Sojourner Truth Radio

Former Brazilian President Lula de Silva is now in jail, as protesters gather to demand his release. Whats going on? Latin American expert and journalist Mark Weisbrot joins us.

Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during what was described by Palestinian organizers as peaceful protests. The demonstrators rallied on the Gaza-Israeli border for what's called the March of Great Return. Our guest is Raji Sourani, executive director of the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

The crisis in Syria heats up once again with claims of a chemical attack, an Israeli strike on a Syrian city and Trump promising to strike Syria. Our guest is Jim Paul, author of "Syria Unmasked."

Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during what was described by Palestinian organizers as peaceful protests. The demonstrators rallied on the Gaza-Israeli border for what's called the March of Great Return. Our guest is Raji Sourani, executive director of the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

The crisis in Syria heats up once again with claims of a chemical attack, an Israeli strike on a Syrian city and Trump promising to strike Syria. Our guest is Jim Paul, author of "Syria Unmasked."

Former Brazilian President Lula de Silva is now in jail, as protesters gather to demand his release. Whats going on? Latin American expert and journalist Mark Weisbrot joins us.

Today: a one-hour special on the life and legacy of Winnie Madikizela Mandela. For 38 years, she was the wife of the late political prisoner, president of South Africa and global icon Nelson Mandela. Winnie Mandela was a political person in her own right. She was pivotal in bringing global attention to the plight of her then-husband. Winnie Mandela, known by many in South Africa as the "Mother of the Nation," passed away on April 2, 2018. Today, we examine her work, her strengths, and the torture and other injustices she faced. Our guests are Pastor Kelvin Sauls, senior pastor at Holman United Methodist Church, who was born and raised in South Africa; and Emira Woods, a U.S. foreign policy expert with a special emphasis on Africa and a member of the International Working Group for Africans Rising.

Today, Cosmology on Sojourner Truth returns. We bring you a one-hour special with some of the latest news about the universe. A report that astronomers have found a galaxy without dark matter is causing quite a stir in the field of astrophysics.

In these times, when it is difficult to fathom what is happening on and to Planet Earth, we set our sights to the stars and beyond. After all, it has been said that stardust is in us all.

Our guests are Dr. Priya Natarajan, a professor in the departments of astronomy and physics and Yale University, and Dr. David Kaiser, professor of physics and the history of science at MIT.

Today is about family as we mark 50 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Why family? Because it is personal. Those of us alive when he was killed all remember the moment we heard of his death. It felt like "and still feels like "we lost a member of our family. It is still difficult to process. It is not objective. It is not with the distance of a reporter as mainstream media tells us we must have. It is personal.

As we remember Dr. King, it will not be with a nostalgic lens, but we will focus on how his legacy is actively being carried out today. He was a man of action. He gave us all strength and direction, and we continue to mourn his loss, a leader stripped away from us at the young age of 39 years old.

Our guests are community campaigners actively carrying out the legacy of Dr. King: welfare rights activist Maureen Taylor, and two Poor People's Campaign's California co-chairs, Kait Zeigler and Pastor Eddie Anderson.

The rebellion of teachers in red states steps it up a notch with walkouts continuing in Oklahoma and Kentucky. This follows the successful wildcat strike of teachers in conservative West Virginia. Teachers in Arizona are also threatening action. Our guest is Tammy Berlin, a longtime high school teacher based in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Anne Petermann of the Global Justice Ecology Project brings us our weekly Earth Minute.

Economist Max Wolff joins us to discuss the brewing trade war that grew out of Trump slapping tariffs on aluminum and steel as well as $60 billion in annual imports from China. China has retaliated with tariffs of their own on U.S. products and has promised to match Trump's tariffs dollar for dollar. The stock market fell in response in response to the trade tiff – as well as in response to Trump's latest attack on the technology sector (in particular, his reported hatred of Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos).