WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Kimberly Fountain, consumer financial justice field manager at Americans for Financial Reform, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Kimberly Fountain, consumer financial justice field manager at Americans for Financial Reform. Here she explains why medical debt shouldn’t be included in consumers’ credit ratings and the disparate impact it has on different communities.

Interview with Ayesha R. Clarke, executive director of the Connecticut-based Health Equity Solutions, conducted by Scott Harris.Ayesha Clarke discusses how the federal slashing of social safety net programs in Trump’s recently passed budget bill will impact Connecticut residents, and what Gov. Ned Lamont and the legislature can do to prepare and offset the pain and disruption to essential services serving the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Interview with Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch.com writer, longtime political activist, and adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, conducted by Scott Harris.Rebecca Gordon discusses her important coverage of how the Trump regime is expanding the “surveillance state” targeting perceived enemies to extend and consolidate authoritarian power.Gordon taught philosophy at the University of San Francisco. A long-time political activist, she’s presently retired from teaching but remains active with the faculty union and writes regularly for TomDispatch.com. She is the author of several books, including "Mainstreaming Torture" and "American Nuremberg."

Interview with Richard W. Behan, a contributor to Counterpunch, conducted by Scott Harris.Richard Behan discusses his recent Counterpunch article, “The Peril of Spectacle, Especially Jeffrey Epstein’s,” explores where the deepening bipartisan suspicion and anger about Donald Trump’s expanding scandal may lead the country; and how it may serve as a distraction from the central, existential fight to defend democracy against Trump-Republican party fascism.

Interview with Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducted by Scott Harris.Jennifer Loewenstein examines the current famine crisis in Gaza; the Trump regime’s incoherent and dishonest policies toward Gaza and Palestinians; France, the U.K. and Canada’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state — and what, if any, difference that policy shift could make.

Interview with Scarlett de Leon, executive director of ACT-LA, conducted by Melinda Tuhus. Scarlett explains that after June ICE raids led to the arrests of hundreds of immigrants in Los Angeles. ACT-LA sent a letter to the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority asking for changes to strengthen protections for immigrants against ICE abductions.

Interview with Hannah Levintova, Mother Jones' magazine D.C. bureau reporter, conducted by Scott Harris.Hannah Levintova talks about her investigation featured in the Public Radio series, “Reveal,” titled, “The Landlord Gutting America’s Hospitals,” which examines how a real estate company buys up hospitals and then leases them back to healthcare systems, causing dozens of its hospitals to go bankrupt, close or be sold because profits were sucked out of them, resulting in the deterioration of patient care.

Interview with Robert Greenwald, founder and president of Brave New Films, conducted by Scott Harris.Robert Greenwald talks about his new documentary titled, “Gaza: Journalists Under Fire,” which exposes Israel’s crimes against journalism and humanity, where more than 200 Gaza-based journalists have been killed since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel — through the lives and deaths of Palestinian journalists Belal Jadallah, Heba Al-Abadla and Ismail al-Ghoul.Brave New World, a nonprofit production company that creates and distributes investigative political and social justice documentaries.

Interview with Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Drop Site News Middle East and North Africa editor, conducted by Scott Harris.Sharif Abdel Kouddous discusses his coverage of Israel’s starvation campaign against Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinian civilians — and the Trump regime’s role in this war crime via the U.S.-backed “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” — as reported in his recent article, “Palestinians are Collapsing in Gaza’s Streets from Israeli-Imposed Starvation Campaign.”   Kouddous received a George Polk Award for his investigation into the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Interview with Melvin Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and professor of government at Johns Hopkins University, conducted by Scott Harris.Melvin Goodman, a former CIA analyst and author, discusses his recent Counterpunch commentary, “The Waste and Futility of the Golden Dome National Defense System,” estimated to cost between $161 billion and $542 billion over two decades, as well as the larger danger of expiring U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaties.