A Public Affair

Political geographer and activist, Zoltán Grossman joins Allen Ruff to talk about the Israel-Iran-US war. They move beyond the mainstream media narratives and sanitized versions of history used to justify the US’s military engagement in the region. Grossman reminds listeners that 1953 was the beginning of the antagonism between the US and Iran and that the oil industry has always driven the US’s involvement in the Middle East.

Grossman also describes the development of anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, especially after 1979 and how this ideology has been used to sell the public on US military intervention, including it’s support of Iraq’s invasion of Iran. 

We also hear from callers who want to know more about the US’s history in the Middle East, how history is repeating itself, how recent events might ripple around the world, and more. Grossman says we have to be able to connect the wars abroad and the wars at home, from ICE raids to the US support of Israel.

Zoltán Grossman is a professor of geography and Native American and World Indigenous Peoples studies at The Evergreen State College. He is the author of several books, most recently Unlikely Alliances: Native Nations and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands (University of Washington Press, 2017).

Featured image of a petrochemical plant in Asaluyeh, Iran via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

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Young people are too often victims of our broken criminal justice system. 1 in 14 US children either has or has had a parent behind bars. And too often their teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, and even their own friends routinely overlook or stigmatize these young people as troubled, or trouble. 

To talk about the experiences of youth impacted by the justice system, host Ali Muldrow welcomes back to the show Victor Trillo Jr. and Amy Friedman, to talk about the collection, Home and Away.

They talk about the profound hopefulness of youth artists impacted by incarceration, deportation, and detention. Their organization, PATHfinder Network, publishes a book every year, but Friedman says she’s seeing more and more participants submitting work anonymously in response to an increasingly stressful and fearful political climate. Trillo says that poetry, stories, and art are the answer to the issues we’re facing today. 

Writing is a space where young people can put big emotions, and it’s a place where they can ground themselves. That kind of self-expression serves the youth. Friedman reminds listeners that when you lock someone up, you’re locking up a whole family and disrupting a whole ecosystem. But these poems, stories, and art, also speak to the conditions of being a teenager in 2025. Trillo says he keeps doing this work because it the spirit of optimism and resilience he sees in these youth is contagious.

Amy Friedman is an author, editor, and criminal justice activist, who founded POPS the Club in 2013, as an inclusive space for youth who have been stigmatized and silenced by their experiences with the criminal justice system. Having been previously married to a man who was in prison, Amy’s stepdaughters inspired her to find a way to support youth in ways that her girls never were.

Victor Trillo, Jr. is a founding team member of The PATHfinder Club and works as the Program Manager for The PATHfinder and POPS the Club, employing his deep understanding of the impact of incarceration on individuals, first as the son of a man who was in prison throughout Victor’s childhood, and later incarcerated himself. He is a powerful advocate for children of the incarcerated.

Featured image: the cover of Home and Away.

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On today’s show, host Sara Gabler speaks with Stephen Zunes and Negin Owliaei about the rapidly developing situation in Iran. On June 13 Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Tehran and only days ago President Trump ordered the bombing of three locations in Iran. Even if (as of this morning) the nations have reached a possible ceasefire, Israel and the US’s escalation of force will have long consequences for Iranian civilians and so much more. 

Zunes describes the situation and how decades of US meddling in Iran got us here. He’s confident the ceasefire will hold, but reminds listeners that the US’s actions were unnecessary in the first place. Owliaei says that the US’s actions were never about nuclear proliferation and that no country is more closely surveilled in regards to developing nuclear capability than Iran. In fact, it’s the US and Israel who are the countries with the capacity to drop nuclear bombs. Both call the US’s bombing of Iran an act of US hegemony.

They also discuss the media’s role in manufacturing consent for the US’s attacks, from calling Israel’s attack’s “preemptive” and in “self-defense” and refusing to call them unprovoked. The mainstream media is also quiet about the civilian impacts of the US’s bombing and misrepresent the targets as only nuclear sites, when government buildings, media stations, and other locations with civilian people were targeted. Owliaei urges people to pay closer attention to the influence of Christian Zionism and religious rhetoric in the US. Her recent article for Truthout analyzes the potential (or lack thereof) for legal repercussions for Trump’s actions.

Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he served as founding director of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. 

Negin Owliaei is Truthout’s editor-in-chief. An award-winning journalist, she previously worked at Al Jazeera’s flagship daily news podcast, The Take. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Featured image: the skyline of Tehran via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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Every two years, Wisconsin goes through a grueling budget setting process. Last week, the GOP-led Joint Finance Committee cancelled their meeting despite the looming June 30 deadline for the next state budget. To make sense of the situation, host Douglas Haynes is joined by two veteran journalists, Jessie Opoien and JR Ross. 

Issues like childcare and education are front and center for state lawmakers and for Wisconsin residents. Opoein says that spending for the UW System is a sticking point on both sides of the aisle. The proposed $87 million cut isn’t enough for some Republicans, but any cuts are a non-starter for Governor Evers.  Ross puts the budget process in the context of larger electoral politics. As politicians prepare for next year’s midterm elections, some are wondering how they can use the state budget to defend their seats. 

They also break down the state’s lingering COVID funds, how new tax brackets will (or won’t) impact regular folks take-home pay, the challenge of addressing Medicaid, and the state’s longstanding disinvestment in higher education.  If the current budget is vetoed by Governor Evers, the state will revert to the previous budget. 

Jessie Opoien covers state government and politics for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

JR Ross is the editor of WisPolitics.com, the state’s premier political news service. He’s been covering Wisconsin politics for more than 25 years.

Featured image: photo of the Wisconsin state capital via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). 

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On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with two guests about Israel’s actions against Palestinians and now Iran. First, we’re joined by scholar Elizabeth Minnich who explains her philosophical study of banality and her new book, The Evil of Banality: On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking.

Studying under Hannah Arendt, Minnich watched the public’s confused reception of Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil.” It was hard for people to accept that mundane actions could be monstrous. So Minnich strove to expand the definition of banality.

Now, Minnich defines banality as the ordinary with the life sucked out of it, and her book lays out the ways that banality enables evil. We’re seeing this in our society as law firms take hush money from Trump, and small things like careerism and greed add up to real harm. 

They also discuss the role of education in making people critical or hateful thinkers, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and “enclosure of thought.” 

Next, we’re joined by Sam Husseini to discuss Israel’s attacks on Iran, nuclear contamination risks, and how Trump’s actions regarding Israel are accelerating the establishment.

Sam Husseini is an independent journalist currently writing on Substack. He has written extensively about Palestine and international law, nuclear threats, and other issues.

Elizabeth Minnich received her doctorate from the New School under the direction of Hannah Arendt. Following twenty-five years as a Core Professor in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the Union Institute, she now divides her time between Charlotte, NC, where she is professor of moral philosophy at Queens University, and Washington, DC, where she is a Senior Scholar at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She is the author of Transforming Knowledge, Thought Work: Thinking, Action, and the Fate of the World, and co-author of The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy.

Featured image: a map of Israel and Iran via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 1.0).

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Today’s show breaks down the recent events in LA, from the growing impunity of ICE and the National Guard to the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration. Host Allen Ruff is joined by Schuyler Mitchell to talk about her recent piece in Truthout. 

Mitchell describes witnessing 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in LA following the murder of George Floyd. At the time, the Governor and Mayor authorized the deployment of National Guard troops, and  these troops, along with local law enforcement, responded to peaceful protesters with force. Since then, the city has paid out more than $12 million in compensation for LAPD abuses, and there are tens of millions of dollars in liability claims still pending. Mitchell compares this moment to the recent deployment of federal troops to LA , and how law enforcement has violently responded to peaceful anti-ICE protests. 

She says that the media spectacle and the police’s militarized, aggressive force are only making violence against protesters worse. She’s noticed how mainstream media makes a spectacle out of the protests despite the fact that protest have been peaceful. She refuses to accept the Right’s framing of property damage as violence. They also discuss the showdown between Governor Newsom and Trump, the attacks on the press, the problem of phrases like “less legal,” and the language of Project Esther. 

Schuyler Mitchell is a Brooklyn-based journalist, originally from North Carolina. Her freelance reporting has appeared in The Intercept, The Baffler, Labor Notes, and she is currently a political columnist at Truthout.

Featured image of Black Lives Matter protest in Oakland in 2020 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). 

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On today’s show, host Ali Muldrow celebrates Pride month with two guests in the studio: Alder Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford and Alder Sean O’Brian, who both serve Madison’s east side. They highlight the important work of LGBTQ+ leaders at a time when attacks on queer and trans folks are being promoted by the Trump administration. 

Muldrow opens the show by talking about how in this political climate, Pride feels full of conflicting emotions. It calls for people’s most exuberant selves, but there’s no crying in glitter. Martinez-Rutherford says there’s a lot of crying in Pride, and it’s possible to have tears and sparkle. 

O’Brian says that at a time when everything is on fire, it can feel tangible to work on the Common Council and meet the needs of his constituents. And Martinez-Rutherford feels gratitude to know that her constituents wanted her back in this role.

They also discuss what it’s like to be an elected official, what it means to balance meeting people where they’re at or pushing back, what people need from Democrats in office, the gravity of facing threats to their safety as anti-trans violence is on the rise, and why they love Madison.

Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford is a long time comedian and activist. Making history as the first openly transgender woman on the Madison, WI Common Council, her work centers around housing and advocating for the most vulnerable.

Sean O’Brien is the Policy and Advocacy Director at Fair Wisconsin, the state’s only LGBTQ+ civil rights and political advocacy organization. He was elected to his first term on the Common Council this Spring.

Featured image of Alder Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford, Alder Sean O’Brian, and Ali Muldrow. Image courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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On today’s show, guest host Sabrina Madison speaks with two local leaders, Justice Castañeda and Rosa Thompson, about an issue that many folks overlook: the lack of teen-centered spaces in Dane County, especially for Black youth. They talk about what would be possible if youth were centered in the design and programming of public spaces. Because we close schools during the summer and community centers don’t stay open late, youth don’t have many places to go. What they need are spaces where they feel safe, that have robust programming, mentorship, and care for teens and their families. 

For Thompson, many youth spaces fail to serve the youth they have in mind because they don’t bring in youth and their families to co-create the spaces from the ground up. She says that youth want to be involved in the design of programs and centers so that they can feel ownership over them and want to take part.

Unfortunately many public spaces–like malls and schools–are places where Black youth are policed. They discuss how Black youth are overrepresented in arrests, citations, and juvenile court referrals. When Black and brown youth leave their neighborhoods, they’re at an increased risk of police interaction, says Castañeda. 

In Madison, youth of color live in “peripheralized enclaves of housing” which are far from their schools and from economic centers where they might go for recreation and work. A healthy neighborhood is a nascent organization, where people co-create their space, and supervise each other, says Castañeda. He proposes that more planning teams take into consideration the demographics of Madison’s public schools when making decisions about what the city needs.

Rosa Thompson is the Founder and Executive Director of Black Girl Magic Educational Services. Rosa is a proud product of Madison’s public schools and a graduate of Clark Atlanta University. She also earned her master’s at UW–Madison. Back in 2017, she co-created the Black Girl Magic Conference to celebrate Black girls across the county and bring them together to learn from each other. Through her work, Rosa’s created powerful spaces where Black girls can feel seen, be supported, and connect with Black women leaders in our community—all through programs rooted in identity, creativity, and joy.

Justice Castañeda is a Madison native and Executive Director of CommonWealth Development. Justice is a Marine Corps veteran, an educator, and a community development leader whose work focuses on the deep connections between housing, economic opportunity, and community violence—especially how those things impact young people who’ve experienced trauma. He earned his Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from UW–Madison, and his research is all about making our neighborhoods healthier, safer, and more equitable. Justice brings both lived experience and serious academic work to the table—with degrees from UC San Diego, Stanford, and MIT.

Featured image of State Street in the spring via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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The Annual Nourishing Minds, Sustaining Futures Summit will take place this Wednesday, June 18. Now, in its third year, the program aims to foster food justice and food education in schools and is open to the public. Host Douglas Haynes speaks with three of the organizers–Allison Pfaff Harris, Sonya Sankaran, and Kathy Oker–about the event’s speakers, workshops, and the importance of environmental education. 

There’s a lack of equity in outdoor education and within outdoor spaces more generally, says Oker. She wants to help all people repair their relationship with the natural world, and that means changing the culture at local schools so that more administrators can help teachers get their students outside for class. Outdoor education can improve the quality of students’ overall education and foster the idea that the world is our classroom. In that light, nature ceases to be a cute add-on to education.

Sankaran says nature-based art projects awaken students sensory systems. She leads projects in ephemeral art, like weaving with milkweed and goldenrod. For Sankaran, art is just a different, non-verbal mode of learning and storytelling.

Pfaff Harris describes the history of how REAP developed a grant-funded program to support high-school educators and students. She says that farm-to-school can be practiced by schools, caregivers, and beyond. And in light of federal cuts to farm to school programs, she says it’s more important than ever to be making the connection between food and climate justice. 

Allison Pfaff Harris is the Farm to School Director at REAP Food Group.  

Sonya Sankaran is an artist, ecologist, and educator focused on the relationship between nature and health. 

Kathy Oker is a progressive educator who has worked at Wingra School for 25 years.

Featured image of the banner for the Nourishing Minds, Sustaining Futures Summit. 

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Today’s guests give an on-the-ground perspective on the ongoing ICE raids in Los Angeles. Bill Gallegos and Aquilina Soriano Versoza highlight the work of immigrant rights activists and protesters who have taken to the streets to oppose Trump’s sending of 200 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines to LA. 

Soriano Versoza describes how the raids are being executed without warrants and how ICE is showing up in places where they know immigrants live and work and making arrests without probable cause. As of Wednesday, there were over 300 confirmed disappearances, and legal advocates are being denied requests to contact missing persons. That means that some people who have been abducted aren’t locatable. 

Gallegos says that none of this should catch us by surprise. Trump has been very clear about his goal to launch an ethnic cleansing campaign which has now taken the form of a domestic military campaign as troops with assault rifles enter LA and tanks fill the port. The message the administration is sending is bigger than undocumented immigrants, says Gallego. The message is “don’t stand up to this neofascist administration, or this could happen to you; better not try to organize a cooperative or push for honest history curriculum, you better step back.” Soriano Versoza adds that people in LA know that they’re being treated as the test case for how far the federal government can go in criminalizing immigrants. 

They also discuss the growing number of women leaders in the resistance movement, many of whom are also leading the labor movement, how the wealth of LA is built on the backs of black and brown communities who don’t get to share in the city’s wealth, and how the fight for immigrants’ rights overlaps with support for Palestinians. 

Bill Gallegos lives in Los Angeles and is a member of the Mexico Solidarity Project and a longtime Chicano Liberation and environmental justice activist.   He is the author of “The Historical and Political Significance of the US Annexation of Mexico’s Northern Territories”, and “The Sunbelt Strategy and Chicano Liberation”.

Aquilina Soriano Versoza is Executive Director of the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, a nonprofit serving and organizing the low-wage Pilipino immigrant community in Los Angeles. Aquilina is a leader in the domestic worker movement in California and nationally through policy, worker organizing, workforce development and worker-owned cooperative strategies. She is Board Chair of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, a fellow at Rutgers University for the Build the Base program of the Workplace Justice Lab, a member of the LA Rapid Response Network, a Commissioner on the LA County Commission for Women, and a co-founder of COURAGE/Vivid Life Homecare worker-owned cooperative agency.

Featured image of the skyline of Los Angeles via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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