As GOP lawmakers push “tough-on-crime” policies in Washington, D.C., re-entry advocates argue these backward measures will only increase recidivism, not prevent it.

In Part Two of our series on conservative attempts to use D.C. as a testing ground for harsh criminal justice policies, Rattling the Bars host Mansa Musa sits down with Chelsea Canterbury and Eric Franklin of Voices for a Second Chance. They discuss the danger of proposed measures—including charging 14-year-olds as adults, increasing mandatory minimums, repealing the Second Look Act, and reinstating cash bail—and explain why doubling down on mass incarceration won’t make the city safer.

Additional links/info:

• Voices for a Second Chance Instagram
• Sarah Staudt, Prison Policy Initiative, “Bad Omens: Reform rollbacks in Washington D.C. are a warning sign for state-level advocates”

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

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Republicans in Congress are attempting to push policies in the District of Columbia that would charge 14-year-olds as adults, increase mandatory minimum sentences, repeal the Second Look Act, and re-institute cash bail, which was banned in 1992. In this week's episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa reports from U Street and sits down with Bethany Young and Darby Hickey from the DC Justice Lab to discuss how the GOP is using Washington, DC, as a laboratory to wage a national crusade against decades of criminal justice reforms. 

This is part one of a two-part series. Subscribe to TRNN and stay tuned for Part 2 next week.

Additional links/info:

• DC Justice Lab website, Facebook page, X page, and Instagram
• Sarah Staudt, Prison Policy Initiative, “Bad Omens: Reform rollbacks in Washington D.C. are a warning sign for state-level advocates”

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

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A groundbreaking new report reveals a direct link between prison phone call rates and prison safety: higher rates fuel more violence within prisons; lower rates and free phone calls dramatically reduce it. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host and former political prisoner Mansa Musa speaks with Peter Mayer, Director of Research & Data Innovation for Worth Rises.

Additional links/info:

• Worth Rises website, Facebook page, Bluesky page, X page, and Instagram
• Peter Mayer & Bianca Tylek, Worth Rises (May 2026), “Critical Connections: The Power of Free Communication in Prisons and Jails”

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

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While calls to "abolish ICE" have exploded during the second Trump presidency, critics have been calling out the threats the agency poses to immigrants, US citizens, and democracy itself since it was created just over 20 years ago. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host and former political prisoner Mansa Musa speaks with author and immigrant justice organizer Harsha Walia about the origins of ICE and what it will take to abolish it and the new American police state.

Guests:

• Harsha Walia is the award-winning author of Undoing Border Imperialism and Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism. She has been involved in community-based grassroots migrant justice, feminist, anti-racist, abolitionist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements for over two decades, including No One Is Illegal, Defenders of the Land, and the DTES Women’s Memorial March Committee.

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

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On this episode of Rattling the Bars, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966, host and former political prisoner Mansa Musa speaks with Dr. Joy James and Dr. K. Kim Holder about the history of the Panthers and their unique approach to, and practice of, communal socialism.

This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Watch Part 1 here.

Guests:

• Dr. Joy James is Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College. She is the author of numerous books, including: In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love; Resisting State Violence; and Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics. Creator of the digital Harriet Tubman Literary Circle at UT Austin, James is also editor of The New Abolitionists: (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings; Imprisoned Intellectuals; Warfare in the American Homeland; The Angela Y. Davis Reader; and co-editor of the Black Feminist Reader.
• Dr. K. Kim Holder is an assistant professor of educational foundations and Africana studies at Rowan University. Dr. Holder earned his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Multicultural Education and African American Studies, his masters in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education, and B.A. in History from Hampshire College.

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

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This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Black Panther Party, founded in Oakland, California, in 1966. On this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with Dr. Joy James and Dr. K. Kim Holder about the legacy of the Panthers today, and about the important differences and intersections between democratic socialism and the Black Panther model of communalism.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Subscribe to TRNN and stay tuned for Part 2 next week…

Guests:

• Dr. Joy James is Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College. She is the author of numerous books, including: In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love; Resisting State Violence; and Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics. Creator of the digital Harriet Tubman Literary Circle at UT Austin, James is also editor of The New Abolitionists: (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings; Imprisoned Intellectuals; Warfare in the American Homeland; The Angela Y. Davis Reader; and co-editor of the Black Feminist Reader.
• Dr. K. Kim Holder is an assistant professor of educational foundations and Africana studies at Rowan University. Dr. Holder earned his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Multicultural Education and African American Studies, his masters in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education, and B.A. in History from Hampshire College.

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support.

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Beyond the Wire, a new, thought-provoking documentary by filmmaker and researcher Dr. S. Rasheem, offers an indespensible representation of "The Greatest City in America" and a powerful counternarrative to the popular crime series The Wire. In this exclusive interview for Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with Dr. Rasheem about how her background in community organizing compelled her to tell a different story of Baltimore—one focused on boots-on-the-ground activism that defies the narrative of a hopeless, crime-ridden city in need of over-policing.

Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino


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Rattling the Bars host Mansa Musa, former political prisoner and Black Panther, speaks with Alberto Toscano, professor of critical theory and author of Late Fascism, about how consent and coercion operate within US civil society and abroad today. In Part 2 of their two-part conversation, Musa and Toscano unpack the history and relevance of Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist theorist imprisoned by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926, and they discuss how Donald Trump's domestic and foreign platforms in 2026 animate white nationalism—relying on the explicit promise of state violence against targeted populations. 

Guests:

• Alberto Toscano is a renowned Italian cultural critic, social theorist, philosopher, translator, and adjunct professor at the Simon Fraser University School of Communication. Toscano is a columnist at In These Times and the (co-)author of numerous books, including: Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis; and Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea.

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support.

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Imprisoned by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926, the prison writings of Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci remain essential 100 years later for understanding how fascism, policing, and incarceration function to suppress political dissent and preserve unequal systems of power. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, former Black Panther and political prisoner Mansa Musa speaks with renowned scholar Alberto Toscano about the importance and terrifying relevance of Gramsci today.

Guests:

• Alberto Toscano is a renowned Italian cultural critic, social theorist, philosopher, translator, and adjunct professor at the Simon Fraser University School of Communication. Toscano is a columnist at In These Times and the (co-)author of numerous books, including: Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis; and Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea.

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support.

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In 2026, fascism in the US is rising while “the left” descends further into powerlessness, goofiness, and irrelevance—but, author William C. Anderson argues, it doesn’t have to stay that way. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Anderson returns to the show for an unflinching conversation with former political prisoner and host Mansa Musa about the state of the political left today and the lessons organizers and everyday people can learn from the Black Liberation Movement and figures like the late Russell Maroon Shoatz. 

Editor's Note: This conversation was recorded on May 1, 2026.

Guests:

• William C. Anderson is a writer and activist from Birmingham, AL. His work has appeared in outlets ranging from The Guardian, MTV, Truthout, British Journal of Photography, to Pitchfork. He is the author of The Nation on No Map: Black Anarchism and Abolition, and co-author of As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation. He’s also the co-founder of Offshoot Journal and provides creative direction as a producer of the Black Autonomy Podcast.

Additional links/info: 

• William C. Anderson, Prism / TRNN, “Another Way Out: We need a mosaic movement, not fragmented ‘leftism’”

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support.

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Help us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer