LAURA FLANDERS & FRIENDS Season 2
#201 - Bernie Sanders & AOC: “Fighting Oligarchy” with People Power
Can the Democratic party reinvent itself? In this exclusive one-on-one interview with Bernie Sanders, recorded during the Senator’s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, he sits down with Laura Flanders in Las Vegas to discuss what he hopes people will take away from his rallies, and how we can all push back against oligarchy. Sanders’ message is especially resonating with Americans in this moment, as record-breaking crowds turn out for his tour — with many first-time activists in the audience. What is driving this phenomenon? Laura Flanders & Friends hit the road to find out, and traveled from Kenosha to Warren and Las Vegas. Along the tour, Flanders spoke with veterans, retirees and many concerned citizens. She also caught speeches from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, and sat in on a town hall meeting with Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus. Will 2025 turn out to be the year that Americans remake democracy?
“I did 28 years in the army. I maintained an apolitical front at all times . . . I think we're sliding into tyranny, and I took an oath to support and defend the constitution and I'm going to do that whether in or out of uniform.” - Terrance Deuel
“We are at a point where the wealthiest people in the world, like Elon Musk and all the Republicans enabling him, are turning to loot what is left of Medicaid, Medicare, and social security to bankroll even deeper tax cuts and sweetheart contracts for themselves, their fellow billionaires and their corporations. And our political system right now is ill prepared for this abuse of power.” - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“I think the message of the moment is to understand that the vast majority of the American people do not think that we give tax breaks to the rich and cut social security or veterans programs. They don't. And our job is to work as hard as we can. Part of what this tour is about is to get them involved in their own local communities.” - Bernie Sanders
#202 - Decades After Bloody Sunday, Are Civil Rights in America Now Worse than Selma in ‘65?
60 years ago in Selma, Alabama, state troopers beat peaceful protesters bloody on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they marched for civil rights. The horror of “Bloody Sunday” and the resilience of the Civil Rights Movement ultimately led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and many of the landmark achievements that are now directly under attack. As civil rights activists look to history to understand — and prepare for — the present, Laura walks the Bridge and talks with, among others, Sheyann Webb Christburg, who marched at the age of eight, Black Voters Matter co-founders LaTosha Brown and Clifford Albright; law professor and author Kimberlé Crenshaw and Maya Wiley, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. What does people power look like today? Plus, a commentary from Laura on name calling then and now.
“We're not going to phone bank our way out of this. We're not going to text our way out of this. And in truth, we're not even going to vote our way out of this . . . It's going to take revisiting some of the same strategies that we saw here in Selma, in terms of nonviolent civil disobedience and direct action.” - Clifford Albright
“When we see and hear and think about fascism, we think about anti-democratic movements in Europe. We think about the Holocaust . . . But for Black people, as Langston Hughes said, you don't have to explain to us what fascism is. We experienced it. That is what we were fighting, for the 60, 70 years after Reconstruction was overthrown.” - Kimberlé Crenshaw
“We're seeing a bill that the Republicans are supporting right now that will cut $800 million from Medicaid. What we're seeing is the demonized poor people and working class folks. But we're gonna stop . . . We are literally gonna stand on the space that if we are the wealthiest in the world, then we need to be the healthiest in the world.” - LaTosha Brown
Guests:
Clifford Albright: Co-Founder & Executive Director, Black Voters Matter
Willard and Kiba Armstead: Veteran & Spouse
Trayvon Bossa: Sigma Chapter Member, Miles College Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity
LaTosha Brown: Co-Founder, Black Voters Matter
Kimberlé Crenshaw: Co-Founder & Executive Director, African American Policy Forum
Noelle Damico: Director of Social Justice, The Workers Circle
Melinda Hicks: Child, Spouse & Mother of Veteran
Jaribu Hill: Executive Director & Founder, Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights
Myla Person: High School Sophomore, Columbus, Georgia
Ann Toback: CEO, The Workers Circle
Sheyann Webb Christburg: Youngest Participant,1965 Bloody Sunday March
Maya Wiley: President & CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
#203 - Journalists Maria Hinojosa & Chenjerai Kumanyika: Forced Removals, Foreign Detention, the War on Education & Free Speech
In the US today, immigrants, students, visitors and even U.S. residents — are facing exclusion, militarization, detention, rendition, and elimination of basic due process rights. Are our media doing enough to sound the alarm? In recent weeks, the government has detained students like Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, apparently over their support for Palestine. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongfully exported to El Salvador, is being held at the notorious CECOT mega prison. We’ve also seen widespread ICE operations, random visas revoked and ideologically-driven attacks on the funding and functioning of our institutions of higher education. Our guests on this month’s Meet the BIPOC Press live and work at the intersection of these issues: Maria Hinojosa is the co-anchor and Executive Producer of Latino USA, and producer of the Pulitzer-prize winning podcast, Suave — which is just out with a second season. She is a Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at Barnard College. Chenjerai Kumanyika is a Peabody Award-winner, creator and co-host of Uncivil, and creator and host of the podcast series Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD. He is also an Assistant Professor of Journalism at New York University. As the Republican regime moves towards authoritarianism, will the media stand for democracy before it’s too late?
“What's being taken advantage of in this moment is the painting of a picture of people who are, to use that 1990s term, ‘super predators,’ therefore, they deserve nothing, no due process. It's not true. But if you only consume media that is coming from the Trump administration, you are convinced that all of these people who are being taken out of the country are terrifying.” - Maria Hinojosa
“The idea that the Trump administration, an administration that started an inauguration with a Sieg Heil, they're the ones who are going to enforce concerns about antisemitism? No, look at my students. Look at the students of Columbia, the universities all across the country . . . we are the ones taking concerns about antisemitism seriously.” - Chenjerai Kumanyika
Guests:
Maria Hinojosa: Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalist & Founder, Futuro Media; Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence, Barnard College
Chenjerai Kumanyika: Peabody-Prize Winning Audio Journalist, Uncivil & Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD; Assistant Professor Journalism, NYU
#204 - Democracy & Capitalism: A Failed Experiment?
Is the West’s experiment with social democracy over? Is survival of the richest our fate? In this episode, sisters Laura and Stephanie Flanders hold their annual check-in, this time from St. James Park in London, to delve into the details of the many politico-economic issues dominating and driving the news. Stephanie Flanders, an economics expert of renown, is the Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg and the host of “Trumponomics”, the weekly Stephanomics podcast that looks at the president's economic policies and plans. Join Laura and Stephanie as they discuss how business impacts every aspect of our lives. Are we going backwards, or are there models like community wealth building that we can look to for economic transformation?
“. . . There's quite a lot of people who are saying, ‘Well, thank God we've actually got an America that's not pretending . . . You are a rapacious, self-interested nation that's out for yourself. We've always known you were that. But now, you've sort of admitted it.’” - Stephanie Flanders
“[Social democracy] means lots of things to different people, but a kind of model of democracy that was at least nominally about raising people up, supporting the working class, allowing the rich to be rich, but only in the conjunction of also growing the economy for everybody else. That model, which has been pursued in lots of different ways, didn't deliver for people . . .” - Stephanie Flanders
Guest:
Stephanie Flanders: Head Economics & Government, Bloomberg
#205 - Masha Gessen & Jason Stanley: Is it Doomsday for U.S. Democracy?
What will it take to reject fascism, before it’s too late? Masha Gessen and Jason Stanley are two leading experts on autocracy, and they’re sounding the alarm. They and their families have escaped totalitarian regimes and oppressive governments; today Gessen and Stanley are pulling back the curtain on the attacks against DEI, trans bodies, civil rights, higher education and more. Is authoritarianism here? Masha Gessen is an acclaimed Russian-American journalist, a Polk Award winning opinion writer for the NY Times and the author of "Surviving Autocracy" as well as “The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia”, which won a National Book Award. Forced to leave Russia twice, in 2024, a Moscow court convicted them, in absentia to eight years in prison for their reporting on the war in Ukraine. Jason Stanley is a best selling author and professor whose books include “Erasing History” and "How Fascism Works". He recently left his teaching position at Yale University to relocate to Canada with his family; noting that he is a child of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany. In this historic conversation — the first interview between Gessen and Stanley — the two explore how to be bold in our movements and envision a multi-ethnic democracy. Plus, a commentary from Laura.
“Trump has proposed a revived empire, a return to an imaginary past. The Democrats have proposed the way things are now, which are deeply unsatisfying and horribly anxiety provoking for a very large number of people. So we need a vision of a future that is more appealing than the imaginary past.” - Masha Gessen
“What I see now is this regime shifting the self understanding of America, from having these democratic ideals . . . God knows they've been imperfect, to a self identity as loving the United States because we've had these great men in our past, and we've conquered the West, and we can punch you in the nose. And that's not a democratic project. That's like what Putin is doing in Russia.” - Jason Stanley
#206 - Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor: Are We Entering “End Times Fascism”?
Today's billionaires know our planet can't sustain their business models or lifestyles, but they don't care. Find out why, in this chilling conversation with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, co-authors of a revelatory essay on "End Times Fascism" in the Guardian. “Today’s rightwing leaders and their rich allies are not just taking advantage of catastrophes, shock-doctrine and disaster-capitalism style,” write Klein and Taylor, “but simultaneously provoking, planning and seeking to profit off apocalypse.” These are deeply dangerous times, Taylor and Klein argue: “Trump 2.0's economic project is a Frankenstein's monster of the industries driving all of these threats—fossil fuels, weapons, and resource-ravenous cryptocurrency and AI.” As the Right prepares for the end of life as we know it, can we build a movement to counter their apocalyptic, fascist ideology? What about a vision of love and compassion for people and the planet? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on Elon Musk's recently privately-incorporated Tesla town in Brownsville, TX.
“These people are preparing for the end of the world. They are abandoning this place. They are traitors. And so we respond to them in part by committing to where we are and by being committed to other people. And it sounds very simple, but I think there's something really fundamental and profound about that when you realize the scale to which these folks have decided to embrace this politics of contempt and abandonment.” - Astra Taylor
“Under colonialism, the creation of nation states is pretty arbitrary. Guy with book decides to form country. That's what they see in Israel . . . The idea that you can have a kind of an apartheid state, wealthy, high-tech fortress as a way to weather the storms that you yourself are unleashing. Israel's become a kind of a beacon for both the tech bros and the Theo Bros.” - Naomi Klein
Guests:
Naomi Klein: Columnist, The Guardian; UBC Professor of Climate Justice); Co-Author, The Rise of End Times Fascism; Journalist & Best-Selling Author, Doppelganger, The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, This Changes Everything & On Fire
Astra Taylor: Author & Organizer; Co-Author, The Rise of End Times Fascism; Co-Founder, Debt Collective & Author, The Age of Insecurity, Co-author, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
#207 - Jacqueline Woodson & Catherine Gund: Breathing Through Chaos & the “Meanwhile”
James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Muhammad Ali, Nina Simone — these are a few of the artists featured in the new film “Meanwhile”, from National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson and Emmy-nominated producer and director Catherine Gund. Their meditations on grief, art, breath and more are beautifully woven together as the film poses the question, how do you keep breathing amidst the chaos? Catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd, Gund and Woodson tap into our shared existence. The artists featured in the docu-poem, with a haunting soundtrack by Meshell Ndegeocello, work through questions of race, political violence, resistance and identity — so much of what shapes our lives and relationships. “This is not a love letter to this country but to us inside this country,” says Woodson in the film. “We see us. We love us. We make eye contact and nod to us”. In this conversation with Laura Flanders, the trio of longtime friends discuss the film from Aubin Pictures, the losses they experienced in the 80s, and how the arts and poetry can compel us to enact change. Can we reclaim the “meanwhile”? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on hers.
“. . . Having lost people so early and in such quick succession and under such an awful oppressive situation [of AIDS in the 80s], . . . each one of those hit so hard. We wrote and we made movies, and we had these elaborate memorials, and we did things to process and grieve. I am really holding on to that approach to death and dying as we get older, because I don't wanna ever not care.” - Catherine Gund
“Here is a film that's trying to say, ‘It's okay to be still and engage in this and have your feelings inside of this.’ . . . Let's sit in this and let's have the catharsis that comes with going through the wall, as opposed to stopping at the wall or trying to climb over it.” - Jacqueline Woodson
Guests:
Catherine Gund: Producer & Director, Meanwhile; Filmmaker & Founder, Aubin Pictures
Jacqueline Woodson: Writer & Performer, Meanwhile; Author, Brown Girl Dreaming; Founder, Baldwin for the Arts
#208 - Behind the Barricades at Columbia University: “The Encampments” for Gaza
With sold-out debut screenings in New York, the timely new documentary “The Encampments” brings viewers into the Columbia University encampments and captures the spirit of the student protests — without the media spin we see so often in commercial reporting. Presented by Watermelon Pictures and BreakThrough News, the film has ignited conversations about Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the nationwide crackdown on student dissent, and the media’s failures in this moment. Among the voices featured in the film are Mahmoud Khalil, a student negotiator who was illegally arrested and is currently detained by ICE and now faces deportation. In this special episode of the series we call Meet the BIPOC Press, Laura sits down with Sueda Polat and Grant Miner, two of Khalil’s colleagues in the encampments, both of whom were suspended and expelled, respectively, as well as the film’s co-director, journalist Kei Pritsker, to discuss how the film came to be, and where the situation stands today. All that, plus a commentary from Laura on Columbia University’s move to suspend four college journalists “being too close to the action.”
“I don't really participate as a Jewish person, I participate as an activist and a person of conscience that is Jewish . . . There's a very insidious narrative that was basically, ‘If you're not Jewish and you're not Palestinian, then talking about this is strange. Having an opinion on this conflict is strange and you should just stop talking about it because you're probably only motivated by antisemitism.’ I want to push back and say that anybody can have an opinion on this. It's the world's first livestreamed genocide.” - Grant Miner
“There is not, I think, one moment of regret. Yeah, not a moment of regret in our bodies, in our hearts. Especially knowing that the increased scale of repression, both at the federal level and at the institutional level at Columbia University, is happening because we were so successful at mobilizing such a large mass of people, perhaps for the first time in a very long time in America.” - Sueda Polat
“The media has shown, time and time again, that they are completely incapable of telling the story of Palestine honestly . . . We put this film out to highlight the difference between these people who take paychecks from people who are complicit in genocide, and people who have no allegiance to money or corporations or military industrial messaging” - Kei Pritsker
Guests:
Grant Miner: Columbia University Student Activist, The Encampments; President, SWC-UAW 2710
Sueda Polat: Columbia University Student Activist, The Encampments; Graduate Student Human Rights
Kei Pritsker: Co-Director, The Encampments, Journalist, BreakThrough News
#209 - Labor Movement v. Fascism: Worker Organizers & Labor Educators Are Under Attack
Labor organizing is critical to any anti-fascist movement, but labor unions and worker education are feeling the impact of brutal Republican attacks and cuts. How are workers and educators responding? In this special report, from a conference held at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) in New York City, Laura spoke with spoke with Rebecca “Becky” Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest union in the country, about labor solidarity in the deep-red state of Utah; history professor Robert Cassannello, a plaintiff in a successful suit against Florida Gov. DeSantis’s Stop Woke Act; and Rev. Ryan Brown, an Amazon worker/organizer from North Carolina, about how workers and educators are fighting back, and even winning in these times, although the obstacles are immense. The conference, “Labor and the Crisis of Democracy; Working Class Politics in a Time of Authoritarianism” was convened by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies with the Cornell Worker Institute.
“It's not the first time that our species have lived in perilous times, with pharaohs who are giving people work without any brick, without any straw. They have always figured out a way to organize, to mobilize and to agitate . . . Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, they were just regular, everyday human beings. No education. But they knew that fundamentally something was wrong about the world.” - Rev. Ryan Brown
#210 - "They Targeted Me”: Mayor Ras Baraka on His Arrest, Immigration Rights & Leading New Jersey
“They targeted me because I'm the mayor of the city,” says Newark, New Jersey mayor and gubernatorial candidate Ras Baraka. In this tell-all interview with Laura Flanders, the mayor of the state’s largest city discusses his arrest at Delaney Hall, a new private immigration detention facility in Newark, and why he is a staunch opponent of the Republican immigration agenda and Trump’s assertion of federal power. In his tenure as mayor, Baraka has championed progressive programs like guaranteed income, reduced crime and boosted affordable housing. But new challenges lie ahead, as politicians like himself and cities like Newark face retaliation from the Trump administration. Baraka’s charges have been dropped, but the legal battles are far from over. He recently announced a lawsuit against the acting New Jersey District Attorney Alina Habba and DHS Agent Ricky Patel, alleging false arrest, malicious prosecution and defamation. If elected, he would be the first Black governor in New Jersey and only the second Black governor in the U.S. If he's not elected, he is still a politician to watch as he insists on advancing forward thinking policy, especially in these tough times. Join us for that conversation, plus a commentary from Laura.
“The Department of Justice is suing Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken and Patterson because of their sanctuary city status, erroneously suggesting that we are standing in a way of the ability to do their job, which is completely false . . . We understand the importance of immigrants in our communities, and we want to uphold that.” - Ras Baraka
“We have advertised to the rest of the world that we've discovered the best thing since sliced bread. That we should be the envy of the entire world because we have this democracy, and our constitution defends that . . . To renege on that promise makes us a different place than what we taught our kids.” - Ras Baraka
Guest:
Ras Baraka: Mayor of Newark, NJ; NJ Gubernatorial Candidate
“You can study any authoritarian reign, any oligarch throughout history. The people who have the most success in fighting against them are educators and they are unionists . . . We understand these are multi-pronged attacks on every front. So we have to actually have a multi-pronged approach for educators.” - Becky Pringle
#211 - Liev Schreiber on “Meeting Zelenskyy” & Ukraine’s Rare Resistance v. Putin’s Russia
Renowned actor, writer and director Liev Schreiber recently released “Meeting Zelenskyy”, a feature documentary in which he sits down with Ukraine’s embattled leader. In an extended conversation, Schreiber speaks actor-to-actor about Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s rise from entertainer to war time leader. In this exclusive interview with Laura Flanders, Schreiber discusses how the documentary came to be, how he personally became involved, and how technology could shape the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war. The film includes never-before-seen footage from Zelenskyy’s childhood and career. Join us for this historic conversation, plus a commentary from Laura.
“I've always felt optimistic about this because [Ukraine is] on the side of truth. That's the kind of thing you can cover briefly, but it always comes out, it always surfaces. It's also the kind of thing that builds morale. It builds courage. It builds principle. They have that on their side, where the Russian military is struggling.” - Liev Schreiber
“This was never about Ukraine for me. This was always about American values and democracy and what it is, where it comes from and what it means. I don't think those values and those principles are on display anywhere more clearly than in Ukraine.” - Liev Schreiber
Guest:
Liev Schreiber: Award-Winning Actor, Director & Writer; Co-Founder, BlueCheck Ukraine
#212 - From ACT UP to Palestine: Sarah Schulman on How to Build Solidarity Across Difference
What is “solidarity” and what does it require? Giving up on perfection, for one thing, says Sarah Schulman, author of “Conflict is Not Abuse,” and so much more. Award-winning writer, teacher, playwright and activist, Schulman’s latest book is “The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity”, in which she reflects on years of experiments and learning, from the 1980s to today. In this episode, find out what role GRITtv, an earlier iteration of Flanders’ show, played in the movement for Palestinian liberation, and hear a discussion of the Harlem artist Alice Neel. Schulman sits on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. Her non-fiction books include “Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair” and “Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993”. Also in this episode, a commentary from Laura on the assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman, a strategic progressive who practiced solidarity.
“When I confronted the Israeli occupation of Palestine, something resonated for me emotionally between that and the AIDS experience. What I felt was similar was that people who were endangered were being falsely depicted as dangerous.” - Sarah Schulman
“Right now we're in the middle of a cataclysm of fascism and there's no quick fix. And we have to understand that the idea that you can go in and just fix it is a supremacy concept.” - Sarah Schulman
Guest:
Sarah Schulman: Writer & AIDS Historian; Author, The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity
#213 - Marsha P. Johnson’s Queer Legacy Lives On: Tourmaline & Qween Jean on Trans Liberation
Activist and artist Marsha P. Johnson was one of the key founders of the gay liberation movement after the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, but it’s taken years for her to receive recognition. On this special Pride Month edition of “Meet the BIPOC Press”, we’re celebrating Marsha’s life and legacy with two activists carrying her story forward. A new biography from Penguin House, “Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson” by our guest, Tourmaline traces Marsha’s working-class beginnings to her work with sex workers and street activists, to her death in 1992. Qween Jean is a self-described “spiritual daughter” of Marsha and the founder of Black Trans Liberation. Explore how mainstream media coverage once excluded Marsha, and what’s changed since then. We also unpack the media’s coverage of transphobia and the recent ruling from Tennessee that restricts gender-affirming care for minors. In the face of extreme backlash and repression, how are artists and activists reframing media narratives for queer and trans liberation?
“A lot of trans and queer people, especially here in New York City, that are asylum seekers that have had to leave other countries from persecution now find themselves in a place of purgatory . . . They can't even go to get a hormone shot because they're afraid. What if ICE is literally outside waiting for us?” - Qween Jean
“Marsha knew that these conditions didn't get to determine how she felt about herself. No court, no Supreme Court, no police officer, no governor, no president . . . She was creating the conditions to remind herself and each other that we too get to feel beautiful and know our value firmly.” - Tourmaline
Guests:
Qween Jean: Founder, Black Trans Liberation; Human Rights Activist & Costume Designer
Tourmaline: Artist; Author, MARSHA: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson
#214 - Countering an Authoritarian Takeover with the Labor Movement: Alex Han & Tarso Ramos
The United States is moving towards authoritarianism, but there is still a window of opportunity to reverse course. What could improve the chances of re-balancing power in the nation, and advancing towards that multiracial democracy that many still dream of? The answer is worker organizing, say Alex Han and Tarso Luís Ramos. "When we look at the history of U-turns from democratic backsliding to democratic revival, the success rate is about 50 percent," says Ramos. "Where there's active, vibrant union participation, the odds go up to about 80 percent." So what's holding Labor back? In early May of 2025, Laura sat down with Ramos and Han at a conference on “Labor in the Age of Authoritarian Politics”, held at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) in New York. Ramos is a leading expert on the U.S. Right Wing and former Executive Director of Political Research Associates. He now serves as Senior Advisor to Future Currents, a strategic planning group of social and economic justice leaders. Han has spent most of his adult life in the labor movement, as an organizer and elected president of a large Chicago local. In 2023, he became Executive Director of In These Times, the long-running Chicago-based progressive magazine. In the wake of mass layoffs and the abduction of Kilmar Abrego García, a union member wrongly exported to El Salvador and now held in Tennessee, can enough workers and their allies band together to make a difference?
“I think of all of these times where I've shown up at a protest and I know every single person there. When that happens, I know we're not winning today.” - Alex Han
“I think the coup that we did not prepare for was the force accelerator that most people experience as DOGE. It's the Musk and Peter Thiel and Mark Andresen set of actors . . . They're interested in ringing the profits out of the public sector, and they're interested in accelerating the demise of civilian governance altogether.” - Tarso Luís Ramos
Guests:
Alex Han: Executive Director, In These Times
Tarso Luís Ramos: Senior Adviser, Political Research Associates; Senior Fellow, Future Currents
#215 - The Lucas Plan at 50: A Radical Investment in Society, Not the War Machine
With the passage of the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” and NATO allies pledging to more than double their spending on defense as a portion of all economic output, military spending around the world is soaring, while spending on meeting social needs and the climate crisis is on the chopping block. Governments often justify spending public money this way by saying it will create good jobs, but what if the workers themselves had a say? Fifty years ago, employees at Lucas Aerospace, a huge military contractor in the United Kingdom came up with an alternative plan. Their approach, known as the Lucas Plan, used the workers’ same expertise, but directed production away from bombs, towards goods that actually help society. In this special episode, Laura heads to the UK to interview some of the original workers involved in the Lucas Plan and investigates what one senior government minister at the time called "one of the most remarkable exercises in all of British industrial history.” As she says, it’s as relevant now as the day it was conceived.
“What we're talking about is a poor economic choice that's being made to posture . . . and look like a big military power in a world that's growing increasingly unstable.” - Khem Rogaly
“One of the things that the Lucas Plan has done is actually made it fairly clear to people that there are choices. You're given the impression that you have to make weapons. No, you don't. You're given the choice . . . The issue here is who controls technology and who should control technology, and should it be used to free people or should it be used to enslave people?” - Philip Asquith
Guests:
Brian Salisbury: Former Lucas Aerospace Shop Steward
Philip Asquith: Former Lucas Aerospace Shop Steward
Hilary Wainwright: Co-Author, The Lucas Plan: A New Trade Unionism in the Making?; Co-Editor Red Pepper magazine
Khem Rogaly: Senior Research Fellow, Commonwealth; Author, A Lucas Plan for the Twenty First Century: From Asset Manager Arsenal to Green Industrial Strategy
#216 - AFA-CWA Union Leader Sara Nelson on Labor Solidarity: "If One Group Is Under Attack, We're Next"
Sara Nelson knows how to leverage worker power — and so do the 55,000 flight attendants she represents. A union member since 1996, she’s been the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO since 2014. You may remember her integral role in threatening a strike, which helped pressure the Trump administration to end the 2019 government shutdown. But under the second Trump term, the administration plans to gut many government agencies and has canceled one million contracts for federal workers so far. “We have to understand that if one group is under attack, we're next,” she tells Laura Flanders in this exclusive interview. “So we have to rush to each other's sides.” In this episode, Nelson and Flanders explore labor movement tactics and strategies, wins and losses, and why general strikes and cross-industry worker solidarity are critical in this moment. What is her message and her mission for 2025? All that, plus a commentary from Laura on floods and profits.
“We have to understand that if one group is under attack, we're next. So we have to rush to each other's sides. But we can also turn this around and not just be on defense. . . We are in a crisis. Yeah. Our world is burning. We can actually set the agenda and make things better.”
Guest:
Sara Nelson: International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (representing 55,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines)
#217 - Mamdani, Black Farmers, USDA & ICE: The Stories BIPOC Journalists Uncover
Explore the top headlines of the month — and stories you won’t find in mainstream media — in this timely episode of Meet the BIPOC Press. From New York City, Documented’s Labor Reporter Amir Khafagy returns to fill us in on mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s win in the primary election, and how mainstream media overlooked the immigrant vote. Was this a “political upset” to journalists from those very communities? And reporting from the U.S. South, Capital B Rural Issues Reporter Aallyah Wright discusses new legislation from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will have devastating impacts on Black farmers. Also in this episode: employers allegedly threatening immigrant workers with ICE and deportation for speaking up about wage theft, the independent media model and holding journalists accountable. As you’ll hear, these reporters are not just covering their communities — they're helping to build the infrastructure for more inclusive, accurate storytelling about race, place, and power.
“In the mainstream media there was this conversation happening around, maybe the gentrifier class and the hipsters were the ones coming out and voting for [Zohran Mamdani]. And that may have been true to some extent, but immigrant communities, especially Asian immigrant communities, were really excited for him . . . Some of the districts in Queens that even went Trump voted for Zohran. - Amir Khafagy
“I've been seeing a lot of news coverage about the USDA, when we talk about office closures or folks being laid off, or these grants that are being cut . . . But they're not always focused on the realities of what that looks like for Black farmers, given the history of the fraught relationship between Black farmers and the USDA and the historic discrimination.” - Aallyah Wright
Guests:
Amir Khafagy: Senior Labor Reporter, Documented NY
Aallyah Wright: Rural Issues Reporter, Capital B
#218 - Louisiana Survived Katrina. Will it Survive the Petrochemical Industry?
Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to strike the United States, killing 1,833 people, displacing hundreds of thousands more and causing more than $100 billion in damage. Louisianans wanted change and climate action, but 20 years on, a state ravaged by climate disasters is now ground zero for a whole new kind of storm: liquified natural gas facilities. The Trump administration okayed several new LNG plants on the Gulf this year, but residents are still picking up the pieces after the first LNG plants entered their neighborhood under Democratic administrations. In this episode, Laura speaks to Louisianans whose lives have been turned upside down by the expansion of LNG exports, and an expert who says minority communities benefit little from the jobs in the petrochemical facilities that surround them, yet suffer disproportionate pollution effects. Their message? Climate refugees exist in the U.S., and there will be more: “Wake up, open your eyes!”
“[I’m a] climate refugee, more than once . . . I'm no scientist, but I'm more of an expert than the experts. Living it’s a whole different ball game.” - Travis Dardar
“[Companies] demand big tax incentives to come here . . . We are last in transportation, last in healthcare, last in education . . . We’re almost last in every measurable area because we give tax breaks to the big oil companies and petrochemical companies.” - General Russel L. Honoré
“Donald Trump doesn't live next to an oil refinery and he never will.” - Kimberly Terrell
Guests:
Travis Dardar: Commercial Fisherman; Founder, Fishermen Interested In Saving our Heritage (FISH)
General Russel L. Honoré: Decorated 37-Year Army Veteran; Commander, Joint Task Force Katrina; Founder, GreenARMY
Kimberly Terrell: Visiting Scientist, Center for Applied Environmental Science (CAES); Former Research Scientist & Director, Community Engagement, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic
#223 - Vessels of Revolution: Akinsanya Kambon on Art, Black Panther Legacy & Liberation
With each glimmering piece he creates, artist Akinsanya Kambon brings suppressed histories of both colonization and liberation to life. His ceramic works depict struggle and survival across the African diaspora, and stepping into his studio is a spiritual experience, as Laura Flanders recently discovered. Kambon was a member of the Sacramento chapter of the Black Panther Party where he worked on the layout and illustration of the party’s famous paper and became lieutenant for culture, illustrating among other things the party’s ten point plan and works for young people. In 2023, he won the prestigious Mohn Award — the top prize given by the Hammer Museum for his participation in their biennial “Made in LA” show, titled Acts of Living. His one-man show opened in Beverly Hills at Marc Selwyn Fine Art in April 2025. An exhibition of his work will open at the New York Sculpture Center in May 2026. In this unique conversation, Flanders asks Kambon about his own survival stories, including his polio diagnosis, getting drafted into the Vietnam War, and his year on death row. Kambon was arrested in connection with the killing of a police officer and was later acquitted from that high-profile Oak Park Four case. Join Flanders and Kambon as they discuss how art keeps spirits alive, and catch Flanders’ commentary on today’s fight to control our nation’s stories.
“Art educates the masses of people. Not Black or white or Asian, this educates the masses of young people to our struggle, to how long they're struggling and how it's connected.” - Akinsanya Kambon
“I thought of myself as an artist even when I was a child, because art was therapy for me . . . I used to always seem like I would always take the side of the underdog.” - Akinsanya Kambon
#224 - Robert Reich Fights Democracy's Bullies: Time to Shut Trump Down
The crisis we’re in was a long time coming. Now that we’re here, what do we do about it? Returning to the show, former Labor Secretary and longtime professor Robert Reich joins Laura Flanders to discuss two bullies tormenting U.S. democracy: concentrated wealth and corporate power. As Reich shares, growing income inequality yields corruption in our politics and economy. No one election will change everything, but that’s not a reason not to act, and act quickly to defeat the Trump administration — in Congress, and at the polls. Reich’s latest Substack, “Should Democrats Shut Down the Government?” presents some ideas. Reich's latest book is “Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America”. He is also the subject of “The Last Class” about his final semester teaching at UC Berkeley's Goldman School. He's the author of eighteen books, including the bestsellers, “Aftershock” and “The System: Who Rigged It and How We Fix It,” and is co-founder of Inequality Media. Online, you can find Reich’s viral video explainers and his widely-read newsletter on Substack. Join Reich and Flanders as they unpack how economic and political power intersect in American life – and catch Laura’s two cents on “democratic capitalism.”
“If the Republicans who now control Congress say, “‘We're not going to give you any role at all, and we are not even going to reassume our constitutional role as Congress,’ then I think the Democrats have no choice but to say, ‘Forget it. That's it. The only way we bring attention to this crisis is we stop and shut the whole place down.’” - Robert Reich
“More than a century ago, we had the first Gilded Age in the United States . . . We had the equivalent of billionaires, the equivalent of Elon Musk . . . Why would we not have another Progressive Era as a response to the Gilded Age? We are now in the second Gilded Age.” - Robert Reich
Guest
Robert Reich: Former Secretary of Labor; Professor Emeritus, University of California Berkeley; Author, Coming Up Short: My Memoir of America
#225 - Kimberlé Crenshaw on the Legal System Cracking Up: Critical Race Theory & the Rollback of Civil Rights
Calling all white people: How many times in the last eight months have you heard the phrase “isn’t that illegal?” The problems with our legal system are more conspicuous than ever in 2025, but thought leaders like Kimberlé Crenshaw have been sounding the alarm for decades. Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum, Crenshaw is celebrating the organization's 30th anniversary and joining Laura Flanders in this episode to discuss the challenges ahead. For starters, the Supreme Court has recently legalized racial profiling for ICE deportations, the Trump administration is looking to remove so-called “improper ideology” from US institutions like the Smithsonian, and the president recently suggested domestic violence is not a real crime. Crenshaw is a leading scholar on Critical Race Theory, a Professor of Law at Columbia and UCLA Law Schools, and host of the podcast "Intersectionality Matters!" which is currently releasing a new episode of their series United States of Amnesia: The Real Histories of Critical Race Theory. Join Crenshaw and Flanders as they look at the AAPF’s role in advancing intersectional policies to address antiracism, and how they plan to continue that work in this critical moment. Plus, a commentary from Laura on rights and the Right.
“To really stand behind this idea of making America great again, you've got to erase the memory of what America was . . . He's going after the history of enslavement. He's going after the history of genocide. He's saying that this kind of history is no longer appropriate for the federal government to officially recognize and historicize.” - Kimberlé Crenshaw
“[Conservatives] believe race should not play a role in creating greater access to equality. They do believe race should play a role in deciding who should be surveilled. They do believe in race when it comes to who should be collected up, potentially put on buses and planes and sent out of this country.” - Kimberlé Crenshaw
Guest:
Kimberlé Crenshaw: Professor of Law, Columbia & UCLA Law Schools; Executive Director, African American Policy Forum
#226 - Alone & Under Water: Learning from Hurricane Helene
When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in September 2024, it came as a shock, hitting mountains, not coasts, and flooding rivers and communities with little experience of dealing with hurricanes. Helene quickly became one of the worst storms to ever hit the U.S., and in the absence of a quick response by state or federal government, other groups flooded in. Right-wing actors took advantage of the chaos, spreading rumors about looting and trying to boost their image. But it’s the mutual aid networks — some long standing, others new that responded with creative, effective strategies to distribute water, medicine and help communities rebuild. In this episode, Laura Flanders heads to some of the hardest-hit areas in western North Carolina and speaks with community activists to hear the lessons to be learned for the future. Amid Trump cuts to FEMA and the National Weather Service, the future for storm recovery in North Carolina is uncertain. But one thing's for sure — mutual aid support like Pansy Collective, Cherokee One Feather, Racial Justice Coalition (RJC), Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR) and Collaborativa La Milpa have the strategies and solutions we may all need for survival.
“It takes the state a long time to mobilize, and that might continue to be true as FEMA gets defunded . . . It’s imperative that people fight to keep their disaster response funding, but until then, we need to know how to respond ourselves.” - RT
“We were talking to the people that were staying in hotels because they had just lost everything and didn't know where they were going to get their next meal or their medicine. Talk to those people . . . We had those journalists, especially BIPOC journalists in Western North Carolina, making sure those stories were told.” - Brooklyn Brown (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
Guests:
Brooklyn Brown (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians): Reporter, Cherokee One Feather
RT Pansy
Ayotunde Dixson: Racial Justice Coalition (RJC)
Janet Kent: Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR)
Tai Little:: SEAC Village
Alan Luis Ramirez: Collaborativa La Milpa
Mab Segrest: Anti Racist Research Program, Blueprint NC
#227 - Mahmoud Khalil’s Warning: American Anti-Fascists are Failing the Palestine Test
Mahmoud Khalil was coming home from an Iftar dinner with his pregnant wife on March 8, 2025 when he was detained without a warrant and transported 1,500 miles to a Louisiana detention camp. A negotiator for the 2024 pro-Palestine student protests at Columbia University, Khalil was a legal permanent resident who’d committed no violence or crime; his abduction shocked the world. The Trump administration was seeking to expel Khalil, not for his acts, but for his otherwise legal “beliefs, statements and associations” which Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in short letter, would “compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest.” A New Jersey federal judge threw out that case and Khalil was released after 104 days in detention, but the backlash keeps on coming. In this courageous conversation, Mahmoud Khalil joins Laura Flanders to discuss the night of his terrifying detainment, the “Palestinian Exception” and the case brought against him by the Trump administration. They are alleging errors on his green card application and have ordered Khalil to be deported — possibly to Algeria or Syria where his life would be under threat. Despite the risks of deportation, Mahmoud Khalil continues to speak out, and he and his legal team have filed a civil rights lawsuit with the U.S. District Court of New Jersey against the Trump administration to challenge his arrest and detention by ICE. Join Khalil and Flanders as they ask why the question of Palestine is a test for U.S. democracy — and one we are failing.
“. . . [The Trump administration is] using Palestine. They are using the pretext of antisemitism and combating antisemitism to go after us because they know that this is the weakness of the Democratic party. When they go to the universities, they start with combating antisemitism, but then the second ask would be to abolish all DEI programs, to sanitize the history on slavery and the inception of America. And the list goes on and on and on.” - Mahmoud Khalil
“People mistakenly think that what's happening is far from their doors. They think that this would never happen to them, because of their social status, because of their ethnicity or any of that. But what's happening around us should alarm us . . . It's not about that the U.S. is becoming authoritarian. It is authoritarianism now.” - Mahmoud Khalil
Guest:
Mahmoud Khalil: Human Rights Advocate, Columbia University Graduate 2025
#228 - Cuts, Shutdowns & Civil Rights Attacks: Federal Workers Fight Back
About 750,000 people are on unpaid leave as the U.S. government shutdown continues — but some of the most caring parts of the government's work have been shut down for months. Take the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for example. This is one of the only free resources available to Americans facing housing discrimination, but in a shocking complaint letter submitted to Senator Elizabeth Warren on September 22, 2025, civil rights attorneys Palmer Heenan, Paul Osadebe and two other whistleblowers describe an agency in crisis. Staff has been slashed by 70% since Donald Trump took office, civil rights cases have been abandoned, and political appointees are allegedly overriding legal findings to allow discrimination. Every layoff and budget cut by the Trump administration, both within HUD and across federal agencies, is part of a larger plan to create chaos, end civil rights protections, legalize segregation and exert unitary executive power. Heenan and Osadebe, members of the Federal Unionists Network (FUN), are calling on federal employees to uphold their oath to constitution and protect Americans. And they’ve paid the price: both Heenan and Osadebe were fired by HUD in what has been called a "stunning act of illegal retaliation.” In this conversation, the two share their story, what it means for civil rights and how unions can fight for government accountability.
“No one is asking for a leg up or an extra hand or whatever the case might be. We're just asking to get rid of discrimination. And so I hope the future will tell the story of people doing just that, coming together, going to Congress and saying, ‘These are our rights. You passed them into law decades ago. Fight for the rights that we have now.’” - Palmer Heenan
“The thing that will actually get us through this is solidarity, recognizing what potential power we have as federal workers . . . [The administration wants] to create fear, which leads to silence, which lets things be dismantled without anyone standing up and fighting and saying, ‘This is illegal, this is wrong and this is harming people.’ It's up to federal workers, the ones in the building, to actually do that.” - Paul Osadebe
Guests:
Palmer Heenan: Attorney, HUD Whistleblower; Member, AFGE 476
Paul Osadebe: Attorney, HUD Whistleblower; Steward, AFGE 476