On today’s show, social critic Henry Giroux discusses what he calls the “politics of cleansing,” the multi-pronged offensive currently being waged against civil liberties, dissent, and ultimately democracy by “American-style fascism.” He says that cleansing means to purify in the service of domination. And in his recent article in CounterPunch he seeks a language that is comprehensive enough to describe Trump’s assault on democracy. 

From religious fundamentalism, to educational repression, the imposition of ideological conformity, and attacks on DEI, we’re watching racial cleansing unfold. That’s coupled with the hollowing out of government and the revising of history.

Giroux says that over the years, the Right has learned to appropriate the language of the Left. Words like freedom, that were once emancipatory are now tools of oppression. Freedom becomes the freedom to control the economic system and the freedom to crush dissent. The Right uses the language of dehumanization and brutality, and they’re making a world where people are disappeared. In addition to direct action, we need to reinvigorate the power of civic responsibility and civic courage. 

Henry Giroux is an internationally renowned writer and cultural critic who has authored or co-authored over 65 books. He is McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest and the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.

Featured image: illustration of Henry Giroux by Jared Rodriguez / Truthout via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

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Continuing our focus on the arts as an antidote in times of political turmoil, today we’re joined by local poet Nate Marshall to talk about his most recent collection, Finna. His poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives, question how gendered language is related to violence, and explore the vastness of Black vernacular.

Marshall and Muldrow discuss the weight of writing about challenging moments in history. He says he remains curious about power, language, and masculinity. But too often readers have been primed to expect racialized suffering in Black American literature. And readers too often get caught in the authorial fallacy, that the speaker of a poem is the author. Marshall cautions against flatting Black writing and Black experience. He talks about the human condition being layered, complex, and rich. Muldrow says that writers describe suffering so that the reader can see the launching pad for their resistance. 

They also talk about the labor of writing, their educational opportunities, and the role of the poet in times of political turmoil. Marshall says that his role doesn’t change according to the times because we’re always in a state of turmoil. Regardless, the role of the artist is to sing, he says. Marshall also reads from one of his new, unpublished poems. 

Nate Marshall is an award-winning author and editor from the South Side of Chicago. His most recent book, Finna, was recognized as one of the best books of 2020 by NPR and The New York Public Library. He is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at The University of Wisconsin and lives in Madison, WI with his wife, the writer Alison C. Rollins, and their very cute daughter.

Featured image: the cover of Finna.

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On today’s show we’re rebroadcasting an interview from 2019 in which outgoing News Director Chali Pittman interviewed Ada Deer, the late Native American social worker, activist, professor, lobbyist, and author. They talk about Deer’s life, work, and American Indian history. 

Deer grew up on the Menominee Reservation and graduated from UW–Madison with a degree in social work. She later taught courses that fused Indian history and social work. She also served as Assistant Secretary of the US Department of the Interior as the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was the first woman to fill this position. In 1992, she was the first Native American woman to run for Congress in 1992 and also ran for Wisconsin Secretary of State.

Deer’s memoir, Making a Difference: My Fight for Native Rights and Social Justice, was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2019. 

Featured image: cover of Ada Deer’s memoir, Making a Difference. 

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On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes speaks with Dr. Michelle Robinson about the Madison Forward Fund 2.0, which was recently unveiled by the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. The guaranteed income program will focus on maternal-child health and support 42 families, each getting $500 a month for 12 months. This program builds off of the Madison Forward Fund that ran from 2022 to 2023. 

Robinson provides insightful context on the history of income inequality, the interacting realities of racial and gender-based inequity, and the fact that there is precedent for these kinds of programs in our existing public policy. 

Our economic system is designed to maintain structural unemployment in order to keep wages and inflation stable. But what is our collective responsibility to the folks who get left behind, asks Robinson. That’s where guaranteed income programs come in. GI programs are regular, unconditional cash payments made to a targeted group, usually the most economically vulnerable. Participants use the funds to buy groceries, pay off debt, and close rent gaps. These programs also acknowledge the domestic labor that happens outside of formal employment and the dignity of people who cannot work. 

Robinson frames the problem of income inequality as a matter of dignity. At a time when poverty and wealth disparities are growing, a smaller and smaller number of people are able to afford ends meet. In light of the nearly 60% of the US population who live at or near poverty including 21.5% of people in Dane County, we need social and economic policy that is rooted in freedom, dignity, and care, says Robinson. Farm subsidies, employment tax credits, and tax breaks to corporations are all examples of existing guaranteed income policies. The issue is who is perceived as deserving of economic support. 

Dr. Michelle Robinson serves as Chief Programs and Partnerships Officer at the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. In this role, she leads the organization’s health equity leadership development, policy and advocacy, environmental justice, and maternal-child health initiatives. She also directs the Madison Forward Fund 2.0, a guaranteed income program, and oversees evaluation, measurement, and impact efforts across FFBWW’s portfolio. Dr. Robinson holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. For over a decade, she has advanced research, policy, and advocacy on cash assistance programs, including guaranteed income, earned income tax credits, and child savings accounts.

Featured image: a graph of net personal wealth from the World Inequality Database via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). 

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On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with three panelists taking part in a program next week to celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity. Dr. Claudia Calderón, Avexnim Cojti, and Cherie Thunder are part of a panel called Let’s Get Growing: Seeds, Stories & Solidarity happening on May 21 from 5-7pm at Aubergine on Willy Street. 

As part of today’s roundtable, they talk about seed sovereignty, which is the right of people to use and exchange their own seeds in order to maintain the foodways and autonomy. This movement counters the billion-dollar global seed trade, the privatization of seeds as intellectual property, and the selective breeding of seeds by agricultural companies, says Calderón. She recommends a few books on these topics, Flourishing Kin and First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology.

Indigenous communities across the world advocate for seed sovereignty, says Cojti, because of the legacies of colonialism. Following the appropriation of land from Indigenous peoples, colonizers then imposed the commodification of that land as private property, explains Cojti. Her organization, Cultural Survival, resists this appropriation and commodification and supports the maintenance of common land and common agricultural practices. 

Seeds are significant to the cultural, spiritual, and ecological livelihoods of many Indigenous peoples. Thunder discusses the role of wild rice for the Menominee people and the history of harvesting and reseeding wild rice over the last two centuries. 

Dr. Claudia Irene Calderón is a Teaching Faculty, Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an affiliated professor at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Dr. Calderón uses participatory approaches to facilitate agroecological transitions. With extensive transdisciplinary experience at the intersections between gender, indigeneity, health, and agroecology, she is committed to re-centering ancestral ways of knowing, bridging epistemological divides, and fostering respect for nature to nurture sustainable food systems.

Avexnim Cojti (Maya Kiche), Director of Programs at Cultural Survival. She is from Chuwila, Guatemala. She is the eldest of five sisters, a mom, a sociologist and a Maya calendar ancient knowledge keeper of her community. She has more than fifteen years of experience supporting Indigenous rights and community initiatives upholding community, self-determination and reciprocity with the land. She holds a degree in Indigenous Government Studies from the Institute of Indigenous Government, Vancouver, British Columbia. Her work with elders and a conviction on the right of Indigenous Peoples to traditional health systems takes her to pursue her PhD on Indigenous knowledge transfer about medicinal plants at the University of Toronto.

Cherie Thunder is Menominee, Potawatomi, English, German, Irish, and Swedish. She grew up on the Menominee Reservation in Northeast Wisconsin. Cherie is the Tribal Wild Rice Research Coordinator at the Menominee Department of Agriculture and Food Systems. Since she graduated from UW Madison in 2013 Cherie has worked with non-profit organizations in the Menominee Nation and she strives to create a better place for children to grow into good humans.

Featured image of wild rice via Flickr.

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On today’s show, host Allen Ruff speaks with Nancy J. Altman about the status of Social Security under the Trump administration. As the program enters its 90th year, Altman reflects on how it was created during the Great Depression but was meant to provide basic economic security (not dependent on wages) even in times of prosperity. Now, the program serves over 70 million people.  

Altman has written about how Elon Musk and DOGE are trying to undermine the program by appealing to an old playbook of lies and misinformation. Contrary to false claims that the program is riddled with fraud and inefficiency, Altman describes how over 99% of the program’s revenue is turned over to beneficiaries and how 99.7% of benefits are paid accurately and on time. But DOGE is creating the conditions for waste, fraud, and abuse as they cut staff and close field offices across the country. 

Altman says the American people aren’t polarized over Social Security. If anything, people agree that benefits should be expanded. Yet a small group of very wealthy people despise the system and they’re donating to politicians who are choosing the interests of their donors over the concerns of their constituents. Meanwhile, immigrants are paying into Social Security, and some will never be able to receive benefits. 

Nancy J. Altman has a fifty-year background in the areas of Social Security, Medicare, private pensions, and related programs. She is president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition.

Featured image: a Social Security card via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).

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Good luck trying to find an affordable apartment or buy a home in Madison these days. As the city keeps growing, so does the cost of housing. To talk about the situation we’re in and what local and state governments can do about it, host Ali Muldrow is joined by Senator Kelda Roys. 

They discuss the Ella Apartments and programs like the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), zoning and accessory dwelling units, the very narrow pathways to home ownership, how hard it is for people to downsize and stay in their community, and whether Madison will go down the gentrification path. Senator Roys says that in the long term if we can’t solve housing, our communities are going to lose their vibrancy. “We’ve go to live together if we’re going to thrive,” she says.

While the average price of a home has soared to nearly half a million dollars, the number of kids experiencing homelessness in the city is also growing. The city can’t build new homes or apartments fast enough, and the cost and availability of building supplies is up in the air under Trump’s tariffs. So who will get to live here and how well? Senator Roys says these issues are tied to whether we advocate for a pluralistic society or a puritanical and authoritarian one. In the long run, Muldrow says it’s cheaper to help people rather than hurt them. 

State Senator Kelda Roys is a member of the Joint Committee on Finance. A leading voice in the state capitol for abortion rights, investment in child care, and full funding of our public schools so that everyone has the opportunity to build a better life and thrive. Kelda lives in Madison with her husband and three children and began her second term in the 26th State Senate District in January 2025.

Featured image: photo of Senator Kelda Roys.

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On today’s show, Alder Isadore Knox Jr. hosts a roundtable discussion on Black political leadership in Madison. He says that this is a unique time for this conversation given the reduction of Black elected officials on the Madison City Council, from 9 alders to 5 in the current term. He’s joined by Richard V. Brown Sr., Sheri Carter, and Amani Latimer Burris. They talk about their reasons for running for political office as well as their civic accomplishments.

Latimer Burris says that she’s proud of asking tough questions at Council meetings and she’s learned from the formative work of her parents. Carter says that she ran for office in order to change the perspective on South Madison. She’s proud of initiating the Commercial Ownership Assistance Program and renovating Penn Park. Brown says that for a time there weren’t many other Black leaders on the Common Council, and he’s proud of helping support other Black leaders get elected. 

They also talk about what the future holds, as Madison’s population grows and housing becomes even more unaffordable. As housing becomes increasingly more expensive, so does the cost of running a local political campaign, something that gives today’s guests pause for what it means to have everyday people in elected office. Carter says that without more Black members on the council, the city will suffer from less diversity of thought. Latimer Burris reminds listeners that a Black woman hadn’t been elected to the Common Council until 2015.

Ricard V. Brown Sr. is a former Dane County Board Supervisor and Personnel and Finance Chair as well as a mayoral candidate and County Treasurer candidate.

Sheri Carter is a former four-term alder and Council President as well as the first Black woman elected to the Common Council.

Amani Latimer Burris is a former Madison District 12 alder. 

Featured image: photo of today’s guest host, Isadore Knox Jr.

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Today’s show is rebroadcast of a show from April 28.

On April 17, a record breaking number of child care advocates marched on the Wisconsin state capital and sent a message to legislators that the state needs to invest $480 million in childcare. According to the Institute for Research on Poverty, without this investment, 1 in 4 childcare providers in the state could shut down.

To shed light on these changes, host Douglas Haynes is joined by Corrine Hendrickson and Ruth Schmidt, two child care professionals and advocates. Schmidt says that Wisconsin is one of six states that doesn’t put state money into childcare, the only support comes from federal block grants. To address this, advocates are asking for Governor Evers to make an investment in child care in the upcoming budget.

Schmidt says that free market principles don’t apply to childcare. And there’s a double standard when it comes to how industries are treated: manufacturers in Wisconsin are given a tax break and the state invests $2.5 billion annually in its prison system. But child care workers are underpaid and overworked. Hendrickson says that it’s possible to treat childcare workers this way because feminized labor is devalued in our society.

Unlike K-12 schools or higher education, child care isn’t run like a system. In many respects, it’s good that childcare isn’t run like a system because it allows childcare programs to be community and culturally responsive. But without a concerted investment, Hendrickson says she’ll have to raise her rates.

You can learn more about child care issues from Raising Wisconsin and A Day Without Childcare on May 12.

Corrine Hendrickson is a childcare provider in New Glarus. She is a co-founder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed, or WECAN, a grassroots advocacy organization aimed at increasing public investment in early childhood.

Ruth Schmidt is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association.

Featured image of kids at daycare via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

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“We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” President Trump said during his first State of the Union of his second term. “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”

That bold claim set off a new wave of awkward diplomacy, including surprise visits from Donald Trump Jr., and Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha.

Acquiring Greenland is not a new obsession.  Trump floated the idea in his first term. Numerous presidential administrations have floated the idea, at least privately. Even Truman made a secret offer to buy it after World War II, compelled by the island’s  geographical and strategic potential.

With Trump back in office and his allies pushing a revival of Manifest Destiny-style expansionism, the idea is back — and louder.  House Republicans have introduced the Make Greenland Great Again Act, aiming to authorize negotiations to purchase the island.

So what’s really going on here? Why Greenland?

Journalist Adam Federman has reported on the President’s call to buy (or take) the island.  He joins host Esty Dinur to help unpack the long and tangled relationship between the U.S. and Greenland — from Cold War military operations to today’s resource politics — to Greenland’s growing moves toward self-determination.

About the guest: 

Adam Federman is a reporting fellow with Type Investigations. He’s written widely on environmental policy, public lands, and corporate and police spying on environmental activists.  His first book, Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017), was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in Biography.  Read more at his website, adamfederman.com, or on X.

Photo: Remixed image of a satellite composite image of Greenland, from the NASA Ames Research Center, under public domain license.

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