WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Wajahat Ali discusses the presidential debate and election campaign, with a focus on Trump’s threat to democracy, his demonization of immigrants and white supremacist rhetoric and action, as well as corporate media’s skewed election coverage.  Ali is also author of “Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American.”

Parker Malloy discusses her critique of corporate media for “sanewashing” Trump’s often unhinged and incoherent speeches and interviews — as well as soft-pedaling or sanitizing Trump and Vance’s advocacy of disturbing policies such as Trump’s ‘violent day’ of policing that will end crime, the lie that Democrats advocate the killing of babies after they’re born, and Trump and Project 2025’s plan for the US military to round up millions of immigrants (both legal and illegal) for mass deportation.

Norman Solomon talks about his latest book, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine,” with a just published revised edition that includes a new afterword on the Gaza War. On the one year anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, he’ll examine the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel in the conflict, and corporate media’s bias reporting on Israel’s now expanding regional war that has resulted in the slaughter of more than 42,000 Palestinians and thousands more now being killed in Lebanon.

In this engaging discussion, Sarah Kendzior, a bestselling author and journalist renowned for her incisive analysis of authoritarianism, shares her insights on the political landscape ahead of the 2024 election. She candidly addresses the despair stemming from climate change and political corruption, emphasizing the decline of genuine interactions due to technology. Kendzior also reflects on the need for hope amidst challenges, critiques U.S. foreign influence, and highlights the healing power of outlaw country music against contemporary crises while stressing the importance of preserving America's moral integrity.

Dulce Guzmán discusses how the issue of immigration is being debated by the candidates and covered by the news media in the 2024 presidential election, with a focus on Donald Trump’s demonization of immigrants stoking hate and fear, and an assessment of Vice President Kamala Harris’ stated policies on immigration, with a review of her recent trip to the U.S. Mexico border on Sept. 27.

Julie Houk talks about her group’s work in Georgia, including the filing of a lawsuit to bar enforcement of provisions in a new Georgia law that would permit baseless mass challenges to large swaths of eligible voters, and concern about new rules issued by Georgia’s election board requiring a hand count of Election Day ballots that could cause a consequential delay in certifying the state’s presidential election winner, endangering the democratic process.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent with The Nation magazine, who talks about her recent article, “An Abortion Ban Killed Amber Thurman—and Likely Many More,” with a focus on how these deaths may carry political consequences in this year’s presidential and congressional election.

Chris Antal, Staff Chaplain and Dr. Peter Yeomans, Staff Psychologist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Philadelphia talk about understanding the suffering of moral injury among U.S. combat-deployed Veterans and their facilitation of a 12-week Moral Injury Group and Community Healing Ceremony in which Veterans’ burdens are shared by the community made more more conscious of the realities of warfare. (Broadcast on WPKN, Jan. 11, 2023)

Robert Massoud,  Palestinian founder of the Zatoun organization, speaking to us from Toronto about the twenty years he has spent telling the story of Palestine through its olive oil, without being silenced by politicians and media.(First broadcast on WPKN on September 13, 2023.)

Yumna Patel, Palestine News Director for Mondoweiss, reports from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank about the significance for Palestinians of last week’s military assault on the Jenin refugee camp. In this reporting, she covers the effect on Palestinian youth of the Palestine Authority’s inability to protect them and what “Gazafication” means for the future of the Palestinian nation (Broadcast on WPKN, July 12, 2023)