The Real News Podcast

President Biden’s plan to secure “security and prosperity” in Central America appears to be a continuation of the longstanding policy of US intervention in Latin America and economic exploitation of its people and resources. Experts not only doubt that the Biden administration’s plan will do much to mitigate the political, economic, and climate-related issues driving migrants to leave their home countries for the United States, but fear that it will exacerbate said issues while leaving migrants in ever more precarious positions. In this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks to professor Aviva Chomsky about the larger goals of Biden’s Central America policy and the humanitarian havoc it could create. Chomsky is professor of history and coordinator of the Latin American Studies program at Salem State University in Massachusetts; she is the author of many acclaimed books, including Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration.Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Tuesday on TRNN.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!

From workers dying from lack of adequate safety measures and PPE to states viciously cutting off extended unemployment benefits to force people back to unsafe, poverty-wage work, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it horrifyingly clear just how little value the lives and wellbeing of working people have in an economic system where all that matters is the bottom line. But it doesn't have to be this way. We can organize our economy and our workplaces in a more humane way—and we have proof that it works.In this extended mini-cast, we talk with TRNN Senior Reporter Jaisal Noor about his multi-part investigative documentary series examining how eight worker cooperatives across four states have been able to stay in business during the pandemic while prioritizing worker safety and democratic decision making.Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive)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!

Offensive Facebook posts led to the arrest of activist Joshua Martinez. But his treatment in court and $1 million bail reveal the often-overlooked role played by judges in the questionable and unequal implementation of the law—a role that judges often fill with little to no democratic accountability. Martinez is currently under a gag order, so in this episode of PAR we speak to auditor and cop watcher James Freeman about his case, and about the challenging task of reforming the judiciary.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-ytSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-ytLike 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!

“Between January 1 and July 14, 2021, at least 18 states enacted 30 laws that restrict access to the vote,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Hundreds of other bills with provisions aimed at restricting voting rights and access have been introduced in 49 other states. Combatting the relentless, top-down assault on our basic democratic rights is one of the most urgent political causes of our day, and organizers with the Poor People’s Campaign are mobilizing people and marching in states around the country. In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, about these marches and the fight ahead.Then, in our second segment, Marc talks with veteran activist and author Bill Fletcher Jr. about the rise of the political right and the American marriage of white supremacy and class war.Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Tuesday on TRNN.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!

The rural landscape in the US is changing drastically: The days of the independent family farm have increasingly given way to industrial agriculture and factory animal farms. In states around the country, from Iowa and Minnesota to North Carolina, the expansion of Big Agriculture and the factory farming industry has dramatically altered local economies and communities, using up communal resources while posing serious threats to public health and the environment. Far from halting this trend, governments at the state and federal level have worked with powerful industry groups for years to incentivize large-scale farming operations and to make it increasingly difficult for local governments to adequately regulate these operations. But resistance from within rural communities, stretching across political lines, is mounting.At this very moment, farmers, residents, and environmental advocates in three rural counties in Wisconsin—Polk, Burnett, and Crawford—are engaged in a battle to protect their communities against the construction of two proposed concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which would collectively house roughly 34,000 hogs. Residents fear that the millions upon millions of gallons of liquid manure produced by these CAFOs every year, along with their many other impacts, could cause irreversible damage to their land, air, water, property values, and ways of life. As part of a special collaboration with In These Times magazine for “The Wisconsin Idea,” TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez traveled with Cameron Granadino (TRNN) and Hannah Faris (In These Times) to Crawford, Polk, and Burnett counties to speak with residents about their concerns and their struggles to defend themselves against Big Agriculture and the factory farming industry.Pre-production:Maximillian AlvarezSimon Davis-CohenHannah FarisCameron GranadinoStudio:Cameron GranadinoStephen FrankPost-production:Cameron GranadinoStephen FrankKayla RivaraThe Wisconsin Idea is an independent reporting project of People’s Action Institute, Citizen Action of Wisconsin and In These Times.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-ytSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-ytLike 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!

After Gov. Ned Lamont signed a new bill into law in June, Connecticut became the first state in the US to make phone calls free for incarcerated people, including those in juvenile detention facilities. Studies show that having access to phone calls reduces violence in prisons and prisoner recidivism rates, so why have prisons and private companies been allowed to charge such exorbitant prices for communications between incarcerated people and the outside world? In this week’s episode of Rattling the Bars, Eddie Conway speaks with Dr. Venezia Michalsen about why Connecticut’s new law is so significant and why other states should follow suit. Dr. Michalsen is associate professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University and author of the book Mothering and Desistance in Re-Entry.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!

Up until the pandemic, Kate was a massage therapist who loved her job. But when her employer wanted to push her and her co-workers back to work before they felt safe, she had to make a very difficult decision. In this episode of Working People, we talk to Kate about her life, the path that led her to working as a massage therapist, and we talk about the particular hazards massage therapists have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.Additional links/info below...Allison Steinberg, Allure, "These Massage Therapists Worry About the Effects of COVID-19 on the Future of Their Industry": https://www.allure.com/story/massage-therapists-covid-19Rachel Urbanski, WCHS ABC 8, "Refusing to Work Because of COVID-19 Concerns Can Risk Unemployment Benefits": https://wchstv.com/news/local/refusing-to-work-because-of-covid-19-concerns-can-risk-unemployment-benefitsPermanent links below...Working People Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/WorkingPeopleLeave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!: https://www.speakpipe.com/workingpeopleLabor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter pageIn These Times: https://inthesetimes.com/The Real News Network: https://therealnews.com/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!

Citizen journalists continue to play a critical role in holding police accountable, which is why they face increasing pushback from the underlying system that bolsters bad cops. PAR speaks to cop watchers Laura Shark and Lackluster about the challenges they face when reporting on police, and how auditing law enforcement has become an increasingly dicey occupation.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!

It’s been seven months since Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC in an attempt to overturn the general election results. Was it merely a short but shocking fluke perpetrated by a handful of fanatics, or a sign of the right’s long (and continued) political slide towards open authoritarianism? In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with author, journalist, and historian of the American right Rick Perlstein about the historical roots of the Capitol riots and the very dangerous political path we’re still on, even with Trump out of office. Perlstein’s most recent book, the fourth in an award-winning series investigating the history of modern American conservatism, is Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976–1980.In our second segment, we bring you the latest installment of our ongoing series “Not in Our Name,” which highlights the diverse voices of Jewish activists, artists, intellectuals, and others who are speaking out against the Israeli occupation. In this installment, Marc is joined by author and scholar Marjorie Cohn to discuss the significance of current Palestinian resistance to, and international condemnation of, the violence of Israeli occupation. Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the advisory board of Veterans for Peace. She is the author of numerous books, including The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse, and Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Tuesday on TRNNBecome 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!

Kip Kinkel was publicly reviled when, suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, he shot and killed his mother and father before killing two of his classmates and wounding 25 others in a mass shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, in 1998. Kinkel pled guilty to murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to 111 years in jail without the possibility of parole. Since then, Kinkel's case has been repeatedly weaponized to justify extreme punishment and sentencing for juveniles. After twenty years of silence, Kinkel finally spoke to journalist Jessica Schulberg in an exclusive interview published in HuffPost in June. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Schulberg speaks to TRNN's Eddie Conway about how Kinkel's story fits into the fight against over-incarceration and juvenile life sentences.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and making a small donation: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-ytSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/nl-ytLike 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!