WPKN: Politics, Policy, and Planet Podcast

The 3rd episode of "Live Boldly with host Rev Sara Smith," features a conversation with John F. Stafstrom Jr., a prominent attorney and long-time partner at the law firm Pullman & Comley, LLC. and Julie Walsh Deputy Director with the Triangle Community Center in Norwalk, CT, centered on National Coming Out Day 2026 and the gay experience.

Rev. Sara Smith is Senior Minister of the United Congregational Church of Bridgeport, President/CEO and Founder nOURish BRIDGEPORT, Inc., and Sacred Heart University’s Protestant chaplain.

"Live Boldly" is broadcast on the 2nd Saturday of each month at 7:00 am on Listener Supported Community Radio, WPKN, 89.5 FM, WPKN.org.

Interview with Kimberly Scott, executive director of the Georgia Women's Action for New Directions Education Fund, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.

A rally outside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Manhattan office opposed her support for building new nuclear power plants in the state to address surging demand from AI data centers and other energy-hungry projects. One of the rally speakers was Kimberly Scott, executive director of Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions Education Fund.  Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus was there and spoke with Scott, who describes Georgia as ground zero for recent nuclear power development with all its attendant harms, and what her group is doing to help utility ratepayers cope.

Interview with Tom Smith, New Haven Advocate co-editor, conducted by Scott Harris.

Tom Smith, who served as an associate writer and columnist with the Advocate from 1987, talks about the recent relaunch of the New Haven Advocate as a quarterly alternative newspaper more than 50 years after the publication’s first printing, featuring news, commentary and humor. Smith, along with Colleen Van Tassell, and writer and illustrator John Guillemette, serve as the revived newspaper’s editors.

Interview with Cas Mudde, Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor of International Affairs and distinguished research professor, School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia.

Cas Mudde discusses his recent Guardian column, “Look again—there’s more to Europe’s election trends than far-right success,” and shares his views on the outcome of recent elections in Germany and the rise of the far right across Europe.

Interview with Dan Schwartz, legal affairs lead with National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A), conducted by Scott Harris.

Dan Schwartz, legal affairs lead with National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A), discusses his group’s recent call on state attorneys general to prepare to block armed federal interference in the midterm election and other issues related to President Trump’s threat to interfere with and manipulate the outcome of the midterm congressional election that the Republican party is predicted to lose.

Interview with Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, conducted by Scott Harris.

Alex Lawson discusses a U.S. House Budget Committee field hearing held on Sept. 21 at a Dallas property owned by billionaire Harlan Crow, that focused on establishing a fast-track commission which senior advocates view as a GOP strategy to cut Social Security benefits behind closed doors.

Interview with Thomas Drake, a former NSA senior executive and whistleblower, conducted by Melinda Tuhus.

Thomas Drake talks about this latest development at his former agency. Twenty years ago, Drake revealed the George W. Bush administration’s post 9/11 warrantless mass surveillance program, 9/11 intelligence failures and multibillion-dollar fraud and waste. To tell his story, Drake first went through all the proper government procedures, but finally talked to a newspaper reporter after he believed all established whistleblower channels had failed. He was indicted by the Obama administration in 2010 under the Espionage Act and faced up to 35 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

He was indicted by the Obama administration in 2010 under the Espionage Act and faced up to 35 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Eventually, the case collapsed and Drake pleaded guilty to one minor misdemeanor count, with all other charges dropped. Here, he says there may be justification for the NSA reorganization, but he’s skeptical about what it would accomplish and the rushed timeline for implementation.

Interview with Paul Street, independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian and author of This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America, conducted by Scott Harris.

Paul Street discusses his column, “It’s Only Wednesday, For Fascist’s Sakes!” a compendium of Donald Trump’s crimes against democracy from less than one recent week.

Interview with Kim Ives, a journalist and editor at the weekly newspaper Haïti Liberté, conducted by Scott Harris.

Kim Ives talks about the issues he’s covering in Haiti, news of ongoing violence, the role of Erik Prince, founder of the private military contractor Blackwater, the UN adjacent Gang Suppression Force, and the Trump regime’s decision to revoke TPS status for some 350,000 Haitians in the U.S., with the threat of mass deportation.

Interview with Nicolas J.S. Davies, an independent journalist, a researcher with CODEPINK, and the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq, conducted by Scott Harris.

Nicholas Davies discusses his recent column co-written with Medea Benjamin, “The Urgency of Recognizing the Ansar Allah Government in Yemen,” and issues related to the current situation in Yemen, Trump’s war on Iran, and the conflict’s impact on the flow of Middle East oil.