Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, talks to Richard Chew at the DNC.

Catch "Chew's Views" with Richard Chew weekdays from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).

- Neil Levesque (Executive director, New Hampshire Institute of Politics; @NeilLevesque)

- Jason Stanley (Author, "Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future")

- William Muck (Political science department chair, North Central College in Naperville; @wjmuck, @PoliticsLabPod)

- Tony Thompson (Dem candidate for Iowa House District 45; @tony4iowa)

Tony Thompson, Democratic candidate for Iowa House District 45, joins Joan Esposito for her weekly War on Women segment. Thompson recently posted on X: "I am concerned that Iowa will be a complete healthcare desert for women by the time my daughters hit their teenage years. Iowa has the lowest number of OBGYNs per capita already, and the restrictive reproductive laws championed by my opponent Brian Lohse are making the situation even worse." Joan and Tony talk about that and more.

Visit Tony Thompson's campaign website: https://tonythompsonforiowa.com.

Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).

Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, talks to WCPT's Richard Chew about the recently completed Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which she called "the best show I think the party has ever had."

She added: "The DNC, in the way that it was produced and implemented last week, gives me a lot of hope that we can figure out a lot of stuff here in Chicago and in the state of Illinois, when you have that level of cooperation."

Gates also spoke about the Democratic Party's growing diversity, arguing that the 1984 Democratic National Convention "is where Reverend [Jesse] Jackson began to revolutionize the Democratic Party to make it more inclusive for a Barack and for a Kamala."

Catch "Chew's Views" with Richard Chew weekdays from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).

Photo: www.ift-aft.org/Team/stacy-davis-gates

Speaking to WCPT's Richard Chew, President of the Chicago Teachers Union Stacy Davis Gates stressed the importance of reaching a contract deal without disrupting the school year that began earlier this week. "Messing up the fourth grade impacts the fifth grade," she said. "So we’ve been pushing the district very hard to get it right the first time, not to, like, get it right the second or the third time." CTU, she said, has been "unrelenting in the way in which it is saying we’ve got to get there already."

Davis Gates called transportation the union’s top priority. "You can’t educate kids if they’re not in the school building," she said. "The other thing that’s at the top of our list is making sure that these young people actually have the services. Chicago public schools has the most young people who are unhoused; we have the most young people in the state who do require special education. Both of those things are not being funded at the rate at which is necessary."

Drawing on the recently concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago as inspiration, Davis Gates said that if the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago could put on the "grandest, most beautiful party that the Democrats have ever had . . . I’m quite sure we can do in collaboration something just as meaningful, perhaps more meaningful, for our young people in our state. We have to ameliorate this idea that there needs to be a fight, a debate, a challenge. We just have to accept that each of us are playing significant roles in this coalition and we’re going to have to make that work, because if we don’t make it work, our young people suffer."

Catch "Chew's Views" with Richard Chew weekdays from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).

Photo: www.ift-aft.org/Team/stacy-davis-gates

On today's show:

- Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

Catch "Chew's Views" with Richard Chew weekdays from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).

Guest host; Terry Cosgrove, Former President and CEO of Personal PAC.

- Sara Paretsky, New York Times best-selling mystery writer. https://saraparetsky.com/

- Lt. Governor Juliana Statton https://ltgov.illinois.gov/

- Sarah Garza Resnick, Personal PAC President & CEO

- Carol Moseley Braun (Former Illinois senator; @AmbCMBraun)

- Michael Kang (Law professor, Northwestern University; @NorthwesternLaw)

- Joel Ostrow (Political science professor at Benedictine University; @BenU1887)

- David Schultz (Distinguished political science professor, Hamline University; @ProfDSchultz)

Illinois Rep. Nikki Budzinski talks to Patti Vasquez on Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center. Rep. Budzinski is a Democrat serving the 13th District of Illinois, which includes Champaign, Urbana, most of Decatur and Springfield.

Catch "Driving It Home with Patti Vasquez" weekdays from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).

Kris Brown, president of Brady, joins Patti Vasquez at the DNC. Brady is on a mission to free America from gun violence.

Catch "Driving It Home with Patti Vasquez" weekdays from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).