Hitting Left

Hitting Left

By Klonsky brothers.Education
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Hitting Left episodes

  • With Floyd Webb and Peter Kuttner.

    On this edition of Hitting Left we're joined by two legendary Chicago filmmakers — Floyd Webb and Peter Kuttner — artists whose work has shaped how this city tells its stories. Webb, known for his decades documenting Black Chicago's cultural and political life, and Kuttner, a longtime member of the Kartemquin collective, bring sharp eyes, sharp politics, and a deep commitment to community filmmaking.

    59 min
  • With Marie Newman

    Joining Mike on this edtion of Hitting Left is Marie Newman in a conversation focusing on Chicago politics, national stakes, and her personal political evolution as a progressive activist.

    Newman, who unseated conservative Democrat Dan Lipinski in the 2020 primary for Illinois's 3rd district, represents a shift away from long-held machine politics in southwest Chicago toward progressive priorities like abortion rights, gun control, and the Green New Deal.

    1 hr
  • With Bob Reiter.

    Joining Mike in the Lumpen studio is Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter. This is a Labor Day conversation about power, organizing, and the future of Chicago's working class.

    58 min
  • With Alaina Hampton and Representative Kelly Cassidy.
    We're digging into sexual harassment inside Illinois politics, where power has a long habit of circling the wagons. In studio with us: Rep. Kelly Cassidy(R) and Alaina Hampton, two women who've forced this state to confront what it prefers to ignore. We'll talk about the fallout from the Ex-Rep. Harry Benton findings, the political machinery that kept him protected, and the role of Speaker Chris Welch, whose handling of both the Benton matter and earlier misconduct allegations has become a fault line inside the Democratic Party in the middle of election season.
    57 min
  • With Joanna Klonsky and Fred Klonsky.

    It's a family affair on this edition of Hitting Left as political strategist Joanna Klonsky and activist Fred Klonsky join Mike in a discussion of last Tuesday's Michigan election, Mamdani's New York, the troubles of the Democratic Party establishment, and the race for Chicago's mayor. Also, where's Andrew Cuomo?

    56 min
  • With Lori Lighfoot

    Joining Mike on this edtion of the HItting Left podcast is former Chicago Mayor Lori LIghtfoot. Mike and Mayor Lightfoot talk WNBA basketball, recent MAGA attacks on LIghtfoot and her role in the fight against ICE.

    59 min
  • With Flint Taylor.

    Joining Mike is Flint Taylor, the Chicago attorney who co-founded the People's Law Office and who has spent fifty years putting the city's power structure on trial, from the killing of Fred Hampton to the CPD torture chambers run by Jon Burge. Flint is back on Hitting Left to talk about his new book, The Conviction Machine.

    59 min
  • With Ben Lorber

    Mike is joined by researcher and writer Ben Lorber, whose work tracks the strange new alliances reshaping the American right — from Christian Zionists to the Gen‑Z 'America First' crowd — and what all this means for antisemitism, Palestine, and the future of Jewish politics."

    1 hr 3 min
  • With Michael Rabbitt and Jocelyn Walsh of the Broadview Six.
    This week on Hitting Left, Mike sits down with Michael Rabbitt and Joselyn Walsh, members of the Broadview 6, whose arrests during an anti‑ICE protest have become a flashpoint in Chicago's struggle for immigrant rights and the right to protest. They share their story and the broader stakes of resisting state violence.
    59 min
  • With Zayd Ayers Dohrn.
    Mike and Susan Klonsky are joined by Zayd Ayers Dohrn, playwright, screenwriter, and author of the new memoir Dangerous, Dirty, Violent & Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground. Dohrn's story cuts straight into the contradictions we talk about every week on Hitting Left — the collision of family, politics, violence, and repression, and the long shadow of American radicalism. His book traces what it meant to grow up inside the Weather Underground, navigating idealism, fear, privilege, and the costs of resistance in a country that still can't tell the truth about its own past.
    58 min

About Hitting Left

From the publisher's feed

Each week brothers Mike and Fred Klonsky, bloggers and activists engage in conversation, often with in-studio guests. Topics may be local, national or international, but always with a Chicago…