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This week, Roqayah and Kumars welcome first-time guest Anoa Changa and returning guest Eugene Puryear to the show. Anoa is an attorney and host of the podcast The Way with Anoa. She’s the co-managing editor of Progressive Army, and she also edits and writes for Peach Perspective which brings a left focus to politics in Georgia. Eugene is an organizer and founding member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and is on the editorial board of Liberation News. He ran for Vice President alongside Presidential candidate Gloria La Riva under the PSL banner in 2008 and 2016. He is the author of Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America, and host of By Any Means Necessary on Radio Sputnik.

Anoa and Eugene were recently contacted by a reporter for Atlanta NPR affiliate WABE, ostensibly to profile Anoa about her experiences as a black activist in Atlanta. Eugene was contacted because he had hosted Anoa on his radio show, which is on Radio Sputnik, which has ties to the Russian state. The article, which ran on WABE and was boosted in other outlets, attempted to discredit Anoa and Eugene's work because of this extremely loose connection to Russia. Anoa and Eugene situate their treatment in historical context, pointing out that black organizing has been discredited for decades as a Soviet conspiracy to destabilize American politics. We get everyone's thoughts on Russian "election meddling", ignoring the hype to discuss more pressing threats to our electoral system and real ways to address them that don't result in a jingoist frenzy. Anoa and Eugene call out mainstream US news outlets for chastising leftists for appearing on platforms they deem out-of-bounds, while simultaneously denying leftists space and instead giving platforms to far-right scum. Finally, we have a very nuanced conversation about the complexities of choosing the right platform for your message, especially in our media universe where no platform with any real reach is pure.

You can follow Anoa on Twitter @TheWayWithAnoa, and follow Eugene @EugenePuryear.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.