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The Real News Podcast
Daily Reports, specials, and podcasts by The Real News Network (TRNN). TRNN makes media connecting you to the movements, people, and perspectives that are advancing the cause of a more just, equal, and livable planet. TRNN is a nonprofit media organization. We do not accept advertising revenue or corporate sponsorship.
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Episodes
The Real News PodcastUN declares healthy environment a human right—now what?
This past fall, the United Nations Human Rights Council declared a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment to be a human right. (The US does not currently…
The Real News PodcastThe US military is poisoning the water in O'ahu
As Director for the Sierra Club of Hawai’i Wayne Tanaka recently wrote in The Guardian, the US Navy’s Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility is “a massive underground…
The Real News PodcastThe missing evidence that makes Baltimore detective Sean Suiter’s death even more mysterious
A recent HBO documentary entitled The Slow Hustle has brought renewed attention to the mysterious death of Baltimore homicide detective Sean Suiter in 2017…
The Real News PodcastA cop tried to arrest him for wearing a hoodie, but that's not where the harassment ended
Aaron Reinas was just blocks from his home when a San Bernardino, California, sheriff accosted and accused him of burglarizing cars. What happened next reveals…
The Real News PodcastA dangerous myth: The US has never been a 'nation of immigrants'
In her latest book, Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion, world-renowned scholar and…
The Real News PodcastArt for the End Times: Who gets to come of age in America?
We were all kids once, and time forces all of us to grow up sooner or later, but not all coming-of-age stories are the same. In this episode of Art for the End…
The Real News PodcastYou can’t revive American democracy without reviving local journalism
The societal ramifications of the death of local journalism in the United States are as widespread as they are depressingly predictable. As Robert W. McChesney…
The Real News PodcastHow Maryland prisoners took on the governor
Walter Lomax was wrongfully imprisoned in the state of Maryland for 39 years until he eventually had his conviction vacated by a judge in 2006. While he was…
The Real News PodcastThe mysterious death of detective Sean Suiter: How deep does the corruption go?
A recent HBO documentary entitled The Slow Hustle has brought renewed attention to the mysterious death of Baltimore homicide detective Sean Suiter in 2017…
The Real News PodcastTeachers fighting for school safety are not the enemy
With the omicron variant spreading like wildfire, COVID-19 cases around the country have shattered previous highs. The federal government has essentially given…
The Real News Podcast‘This is not an aberration’: Jan. 6 and America’s heart of darkness
The insurrectionary violence at the US Capitol that Donald Trump instigated on Jan. 6, 2021, marked another dark page in American history. But while many saw…
The Real News PodcastAUKUS and the West’s dangerous war games with China
Announced on Sept. 15 2021, AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which involves the US and UK…
The Real News PodcastWhy US prisons don’t want prisoners to read
In a recent piece for Protean magazine entitled “The American Prison System’s War on Reading,” Alex Skopic writes, “Across the United States, the agencies…
The Real News PodcastThis groundbreaking book could change the debate over defunding law enforcement
Nearly 20 years ago, Mark Neocleous published a seminal book entitled A Critical Theory of Police Power: The Fabrication of the Social Order, which examines…
The Real News PodcastWhat has 2021 meant for the labor movement? Three union organizers discuss
2021 was an energizing year for a labor movement that has had its back against the wall for a long time. From record numbers of American workers voluntarily…
The Real News PodcastWhen identity becomes a prison, there can be no liberational politics
“There is no doubt that racism is real and has negative consequences for people’s lives,” Adolph Reed Jr. and Touré F. Reed note in the abstract to their…
The Real News PodcastDemocrats are in for a world of hurt in swing states like Wisconsin
With news that Democrats will likely be caving to pressure from “centrist” lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin, shelving President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better…
The Real News PodcastArt for the End Times: Merry Christmas, ya tacky animal!
Christmas is a time to be with the ones you love, to give gifts and give thanks, and to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ (if you're so inclined). It is also…
The Real News PodcastA socialist high-school teacher looks to shake up PA State Senate race
With election season coming up, we’re re-launching our Working People series "Working-Class Politics," where we talk to working-class people running for…
The Real News Podcast‘We need help’: Hospitality workers are overworked, underpaid
Hospitality workers around the country have faced some of the worst layoffs in any industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. UNITE HERE, a labor union…
The Real News PodcastFrom Kabul to the Alabama coal mines: Our year in podcasts
Depressingly relentless waves of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc around the world in 2021, which made it difficult and often impossible to…
The Real News PodcastAuditing Maryland's infamous former cop-killer-defending medical examiner
Dr. David Fowler garnered national attention after his controversial testimony on behalf of killer cop Derek Chauvin. The former Maryland Chief Medical…
The Real News PodcastA player lockout puts Major League Baseball’s labor issues on full display
Ending 26 years of "labor peace," Major League Baseball is in the midst of a national lockout. With league owners failing to address the core contract issues…
The Real News PodcastHow companies like Kellogg’s are weaponizing the courts to break strikes
1,100 coal miners at Warrior Met Coal in Alabama have been on strike since April 1, and 1,400 Kellogg’s workers at cereal plants in Nebraska, Michigan…
The Real News PodcastWhy the holidays are the most painful time of the year for prisoners
After spending the past year and a half socially distancing, millions around the country will be coming together to celebrate the holidays this year with a…
The Real News PodcastCan today’s labor militancy become a transformative political force?
2021 has been a pivotal year for the labor movement. As we have covered extensively here at TRNN, through strikes, unionization campaigns, protest actions, and…
The Real News PodcastStarbucks workers in Buffalo make history with union vote
Starbucks is the world’s largest coffeehouse chain and one of the most recognizable consumer brands in existence. In the US alone, Starbucks has nearly 9,000…
The Real News Podcast‘How juveniles are railroaded by the criminal justice system’
In 2014, at the age of 15, Prakash Churaman was arrested at his home at 6AM without a warrant. After driving him around for a few hours, police brought…
The Real News PodcastArt for the End Times: Help! I married a Maw-mouth
Yes, we all have a certain nostalgic attachment to the Harry Potter series and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But let’s be honest: It’s a little…
The Real News PodcastThe fight to organize teachers in small-town Wisconsin
In 1974, the population of Hortonville, Wisconsin, was around 1,500, and yet it became the site of one of the most contentious and consequential teachers’…
The Real News PodcastInflation panic is the new deficit hawkery
“After years of hypocrisy and bungled forecasts of doom, the budget deficit no longer provokes panic,” economist Max Sawicky recently wrote in In These Times…
The Real News PodcastStudent workers lead rank-and-file revolt at Columbia University
Back in the spring, we spoke with three graduate student workers at Columbia University who were on strike with the Student Workers of Columbia union, UAW…
The Real News PodcastThe death penalty is a barbarous stain on our humanity
According to a 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center, even though they have doubts about its administration, fairness, and usefulness as a crime deterrent…
The Real News PodcastBiden ‘fights’ climate crisis with kid gloves on
People around the world watched expectantly as global leaders convened at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, in Glasgow…
The Real News PodcastOrganize students, organize everyone, and fight like hell
In the years following the Great Recession, Republican Gov. Scott Walker led an all-out assault on unions and public sector workers in Wisconsin. In response…
The Real News PodcastFiction is a beautiful weapon in the class struggle—we should use it
What role does fiction have to play in the class struggle? Should the left be making a stronger case for the political importance of reading literature? In…
The Real News Podcast‘This is COINTELPRO 2021’
After spending nearly half a century in prison, leftist revolutionaries and political prisoners David Gilbert and Russell Maroon Shoatz (who also spent 22…
The Real News PodcastThe Hoffa era is over, and the Teamsters are ready to fight
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters just held a pivotal leadership election that will set a new course for one of the most storied unions in existence…
The Real News PodcastHow do we avoid the politics of despair?
Even with majorities in both the House and Senate, conservative Democrats fought and removed parts of the Build Back Better plan that were wildly popular with…
The Real News PodcastA Dutch court may help deliver justice for a Gazan family killed in an Israeli strike
In 2017, Ismail Ziada filed a civil suit at the District Court of the Hague against former Israeli military leaders Benny Gantz and Amir Eshel for their role…
The Real News PodcastBaltimore museum workers are fighting for a 'wall-to-wall' union
In this video installment of Battleground Baltimore, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez sits down with Laura Albans and Matt Papich, two workers at the…
The Real News PodcastDemocratic accountability keeps revolutions alive
In the wake of the recent Nicaraguan elections, the US imperialist war machine is once again directing its wrath at the governments of Nicaragua and Cuba. In…
The Real News Podcast‘We want Rikers closed and no new jails in its place!’
For years, prisoners, activists, and legal advocates have been drawing attention to the inhumane conditions at Rikers Island, New York’s most infamous jail…
The Real News PodcastTen years after Act 10, Wisconsin teachers are still fighting to rebuild from the rubble
Ten years ago, the landscape for workers’ rights and organized labor in the state of Wisconsin changed dramatically with the passage of Act 10 under Republican…
The Real News PodcastArt for the End Times: Reading Lord of the Rings in the end times
As a canonized work of fantasy fiction, a Hollywood institution, and a global cultural phenomenon, JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is in a class all its own…
The Real News PodcastCops said they arrested him for turning around at a checkpoint, but the real reason is much worse
This week, PAR continues its coverage of the overt abuses of police power by examining new data that shows just how dangerous—and even deadly—systematic…
The Real News Podcast‘Nicaragua presents a challenge to the international left’
On Nov. 7, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega secured a fourth consecutive term in the country’s latest round of national elections with Rosario Murillo…
The Real News PodcastWill new governments in Germany and Norway take serious action on climate crisis?
Recent federal elections in Norway and Germany saw entrenched conservative and neoliberal governments swept from power, replaced by an odd assortment of…
The Real News PodcastThe painful, erased history of how Africa made Western modernity possible
With few exceptions, traditional accounts of the development of the modern world put European history at the center of everything, often focusing on the “Age…
The Real News Podcast35,000 Kaiser Permanente workers are set to strike, and the future of US healthcare is at stake
35,000 members of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, a coalition of 21 local unions representing over 52,000 workers at the healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente…
The Real News PodcastSurviving the darkness: Eddie Conway speaks with Guantánamo Bay detainee Mansoor Adayfi
Mansoor Adayfi, “Detainee No. 441,” was imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay for over 14 years without charges as an enemy combatant. As detailed in the description…
The Real News Podcast7 months into strike, Alabama coal miners keep the fire burning
As we have been covering at The Real News, coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama, represented by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), have been on an unfair…
The Real News PodcastHe livestreamed a congressman’s aide on Facebook, they charged him with two felonies
Did prosecutors silence a progressive activist under the guise of enforcing an obscure law? That’s the issue PAR explores as we look at the case of a pot…
The Real News Podcast‘War in the woods’: The fight for Indigenous lands in ancient Fairy Creek rainforest
“A colossal battle to save the last temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island, Canada, is under way, as police and forest protectors are engaged in a…
The Real News PodcastA world without police is more possible (and necessary) than you think
Calls to “defund the police” reverberated throughout communities across the US in the summer of 2020, when millions took to the streets to protest a brutal…
The Real News PodcastThe heat is on: Will UN climate change conference finally result in serious action?
For decades, climate scientists and activists have been sounding the alarm that, unless the world takes drastic action, humanity is careening toward disaster…
The Real News PodcastVampire allegories in the age of capitalist dystopia and climate catastrophe
From folkloric figures like Lamia and Grendel who feast on human flesh, to historical monsters like Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Báthory who reveled in human…
The Real News PodcastDemocrats are courting disaster (again) by betraying their base
Grassroots activists worked tirelessly to get voters to the polls in 2020, and their efforts helped Joe Biden win in key swing states like Wisconsin. Now these…
The Real News PodcastIf Rey Rivera jumped off a building, why are his injuries more consistent with being hit by a car?
The mysterious death of Baltimore filmmaker Rey Rivera continues to prompt more questions than answers. Did Rivera really jump off the roof of Baltimore's…
The Real News PodcastThe people of Sudan fight against a military coup
On Monday, Oct. 25, Sudan’s military seized control of the country, arresting Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and dissolving the transitional council government…