This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! We thought that last year would go down in history, but this year is even worse for the number of anti-trans bills introduced into state legislatures, and the successful passage of many of those bills. 549 proposed bills, banning books, medical treatment, even access to the bathroom were introduced in 2023. 73 of those anti-trans bills have already passed and the ...
Jun 05, 2023•29 min•Ep. 444
It's our May membership drive when we move the mic to you! By becoming a member your voice of support amplifies our coverage of forward thinking movement movers and shakers. Go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! What is causing the Black maternal mortality epidemic, and what can be done to save Black lives? The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income nation in the world — and it is Black mothers who are dying at the highest rates. B...
May 29, 2023•31 min•Ep. 443
It takes a village to move the microphone to stories that have real impact! Premium content awaits you! The latest is my full conversation with Angela M. Thorpe, Executive Director of the Pauli Murray Center. Thorpe was featured in our special field report, 'Deciding the Fate of Democracy in North Carolina.' Pauli Murray was a gender non-conforming, legal scholar and civil rights movement leader. Her legal work was ahead of its time then and more relevant than ever today. We know you will be jus...
May 24, 2023•3 min
This episode offers insight into the conditions at Rikers and the movement to close it. The unauthorized NY Prison Guard Wildcat Strike is currently in its second week as of February 26, 2025. The notorious Rikers, a 10-jail complex situated on an island in the East River of New York City, has become a national symbol and a symptom of our current approach to crime. The jail has over 6,000 inmates — the majority of whom are awaiting trial because they can’t afford bail — living in unconstitutiona...
May 22, 2023•30 min•Ep. 442
It's our May membership drive when we move the mic to you! By becoming a member your voice of support amplifies our coverage of forward thinking movement movers and shakers. Go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! This Mother’s Day, May 14th coincides with the formal end of the National Covid-19 Emergency. Since its enactment in March 2020, emergency spending expanded healthcare coverage to some 15 million people who will now be disenrolled, and increased food stamp ...
May 14, 2023•30 min•Ep. 441
"It has often been said that the US South is the testing ground for American democracy, which makes it frustrating how little attention national Democrats and their media pals give to Southern politics. A case in point is the decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court on April 28th, to reverse a series of election-related rulings that were handed down just months ago by the same court when it was dominated by Democrats." -excerpt from the latest commentary by Laura Flanders... The F-Word is re...
May 09, 2023•4 min•Ep. 440
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! North Carolina has long been a battleground for democracy. So far, 27 people in the state have been indicted in connection with the effort to overturn the 2020 election on January 6th. No body of legislators has fought more fiercely to maintain Republican supermajority power in a demographically 50/50 state. On April 28, 2023, in a rare reversal of recent preceden...
May 07, 2023•31 min•Ep. 439
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! What does it mean to be a Muslim American in a society plagued by dangerous stereotypes and misconceptions? Hiba Ansari and Daria Mogahed share their insights on the challenges faced by this diverse community, highlighting the importance of good reporting, recognizing their contributions to America's history, and drawing parallels with the experiences of the Black...
Apr 30, 2023•30 min•Ep. 438
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! In this episode, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop and explore its impact on the world with special guests Rosa Clemente, an award-winning organizer, journalist, and historian, and Chuck D, leader and co-founder of the legendary group Public Enemy. We discuss the origins of hip hop in the Bronx, its influence on politics, activism, music, art, dance, an...
Apr 24, 2023•29 min•Ep. 437
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! The Earth's temperature is rising at an alarming rate, and time is running out to change direction according to the IPCC. But veteran organizer/strategist Ben Jealous (formerly of the NAACP) sees history as being replete with examples of humans doing the unpredictable in history’s toughest moments. It’s that perspective, and those stories, compiled in his new book...
Apr 19, 2023•29 min•Ep. 436
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! Low income Americans face an acute housing shortage. But our guests have a victory to share. “Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square" is a newly-released documentary telling the story of how a diverse group of New Yorkers, led by housing organizer Frances Goldin, fought a 50-year struggle against abandonment, white flight, violence, drugs a...
Apr 10, 2023•29 min•Ep. 435
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! In this episode, I dive deep into discussions on the state of the banking system and the economy, touching on topics such as the stress in the banking system, the implications of the recent Silicon Valley Bank situation, and the challenges faced by central banks in reducing inflation. We also explore the rise of nationalism in politics and its impact on policy dec...
Apr 03, 2023•29 min•Ep. 434
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! In this episode, Laura explores the unorthodox documentary "Sell By Date" by Tony Award-winning performer and comedian Sarah Jones. We discuss the complex issues of sex, power, race, and our economy through the lens of various characters played by Jones herself. The film features interviews with real people both in and out of the sex industry, offering diverse per...
Mar 27, 2023•44 min•Ep. 433
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! Rosa Parks is best known to Americans as a national treasure — the little old lady who sat down on a bus and “ended racism.” What we lose in that depiction is what happened before and afterward, which is to say most of the story of Park’s lifetime of activism. Soledad O'Brien, the award-winning journalist and producer, has just executive produced the first ever fu...
Mar 23, 2023•34 min•Ep. 432
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! Join Laura and Gina for this impactful conversation on combating anti-Asian hate. A new documentary on PBS, Rising Against Asian Hate: One Day in March, spotlights the movement to turn grief into action and address the challenges that exist when it comes to prosecuting anti-Asian hate crimes. Executive producer Gina Kim is an Emmy-nominated producer, and the film ...
Mar 20, 2023•30 min•Ep. 431
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! Laura and guest, Abigail Disney, ask how long can corporations sustain the “American Dream” at the expense of their workers. Is the American Dream dead? While most Americans are earning less than their parents and economic mobility is on the decline, the median net worth of the top 10 billionaires in the world has nearly tripled over the last decade. Abigail Disne...
Mar 13, 2023•47 min•Ep. 430
This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Thank you for your continued support! This podcast includes an endorsement for Best of the Left , with host Jay! Tomlinson. We think you'll dig it too! Description / Introduction: 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 Su...
Mar 06, 2023•38 min•Ep. 429
The police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis generated a significant amount of conversation and coverage, while the killing of environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán in a Georgia state police raid just weeks later has gotten considerably less attention. This time in our monthly feature, Meet the BIPOC Press, Laura Flanders and Sara Lomax of URL Media talk with two journalists who have been reporting on these stories for local Black-led outlets. Is there anything in their response that...
Feb 27, 2023•30 min•Ep. 428
Description : “Reckoning” is the new best-selling book from V (formerly Eve Ensler), author of “The Vagina Monologues” and founder of V-Day/One Billion Rising, the global movement to end violence against all women, gender-expansive people, girls, and the earth. Reckoning, writes V, is “the antidote to fascism”. In this Women’s History Month special, which includes performances by V and Laurence Olivier Award-winning actress and Tony nominee, Noma Dumezweni, Laura speaks with V about why she chan...
Feb 19, 2023•30 min•Ep. 427
Monthly sustaining supporters receive early access to listen and download the full uncut conversation from our weekly episode release. Flex your media muscles by signing up at LauraFlanders.org/donate In this podcast episode, I discuss how Black and Brown-owned media outlets are growing with Mitra Kalita, co-founder of URL and publisher of Epicenter NYC, Alexandra Martinez, senior news reporter at Prism, and Malak Silmi of Outlier Media. We also explore the federal impact on local communities an...
Feb 16, 2023•42 min
What role did Warrior Women play in the Wounded Knee Occupation, and the American Indian Movement (AIM)? This February 2023, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the occupation, Laura speaks with two Indigenous women activists, a mother-daughter duo, who have been involved in the Red Power movement their entire lives. Madonna Thunder Hawk, Oohenumpa Lakota and Lakota Matriarch, Marcella (Marcy) Gilbert, Lakota/Dakota/Nakota, with Elizabeth Castle, co-director of the documentary Warrior Women, have...
Feb 12, 2023•30 min•Ep. 426
Monthly sustaining members receive early access to listen and download the full uncut conversation from our episode " Johann Hari: Get Your Mind Back / Save Democracy?". Join here . We are members supported media. Are we too distracted to think? The answer is worse than you’d expect. In his latest book, New York Times bestselling author Johann Hari says we’re all the victims of attention theft and the consequences are catastrophic, for our personal lives and our democracy. Adults in the workplac...
Feb 09, 2023•41 min
"Saket Soni is a brilliant labor organizer. He's also a talented storyteller. His first book, The Great Escape, A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America, tells the gripping, can't-put-it down tale of one of the largest human trafficking schemes in modern US history and how 500 Indian-born workers brought their corporate exploiters to account...." The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. You can hear this week's show, via thi...
Feb 07, 2023•4 min
“THE GREAT ESCAPE: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America” tells the story of one of the largest human trafficking schemes in modern American history and how the traffickers were finally held to account. Saket Soni was the co-founder of The New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice in the post-Katrina years. Today he’s the founder and director of Resilience Force, a project that comes directly out of his experience working with the men in this book. The U.S. is experien...
Feb 05, 2023•30 min•Ep. 425
Our monthly contributors via Patreon/ActBlue receive EARLY ACCESS to listen and download the full uncut conversations from our weekly LFShow. Season 3, Episode 341- “The Future is Disabled” with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha: Writer, Disability/Transformative Justice Movement Worker; Author, The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs Description: “At the core of my work and life is the belief that disabled wisdom is the key to our survival and expansion,” shares Leah La...
Feb 02, 2023•40 min
What are the stories that will be driving news coverage in the coming year for communities of color and our network partners in the media that serve them? In this 2023 preview for our monthly Meet the BIPOC Press roundtable with URL Media, we consider issues involving the economy, community investment, reproductive justice, local government, environmental justice, LGBTQ+ rights, the aftermath of COVID, and more. How will our partners be reporting the stories — and angles — that matter most? Laur...
Jan 29, 2023•30 min•Ep. 424
Description: In 2020, the authorities at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (better known as Angola, for the former plantation on which it stands) shut down a play in the middle of a performance. What happened in that audience of incarcerated men that got guards so concerned? That’s the subject of “Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison," (2023 Oscar Short-Listed) a new MTV documentary directed and edited by Cinque Northern (My Name is Pauli Murray) and produced by Catherine Gund. ...
Jan 26, 2023•41 min
The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. Twenty-three minutes. That’s how long it takes for your brain to refocus after shifting from one task to the next. Check your email, glance at a text, and you’ll pay for what’s called a “switch effect.” “We’ve fallen for a mass delusion that our brains can multi-task. They can’t,” author Johann Hari found out in researching his latest book. We’re paying a price for our stolen ability to focus and maybe t...
Jan 24, 2023•4 min
Are we too distracted to think? The answer is worse than you’d expect. In his latest book, New York Times bestselling author Johann Hari says we’re all the victims of attention theft and the consequences are catastrophic, for our personal lives and our democracy. Adults in the workplace focus on a task for 3 minutes on average, and that number is declining. “We've got so many crises we need to deal with that require sustained focus and attention on the part of the citizenry,” Hari tells Laura, b...
Jan 22, 2023•29 min•Ep. 423
Historian Howard Zinn would have turned 100 in 2022. His monumental work, A People’s History of the United States, published in 1980, continues to have an impact today. For Zinn’s’ centennial we explore what made his model of history different with three guests who were influenced by his bottom-up approach: Anthony Arnove worked with Zinn throughout the latter part of his life, and wrote the introduction for the 35th-anniversary edition of Zinn’s classic work; Jamaican poet, performer and writer...
Jan 19, 2023•36 min
