The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. She’s the author of several books, including most recently, “Inside Iran: THE REAL HISTORY AND POLITICS OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN”

Eric Blanc writes on labor movements past and present. Formerly a high school teacher in the Bay Area, he is the author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics.

Editor, The Grayzone Project & Author of the book “The Management of Savagery” at VersoBooks

Harvey J Kaye is an American historian, sociologist & author.

Harvey J Kaye is currently the Director of the Center for History and Social Change at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. His latest book is “The Fight For the Four Freedoms”

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. Jeff Merkley is an American politician serving as the junior United States Senator from Oregon since 2009. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his election to the Senate, Merkley was a five-term member of the Oregon House of Representatives representing the state's 47th district, located in central Multnomah County at the eastern side of Portland. From 2007 to 2009, he served as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives.

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.

Marie Newman (Democrat) is a Democratic primary candidate for Illinois' 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House. 

Newman has worked in advertising, consulting, and nonprofit advocacy. Her nonprofit organization, Team Up to Stop Bullying, sought to address bullying among school children. 2018 marked the first time she sought political office. Newman earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin.

Ryan Grim's interview continued

Eva Galperin is the Director of Cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ryan Grim is Washington Bureau Chief of The Intercept, and author “We’ve Got People”

Peter Gowan is a policy associate at The Next System Project.
Peter Gowan graduated Trinity College, Dublin in 2016 with a dual-major BA in History and Political Science, and recently joined the Next System Project as a Summer Resident Fellow after completing the coursework on an MA in Political Communications from Dublin City University. This summer he will be researching “right to own” worker buyouts and contributing to the Next System Project’s research on the political economy of decarbonization.

Peter’s previous research focuses on political economy and alternative models of ownership. Last year he co-authored the “Social Housing in the United States” report for the People’s Policy Project, which received positive coverage in The Nation, The Guardian, Jacobin, Mother Jones, and Current Affairs. He produced research on the Swedish Meidner Plan, plans for systemic economic transition, and decarbonization. He also worked as a researcher for Irish parliamentarians Róisín Shortall and Catherine Murphy, contributing to labor market and housing policy development.

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Shaun is the Deputy Executive Director of Paralyzed Veterans of America and In 2018 Castle was appointed to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Committee on Prosthetics and Special Disabilities.
Medically-retired Army Sergeant Shaun Castle is an accomplished college and professional wheelchair basketball player, and outspoken advocate for Paralyzed Veterans of America. Born in Elmira, N.Y. Castle enlisted in the Army in 2000. A military police officer with the U.S. Army stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, Castle served deployments to Kosovo, Macedonia and missions in support of the Global War on Terrorism. In 2002, he served as a protective services guard to two four-star Generals—Gen. Burwell B. Bell III and Gen. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs.
In 2003, Castle was injured during a training exercise in Heidelberg in which he suffered three herniated discs and two cracked vertebrae. While a lengthy prosthetics surgery enabled him to walk again and return to private sector police work, the weight of his duty belt over time caused further damage to his spinal cord. Not only was a second surgery unsuccessful, Castle learned while undergoing treatment at the VA medical center in Birmingham, Alabama, that he had a life-threatening allergy to all pain medications and muscle relaxers, a complication that nearly took his life and forced him to resort to natural methods of pain management.

Cole Stangler is a Paris-based journalist covering labor and politics. His work has appeared in outlets like The Nation, Jacobin, The Atlantic and VICE, among others.