Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Inequality is getting worse. Most of us know that the Covid-19 pandemic has devastated the US economy. Between March 18 and June 25, over 46 million people filed for unemployment. In that same period, however, U.S. billionaire wealth surged over $600 billion. At least eight billionaires have seen their wealth grow by more than $1 billion this year. I talk about this with CHUCK COLLINS, who directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-edits Inequality.org. His books include 99 TO 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It; and BORN ON THIRD BASE.

At a moment when Black Lives Matter protests - the largest, most sustained mass demonstrations in US history - are still taking place and Donald Trump is sending federal secret police to incite disorder in Portland, here’s my 2017 conversation with JODIE EVANS. A tireless activist, advocate, and communicator for peace, justice and the planet, this interview was recorded as Code Pink, one of the organizations Evans founded, was celebrating its 15th birthday.

Election Day is less than four months away. Between closing poll sites, purging voter rolls, manipulating voting machines, and putting obstacles in the way of voting by mail, the Trump administation and many state governments want to keep you from voting. Investigative reporter GREG PALAST has been working this beat since 2000. His latest book is a warning: HOW TRUMP STOLE 2020: The Hunt For America’s Vanished Voters. What are they up to and how can we foil them?

The Supreme Court is in the news – issuing surprising rulings on the Dreamers and abortion access in Louisiana, but predictable ones limiting absentee voting in Texas and okaying the denial of contraception coverage based on employers’ religious beliefs. Chief Justice Roberts seems to be the new swing vote, so what should we expect? Let’s listen to my 2013 conversation with MARCIA COYLE on her book THE ROBERTS COURT: The Struggle for the Constitution. By the way, Coyle confirms my belief that the most crucial issue in considering the last few GOP-nominated justices is not abortion or gun control - but the rights and powers of corporations vs those of human beings

Psychiatrist and author ROBERT JAY LIFTON has spent a lifetime not turning away from our dark side: writing about Hiroshima survivors, Nazi doctors, and the Japanese cult that released sarin gas in Tokyo’s subways. Now 93, he finds the darkness closer to home. He wrote the foreword to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Experts Assess a President, and his latest book is LOSING REALITY: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry. How can Trump’s alternative facts compete with the harsh realities of this moment?

“We're still fighting the last battles of the Civil War," according to attorney CONNIE RICE in a recent interview. Rice has for decades been doing the hard work of police reform. She believes, “There's a war within American policing … Does it continue to go with the policing that descended from slavery, which is containment suppression? Or do they go toward community healing, wraparound safety, public health policing — which doesn't even promote cops for making arrests?” Here’s my 2012 conversation with Rice about her book, POWER CONCEDES NOTHING.

ELIZABETH FERNANDEZ has worked on voter education and GOTV campaigns, helping to register thousands of new voters. She’s now Communications Director of MOVEMENT VOTER PROJECT, which offers a clear break from failed electoral strategies of big donors, big consultants, and big TV ad buys. MVP helps donors move their money to the best local community-based organizations in key states, who are alive on the ground 365 days a year, election or not. In 2018, they moved more than $13M to 350+ groups in 42 states - in almost every competitive US House, Senate, Governor’s race and ballot measure. You can learn more at movement.vote.

2019 was marked by mass demonstrations around the globe. That ended with the pandemic. until millions witnessed George Floyd’s death. For more than two weeks crowds have risked their health to protest police brutality in all 50 states. People argue whether violent or non-violent protest works best. ERICA CHENOWETH did the research. Listen to my 2019 conversation with her about her book WHY CIVIL RESISTANCE WORKS: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.

GEORGE PACKER’s recent essay in the Atlantic, We Are Living in a Failed State, was being quoted a lot - before George Floyd’s death and the ensuing days of rage. Packer is the author of 2013’s THE UNWINDING, which reported on a country growing vulnerable to a demagogue like Trump, and 2019’s Richard Holbrooke biography OUR MAN, just out in paperback. He’s a staff writer at The Atlantic and I reached out after reading two of his recent essays The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions and We Are Living in a Failed State. We talk about how it all fits together.

ASTRA TAYLOR takes democracy seriously. In her documentary WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? and the companion book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone, she explores its early roots as well as its current embattled state. She reminds us that real democracy—fully inclusive and egalitarian—has never existed. Both ancient Athens and the original US were slave states. Can we restore rule of the people to the current American rule of the wealthy? Can democracy handle big challenges like the Coronovirus pandemic and climate change?