This week marks the 50th anniversary of the publication by The New York Times of excerpts of the Pentagon Papers — 7,000 pages of top-secret documents. These documents proved that the government of the United States had been lying to the people of this country for decades about a war that eventually ended with a U.S. withdrawal -- but only after millions of Vietnamese had been killed, 58,000 U.S. troops were killed with hundreds of thousands more suffered from physical and psychological injuries.

Brian is joined by Daniel Ellsberg. He is one of the most important whistleblowers in modern American history and the author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. Daniel Ellsberg is also the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Brian and Prof. Wolff continue a series of discussions  about the basics of Marxism — a method for understanding and changing  the world used by many of the great revolutionaries of modern history.  Today, they discuss the Marxist theory of the state. Mainstream  politicians talk about small government and big government, but never  tell the truth about who the government serves.

Richard Wolff is  the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of  many books, the latest being “The Sickness is the System: When  Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself”. You can check out  his work at rdwolff.com.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram.  We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you  consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more  are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

On today's "In the News" roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss the G7 summit and its leaders' hypocritical rhetoric about human rights and democracy, the fight against police brutality and the suppression of the movement against racism, the latest attacks on Ilhan Omar, and more.

In this May 2021 patrons-only seminar, Brian and the crew discuss the new era in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and what it means for the region, U.S. imperialist plots to dismember China, the alarming danger of nuclear war, and more. Check out the preview now and subscribe at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to hear the rest!

Today's episode is the third in a multi-part series that takes an in-depth look at the history of China's foreign policy. We discuss how Chinese foreign policy shifted after the Cultural  Revolution. This culminated with China and the U.S. under the Nixon administration forging a new alliance that reshaped global politics.

Brian is joined by Kenneth Hammond, a Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University and an activist with the organization Pivot to Peace.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Brian and Prof. Wolff continue a series of discussions about the basics of Marxism — a method for understanding and changing  the world used by many of the great revolutionaries of modern history. Today, they discuss Karl Marx's theory of classes. Politicians of all stripes love to talk endlessly about their devotion to the middle class, but what does that even mean? What are the unique insights from Karl Marx about the real class structure of society?

Richard Wolff is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of many books, the latest being “The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself”. You can check out his work at rdwolff.com

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

On today's "In the News" roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem and Walter Smolarek discuss an exciting new victory for the Palestine solidarity movement, a crackdown on journalists that has gained momentum with successive administrations, how Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has vowed to help Republicans defeat a key piece of voting rights legislation introduced in Congress, and more.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be replaced by an even more fanatical racist? A last-minute coalition deal appears to have ended the 12-year-long reign of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just days after he presided over an 11-day massacre of Palestinians. But the man set to replace him is even more right wing. Meanwhile, the resistance of the Palestinian people is intensifying and global support for their cause is growing.

Brian is joined by Miko Peled. He’s an activist and the author of “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and of "Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Brian and Prof. Wolff continue a series of discussions about the basics of Marxism — a method for understanding and changing the world used by many of the great revolutionaries of modern history. Today, they discuss what Marxism has to say about the environment. Why and how is capitalism destroying the planet?

Richard Wolff is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of many books, the latest being “The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself”. You can check out his work at rdwolff.com

Today we discuss the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, the one-year anniversary of key events in the uprising following the murder of George Floyd, and the historic breakthroughs made by the people's movements of Chile.