In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, imperiling all women’s freedoms, and creating a new pipeline to prison for the vulnerable just as the world is learning how counterproductive most incarceration - solutions are. Today’s guests argue that things could have been very different. If the white dominated “choice” movement had paid closer attention to all women’s choices, or lack thereof; If anti-violence advocates had rejected criminalization and incarceration as a solution to the...
Aug 22, 2022•30 min•Ep. 399
(This full conversation is from the episode 'Community Wealth Building: An Economic Reset' released June 13th, 2022) Low wages, precarious jobs, shuttered Main Streets and bleak futures — do towns have a way out of poverty that doesn't involve begging and bribing outside employers to invest? From Cleveland, Ohio to Preston, England and Scotland, some local governments are experimenting with investing public resources locally in community-held businesses, and public health. They’re calling this a...
Aug 18, 2022•36 min
Many of the world’s most successful businesses began as someone’s good idea. But the path from startup to conventional financial success typically involves going public, prioritizing shareholders’ interests, and ultimately selling to a giant conglomerate whose intentions are far from the original mission of the business’s founders. In this episode, Laura interviews guests who say this conventional path of success is desperately in need of an overhaul. Why must new and innovative ideas come to ma...
Aug 15, 2022•31 min•Ep. 400
(This full conversation is from the episode 'Greenpeace at 50: The Climate Crisis is a Fight Not an Argument' released April 18th, 2022) In this special feature for Earth Day, we focus on just one group: Greenpeace, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The environmental group has been in the headlines again, confronting Russian oil tankers in many ports. They've attracted lots of attention and scored many victories in the years they've been in existence. But it's not enough. The climate cr...
Aug 11, 2022•37 min
The last US soldier to leave Afghanistan returned home this August, but private security personnel long outnumbered US troops in that war, and the for-profit business of training guns-for-hire is booming -- literally -- in the backyards of many rural Americans. In this special episode, The Laura Flanders Show travels to the tiny town of Hoffman in Richmond County, NC, where residents live next to a loud private training ground.They have real concerns about who is receiving training there and why...
Aug 08, 2022•30 min•Ep. 398
Forty percent of those who get abortion services in the U.S. are African Americans. Would you know it from the media coverage of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs Wade? S. Mitra Kalita and Sara Lomax-Reese of URL Media join Laura for this month’s “Meet the BIPOC Press” to consider what has changed in the coverage — and the organizing — around reproductive justice in the years since Roe. Are abortion seekers of color still a sidebar in reporting or has journalism finally reached a tipping po...
Aug 01, 2022•31 min•Ep. 397
Prosecutors are immensely powerful, especially now, after the overthrow of Roe. They decide which cases to bring, what charges to make and what sentences to ask for. Until this year, only internal committees could investigate misconduct, even after hundreds of exonerations and allegations of abuse. After years of grassroots effort, New York now has an independent commission, but the process was hard, and there's still no power to punish. In this episode, reporter Kizzy Cox reports on how New Yor...
Jul 25, 2022•30 min•Ep. 396
Season 3, Episode 307: Congressman Jamie Raskin On January 6th: After a Failed Coup, a Successful One? (Full conversation from the episode released May 16th) The January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, intended to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America, “was as close to fascism as I ever want to see our country come,” says Jamie Raskin, Democratic Congressman from Maryland. And he should know -- Raskin is a Constitutional scholar as well as a lon...
Jul 21, 2022•31 min
"'It would be easier for people to understand what could have happened on January 6th in DC, if they knew what actually happened on November 10th, in 1898, in Wilmington,' Cedric Harrison told me" Get the related episode HERE : The Forgotten Coup, January 6th & the Small Town Americans on the Frontlines of Democracy The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at https:...
Jul 19, 2022•4 min
Could a successful coup happen in the US? The ongoing Congressional hearings into the events of January 6 show that just a handful of election officials in several key states stood between Donald Trump and the overturning of the 2020 elections. While the insurrection unfolded, many Americans watched in shock, believing nothing like this had ever happened in United States history. But it has happened before — more than a century ago in Wilmington, North Carolina when an armed mob removed a democr...
Jul 18, 2022•31 min•Ep. 395
Is the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health a death sentence for women of color? The overturning of Roe v. Wade not only creates an abortion disaster for millions of Americans, it also exacerbates a maternal healthcare crisis that’s alreadly deadly for women of color. African American women are shockingly likely to die or almost die — in pregnancy and childbirth, New York Times contributor Linda Villarosa discovered, and that’s true regardless of their health, education and ...
Jul 11, 2022•30 min•Ep. 394
"Birth, earth, indigenous rule, even the “demos” of government itself… Kavanaugh and his crew seem to have something against bodies they can’t control, be they human or governmental." The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at https://Patreon.com/theLFShow Independent Media! Advertising free! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; S...
Jul 05, 2022•4 min
150 years after Congress established Yellowstone National Park, it remains the jewel of a system that comprises some 400 national parks. But for Indigenous Americans, the history is bitter. Thousands were forced to leave, families were massacred, and the Army was brought in to exclude Native Americans. Today, as droughts, floods and fires threaten the parks, many are calling for Indigenous control. Indigenizing the National Parks wouldn’t just be morally and legally right, but it just might be w...
Jul 04, 2022•28 min•Ep. 393
Whether it’s Buffalo, NY, Uvalde, TX or Philadelphia, PA — we are witnessing an unprecedented wave of terror at the muzzle of a gun. But all mass shootings are not covered in the same way. What determines the nature of the coverage? And what is the media getting wrong — or right — on gun violence reporting? In this episode, Laura Flanders welcomes back Mitra Kalita and Sara Lomax-Reese of URL Media, a network of independently owned and operated Black and Brown media outlets, for this month’s “Me...
Jun 27, 2022•30 min•Ep. 392
When the news broke of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, it was chilling to many people to learn that 40 percent of that small city’s budget was allocated to public safety - a budget allocation that utterly failed to keep the children and teachers at Robb Elementary school safe. What might have been a better way to spend that city’s precious funds? After Uvalde, and in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, residents of many US cities asked that same question. They’re turning to a to...
Jun 20, 2022•29 min•Ep. 391
Low wages, precarious jobs, shuttered Main Streets and bleak futures — do towns have a way out of poverty that doesn't involve begging and bribing outside employers to invest? From Cleveland, Ohio to Preston, England and Scotland, some local governments are experimenting with investing public resources locally in community-held businesses, and public health. They’re calling this approach Community Wealth Building, and it’s gaining traction around the world. Most recently, the US Department of Ho...
Jun 13, 2022•31 min•Ep. 390
2022 will go down in history for the number of anti-trans bills introduced into state legislatures. Over 300 bills banning books, medical treatment, even access to the bathroom, have been introduced so far. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court seems poised to overturn Roe vs. Wade, allowing states to ban abortion. As extremists crank up the volume on hate — trans people, especially trans women of color, are facing an onslaught of violence. Today’s guest, Imara Jones, has been featured on the cover of Ti...
Jun 06, 2022•30 min•Ep. 389
Can you remember the last time when the challenges that inner city public school teachers face were the subject of a popular TV series? Abbott Elementary — which has just been renewed for a second season on ABC — does just that. The Philadelphia school on TV is fictional, but the challenges it faces are all too real. Closely based on the school that series creator (and star) Quinta Brunson attended, and especially her experiences with Ms. Abbott, her 6th grade teacher, the show combines art, edu...
May 30, 2022•31 min•Ep. 388
Decades of discrimination have left millions of African Americans shut out of the housing market and at risk of being targeted by predatory lenders and exploitative loans. But capital collectives pool resources and reduce individual risk and can be a way for low-income Americans to buy into a home. One example is the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, in Oakland, CA which stepped in to do what developers would not, and make permanent housing available for low-income African Americans an...
May 23, 2022•31 min•Ep. 387
"A Supreme Court assault on reproductive equity, another racist slaughter, and more Palestinian death. It’s a lot...." The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at https://Patreon.com/theLFShow Independent Media! Advertising free! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Produc...
May 17, 2022•4 min
The January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, intended to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America, “was as close to fascism as I ever want to see our country come,” says Jamie Raskin, Democratic Congressman from Maryland. And he should know -- Raskin is a Constitutional scholar as well as a long-time law school professor, and in the hours after the assault on the Capitol, he was chosen to head up the second impeachment investigation of Donald Trump....
May 16, 2022•30 min•Ep. 386
The American Right is embracing a dangerous extremism, challenging elections, packing courts and aligning with Hungarian prime minister and Putin-ally Victor Orbán. In the midst of a climate catastrophe, with a majority on the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the House preparing to hear from the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, what is at stake and how did we get here? Can the process of shrinking democracy work in reverse? In this episode, Laura speaks...
May 09, 2022•30 min•Ep. 385
"Something exciting is happening in McDowell County, West Virginia. There, in what used to be coal country, the American Federation of Teachers is leading a project called Reconnecting McDowell. It's a program initiated over a decade ago by Gayle Manchin, wife of now Senator (then Governor) Joe, and it makes you think long and hard about her husband." The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining ...
May 03, 2022•4 min
McDowell County, West Virginia, in the heart of what used to be coal country, is one of the most impoverished counties in the US — a place that embodies the challenges facing many American areas in transition. But something new is happening there; it’s called Reconnecting McDowell , a multi-partner effort, led by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Can education be the driver of local economic and social development in one of the poorest places in the US? What if the best anti-poverty pro...
May 02, 2022•28 min•Ep. 384
Complete episode notes, research and reading list and related episodes are at Patreon The fight over what can and can’t be taught in schools is shaping up to be one of the most controversial issues in a pivotal mid-term election year. White voters are being mobilized to ban books, censor honest discussions of US history and current day racism, and organize against a fake spectre of “critical race theory” being taught in schools. So what is to be done? In this episode, Laura and co-hosts Sara Lom...
Apr 26, 2022•29 min•Ep. 383
Description: Red, Republican, anti abortion, anti trans — Texas has certainly been a testing ground for backlash policies and politicians, and that could be what’s happening now, but could it also be a bellwether of a different sort? Why is the reactionary backlash and the resistance to it that’s happening in Texas vital for the rest of the country? Our guests today say that their state could be a predictor of how 21st century change happens, when people organize differently. What do people who ...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 1 min
A culture of snitches? '...We describe it as horrifying when it’s happening in Putin's Russia, but just how different, really, is Texas?' The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at http://Patreon.com/theLFShow Independent Media! Advertising free! Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cot...
Apr 19, 2022•4 min
In this special feature for Earth Day, we focus on just one group: Greenpeace, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The environmental group has been in the headlines again, confronting Russian oil tankers in many ports. They've attracted lots of attention and scored many victories in the years they've been in existence. But it's not enough. The climate crisis is more urgent than ever, the world's not on track to get off fossil fuels in the time we need, and the most vulnerable are paying t...
Apr 18, 2022•29 min•Ep. 382
Patreon supporters receive early access to listen and download the full uncut conversation from our weekly episodes. The latest peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war may lead to an eventual ceasefire but not before displacing millions and damaging the air, water and land of what was known as the bread basket for the world. This week, we’ve assembled a roundtable of human rights advocates from Ukraine, Russia & the United States to discuss the ongoing conflict and who highlight models of loca...
Apr 14, 2022•50 min
Here at The Laura Flanders Show we are in partnership with the John Jay Justice Fellowship program, where participants work hands-on gaining first hand knowledge about our independent movement media operation producing our TV, radio and podcast productions where participants work hands-on gaining first hand knowledge about our independent movement media operation producing our TV, radio and podcast productions. Throughout the program our entire staff spends time with each fellow sharing their ex...
Apr 11, 2022•19 min
