On Aug. 22, 2025, the small-town lives of residents living near the Smitty’s Supply facility in Roseland, Louisiana, changed forever when an explosion occurred at the automotive lubricant plant. The explosion and ensuing fire, which burned for days, triggered evacuations across the area, blanketing homes and businesses with smoke, soot, and oily residue, while spilling petroleum products from the plant into area waterways, including several adjacent ponds and the Tangipahoa River. While the Environmental Protection Agency claims that the area is safe, according to the agency’s own chemical monitoring, residents say they’ve been left behind and kept in the dark as they develop negative health symptoms and their homes remain covered in toxic substances. In this episode, we speak with Arlene Bankston, a farmer and resident of Roseland, and Allie Ponvelle, who lives one town over in Amite, about the slow-moving nightmare they’ve been living in ever since the massive explosion and chemical fire at Smitty’s Supply.

Additional links/info:

• Alene Bankston’s Facebook page
• Allie Ponvelle’s Facebook page
• Petition to Close Roseland Montessori School Due to Toxic Contamination
• Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition (CICC) website
• Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator, “Smitty’s Supply neighbors still wary of fire fallout despite assurances from Landry, EPA”
• Whitney Miller, WWL Louisiana, “What was in the air and water after the Smitty’s Supply fire? Testing under new scrutiny”
• ”Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “America’s toxic future looks like East Palestine, Ohio, today”

Featured Music:

• Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song

Credits:

• Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Hours after a temporary ceasefire deal between the US and Iran was announced last week, Israel unleashed a massive, deadly bombing campaign on Lebanon. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with award-winning Iranian-Canadian journalist Samira Mohyeddin about the reality that Israel is a rogue state intent on pursuing more war, not diplomacy or peace, and that the US-Israeli war on Iran was never about nuclear threats but about weakening Iran’s economic and regional power—at devastating costs to civilians.

Guests:

• Samira Mohyeddin is an award winning producer and broadcaster based in Toronto. For nearly a decade, she was a producer and host at Canada’s National Broadcaster, CBC Radio. Mohyeddin is the founder of On The Line Mediaand she was the 2024 - 2025 journalism fellow at the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto

Additional links/info:

• Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss / TRNN, “As U.S. and Iran agree to a temporary ceasefire, Israel launches ‘massacre’ in Lebanon, threatening entire deal”
• Jake Johnson, Common Dreams / TRNN, “Iran’s top diplomat says Trump team sabotaged talks with deal ‘inches away’”

Credits:

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

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

While international attention has decreased in recent months, the horrors Israel continues to systematically unleash on Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank have not. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa—a former Black Panther and political prisoner—speaks with renowned scholar-activist Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi about Israel’s apartheid system of incarceration and the urgent fight to free Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israel.

Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

In the small town of Williamsport, MD, about an hour and a half from Baltimore, the Department of Homeland Security purchased a massive shipping warehouse for $102 million with plans to turn it into an ICE detention center. But local efforts to expose, delay, and shut down the Trump administration’s heinous plans for this makeshift concentration camp are growing. A broad coalition of local officials, faith leaders, and civil rights organizations have filed an amicus curiae brief in the State of Maryland v. Noem lawsuit, urging the US District Court for the District of Maryland to halt DHS’s rushed plan to convert the massive Williamsport warehouse into a large-scale immigration detention center. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Sonia Kumar, a senior staff attorney at ACLU of Maryland, who is part of the team of legal representatives who filed the brief.

Additional links/info: 

• ACLU of Maryland website, Facebook page, X page, and Instagram
• ACLU of Maryland, “Community leaders, elected officials, and civil rights organizations challenge DHS’s secret, rushed plan to convert Hagerstown warehouse into mass immigration detention center”
• Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “‘A black site concentration camp’: Residents fight ICE detention warehouse in rural Maryland”
• Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “The chilling truth behind ICE’s detention warehouses”
• Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “Meet the data analysts exposing ICE’s plans

Credits:

• Studio Production / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

The U.S. has funneled billions into allies in the region under the guise of fighting the drug traffickers. It has ripped apart countries. And the violence has only gotten worse. Decades of fighting, with little to show for it except human rights abuses, displacement, and tens of thousands of dead and disappeared.

In the last episode, host Michael Fox took you to Mexico City to walk through Mexico's Museum of Interventions and witness, first hand, the long history of foreign and, in particular, U.S. intervention in the country. 

Today, he brings listeners up to the present…. Diving headfirst into the U.S.-backed drug war in Mexico, which has overtaken the country in recent decades and fueled an epidemic of violence that has disappeared more than a hundred thousand people over the last 20 years. We’ll look at Trump’s threats, the repercussions they are having in the country. And we’ll also hear the voices of Mexicans who are standing up.

This is Episode 10 of Under the Shadow, Season 2.

Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present. Season 2 responds in real time to the Trump administration’s onslaught on Latin America.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Theme music by Michael Fox’s band, Monte Perdido. Monte Perdido's 2024 album Ofrenda is available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to music.
Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound.

Script editing by Heather Gies. Hosted, written, produced, mixed, and edited by Michael Fox.

Guests: 
Christy Thornton, Associate Professor of History at NYU
John Lindsay-Poland

Please check out the Global Exchange campaign… Stop US Arms to Mexico

Many thanks to the Mexico-based journalists Clayton Conn and Tamara Pearson for their reporting in this episode. You can find their work at… 
Clayton Conn: https://www.instagram.com/clayton.conn/
Tamara Pearson: Resistancewords.com

Resources: 

• Here is the link to Mexico’s National Museum of Interventions.
• You can check out Michael Fox’s Patreon to see exclusive pictures of the museum and the wall out front, and hear the backstory about this museum and his visit there.
• Here is the episode of Michael Fox’s podcast Stories of Resistance about the St. Patrick’s Brigade. 
• This is Christy Thornton’s book, Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy 
• John Lindsay-Poland’s book, Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism

Under the Shadow, Season 1:
You can check out the first season of Under the Shadow by clicking here

• The Beginning: Monroe and migration | Under the Shadow, Episode 1
• Panama. US Invasion. | Under the Shadow, Episode 13
• The legacy of Monroe | Under the Shadow, Bonus Episode 4 

Support Under the ShadowPlease consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews.


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Nearly a year after workers voted to authorize a strike, non-union city and commercially contracted security officers in Baltimore, MD, will walk off the job on April 9 in an Unfair Labor Practice strike against their employer, Abacus Corporation. In their yearslong effort to unionize and secure more job security, better pay, accessible healthcare, and safer working conditions, workers at Abacus have reported rampant union busting and violations of their labor rights. In this episode, we speak with Laura Dixon, a veteran security officer and Abacus employee, and Jaimie Contreras, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ. 

Additional links/info: 

• SEIU Local 32BJ website, Facebook page, and Instagram 
• Katherine Wilson, Baltimore Sun, “Baltimore contract security officers at city properties prepare to strike”

Featured Music: 

• Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song

Credits: 

• Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

From the Trump administration’s lies and flip-flops to social media feeds filled with AI slop and misinformation, it is infuriatingly difficult to get accurate and honest information about what is actually happening in the US-Israeli war on Iran. But award-winning journalist, lawyer, and former TRNN Board member Dimitri Lascaris has been reporting on the ground in Iran for the last two weeks, from the Strait of Hormuz to the Minab elementary school where US tomahawk cruise missiles killed 168 students and teachers on February 28. We speak with Lascaris about what he’s seen in Iran, and the sides of war people in the West are not seeing…

Host / Producer: Maximillian Alvarez
Studio Production / Post Production: Cameron Granadino

Watch Dimitri Lascaris's reporting from Iran: https://www.youtube.com/@reason2resist

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

When state violence and systemic denial of full citizenship by the state makes true belonging impossible for Black people, Black anarchists have envisioned and fought for a free life beyond the state. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, author William C. Anderson explores the rich, radical tradition of Black anarchism and its connection to prison abolitionist movements.

Guests:

• William C. Anderson is a writer and activist from Birmingham, AL. His work has appeared in outlets ranging from The Guardian, MTV, Truthout, British Journal of Photography, to Pitchfork. He is the author of The Nation on No Map: Black Anarchism and Abolition, and co-author of As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation. He’s also the co-founder of Offshoot Journal and provides creative direction as a producer of the Black Autonomy Podcast.

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

While facing decades-long political efforts to throttle and privatize the United States Postal Service (USPS), and while US Postmaster General David Steiner ominously warns that the USPS will “run out of money” within a year, postal workers continue to deliver the mail and serve communities across the country. But that job has gotten harder, more dangerous, and more complicated in recent years. From increases in targeted violence against letter carriers to the Trump administration’s attacks on mail-in voting, to ICE and Border Patrol agents invading communities on their mail routes, USPS workers are confronting many daily hazards on the job that the public doesn’t see. In this episode, we speak with Connor Mauche, a letter carrier in New York and a shop steward for Branch 3 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, about what it’s like to be a postal worker in America in 2026.
 
Additional links/info: 

• National Association of Letter Carriers - Branch 3 website
• Ann DeStefano Sutherland, The Revolt of the Good Guys (a documentary about the Great Postal Strike of 1970) 
• Derek Dolbeare, Labor Notes, “Dispatch: Letter carriers are gearing up for another contract fight”
• Sara Braun, The Guardian, “Nearly blind refugee abandoned by US border patrol found dead in Buffalo”
• Monique Morrissey, Economic Policy Institute, “Why is President Trump attacking the Postal Service?”
• Susan Haigh, AP, “US Postal Service expects to run out of cash in a year without help from Congress, postmaster says”

Featured Music: 

• Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song

Credits: 

• Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

Earth’s Greatest Enemy, the new blockbuster documentary by independent journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin, is an expansive and terrifying investigation into the existential threat that US empire in general—and the US military specifically—poses to humanity and to our planet. In this panel discussion, recorded after a live screening of Earth’s Greatest Enemy on Jan. 29 at the TRNN studio in Baltimore, Maryland, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for The Guardian, speak with Abby Martin about how US militarism and imperialism are destroying the planet—and what can be done to stop them.

Guests

• Abby Martin is an independent journalist, filmmaker, and host of The Empire Files. She is the director of the 2019 documentary Gaza Fights for Freedom and the 2026 documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy.
• Dharna Noor is a fossil fuels and climate reporter at The Guardian.

Credits

• Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino
• Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.

Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.

Follow us on:
Bluesky: @therealnews.com
Facebook: The Real News Network
Twitter: @TheRealNews
YouTube: @therealnews
Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork

Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!