Your Call

Darius Coombs, a Mashpee Wampanoag, joins us to discuss the history of his people and the first English settlers who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620.

Indigenous chefs use traditional foods to heal people and resist colonization. We'll find out more about the significance of indigenous food and where new Native-owned restaurants are opening up.

On this edition of Your Call, we’ll discuss the horrific shooting in Colorado Springs that left 5 dead and 25 injured at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub. The shooter was previously arrested in 2021 after making a bomb threat that led to a standoff with law enforcement. Could this have been prevented if police had acted sooner?

According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 600 mass shootings in the United States so far this year.

We'll also discuss anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation that Republicans have been pushing forward for years, which has furthered hostility towards the community. Throughout the midterm elections, many Republicans characterized queer and transgender people as “groomers,” and according to the Human Rights Campaign, there have been more than 145 anti-trans bills introduced across 34 states in just this year alone.

After ongoing pressure, wealthy countries agreed to create a fund to address the loss and damage caused by global warming in poor countries at the COP27 climate conference, but there will be no commitment to phase out fossil fuels.

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we're discuss a new report by the Transnational Institute about how military spending accelerates climate breakdown. Seven of the top 10 emitters, including China and the US, are also among the top 10 global military spenders.

According to the Climate Collateral study, the richest countries are spending 30 times as much on their armed forces as they spend on providing climate finance for the world’s most vulnerable countries, which they are legally bound to do. Between 2013 and 2021, the richest countries spent $9.45 trillion on the military, compared to an estimated $243 billion on additional climate finance. Military spending has increased by 21 percent since 2013.

Guests:

Nick Buxton, researcher at Transnational Institute, co-author of the report, Climate Collateral: How military spending accelerates climate breakdown, and co-editor of The Secure and the Dispossessed - How the military and corporations are seeking to shape a climate-changed world

On this edition of Your Call's Media Roundtable, we're discussing the academic workers strike across the 10-campus University of California system. This week, 48,000 workers went on strike to demand better wages, housing support, childcare, and transit benefits. This is the biggest academic strike in United States history.

Workers say, "UC’s failure to support a diverse workforce undermines the quality of research and education. Compensation that doesn’t match the cost of living and inequitable working conditions are pushing scholars out of academia. We do the majority of teaching and research at UC, yet UC is refusing to offer us a fair share of the record-setting grant and state funding that our labor brings in."

Guest:

Iris Kwok, climate and transportation reporter for Berkeleyside

Ally Markovich, education reporter for Berkeleyside

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we're discussing Pelosi’s Power, a PBS Frontline documentary that explores Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s life and legacy, how she gained and wielded power across three decades, and how she faced grave challenges to her leadership and American democracy from Donald Trump and his allies.

On Thursday, she said she will not seek another leadership role in Congress to make space for a younger generation of Democrats, but she will remain in the House as the Representative of San Francisco.

Her announcement comes after Republicans took back the House with a slim majority. Their first order of business was to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

Guests:

Michael Kirk, award winning documentary filmmaker and director of Pelosi’s Power

Arthur Delaney, reporter for HuffPost covering politics and the economy

On this edition of Your Call, we'll find out why Democrats lost by double digits in Texas and Florida.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott won his race against Democrat Beto O’Rourke by 11 points. Many thought Governor Abbott's failure to take action after the devastating mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, and his support for an extreme abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest, would cost him his race. Voter turnout was just 46 percent, which is lower than the 2018 midterms.

In Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis won his race against Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points, and Republican Senator Marco Rubio defeated Democratic Representative Val Demings by over 16 percent. Republicans took 20 of 28 House seats in Florida, due to racial gerrymandering and low voter turnout. Republicans also targeted Latinos in Florida with a disinformation campaign, spreading conspiracies about election fraud and painting the Biden administration as a communist regime.

What explains these Democratic losses?

Guests:

James Barragan, politics reporter for The Texas Tribune

Odus Evbagharu, chair of the Harris County Democratic Party, treasurer for the Texas Democratic Party, and Chief of Staff for Democratic State Representative Jon Rosenthal

Cecile Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, and a civil rights lawyer

Mitch Perry, senior political reporter with the Florida Phoenix

On this edition of Your Call, we'll discuss the Arab Film Festival, the flagship event of the Arab Film and Media Institute, and the longest running independent film festival of its kind in North America. The festival launched in 1996 with the mission to present the best contemporary films that illuminate the richness of Arab culture through authentic narratives and images, providing insight into the beauty and complexity of the Arab world.

This year's 26th edition of the festival is running now through November 20th, throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and virtually. The festival offers special programming to local audiences, and unprecedented access to the diversity and range of authentic Arab experiences.

On this edition of Your Call, we're discussing propositions that passed across the country.

Vermont, Michigan, and California approved constitutional protections for abortion, while Kentucky and Montana voters rejected measures that would further restrict abortion rights. Oregon became the first state in the country to ensure a constitutional right to affordable health care. South Dakota voted to expand Medicaid. In Nebraska, Nevada, and Washington D.C., voters approved minimum wage increases. Illinois voters amended their constitution to enshrine the right to collective bargaining and organizing. Colorado voted for universal free school lunches.

Meantime, Republicans are attempting to limit the proposition process by asking voters to approve a supermajority threshold, 60 percent, for future measures to be approved.

Guests:

Sam Rosenthal, political director at RootsAction

Hannah Ledford, campaigns director at The Fairness Project