The Real News Podcast

According to The Sentencing Project, “Private prisons in the United States incarcerated 115,428 people in 2019, representing 8% of the total state and federal prison population.” However, while private prisons still make up a minority of carceral institutions in the US, the infiltration of privatization has spread throughout the prison-industrial complex. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa speaks with Paul Wright about the dehumanizing practice of prisons digitizing mail, which allows for increased surveillance, and for profit-seeking companies to charge inmates and their families exorbitant fees to read mail on electric portals.Paul Wright is the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center. He is also editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), the longest-running independent prisoner rights publication in US history. Wright has co-authored three PLN anthologies: The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry; Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor; and Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Imprisonment.Read the transcript of this interview: Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-pod-rtbSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-pod-rtbGet Rattling the Bars updates: https://therealnews.com/up-pod-rtbLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Whenever women have raised their voices and demanded equity in our society, or whenever oppressive gender relations have been threatened, a vicious backlash or counterattack inevitably follows. Sometimes under the cover of religion, other times justified by appealing to culture, tradition, or science, male supremacy and misogyny are central and alarmingly consistent features defining the politics of the global far right. What is it about the worldview and overarching political project of the far right that makes the thought of gender equality and an end to traditional gender roles and hierarchies such a threatening prospect? And how has the crusade against “gender ideology” galvanized far-right politics around the globe?In this special series of The Marc Steiner Show, co-hosted by Marc Steiner and Bill Fletcher Jr., we will examine the rise of the right in the US and beyond, we will explore the different tendencies and motivations fueling today’s surge in far-right politics, and we will engage with a range of critical voices who can help us understand how we got here and what we can do about it. In Episode Three of “Rise of the Right,” Marc and Bill are joined by Judith Butler and Alex DiBranco to discuss how, beyond the surface-level individual displays of misogyny among individual members of the far right, gender politics are a definitive feature of far-right ideologies and social movements.Judith Butler is a world-renowned philosopher and gender theorist whose books have been translated into over 27 languages. They are the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of numerous books, including Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity; Undoing Gender; Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism; and Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?Alex DiBranco is executive director of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. Her writings on male supremacism and incel terrorism have appeared in the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism Journal and The Public Eye quarterly, and her commentary has been featured in a range of outlets, including NPR, The New Republic, the Chicago Tribune, ThinkProgress, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. She has also provided trainings and advice on male supremacist ideology for social justice organizations such as Western States Center, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and SURJ.Tune in every Monday over the next month for new installments of this special series of The Marc Steiner Show on TRNN.Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/why-the-far-right-is-so-obsessed-with-gender-politicsPre-Production: Dwayne Gladden, Stephen Frank, Kayla Rivara, Maximillian Alvarez, Jocelyn DombroskiStudio: Dwayne GladdenPost-Production: Stephen FrankHelp us continue producing The Marc Steiner Show by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer:Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-pod-mssSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-pod-stGet The Marc Steiner Show updates: https://therealnews.com/up-pod-stLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

As Russia’s assault on Ukraine grinds on and fears over the deployment of chemical or nuclear weapons grows, Iran nuclear talks are picking up speed down in Vienna. The aim of these negotiations, ostensibly, is to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, which the US withdrew from under President Donald Trump in 2018, though negotiations appear to be lubricated by Iranian oil. With Russian oil and gas now under sanction, though still flowing, Western states are desperate to feed their fossil fuel addiction. TRNN contributor David Kattenburg speaks with CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin and Executive Director of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Elena Sokova about the complicated geopolitical pressures the Russian war in Ukraine and US domestic politics are putting on discussions regarding the Iran nuclear deal and a nuclear-free Middle East.Medea Benjamin is co-founder of CODEPINK, a women-led grassroots organization working to end US wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect US tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs. Her most recent book is entitled Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Elena Sokova has resumed the role of Executive Director of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. She was the first Executive Director of the VCDNP in 2011-2015 and afterwards served as Deputy Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. She writes and lectures widely on nuclear disarmament issues.Read the transcript of this interview: https://therealnews.com/how-oil-and-the-war-in-ukraine-are-shaping-negotiations-over-the-iran-nuclear-dealPre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Hundreds of non-tenure-track lecturers and adjunct faculty at Howard University, one of the most storied higher education institutions in the US, have been fighting for nearly four years to negotiate their first union contract with the university administration. On Wednesday, March 23, just hours before they were set to go on strike, the union bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with the administration, which members will be reviewing and voting on in the coming weeks. Reporting from Howard’s campus in Washington DC, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Corey Lamont, a lecturer in Howard’s English Department and member of the SEIU Local 500 bargaining unit, about the union’s long fight to secure their first contract with the university and what having that contract will mean for faculty and the broader campus community.Read the transcript of this interview: https://therealnews.com/a-historic-victory-for-howard-universitys-non-tenure-track-facultyPre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

When a Terre Haute, Indiana, man was arrested for not walking on a sidewalk on a street that doesn’t have one, the Police Accountability Report investigated. We obtained body camera and dashcam video evidence that offers a rare glimpse into the indifference of American law enforcement—evidence that not only contradicts the allegations made by the arresting officer, but that also reveals how difficult it is to escape the tendrils of this country’s law enforcement-industrial complex.Read the transcript of this panel: https://therealnews.com/cop-arrested-a-man-for-not-walking-on-a-sidewalk-but-he-didnt-know-anyone-would-see-this-videoPre-Production/Studio: Stephen JanisPost-Production: Stephen Janis, Adam ColeyHelp us continue producing Police Accountability Report by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-pod-parSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-pod-parGet Police Accountability Report updates: https://therealnews.com/pod-up-parLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Ever since World War II, the US economy has become increasingly reliant on the war industry to provide jobs. It was, in fact, World War II that converted our existing economy into one dependent on government spending from the Pentagon and its associated agencies and industries. But it is possible to convert the economy back the other way, from one centered on the war industry to one that generates good jobs while addressing the existential threats of the climate emergency, pandemics, and ecological devastation.In this panel discussion recorded on March 10, 2021, and organized by the War Industries Resisters Network (WIRN), panelists discuss the existential need to transition away from the war economy and the practical steps that would make it possible. (WIRN is a coalition of local groups and organizations across the US and around the world that are opposing their local war industries and collaborating to confront corporate control of US foreign policy.) With permission from the event organizers, we are sharing this recording with TRNN audiences.Panelists Include: Miriam Pemberton, founder of the Peace Economy Transitions Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, and author of the upcoming book Six Stops on the National Security Tour: Rethinking Warfare Economies; David Story, a third-generation union member born and raised in Alabama, President of the Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union Local 44 in Decatur, Alabama, and a founding member of the Huntsville IWW; Taylor Barnes, an award-winning, multilingual investigative journalist based in Atlanta who covers military affairs and the defense industry, and whose work has been published in local and national media outlets, including Southerly Magazine, Facing South, Responsible Statecraft, and The Intercept. This panel is hosted by Ken Jones of Reject Raytheon Asheville, a local movement of activists and peacemakers who have come together to ensure that the economic development of Buncombe County relies not on incentives given to war profiteering multinational corporations, but rather on investments in a sustainable local economic model.Read the transcript of this panel: https://therealnews.com/a-just-transition-away-from-the-war-economy-and-military-industrial-complex-is-possiblePost-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer:Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Retired teacher Al Levie helped organize his high-school students in Racine, Wisconsin, then the students worked together to build a powerful movement.We are diving right back into our special series of conversations with teachers, organizers, scholars, and activists in Wisconsin that TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez, Cameron Granadino (TRNN), and Hannah Faris (In These Times) recorded in the summer of 2021 as part of a special collaboration between The Real News Network and In These Times magazine for “The Wisconsin Idea.” In this episode of Working People, recorded at the Racine Labor Center in Racine, Wisconsin, Alvarez talks to retired teacher and longtime organizer Al Levie about the long and coordinated assault on workers and unions that turned Wisconsin into a "right to work" state and that stripped public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights with the passage of Act 10 under Republic governor Scott Walker. But they also talk about Levie’s life as an organizer, the work he and his students have done to build power in Racine, and about the very real possibility of organizing and mobilizing interracial and intergenerational coalitions of people to fight for justice, equality, and dignity.Pre-Production: Maximillian Alvarez, Hannah Faris, Alice Herman, Cameron Granadino, Eleni Schirmer (research consultant), John Fleissner (research consultant), John Yaggi (research consultant), Harvey J. Kaye (research consultant), Jon Shelton (research consultant), Adam Mertz (research consultant)Studio: Cameron GranadinoPost-Production: Cameron Granadino, Stephen Frank, Kayla Rivara, Jules TaylorThe Wisconsin Idea is an independent reporting project of People’s Action Institute, Citizen Action of Wisconsin and In These Times.Read the full description (including additional links/info) and the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/youth-activists-and-teachers-show-how-to-organize-interracial-intergenerational-coalitionsFeatured Music: Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer:Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

From her world-famous book "Dead Man Walking" to a life spent educating the public about the inhumanity of the death penalty, the work of activist nun Sister Helen Prejean is known around the globe. What is less widely known is the story of how Sister Helen came to do this work and, as the description for her latest memoir "River of Fire" notes, how she evolved in her “spiritual journey from praying for God to solve the world’s problems to engaging full-tilt in working to transform societal injustices.” In this special conversation for Rattling the Bars, TRNN Executive Producer Eddie Conway speaks with Sister Helen about "River of Fire" and about the deep historical roots of the racist, colonialist violence that is embodied today in America’s prison-industrial complex.Read the transcript of this interview: https://therealnews.com/from-dead-man-walking-to-fighting-to-abolish-the-death-penalty-sister-helen-prejeans-journeyPre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-pod-rtbSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-pod-rtbGet Rattling the Bars updates: https://therealnews.com/up-pod-rtbLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Since full-time lecturers at Howard University originally voted to unionize, they have spent nearly four years bargaining with the university administration to get their first contract. On March 23, just hours before lecturers and nearly 200 adjunct professors, who have been fighting for their second contract, were set to strike, the union secured a historic tentative agreement with the university and called it off. Union members will be voting on whether or not to ratify the tentative agreement in the coming weeks. Even though the strike was narrowly averted, Howard has a long way to go to adequately address the long-running systemic problems that brought non-tenure-track faculty to the point of hitting the picket line.In this episode of Working People, recorded the day before faculty were set to strike, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez talks to Dr. Aisha Bonner Cozad, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Howard School of Social Work, and Dr. Sean Pears, a Lecturer in Howard's College of Arts & Sciences, about the long contract fight for non-tenure-track faculty at one of the most storied HBCUs in the country.Pre-Production: Maximillian AlvarezPost-Production: Jules TaylorRead the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/howard-university-faculty-win-tentative-agreement-just-hours-before-planned-strikeAdditional links/info below...Dr. Bonner Cozad's LinkedIn page:https://www.linkedin.com/in/aisha-bonner-cozad-ph-d-b70552a/Dr. Pears's Twitter page: https://twitter.com/Sean_PearsHoward Teaching Faculty Union Twitter page and Instagram:https://twitter.com/LecturersHUhttps://www.instagram.com/lecturershu/Peter Lucas, Jacobin, "Howard University Faculty Are Ready to Strike": https://jacobinmag.com/2022/03/howard-university-faculty-lecturers-adjucts-contract-strikeRashad Grove, Ebony, "Howard University Faculty Threaten to Strike Over Working Conditions":https://www.ebony.com/news/howard-university-pending-faculty-strike/Higher Ed Labor United statement: We Stand with Howard University Non-Tenure-Track Faculty and Adjuncts:https://higheredlaborunited.org/news/solidarity-asks/statement-of-solidarity-with-howard-university-non-tenure-track-faculty/?fbclid=IwAR3HjJP5Vvj0vl7A73Xc2qn26deLKaPugCOE_kXgFgOsSuu0nsHtbNeguIIPermanent links below...Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!https://www.speakpipe.com/workingpeopleLabor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page:https://www.laborradionetwork.org/https://www.facebook.com/LaborRadioNet/https://twitter.com/laborradionetIn These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page:https://inthesetimes.com/https://www.facebook.com/inthesetimesmag/https://twitter.com/inthesetimesmagThe Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page:https://therealnews.com/https://www.youtube.com/c/therealnewshttps://therealnews.com/our-shows-podcastshttps://www.facebook.com/therealnewshttps://twitter.com/TheRealNewsFeatured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

4,500 educators with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers have been on strike since March 8, demanding smaller class sizes, better pay and benefits, more mental health resources for students, and increased workforce diversity. After working through the COVID-19 pandemic and years of austerity policies, teachers and education support professionals (ESP) have reached their breaking point. “I have multiple jobs, and I still live paycheck to paycheck because my wages are insufficient,” Ma-Riah Roberson-Moody, a lead negotiator for the ESP chapter of the city's teacher union, recently told NBC News. “I can make more money right now going to work at Target than I do working for Minneapolis Public Schools, and that is difficult.” TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez discusses the strike and what educators have been going through in recent years with Karin, an education support professional who has worked in the Minneapolis district for 6 years.Read the transcript of this interview: https://therealnews.com/chronically-understaffed-underpaid-educators-in-minneapolis-strike-against-austerityPre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron GranadinoHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnewsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!