It's the Democracy, Stupid Featured Interviews

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).  

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Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.

Due to a technical issue, Edwin conducted the interview over the telephone.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).  

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Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Amy Maxmen, national public health reporter at KFF Health News.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).  

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Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones. her latest piece is "It’s Time for Soft Secession: How blue states can use their economic clout to stand up to Trump’s agenda—starting with California."

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).  

 

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Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Dave Roberts, publisher of Volts, a newsletter about clean energy and politics. 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath talks to Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic; his latest piece is “The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay.”

This conversation is also available on Substack.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Bobby Kogan, senior director of Federal Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture). 

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Ellen L. Weintraub, former commissioner and four-time chair of the U.S. Federal Election Commission, and currently a senior fellow at End Citizens United.

Weintraub discussed the impact of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision on election integrity and campaign finance, and criticized the Court's consistency in protecting people's rights to spend money in politics.

"We now have a system where billionaires are out there spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to ensure that only the people that they like will get elected, that only the people who will not regulate their industries will get elected," Weintraub told WCPT. "Money is not everything. People have won despite tremendous amounts of money being spent against them, and some people who have spent tremendous amounts of money trying to get elected have fallen flat. But it is influential. It can be influential."

She emphasized the need for better disclosure laws and structural reforms at the FEC. Weintraub also addressed the challenges posed by President Donald Trump's firing of independent commissioners, including herself, and the resulting lack of quorum at the FEC, which hinders investigations into campaign finance violations. 

"When I left there were hundreds of complaints pending, and that obviously is increasing every day, and none of those are going to be dealt with at all until they restore the quorum. But there's a separate problem, which is that you need a bipartisan vote -- you need four votes out of what are supposed to be six commissioners -- to start any investigation."

In her experience at the FEC dealing with complaints against Trump and the Republican Party, Weintraub said that "not in a single one of those could we pick up one Republican vote to start an investigation to try and negotiate the smallest fine for any of the violations that were alleged in those complaints." She added: "This president seems to have immunity at the FEC now." 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).

Casten discussed the bipartisan Mental Health in Aviation Act, a bill he introduced with Republican Congressman Pete Stauber of Minnesota. It passed the House earlier this month and awaits action in the Senate. The legislation seeks to expand access to mental health care for pilots and remove the stigma of seeking mental health counseling without fear of being grounded. The provisions in the bill would also apply to air traffic controllers.

"We became aware of this when we got a phone call from a family in Chicago whose son was in pilot school, needed mental health treatment, and his parents found all this out after he'd taken his own life and and learned that, essentially, he had made a conscious decision not to get that help because he knew that then he would be grounded and wouldn't be able to finish pilot school. And as we started digging in and peeling that onion, you hear these stories. I'd go speak to pilot mental health conferences, and on the way in a pilot would come up to me and say, one of my colleagues just took his life yesterday because of this issue." 

In addressing the negative impact of the Trump administration's immigration policies, Casten emphasized the economic and societal benefits of the United States being a welcoming country for immigrants. He paraphrased Republican President Ronald Reagan's stated belief that, in Casten's words, "the day America stops welcoming immigrants to our shores is the day America abandons its position of leadership in the world." 

"Why is the American economy slowing down?" Casten asked. "Well, it's in part because we're kicking out the people who actually do jobs and buy things and have houses and grow the economy. And by the way . . . if you actually look at crime statistics . . . if you look at the data, an undocumented immigrant to the United States statistically commits crime at a lower rate than a documented immigrant to the United States. And a documented immigrant to the United States commits crime at a lower rate than a native born American." 

A video version of the conversation is available on Edwin's Substack page.

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Elizabeth Jacobs, professor emerita of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a founding member of the advocacy group Defend Public Health.

Jacobs discussed the Trump administration's undermining of public health through the actions of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. She detailed the Trump administration's four main lines of attack on public health, which she said are "not confined to Mr. Kennedy"; they include the spreading scientific misinformation, casting doubt on expertise and the scientific process itself, executing mass firings across public health agencies, and undermining the U.S. vaccination system. Jacobs emphasized the importance of herd immunity and the "massive economic consequences to infectious disease outbreaks that could be prevented by vaccines."

She also talked about the recent congressional testimony of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, whom Kennedy fired last month. "I believe her 100 percent and I do not believe what Mr. Kennedy had to say about it," Jacobs told WCPT.  

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.