WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Aziz Dehkan, executive director/lead organizer with Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs conducted by Scott Harris.Aziz discusses the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs’ response to the Trump administration’s order halting construction of the Revolution Wind offshore wind project that’s 80 percent complete, and would have powered 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island. He also discusses other priorities his group is working on in the CT state legislature this year.

Craig Mokhiber is the former director of the New York Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, who resigned in protest from his post in 2023 due to the unfolding Gaza genocide and the UN’s failures.  Here he discusses his recent Mondoweiss article, “How the UN Could Act Today to Stop the Genocide in Palestine,” and the general failure of international law in Gaza, Palestine and Israel. 

Interview with Justin Glawe, an independent journalist and editor of the American Doom newsletter.Here he discusses the urgent issues examined in his recent article, “How Trump’s National Guard shock troops could seize voting machines,” and other concerns about the security of the 2026 midterm election that Trump and the Republican party are clearly worried they’ll lose — and now taking action on rigging the outcome.

Interview with Bill Fletcher Jr., a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses the critical issues examined in his recent In These Times magazine article, “The Labor Movement Is in a Fight for Its Existence Against a Neofascist Threat.”Fletcher Jr. is the former president of TransAfrica Forum and the author of "They’re Bankrupting Us!: And 20 Other Myths about Unions.” His latest novel is titled, "The Man Who Changed Colors."

The Monthly Labor Report, broadcast on WPKN the 1st Tuesday of each month, presents an interview with Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (CWA - AFL-CIO), conducted on the Friday before Labor Day.Sara Nelson, regarded by many as one the most militant, class conscious labor leaders in the country, addresses the current struggle of her union, and working people in general, against a patently fascist authoritarian Trump regime.Hosted by Richard Hill with Michael Zweig, economist, labor historian, professor emeritus at the SUNY-Stony Brook, and author of Class, Race and Gender -- Challenging the Injuries and Divisions of Capitalism (published by PM Press).

Interview with Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of CT Students for a Dream, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.Melinda Tuhus spoke with Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of CT Students for a Dream, which works mostly with young immigrants. Sookdeo herself is West Indian and she recently convened a meeting in Hamden, Connecticut, to bring together black immigrants from various countries to discuss their experiences and how they might increase collaboration with others at risk of abduction and deportation by ICE agents under Trump’s oppressive policies.

Interview with Rev. Sierra-Marie Gerfao, director of family ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury, and Juliana Soares, an organizer with Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants, conducted by Scott HarrisThe Rev. Sierra-Marie Gerfao and Juliana Soares talk about the escalation of violent ICE raids and abductions in Danbury and in Connecticut, as well as what opponents of this lawless repression are doing to rally resistance against the Trump regime’s dehumanizing mass deportation policy.

Interview with Heather Digby Parton, a contributing writer to Salon.com, conducted by Scott Harris.Heather Digby Parton discusses the important issues examined in her recent Salon article, “Paging FDR: Democrats need to embrace New Deal-style politics,” where she recounts how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt fought for the underdog — and was brazenly ruthless, urging floundering Democrats to follow FDR’s lead.

Interview with Dr. Ferric C. Fang, professor of laboratory medicine, pathology and microbiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, conducted by Scott Harris.University of Washington School of Medicine professor Dr. Ferric C. Fang discusses his views on the decision by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattachary to cancel all federal contracts for research on mRNA vaccines because RFK Jr. believes “the public lacks trust in the technology,” and the consequences for U.S. and global public health in normal times, as well as in the event of future deadly pandemics.

Interview with Sam Rosenthal, political director with the RootsAction.org, conducted by Scott Harris.RootsAction.org‘s Political Director Sam Rosenthal talks about the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the coalition of progressive groups supporting a resolution calling for “an immediate ceasefire, an arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel” that will be heard at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee Aug. 25 to 27.