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Indy Audio

The Indypendent•indypendent.org
News
The Indypendent News Hour airs Tuesdays 5–6 p.m. on WBAI-99.5 FM. Check out our archives to listen to past interviews with movement organizers, authors, elected officials and others fighting for justice in New York City and beyond.
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Episodes

Indivisble Brooklyn is Calling Out Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party

The Democrats lost to Donald Trump for a second time in November. And now the party's leaders are rapidly losing the trust of some of their most loyal rank-and-file supporters. Our co-hosts John Tarleton and Amba Guerguerian speak with Brioney Romer and Liat Olinick of Indivisible Brooklyn about their recent protest outside Senator Chuck Schumer's home in Brooklyn and the growing demands for Schumer to step down as the Senate's top Democrat.

Mar 25, 2025•19 min

Columbia Professor and Student Discuss Unprecedented Attacks on Their University

We speak with Professor Joseph Howley and student journalist Eric Santomauro-Stenzel about the continually exploding crisis at Columbia University which is on the cutting edge of the Trump administration’s plans for higher education in this country to no longer be a bastion of free speech and political protest.

Mar 20, 2025•26 min

The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI-99.5 FM // 18 March '25

In the first half of the show, we look at the continually exploding crisis at Columbia University which is on the cutting edge of the Trump administration’s plans for higher education in this country to no longer be a bastion of free speech and political protest. Then we speak with historian Robert W. Snyder about his new book on the essential workers who kept New York running when the Covid-19 pandemic exploded five years ago this month.

Mar 20, 2025•54 min

The Indypendent News hour on WBAI-99.5 FM // 11 March '25

Our co-hosts John Tarleton and Amba Guerguerian speak with Queens State Senator and NYC mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos, who is running as a pro-labor progressive. We then speak with Indypendent Contributing Editor Nicholas Powers about his latest book: Black Psychedelic Revolution: From Trauma to Liberation.

Mar 16, 2025•54 min

Chinatown Home Care Workers Continue to Fight 24-Hour Workdays

On Feb. 26, more than 100 home care workers were attacked by the NYPD and seven were arrested at a protest outside a fancy Wall Street fundraiser for the Chinatown non-profit that controls their working conditions. The workers from the Ain’t I A Woman campaign say that the Chinese-American Planning Council, or CPC, owes them $90 million in back pay. The focus of the protesters’ ire is a law that allows their employer to assign them 24-hour home care shifts for which they only receive 13 hours of...

Mar 06, 2025•14 min

Pro-Palestine Barnard Sit-In Outside Administration Offices

On Feb. 26, about 50 students in keffiyehs occupied the hallway outside the offices of Barnard College’s top administrators. Barnard is an undergraduate women’s college located across the street from Columbia University. Over more than six hours of tense negotiations, protesters demanded that the school’s leaders rescind the expulsions of two Barnard student protesters — the first such student expulsions for political activity at Columbia or Barnard since 1968. We speak with The Indypendent’s Er...

Mar 06, 2025•9 min

The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI-99.5 FM // 4 March '25

In our first segment, we get the latest on the bi-partisan repression of pro-Palestine voices on college campuses. We then learn about a campaign by home health care workers who are fighting for fair labor standards. Finally, co-hosts John Tarleton and Amba Guerguerian discuss Andrew Cuomo entering the NYC mayoral race and take listener call-ins.

Mar 06, 2025•54 min

Peter Sterne on the Ongoing Adams Saga & Upcoming Mayoral Elections

We focus on City Hall, where Mayor Adams continues on the job but is not out of trouble yet. Adams recently cut a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to have his federal corruption charges dropped in return for assisting the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign here in New York City. The judge in the case, Dale Ho, so far has refused to dismiss the charges. NY Gov. Kathy Hochul has weighed whether she should use her authority to remove a mayor from office but so far refused to pull...

Feb 27, 2025•15 min

The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI-99.5 FM // 25 Feb. '25

In our first segment, we get the latest on the Eric Adams saga from a reporter who has City Hall covered like a blanket. Then we’ll take stock of the Trump-Musk administration’s widening attacks on public services. We then speak with Chuck Zlatkin of the American Postal Workers Union which represents more than 200,000 postal workers nationwide. And in our final segment, we talk with journalist Liza Featherstone about why Trump and Musk are targeting many of the most popular services provided by ...

Feb 27, 2025•55 min

Chuck Zlatkin on The Fight to Save USPS

We speak with Chuck Zlatkin, a longtime postal worker who is currently the Legislative and Political Director for New York Metro Area Postal Union, the local affiliate of the American Postal Workers Union. The U.S. postal service is older than country itself and provides universal service to every address in the country. While people may not write as many letters as they used to, the Postal Service remains essential to small and large businesses, to elderly who receive their prescriptions by mai...

Feb 26, 2025•12 min

Liza Featherstone on Why Trump and Musk Are Attacking Popular Programs

We speak with journalist Liza Featherstone about her recent article in The New Republic, "Musk and Trump Are Cutting Popular Programs. That’s Deliberate: This is how you sever the positive relationship between people and government — ensuring there’s nothing left to defend."

Feb 25, 2025•17 min

Plaza Proletaria on Defending Immigrants in New York City

We speak with Leo and Maria, organizers with Plaza Proletaria, a working-class, immigrant-led group that is organizing to thwart the ICE raids, which are a part of the Trump administration’s campaign to deport millions of undocumented people in this country.

Feb 19, 2025•18 min

The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI-99.5 FM // 18 Feb. '25

Co-hosts John Tarleton and Amba Guerguerin speak with Leo and Maria about the Sunset Park-based Plaza Proletaria is organizing against ICE raids and deportations. In the second half of the show, we hear from Socialist State Senator Jabari Brisport of Brooklyn about how the Trump/Musk assault on federal agencies and spending could impact New York State and its 20 million residents. We also have updates from the streets as New Yorkers hit the streets to protest Trump, Musk and Adams.

Feb 19, 2025•54 min

Eric Adams Is Absolved For Now

We talk about Mayor Eric Adams, who had his federal corruption charges dismissed yesterday by the Department Justice, and take listener call ins.

Feb 12, 2025•20 min

Eric Dirnbach on the State of Labor Organizing in the US

We speak with veteran labor organizer Eric Dirnbach. He’s lived the ups and downs of the labor movement since the late 90s about low union membership numbers and how to keep fighting in this Trump (or any) era.

Feb 12, 2025•14 min

The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI // 11 Feb. '24

We start out by looking at how the campaign to unionize Starbucks is faring. More than 500 Starbucks stores have unionized since December 2021, but now the movement faces new threats as the Trump administration seeks to dismantle the Department of Labor. We then speak with veteran labor organizer Eric Dirnbach. He’s lived the ups and downs of the labor movement since the late 90s. In recent years, he’s been active with the Emergency Worker Organizing Committee which formed in the early days of t...

Feb 12, 2025•55 min

The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI // 4 Feb. '25

In our first segment, we go to Queens College, where yesterday more than 100 faculty and students protested for the right to protest on their campus in the face of an increasingly authoritarian campus administration. And then we check in with The Indy’s Amba Guerguerian. She published a major new piece today looking at how dissent has been systematically crushed at Columbia since last spring’s Gaza solidarity encampment ignited a nationwide anti-genocide campus protest movement. Amba has also be...

Feb 12, 2025•54 min

Update on Starbucks Labor Organizing

We look at how the campaign to unionize Starbucks is faring. More than 500 Starbucks stores have unionized since December 2021, but now the movement faces new threats as the Trump administration seeks to dismantle the Department of Labor.

Feb 11, 2025•14 min

Goodbye DEI?

We speak with Linda Martin Alcoff, a professor of philosophy at CUNY’s Hunter College who has written multiple books that explore the intersection of race, gender and class. We get her thoughts on the early days of the Trump administration and its relentless focus on purging anything it deems to be “DEI” or “woke.”

Feb 11, 2025•20 min

Columbia's Crackdown + Protests Around the City

We check in with The Indy’s Amba Guerguerian. She published a major new piece today looking at how dissent has been systematically crushed at Columbia since last spring’s Gaza solidarity encampment ignited a nationwide anti-genocide campus protest movement. Amba has also been following protests that have been popping off around the city just over the past 24 hours.

Feb 11, 2025•13 min

Queens College Admin Cracks Down on Protest

We go to Queens College, where yesterday more than 100 faculty and students protested for the right to protest on their campus in the face of an increasingly authoritarian campus administration.

Feb 11, 2025•19 min

Daniel Penny's Hometown + The Rise of MAGA Long Island

We speak with Indy contributing writer John Teufel about his latest piece about growing up in West Islip, New York. Teufel has watched West Islip, also known as “White Islip," become a MAGA bastion in recent years that is now proud to claim Daniel Penny as a favorite son. Penny is the former marine who choked homeless subway passenger Jordan Neely to death in 2023 and was acquitted on all charges in December.

Jan 29, 2025•13 min

The March of Return to Northern Gaza

There’s been a sea of humanity returning to their pulverized communities in northern Gaza since Jan. 27. We talk about that and what comes next in the ceasefire process that could determine whether this genocidal war really ends or not.

Jan 29, 2025•14 min

Trump's First Eight Days: A Path of Destruction

We discuss the Trump administration’s stunning Jan. 28 announcement that it will “temporarily pause” trillions of dollars of already approved government spending. We also look at the overall arc of the first eight days of the Trump administration so we can help you make sense of what’s going on.

Jan 29, 2025•26 min
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