Just Solutions

This week on Just Solutions, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, how is the media covering the war? The hypocrisy of coverage of this war compared to other wars is being laid bare. In contrast to the coverage of civilian casualties in Ukraine, there has been scant coverage of civilian death when it was the U.S. military launching the invasions. 

So how can the mainstream media do a better job in covering conflicts and giving much-needed context? Our guest today is author and media critic Jeff Cohen, founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, founder of the media watch group FAIR. His recent article in Common Dreams examines how major American media outlets oppose military aggression… unless the United States is doing it.

President Joe Biden has nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. The historic announcement means judge Brown Jackson could be the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court. Civil rights groups have welcomed the nomination. Our guest today is Holli Holliday, president of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote, an advocacy group that has pushed for a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Holli Holliday says that representation on the court matters. “Justices have ruled on every aspect of our lives. Decisions have legalized school segregation and later school integration; same-sex marriage; and woman’s reproductive right to an abortion.”

The Black Agenda, Bold Solutions for a Broken System is a new collection of essays written by Black scholars addressing a variety of issues from the climate crisis, education, healthcare, the criminal justice system and more. The book is edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, co-founder of the Sadie Collective, a non-profit that addresses the underrepresentation of Black women in economics and finance. In the introduction to the book Anna writes the Black Agenda is a love letter to Black experts whose work often goes unnoticed, especially in areas of public discourse that disproportionately impact Black life.

The battle over voting rights continues across the country with many states grappling with redistricting that disenfranchises voters of color. The Supreme Court recently ruled that Alabama can reinstate a Congressional map that a lower court found to dilute the strength of Black voters. Gerrymandering is also an issue in North Carolina where the state’s supreme court ruled that partisan Republican efforts to redraw congressional and state legislative maps were unconstitutional. Our guest today is Dr. Aimy Steele, founder and executive director of the New North Carolina Project, a non-partisan group that is working to make sure communities of color are not left out of the political process and have their votes count.

The non-profit Zinn Education Project has released a new report that shows that the teaching of Reconstruction in schools is inadequate or non-existent in 90 percent of states. Reconstruction is one of the most significant times in the history of this country. It offered incredible possibilities for economic equity and progress for multiracial democracy, but that promise was crushed by white supremacists. Our guest today is Jesse Hagopian, a high school teacher in Seattle and co-editor of the books Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, and Teaching for Black Lives. He says “ignorance about Reconstruction upholds white supremacy.”.

Congress has failed to pass federal voting rights legislation which would have strengthened access to the ballot for all Americans. Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to push the Big Lie of a stolen election and numerous state legislatures are passing laws that undermine the right to vote. So what can be done, particularly with the mid term elections looming later this year? The Brennan Center for Justice is one of the national organizations working hard to defend voting rights. Sean Morales-Doyle is the Center’s Acting Director of Voting Rights & Elections. He joins us today to discuss what’s next for voting rights.

After the MLK holiday, activists gathered in Washington DC calling for the passage of federal voting rights legislation. Among them are students who have been on a hunger strike in support of the Freedom to Vote Act. They are part of a nationwide #hungerstrikefordemocracy. Todays guests are from Un-PAC, a nonpartisan youth-led organization that is working to get The Freedom to Vote Act passed. Brandon Ortega, a student at Arizona State University who has participated in the national hunger strike, and Adrien Horton, an Un-PAC organizer. We spoke with them while they were in Washington DC as part of the actions calling for the passage of the John Lewis Act. We spoke just before all 50 Republican senators used the filibuster to end debate on the bill, stopping it from advancing. All 50 Republicans and two Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, subsequently voted to preserve the filibuster.

The recent Marshall fire in Colorado that burned more than 1000 homes and displaced tens of thousands of others is a stark reminder of the very real impact of the worsening climate crisis. The most destructive fire in Colorado history was fueled by strong winds and dry vegetation, a result of severe drought. Our guest today environmental journalist Michael Kodas, author of the book Megafire, The Race To Extinguish A Deadly Epidemic Of Flame, says wildfires are now a year-round threat in the American west, and they’re becoming more intense.

There is a lot at stake in the 2022 mid-term elections. 34 senate seats and 435 House seats will be on the ballot, along with countless races for local and statewide positions, playing out all across the country. People’s Action is working to elect candidates that reflect the real-life experiences and identities of everyday voters. Their Rise Up 2022 strategy seeks to boost progressive power by organizing in competitive races to flip Republican-held swing seats.  Brooke Adams, Director of Movement Politics at People’s Action joins us to talk about the deep canvassing techniques they’re using to engage voters around progressive policies and to engage with voters who are typically shut out of politics and ignored by the Democratic establishment.

We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history, a transformation every bit as significant as the move from foraging to cities and agriculture 10,000 years ago. During the 2020s, key technologies will converge to completely disrupt the five foundational sectors that underpin the global economy, and with them every major industry in the world today. We discuss how the knock-on effects for society will be as profound as the extraordinary possibilities that emerge with James Arbib of Rethink X, an independent think tank that analyzes and forecasts the speed and scale of technology-driven disruption and its implications across society.