WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister, former president and current national board member of Veterans For Peace (VFP), conducted by Scott Harris.Gerry Condon talks about VFP’s support for the legislators’ message to active duty military and National Guard men and women, advising them they have an obligation to refuse illegal orders to fight illegal wars at home or abroad. He also discusses the recent tragic shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C.

Interview with John Noël, deputy climate program director of Greenpeace USA, conducted by Scott Harris.John Noël talks about the lack of action to phase out fossil fuels at the UN COP30 Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil that ended Nov. 22. He also addresses the Trump regime’s refusal to send a U.S. delegation to COP30 and the global impact of a diminished U.S. role in green energy production, as well as efforts to mitigate the climate crisis.

Interview with Sasha Abramsky, journalist and author, conducted by Scott Harris.Sasha Abramsky discusses his recent Nation and TruthOut commentaries that have tracked Donald Trump’s increasing depravity and erratic behavior which the nation has witnessed in recent weeks. Abramsky also talks about his new book, American Carnage: How Trump, Musk, and DOGE Butchered the U.S. Government, which follows 11 federal workers from 8 agencies for the first half of 2025 as their lives were upended by the Trump regime’s mass layoff of government workers and assault on the government.

Resistance Roundtable features two interviews:  1. Thomas Brzozowski, the former Counsel for Domestic Terrorism in the Counterterrorism Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, will address the looming threat that the US State Department will designate antifa to the level of a foreign terrorist organization;   2. Stan Heller, admin for Promoting Enduring Peace, and Faisal Falah, executive director of the Palestine Museum in Woodbridge, CT, will talk about the appearance and address at the museum by Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who was imprisoned by ICE for more than 100 days before his provisional release.Hosted by Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill

Interview with Ann Oliva, the CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness conducted by Melinda Tuhus.Oliva talks about the two approaches to ending homelessness and her organization’s opposition to Trump’s recently announced policy that will  cause 170,000 formerly homeless people to lose their federal funded housing. 

Interview with Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, conducted by Scott Harris.Mello discusses his views on Donald Trump’s comment several weeks ago about his intention to resume nuclear weapons testing. He also talks about the danger many see in the expiration and/or violation of long-standing nuclear weapons treaties with Russia, with the remaining New Start treaty expiring in February 2026.

Interview with Greg Palast, investigative journalist, New York Times best-selling author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and filmmaker, conducted by Scott Harris.Palast talks about the recently released emails between Harvard University’s Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex trafficker of minors — emails in which Summers, who is married, seeks advice from the convicted predator on how to seduce a young economist he was mentoring at Harvard.  Palast investigated international banking deregulation back in 2013 and discusses how these Epstein emails and his relationship with Larry Summers brought this important story about the 2008 Great Recession back into focus.

Interview with Zimyl Adler, senior forest, land and climate finance policy advocate with Friends of the Earth U.S., conducted by Scott Harris.Adler discusses what was and what was not accomplished at the UN COP30 Climate summit in Belem, Brazil, with a focus on FOE’s views on the widening climate crisis, finance and justice gaps blocking real climate progress.

Interview with Dr. Diljeet Singh, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, conducted by Scott Harris.Dr. Singh talks about America’s deepening health care crisis with a focus on the expiring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies and her work at Physicians for a National Health Program advocating for the adoption in the U.S. of a universal, comprehensive, single-payer national health program.

In this edition of the Monthly Labor Report, Michael Zweig discusses his book The Working Class Majority--America's Best Kept Secretand why class consciousness/awareness is important as working people struggle for equity and justice.Prof. Zweig also offers his perspective on the Nov. 4 election and what Zohran Mamdani's victory--under the banner of Democratic Socialism--might portend for the political battles to come.Interview by Richard Hill