On today's show:
– Mark Turcotte, Illinois Poet Laureate and distinguished writer in residence at DePaul University and Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Kogan
– Lisa Stark, former ABC News reporter who recently penned a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger calling on him to defend free press and protect ABC journalists from political pressure
– Bob Kustra, former Illinois lieutenant governor (under Gov. Jim Edgar) 

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show North Central College Political Science Professor William Muck is in for Joan and his guests are:
– William Enyart, former Illinois congressman and adjutant general of Illinois
– Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government, and co-author (with Daniel Ziblatt) of “How Democracies Die” and “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point.”
– Phil Barker, professor of political science and director of the honors program at Keene State College, and co-host of The Politics Lab podcast
– Garrett Epps, constitutional law professor and legal affairs editor at the Washington Monthly

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show: John St. Augustine fills in for Joan and his guests are:
– Bill Kurtis, retired news anchor and author of “Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News”
– Heidy Moran, principal at Carl Schurz High School
– Jen Weigel, Chicago radio and television personality
– Steve Rizzo, motivational speaker, author, and former stand-up comedian
Plus, John played an interview he recorded with Jane Goodall.

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show:
– Chicago artist and poet Tony Fitzpatrick
– Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of Take Back the Court
– Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL)
– William Muck, professor of political science at North Central College

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show:
– Army Maj. Gen. Randy Manner (Ret.), former acting vice chair of the National Guard Bureau, and member of National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A)
– Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United
– Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL)
– Heartland Signal’s Rich Eberwein with three stories you might have missed from our digital newsroom

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show:
– Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL)
– Jonathan Alter, contributing editor of the Washington Monthly, former senior editor and columnist at Newsweek, filmmaker, journalist, political analyst, and the publisher of the Substack “Old Goats with Jonathan Alter.“ He is also the author of “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life” and “American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial–And My Own“
– Pete Dominick, news commentator, stand-up comic, and host of the "Stand Up! with Pete Dominick" podcast
– Jennifer Abruzzo, former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, who was fired by Donald Trump earlier this year

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show:
– Joel Ostrow, professor of political science at Benedictine University
– Juliet Jeske, founder of Decoding Fox News, a crowd-funded media project
– Pat Brady, former Illinois GOP chairman, and co-founder/partner with BE Media Inc.
– Kat Abughazaleh, Democratic candidate for Congress in the 9th District of Illinois

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show:
– Our Pet of the Month segment with Darlene Duggan, head of Anticruelty, and Dr. Payal Patel of Mark Drugs
– Sam Helmick, 2025-2026 American Library Association President

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Chew fills in for Joan Esposito and his guests are:
– Thom Hartmann, host of “The Thom Hartmann Program” and author of the new book, “The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink”
– Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters
– Majid Padellan, AKA Brooklyn Dad Defiant

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's show Ed Yohnka of the ACLU of Illinois fills in for Joan and his guests are:
– Nubia Willman, chief program officer at Latinos Progresando
– Jeet Heer, national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, “The Time of Monsters”
– Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones and the author of “Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It” and “Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America”
– 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”
– Aziz Z. Huq, Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School 

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).

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.