As more people gain access to the coronavirus vaccine, we’re bringing you insight from a panel discussion with leaders of both medicine and faith. Moderated by our own Mark Thompson, the panelists explore how the vaccine works, community fears and hesitations, and what outstanding questions remain. Panelists: Dr. James K. Hildreth, President of Meharry Medical College; Rev. A. Oveta Fuller, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Michigan Medical School; Dr. Chu Chu Onwauchi-Saunde...
Mar 25, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 281
There’s money to be made in keeping Americans unhealthy, and Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg is pulling back the curtain on the links between our collectively declining health and capitalism. Dr. Freudenberg is a public health practitioner and distinguished professor at CUNY School of Public Health, and his new book is titled “At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health.” In today’s episode, we get a lesson on the specific ways capitalism has both changed over the last 30 years and is harm...
Mar 24, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 280
The people of Minneapolis want change, and the activists at Reclaim the Block are going to bring it. D.A. Bullock is a filmmaker and a Communications Team Member with Reclaim the Block in Minneapolis, where they reimagine public safety and lay groundwork for defunding the police. As the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin unfolds and we remember George Floyd's murder, as well as countless others that weren’t caught on film, D.A. and Mark discuss the specific changes that could make a community...
Mar 23, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 279
The For the People Act (H.R. 1) passed in the House and is now headed to the Senate. What does that mean for you, the voter? Tiffany Muller is the President of End Citizens United (endcitizensunited.org) and she explains that, at a time when our voting rights are under constant threat, it’s a crucial time to pass this bill and she gives specific instructions on how you can play your part. She also gives us the scoop on how this bill addresses voter access, election integrity, election security, ...
Mar 22, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 278
Eric Boehlert, Writer and Publisher of Pressrun.media, is not surprised by the mainstream media’s normalization of the GOP’s voter suppression tactics over recent weeks, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop calling them out for it. Eric points to the ways Republicans continue to evade accountability (and common decency) while the press plays nice. But not even Fox news is having success in igniting an opposition against President Biden. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Te...
Mar 19, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 277
Following the horrific and racist attack on Asian women in Atlanta, Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos, Civiqs, and podcast “The Brief,” is back to explain how not only are hate crimes against Asians at an all-time high, but law enforcement contributes to the problem by downplaying the motive of the shooter (or in the case of the Capitol riots, taking selfies with insurrectionists). He also lets us know what Mitch McConnell is up to, why he had a temper tantrum on the senate floor this week, and where...
Mar 18, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 276
What’s the likelihood of an American experiencing poverty? Turns out, it’s the majority. That’s what Mark Rank covers in his new book (co-authored by Lawrence Eppard and Heather Bullock) out now, “Poorly Understood: What Americans Get Wrong About Poverty.” There’s a common misconception that poverty is an issue of “them” when it’s really about “us” -- not an individual failing, but a structural one. How does that play out in our society and economy? Mark explains that, and what can be done to ma...
Mar 17, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 275
Closing out our coverage of the 56th Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, Mark speaks with Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who details the significance of Selma to both himself and the country-at-large. Mark is then joined by Ilyasah Shabaaz, daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, as well as author, community organizer, and activist. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-...
Mar 16, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 274
Rev. Dr. Willian J. Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign joined the discussion in Selma last weekend to draw the startling connection between poverty and voting rights. In this episode, Rev. Barber reminds us of the racist Southern Strategy from the 1960s and how it played out with not just Trump’s win, but continues to appear in the GOP’s ongoing efforts to suppress the vote of poor people and people of color. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Enter...
Mar 15, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 273
Continuing our discussion and commemoration of the historic Bloody Sunday, Mark spoke with Martin Luther King III while in Selma about his father’s legacy playing out in 2020. He shares his thoughts on his father’s teachings applied today and how he might feel about all that has unfolded in the last year in the fight for racial justice. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com See acast.com/privacy for priv...
Mar 12, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 272
While in Selma last weekend commemorating 56 years since the historic Bloody Sunday, Mark moderated a panel discussion on voting rights and H.R. 40 with LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter, Pastor Michael McBride of the Black Church PAC, and Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (BlackPressUSA.com). This conversation pulls no punches in detailing what we are up against, but these strategy-experts know what it takes to combat voter suppression and they’...
Mar 11, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 271
On Sunday, President Biden issued an Executive Order on voting rights, and Mark was in Selma, Alabama for the annual Bloody Sunday commemoration when that news became public. He was able to speak with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee to get her live reaction to Biden’s voting rights Executive Order as well as her status report on the reparations bill, H.R. 40. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com See ac...
Mar 10, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 270
Last month showed an increase of approximately 379,000 jobs, but we’re STILL at a loss of about 9.5 million jobs overall since coronavirus started spreading across the U.S.. Chad Stone, Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is back to let us know where we’ve rebounded, who is still disproportionately struggling, and how true recovery relies on the economy reopening safely. Unemployment and job losses come in many different shapes and sizes, and Chad is here to help us un...
Mar 09, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 269
Today brings us part two of the African American Media Roundtable with Senate Democrats (roll back to Friday’s episode for part one), and we hear questions from reporters at Politico, the New York Times, Huffington Post, and more, including the kick-off question from our very own Mark Thompson. In this second part, the senators answer questions on the reparations bill (H.R. 40), where we stand on $15/hour federal minimum wage, increasing vaccinations and preventing exploitation from outsiders in...
Mar 08, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 268
This week Mark participated in a roundtable discussion with Senate Democrats on a myriad of issues, including access to vaccinations with an emphasis on communities of color, coronavirus data collection, where the reparations bill (H.R. 40) stands, voting rights and GOP voter suppression, and what is included in the next coronavirus relief package. This is part one of a two-part series, and though nearly the entire Democratic Caucus was present, we hear from the following senators in today’s por...
Mar 05, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 267
It’s #ThursdayKos and Markos is back to talk about his new obsession: Mississippi. He sees it as the next Georgia--a state worth focusing on to flip from red to blue. He also shares why he thinks Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are being jackasses, the hypocrisies of the criticism of Neera Tanden, and his reaction to the allegations against Governor Cuomo. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com Se...
Mar 04, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 266
There is no women’s history without Black women, and today we honor that in a conversation with Rukia Lumumba, Co-Director of the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives and Founding Director of the People’s Advocacy Institute. Women like Breonna Taylor remind us Black women experience disproportionate violence, and the work done at the Electoral Justice Project aims to restructure communities to better serve all Black people. Rukia’s team at The People’s Advocacy Institute is ...
Mar 03, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 265
Bruce Levine is the author of "Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice," which is out TODAY. In this episode he talks with Mark about Thaddeus Stevens' revolutionary politics, as one of the first white people to demand reparations for slaves (freed Black people were the first). Stevens operated under what was an extremely radical and controversial belief at the time: that all should be treated equally under the law. Through his story, we see how politics are cyclica...
Mar 02, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 264
Democrats had big wins in 2018 and 2020 when people showed up in record numbers to vote, and so it comes as no surprise that the GOP is getting busy with voter suppression tactics. In today’s episode, Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent at The Nation, says that state legislatures have already prepared three times as many voter restriction bills this year as were proposed during the same period of time last year -- and that’s just one of several troubling statistics from Elie’s piece for The Natio...
Mar 01, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 263
In the fourth and final installment of our Black History Month series on the history and significance of HBCUs, Mark speaks with three Black Sorority Presidents: Beverly Evans Smith, President of Delta Sigma Theta, Valerie Hollingsworth Baker, President of Zeta Phi Beta, and Dr. Glenda Glover, President of Alpha Kappa Alpha. These women oversee organizations that are an asset to not just HBCU campuses, but their communities-at-large. Coronavirus has presented its challenges, but they discuss how...
Feb 26, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 262
Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos, Civiqs, and new podcast “The Brief” is back to catch up on the week’s events, including the roadblocks to Neera Tanden’s confirmation to head the Office of Management and Budget, and the way Twitter was hypocritically weaponized against her. Markos also gives his reaction to the hearings on the Capitol insurrection, and why he thinks the 2022 midterms will “defy historical precedent.” Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Enter...
Feb 25, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 260
Harriet Washington is an award-winning author and bioethicist, and in her new book (out now), “Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Medical Consent,” she takes on the assumption that we can’t and won’t be involved in medical research without our consent. The most current and well-known example is the story of Elijah McClain, who, after being wrongfully detained by police, was given ketamine as part of a non-consensual research study and it resulted in his death. Harriet digs into that research, the leg...
Feb 24, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 259
Dreisen Heath, a Researcher with Human Rights Watch, gave a memorable testimony at last week’s hearing on H.R. 40, which would create a commission on slavery reparations. In today’s episode she talks with Mark about her hopes for the future of H.R. 40 and seeing it leave the House for the first time in history (it’s been languishing there for decades). She also explains how the old arguments against reparations are now serving as a necessary reminder of why they are needed more than ever, and wh...
Feb 23, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 258
As the fate of the reparations bill, H.R. 40, continues to hang in the balance, Mark talks with Kamm Howard, National Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA). Kamm details the next steps in the legal process, and responds to Herschel Walker’s comments that denied African Americans’ need and right for reparations. Kamm also shares his research on historical trauma and how that strengthens the case for passing H.R. 40. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Prod...
Feb 22, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 257
Athletics are an integral part of HBCU life, and today Mark is joined by Howard University men’s basketball coach Kenneth Blakeney, who knows the challenges and the rewards all too well. He reflects on the importance of sustaining HBCU athletic programs and why Howard is looking for someone who brings more than athletic ability to the table. Coach Blakeney successfully recruited a 5-star center in Makur Maker to Howard over the Power 5 Conferences. The two discuss why African Americans often mak...
Feb 19, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 256
Following Rush Limbaugh's death, the news coverage seemed to forget his legacy of racism, lies, and hatred, and went ahead and called him "controversial" instead. But Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos, Civiqs, and podcast "The Brief" doesn't care to look back on anything but the facts of what Limbaugh left behind. Markos also talks the Trump/McConnell tangle, Tucker Carlson scraping the bottom of the barrel for Biden dirt, and why he's got his eye on Senator Joe Manchin. Executive Producer: Adell Col...
Feb 18, 2021•37 min•Season 1Ep. 255
Nkechi Taifa is President and CEO of the Taifa Group, LLC, a social enterprise firm dedicated to advancing justice. She also convenes the Justice Roundtable, an advocacy coalition advancing progressive justice system transformation. And our focus today is her long history of working on the reparations movement, and the latest news is that a hearing on H.R. 40 is approaching, which seeks to create a commission to examine reparations for slavery in the United States. Nkechi explains that reparatio...
Feb 17, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 254
Kerene Tayloe is the Director of Federal Legislative affairs for WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Last week, she testified before congress that immediate attention must be paid to reverse the environmental damage done by the Trump administration, as well as actions that must taken by the Biden administration to address environmental racism. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com See acast.com/privacy for...
Feb 16, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 253
*This episode originally aired on October 12th, 2020.* There’s been a lot of talk about the 25th Amendment lately, as Speaker Pelosi publicly questioned Trump’s mental fitness. Today’s show features some explanation from Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky, presidential historian and the author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.” She gets into the origin of the 25th Amendment and its intended purpose, how the cabinet can and should function around a president as a...
Feb 15, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 252
A university president serves as the guiding force behind the development and progress of a school’s organization, and today Mark speaks with three powerhouse individuals leading the way at some of the most prominent HBCUs in the country. First up is Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, President of Howard University, followed by Dr. Vann Newkirk, President of Fisk University, and lastly Dr. Ronald Mason, President of The University of the District of Columbia. In each of these unique conversations, Mark ...
Feb 12, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 251
