WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

Interview with Lindsay Koshgarian, program director of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, conducted by Scott Harris. Lindsay Koshgarian talks about her group’s latest annual analysis, the 2025 Tax Day Receipt, highlighting exactly where Americans’ 2024 income taxes went and what those numbers say about our national spending priorities. Overall, in 2024, the average taxpayer contributed $3,707 per person for weapons and war – the equivalent of the price of 628 dozen eggs – including war and the Pentagon, weapons contractors, and aid to foreign militaries.

Interview with Micah Sifry, a writer, editor, and organizer, conducted by Scott Harris.Micah Sifry is working on a novel and writing a weekly newsletter on democracy, movements, organizing, and tech called The Connector. Micah will discuss his recent New York Times article, “A Different Kind of Anti-Trump Resistance is Brewing,” and issues related to Trump/Musk’s mass firing of tens of thousands of federal government workers.  Sifry has nearly 40 years of experience covering politics, technology, and international affairs.

Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream, describes her organization's mission and strategy to secure justice and safety for undocumented young people and families in cities and towns around the state.Interview by Richard Hill

Interview with Fawzia Afzal-Khan, visiting professor in gender and sexuality studies, at Princeton University.Fawzia Afzal-Khan discusses her recent article, “Student and Faculty Repression on US Campuses: the Palestine Exception,” relating to the reported 600 international students who have had their visas revoked by Trump’s State Department, and the preliminary ruling by a judge in Louisiana that the Trump regime can proceed with its deportation of Palestinian Columbia University graduate student, and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil. She also addresses university administrators response to the Trump regime's threat to defund higher ed institutions that don't comply with orders to eliminate DEI programs, adhere to restrictions on protest, and the micromanagement of hiring faculty, student admissions and curriculum.

Dr. Isaac Kamola, Director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom with the AAUP, discusses the Trump regime's juggernaut attacks on free speech at colleges and universities; and the budding collaboration with Labor to create a united front against this assault.And Briam Timko, communications and voluteer coordinator with Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA), talks about the demonstration and boycotts directed at Avelo Airlines (New Haven, CT) which just signed a contract to fly deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security.Panel: Scott Harris, Ruth Anne Baumgartner, and Richard Hill

Interview with Mary Yordon, president of the Norwalk, CT Federation of Teachers union and a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers Connecticut, conducted by Scott Harris.Mary Yordon talks about the massive April 5th “Hands Off” protests across the U.S., and the Stamford, CT protest where she spoke in opposition to President Trump and his Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s plan to make major cuts to education funding, and to eliminate the federal Department of Education.

Interviews with Hands Off April 5th protesters in New York City, conducted by Scott Harris.The protests, which were organized in more than 1,400 cities and towns across the US, Canada, and Europe sent a message to Trump, Musk and the GOP: “Hands Off” our healthcare, hands off our civil rights, hands off our schools, our freedoms, and our democracy. The interviews in this segment were recorded during New York City’s Hands-Off protest, which drew well over 100,000 people.

Interview with Fred Glass, a labor historian, retired union communications director, and writer/director of the documentary film, "We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day," conducted by Scott Harris.Fred Glass will discuss his recent article, “Best Guess: How Do We Defeat the Fascists?” and the history of general strikes and United Auto Workers’ President Shawn Fain’s idea for a general strike on May Day 2028 or before.

Interview with Omar Ocampo, a researcher at the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, conducted by Scott Harris.Omar Ocampo discusses his recent article, “‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Will Concentrate Wealth Even More,” the repercussions of Donald Trump’s decision to impose massive international tariffs, and the vision for a progressive alternative fair-trade policy.

Luis Puig Bio: Born in 1965, and raised in La Habana, Cuba under communism, Mr. Luis Puig spent his first 15 years of life living in Castro’s Cuba. Mr. Puig had to live under the rules of that system, even having to be a communist Pionero (communist youth organization) like all the kids are forced to be there. His father served 12 years imprisonment as a political prisoner, and enemy of the state. Naturally this reflected on the family, and his son Luis.Upon released from prison in 1978 under a deal brokered by the then Carter Administration and the Castro regime, the family began the necessary paperwork to leave Cuba, and come to the United States. But just as they were almost ready to get on a plane and leave, the Peru embassy incident occurred in La Habana, and all exits were canceled. Faced with the uncertainty of (if) when they could leave, they took the only way out available at the time…. the infamous Mariel Boat-Lift. Crammed into a small fishing trawler, over loaded with over 150 souls onboard, the Puig family made the 14 hour trip from Cuba to Key West, battling on the way the waves and vomit.After arrival in the US with no money, no language skills, no property of any kind, the family began to rebuild their lives all over again. Mr. Puig completed High School, and after a trial at college decided to join the US Navy, where he served for over 20 years in the elite US Navy Submarine Force, stationed in various naval vessels including nuclear submarines.Today, Mr. Puig is married, and lived in Maryland with his family.