His Insatiable Appetite for Prisons

The appalling criminalization of ordinary people. No charges, no conviction, just sweep up people who, as he said: "look like illegals." Blatantly circumventing constitutional law. And in the big, ugly bill, passed 7/3, spending for jail space and ICE skyrocketed. Guest on this show is Lyle May who is currently behind bars. He calls this obsession "carceral imperialism," actively carrying out an obscene belief in the oligarchs right to dominate and control all others. Their secret police grab and hold people just because they can. It's all part of Project 2025, which may be unthinkable but is in fact happening now. When you listen you'll also hear a recorded voice from the prison which tells us time is almost up. And if prisons are there to make better citizens, as May says: toughness is not effective.
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His Insatiable Appetite for Prisons
The appalling criminalization of ordinary people. No charges, no conviction, just sweep up people who, as he said: “look like illegals.” Blatantly circumventing constitutional law. And in the big, ugly bill, passed 7/3, spending for jail space and ICE skyrocketed.

Can One Have Meat and A Conscience Too?
The right wing is heavily invested in the meat industry. After all, it has the essential components: dominance, violence, destruction of the planet. In his new provocative book: The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong About Meat, Animals, and Ourselves,

Democrats Can Win Again: If…
In the 90s, the party took a turn to the right, taking the working and middle class base for granted. Instead they went for Trump in 2024. Clinton hurt this former base with austerity, and poorly thought out welfare reform

Young Men Are Drawn to Fascism. Why? What Can We Do?
Why do they feel a need for violence to prove their manhood? What’s the connection between an angry Germany after the First World War and what many young men are feeling in 2025? Why do they see equality as deprivation?

Under Water Now, Democrats Have to Become the Party of Change
There’s a reason the same voters were undecided between Bernie and Trump in 2016. People wanted real change. And in 2024, Democrats walked into a trap. As bad as it looks today, writing in Newsweek, today’s guest Matt Robison argues

How Their Music Toppled Jim Crow
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

It’s Not the Kids, It’s the Foster Care System That’s Damaged
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,

Trade Peace Beats Trade War: Where Are the Democrats?
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

We Know What NIMBY means. But Here’s a New Twist: YIMBYism!
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

Mental Health Essential for National Security
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

Musk’s Chain Saw Does Not Think
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

Mindless Banality Spreads Quickly. And It’s Evil.
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

Addressing the Unique Stigma on Youth Impacted by Incarceration, Detention, and Deportation
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

Washington Post Changes Bigly: Refuses $115,000 Ad
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

More Than Play: What’s Wrong With American Youth Sport
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

Europe Now Squeezed By Trump and Putin’s Pincer
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

School Suspension: More Often for Black Kids
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

Is Freedom of the Press Doomed?
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
The Time is Now. Left-Populists: Unshackle Your Imaginations
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
Trump Wants to Abolish the Past. Historians Won’t Let Him.
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