Tue, 27 December 2016
In this year-end show, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola look back at 2016 with deep contempt and look forward to whatever struggles and catastrophes lie ahead for the world. They are joined by Roqayah Chamseddine, co-host of the "Delete Your Account" podcast and a columnist for Shadowproof.com. |
Sun, 18 December 2016
John Washington, a volunteer for No More Deaths which is a humanitarian aid organization, joins the show to talk about a report on the missing persons crisis created by the brutality of United States border patrol agents. The report is called, "Disappeared: How the U.S. Border Enforcement Agencies Are Fueling a Missing Persons Crisis." |
Sun, 18 December 2016
In an extra 20-minute discussion segment, Kevin Gosztola and Rania Khalek talk about the narrative pushed by United States press and establishment politicians that Russia interfered with the U.S. election to elect Donald Trump. We also mock the hypocrisy of those outraged because the U.S. has quite a record of interfering in other countries' elections. |
Sun, 4 December 2016
With great effort—we tried no less than four times to record this episode, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola highlight some major developments from the past week, including updates on resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline, a horrible piece of legislation against speech that passed in the Senate against pro-Palestinian students, the vile attacks on Congressman Keith Ellison, and the debate on "fake news." |
Sun, 27 November 2016
In the first half of the show, Rania Khalek shares a bit of what she's seen while reporting in Syria and, for the first time, she publicly addresses the smear attacks on her reputation, which came when she chose to travel with other journalists to a conference in Damascus. Khalek was listed as a speaker, and because the conference primarily advanced a government perspective on the war and she is an easy target, Khalek was attacked, even forced to resign from her editor position at Electronic Intifada. She ended up not attending the conference. Meanwhile, other journalists at the conference spoke and attended but were not attacked by smear artists, who despise Khalek's politics. |
Sun, 20 November 2016
Co-host Rania Khalek, who is currently in Lebanon, returns to the show to reflect on the panic, fear, and uncertainty around the presidential election of Donald Trump. We discuss what we need to prepare to resist under Trump, like the approval of oil pipeline projects, the reinstitution of the CIA torture program, etc. We celebrate the wave of protests in response to Trump's election while at the same time acknowledging the powers expanded by President Barack Obama, which Trump will be able to take advantage of now. |
Sun, 13 November 2016
Kevin Gosztola interviews Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein about what her campaign managed to accomplish with the campaign. She describes several initiatives she intends to be a part of pushing in the months ahead. She also talks about Donald Trump's victory and the denial of Democrats, who seem to blame everyone but themselves for Hillary Clinton's loss. |
Sun, 9 October 2016
Guest Fabio Andres Diaz Pabon, a Colombian who is a research associate for the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa. He is also a contributor to Warscapes. Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola talk to Pabon about why Colombians, who voted, rejected a peace deal by a very slim margin. He addresses some of the points he made in a piece for Warscapes titled, "Uncertainty, Peace Agreements, and Public Participation in Colombia." Pabon also reacts to the decision to give Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos the Nobel Peace Prize. The co-hosts spend the latter part of the episode on the backlash to reporting by journalist Max Blumenthal, who published reporting on the Syrian rebels for the "Grayzone Project" at AlterNet and received threatening phone calls, emails, and messages on social media. Multiple individuals, who hold themselves as advocates for the liberation of Syria, sought to incite Arabs and Muslims to demonize Blumenthal for his work. |
Sun, 25 September 2016
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the ongoing bloodshed and war in Syria, not limited to Aleppo. They also talk about the latest unsettling development with Chelsea Manning, who the U.S. Army punished with two weeks in solitary confinement. Finally, Kevin reads a piece of election-themed satire he wrote, which many mistakenly thought was a serious column. |
Sun, 18 September 2016
Gareth Porter, independent investigative journalist, discusses his recent piece, "Al Qaeda's Ties to US-Backed Rebels," on the Syria ceasefire deal. During the discussion, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola talk about the massive aid package to Israel, the closing of Camp 5 at Guantanamo, and Oliver Stone's "Snowden." |
Sun, 11 September 2016
Donna Murch, an associate professor at Rutgers University, joins hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola to talk about her report for Boston Review, "Paying for Punishment." We talk about "criminal justice debt" and how black Americans are more likely than whites to face municipal court judgments for debt collection. Murch also addresses the rise of the electronic monitoring industry as a form of "offender-funded justice." |
Sun, 4 September 2016
Azzurra Crispino, the media co-chair for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), talks with us about a nationwide labor strike planned by prisoners. It will coincide with the rebellion by Attica prisoners, which took place 45 years ago. Crispino describes why prisoners are striking and the stakes for prisoners, who take the risk to engage in resistance. During the discussion portion, host Rania Khalek discusses the re-branding of an al Qaeda group in Syria and how multiple journalists have fallen for it. Kevin Gosztola talks about the New York Times' yellow journalism on WikiLeaks.
|
Sun, 7 August 2016
Robbie Martin, co-host of Media Roots radio and creator of the three-part documentary, "A Very Heavy Agenda," joins the show to talk about Hillary Clinton's alliance with neoconservative Republicans. We discuss the wild allegations around the DNC being hacked by Russia, which the Democrats have promoted. We highlight former CIA director Mike Morell's endorsement of Clinton his suggestion that Donald Trump is some kind of Manchurian candidate. Host Rania Khalek and Martin also talk about what they witnessed at a fundraiser for Clinton, which featured neocon Robert Kagan. |
Sun, 31 July 2016
Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant from the Socialist Alternative joins the show this week to talk about the walkouts of Bernie Sanders delegates at the Democratic National Convention, as well as how she has successfully defied the Democratic Party establishment to achieve reforms like the $15 minimum wage in Seattle. |
Sun, 10 July 2016
The co-editors of Verso's book, "Policing The Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter," join the show this week to help us apply a much-needed analysis to the police executions of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, as well as the tragedy which unfolded with the Dallas Shooting. Christina Heatherton, assistant professor of American Studies at Trinity College, and Jordan T. Camp, a postdoctoral fellow for the Institute of International Affairs at Brown University, highlight the policy of "Broken Windows" and its relationship to the neoliberal present. They address how many of the actions of police are a part of a "class project that has displaced the urban multiracial working class worldwide." The limitations of liberal frameworks for reforming police are also discussed. The two also talk about the "War on Terrorism" and its effect on policing, like for example, how the Dallas police used a "bomb robot" this past week to kill the shooter. |
Sun, 26 June 2016
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola recap what unfolded with the Democratic National Convention Platform Committee, where individuals appointed by Hillary Clinton and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz rejected key progressive policies from inclusion in the platform. Gosztola shares reporting on the New York state meeting, where a Clinton delegate hit a Sanders delegate and young woman of color with his cane. Khalek talks about the latest Republicans and neoconservatives to endorse Clinton.
|
Sun, 26 June 2016
Palestine Legal founder and director Dima Khalidi joins the show to talk about Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive order against the BDS movement, which includes a provision to blacklist companies or groups which boycott or divest from Israel. Khalidi breaks down the constitutional and free speech concerns created by this order and also places it within the context of a broader trend in state legislatures to crack down on the BDS movement. She also highlights recent cases where students have been criminalized for their Palestinian solidarity activism. |
Sun, 19 June 2016
This part of the episode opens with discussion about the Orlando massacre, especially how Senate Democrats responded with a filibuster and push for legislation that included a provision to expand the terrorism watch list in order to enforce gun control. The show's hosts pivot to the People's Summit, a gathering of two to three thousand Bernie Sanders supporters in Chicago. Host Kevin Gosztola attended shares observations from the summit. |
Sun, 19 June 2016
Vice News reporter Jason Leopold joins the show to talk about new CIA documents he obtained as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The documents contain revelations related to the case of Gul Rahman, who was tortured and died in his cell at the Salt Pit black site in Kabul, Afghanistan. Leopold highlights the implications and also shares how he was able to pry the documents loose from the grip of the United States government. |
Mon, 13 June 2016
Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and identity politics is a recurring topic on the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast. This week, in a mega episode, we talk with our guest, Katie Halper, about the media anointing Clinton the nominee before the California primary last week. Halper addresses some of the latest absurd identity politics in the election, such as a New York Times reporter asking if it was sexist for Bernie Sanders to stay in the race. |
Sun, 5 June 2016
Challenging the dominant narratives, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola return from a weeks-long break to highlight the hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy speech against Donald Trump. The hosts talk about the tragedy of refugees drowning as they flee for Europe. U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning's appeal is briefly discussed. Finally, the hosts talk about the upcoming California primary and the Democratic Party's disdain for independent voters. |
Sun, 5 June 2016
Matt Karp, who is an assistant professor of history at Princeton and a contributing editor of Jacobin, appears on the show to talk about a story he co-authored with Shawn Gude on the Sanders campaign, class politics of the campaign, and how—despite the dominant narrative—it is not driven by white male angst. Karp wrote a piece that relied upon a survey, which shows white Sanders supporters are not only more class conscious than white Clinton supporters but are also less racist than white Clinton supporters. |
Sun, 1 May 2016
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola highlight the U.S. military's decision to charge no officers with crimes for the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz and the storming of parliament by Iraqis. We discuss Donald Trump's foreign policy speech, and the next phase of Bernie Sanders' campaign for president. |
Sun, 1 May 2016
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, the author of "From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation" joins the hosts, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola, to talk about her book. She talks about the Congressional Black Caucus, solidarity in the Black Lives Matter movement, poverty among Black Americans, and the Democratic Party and what kind of obstacle it presents to Black liberation, and more. |
Sun, 17 April 2016
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the Democratic presidential debate in Brooklyn, including the extraordinary part where Bernie Sanders went after Hillary Clinton for ignoring the plight of Palestinians in her defense of Israel. The hosts talk about Clinton's latest laughable answer for why she cannot release transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs. They also talk about the Daily News editorial board meeting Clinton did, where she defended her role in the military coup in Honduras and argued it was legal. |
Sun, 10 April 2016
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the Panama Papers, a class action lawsuit by American Muslims against the No Fly List, a human rights hearing on water crises in the United States, and some more of the latest developments in the 2016 presidential election. |
Sun, 10 April 2016
Douglas Williams, a writer for the TheSouthLawn.org, returns to the show to talk about Bill Clinton's rant against Black Lives Matter protesters in Philadelphia. We discuss the crime bill in the 1990s. We discuss how the Clinton campaign has used African Americans against each other and how the Democratic primary race has perverted the concept of diversity. Williams calls this the "cognitive dissonance election," and we explore this idea during the interview. |
Sun, 3 April 2016
In Part II of Episode 9, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola address how a black student group at York University in Toronto attempted to have Khalek's speaking event canceled because they claimed she was "anti-black." Khalek provides an update on some Israel and Palestine news, and Gosztola provides a report from Chicago on the Chicago Teachers Union strike on April 1. |
Sun, 3 April 2016
Drew Franklin, an independent candidate for an At-Large seat on the D.C. City Council, joins the show as our guest. Franklin is also an activist and a writer and journalist, whose work has appeared at Orchestrated Pulse and AlterNet. Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola talk to Franklin about his candidacy for the D.C. City Council, D.C. statehood and how the issue of statehood is intertwined with numerous issues, Deray McKesson's campaign for Baltimore mayor and Teach for America, which Franklin has written about, and why Franklin chose to run as an independent instead of a Democrat. |
Sun, 20 March 2016
Adam Johnson, a contributing writer for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), joins the show to talk about media bias against Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. We highlight how the three cable news networks refused to air Sanders' speech after last week's primaries. We talk about the rapid response teams at Hillary Clinton's network of super PACs, which feed talking points and "off the record" tips to media organizations. Johnson also addresses the media's Donald Trump obsession and how Trump understands how to work the media so any and all coverage, negative or positive, benefits him. |
Mon, 14 March 2016
Part 2 of Episode 9 |
Sun, 13 March 2016
Donna Murch, an associate professor at Rutgers University, joins the show to react to activists who shut down Donald Trump's rally in Chicago. She responds to Hillary Clinton's statement on what happened, and how it relied upon coded language. We highlight the Clintons' records with African Americans. |
Sun, 6 March 2016
Journalist and author Vijay Prashad joins the podcast this week to talk about Libya, where the the United States has resumed bombing. Prashad recounts what led to the intervention and the role Hillary Clinton played in influencing the U.S. decision to bomb Libya when she was secretary of state. Prashad also talks about Syria, the "suicidal death pact" the U.S. government has with the Saudi government, and the geopolitics between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which greatly influence developments in the Middle East. |
Sun, 28 February 2016
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola break down some of the many social issues raised by the campaigns of Clinton, Sanders, and Donald Trump. This episode includes talk about Black Lives Matter activist Ashley Williams confronting Clinton over her "super-predator" comment in 1996. We spend time on Washington Post Jonathan Capehart, who helped the Clinton campaign do damage control and even went so far as to defend what Clinton said about "super-predators" back in 1996. We also highlight recent developments with the closure of Guantanamo military prison and Rasmea Odeh's case. Throughout March, as the election intensifies even more with primaries, we intend to post our interview and our discussion separately so we are not posting 90-minute episodes, which listeners cannot consume and appreciate in one sitting. By separating them, there will be more political discussion for our listeners to enjoy throughout the entire week. *Our interview with Vivek Chibber, a sociology professor at NYU, was posted separately. |
Sun, 28 February 2016
Vivek Chibber, a sociology professor at New York University and the author of "Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital" joins the show to help analyze how neoliberals and the Democratic Party wield identity politics to push citizens to vote against their self-interests. First, he offers a basic explanation of "post-colonial theory," and then he talks about how the New Left first popularized the political or intellectual thinking prevalent today. The interview then pivots to Hillary Clinton and how her campaign deploys the language of radical left-wing politics in order to manage and lower the expectations of voters, especially minorities. |
Sun, 21 February 2016
Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the use of U.S.-manufactured cluster bombs in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition. The conversation also addresses: the case of Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed al-Qeeq, who is close to death in an Israeli prison, the case of Younous Chekkouri, a former Guantanamo prisoner who was released only to find himself imprisoned in a notorious jail in Morocco, and a George Washington University professor who called for Beirut to be "flattened" by explosive weapons. |
Sun, 14 February 2016
Yana Kunichoff, an independent journalist who worked on a major cover story for the Chicago Reader titled, "How Chicago's 'Fraternal Order of Propaganda' shapes the story of fatal police shootings," joins the show. She discusses FOP spokesperson Pat Camden, who is at the center of scandal around the Chicago Police Department. She highlights how Camden manipulated the press and how the press failed to followup when Camden's claims did not match witness statements on police shootings. She also describes how this helps protect police from prosecutions. |
Sun, 7 February 2016
We spend the hour with writer Roqayah Chamseddine talking about all the madness in the 2016 presidential election. From "Bernie Bros" to how Hillary Clinton's campaign and her supporters are increasingly using her identity to disrupt meaningful debate about her record, Chamseddine critiques the narrow concept of feminism that is behind all of this. Host Rania Khalek leads a discussion of Clinton's foreign policy and calls attention to key questions about Bernie Sanders' foreign policy. Finally, we talk about "electability" and what it means to be "realistic" when voting. |
Sun, 31 January 2016
Jesselyn Radack, director of national security and human rights at ExposeFacts.org and one of Edward Snowden's attorneys, joins the show to discuss the D.C. Bar's decision to go after Thomas Tamm, a former Justice Department lawyer who exposed warrantless wiretapping by President George W. Bush's administration. Radack compares the D.C. Bar's action to the complaint she faced from the D.C. Bar after she became a Justice Department whistleblower. Later in the interview, Radack responds to what was learned in a Washington Post report on the plea negotiations between David Petraeus' lawyers and Justice Department prosecutors. Petraeus was concerned he would be embarrassed if former CIA officer John Kiriakou's case was referenced in his plea, and his lawyers had the Justice Department remove mention from the statement of facts. He successfully protected himself from prison and losing his pension. |
Sun, 24 January 2016
Journalist Zachary Senn, who wrote a piece for Shadowproof titled, "Shunned by the West, 10,000 Refugees Seek Asylum in Hong Kong, joins the show to talk about what he saw at the Chungking Mansions. He stayed in the tower houses, where asylum seekers are housed. He talks about the country's open border policy and why he wanted to write this story about refugees. He puts what he saw into a global context, and it becomes abundantly clear that no country in the world wants refugees. Hong Kong is another example of what happens because of callous and indifferent border policies in the United States. |
Sun, 17 January 2016
"Unauthorized Disclosure" returns for a third season. The first episode features an interview with journalist Dahr Jamail on his report for Truthout.org about how documents, which show the U.S. Navy SEALs planned to use citizens as pawns in war games in the state of Washington in January 2016. The Navy circumvented the process so the public could not object to their plans. It excluded clandestine trainings from regulations requiring environmental impact statements. Plans were made to allow SEALs to deploy for war games in residential areas, state parks, and national parks without any consent from the people. Moreover, the SEALs would treat citizens as potential terrorists or enemies during their war games. |