Hitting Left

Hitting Left

By Klonsky brothers.Education
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Hitting Left episodes

  • With Carlos Martinez.
    We're closing out the year with a compelling guest. Carlos Martinez, London‑based writer, researcher, and co‑founder of Friends of Socialist China. Martinez is known for his sharp analysis of global politics, U.S.–China relations, and the shifting landscape of a multipolar world. His work challenges conventional narratives and opens space for deeper conversations about power, ideology, and the future of the left — exactly the kind of dialogue Hitting Left was built for.
    57 min
  • With Ilya Sokolov

    On this edition of Hitting Left Mike is joined by Ilya Sokolov, the manager behind two powerhouse acts: the Roma punk energy of Fugu Dugu and the legendary klezmer innovators The Klezmatics. They talk about the politics of music, the labor of keeping bands alive, and how art rooted in tradition can still shake the walls of the establishment.

    57 min
  • With Prexy Nesbitt

    Joining Mike on this edition of Hitting Left is Prexy Nesbitt. Prexy is a veteran activist, educator, and internationalist whose decades of work have connected Chicago's struggles with global movements for justice. From fighting apartheid to challenging systemic racism here at home, his voice carries both history and urgency.

    57 min
  • With Martha Biondi.

    Joining MIke on this edition of HItting Left is Martha Biondi. Martha is a historian and the Lorraine H. Morton Professor of African American Studies and Professor of History at Northwestern University. She is author of We Are Internationlists: Prexy Nesbitt and the Fight for African Liberation.

    1 hr 1 min
  • Wirth Meredith Shiner.

    Joining Mike in the Lumpen Radio studio is nationally recognized journalist and communications expert, Meredith Shiner. We'll be unpacking the widening rift within the Democratic Party over the vote to end the government shutdown.

    1 hr 1 min
  • With Bob Reiter, Jr.

    Joining Mike on Hitting Left this week is President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, Bob Reiter, Jr. to discuss the role of organized labor in Chicago and nationally and the fight against Trumpism and fascism.

    57 min
  • With brother Fred Klonsky.

    Joining Mike in the Hitting Left studio this week is brother Fred Klonsky Zooming in from Brooklyn, taking a deep dive into last week's No Kings protests.

    1 hr 1 min
  • With Jimmy Garrett and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
    Joining Mike on this edition of Hitting Left are veteran civil rights activist/educator Jimmy Garrett and movement historian Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. Jimmy Garrett, A founding force behind the Black Student Union movement, helped ignite a wave of campus activism that reshaped American education. As a SNCC organizer and radical intellectual, Garrett fused Marxist analysis with Black liberation, challenging both liberal complacency and institutional racism. Historian, activist, and truth-teller, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has spent decades dismantling colonial myths and amplifying Indigenous resistance. From the '60s Women's Liberation Movement to authoring An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, her work exposes the empire's foundations.
    59 min
  • With Colin Kramer.

    Joining Mike in the Lumpen Radio studio is Colin Kramer, an environmental scientist with the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, where he monitors pollution, enforces cleanups, and responds to hazardous waste emergencies across the industrial Midwest. He's also an active member of AFGE Local 704, which has been disbanded by Trump.

    59 min
  • With Kathy Tholin and Laura Tanner.

    Mike's guests on this edition of Hitting Left show are two militant voices from Chicago's grassroots resistance. Kathy Tholin and Laura Tanner of Indivisible.

    Kathy is the Board Chair of Indivisible Chicago. She helped lead the massive "No Kings" protest that brought tens of thousands to Daley Plaza to challenge authoritarian drift and defend immigrant rights. Laura is the co-founder and co-leader of Indivisible Evanston and has been instrumental in mobilizing neighborhood chapters and amplifying progressive coalitions across the city.

    59 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…