WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Xavier de Janon, an attorney representing one of 61 ‘Stop Cop City’ defendants in Atlanta, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Xavier de Janon, an attorney representing one of the 61 defendants. Here, he discusses the status of the cases and the serious possible sentences — up to 20 years in prison — that await any who are convicted. On July 7, a few days after this interview was conducted, the judge in King’s case declared a mistrial, saying there were “juror issues.”

Interview with Maggie Mitchell Salem, executive director of Connecticut-based IRIS, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, conducted by Scott Harris.Maggie Mitchell Salem discusses the impact of the Trump administration’s new immigration policies on IRIS services, as well as federal funds revoked or withdrawn from IRIS’ budget. She also talks about her group’s latest Know Your Rights campaign that was launched on the July 4th weekend, and other projects and services local listeners can support or volunteer for.

Interview with Teddy Wilson, a journalist, researcher and publisher of the Radical Reports newsletter on the far right, conducted by Scott Harris.Teddy Wilson talks about indicted Jan. 6 insurrectionist Jared L. Wise’s appointment as a counselor to Ed Martin, director of the so-called Department of Justice Weaponization Working Group. Wilson also discusses investigations he’s conducted in his “Pardon Tracker” series regarding the alarming activities of insurrectionists and other convicted criminals after they were pardoned by Donald Trump. Wilson has more than a decade of experience covering the U.S. radical right, publishing the Radical Reports newsletter.

Interview with Chris Lehmann, the DC Bureau chief for The Nation magazine and a contributing editor at The Baffler, conducted by Scott Harris.Chris Lehmann discusses the important and timely issues examined in his recent Nation article, “Trump’s Big Bill is Building a Big Police State,” explaining that “with more than $150 billion in outlays to expand the horrific surveillance, detention and rendition regime created under the Laken Riley Act, the measure will carry out Trump’s pledge to make the terror — wreaked by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, alongside federal and National Guard troops in Los Angeles — the standard operating procedure for immigrant roundups going forward.”

Interview with Dr. Adam W. Gaffney, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus on Children.Dr. Adam W. Gaffney and Bruce Lesley discuss the expected overall healthcare impact of the Trump-GOP federal budget bill just passed by Congress that cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid and Medicare, will take away millions of poor families’ access to food and nutrition programs and close hundreds of community and rural hospitals. Both will also address viable alternatives to America’s current failed for-profit healthcare system.

The Monthly Labor Report welcomes Nadia Marin-Molina, executive director of NDLON, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, to discuss the crisis, the activism, and the fight-back we are witnessing as the right-wing attack on immigrants (both documented and undocumented) reaches critical mass around the country. The conversation includes Michael Zweig, economist and labor historian, who brings his decades of experience as a labor and civil rights activist to bear on analyzing this dangerous moment in our flagging democracy.Hosted by Richard Hill

 Interview with Padma Dyvine, a survivor of Hurricane Helene from Bat Cave, North Carolina, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus visited friends in the area in June and saw firsthand some of the damage and ongoing recovery efforts. Padma Dyvine and her husband, who live in the hamlet of Bat Cave, were airlifted from their home by helicopter when fallen trees blocked their ability to leave their home and get supplies. The couple spent 55 days as refugees, moving back home just before Thanksgiving. Increases in hurricane strength and rainfall due to the worsening climate crisis are predicted to make future hurricane seasons more dangerous over time.

Interview with Dulce Guzman, executive director of Alianza Americas, conducted by Scott Harris.Dulce Guzman discusses her group, Alianza Americas’ response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limits the power of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions, without addressing the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship. She’ll also discuss the next steps in defending the U.S. Constitution from the Trump regime’s authoritarian rule.

Interview with India Walton, senior strategist with RootsAction.org, conducted by Scott Harris.India Walton discusses Zohran Mamdani’s apparent and historic victory in the New York City primary election, and the attacks and obstacles he’ll likely face in the general election campaign as the Democratic party establishment, their corporate allies, and Wall Street attempt to smear Zohran as a “dangerous Muslim socialist.”Walton won the Democratic primary for mayor of Buffalo, N.Y. in 2021, but lost the general election after establishment Democrats, Republicans, and the city’s business sector pulled out all the stops to defeat her.

Interview with Amanda Marcotte, a senior politics writer at Salon.com and author of "Troll Nation: How the Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set on Rat-F*cking Liberals, America and Truth Itself." Amanda Marcotte talks about her recent commentary, “Evangelicals Push Trump into Conflict with Iran,” making the case that the Christian Right remains Trump’s most important constituency.