela and take control of that nat...

The Monthly Labor Report interviews Olivia "Liv" Ryan, a Starbucks shift supervisor and a lead organizer with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU). which has mounted a national strike against the Starbucks corporation.  Economist Michael Zweig talks about his trip to Vietnam and Australia where he met with labor organizations and discussed working class agendas and strategies. Host: Richard Hill

Interview with Lynn Stoddard, a volunteer with Third Act, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Third Act is a national organization of American activists over the age of 60, focusing on the issues of climate and democracy. The group was founded by author and climate activist Bill McKibben, whose 2025 book titled, “Here Comes the Sun,” extols the value of solar energy for providing affordable, carbon-free p...

Interview with Kevin B. Anderson, distinguished professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, conducted by Scott Harris. Professor Anderson talks about his recent article, “The Worm Turns: Trumpist Fascism,”   as well as issues related to effective resistance, the need to organize a popular front, “big tent” opposition to Trump’s authoritarian rule, while ensuring progress...

Interview with Kayla Hancock, director of Public Health Watch at Protect Our Care, conducted by Scott Harris. Kayla Hancock talks about her group’s opposition to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cut seven grants worth millions of dollars to The American Academy of Pediatrics—jeopardizing initiatives on reducing sudden infant deaths, improving adolescent healt...

Interview with Steve Ellner, an associate managing editor of Latin American Perspective, and journalist Andreína Chávez, conducted by Scott Harris. Steve Ellner, a retired professor at the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela, where he lived for over 40 years and Andreína Chávez, based in Caracas, who wrote the recent DropSite News article, “War of the entire people: Venezuela’s Grassroots Rise to...