WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Dulce Guzmán, executive director of Alianza Americas, conducted by Scott Harris.Dulce Guzmán discusses her group’s concerns about the arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hanna Dugan over allegations she obstructed justice after directing a migrant out of her courtroom as federal agents waited to arrest him. She also addresses the Trump regime’s continued defiance of federal and Supreme Court orders while hundreds of people are being deported without due process, some to a brutal prison in El Salvador.

Interview with Melvin Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, professor of government at Johns Hopkins University, a former CIA analyst and author, conducted by Scott Harris.Mel Goodman talks about his recent article, “The Meltdown of the United States,” where he observes, “The executive branch has taken on powers that are usually associated with wartime requirements. The legislative branch has been neutralized because of the near total abdication of the Republican party. And the judicial system is facing an unprecedented challenge from a president and vice president who have no respect for our courts and our judges.”

Interview with Sam Rosenthal, political director of RootsAction.org, conducted by Scott Harris.Sam Rosenthal discusses his group and Progressive Democrats for America’s petition calling for the Democratic National Committee to convene an emergency meeting, declaring that “business as usual must give way to truly bold action that mobilizes against the autocracy that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their cronies are further entrenching every day.” He also talks about what actions petitioners are asking the Democratic party to take in response to the current constitutional crisis.

Interview with Ari Paul, a New York City-based journalist and lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, conducted by Scott Harris.Ari Paul discusses his recent article, “Failing to Rise to the Constitutional Crisis,” about the deficiencies of corporate media’s coverage of the Trump regime’s authoritarian coup, and the growing importance of independent, non-commercial progressive media outlets, conducted by Scott Harris.  Ari Paul has covered politics and labor for the Nation, the Guardian, Dissent, Al Jazeera, and the Forward.

Interview with Svante Myrick, president, People for the American Way, conducted by Scott Harris.Svante Myrick discusses the escalating constitutional as the Trump regime defies or ignores court orders — and the growing concern that the president may invoke emergency powers, such as the Insurrection Act of 1807, to eliminate all remaining checks on executive power, and establish a brutal and violent police state to crush all dissent, conducted by Scott Harris.

Interview with Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor, an organizer with the Climate Disobedience Center, conducted by Scott Harris.Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor discusses her group’s recent “Call to Courage” campaign — amid concern that the Trump regime may be getting ready to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, which would give the president power to deploy US military on domestic U.S. soil to enforce mass deportation of immigrants and/or unconstitutionally target protesters and quash dissent.

Interview with Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, conducted by Scott Harris.Jeff Hauser discusses growing concern that people in Trump’s inner circle may have known his changing tariff policy, allowing for insider trading — combined with the fact the SEC is dismantling a key tool in collecting trading data, the Consolidated Audit Trail, which impairs regulators’ ability to understand suspicious activity.

Interview with Lindsay Koshgarian, program director of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, conducted by Scott Harris. Lindsay Koshgarian talks about her group’s latest annual analysis, the 2025 Tax Day Receipt, highlighting exactly where Americans’ 2024 income taxes went and what those numbers say about our national spending priorities. Overall, in 2024, the average taxpayer contributed $3,707 per person for weapons and war – the equivalent of the price of 628 dozen eggs – including war and the Pentagon, weapons contractors, and aid to foreign militaries.

Interview with Micah Sifry, a writer, editor, and organizer, conducted by Scott Harris.Micah Sifry is working on a novel and writing a weekly newsletter on democracy, movements, organizing, and tech called The Connector. Micah will discuss his recent New York Times article, “A Different Kind of Anti-Trump Resistance is Brewing,” and issues related to Trump/Musk’s mass firing of tens of thousands of federal government workers.  Sifry has nearly 40 years of experience covering politics, technology, and international affairs.

Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream, describes her organization's mission and strategy to secure justice and safety for undocumented young people and families in cities and towns around the state.Interview by Richard Hill