The Real News Podcast

Appalachia is a region with a rich and complicated political history that is often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented in other parts of the country. In a special “Marc Steiner Show” first, Marc and TRNN audio engineer Stephen Frank take listeners on a narrative journey through the politics and economics of Appalachia today. Guests in this segment include Marie Gunoe, director of the Mother Jones Community Foundation and longtime environmental activist and community organizer in West Virginia fighting to protect communities and the environment from the harmful effects of mountaintop removal mining; Chuck Nelson, a retired fourth-generation coal miner, member of the United Mine Workers of America, and board adviser and volunteer at the Mother Jones Community Foundation; and Hy Thurman, author of Revolutionary Hillbilly and one of the founding members of the Young Patriots and the first Rainbow Coalition.Then, in our second segment, Marc talks with Erica Payne, president and founder of the group Patriotic Millionaires, and Morris Pearl, chair of Patriotic Millionaires, about their new book, "Tax the Rich!: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer," and about the many subtle and not-so-subtle ways the U.S. tax code is a racket designed to benefit the rich.Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Tuesday on TRNN.Production/Postproduction: Stephen FrankBecome 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!

While wealthy countries like the United States are rushing to vaccinate their populations and “reopen” their societies, the rest of the world continues to suffer. With hospitals overrun and life-saving oxygen supplies running low, India’s government is reporting over 300,000 new COVID-19 infections every day (though evidence suggests the numbers are even higher). Meanwhile, Brazil suffered 70,000 COVID deaths in April alone, with poor and Black communities being hit the hardest, while a new, more contagious variant rips across the country. How have these preventable horrors come to pass? And what can we do to help?In this urgent episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” spanning three continents, we bring you firsthand reports of the unfolding catastrophes in India and Brazil from guests who are living through them. Marc is joined by journalist and activist Ansab Amir, who is based in Aligarh, India, and multimedia journalist, radio reporter, documentary filmmaker, and TRNN contributor Mike Fox, who is based in Florianópolis, Brazil.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!

In this special episode of “Working People,” we talk with three veterans about how the military and the class system (in the U.S. and around the world) go hand in hand. How does the military market itself to the poor and marginalized (and why is that marketing so effective)? How does our broken economy ensure a constant stream of recruits who will be sent to fight endless imperialist wars just so they can pay for college or finally be accepted as a worthy citizen? What happens to these recruits when they're serving and when (or if) they leave? Why is it that so many features of military life and America's self-perpetuating war machine translate to an accepted status quo in which women, LGBTQ folks, and non-white recruits are subjected to vicious harassment, violent assault, or worse? In this important conversation, we're joined by Triste Ordex, Marine Corps vet and national organizer for Vets for the People; Amber Mathwig, a former 10-year Navy Master-at-Arms and organizer with About Face: Veterans Against the War; and Clarke, a Navy veteran, organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America, and commercial diver.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 “F” word has been thrown around a lot in the age of Donald Trump. From President Trump’s “Muslim ban,” to bipartisan support for migrant-filled concentration camps, to the failed insurrection at the Capitol building in January of this year, is “fascism” a useful term for understanding the political reality we’ve been living in? Are we misapplying the term in ways that drain it of its historical meaning? In the first installment of an ongoing series investigating the contours of fascism in the past and present, Jacqueline Luqman speaks with international human rights activist and National Organizer for Black Alliance for Peace Ajamu Baraka about how we must decenter twentieth-century Europe in order to gain a fuller understanding of what fascism is and where it exists.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 four months since supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building in early January in a thwarted attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. While many in the Republican and Democratic political establishment hoped to move on from the failed Trumpist insurrection by characterizing it as an unrepeatable anomaly, the fact of the matter is the widespread, coordinated efforts by the right to undermine democracy continue unabated. From the grassroots to the halls of legislative power, what will it take to beat back the anti-democracy onslaught, and how can we fight to expand democracy?In this episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” Marc and his guests examine the state of democracy in the U.S. and the intertwined fights for expanded voting rights and police accountability. In the first segment, we’re joined by Congressman Jamie Raskin, U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 8th congressional district, to discuss the great political divide in the U.S. and the fight to expand our democratic rights. Then, in our recurring monthly segment where we talk with authors from Jacobin magazine, Marc talks with Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage about recently leaked audio of Republican plutocrats plotting to kill the push to expand voting rights.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!

In this important episode, we interview worker-organizers with the Federation of General Workers Myanmar about the brutal military coup that has been unfolding in their country since Feb. 1 of this year, and we talk about working people's brave and dangerous efforts to stand up and fight back.Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"Breath Before the Plunge, "End of All things"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!

Last week the country watched anxiously as Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd last May, was found guilty of third-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and second-degree unintentional murder. While many breathed a sigh of relief that some modicum of justice had been achieved for Floyd and his family, we were reminded of the continuing inhumanity of the U.S. policing system as Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Ma'Khia Bryant, and others were killed by police during and immediately after the Chauvin trial. When coupled with the fact that so few police officers are ever convicted of violent crimes, this all serves as a sobering reminder that we have a long way to go to get to justice.In this important, extended panel discussion on “The Marc Steiner Show,” we reflect on the Chauvin verdict, the state of police accountability in the U.S., and the cultural and political backlash that is already taking shape. Marc is joined by Kali Holloway, columnist for The Nation and The Daily Beast, and the director of the Make It Right Project, a new national campaign to take down Confederate monuments and tell the truth about history; Stephen Janis, co-host of the Police Accountability Report on TRNN and director of the new documentary “The Friendliest Town”; and Taya Graham, co-host of the Police Accountability Report, co-creator and producer of the “Truth and Reconciliation” podcast, and producer of “The Friendliest Town.”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!

In this unearthed, pre-pandemic recording of "Working People," we talk to filmmaker Dominique Rémy about her important full-length documentary project, which investigates the shockingly high maternal morbidity and mortality rates in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities in the U.S.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!

Last week, President Joe Biden announced he will be pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2021, seemingly ending the longest war in U.S. history. But what does that really mean? What happens to Afghanistan next? How can we possibly make reparations for the destruction we’ve wrought, and will we do anything to address the machinations of a military-industrial complex that continually drives us into more wars around the globe? In the first segment of this week’s “Marc Steiner Show,” we dive into these and other vital questions with Matthew Hoh, disabled Marine combat veteran, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and member of the Eisenhower Media Initiative, and Danny Sjursen, retired Army major who served in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, director of the Eisenhower Media Network, and author of multiple books, including “Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War.”Then, the Saudi-led war and the war-induced famine in Yemen is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today—a crisis in which the United States continues to be complicit. In our second segment, Marc speaks with Iman Saleh, one of the Yemeni-Americans with the Yemeni Liberation Movement who began a hunger strike on March 29 to demand an end to the Saudi-led and U.S.-backed blockade of Yemen. As of this publication, Saleh has not eaten for 23 days.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!

On top of the typical stresses, intense work, and long hours common to the profession, nurses working at smaller hospitals in more remote parts of the country face many unique challenges. With fewer staff and 24-7 services, facilities like the two Lehigh Valley Health Network hospitals in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, rely on nurses, nursing assistants, and other staff to perform many jobs simultaneously with little rest. But when nurses begin to leave for better working conditions and the hospital does not replace them, those who remain are put under even more strain, which endangers them and their patients. For workers with Schuylkill Hospital Nurses United, that's just the tip of the iceberg. In this episode, we talk with two Schuylkill County nurses, Brandee Brown-Seigfried and Chrissy Newton, and Seth Goldstein from the Office and Professional Employees International Union, about the day-to-day grind of working in small-town hospitals while also combating union-busting and bad-faith bargaining from management.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!