Sojourner Truth Radio

On September 9, 2016, hundreds of formerly incarcerated people, their families and their supporters came together in Oakland, California, for the first ever Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People and Families National Conference " a weekend of networking, organizing and activism. Today, we ll bring you sound from one of the many powerful panels at that historic conference, on the "Ban the Box" movement.

What does it mean that the universe is expanding? What is dark matter? What are black holes? How did general relativity change perceptions of space and time? How do race, class and gender influence who gets taken seriously in science?

Today, we return to "Cosmology on Sojourner Truth" for a one-hour special. Why is acceptance of new scientific ideas so difficult? How do radical ideas in science move from skepticism to acceptance?

Our guest is Priyamvada Natarajan, a professor in the Department of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University and author of the new book Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific ideas That Reveal The Cosmos. She is the first woman of color to write a popular book on cosmology.

Last night in Hempstead, New York, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump went head to head in the first presidential debate. In Los Angeles, hundreds of people gathered at Holman United Methodist Church to discuss the debate, the election, and the high stakes for our communities. The next president of the United States will affect income inequality, mass incarceration and criminalization, the valuation of Black lives, voter suppression, poverty, war and peace, and much, much more. To talk about all of this, our panelists are Dolores Huerta, Kokayi Kwa Jitahidi, Sydney Kamlager, and Alberto Retana.

Today on our weekly roundtable: bombings have resumed in Syria, and planes pound rebel areas of Aleppo. This, amid the breakdown of the cease-fire. The U.S. and Assad government are accusing each other of undermining the momentary peace, as well as for causing Monday's bombing of an aid convoy. Meanwhile, President Obama in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly earlier this week admitted that there is no military solution in Syria. What's going on?

The latest spate of police shootings across the nation involved two Black men in Tulsa and Charlotte and a 13-year-old Black boy in Ohio. What is the response from the presidential candidates, and will the unrest in North Carolina, an important swing state, impact polls in that state?

Plus, our panelists give their take on President Obama's last speech as president to the United Nations, as well as on the state of the presidential race.

Our guests are Jackie Goldberg, Laura Carlsen and Dr. Gerald Horne.

We bring you an update on the national prisoners' work strike with Peter Gotcher, an organizer with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. He is joined by our weekly Earth Watch guest Panagioti Tsolkas of the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons.

For our Sojourner Truth Election Watch, Max Wolff joins us to discuss Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's respective economic plans.

Charlotte, North Carolina faced a second night of unrest, with protesters expressing frustration and grief after the police killing of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott. This follows two other recent police killings, including unarmed Black father Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 13-year-old Black child Tyre King in Columbus, Ohio. In Los Angeles, a police commission, under community pressure, disagrees with L.A. police chief Charlie Beck and finds two LAPD officers at fault in two separate police killings. Our guest is Dr. Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.

Charlotte, North Carolina faced a second night of unrest, with protesters expressing frustration and grief after the police killing of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott. This follows two other recent police killings, including unarmed Black father Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and 13-year-old Black child Tyre King in Columbus, Ohio. In Los Angeles, a police commission, under community pressure, disagrees with L.A. police chief Charlie Beck and finds two LAPD officers at fault in two separate police killings. Our guest is Dr. Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.

For our Sojourner Truth Election Watch, economist Max Wolff joins us to discuss the economic proposals from the leading candidates.

We also bring you an update on the national prisoners' work strike with Peter Gotcher, an organizer with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. He is joined by our weekly Earth Watch guest Panagioti Tsolkas of the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons.

After police in North Carolina shot and killed a Black man they claim was armed, the city of Charlotte had a night of unrest. And yesterday, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma released video of the police killing of another Black man, 40-year-old Terence Crutcher. Crutcher was seen in the video with his hands up. The Department of Justice has said it would investigate his killing. We offer a tribute to those killed with Lynne Procope, co-author of “Burning Down the House” and contributor to the Offing Magazine.

In the United Kingdom, voting ended today for yet another election for leader of the Labour Party. Left-leaning Jeremy Corbyn shocked the political establishment worldwide by winning last year's election as leader of Labour, but he immediately faced a backlash from conservative-leaning members of Labour and others in the political establishment in the UK. London–based Selma James joins us to give us the latest news.