It's the Democracy, Stupid Full Episodes

On this week's show:
– Laura Jedeed, investigative and features journalist who focuses on the American conservative movement and far right; Slate recently published her article “You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof”
– David Pepper, lawyer, political activist, author (of fiction and nonfiction), and former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, and 2026 candidate for lieutenant governor of Ohio
– J. Patrick Coolican, editor-in-chief of the Minnesota Reformer
– Joe Walsh, former Republican congressman from Illinois and host of The Social Contract with Joe Walsh

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show:
– Elizabeth Jacobs, professor emerita of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a founding member of the public health advocacy group Defend Public Health
– Jill Lawrence, opinion writer for The Bulwark and author of the History Keeps Happening Substack newsletter
– Don Moynihan, professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy
– Matt Caffrey, Swing Left‘s director of Grassroots Organizing

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show:
– Seth Cotlar, professor of history at Willamette University
– John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation
– Mark Jacob of Stop the Presses, “a weekly newsletter about how right-wing extremism has exploited the weaknesses in American journalism, and what we can do about it”
– Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic Policy and Research

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show Professor Joel Ostrow fills in for Edwin Eisendrath, and his guests are
– Scott Sakiyama, Oak Park attorney who was detained temporarily by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 20 near his child’s elementary school after trying to warn the community about ICE presence in the area
– Juan Garcia, founder of Kalpulli Across Borders
– Geoffrey R. Stone, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago
– Peter Shane, the Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law Emeritus at the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, and distinguished scholar in residence at NYU School of Law; his latest piece for Washington Monthly is “How the Roberts Court Indulges Trump’s Constitutional Workarounds”
– Rima Ziuraitas, certified TACMED instructor and medic in Ukraine

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show
– Michael Tomasky, editor of The New Republic and author of five books, including his latest, “The Middle Out: The Rise of Progressive Economics and a Return to Shared Prosperity”
– Adam Klasfeld, editor-in-chief of All Rise News
– Dan Froomkin, editor of Press Watch
– Norman Eisen, executive chair and co-founder of Democracy Defenders Fund

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show:
– Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer national opinion columnist
– Chris Geidner, author of The Law Dork newsletter on Substack
– Margaret Donovan, attorney at Koskoff Koskoff and Bieder, visiting clinical lecturer in law at Yale Law School, former assistant United States attorney for the District of Connecticut, Army veteran and former captain in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps
– Bill Scher, politics editor of The Washington Monthly, host of the history podcast “When America Worked,” and the co-host of the bipartisan online show and podcast “The DMZ“

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show:
– Lavora Barnes, political director of Democracy Defenders Fund and former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party
– Melissa Sanchez, investigative reporter at ProPublica, covering immigration
– Bobby Kogan, senior director of Federal Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress
– Rachel Leingang, Midwest political correspondent for Guardian US

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show Turi Ryder fills in for Edwin and her guests are:
–  Danielle Perry of the Greater Chicago Food Depository
– Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business
– Rami Gabriel and Karim Nagi of the music duo The Arab Blues
– Monica Shapiro, one of the real-life inspirations for Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes
– Mike Triggs, LGBQT memoirist; he is the author of “You Can’t Make This $#!+ Up!”

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show Rick Smith fills in for Edwin Eisendrath and his guests are:
– Matias Vernengo, professor of economics at Bucknell University
– Paul Wende, business manager, financial secretary, treasurer of Ironworkers Local 63
– Richard Chew, host of "Chew's Views" on WCPT

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's show:
– Tara McGowan, founder and publisher of COURIER Newsroom
– Chris Gaba, health care data analyst, blogger and founder of ACASignups.net
– Nissa Rhee, co-founder and executive director of Borderless Magazine, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet covering immigration and immigrant communities in Chicago
– Michael Mann, climatologist, geophysicist, and author of “Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World”

Catch “It’s the Democracy, Stupid” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/edwin).  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.