“Texas Democrats who left the state to stymie Republicans over redistricting have returned to Austin,” Politico reports, “ending a two-week standoff over President Donald Trump’s plan to carve out five new GOP congressional seats.” The end of the Texas lawmaker walkout means that the Texas legislature will now be able to proceed with passing a vote on Republicans’ gerrymandered Congressional map—so what did the walkout achieve? In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with legendary populist and former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Jim Hightower about the significance of the political showdown in Texas, and the longer-term fight ahead for Democrats and for working people of all stripes in the face of MAGA authoritarianism and corporate tyranny.

Guest:

• Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow. From 1983-1991, Hightower served as Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture. He publishes “Jim Hightower’s Lowdown” on Substack.

Additional resources:

• Liz Crampton, Politico, “Texas Democrats have returned home, ending redistricting standoff”
• Marc Steiner, The Real News Network, “'Death Star' State: The GOP's War on Democracy (DOCUMENTARY)”
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “Republicans are trying to rig the midterms. Will Democrats actually fight back, or cave?: A conversation with Beto O’Rourke”

Credits:

• Producer: Rosette Sewali
• Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
• Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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“I was in Auschwitz 6-7 weeks ago,” world-renowned author and physician Dr. Gabor Maté says, “at the very spot where my grandparents landed, before they were sent to the gas chambers, where my mother and I almost ended up in June of 1945. We came very close. And nothing in the world ever resembles the horror of Auschwitz, but the spirit of it, the inhumanity, the cruelty of it, the starving of people, the killing of starving people—that's going on right now, and the world is watching.” In this urgent installment of our ongoing series “Not in Our Name” on The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Dr. Maté about growing up Jewish in the wake of the Holocaust and being Jewish in the midst of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Guest:

• Dr. Gabor Maté is a Hungarian-born Canadian physician, Holocaust survivor, and a world-renowned expert on addiction and trauma. Dr. Maté has written several bestselling books, including the New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal, the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction; When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress; and Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder. He is also the co-author of Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. His works have been published internationally in more than forty languages.

Additional resources:

• Dr. Gabor Maté, Toronto Star, “Beautiful dream of Israel has become a nightmare”

Credits:

• Producer: Rosette Sewali
• Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
• Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is an American trauma surgeon who has served in multiple volunteer medical delegations to war zones around the world, including delegations to Ukraine and Gaza. In this urgent episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Dr. Sidwha about the unfathomable carnage of Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. “70% of structures in the Gaza Strip, human-built things, have been destroyed. That didn't happen with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This is insane. We're just leveling a whole society for the sake of doing it.”

Guest:

• Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is a general, trauma, and critical care surgeon in California. He is also a humanitarian surgeon, having worked most extensively in Palestine, but also in Ukraine, Haiti, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso. Dr. Sidhwa most recently volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, from March 25-April 8, 2024 with the World Health Organization, and again from March 3-April 1, 2025 with American NGO MedGlobal.

Additional resources:

• Mark Perlmutter & Feroze Sidhwa, Politico, “We volunteered at a Gaza hospital. What we saw was unspeakable”

Credits:

• Producer: Rosette Sewali
• Studio Production: David Hebden
• Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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As the Trump administration ramps up its violent immigration raids around the country, increasingly targeting immigrants with no criminal record, and racially profiling Latinos to meet arrest quotas, immigrant communities in Baltimore and beyond are living in terror. In this urgent episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with two immigrant justice organizers in Baltimore—whose identities are being protected to ensure their safety—about the horrifying reality that immigrant families, particularly Latino families, are experiencing right now. “If you don't look Latino, do you tell your child to carry around their passport or their birth certificate?... US citizens are being detained only because they look Latino, because they are Latino.”

Additional resources:

• Maanvi Singh, Will Craft, & Andrew Witherspoon, The Guardian, “How Trump has supercharged the immigration crackdown - in data”
• Jaisal Noor, Baltimore Beat, “Baltimore residents are mobilizing to protect their immigrant neighbors from ICE”
• Tara Lynch, CBS Baltimore, “Community demands release of Maryland pastor who was arrested by ICE”

Credits:

• Producer: Rosette Sewali
• Studio Production: David Hebden
• Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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“With only rare exceptions,” Norman Solomon writes, “US news media and members of Congress continue to dodge the reality of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, normalizing atrocities on a mass scale.” How did we end up in this Orwellian situation, where the reality of genocide is so thoroughly denied by pundits and politicians even as that genocide is unfolding in front of our eyes? How do we combat this level of inhumane violence and propaganda? Solomon, co-founder of Roots Action, joins The Marc Steiner Show for an urgent discussion about Israel’s manufactured genocide of Palestinians and how the media manufactures consent to, at best, hide and, at worst, justify Israel’s heinous actions.

Guests:

• Norman Solomon is the cofounder of RootsAction.org, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, and the author of numerous books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death and War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of the Military Machine.

Additional resources:

• Norman Solomon, Common Dreams, “In too much of the US, Israel's Gaza genocide has been made invisible”
• Norman Solomon, Common Dreams, “Who’s afraid of Zohran Mamdani? Billionaires”
• Norman Solomon, Common Dreams, “Bombing Iran Is part of the USA's repetition compulsion for war, war, war”

Credits:

• Producer: Rosette Sewali
• Studio Production: David Hebden
• Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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Instagram: @therealnewsnetworkOn June 13, military veterans and their families and supporters protested in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, demanding that taxpayer dollars for Donald Trump’s ill-fated military parade and decision to send troops to Los Angeles should be used for housing, healthcare, food, and taking care of veterans. Around 60 demonstrators were arrested by Capitol police. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with veterans Michael T. McPhearson, Kevin Benderman, and Amber Mathwig, two of whom were arrested on June 13, about the duty they feel to oppose the Trump admistration’s actions and the vital role veterans have to play in the larger fight against the Trump agenda.

Guests:

• Michael T. McPhearson enlisted in the US Army Reserve while in high school at age 17 in 1981. A distinguished military graduate, McPhearson received an ROTC commission from Campbell University. He served five years on active duty as a field artillery officer in the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division during Operation Desert Shield/Storm (the Gulf War). McPhearson separated from the US Army as a Captain in 1992. He is a member and the Executive Director of Veterans for Peace. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

• Kevin Benderman served in the US Army for ten years of active duty, eventually reaching the rank of E-5. He deployed to Iraq in 2003. He became opposed to the continued occupation of Iraq after his initial deployment, and he filed for conscientious objector status and was eventually court-martialed. He is a disabled veteran and lives in Augusta, Georgia. Kevin is a longtime member of About Face: Veterans Against the War.

• Amber Mathwig enlisted in the US Navy in 2002, serving 10 years in various duty stations, including a deployment to Baghdad, Iraq, in 2008-2009 and a deployment to the Middle East in 2010-2011 on a ship that participated in the bombing of Libya. These experiences, combined with what she witnessed in regards to the culture of sexism and sexual assault in the military, sparked her journey to understanding the stranglehold the military-industrial complex has on our country. In addition to being a longtime member of About Face: Veterans Against the War, she is a member of Teamsters Local 638, and an organizer who focuses on the intersection of labor and the military-industrial complex. 

Additional resources:

• Veterans for Peace website

• About Face: Veterans Against the War website

• Katie Bauer, HuffPost, “Storming the steps of the Capitol: Why I got arrested with other veterans to protest Trump”

Credits:
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Studio Production: David Hebden
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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t’s been 55 years since the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students at Kent State University who were protesting the US war in Vietnam. Four students were murdered at the Kent State Massacre: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Schroeder. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Mike Alewitz, who was a student at Kent State in 1970, about what it was like to witness the massacre firsthand, and about how the true history of this critical moment in US history has been whitewashed ever since.
Guest:

• Mike Alewitz is an internationally renowned muralist and Professor Emeritus of censorship, art, and politics at Central Connecticut State University. Alewitz was the founder and chairman of the Kent Student Mobilization Committee Against the War in Vietnam and an eyewitness to the May 4, 1970, Kent State massacre.

Credits:

• Producer: Rosette Sewali
• Studio Production: David Hebden
• Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich

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The world-destabilizing horrors we see on the news today (and the many forms of resistance we don’t see) can easily make us feel overwhelmed and hopeless about the state of the world. But as Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back have seen firsthand organizing with poor and working-class communities around the US, “there's amazing grassroots organizing led by poor and dispossessed people that's happening right now… there's kind of an awakening happening, but I think instead of looking to our political leaders or looking to some of the more established folks out there.” In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Theoharis and Sandweiss-Back about their new book, You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons From the Movement to End Poverty.

Guests:

• The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is an anti-poverty activist, pastor, theologian, and author. She is the executive director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Rev. Dr. Theoharis has been organizing in poor and low-income communities for the past thirty-plus years.
• Noam Sandweiss-Back is an organizer and a writer born in Jerusalem and raised in New Jersey. He has spent a decade organizing among the poor and dispossessed, including with the Kairos Center and the Poor People’s Campaign.

Credits:

• Producer: Rosette Sewali
• Studio Production: David Hebden
• Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

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On June 16, six members of Jewish Voice for Peace in Chicago—Ash Bohrer, Becca Lubow, Avey Rips, Seph Mozes, Audrey Gladson, and Benjamin Teller—began an indefinite hunger strike to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, unconditional military aid for Israel, and the blockade of food and medical aid to the 2.3 million Palestinians now living amongst the rubble. In this urgent episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with two of the Chicago hunger strikers, Ash Bohrer and Avey Rips, about their act of protest and how far they’re willing to go to stop Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians.

Guests:

• Ash Bohrer is a scholar-activist based in Chicago. Professionally, Bohrer is currently Assistant Professor of Gender and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to their academic work, Ash is deeply involved in social movements for intersectional and anti-capitalist liberation; at the moment, most of that work is centered at Jewish Voice for Peace.
• Avey Rips is a graduate student in English at Northwestern University, where they were arrested for protecting students from the police last spring. They are the child of refugees who fled sectarian violence in Azerbaijan.

Additional resources:

• Shane Burley, In These Times, “Chicago Jewish activists embark on indefinite hunger strike over Gaza”
• Jewish Voice for Peace – Chicago website, Instagram, TikTok

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Credits:
Host: Marc Steiner
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Studio Recording: Cameron Granadino

Raised in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, Rabbi Abby Stein has had a long, painful, beautiful journey to coming out as a transgender woman and becoming a fierce opponent of Zionism and Israel’s Occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Rabbi Stein about her journey, and about the need to simultaneously fight Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the right’s fascist assault on the rights of LGBTQ+ people here in the US.Guest:

• Rabbi Abby Stein is the tenth-generation descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement. Raised in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, Stein came out as a woman in 2015 and now serves as a rabbi for Congregation Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive synagogue. In 2019, she served on the steering committee for the Women's March in Washington, DC, and she was named by the Jewish Week as one of the "36 Under 36" Jews who are affecting change in the world. She is the author of Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman.

Additional resources:

• Julia Jacobs, The New York Times, “From Hasidic Brooklyn to Off Broadway: The life of a trans rabbi”
• Abby Stein & Lily Greenberg Call, Autostraddle, “We spoke up for Palestine and got kicked out of the White House Pride party”
• Lisa Francois, ACLU, “The human toll of Trump's anti-trans crusade”

Credits:

• Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
• Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich

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