#1791 Jim Crow 2.0 — SCOTUS Kills the Voting Rights Act and Unleashes the Gerrymandering War
Air Date: 5–12-2026
Today we examine the redistricting scramble unleashed by the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act. We'll hear how Southern states moved within days to crack majority-Black districts, how Tennessee banned public input to rush through new maps, and why every governor's race, state legislative seat, and secretary of state contest in 2026 is now a redistricting fight.
Read more#1784 Who Gets to Be American, Who Gets to Vote, and Who Decides
Air Date: 4–14-2026
Today we examine the legal battles shaking the foundations of American citizenship and voting rights as Trump's legal team uses the courts as a weapon against democratic participation — and how advocates are fighting back. We'll hear about the three-D playbook of deceive, disrupt, and deny used by authoritarians and being deployed by Trump ahead of the midterms, and what ordinary people can do right now to protect their votes before November.
Read more#1769 Politics Beyond the Ballot Box: Elections and the Movements that Power Them
Air Date: 2-1-2026
Today we examine what's actually working against the Trump regime and the role of this year's elections. Unsurprisingly, his own voter fraud investigation just proved him a liar, Democrats are overperforming expectations in House special elections, and Zohran Mamdani's campaign based on having fun in community needs to be a model for every movement against authoritarianism.
Our Top Takes this week are about 55 minutes, with the remainder of the show diving deeper into policing immigration, power and organizing, voting rights, and candidacy.
Read more#1751 Monthly-ish Mix: Institutions Fall, Reality Breaks, Empire Rises
Air Date: 11-11-25
The Monthly-ish Mix™ is here to get you caught up on recent news without being overwhelming! This month we examine how power is being quietly consolidated across institutions, how propaganda and AI are reshaping our sense of reality, and how division and fear are fueling both domestic repression and global aggression. From the Supreme Court to state media manipulation, from dismantled voting rights to foreign influence campaigns, we trace the machinery of authoritarian control—and spotlight the journalists, educators, and activists still pushing back to keep truth and democracy alive.
Read more#1731 Raw Power, the Presidency, the Courts, and Democracy in the Balance
Air Date: 8-20-2025
There's been a faction of conservatives who have been trying to instill king-like powers into the presidency for a long time, so it shouldn't be surprising that Trump is getting so much help from the packed court and the apparatchiks in the states who are more than happy to turn their precious federalism on its head as long as their king is in charge.
Read more#1422 Teach No Evil, Protest No Evil, Vote Not At All
Air Date: 6–9-2021
Today we take a look at the motivations behind legislation being introduced in statehouses around the country to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory, criminalize the right to protest and limit the right to vote. Now if only there were some theory we could look to to understand the complicated interconnectedness of these subtly racist ideas...
Read more#1424 Fighting with at least two hands tied (Conservative Democrats Manchin and Sinema)
Air Date: 6–18-2021
Today we take a look at the politics of obstruction in service to big donors' interests while sacrificing the ability to run a functioning democracy in the process.
Read more#1477 The Plot Against America
Air Date: 3–19-2022
Today we take a look at the details of the planned coup that had its culmination in the form of a violent insurrection at the US Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021 as well as the ongoing efforts to undermine and dismantle the structures of our election system.
Read more#1424 Fighting with at least two hands tied (Conservative Democrats Manchin and Sinema)
Air Date: 6–18-2021
Today we take a look at the politics of obstruction in service to big donors' interests while sacrificing the ability to run a functioning democracy in the process.
Read more#1422 Teach No Evil, Protest No Evil, Vote Not At All
Air Date: 6–9-2021
Today we take a look at the motivations behind legislation being introduced in statehouses around the country to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory, criminalize the right to protest and limit the right to vote. Now if only there were some theory we could look to to understand the complicated interconnectedness of these subtly racist ideas...
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