Joan Esposito (Featured Interviews)

Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan joins Joan Esposito. The Madison Democrat is chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In the interview Pocan discussed the Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy (ELON MUSK) Act, which he introduced in the House in early February. 

"An unelected, unaccountable person shouldn't be in the position [Elon Musk] is in," Pocan told WCPT, referring to the sweeping power President Donald Trump has granted Musk to remake the federal government. "He's been put in charge of essentially every federal agency, turning on and off the spigots of money, and this is a guy who is receiving money from those spigots through federal contracts – $20 billion disclosed, plus more undisclosed.

"So the bill basically says either he can keep his contracts . . . or he can have the federal job that he's got. But you can't have both, because certainly that does lead to corruption."

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor, legal analyst, and co-host of the "It's Complicated" podcast, joined Joan Esposito to discuss the impact of Donald Trump's presidency on democratic institutions and law enforcement. He highlighted Trump's efforts to purge the FBI and DOJ and deploy a "flood the zone" strategy "with all sorts of tactics and wrongdoing [where Trump] can count on the fact that people don't have the time to pay attention," Mariotti told WCPT. He identified the courts and public opinion as two important tools "that we have to try to preserve our democracy."

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan is joined by Rebecca Little and Colleen Long, authors of "I'm Sorry for My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America."

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan is joined by Majid Padellan, AKA Brooklyn Dad Defiant, who talks about his social media presence and his illustrated books, "The Liddle'est President" and "The Bigliest Loser." He also reflects on Trump supporters' addiction to victimhood and outrage, the economy during the Biden administration, and the need for Democrats to improve their information ecosystem and support content creators to counteract the misinformation spread by the right. 

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan is joined by Keith Edwards, Democratic Party strategist and activist, author of the Substack newsletter No Lies Detected, and host of "The Keith Edwards Show" on YouTube.  Edwards talked about surviving the second Trump administration, highlighted the differences in content strategy across social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube, and advocated for more relatable, plain-spoken messaging and better social media skills from elected Democrats.  

"In a different timeline, where authoritarianism wasn't knocking at the door, it was probably for the best that our lawmakers were not great at social media. It's probably a good thing for democracy, right? Unfortunately, right now we find ourselves in a position where attention is the biggest weapon we can have right now against Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and the best way to get attention is to not only know how social media works but [to] know what to say on social media to make sure it travels as quickly as possible."

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan Esposito is joined by state Senator Kelda Roys, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin's 26th Senate District.

In the interview Roys discussed the Republican-backed voter ID amendment, which could be enshrined in the state's constitution when Wisconsin voters go to the polls Tuesday, April 1.

"This is part of a longstanding Republican Party project to try to keep power any way that they can, in this case, by making it harder for people to exercise their freedom to vote," Roys told WCPT.

She also highlighted her support for Judge Susan Crawford in the April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, calling Crawford "someone who has spent her career advocating for groups like Planned Parenthood as an attorney, standing up for the rights of victims. And she is going to be a fair and impartial justice if she's on the court. On the other hand, her opponent, Brad Schimel, is someone who praised Donald Trump for pardoning the violent domestic terrorists of January 6, someone who, when he was attorney general, let 6,000 rape kits go untested for years, someone who has said he wants to ban all abortions. He supports the 1849 law that's still on Wisconsin's books, to make abortion completely unavailable. So the choice really couldn't be clearer."

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan is joined by Brian Endless, senior lecturer and director of African Studies and the African Diaspora at Loyola University, who discussed his new endeavor, The Come Together Project, which is aimed at reducing political division in the United States. Endless emphasized the need to understand and listen to each other's perspectives, especially those with differing political views, and spoke about the economic disparities that drive support for figures like Donald Trump. He called for a return to community values to address these challenges. 

"We want to move people back from individualism to community," he told WCPT. "And the more people I talk to, the more I realize this is a desire for people. While the '80s tried to teach us that we're all these greedy individuals, human beings are community animals. We want that. We miss that when that's not there. We understand, at a base level, that that makes our lives better." 

Endless also addressed the potential impact of the Trump administration dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), noting the critical role it plays in providing foreign aid and exerting "soft power" globally, particularly in regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan is joined by Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who discussed the Trump administration's funding-freeze debacle that temporarily locked Illinois out of the Medicaid system late last month. She rejected the Trump administration's claim that the lockout was the result of a glitch. "The truth is, they were either grossly incompetent or super cruel," Mendoza said, adding: "I think it's important that people realize that this is just the beginning of the Trump administration's . . . attack on vital programs and the people who need them the most."

She also highlighted the need for Illinois to prepare for future federal funding cuts, suggesting the creation of multiple budgets: "one that is a catastrophe budget, another that's just like a normal kind of bad budget with limited revenues and potential hole in the budget that we have to plug . . . and then, hopefully a normal, somewhat positive moving-forward growth-related budget."  She also warned of the potential financial strain on Democratic-run states if federal funding is redirected to Republican-run states, emphasizing the importance of fiscal discipline and resilience in navigating these challenges.

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Heartland Signal Executive Editor Tim Hogan joined Joan Esposito for a conversation that touched on the challenges faced by the Democratic Party in effectively opposing the Trump administration's actions and winning back working-class voters. He also highlighted the need for Democrats to remedy the disparity between right-wing media's cohesive ecosystem and the left's fragmented approach, calling for more investment in progressive media infrastructure.  

"That right-wing media ecosystem is like a cavalry," Hogan told WCPT. "They have built podcasts with large followings, Substacks with large followings, news outlets with large followings. They all amplify each other. We just haven't done that enough on the left." 

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan is joined by Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic and an author of the Atlantic Daily newsletter.  Nichols talked about his open letter to new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom Nichols thinks "might be the most unqualified major cabinet nominee in modern American history."

"I said, look, I know how you got this job, but you're going to have to lead the military now, and you're going to have to leave a lot of that crazy rhetoric behind, even though that's why you were hired and why you got the job," Nichols told WCPT. "And I just thought it was important to say, look, this is something different now; this isn't a talk show; this isn't a game; this isn't reality TV. 'You are now the secretary of Defense, perhaps the most important job after president of the United States. You will be the last person the president talks to, most likely, before deciding to go to war or to use nuclear weapons.' I was hoping to just put that out there to impress the gravity of this on people that just don't seem to understand it, including Hegseth himself."

Nichols, who was a professor of strategy at the U.S. Naval War College for more than a decade, also discussed the potential for a military purge, the revocation of Gen. Mark Milley's security detail and clearance, and the concept of "malicious compliance" in federal agencies.

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).

And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.