Brad Adams and Climate Rights International believe that progress on climate change cannot succeed without protecting human rights – and the fight for human rights cannot succeed without protecting our planet against climate change. Brad and CRI work in partnership with local and international groups, activists, and affected communities to demand justice and accountability from powerful interests.

Providing pro bono service to small businesses in Dallas, Texas not only persevered through the pandemic - it expanded. The innovative program developed by attorney Fawaz Bham coordinated more than 40 law firms and community organizations through a transition from in-person to remote clinics to sustain a program that has served over 25,000 clients. Bham's efforts were recognized by the 2024 American Bar Association's Pro Bono Publico Award for exceptional volunteer public service.

John Echohawk has served as Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) since 1977. Under John's inspired and continuing leadership, NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, voting rights, and Indian education.

Nisha Anand, the Chief Executive Officer of Dream.org, joins SideBar to discuss how she builds bridges across political divides to find real solutions. Nisha employs the “radical act of finding common ground” with unlikely allies while still staying true to her progressive values. She provides a hopeful message that collaboration can achieve change and overcome polarization and political divides.

Seasons one and two of SideBar featured discussions with authors, lawyers, and academics discussing challenges to our individual constitutional and civil rights. Each of our episodes ended with our featured guests providing recommendations on how each of us can contribute to solutions for the common good. Season three of SideBar is going to flip the narrative. We are featuring lawyers, nonprofit leaders, activists, and community members who are already accomplishing extraordinary work that is improving the humanitarian, public policy, and charitable needs of our local, national, and global communities. We hope that you will join us for this season of SideBar as we meet individuals and organizations who prove through their actions that opportunities to influence positive change exist for each of us. We are calling this season of SideBar -- "Optimism in Action”.

SideBar guest Chris Hearsey has spent over ten years working in international space collaborations, space exploration technologies, and other aerospace applications. His work has contributed to advancements in space law, policy, and technology. Chris is known for his visionary approach and commitment to pushing the boundaries of space capabilities, developing sustainable space technologies, and fostering an economic ecosystem conducive to innovation and growth.

Was 2024 a "historic" presidential election? Constitutional historians Lawrence Goldstone and Madiba K. Dennie join Jackie Gardina and Mitch Winick to discuss the context, concerns, and questions following the recent re-election of Donald Trump. One of the questions that many of us are asking is whether the recent presidential election was a rejection of Democrats or a broader rejection of Democracy?

Since colonial days, the legal profession has been proud of its role in the founding of the republic, the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and the defense of democracy and the rule of law. However, the profession faces an existential crisis on which the American democratic experiment hinges, says law professor Ray Brescia, author of Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession. If attorney unethical behavior surrounding the 2020 election repeats without disciplinary repercussions in 2024 . . . democracy itself is at risk.

Stephen Bright made it his life's work to unleash social change by representing unpopular clients--namely those on death row. Remarkably, he succeeded, winning all four cases he argued before the Supreme Court. Robert Tsai chronicles Stephen Bright's decades long fight to ensure equality under the law that is still being challenged at the Supreme Court today.

David Noll and Jon Michaels, authors of Vigilante Nation, discuss the reemergence of state-supported vigilantism. Noll and Michaels explain the vigilante methods, from anti-abortion bounties to book bans to the January 6 attack on the Capitol. They also provide a path forward, outlining what needs to be done to stop these efforts.