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Free Forum with Terrence McNally

Latest episodes

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Apr 3, 2025 • 52min

Episode 685: WHY CIVIL RESISTANCE WORKS-ERICA CHENOWETH (2019) - When nonviolent mass protests involve 3.5%, regimes fall.

HANDS OFF - national mobilization opposing Trump & Musk SATURDAY APRIL 5. Sponsors include Indivisible, MoveOn, Third Act, Our Revolution, Common Cause, People for American Way, Planned Parenthood, UAW, SEIU, many more. Need motivation? Here’s my 2019 conversation with ERICA CHENOWETH, Professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School and author of WHY CIVIL RESISTANCE WORKS: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. She’s done the research and run the numbers. When nonviolent mass protests involve 3.5% of the population, regimes are nearly always overthrown.
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Mar 27, 2025 • 1h 11min

Episode 684: What About Climate? ALEXANDER KAUFMAN - natural & political disasters - supply & demand

The destructive pace and scale of Trump2.0 makes it hard to know what deserves and demands our attention. This week we step back from daily news to focus on climate with award-winning journalist ALEXANDER KAUFMAN. We look at the toll of climate related disasters and migration; the latest on the science, what have we learned over the last year or so: the actions of the Trump administration to take us backwards; and the global picture of energy and technology. What's working? What do we need more of? You can learn more and subscribe to his personal newsletter at kaufman.substack.com. 
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Mar 21, 2025 • 60min

Episode 683: How Poor Immigrant Children Succeed in Inner City Philly-SISTERS CONSTANCE TOUEY & JEANNETTE LUCEY

The headlines are full of the cruel, unjust, illegal, unconstitutional, and costly treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration. Here’s my 2019 conversation with SISTERS CONSTANCE TOUEY and JEANNETTE LUCEY. They met in 1984 when both were assigned to a parish K-8 school in inner city Philadelphia. Their book, DO IT BETTER: How the Kids of St. Francis de Sales Exceeded Everyone’s Expectations tells the stories of their 30+ years as principal and 8th grade teacher as they educate and transform the lives of wave after wave of poor immigrant children. I’m proud to have written the book with them.
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Mar 14, 2025 • 60min

Episode 682: Can we the people join forces? DIANA McLAIN SMITH-REMAKING THE SPACE BETWEEN US

It’s up to us. Political parties, political players, and the media promote and profit from our division. We the people have ultimate responsibility for healing our politics and our society. In her book, REMAKING THE SPACE BETWEEN US: How Citizens Can Work Together to Build a Better Future for All, DIANA McLAIN SMITH has good news. The media doesn’t report it, but hundreds of organizations and millions of people are already actively engaged in developing relationships and alliances that can work together in the service of our better angels.Learn more at remakingthespace.orgDiana McLain Smith, 2025 - Transcript
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Mar 6, 2025 • 60min

Episode 681: JULIE BATTILANA-POWER FOR ALL-How do we get it and use it to change the world?

Feeling pissed, panicked, powerless? That’s what they want. How do we turn things around? Here’s my refreshing 2021 conversation with JULIE BATTILANA, Harvard professor and founder of its Social Innovation and Change Initiative about her book POWER FOR ALL. It's a call not only to understand and assert power in our own lives, but also to collectively use this power to remake society by rebalancing existing power relationships - including racial, gender, financial and political. To learn more, go to Powerforallbook.com
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Feb 28, 2025 • 55min

Episode 680: Rich walk. Poor go to jail. AMY BACH (2009)-ORDINARY INJUSTICE

When Trump sits in the White House dispensing pardons to other convicted felons - and an ambassadorship or two, when he was able to run out the clock on justice with his political donors paying most of his legal bills, when so many actions this administration has taken in the first month serve to eliminate or disable accountability or oversight… Here’s my 2009 conversation with Amy Bach about how the legal system systematically fails regular people every day. The rich walk, the poor go to prison. Her book ORDINARY INJUSTICE shows how - in the name of expedience - legal professionals collaborate rather than face off, sacrificing defendants and victims to keep the court calendar moving.
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Feb 14, 2025 • 60min

Episode 679: JAMES STEELE-of investigative reporting team, Barlett & Steele-AMERICA: What Went Wrong? The Crisis Deepens

I’m honored to talk with JAMES STEELE, of the investigative reporting team, Barlett & Steele. He and DON BARLETT worked together for over 50 years, won journalism’s highest awards, wrote nine books. Don Barlett died this past fall. Their 1991 Philadelphia Inquirer series America: What Went Wrong? showed how Wall Street and Washington were squeezing the middle class and fueling income inequality and led to a best-selling book. That was 1991 B.C. Before Clinton. They have been on that beat ever since. We did an episode in 2012 on their Betrayal of the American Dream. Jim and I talk about their partnership, about how we got here, and what it feels like to have your warnings ignored. Learn more: barlettandsteele.com 
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Feb 7, 2025 • 60min

Episode 678: JEAN GUERRERO(2020)-HATEMONGER: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, & the White Nationalist Agenda

Ever the real estate guy, Trump unleashes a demo crew on the government, says US should develop Gaza’s beachfront. Elon Musk invades federal agencies, accesses all our data, brags about throwing our global humanitarian aid in a wood chipper. Criminal, cruel, and unconstitutional. Here’s my 2020 conversation with JEAN GUERRERO, about her book, HATEMONGER: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. Chief architect of Trump's Muslim travel ban and his family separation policy, Miller has even more power this time around as White House Deputy Chief of Staff. Learn more at jeanguerrero.com
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Jan 30, 2025 • 1h 20min

Episode 677: STEVE SCHMIDT-Straight talk from former GOP strategist, co-founder, Lincoln Project

A week into Trump 2.0, the cruelty and overreach are on full display, and the media and the Democrats are not up to the challenge. I turn to longtime Republican strategist, STEVE SCHMIDT, who abandoned the GOP in 2018 and co-founded the Lincoln Project. He’s now perhaps the most articulate, full-throated and damning critic of his former party and the inadequate opposition. You can learn more at steveschmidt.substack.com or The Warning with Steve Schmidt on YouTube.
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Jan 24, 2025 • 56min

Episode 676: The time I was the guest. TERRENCE McNALLY(2014)-interviewed by SARA DAVIDSON

TERRENCE McNALLY is my guest this week. In February 2014, I took a hiatus from this show after 17 years. I thought it might be the end of the line, and before signing off, turned to journalist and best-selling author, SARA DAVIDSON, to interview me.  I returned to these conversations In 2017 after Trump’s election. So here we are - 11 years after that hiatus and this conversation, 8 years after my return, and a few days after Trump’s second inauguration. How did things look to me then as I reflected both backward and forward?McNally, Davidson 2025 - Transcript

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