

The Real News Podcast
The Real News Network
Daily Reports, specials, and podcasts by The Real News Network (TRNN). TRNN makes media connecting you to the movements, people, and perspectives that are advancing the cause of a more just, equal, and livable planet. TRNN is a nonprofit media organization. We do not accept advertising revenue or corporate sponsorship.Sign up for our newsletter at therealnews.comText us at (410) 431-0868Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 29, 2025 • 6min
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Monday, April 28, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Monday, April 28, 2025.TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!

Apr 28, 2025 • 49min
‘Worse’ than McCarthyism: Trump’s war on higher education, free speech, and political dissent
A dystopian reality has gripped America’s colleges and universities: ICE agents are snatching and disappearing international students in broad daylight; student visas are being revoked en masse overnight; funding cuts and freezes are upending countless careers and our entire public research infrastructure; students are being expelled and faculty fired for speaking out against Israel’s US-backed genocidal war on Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. An all-out assault on higher ed and the people who live, learn, and work there is being led by the federal government and aided by law enforcement, internet vigilantes, and even university administrators. Today’s climate of repression recalls that of McCarthyism and the height of the anti-communist Red Scare in the 1950s, but leading scholars of McCarthyism and political repression say that the attacks on higher education, free speech, and political repression we’re seeing today are “worse” and “much broader.” In this installment of The Real News Network podcast, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with a panel of scholars about the Trump administration’s authoritarian war on higher education in America, the historical roots of the attacks we’re seeing play out today, and what lessons we can draw from history about how to fight it. Panelists include: Ellen Schrecker, a historian and author who has written extensively about McCarthyism and American higher education, and a member of the American Association of University Professors national committee on academic freedom and tenure. Schrecker is the author and co-editor of numerous books, including: The Right To Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom; The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s; No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities; and Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in AmericaDavid Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor in Comparative Literature at Stanford University, host of the podcast Speaking Out of Place, and author of several books, including: Speaking Out of Place: Getting Our Political Voices Back; The Deliverance of Others: Reading Literature in a Global Age; and Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial FrontierAlan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus of English Literature and American Culture at the University of Michigan. Wald is an editor of Against the Current and Science & Society, he serves as a member of the academic council of Jewish Voice for Peace, and he is the author of a trilogy of books from the University of North Carolina Press: Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Literary Left; Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Antifascist Crusade; and American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold WarStudio Production: David HebdenAudio Post-Production: Jules TaylorHelpHelp 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!

Apr 28, 2025 • 5min
Marching against El Salvador’s police state | Ep 26 Stories of Resistance
In El Salvador, thousands of innocent people have been locked up in Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs. They have been held without due process for years. But family members are standing up. And on May 1 they march, carrying the pictures and the names of their innocent loved ones detained and held without rights, with the ever-increasing support of the United States.This is episode 26 of Stories of Resistance — a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange's Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review. You can also follow Michael’s reporting and support at patreon.com/mfox. Written and produced by Michael Fox. Below are some links to Michael Fox’s previous reporting on this issue with The Real News: FAMILIES OF THE DETAINED SEE ECHOES OF DICTATORIAL PAST IN EL SALVADOR’S GANG CRACKDOWN https://therealnews.com/families-of-the-detained-see-echoes-of-dictatorial-past-in-el-salvadors-gang-crackdown Nayib Bukele: El Salvador's mega-prison president detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia for Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pGDw_NxfA0 DOES NAYIB BUKELE’S REELECTION VIOLATE EL SALVADOR’S CONSTITUTION? https://therealnews.com/does-nayib-bukeles-reelection-violate-el-salvadors-constitution EL SALVADOR. BUKELE, PRESIDENTE. | UNDER THE SHADOW, UPDATE 2 https://therealnews.com/el-salvador-bukele-presidente-under-the-shadow-update-2 EL SALVADOR’S CIVIL WAR | UNDER THE SHADOW, EPISODE 4 https://therealnews.com/el-salvadors-civil-war-under-the-shadow-episode-4Subscribe to Stories of Resistance podcast hereBecome a member and join the Stories of Resistance Supporters Club today!Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on BlueskyLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!

Apr 25, 2025 • 7min
Harry Belafonte—Using art for good | Ep 25 Stories of Resistance
Harry Belafonte. The King of Calypso. Incredible singer and actor. He performed in more than a dozen movies throughout his career. But above all else, he was an activist. A fighter against racism and oppression, in the United States and around the world.Belafonte joined the Civil Rights Movement. He marched alongside Martin Luther King. And he remained active into his 90s, working for prison reform, denouncing the Iraq War, George W. Bush, Trump and so much more. Harry Belafonte passed away on April 25, 2023.This is episode 25 of Stories of Resistance — a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange's Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review. You can also follow Michael’s reporting and support at www.patreon.com/mfox.Written and produced by Michael Fox.Links for some old clips of Harry Belafonte:Harry Belafonte Interview on Activism Through Art (1958)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUoAYilBgRYHarry Belafonte on racism, patriotism & war, 1967: CBC Archives | CBChttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XUlCuW7DrcHarry Belafonte’s Best Crime Thriller? Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) | BlackTree TVhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zizXTmtGlKsHarry Belafonte in Concert (Japan, 1960)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnswQxvfci8Harry Belafonte Television and Video Archivehttps://www.youtube.com/@harrybelafontetvvideoarchiveIf you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review. You can also follow Michael’s reporting, and support at patreon.com/mfox.Subscribe to Stories of Resistance podcast hereBecome a member and join the Stories of Resistance Supporters Club today!Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on BlueskyLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!

Apr 25, 2025 • 7min
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Friday, April 25, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Friday, April 25, 2025.TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!

Apr 24, 2025 • 8min
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Thursday, April 24, 2025.TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!

Apr 23, 2025 • 8min
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Wednesday, April 23, 2025.TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!

Apr 23, 2025 • 4min
Flamingos: Resisting in the driest desert on the planet | Ep 23 Stories of Resistance
The Atacama Desert is the driest place on the planet, and one of the most inhospitable. But salt lagoons dot the barren landscape, and flamingos are one of a number of species that have adapted to live in this harsh environment, and are battling to survive.This is episode 24 of Stories of Resistance—a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange's Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.This week, we celebrate Earth Day, April 22. April 26 is also Flamingo Day. So, Happy Flamingo Day!You can see exclusive pictures of the flamingos of the Atacama desert, in Michael Fox's Patreon page. You can also follow Michael’s reporting and support at patreon.com/mfox.If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review.Written and produced by Michael Fox.This is Stories of Resistance — a new podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange's Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.Written and produced by Michael Fox.If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review. You can also follow Michael’s reporting, and support at patreon.com/mfox.Subscribe to Stories of Resistance podcast hereBecome a member and join the Stories of Resistance Supporters Club today!Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on BlueskyLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!

Apr 23, 2025 • 51min
A bitcoin mine in Texas is "killing us slowly," local residents say | Working People
“I would like to see Texas become the center of the universe for bitcoin and crypto,” US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in 2021. In 2024, Republican Governor Greg Abbott said Texas “wears the crown as the bitcoin mining capital of the world.” But in small towns like Granbury, TX, about an hour southwest of Fort Worth, residents are the ones paying the price for Texas’s crypto boom. A 300-megawatt bitcoin mine, which is owned by Marathon Digital, a Florida-based cryptocurrency company, uses a mix of liquid immersion and industrial fans to prevent over 20,000 computers from overheating. Many residents say that it’s the constant sound from those fans that has made life increasingly unbearable in their small town—and that their concerns are going ignored by the company and government officials. In this episode of Working People, we speak with four residents of Granbury living near the Marathon bitcoin mine: Danny Lakey, Karen Pearson, Nick Browning, and Virginia Browning.Additional links/info:Protect Hood County websiteAndrew R. Chow, TIME, “‘We’re living in a nightmare:’ Inside the health crisis of a Texas bitcoin town”Andrew R. Chow, TIME, “Noisy neighbor: Bitcoin's hidden health cost” (Video Report)Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “TRNN wins 2025 Izzy Award for coverage of East Palestine, OH, trainwreck & chemical disaster”Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘I had to move away from everything that I ever had’: Chemically exposed residents of East Palestine, OH, and Conyers, GA, have been left behind”Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘This is murder!’: Industrially poisoned South Baltimore residents march on state capitol, demand help from Gov. Moore”Maximillian Alvarez, Steve Mellon, & Mike Balonek, The Real News Network, “Trainwreck in ‘Trump Country’: Partisan politics hasn’t helped East Palestine, OH (DOCUMENTARY)”Keaton Peters, Inside Climate News, “Texas leaders worry that bitcoin mines threaten to crash the state power grid”NBC News, “Inside the Texas bitcoin mine reportedly making residents sick”James Pollard, The Texas Tribune, “Texas Republicans want to make the state the center of the cryptocurrency universe”Permanent links below…Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter pageIn These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter pageThe Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter pageFeatured Music…Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme SongStudio Production: Maximillian AlvarezPost-Production: Jules TaylorBecome 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!

Apr 22, 2025 • 24min
International observers are defending Palestinians in the West Bank with their own bodies | The Marc Steiner Show
Even before the end of the ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli attacks on the West Bank were escalating in 2025. By Feb. 5, 70 Palestinians were reported killed this year alone. Anna Lippman, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, has traveled on numerous occasions to the West Bank from her home in Toronto, Canada, to stand with Palestinians defending their land from attacks by Israeli soldiers and armed settlers. Most recently, Lippman was in the Masafer Yatta community in the occupied West Bank as Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of the film No Other Land, was detained by Israeli forces after being attacked by armed Israeli settlers in that same community. Lippman joins The Marc Steiner Show for an in-depth discussion on her experiences on the ground in the West Bank, where attempted land grabs and expulsions of Palestinians are growing by the day.Producer: Rosette SewaliStudio Production: David HebdenPost-Production: Alina NehlichHelp TRNN continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on BlueskyLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastHelp 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!


