It’s not just politics but arts and a free culture that makes real change. Sure there are the leaders we all know, MLK and Malcolm X, but in his new paperback edition of The Jazz Men: How Duke Ellington, Louis

Society would rather not see them. Like people in prison, the foster care system makes hundreds of thousands of kids invisible. And the system is doing them great damage for life. On this show, author and foster care, juvenile justice,

Starting a trade war is just stupid. But maybe Trump simply doesn’t really care about tanking the economy. On this show, Washington Monthly politics editor Bill Scher points out that the current president appears to be trying to steer America

There is in fact great abundance in America. The problem is not just the greed of the top percent but also the 21st century version of real estate redlining. Many are shut out. There is a huge demand for affordable

May is Mental Health Month, and the Trump/Musk regime is pouring gasoline on our already widespread national crisis. The police-state ICE raids are indicative of a strategy to create fear. On this show Mattea Kramer and Dr. Sean Fogler share

If he really aims to cut waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal bureucracy, there’s a lot of low hanging fruit. But Elon Musk has prioritized eliminating one of the smallest yet most effective programs: USAID.Poverty stricken people of developing

To normalize the horrific, it takes lots of people going along. From the history of leaders lying, the current regime has learned that spewing new lies many times a day works to make reality conform to the lies. On this

Locking people up and deporting immigrants is on the rise. The adults face punishment (as if that works) and their children hide from the judgement and stigma of other kids and school administrators. They are of course totally innocent and

Remember when we could count on the Washington Post to boldly take the lead on political corruption? And can you imagine a newspaper turning down a really big ad buy? Welcome to Trumpworld 2.0. As Common Cause president and CEO

We think of it as pure fun but the reality is great pressure and there are overtraining injuries. Coaches often lack crucial training. Non-athlete kids feeling less-than. And since kids don’t have a voice in the matter, the only option

There are two petrostate oligarchies linking up and gravely threatening what had been a rock solid alliance: Europe and the US. The traditionally shared moral universe of Europe and the rest of the “Free World” is suddenly gone. On this

Kicking out troublemakers. It backfires. It certainly increases the likelihood of negative outcomes. And it is not applied equally. In this discussion author and researcher Aaron Kupnik talks about his new book: Suspended Education. If we want equal opportunity for

In being careful to avoid a monarchy or dictatorship, America’s founders adamantly insisted on each government agency being independent. The Federal Communications Commission act of 1934 was created to ensure that the public would have access to news without threat

You may have noticed a continuing trend of Democratic candidates sheepishly rushing to some imaginary center, and how well that hasn’t worked! On this show, Richard Eskow, former head writer for the Bernie 2016 campaign explains how it seems candidates

There are reasons all autocrats need to erase history. Among the flood of executive orders is something called “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” In other words: erasing history he doesn’t like.  To people like him, history must fit a

The politicization of the FBI and police is hardly new. The foundation of the law is protecting property not people. Enforcing a racial caste system. Himself a former FBI agent, our guest Mike German in his new book Policing White

With freedom comes responsibility. And not just the driver, but America’s roads have been littered with bodies of passengers who failed to speak up. Guest today is Candace Lightner was one of the founders of Mothers Against Drink Driving and

No question, it’s all about re-connecting with the working class: People without a college degree, lowering the cost of health care, championing the self-employed, addressing the transportation problems of the heartland. Our guest  today Paul Glastris Washington Monthly editor in

More and more women are steering great philanthropies. In the current Chronicle of Philanthropy, Christine Ahn is co-author of this article: To Fight Growing Militarism, Philanthpy Should Embrace a Feminist Playbook. The subtitle is  Around the world, feminist activists have

In her new book titled Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? Why Red and Blue White People Disagree, and How to Decide in the Gray Areas co-author Betsy Leondar-Wright, through remarkable research, found Trumpists are not all racist and sexist