Rising Up With Sonali

Listen to story:https://dn721502.ca.archive.org/0/items/2025-09-23-RUWS/2025_09_23_Angela_Gonzales-Torres.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 20:23) Subscribe for as little as $4 a month to watch the video and read the transcript of this interview! Start now with a 5-day free trial! FEATURING ANGELA GONZALES-TORRES - Justice Democrats, the political organization that helped catapult Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and other young progressives of color into Congressional seats, is backing a new candidate in Los Angeles: Angela Gonzales-Torres is challenging incumbent Jimmy Gomez for District 34. As a self-described “daughter of a deportee, raised by a single mom in and around Northeast LA,” Gonzales-Torres is running on an abolitionist platform of people-first housing, guaranteed basic income, Medicare-for-all, Green New Deal, immigrant justice and more. Angela Gonzalez-Torres, Congressional candidate challenging California Congressman Jimmy Gomez to represent District 34 in Los Angeles. She is an anthropologist, former President of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, where she helped lead efforts to resist displacement, protect renters, and hold developers and city officials accountable. She has also served as an intern with the LA City Mayor's office and as a Metro Public Safety Advisory Committee member. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about her campaign. ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Angela Gonzales-Torres: Oh my gosh, that was amazing to hear that. Yes, I'm only 30, but I feel like I've lived all these lives. Thank you for having me. Something You're most welcome. Sonali Kolhatkar: You're not very far from where I live in Pasadena. And this is a, an interesting time that we live in where we are seeing young people of color like yourself, people with immigrant backgrounds, at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment coming from the highest office is so virulent, so dangerous, and yet a lot of people are finding it in themselves to stand up. So just tell me, first of all, why, what led to your decision? Is this something you've always pictured for yourself to someday be in Congress or was this something that just motivated you more recently? And if so, why? Gonzales-Torres: That's, yeah, that's a really good place to start because I actually did not know who represented me really, on a congressional level until about two years ago, and now I'm running against him. So really anything is possible and certainly a better future for all of us. But I'm really excited to and proud to be introducing myself as a new voice for California's 34th district. I am born and raised here. I graduated from our public schools here. I certainly did not move here to become a politician, nearly fully funded by corporate SuperPACs. And I'm just really honored that this is something that I get to do for myself, my family, my community, because we are really looking for hope. And I'm just a daughter of this district. I'm also a daughter of a deportee, like you said. I have lived through my own father's deportation, was raised by a single mom. And I feel the urgency of this moment. And so I think this district, being the heart of Los Angeles really deserves a progressive leader who will actually stand with us and fight for us and not leave to Washington, DC and close the door behind him.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://ia801001.us.archive.org/33/items/2025-09-23-RUWS/2025_09_23_Andrea_Serrano.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 17:12) Upgrade your subscription to access the video and transcript of this interview. We hate paywalls too, but HEY, journalists gotta eat! 😌 Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) FEATURING ANDREA SERRANO - The state of New Mexico just adopted a universal free childcare program, becoming the first state in the nation to do so. For decades now, the cost of childcare as a fraction of people’s wages has continued to increase, leading to more women dropping out of the workforce and people who want to have children, choosing not to in order to make ends meet. At the same time, childcare provider wages dropped to among the lowest in the nation. Progressives have been calling on government to step in and make free, publicly funded childcare available to all parents for years and were told such a thing was simply untenable. So, how did New Mexico make it happen?Andrea Serrano is  a life long New Mexican who has worked in social justice and advocacy for over 25 years. She began working at OLÉ in 2012 as a community organizer and became executive director in 2017, leading the organization’s electoral and political organizing. Andrea is also co-chair of the Working Families Party National Committee. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the movement that led to NM's childcare success story.ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: So, I understand that the news and the announcement was around New Mexico making childcare freely available to people regardless of income, meaning for everyone in New Mexico, but that is not something that came out of nowhere, right? It's been building for a few years and state government has been making the net wider and wider for people to the point now where basically anybody who is a parent in New Mexico can have free childcare provided by the government. Is that accurate? Andrea Serrano: That's that is accurate. There are no income requirements for childcare assistance in the state of New Mexico, effectively creating universal childcare. Kolhatkar: So take us through the steps of how it happened. you know, we can go back to 2022. You can go back even further than that. How did it all begin? It started out with New Mexico basically being one of the worst, if not the worst states in the nation when it came to childcare, right? Serrano: Yes, for years New Mexico teetered between 48th, 49th and 50th in the state for child wellbeing. And in 2010, the idea to offer universal childcare came out of advocates including OLÉ, who, you know, really started to look at the state's funds come that come from oil and gas production.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://ia601001.us.archive.org/33/items/2025-09-23-RUWS/2025_09_23_Jessica_Gonzalez.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 21:37) The video and transcript of this interview is only available to paid subscribers. But, you can make the paywall magically disappear by diverting your Disney subscription to Rising Up With Sonali! Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) FEATURING JESSICA GONZÁLEZ - The late night host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel has become a cause celebre after being yanked off the air by his employer Disney. But the ensuing mass protests against Kimmel’s firing were less about who he is as an individual than what his firing indicated. President Donald Trump, angry over hosts like Kimmel mocking him, has publicly expressed his desire to take them off the air. When the white supremacist activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated and Kimmel called out Trump’s movement for trying to capitalize on the killing for political gain, a series of events involving Trump’s proxy, FCC chair Brendan Carr, and the billionaire owners of media empires arranged for a swift end to Kimmel’s show. It was overt political extortion, akin to mafia-like tactics. Now, ABC has announced Kimmel’s show will return. But, not all ABC affiliates plan to air it.  Jessica J. González is an attorney and co-CEO of the media reform group, Free Press, a public policy organization working to rebuild the media system so that it can support a just and multiracial democracy. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about how mass public protest had a big impact and how media consolidation is at the heart of the matter. ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: I was wading through the facts of this particular issue, the scandal, this debacle, and I'm sure I got a few things wrong because it is complicated. You've got Disney and then you've got Nexstar, and you've got Sinclair and ABC, and then ABC affiliates, and one company owns another and another company wants to buy out another. And all of that to say that we live at a time of unprecedented media consolidation, which is a really central part of the problem, especially in the context of an authoritarian fascist dictatorship, right? Jessica González: Correct. Yes. And in fact, Free Press actually did a ton of homework on this. We released recently our Media Capitulation Index, which tracks the 40 largest media and tech companies in the US, who owns them, and the extent to which they've already capitulated to the Trump administration. So, you're right, it is complicated because there are a number of different players here. But on the other hand, it's really not that complicated. What we saw in the past week was the president and his proxy, Brendan Carr, who chairs the Federal Communications Commission, shake down a bunch of broadcasters. Brendan Carr actually said, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Like he was a straight up mob boss.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://ia800305.us.archive.org/2/items/2025-07-RUFJ_Van_Bailey/2025_07_RUFJ_Van_Bailey.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 26:31) This NEWLY launched series is available to paid subscribers. Upgrade to paid subscription access it and support indie media. Now you get MORE CONTENT at the SAME SUBSCRIPTION RATE! Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) 🤩ENJOY THE LATEST EPISODE OF OUR NEW SERIES, RISING UP FOR JUSTICE!FEATURING DR. VAN BAILEY - Our nation and our world is overrun with billionaires and bigots, but they are few and we are many. On this series, exclusive to subscribers of Rising Up With Sonali and viewers of Free Speech TV, we’ll hear from organizers in the movements for social justice, and dig into the nuts and bolts of values, strategies, tactics, narratives, and building power. Joining us this week is Dr. Van Bailey, an award-winning educator and advocate for transgender youth. They serve as the Family Resources Manager at Campaign for Southern Equality, where they provide patient navigation for the Trans Youth Emergency Project. ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: So, tell us about your organization. For those of us outside of the South, it, we, many of us might be unfamiliar with it. There is the Campaign for Southern Equality, and within that, a specific project that we'll be focusing on today, the Trans Youth Emergency Project. Tell me about both. Dr. Van Bailey: Yeah. So at the Campaign for Southern Equality we're an organization that's fighting for a future where all LGBTQ+ Southerners can really thrive. Through our specific program at the Trans Youth Emergency Project, we respond to one of the most urgent crises facing transgender youth today, which is state level bans on gender affirming care. So these harmful laws are basically being forced on families and where they have to travel hundreds of miles just to access basic healthcare. And so, through the project, which we call TYEP, we're working to ensure transgender youth and their families can live with dignity, safety and access to healthcare that they need.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://ia801002.us.archive.org/32/items/2025-09-16-RUWS/2025_09_16_Medea_Benjamin.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 16:53) Unlock the full transcript and video of this interview to learn how and why Medea Benjamin confronts elected officials, with principles and peace. Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) FEATURING MEDEA BENJAMIN - At a time when the U.S. Congress’s popularity has tanked, Americans are largely disengaged from their day-to-day civic duties. Stepping into the void are the women of Code Pink who relentlessly show up in the halls of power to question elected officials about their silence on pressing issues such as the Gaza genocide, the recent Israeli bombing of Qatar, and the US bombings of Venezuelan ships. Most recently, Code Pink activists showed up at a restaurant in Washington DC to confront President Donald Trump with chants of “Free DC, Free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time.”Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange, and a longtime social justice advocate recognized with numerous peace prizes. A former UN and WHO economist, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her essential work in the global peace movement. She was recently arrested outside the offices of Rep. Darrell Issa for asking him about Israel's bombing of Qatar. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the importance of confronting elected officials. ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: So first, let's talk about this arrest that you recently had. You have made it a habit to confront members of Congress with your phone and questions, and videos of them can be seen on Code Pink's social media. But you were arrested after you simply asked Darrell Issa a question about Israel. Tell us, take us through what happened. Medea Benjamin: Yes. I was doing what I do every week, which is come into the halls of Congress and try to get some response from members about issues related to what is happening in the world. And that was the day after Israel had bombed Qatar. And so, I was asking members of Congress if they would comment on that and if they had a problem with that. And Darrell Issa was walking down the hall, so I asked him if he would say something about it, and he was very nasty and walked right into his office. And then I opened the door and, you know, these are public places, you're allowed to just go in their offices. And he got so angry and told his staff to grab my phone and then called the police to have me arrested and couldn't even think of what I was gonna be arrested about, and then ended up saying it was to, that I impeded him walking down the hall.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://dn720700.ca.archive.org/0/items/2025-09-16-RUWS/2025_09_16_Nico_Udu_Gama.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 14:50) Click on the button below to unlock the full transcript and video of this interview! Subscribe now with a 5-day free trial FEATURING NICO UDU GAMA - A series of climate justice actions around the world this month, seeks to “Draw the Line” on numerous interconnected issues plaguing people and the planet. Organized by 350.org and other groups, Draw the Line addresses “injustice, pollution, and violence, and for a future built on clean energy, and fairness.” In the US, the main action takes place in New York on September 20th under the banner of “Make Billionaires Pay”Nico Udu Gama, is an organizer against militarism and imperialism. As part of the climate justice organization 350.org, he is helping to coordinate the Make Billionaires Pay mobilization on September 20th. He spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the mobilization.ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: So, what does “Draw the Line” mean? I mean, “Make Billionaires Pay” is very clear, obvious, but the broader global actions are under this banner of “Draw the Line.” Can you explain that? That's a vague term. Nico Udu Gama: Yeah, yeah. Definitely. Draw the Line comes out of a or there was some Indigenous groups in Brazil coming outta the Amazon who came together to form the G9 group of the indigenous of indigenous communities in Brazil. And they came forward with this idea that COP30, that's happening, the conference of parties, the UN Conference of Parties that happens every year around climate talks with the un. this year will be in Belen in Brazil. So that's the 30th one that's happened. And they said that COP needs to be the needs to where the social movements draw a line against fossil fuels, fossil fuel extraction and the influence of fossil fuel billionaires in these climate talks.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://dn720700.ca.archive.org/0/items/2025-09-16-RUWS/2025_09_16_Tariq_Khan.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 23:31) You won't hear centrist liberal drivel on this show. Upgrade now to a paid subscription to support values-driven, principled, progressive journalism that uplifts solutions. Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) FEATURING TARIQ KHAN - In the days since the fatal shooting of rightwing extremist podcaster Charlie Kirk, conservative and centrist politicians and media outlets have worked hard to rehabilitate Kirk’s legacy. Ezra Klein of the New York Times has claimed Kirk was “practicing politics the right way,” and California Governor Gavin Newsom  decided that "we should all feel a deep sense of grief and outrage" at Kirk's killing and that "the best way to honor Charlie's memory is to continue his work.” But what does it mean to “practice politics the right way,” and “continue [Kirk’s] work”? Tariq Khan, a historian and lecturer at Yale University, found out first hand what it felt like to be on the receiving end of Charlie Kirk’s work. In a now-viral social media post, he wrote, “Members of Charlie Kirk's organization spent two years aggressively stalking me, harassing and threatening me and my family, spreading lies about me, wasting my time and energy with a bogus lawsuit, attempting to end my academic career, and attempting to incite violence against me. They did similar things to hundreds of other academics who they saw as easy targets or obstructions to far-right goals. Kirk was not simply a guy with different views who liked to debate. He actively worked to try to destroy the lives of people like me.”Khan is the author of the book The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression. He spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about his experience being targeted by Kirk's group.ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:Sonali Kolhatkar: I suppose writing about anti-left repression makes you an expert in more ways than one, when we're talking about the Charlie Kirk assassination. Tell us, take us through what it was that Kirk did to you, his organization, Turning Point USA, basically has kept a watch list of academics like yourself that they have deemed too dangerous to American discourse, this supposedly from an organization that claimed to be about debate. What exactly is that list and how did you get on it? Tariq Khan: Sure. So this was way back in I would say late 2017, early 2018, during that fall semester. I was a PhD student at the time, so I wasn't a professor. I wasn't somebody with really any kind of major power or influence in society. Just an ordinary person working on my PhD.I gave a speech at a rally on campus at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign shortly after Trump's inauguration there were… A lot of protesters were arrested, you know, nonviolent protesters who were given just ridiculous charges under the Trump administration for terrorism and all these things. We called them the J20 defendants. And so, their case was kind of in the works at that time. And so, I gave a speech just raising awareness about that case.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://ia801006.us.archive.org/19/items/2025-07-rufj-nadia-marin-molina/2025_07_RUFJ_Nadia_Marin_Molina.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 33:15) This BRAND NEW, recently launched series, is available to paid subscribers. Upgrade to paid subscription access it and support indie media. Now you get MORE CONTENT at the SAME SUBSCRIPTION RATE! Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) 🤩ENJOY THE LATEST EPISODE OF OUR NEW SERIES, RISING UP FOR JUSTICE!FEATURING NADIA MARIA-MOLINA - Our nation and our world is overrun with billionaires and bigots, but they are few and we are many. On this series, exclusive to subscribers of Rising Up With Sonali and viewers of Free Speech TV, we’ll hear from organizers in the movements for social justice, and dig into the nuts and bolts of values, strategies, tactics, narratives, and building power. This week, Nadia Marin Molina, Co-Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar. Marin-Molina leads NDLON's Workers Center and Workers Rights areas of work.  Previously, as NDLON’s Workers Rights Program Coordinator, she created and led NDLON’s disaster response initiative, to successfully train thousands of day laborers and build the capacity of the group’s member organizations.ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: So, I live in Pasadena. I'm really familiar with NDLON. We have the Job Center here that is a central hub of the organization, but NDLON is a national organization, and yet for people who haven't heard of the work that NDLON does, how do you introduce viewers to this organization?  Looking through your website, it is vast, but I remember when NDLON first started many, many years ago, and your organization has just expanded and expanded and is doing so much work in so many different avenues. How do you summarize the work, the main work that NDLON does? Nadia Marin-Molina: Yes. Well, NDLON is a national network at this point. We started when NDLON was founded with nine member organizations, and now we're a national network of 70 member organizations. So, you're right the network has grown a lot. Our goal is to improve the lives of daily laborers and low-wage immigrant workers. In general, we work at the intersection of immigrants’ rights and workers’ rights and we believe that by organizing and supporting those who are most vulnerable workers who are excluded and exploited, we're fighting for and protecting everyone's rights.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://ia600206.us.archive.org/26/items/2025-09-09-RUWS/2025_09_09_Conrad_Corine.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 21:43) If independent journalists had a guaranteed basic income there would be no paywalls! 🤨 Subscribe now to access the video and transcript of this interview. Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) FEATURING CONRAD SHAW & CORINE OLARTE-VANDERVOORT - What if everyone had a guaranteed basic income that covered their cost of living, without conditions, without means testing, without question? That’s the question an ambitious documentary called Bootstraps set out to answer over nearly a decade. Twenty individuals from all walks of life were given a basic income of $1000 a month over several years. Sonali Kolhatkar interviewed the filmmakers Deia Schlossberg and Conrad Shaw at The People’s Summit in Chicago in 2017. At the 2025 Netroots Nation conference, Kolhatkar reconnected with Shaw and one of the subjects of the documentary, Corine Olarte-VanderVoort, to find out how the experiment went and what the next steps are for the work of a Universal Basic Income. ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: Conrad, we connected at Netroots and remembered that we had spoken at the People’s Summit about your documentary Bootstraps. First, remind our audience about Bootstraps and the idea that it was important to find out what would happen if people had a basic source of income that they knew they could rely on. Conrad Shaw: Yeah, what we found—and we were coming from filmmaking space—is that at the heart of the questions that people have about basic income,  once you get beyond sort of the wonky economics questions, it always boils down to can we really trust people? There're these human nature questions, human behavioral questions and that's what documentary is really equipped to explore. So, we decided instead of bringing out experts and talking heads that the best experts to look to with basic income would be those actually living and experiencing it. So, we put together a basic income program with people from all over the country receiving a basic income for a couple of years. So just so that we could do a sort of fly on the wall, verite coverage of it, just find out like what actually, what makes people tick and like how does it affect people's lives.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in

Listen to story:https://ia600206.us.archive.org/26/items/2025-09-09-RUWS/2025_09_09_Robert_Steinbrook.mp3Download: mp3 (Duration: 16:11) Four out of five doctors say supporting public media is good for your health! 😉 Please upgrade to a paid subscription to access the video and transcript of this interview. Subscribe for as little as $4 a month (5-day free trial) FEATURING Dr. ROBERT STEINBROOK - In a contentious Senate hearing that, at times devolved into a screaming match, Health and Human Services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. attempted to defend his record. Senators questioned his mass firings at the agency, his cuts to critical services including COVID-19 vaccine access, and his unscientific claims about public health. RFK Jr.’s testimony was riddled with contradictions. For example, he asserted that President Donald Trump deserved the Nobel prize for Operation Warp Speed, which yielded the COVID-19 vaccine. But he also claimed the vaccine didn’t work. Dr. Robert Steinbrook is the director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group and a Professor Adjunct of Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. He spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about RFK Jr.'s Senate hearing and what states are doing to fill the dangerous gaps in public health. ROUGH TRANSCRIPT: Sonali Kolhatkar: Well of course, most of us who knew RFKs record before he was brought on by Trump to lead this agency were deeply, deeply concerned that here was an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who's going to be in one of the top health positions in the nation. Were you surprised at just how unscientific, to put it mildly, RFK appeared at his Senate hearing last week? Dr. Robert Steinbrook: Well, we opposed Secretary Kennedy's nomination. We spoke out urging the Senate not to confirm him. In fact, one of the statements from co-president basically said that no senator should have voted to confirm him, but he was confirmed. And in a sense, we would've been delighted to be proved wrong, in other words that our concerns were not justified. But I think you and everybody else who watched the testimony last week, this was what was to be expected, unfortunately. And it has put us in very much uncharted territory for the future of public health in this country.  This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in