Your Call

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the real history of Juneteenth. University of Texas at Austin Professor Peniel Joseph says the story we've been told is wrong. The real history is much messier and more inspiring.

In an essay for the Texas Monthly, he writes, "All of us, no matter our politics, tend to reduce and oversimplify the historical record. Reality is messier and more nuanced. One of Juneteenth’s most important lessons is that history is about not just the country’s triumphs but more often the relentless struggle necessary to achieve a more perfect union."

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the #3not30 campaign, a Women's Health Access Matters (WHAM) initiative to increase investment in sex-based research.

WHAM is launching this campaign in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the NIH Revitalization Act, a law mandating that women and minorities be included in all clinical trials and research funded by the NIH.

Today, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women in the US, yet only one-third of participants in clinical trials are female, according to WHAM. Women are two-thirds of the 5.7 million people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, yet 66 percent of the animals used in Alzheimer's research are male or of unreported gender.

Investing $350 million in women's health research is estimated to generate $14 billion for the economy, according to WHAM. What could be accomplished with that funding?

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the 37-count federal indictment of former President Donald Trump, and the growing threat of political violence in the U.S.

Trump is facing 37 federal charges for mishandling classified documents, including top-secret information about nuclear weapons and secret military plans to attack Iran. Federal prosecutors say he illegally stored dozens of highly sensitive documents throughout his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and refused to return them to the FBI. He is the first U.S. president to face federal criminal charges.

The former president was also arraigned in April on charges of financial fraud related to hush-money payments he made to Stormy Daniels. Many top Republican politicians have continued to publicly support the former president.

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, environmentalist journalist Tina Gerhardt discusses her new book, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean, which weaves together essays, maps, art, and poetry to show us—and make us see—island nations in a warming world and the impacts of sea level rise on islands around the world.

Island nations have contributed the least to CO2 emissions and global warming, but they are suffering the brunt of it. Pacific Island nations are responsible for 0.03 percent of global emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Figures for islands in the Caribbean Sea are in a similar range.

Tina Gerhardt highlights Indigenous and Black voices and communities working to save their nations, histories, cultures, and languages.

Since April 15, more than 1,000 people have been killed, 1.4 million have been displaced internally, and nearly 500,000 have fled to neighboring countries.

A surprise 5-4 ruling found that Alabama’s gerrymandered congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act’s ban by diluting the power of Black voters.

On this edition of Your Call, we open the phone lines and take your show and guest ideas.

How do you want us to cover the most critical issues facing this country, including the climate crisis, gun violence, inequality, homelessness, attacks on the LGBTQ communities, and abortion bans? Should we spend more time on local issues? What about international issues?

What do you want from Your Call as the media environment continues to rapidly change?

On this edition of Your Call, we speak with the winners of this year's San Francisco Peacemaker Awards, an event that honors those working to prevent and reduce violence and conflict throughout the city.

This year's winners include Susan Stone, a restorative justice practitioner who works inside juvenile halls, California Lopez, an 11th grader who mediates conflicts and mentors students at Mission High School, and Brava!, a community theater that offers youth alternatives to the streets and programming that reflects diverse communities.

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss how the final version of the debt ceiling agreement will affect low-income people and those living in poverty.

New work requirements for food assistance will put almost 750,000 older adults at risk of losing that assistance, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The deal will also freeze spending, which will result in budget cuts for vital government programs.

There are 140 million poor and low-income people in the US today, according to the Poor People’s Campaign. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour hasn’t changed in 12 years; 87 million people go without healthcare or are uninsured;  700 people die each day from poverty; and over 15 million people make less than $15 an hour.

A diverse movement of landowners and Indigenous and Black community leaders have protested the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for more than 10 years.