Shows
The Marc Steiner ShowWhat does it mean to be a Palestinian Jew today?At the 2025 National Membership Meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace in Baltimore, MD, thousands of anti-Zionist Jews gathered to reaffirm their opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestine and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians—and to reject the antisemitic notion that the political ideology of Zionism represents all Jews. In this vital and wide-ranging discussion recorded during the JVP gathering in Baltimore, TRNN’s Marc Steiner sits down with self-identified Palestinian Jews Esther Farmer and Ariella Aïsha Azoulay to discuss the complexities of Jewish identity and belonging today, the historical origins of Israel, and “the way that Zionism destroyed both Palestine...2025-05-1343 min
The Marc Steiner ShowFired after Zionist uproar, artist Mr. Fish won’t stop drawing the truthWorld-renowned political cartoonist Dwayne Booth, more commonly known as Mr. Fish, has found himself in the crosshairs of the new McCarthyist assault on free expression and higher education. While employed as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, Booth became a target of Zionist and pro-Israel critics, and his work became a flashpoint of controversy in the months leading up to his firing in March. Facing charges that certain cartoons contained anti-Semitic tropes, J. Larry Jameson, interim president of the University of Pennsylvania, denounced Booth’s illustrations as “reprehensible.” In a statement about his firing, Booth writes: “The reality –...2025-05-0653 min
The Marc Steiner Show'Everything is destroyed': Surviving 423 days of genocide in GazaHunger. Cold. Thirst. Disease. These are the daily realities of life in Gaza, where for the past 423 days Israel has unleashed a genocide that will come to define our contemporary era. As Palestinians struggle to meet their daily needs, they are also faced with a battle to preserve their memories and dignity. Over the past year, journalist and filmmaker Ruwaida Amer has produced numerous powerful, heart-wrenching documentary reports for TRNN from the rubble and ruins of Gaza, shining a light on the darkest realities of Israel's genocidal war on Palestinians, even as she herself suffers from—and struggles to survive—the...2024-12-0355 min
The Marc Steiner ShowMarc Steiner: My life in the Civil Rights MovementTRNN show host Marc Steiner's Rise of the Right series has followed the ascendance of far-right political forces domestically and internationally. In a special episode of The Marc Steiner Show, TRNN Editor-in-Chief takes the mic to put Marc in the hot seat. From a childhood in Baltimore among family members who had survived the Holocaust, Marc's activism in the 1960s and 70s took him from the ranks of SNCC to organizing alongside the Young Patriots of the Black Panther's Rainbow Coalition. Marc looks back on his life as an organizer and journalist, and how it frames his understanding of our...2023-06-061h 05
Brazil on FireUpdate #3 — An autopsy of Bolsonaro's failed coupOn Jan. 8th, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed Brazil's capital in a failed attempt to spark a military coup. In scenes that drew instant comparison to the events of Jan. 6th, 2021 in the US, Bolsonaro supporters smashed windows, destroyed artwork, and even climbed on the roofs of government buildings before being rounded up and arrested en masse by security forces. In this update to Brazil on Fire, Michael Fox examines the significance of the failed coup in scattering pro-Bolsonaro forces and uniting the country behind Lula, who has already embarked on an aggressive agenda to undo his predecessor's...2023-01-2447 min
The Police Accountability ReportBody cam shows Baltimore county police arresting citizen watchdog at gunpointRead the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/body-cam-shows-baltimore-county-police-arresting-citizen-watchdog-at-gunpointAn unnamed motorist was stopped by Baltimore County police, held at gunpoint, and manhandled by multiple officers before being arrested. Body cam footage reveals the motorist, who has requested anonymity, requesting multiple times to speak with a supervisor and know the crime he was being arrested for to no avail. Police claim the 60-year-old motorist was doing donuts in his car in a local parking lot. TRNN reporter Stephen Janis was unable to find any sign of skid marks at the scene, and further deduced that the area...2022-12-0919 min
Brazil on FireUpdate #2 — Lula PresidenteBrazil has a new president-elect.Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the Brazilian presidency on October 30th. He defeated far-right president Jair Bolsonaro by just over 2 million votes. Tens of thousands of Lula supporters descended on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue for huge celebrations. Brazil on Fire host Michael Fox was there and he takes us to the streets.But Bolsonaro supporters were also mobilizing. They shut down highways and called for the military to intervene.In this second update to Brazil on Fire, we look at Lula’s victory, Bolsonaro’s disin...2022-11-1729 min
Brazil on FireElections update with BrasilWire’s Brian MierThe first round of Brazil’s elections has come and gone. As expected, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was the big winner, with 48%. But he fell short of winning outright. Current President Jair Bolsonaro exceeded expectations and came in just a handful of points behind the former president. And it’s going to mean weeks of intense campaigning as Bolsonaro has now become a real contender for the second-round election at the end of the month.In this first update to Brazil on Fire, we look at what it all means and how things stand ahead...2022-10-1425 min
Brazil on FireEpisode 6: Amazon up in SmokeThe Amazon is a place that both Brazil’s former military regime and President Jair Bolsonaro have eyed with dreams of development, looking to take advantage of bountiful resources.It’s a place where Bolsonaro’s deconstruction of state institutions is wreaking havoc. Where illegal and armed actors are pushing into formerly protected areas and plundering the land to make a quick profit. Where Indigenous people are constantly under threat, whether staring down the barrel of a gun, fires, or COVID, and their territories and their way of life are under attack — the invaders slowly eating away at the forests...2022-09-2741 min
Brazil on FireEpisode 5: Ghosts of the PastRead the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/brazil-on-fire-episode-5-ghosts-of-the-pastBrazil’s military dictatorship was a dark time in the country’s history. Hundreds were killed. Thousands jailed and tortured. And it is an era that President Jair Bolsonaro remembers with nostalgia—It's where he got his start, and a thing he has long championed as being worthy of returning to.As president, Bolsonaro has called for the closure of Congress and the Supreme Court, marched with supporters to demand military intervention, and appointed more military officials to his government than any leader since the end of...2022-09-2037 min
Brazil on FireEpisode 4: Nazis on your StreetBrazil has a long and complicated history with fascism, going back to the early 20th century. Far-right and white supremacist groups have been emboldened by President Jair Bolsonaro—with some members of his own cabinet openly sporting Nazi tattoos. They’ve unleashed online attacks, pushed fake news and misinformation in favor of Bolsonaro, and they’ve threatened Brazil’s Supreme Court and its justices. But the country’s top court is pushing back. In this episode, we look at Brazil’s troubled past of reactionary fascist forces, and how Bolsonaro’s rise unleashed them anew.This is Brazil on F...2022-09-1331 min
Brazil on FireEpisode 3: God Above EveryoneRead the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/brazil-on-fire-episode-3-god-above-everyoneJair Bolsonaro could not have won the presidency without the support of one very important group: Evangelical Christians. There is, perhaps, no other group that Bolsonaro has so vocally courted, or that has been so loyal to the president—And they remain key for Bolsonaro’s hopes of recapturing the presidency this year.In this episode, we visit those spreading the gospel for Bolsonaro and look at how Bolsonaro and his allies are pushing a religious war of good versus evil, with dangerous repercussions.2022-09-0630 min
Brazil on FireEpisode 2: Free LulaThe election of president Jair Bolsonaro was never a foregone conclusion. For most of that electoral season, someone else was ahead in the polls. But that opponent was jailed on supposed corruption charges by a biased judge, six months out from the election, and blocked from running.In this episode, we look at the fight to free former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from prison, the corruption investigation that jailed him, the role of the United States, and what it all means ahead of the 2022 election, as Lula again leads in the polls.This i...2022-09-0629 min
Brazil on FireEpisode 1: Violence and the Culture WarAs candidate Jair Bolsonaro neared the presidency in 2018, violence rippled across Brazil, mostly perpetrated by Bolsonaro supporters. Hundreds of threats and attacks, including several killings, were reported in the weeks and months leading up to the election. Bolsonaro's hateful rhetoric and fake news machine spurred on the violence, painting the election as a battle for the soul of the country. Targeting right wing fears over 'family values' and 'security,' Bolsonaro tapped into a growing culture war aimed not at winning a democratic debate, but eliminating opponents.This episode looks at Bolsonaro’s most ardent supporters, and how a...2022-09-0633 min
Brazil on FireIntroduction: Democracy and DictatorshipRead the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/brazil-on-fire-democracy-and-dictatorshipThe Jair Bolsonaro presidency has been a disaster for Brazil. Over 650,000 dead from COVID-19. Amazon deforestation. Rising fascism. Budget cuts. Fake news. Threats to democracy. Journalist Michael Fox sets the scene for Brazil’s critical October 2022 presidential elections by looking back on the last four years.This is Brazil on Fire, a new podcast about Brazil’s descent toward fascism under President Jair Bolsonaro. Over the next six episodes we’ll look at how Bolsonaro’s far-right government set the country ablaze, and how the United States h...2022-08-1615 min
The Marc Steiner ShowBaynard Woods: 'An Autobiography of Whiteness'As a country founded on the violence of racial slavery and genocide, the United States has yet to overcome its historical dependence on the ideology of white supremacy. In his new memoir, Inheritance: An Autobiography of Whiteness, author Baynard Woods reflects on the influence of racism and the meaning of 'whiteness' through the lens of his own life. Born and raised in post-Jim Crow South Carolina, Woods assumed he had left the prejudices of his home behind when he left the South—until he was accused of discriminating against a Black student at the university he taught at. The experience propel...2022-08-1549 min
The Marc Steiner ShowLessons from the Weather Underground with Bill Ayers and Bernardine DohrnThe Weather Underground spent nearly a decade combating the US government. From prison breaks to bombings of the Pentagon and the US Capitol, the 'Weathermen' used any means necessary to fight capitalism, end the Vietnam War, and struggle in solidarity with the Black Panthers and other organizations. A new podcast series created by Zayd Ayers-Dohrn, a child of the Weather Underground, looks back on the stories of the Weathermen and the history that made them. Zayd's parents, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, join the Marc Steiner Show along with their son to discuss the podcast, their lifelong journeys as radicals, and...2022-08-0849 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe white identity politics of Christian nationalism"Most Americans were shocked by the violence they witnessed at the nation's Capital on January 6th, 2021," as the description of Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry's new book, The Flag and the Cross, notes. "And many were bewildered by the images displayed by the insurrectionists: a wooden cross and wooden gallows; "Jesus saves" and "Don't Tread on Me;" Christian flags and Confederate Flags; even a prayer in Jesus' name after storming the Senate chamber. Where some saw a confusing jumble," though, Gorski and Perry "saw a familiar ideology: white Christian nationalism." In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show...2022-08-0233 min
The Marc Steiner ShowBiden budget showers military with cash, shafts everyone elseRead the transcript of this podcast: Last week, after months of tortured talks and compromises from Democrats to pass legislation that their extremist colleague and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin would approve, Manchin still blew up all hopes for Congress and President Biden to meaningfully address the climate crisis. Meanwhile, Biden’s budget priorities continue to focus on throwing good money after bad into the military, even exceeding the amounts that the Pentagon requested. From 2022 to 20223, as Lindsay Koshgarian has pointed out, the amount of money added to the military budget could cover most of the cost of Bi...2022-07-1827 min
The Marc Steiner ShowA wave of Post-Roe criminalization is comingRead the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/roe-v-wade-is-gone-a-wave-of-criminalization-is-comingThe recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case achieved something the right has pursued for decades—overturning Roe v. Wade. From legislation recognizing "fetal personhood" in Georgia and Alabama to a new Louisiana law that outlaws sending abortion pills in the mail, state legislatures are wasting no time finding new ways to criminalize and surveil abortion. In an age of Big Data and digital surveillance, the coming crackdown could lead to a future even bleaker than the days before Roe v. Wade. In this episode of The Marc Stein...2022-07-1129 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe left needs a long-term vision of changeRead the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/the-right-won-by-playing-the-long-game-what-is-the-lefts-response“It took most of us far too long to fully comprehend that Trump’s presidency represented a qualitative uptick in the determination and capacity of the right to impose minority rule,” Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, and Maria Poblet write in the introductory essay to their co-edited book Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections. “Forty years of Republican anti-tax, anti-regulatory, anti-government ideology and governance; backlash against the election of the nation’s first Black president; fear of demographic change; the growth of a far-right, all-encompassing media environment; and long-s...2022-06-2137 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe nation’s poor are descending on WashingtonRead the transcript of this episode:In the richest country in the world, poor and low-income people are disproportionately harmed by everything from economic inequality and climate change to COVID-19 and gun violence, yet they are disproportionately excluded from the process of addressing any of these crises. That is why, on June 18, tens of thousands from around the country are expected to descend on Washington, DC, for the Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls, organized by the Poor People’s Campaign. In this installment of The Marc Steiner Show...2022-06-1433 min
The Marc Steiner ShowMarc Steiner Show: Biden is not stopping the privatization of MedicareDonald Trump claimed to be a supporter of Medicare, yet his administration took numerous steps to cut its budget and introduce schemes to privatize it, including the Direct Contracting Entity (DCE) program, also known as ACO REACH. Rather than overturn this program, President Biden and his administration have been quietly letting it continue. As Branko Marcetic recently wrote in Jacobin magazine, "ACO REACH’s continued existence is a serious looming threat to Medicare as we know it and to seniors themselves. And in a sadly typical trend, it’s a Democratic president who’s trying to get away with gutting Medica...2022-06-0921 min
The Marc Steiner ShowMarc Steiner Show: The Chicano activist poet running against Gavin NewsomFrom gang life and drug addiction in East LA to community organizing, activism, and becoming an internationally acclaimed poet and writer, Luis J. Rodriguez has walked a long and arduous path. Now Rodriguez is running for governor in the California primaries under the campaign slogan “Imagine a New California for Shared Well-Being. Then Let's Build It!” Primary voting will take place on June 7. In this installment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Rodriguez about his campaign and why—in this urgent and dangerous political moment when the right is ascending, climate change and inequality are accelerating, and working people...2022-05-3128 min
The Marc Steiner ShowMarc Steiner Show: The abortion underground: Pre-Roe lessons for a post-Roe worldWhile the country waits with bated breath for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, it is becoming clearer by the day that this impending decision is part of a broader, reactionary push to undo decades of social progress and solidify the US as a hyper-unequal, theocratic, undemocratic fortress state. “All that we have fought for, from voting rights to reproductive rights, has been whittled away since the right began organizing its counterattack 50 years ago. We are entering dangerous and perilous waters, my friends...” So begins this special installment of The Marc Steiner Show, in which Marc speaks with Dani...2022-05-2446 min
The Marc Steiner Show‘The residential school era did not end’ for Indigenous peopleIndigenous people have long stressed the unspeakable horrors of residential (boarding) schools in North America. Last year, those horrors were made inescapably real for many when mass graves were unearthed at multiple school locations in Canada. Since then, the fight to confront the colonial and genocidal function of these schools has ramped up, and that fight reached a new height when a delegation of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis leaders met with Pope Francis at the Vatican—a meeting that was followed by a formal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in driving the residential school system. In this...2022-05-1627 min
The Marc Steiner ShowRage is the most natural emotion to be feeling right now“There are times when I want to scream out: “F*** this entire indifferent, hypocritical and violent world!’” So writes philosopher George Yancy in a recent piece for Truthout entitled “If the State of the World Makes You Want to Scream, You’re Not Alone.” From endless militarism and war profiteering to climate chaos and the reactionary right’s attacks on democracy and civil rights, the most natural response to the compounding crises we face today is to be filled with rage. In this installment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Yancy about the necessity of feeling the fullness of that rage—not...2022-05-0943 min
The Marc Steiner ShowRise of the right: Don’t let them winThroughout our special special series of The Marc Steiner Show, co-hosted by Marc Steiner and Bill Fletcher Jr., we have examined the rise of the right in the US and beyond, we have explored the different tendencies and motivations fueling today’s surge in far-right politics, and we have engaged with a range of critical voices who have helped us understand how we got here and what we can do about it. In between recording panel interviews for this series in the TRNN studio, Marc and Bill recorded a candid discussion about their own personal histories of organizing against the fa...2022-04-1846 min
The Marc Steiner ShowCorporate debts get canceled while millions of student debtors sinkAs of this year, the total outstanding federal student loan debt is over $1.7 trillion, which is collectively held by around 46 million borrowers. Even with temporary, pandemic-related pauses on student loan repayments, the debt crisis continues to worsen, and calls for complete debt cancellation continue to mount. On April 4, as part of a national day of action, members and allies of the Debt Collective, a debtor’s union, demonstrated outside of the Department of Education in Washington, DC, demanding that President Biden issue an Executive Order to cancel all student loan debt. In this installment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc sp...2022-04-1228 min
The Marc Steiner ShowRise of the Right: How do we defeat the far right?Over the course of our special podcast series on the “Rise of the Right,” we have sought to understand the scope of the far right’s growth and influence in the US and beyond, the historical and ideological roots of today’s far-right movements, and how those movements are interconnected. But it would be inexcusable to end this series without exploring what can be done to blunt, if not fully defeat, the far right. All too often, the response to the growing threats posed by the far right in liberal and progressive circles is despair and fatalistic acceptance of an impendin...2022-04-111h 04
The Marc Steiner ShowRise of the Right: The Right InternationalThe election of Donald Trump and the siege of the US Capitol on Jan. 6 made clear the rising political power of the right in America, but this is not an isolated phenomenon—right-wing power is surging across the globe. From India, Brazil, and the Philippines, to Hungary and the US, we find right-wing political movements that are challenging the established order and that are fueled by anti-immigration mania, racism, patriarchy, historical nostalgia, as well as the destruction wrought by colonialism, the fall of Leninist states, and the failure of modern capitalism to meet the needs of masses of people. How ar...2022-04-041h 16
The Marc Steiner ShowRise of the Right: Gender rulesWhenever women have raised their voices and demanded equity in our society, or whenever oppressive gender relations have been threatened, a vicious backlash or counterattack inevitably follows. Sometimes under the cover of religion, other times justified by appealing to culture, tradition, or science, male supremacy and misogyny are central and alarmingly consistent features defining the politics of the global far right. What is it about the worldview and overarching political project of the far right that makes the thought of gender equality and an end to traditional gender roles and hierarchies such a threatening prospect? And how has the crusade...2022-03-2855 min
The Marc Steiner ShowRise of the Right: The fear of white replacementWhat the official narrative of US history should be, who gets to tell that history, and who the protagonists are have been recurring debates since the founding of the American republic, but they became especially important and heated in the aftermath of the Civil War—and they have been a defining feature of far-right politics ever since. At stake is the question of whose country this is and to whom this land and its future belongs.In this special series of The Marc Steiner Show, co-hosted by Marc Steiner and Bill Fletcher Jr., we will examine the rise of...2022-03-221h 07
The Marc Steiner ShowRise of the Right: Brownshirts and boardroomsThe far right is not a monolithic project; it is, rather, a movement of movements that have grown out of the failures of capitalism as a social order and that are fueled by human society’s darkest tendencies (racism, misogyny, xenophobia, greed, domination, etc.). What are these different movements that make up what we call the far right today? What vision of social order are they fighting to impose? What does it mean for all of us that the heterogenous tendencies and motivations of the far right are converging into a powerful coalition that is willing to resort to political vi...2022-03-1442 min
The Marc Steiner ShowRise of the Right: The declining escalatorThe election of Donald Trump and the insurrectionary violence at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 are a bad dream that many desperately want to forget. But the political, economic, and cultural forces driving far-right political movements in the US and around the world have been brewing for decades, and they are not going away—quite the opposite, in fact. We need to understand where these forces come from, how they have given rise to a wide variety of different far-right factions that are converging into a dangerous coalition, and what anti-democratic, authoritarian futures they are fighting to impose on society. We...2022-03-1414 min
The Marc Steiner Show“‘What is Ukraine?’ is a question only Ukrainians can answer”While Ukrainians are suffering from the hell of war that has followed the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, debates have raged in the West over how the war started and who is responsible. But if people in the US specifically and the West in general insist on putting themselves at the center of this conflict—whether as the chief instigators or the necessary saviors—they will continue to misunderstand what this war is about and what its outcome will mean for Ukraine, Russia, and the larger geopolitical realignment that is unfolding in real time. In this urgent, unscheduled segment of The Marc...2022-03-1232 min
The Marc Steiner ShowChris Hedges: War profiteers are fueling this crisis“War destroys all systems that sustain and nurture life–familial, economic, cultural, political, environmental, and social,” Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges writes. “Once war begins, no one, even those nominally in charge of waging war, can guess what will happen, how the war will develop, how it can drive armies and nations towards suicidal folly.” In this urgent, unscheduled segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with Hedges about the path that led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and about his firsthand experience with the horrific, inhumane reality of war.Chris Hedges is the former Middle East burea...2022-03-0428 min
The Marc Steiner ShowBefore Benjamin Smith, activists in Portland warned us about the far right’s deadly violenceAt a racial justice demonstration in Portland on Feb. 19, well-known and respected activist June Knightly was shot and killed by far-right vigilante Benjamin Smith, who also severely injured four other activists before an armed protester opened fire on Smith. Activists in Portland have long warned of the increasingly brazen and dangerous violence from far-right groups and individuals, and many fear that such violence will only increase and that the police will do little to stop it.In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc welcomes back Portland-based author and organizer Shane Burley to discuss last week’s sh...2022-02-2822 min
The Marc Steiner ShowCanada’s 'Freedom Convoy' reveals the far right’s strategy—and the left’s vital task—todayFor over a month, Canada has been rocked by a “Freedom Convoy” of demonstrators and vehicle blockades that ultimately converged on the capital city of Ottawa in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions. Having garnered support from conservative media, some members of Canada’s parliament, and prominent online voices like Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson, the convoy quickly became a cultural and political flashpoint that revealed both how the far right is mobilizing and how the left needs to respond. In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Canadian journalists Emily Leedham and Dru Oja Jay about...2022-02-2234 min
The Marc Steiner ShowDonor-serving establishment politics got us into this mess—it won’t get us outMatthew Hoh is a disabled Marine combat veteran, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and a member of the Eisenhower Media Initiative whom we have interviewed numerous times before on The Marc Steiner Show. Now he is the North Carolina Green Party’s first-ever nominated candidate to run for the US Senate. “We keep witnessing, undeniably, the brutal reality of a changing world, and a threatened future, from a worsening economic reality for the majority of us, and from the climate crisis for all of us,” Hoh states in his campaign launch video. “This is made possible by a two...2022-02-1432 min
The Marc Steiner ShowIn the US and beyond, Christian nationalism is on the rise“Christian nationalism has influenced the course of American politics and policy since the founding of this country, while, in every era, moral movements have had to fight for the Bible and the terrain that goes with it,” Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis recently wrote in The Nation. “The January 6 assault on the Capitol, while only the latest expression of such old battlelines, demonstrated the threat of a modern form of Christian nationalism that has carefully built political power in government, the media, the academy, and the military over the past half-century. Today, the social forces committed to it are growing bolder and in...2022-02-0728 min
The Marc Steiner ShowWe can’t abandon our children to a world without a future“On December 31, 2020, Tommy Raskin, the only son of Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, tragically took his own life after a long struggle with depression. Seven days later on January 6, Congressman Raskin returned to Congress to help certify the 2020 Presidential election results, when violent insurrectionists led by right wing extremist groups stormed the US Capitol hoping to hand four more years of power to President Donald Trump.” This is the opening description for Congressman Jamie Raskin’s new book, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc welcomes Congressman Raskin back o...2022-01-3126 min
The Marc Steiner ShowA global wealth tax is the least we can do to curb runaway wealth concentrationThe concentration of wealth in the hands of a select few has become a global problem that poses a threat to the basic functioning of our societies. According to a landmark new analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, the Fight Inequality Alliance, and Patriotic Millionaires, “A wealth tax of 2% on the world’s millionaires, 3% on those with wealth above $50 million and 5% on the world’s billionaires would raise $2.52 trillion dollars annually. This would be enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the whole world, and deliver universal health care and social protection for all th...2022-01-2426 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe US military is poisoning the water in O'ahuAs Director for the Sierra Club of Hawai’i Wayne Tanaka recently wrote in The Guardian, the US Navy’s Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility is “a massive underground ‘farm’ of 18 million-liter fuel tanks and pipes just 100 feet above metropolitan O’ahu. Its construction began before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Since then, it has leaked over 180,000 gallons of petroleum into the groundwater aquifer that provides drinking water for over 400,000 residents and visitors from Hālawa to Hawaiʻi Kai.”Regardless of the major threat the facility poses to the local water system and demands from Native Hawaiians and supporters t...2022-01-1725 min
The Marc Steiner ShowYou can’t revive American democracy without reviving local journalismThe societal ramifications of the death of local journalism in the United States are as widespread as they are depressingly predictable. As Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols recently wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review, “It is not simply that functional self-government is impossible without credible journalism with all that forebodes; it is that local newspapers have provided the social glue that brought communities to life, as places where people see themselves as participating in a joint enterprise with people they know and understand and care about. That is disintegrating.”In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc...2022-01-1050 min
The Marc Steiner Show‘This is not an aberration’: Jan. 6 and America’s heart of darknessThe insurrectionary violence at the US Capitol that Donald Trump instigated on Jan. 6, 2021, marked another dark page in American history. But while many saw the events of Jan. 6 as an aberration that did not represent who or what America is supposed to be, the fact of the matter is that anti-democratic conservative minorities resorting to violence to maintain power is as American as apple pie. Confronting this fact is essential for understanding how the antecedents to today’s right wing have shaped our society—and how we can fight back today.In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show...2022-01-0635 min
The Marc Steiner ShowFrom Kabul to the Alabama coal mines: Our year in podcastsDepressingly relentless waves of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc around the world in 2021, which made it difficult and often impossible to regularly do the kind of on-the-ground reporting that we pride ourselves on here at TRNN. But the news didn’t stop, and neither did we. Even if we couldn’t cover them in person, our expansion of audio reporting at TRNN allowed us to intimately cover this year’s most important stories and to bring you the voices of people on the front lines of the fight for a better world. In this special year-in-review episode of The Re...2021-12-2028 min
The Marc Steiner ShowCan today’s labor militancy become a transformative political force?2021 has been a pivotal year for the labor movement. As we have covered extensively here at TRNN, through strikes, unionization campaigns, protest actions, and record numbers of people quitting their jobs, workers across sectors are showing a level of assertiveness and increased militancy that we haven’t seen in decades. How far will this “labor awakening” go? How do we harness the rank-and-file energy driving these actions and use it to build a more robust and powerful labor movement? And can that movement fuse with other struggles for social and economic change to be a formidable political force? These are the ki...2021-12-1328 min
The Marc Steiner ShowInflation panic is the new deficit hawkery“After years of hypocrisy and bungled forecasts of doom, the budget deficit no longer provokes panic,” economist Max Sawicky recently wrote in In These Times. “The elites need a new bogeyman, otherwise Congress might actually spend us into happiness. Now, the new monster in the closet is Inflation.” With all eyes on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which would entail massive and sorely needed social investments in education, healthcare, childcare, clean energy, and more, a familiar chorus of budgetary hand-wringers has emerged to argue that such social spending is the cause of increased inflation. As Sawicky argues, that’s non...2021-12-0619 min
The Marc Steiner ShowBiden ‘fights’ climate crisis with kid gloves onPeople around the world watched expectantly as global leaders convened at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13. And many around the world were left angry and disillusioned when the conference seemed to culminate in a lot of sincere-sounding rhetoric, empty promises, and unenforceable measures from the world’s worst polluters, including the United States. As Dharna Noor recently wrote for The Boston Globe, “Leaders at the Glasgow talks made some bold pledges in the meeting’s final agreement, but no one can make them keep those promises. The United Nation...2021-11-2917 min
The Marc Steiner ShowHow do we avoid the politics of despair?Even with majorities in both the House and Senate, conservative Democrats fought and removed parts of the Build Back Better plan that were wildly popular with voters—voters who elected Democrats expecting them to deliver things like paid leave, universal pre-K, and expanded Medicare coverage. As those voters continue to face real struggles, what options do they have when their representatives won’t even defend their agenda against members of their own party? On this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, longtime labor organizer Bill Fletcher Jr. and Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage discuss how voters need to orga...2021-11-2036 min
The Marc Steiner ShowDemocratic accountability keeps revolutions aliveIn the wake of the recent Nicaraguan elections, the US imperialist war machine is once again directing its wrath at the governments of Nicaragua and Cuba. In response, anti-imperialist leftists around the world are rightly denouncing the onslaught of US aggression, sanctions, and propaganda, but many are also pushing for the left to engage in serious debate about how revolutionary governments can maintain systems of democratic accountability and hold true to the principles from which they were born.In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with Circles Robinson, who has been living between Nicaragua and...2021-11-1629 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe painful, erased history of how Africa made Western modernity possibleWith few exceptions, traditional accounts of the development of the modern world put European history at the center of everything, often focusing on the “Age of Discovery” and global expansion, the Enlightenment, and so on. “The history of Africa, by contrast, has long been relegated to the remote outskirts of our global story,” as Howard W. French asserts in his critically acclaimed and game-changing new book. “What if, instead, we put Africa and Africans at the very center of our thinking about the origins of modernity?”In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with French about his ne...2021-11-0934 min
The Marc Steiner Show7 months into strike, Alabama coal miners keep the fire burningAs we have been covering at The Real News, coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama, represented by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), have been on an unfair labor practices strike against Warrior Met Coal since the beginning of April. Now entering their eight month on strike, workers and their families are facing violence on the picket line, vilification from the company, and even court orders that infringe on their legally protected right to picket. And yet, striking miners and their families continue to hold the line and provide support for one another—and they say they will continue to do...2021-11-0527 min
The Marc Steiner Show‘War in the woods’: The fight for Indigenous lands in ancient Fairy Creek rainforest“A colossal battle to save the last temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island, Canada, is under way, as police and forest protectors are engaged in a cat-and-mouse chase through hundreds of kilometres of thick woods,” Brandi Morin wrote earlier this summer for Al Jazeera English. Since then, the battle in British Columbia has only gotten more intense as Indigenous land protectors and non-Indigenous activists put their bodies on the line to defend the ancient rainforest in the Fairy Creek and Central Walbran areas, facing arrest and forced removal by Canadian police.In this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc...2021-11-0228 min
The Police Accountability ReportIf Rey Rivera jumped off a building, why are his injuries more consistent with being hit by a car?The mysterious death of Baltimore filmmaker Rey Rivera continues to prompt more questions than answers. Did Rivera really jump off the roof of Baltimore's Belvedere Hotel, or was he the victim of foul play? Why did the investigation into Rivera’s death come to such a sudden close? And why won’t police reopen the case as a potential homicide? Throughout this special investigation series, TRNN reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis have examined one of Baltimore’s most notorious and mysterious cases and detailed the glaring issues with the official police report that deemed Rivera’s death a suicide. In the t...2021-10-2928 min
The Police Accountability ReportHis mysterious death made national headlines, so why are police ignoring the case?The mysterious death of Rey Rivera has continued to stoke speculation and controversy, especially after the case received national attention from a Netlfix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries in July, 2020. In Part I of their three-part investigation, TRNN reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis reviewed the unsettling circumstances surrounding Rivera's death and the ensuing police investigation. In Part II, Graham and Janis take a closer look at the homicide case files, which were recently released by the Baltimore police and shed light on new clues and glaring questions about a case that remains unsolved to this day.Help us co...2021-10-2828 min
The Police Accountability ReportCops say he jumped from a building, but the evidence suggests foul playThe mysterious death of Rey Rivera made national headlines when the case was investigated on the Netflix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries, which became the number one show on the popular streaming platform. Many viewers who have learned about the case are skeptical of the police theory that the young filmmaker jumped to his death from the roof of the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore's Mt. Vernon neighborhood. In Part 1 of this three-part podcast series, TRNN investigative reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis re-open the unsettling case that has captivated audiences and amateur detectives alike, exploring new evidence that points to a...2021-10-2732 min
The Marc Steiner ShowOur nuclear arsenal doesn’t need to be ‘modernized’—it needs to be eliminatedThe vast network of ready-to-launch intercontinental ballistic missiles that make up the United States’s nuclear triad remains a constant source of apocalyptic risk that few in politics or the media will openly acknowledge. Even if the Cold War threat of imminent nuclear war has dissipated from the public mind, the threat of catastrophic accidents and even humanity’s mutually assured nuclear destruction has by no means disappeared. Instead of confronting this threat head on, the government is funneling billions of dollars into ‘modernizing’ the nation’s nuclear arsenal. As Daniel Ellsberg and Norman Solomon write in a recent piece for The Na...2021-10-2640 min
The Marc Steiner ShowSettler violence in the West Bank ‘is out of control’The ancient city of Hebron, said to be the burial site of the prophet Abraham, is the second holiest site in the Jewish world, the fourth holiest site in the Muslim world, and currently the largest Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank. Besieged by the violence of Israeli occupation and economic turmoil, Hebron has become a pressure cooker of settler aggression and Palestinian resistance—and the human toll has been immense. In this important segment of The Marc Steiner Show, we get an on-the-ground view of the daily reality of Israeli occupation and apartheid from Basil al-Adraa and Oriel Ei...2021-10-2230 min
The Marc Steiner ShowWhat could this moment of labor strife become if workers get more organized?At this very moment, 10,000 UAW members at John Deere are on strike in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas; 35,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have authorized a strike; 1,400 workers at cereal giant Kellogg’s are on strike in Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee; 1,100 coal miners in Alabama have been on strike since April; 800 nurses in Massachusetts have been on strike since March; and many other strikes and strike authorizations are also unfolding. On top of that, record numbers of US workers are voluntarily quitting their jobs, in what is being called the “Great Resignation.” Something is happening here. How should we understand this p...2021-10-1932 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe battle against big landlords in Berlin is the beginning of a struggle for housing justiceAs we previously reported at The Real News, voters in Berlin were recently faced with a game-changing referendum to expropriate housing held by giant corporate landlords who have made the city increasingly unaffordable for most residents. The passing of the referendum, and the organizing that made it possible, was not only a shock but a source of hope for many around the world who have seen options for affordable housing gobbled up by vampire capitalists and large companies contributing to the runaway financialization of the housing market. How were Berliners able to take on these big landlords and pass this...2021-10-1522 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThere’s more riding on Democrats’ budget battle than you thinkThe media circus surrounding Democrats’ internal battle over infrastructure spending and the Build Back Better Act can make us focus too intently on the individual representatives involved and ignore the bigger picture. But the fact of the matter is the lives of many Americans, our ability to seriously address the climate crisis, and the upcoming outcome of the midterm elections all hang in the balance. On this segment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc is joined by a lively panel of guests—Max Sawicky, Karen Dolan, and Bill Fletcher Jr.—to discuss the drastic implications of the battle unfolding on Capito...2021-10-1236 min
The Marc Steiner ShowKneeling on the shoulders of giants: Dave Zirin on ‘The Kaepernick Effect’It’s been five years since then-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick (in)famously kneeled during the national anthem in protest of the systemic oppression of Black people and people of color in the US. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick famously explained. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."In his ne...2021-10-0232 min
The Marc Steiner ShowBiden’s spending bill, infrastructure, and a looming government shutdown: What the hell is going on?Even people who follow DC politics closely are struggling to keep up with this week’s political drama. Between a looming government shutdown, the need to raise the debt ceiling by next month, and the Democrats’ intra-party fight over infrastructure and the Build Back Better Act, a tangled political mess is unfolding on Capitol Hill—and the results will directly impact the lives of everyday people. In this installment of The Marc Steiner Show, Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies joins Marc to break the situation down in clear terms and to tell listeners how to contact their senato...2021-09-2918 min
The Marc Steiner ShowCanada’s big, fat, expensive, nothing-burger electionThe past month has been filled with anxious predictions and endless punditry concerning Canada’s snap election, which was called by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and took place on Sept. 20. With a whopping total of 600 million Canadian dollars spent, the election was the most costly in Canada’s history, yet voter turnout was nearly at an all-time low and the net results left the political landscape looking practically the same as before. What was the point? What has changed? And what opportunities, if any, do the election results provide for progressives in Canada?In this installment of The...2021-09-2421 min
The Marc Steiner ShowEndless militarization has bled US society dryIt’s been 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Since then, the US has channeled an unfathomable amount of its resources into the military-industrial complex, accelerating its metamorphosis into a nonstop engine of war and militarization with a decaying civil society attached to it. For the past 20 years, as the authors of a bombshell report by the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies have estimated, endless militarization since 9/11 has cost the US a staggering $21 trillion. In the first segment of this week’s Marc Steiner Show, we talk with Lindsay Koshgarian, program director for the National Priorities Project at t...2021-09-1431 min
The Marc Steiner ShowIsrael exposes the lie that nationalism keeps us safeIn the second segment of this week’s Marc Steiner Show, we bring you the latest installment of our ongoing series “Not in Our Name,” which highlights the diverse voices of Jewish activists, artists, intellectuals, and others who are speaking out against the Israeli occupation. For this installment, Marc is joined once again by author and activist Shane Burley to examine a recent article Burley wrote for Tikkun magazine, “Jew-Hating Is Never About Jews.” In a crucial, cross-generational discussion, Marc and Burley explore changing attitudes among Jewish leftists not only regarding the violence of Israeli occupation, but regarding the existence of the Isr...2021-09-1022 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe left needs bigger victories besides 'consciousness raising'Author and activist Shane Burley has observed and reported on the movements of the far right for many years, including the recent violent demonstrations by Proud Boys and other right-wing groups in Portland, Oregon. In the first installment of this week’s Marc Steiner Show, Burley issues a dire warning: The far right is continually working to recruit people who have been disaffected by capitalism and harness their rage for reactionary ends. To stave off the violent threats posed by the far right and build real political power, the left needs to find ways to tangibly improve people's lives. Shane Bu...2021-09-0721 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe deadly results of DeSantis’s ‘own the libs’ governing strategyFor the state of Florida, August saw the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths since the very beginning of the pandemic. And yet, Gov. Ron DeSantis is continuing his crusade against mask mandates in schools, appealing a judge’s ruling that his office’s blanket ban on mask mandates is unenforceable. As we have covered previously on The Marc Steiner Show, DeSantis has cruelly demonstrated what it looks like when rightwing culture-war paranoia is translated into state policy. But how are Democrats fighting back? In this installment of The Marc Steiner Show, we talk with Florida State Representative Anna Eskamani abou...2021-09-0320 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe life and times of a ‘revolutionary hillbilly’Hy Thurman is one of the founding members of the Young Patriots, a radical group of mostly white working-class Appalachians who, together with the Black Panthers and the Young Lords, formed the first Rainbow Coalition in Chicago. Fifty years later, and 100 years after the Battle of Blair Mountain, how can we revive the revolutionary spirit of radical Appalachia and carry on its legacy today? In this installment of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc chats with Thurman about his book Revolutionary Hillbilly: Notes from the Struggle on the Edge of the Rainbow, how the Young Patriots formed, and the enduring lessons...2021-08-3143 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe domestic ‘war on terror’ is giving the FBI more unchecked powerA disturbing Buzzfeed report revealed that the FBI played a leading role in orchestrating the same far-right terrorist plot against Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer that it was praised for foiling. Moreover, the incident has been used as a pretext to give the FBI even more power than it had before—power that it has used and will continue to use to crack down on the left. In the second installment of this week’s Marc Steiner Show, as part of our monthly collaboration with Jacobin magazine, we talk with Branko Marcetic about his recent Jacobin piece “The FBI’s Domestic ‘War on Ter...2021-08-2723 min
The Marc Steiner ShowEven when fighting the far right, the FBI is not your friendWhen it comes to the extremist violence and anti-democratic, even fascistic, designs of the far right, the threat goes much deeper than visible groups like the Proud Boys. Out of fear and a desire to protect those who are most vulnerable to these threats, some well-meaning allies have shown a troubling willingness to align themselves with repressive institutions like the FBI. But history has shown time and again that such institutions are not on the side of the progressive left or the working class, author and activist Shane Burley argues. In the first installment of this week’s Marc Steiner Sh...2021-08-2425 min
The Marc Steiner ShowTwenty-year war? More like 42 yearsNearly twenty years after the beginning of the US War in Afghanistan, tens of thousands of lives have been lost, trillions of dollars have been spent, and the Taliban has taken control of the country. What was it all for? Will the US public do anything to disrupt the violent machine of permanent war, care for the veterans whose lives have been forever changed, or atone for the devastation wrought in our name on the people of Afghanistan? This week on The Marc Steiner Show, we continue our crucial and urgent series of conversations about the US War in Afghanistan...2021-08-201h 03
The Marc Steiner ShowWhy I’m not leaving AfghanistanScenes of panic and chaos in the capital city of Kabul have played on repeat around the world as the withdrawal of US troops in Afghanistan has precipitated the swift fall of the government and the Taliban’s takeover of the country. With much fear, anger, and uncertainty throughout the country, it is an open question what the future will hold for Afghans under Taliban rule in the wake of the devastation wrought by the US and its allies over the 20th and 21st centuries. This week on The Marc Steiner Show, we begin a crucial and urgent series of co...2021-08-1755 min
The Marc Steiner ShowRick Perlstein: ‘I was drafted into the project of settler colonialism as a child’In the second segment of this week’s Marc Steiner Show, we bring you the latest installment of our ongoing series “Not in Our Name,” which highlights the diverse voices of Jewish activists, artists, intellectuals, and others who are speaking out against the Israeli occupation. In this installment, Marc talks with Rick Perlstein about growing up Jewish in Milwaukee, the process of unlearning Zionist indoctrination, and how the United States' support of an Israeli ethno-state foments continued violence. Perlstein is a world-renowned author, journalist, and historian of the American right; his most recent book, the fourth in an award-winning series invest...2021-08-1328 min
The Marc Steiner ShowBreaking the dehumanizing spiral of anti-Arabism and anti-Semitism“While there are differences, to be sure, between anti-Semitism and anti-Arab bigotry, the animus that has driven the hostility directed against both Arabs and Jews springs from the same source,” James Zogby argues in a recent piece for YubaNet. In this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc welcomes Zogby back to the show to discuss the intertwined historical roots of anti-Arabism and anti-Semitism, as well as the hope that peace movements among new generations of Israelies and Palestinians can break the historical cycle of violence. James Zogby is the founder and president of the Arab American Institute, managi...2021-08-1029 min
The Marc Steiner ShowBiden’s cynical plan for 'security and prosperity' in Central AmericaPresident Biden’s plan to secure “security and prosperity” in Central America appears to be a continuation of the longstanding policy of US intervention in Latin America and economic exploitation of its people and resources. Experts not only doubt that the Biden administration’s plan will do much to mitigate the political, economic, and climate-related issues driving migrants to leave their home countries for the United States, but fear that it will exacerbate said issues while leaving migrants in ever more precarious positions. In this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks to professor Aviva Chomsky about the larger...2021-08-0327 min
The Marc Steiner Show'We have fewer voting rights today than we did 56 years ago'“Between January 1 and July 14, 2021, at least 18 states enacted 30 laws that restrict access to the vote,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Hundreds of other bills with provisions aimed at restricting voting rights and access have been introduced in 49 other states. Combatting the relentless, top-down assault on our basic democratic rights is one of the most urgent political causes of our day, and organizers with the Poor People’s Campaign are mobilizing people and marching in states around the country. In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Rev. Dr. Liz Theohari...2021-07-2747 min
The Marc Steiner ShowSeven months after Capitol riots, we still haven't confronted what caused themIt’s been seven months since Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC in an attempt to overturn the general election results. Was it merely a short but shocking fluke perpetrated by a handful of fanatics, or a sign of the right’s long (and continued) political slide towards open authoritarianism? In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with author, journalist, and historian of the American right Rick Perlstein about the historical roots of the Capitol riots and the very dangerous political path we’re still on, even with...2021-07-2039 min
The Marc Steiner ShowUnearthing the horror of Native American boarding schoolsBack in May, the remains of 215 children were discovered on the grounds of a former residential (boarding) school in Canada that was used to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children. Soon after, over 750 unmarked graves were discovered at another residential school. Given the historical brutality of such schools in their treatment of Indigenous children, it is widely suspected that similar gravesites exist at residential schools across the US and Canada. Investigating these atrocities will require a significant commitment from the US and Canadian governments, and atoning for the (continued) evils wrought upon Indigenous people will take an even more significant commitment from...2021-07-1346 min
The Marc Steiner ShowGrim grinning ghosts come out to moralizeIn a brazen effort to make political hay out of the right-wing culture wars, Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has signed a slew of bills into law that, among other things, target transgender student athletes, further criminalize protests, limit voting rights, and surveil the political leanings of college professors, staff, and students. In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with Florida State Representative Anna Eskamani about the cynical machinations behind the right’s legislative onslaught in Florida and the real-world harm these new bills will do. Eskamani is a member of t...2021-07-0659 min
The Marc Steiner ShowInternational commission indicts American policing system for “crimes against humanity”In our first segment for this week’s episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc talks with Marjorie Cohn about the highly anticipated report from the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence Against People of African Descent in the United States, which issued a blistering indictment of police-perpetrated racist violence in the U.S. As Cohn writes in Truthout, “The Commissioners concluded that the systematic police killings of Black people in the U.S. constitutes a prima facie case of crimes against humanity and they asked the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to initiate an inve...2021-06-2939 min
The Police Accountability ReportWhat everyone gets wrong about the 'Defund the Police' debateThe hosts of PAR explore how pushback against calls to defund the police seldom acknowledge chronically wasteful spending by police departments that absolutely should be cut.Public debates about "Defund the Police" have seemingly devolved into an all-or-nothing rhetorical war with little room for nuance. But opponents of the slogan and the movement behind it routinely ignore the decades of profligate spending and wasteful use of taxpayer dollars that has become commonplace for many police departments. In this TRNN podcast, the hosts of the Police Accountability Report take a close look at the numbers and expose some of...2021-06-2919 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe coordinated assault on voting rights is ‘Jim Crow 2.0’Voters in Georgia stunned the nation in 2020 by delivering key presidential and Senate victories for Democrats. In response, Republicans have launched a renewed assault on voting rights that, critics argue, directly targets traditionally non-Republican voters and will be especially detrimental to Black, Brown, and working-class people. Among other provisions, Georgia Senate Bill 202 (the Election Integrity Act of 2021), imposes stricter voter identification requirements and makes it even more difficult to secure and submit absentee ballots. In this week’s first segment of The Marc Steiner Show, we continue our ongoing investigation into the battle over voting rights in the US by ta...2021-06-2250 min
The Marc Steiner ShowNo such thing as a ceasefire under occupationFrom Israeli forces attacking worshipers at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, international outcry and condemnation of Israel’s apartheid regime reached new heights last month, seemingly culminating in the recent announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. While the bombs may have stopped for the time being, however, the violence of occupation continues unabated. In this week’s episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” we continue our exploration of the history and human toll of apartheid in Israel and Palestine. We begin with a dramatic reading by E. Et...2021-06-0153 min
The Marc Steiner ShowJews against the occupation say 'Not in our name'The violence of Israeli occupation and apartheid has been happening for many years with unceasing support from the U.S. government. This is why many are rightly skeptical that anything will fundamentally change, even with the recent international outcry over Israeli forces’ attack on worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, renewed airstrikes on Gaza, and the forced removal of Palestinian residents from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. However, Palestinian resistance in Israel and the occupied territories, coupled with a growing international wave of resistance to the occupation, and solidarity with the people of Palestine, is reaching unprecedented le...2021-05-251h 12
The Marc Steiner ShowFrom Appalachia to Wall Street, how the US created an oligarchic dystopiaAppalachia is a region with a rich and complicated political history that is often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented in other parts of the country. In a special “Marc Steiner Show” first, Marc and TRNN audio engineer Stephen Frank take listeners on a narrative journey through the politics and economics of Appalachia today. Guests in this segment include Marie Gunoe, director of the Mother Jones Community Foundation and longtime environmental activist and community organizer in West Virginia fighting to protect communities and the environment from the harmful effects of mountaintop removal mining; Chuck Nelson, a retired fourth-generation coal miner, member of the...2021-05-1848 min
The Marc Steiner Show'People are dying every minute': COVID-19 catastrophes in India and BrazilWhile wealthy countries like the United States are rushing to vaccinate their populations and “reopen” their societies, the rest of the world continues to suffer. With hospitals overrun and life-saving oxygen supplies running low, India’s government is reporting over 300,000 new COVID-19 infections every day (though evidence suggests the numbers are even higher). Meanwhile, Brazil suffered 70,000 COVID deaths in April alone, with poor and Black communities being hit the hardest, while a new, more contagious variant rips across the country. How have these preventable horrors come to pass? And what can we do to help?In this urgent...2021-05-1141 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe right attacks democracy because the right doesn't want democracyIt’s been four months since supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building in early January in a thwarted attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. While many in the Republican and Democratic political establishment hoped to move on from the failed Trumpist insurrection by characterizing it as an unrepeatable anomaly, the fact of the matter is the widespread, coordinated efforts by the right to undermine democracy continue unabated. From the grassroots to the halls of legislative power, what will it take to beat back the anti-democracy onslaught, and how can we fight to expand de...2021-05-0454 min
The Marc Steiner ShowChauvin trial 'felt like something because I’m used to so much nothing'Last week the country watched anxiously as Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd last May, was found guilty of third-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and second-degree unintentional murder. While many breathed a sigh of relief that some modicum of justice had been achieved for Floyd and his family, we were reminded of the continuing inhumanity of the U.S. policing system as Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Ma'Khia Bryant, and others were killed by police during and immediately after the Chauvin trial. When coupled with the fact that so few police officers are ever convicted of violent...2021-04-2740 min
The Marc Steiner ShowVietnam, Afghanistan, Yemen: What is all this needless death for?Last week, President Joe Biden announced he will be pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2021, seemingly ending the longest war in U.S. history. But what does that really mean? What happens to Afghanistan next? How can we possibly make reparations for the destruction we’ve wrought, and will we do anything to address the machinations of a military-industrial complex that continually drives us into more wars around the globe? In the first segment of this week’s “Marc Steiner Show,” we dive into these and other vital questions with Matthew Hoh, disabled Marine combat veteran, senior fellow a...2021-04-2054 min
The Marc Steiner ShowHow militarism eats the poor and destroys the planetFrom endless wars and imperialist violence to racist systems of oppression and climate destruction, the battles poor and working people face around the globe are as daunting as they are numerous. What will it take to build a grassroots movement that not only combats these destructive forces, but understands them as fundamentally interconnected? In the first segment of this week’s blockbuster “Marc Steiner Show” (now premiering every Tuesday), we talk about what such a movement can look like with Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Soci...2021-04-131h 11
The Marc Steiner ShowAmerica: The land of lost causesCOVID-19 has put an incredible amount of pressure on higher education and its workers, including graduate students and contingent faculty who shoulder heavy workloads and make poverty-level or near-poverty-level wages. While simultaneously fighting to get universities to recognize them as workers, many graduate students around the U.S. are organizing, demanding, and even going on strike for better wages, benefits, and treatment. In the first segment of this week’s “Marc Steiner Show,” we speak with three graduate workers and organizers about what they’re fighting for and what these fights mean for the future of higher education: Rithika Ramamurthy, an Engli...2021-04-021h 01
The Police Accountability ReportThis bodycam footage reveals all that is WRONG with policingVideo obtained by TRNN reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis highlights American law enforcement officers' lack of de-escalation training and respect for civilians. In this week's PAR, Graham and Janis investigate the questionable arrest of an immigrant cab driver in Toledo, Ohio, caught on body camera, which shows how quickly police resort to using unnecessary force and how much damage it inflicts upon the civilians they're supposed to protect.Tune in every Thursday at 9:00 p.m. EST for new episodes of the Police Accountability Report: https://therealnews.com/parHelp us continue producing Police Accountability Report...2021-04-0116 min
The Marc Steiner ShowThe debt is too damn high!Americans are currently buried under a staggering $1.7 trillion in student debt, and many see no way out. This is why the Debt Collective, a debtor’s union, has organized the Biden Jubilee 100, a debt strike carried out by 100 people, one for each of Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office. In the first segment of this week’s “Marc Steiner Show,” we talk with Umme Hoque, Organizing Director of the Debt Collective, about the fight to cancel all student loan debt. Then, Marc is joined by Dr. Stephanie DeGooyer, a residential Burkhardt Fellow at UCLA and an incoming assistant professor of English...2021-03-2647 min
The Marc Steiner ShowWe Can’t Erase the Radicalism of the Rainbow CoalitionIt is an undeniably good thing that films like Judas and the Black Messiah are helping to disseminate the true story of the U.S. government’s coordinated involvement in the murder of Black Panther deputy chairman Fred Hampton. But there are many facets to that story that still need to be told and understood, especially when it comes to the Rainbow Coalition and the people who organized it. In this special episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” Marc sits down with two founding members of the Rainbow Coalition, Henry “Poison” Gaddis of the Black Panthers and Hy Thurman of the Young...2021-03-1936 minThe Marc Steiner ShowBiden's team won’t end the forever warsFrom Afghanistan to Niger, the “new normal” of American warfare shows no signs of changing course under President Biden and his hawkish national security team. In this episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” combat veteran and writer Danny Sjursen issues a dire warning about american military policy. Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner Show every Friday on TRNN.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-marc-steiner-show--4661751/support.2021-02-2625 min
The Marc Steiner ShowFrom Standing Rock and J20 to the US Capitol: Who gets treated like the enemy?We’ve seen this so many times before, but it never ceases to shock: The brutal disparity between law enforcement’s response to far-right insurgents and its response to Black, Indigenous, and social justice protests reveals which side the “establishment” sees as the enemy. This week on "The Marc Steiner Show," we discuss these disparities with a panel of guests who have seen and reported on them firsthand—from Standing Rock, to racial justice protests this summer, to the J20 protests at Donald Trump’s inauguration. After the grim spectacle that took place at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, we as...2021-01-2552 min
The Marc Steiner ShowNeo-fascists found their voice in Trump. Where will the left’s voice come from?Between the Trumpist insurgency at the U.S. Capitol, Democrats’ Senate wins in Georgia, COVID-19, and the internal battles raging within both parties, history is moving fast these days. In this episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” Marc is joined by a lively panel of guests to put these events in their larger historical context and to discuss what lessons from history we must examine to understand the rise of the militant right and the task ahead for leftists of all stripes.Today’s panel includes Jerome Scott, veteran revolutionary activist, labor organizer, author, and founding member of both the...2021-01-1644 min