On The Ground

A new report details the ways the Trump administration is criminalizing constitutionally protected rights of free speech, dissent and protest. We speak to our media critic Jon Jeter. And at the recently concluded meetings of the United Nations Human Rights Council, resurgent racism inside the U.S. was on full blast. We hear from Awa Dabo, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, addressing the Human Rights Council during its 63rd session in Geneva on September 26th 2026, and Kari Sigenthaler, legal intern for the ACLU Human Rights Program speaking during the same session on September 29th.

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem 

The Trump administration is plotting to deport a standing member of Congress and may be plotting war on Latin America. We speak to political scientist Wilmer Leon for this month’s episode of the F-Word on fascism. And the Oxford Union tried to censor the Palestinian scholar and activist Susan Abulhawa but she sued and won. On this podcast we hear the FULL historic speech. Plus headlines on Yemen, Iran, government watchdog group targets Jared Kushner, Celebration of life for Alvin ‘Skipper’ Bailey’ and more.

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem 

Sam Husseini’s in-your-face style of journalism is well-known”and now he wants to take the fight to Congress. And the family friends and advocates for Tawfiq Abdul Haqq are demanding justice after a Prince Georges County, Maryland police officer shot and killed the 33-year-old father of two.

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem 

The 2026 United Nations General Assembly met during what is arguably the most dangerous time in global affairs since the Cuban Missile crisis. We hear one view from the global majority, by Mia Motley, prime minister of Barbados. And as we live in a time of monumental changes on the world stage, we also live in a time of giants falling all around us. DC celebrates the life of artist and educator Uzikee Allen Nelson, and the world remembers master calypsonian The Mighty Sparrow. Plus headlines on world affairs with Professor Gerald Horne.

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing a. mount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem 

After months of the U.S. strangling Cuba with an illegal oil blockade, several members of Congress held a shadow hearing on Capitol Hill about the deaths, hunger and crippling impact of the medieval-type siege.

The hearing, sponsored by Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois and Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, was held Wednesday, September 2nd 2026 on Capitol Hill. The witnesses included

Suzanne Adely, president of the National Lawyers Guild. Felix Sharpe Caballero, former director of
behavioral health integrations for the State of Michigan. Dr. Tania Zakrison, trauma surgeon and professor at the University of Chicago. The Rev. William Turner, senior pastor of Empowerment Temple, in Laurel, Maryland.

In addition to urging the public to make the conditions in Cuba “go viral” similar to the conditions in Gaza genocide (though social media is not reaily available), lawmakers are pressing for passage of these proposed laws:H.R.7521 and its companion S. 136, the United States Cuba Trade Act to lift the blockade, Resolution 1056 to Annul the Monroe Doctrine, which advocates for terminating all unilateral economic sanctions imposed through Executive orders, and working with Congress to terminate all unilateral sanctions, such as the Cuba embargo, mandated by law, H.Con.Res 106 to Stop Unauthorized Military Action in Cuba. 

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem 

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On this show, more voices from “Turning the Tide: 9/11, 25 Years Later,” a conference of scholars, scientists, firefighters and a myriad of others who dispute the official narrative of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The conference in New York City occurred as the United States nears the seven-month mark in an illegal war of aggression against the people of Iran, the most recent war targeting West Asia and Africa, in the so-called war on terror launched after the 9/11 attacks, which were blamed on 19 Muslim alleged hijackers armed with box cutters.

For this second show featuring voices from the conference, we hear from two people in the firefighter community who were at ground zero of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, including Bill Manning, a leading journalist in the fire service trade press, and Chris Gioia, retired volunteer firefighter and fire chief. Gioia is also a fire commissioner for his Long Island community, of Franklin Square and Munson, where he led the commission to vote for a new federal investigation into the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you.

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank

People around the world are marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the U.S., and their aftermath of endless wars, genocide, surveillance, repression and islamophobia. And 25 years later, the movement for 9/11 truth, with scientists and engineers challenging official narratives about what really happened that day, has moved from the fringe, to the center of debate.

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem 

As the Trump Administration and the U.S Supreme Court continue to gut voting rights laws, thousands gathered on August 28, 2026 at the Lincoln Memorial to mark the 63rd anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Under the slogan, ‘Defend the Vote,’ the march lifted up the promise that voters can elect politicians who will put the needs of working people above the priorities of corporations and oligarchs. We hear from several speakers at the march, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Janeese Lewis George, Democratic nominee for mayor of the District of Columbia. 

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem 

Israel has killed at least 22,000 Palestinian children, maimed and injured another 44,000, including hundreds killed or wounded since the so-called ceasefire in Gaza during October 2025. Two UN reports released recently document how Israel kills Palestinian children with impunity, including in the Occupied West Bank. This show includes complete June 23, 2026 press conference by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, and the August 11 report delivered to the UN Security Council by Hannan Sulieman, deputy executive director of UNICEF. 

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank
you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree:

“HOW TRUMP HAPPENED: A View from History,” is the title of lecture that Professor Gerald Horne delivered at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota on February 6, 2026. Rather than view Donald Trumps two presidential wins as anomalies, Gerald says these victories are a predictable outcome of centuries of class collaboration among this country’s European settlers.(Extended bonus content not included on radio broadcast.)

The show is made possible only by our volunteer energy, our resolve to keep the people’s voices on the air, and by support from our listeners. In this new era of fake corporate news, we have to be and support our own media! Please click here or click on the Support-Donate tab on this website to subscribe for as little as $3 a month. We are so grateful for this small but growing amount of monthly crowdsource funding on Patreon. PATREON NOW HAS A ONE-TIME, ANNUAL DONATION FUNCTION! You can also give a one-time or recurring donation on PayPal. Thank you!

On the Ground: Voices of Resistance from the Nation’s Capital gives a voice to the voiceless 99 percent at the heart of American empire. The award-winning, weekly hour, produced and hosted by Esther Iverem, covers social justice activism about local, national and international issues, with a special emphasis on militarization and war, the police state, the corporate state, environmental justice and the left edge of culture and media. The show is heard on three dozen stations across the United States, on podcast, and is archived on the world wide web at https://onthegroundshow.org/ Please support us on Patreon or Paypal. Links for all ways to support are on our website or at Esther Iverem’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/esther_iverem