The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow

Rep. Ro Khanna  is an American academic, lawyer, and politician serving as the U.S. Representative from California's 17th congressional district, since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated eight-term incumbent Democratic Representative Mike Honda in the general election on November 8, 2016, after first running for the same seat in 2014. Khanna also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama from August 8, 2009, to August 2011.

Jenn Budd Former Senior Border Patrol Agent & Writer

Professor Kelton has worked in both academia and politics. She served as chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee (Democratic staff) in 2015 and as a senior economic adviser to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. She currently works as a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Stony Brook University, and she holds Visiting Professorships at The New School for Social Research, the University of Ljubljana, and the University of Adelaide. She is a member of the TopWonks network of the nation’s best thinkers and one of POLITICO’s 50 Most Influential Thinkers (2016). She was previously Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Her forthcoming book, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and Creating an Economy for the People (summer 2020), shows how to break free of the flawed thinking that has hamstrung policymakers around the world.

Eric Levitz is a Political Correspondent for New York Magazine's Intelligencer

Gelila Sebhatu is a passionate activist who fights for equality. She is also a grassroots organizer for local VA candidates who support progressive causes.

Jay O’Neal is a middle school teacher in Charleston, WV. A member of the West Virginia Education Association and a founder of the WV United caucus, Jay created the “West Virginia Public Employees UNITED” Facebook group which served as the catalyst and organizing hub for the West Virginia teachers’ and service personnel strike of 2018.

Leila Conners is Founder and President of Tree Media Group. Conners is director, producer, and writer on "The 11th Hour,"as well as “We The People 2.0”. Her latest documentary is “Ice On Fire”

Melissa Troutman is a journalist, writer and vocal artist. She began investigating shale gas extraction in 2010 as a newspaper reporter in her hometown of Coudersport, Pennsylvania before co-founding the investigative news nonprofit Public Herald, where she now serves as Executive Director.

Lori Wallach is the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. A 25-year veteran of congressional trade battles starting with the 1990s fight over NAFTA, she was named to the “Politico’s 50” list of thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016 for her leadership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership debate. Wallach is an internationally recognized expert on trade with experience advocating in Congress and foreign parliaments, trade negotiations, courts, government agencies, the media and in the streets.

David Weigel is a national political correspondent covering Congress and grass-roots political movements. He is the author of "The Show That Never Ends," a history of progressive rock music.

Professor Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York.

Professor Wolff is also Host of the program “Economic Update” on Free Speech TV, which airs Tuesdays from 8 to 9pmET, and Founder of DemocracyAtWork.info

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joins The Zero Hour just moments after delivering a rousing defense of democratic socialism and the need to establish an economic bill of rights. 

Chile-based MintPress News Journalist Whitney Webb joins to expose the Orwellian "Truth Project" for what it really is - an attempt to silence journalists who report outside of the establishment consensus.

NATHAN J. ROBINSON is a leading voice of millennial left politics. He is the editor of Current Affairs, a print magazine of political and cultural analysis. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New Republic, The Nation, and elsewhere. A graduate of Yale Law School, he is a PhD student in Sociology and Social Policy at Harvard University, where his work focuses on the U.S. criminal justice system.

Steve Kofahl served 42 years as a Social Security Administration field office Claims Representative, retiring in September 2015.  He has been active with his union, the American Federation of Government Employees, for 37 years and continuing. He is an AFGE District Retiree Coordinator, serves on the Alliance for Retired Americans National Executive Board, and is actively involved in Washington State with community and labor organizations advocating for protection and expansion of Social Security and Medicare.

Zaid Jilani is a Bridging the Divides Writing Fellow at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. He is also a long-time political journalist who is the co-host of the podcast Extremely Offline, which brings together guests from competing political tribes for civil dialogue.