A History of Free Speech from Abolitionists to Berkeley

Data Centers Are Not a “Red State” or “Blue State” Problem; They’re a Working-Class Problem

In so-called “red states” and “blue states” around the US, from rural areas to urban centers, the explosion of new data center projects is impacting residents in poor, working-class, and middle-class communities alike. In this episode of Working People, we speak with a diverse panel of residents fighting new and proposed data center projects in Texas and Maryland about what it means for you and your community when one of these loud, polluting, energy- and water-guzzling behemoths comes to your town—and how to fight back. Panelists include: Cheryl Shadden [https://www.instagram.com/cheryl.shadden/], a registered nurse anesthetist who lives right next to the site of a Marathon bitcoin mine in Granbury, Texas; Karen Pearson, a licensed professional counselor and a resident of Granbury who also lives right next to the Marathon bitcoin mine; Dr. Shannon Wolf, Precinct Chair in Hood County, who lives three miles from the Marathon bitcoin mine; Craig Jackson, a resident of Granbury who lives 300 feet from the site of a new proposed data center, and who is also a plaintiff in a current lawsuit residents have filed against the city of Granbury; Micaiah Lloyd [https://www.instagram.com/tajalloyd], a grassroots organizer and resident of Charles County, Maryland, who lives near the site of a proposed data center; Hillary Gonzalez [https://www.instagram.com/hillarygonzalezpoetry/], an eco-poet, author, founder of Sacred Parks & Waterways, and a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, who lives right next to the site of Johns Hopkins University’s future Data Science and Artificial Intelligence complex. Additional links/info: * Protect Hood County website [https://protecthoodcounty.com/] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/bitcoinnoisehoodcounty] page * Sacred Parks & Waterways website [https://sacredparksandwaterways.com/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sacredparksandwaterways/] * Viral MS Now clip featuring Cheryl Shadden of Granbury, Texas [https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZC8vohkTzr/?igsh=MTJrb2xsbWV5eXV6Yg%3D%3D] * Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “A bitcoin mine in Texas is ‘killing us slowly,’ local residents say [https://therealnews.com/a-bitcoin-mine-in-texas-is-killing-us-slowly-local-residents-say]” * Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “‘Like being tortured’: Texas residents living next to bitcoin mine are getting sick and being ignored [https://therealnews.com/like-being-tortured-texas-residents-living-next-to-bitcoin-mine-are-getting-sick-and-being-ignored]” * Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Toxic Avengers: America’s poisoned and abandoned communities must stand together or die [https://therealnews.com/toxic-avengers-americas-poisoned-and-abandoned-communities-must-stand-together-or-die]” * Christine Condon, Maryland Matters, “Data center frustrations cause upheaval in county primary elections [https://marylandmatters.org/2026/07/13/data-center-frustrations-cause-upheaval-in-county-primary-elections/]” * Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela, KERA News, “Granbury residents sue city over data center plan, allege Texas Open Meetings Act violations [https://www.keranews.org/news/2026-04-10/granbury-data-center-lawsuit-texas-open-meetings-act]” Featured Music: * Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song Credits: * Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss]. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support] Follow us on: Bluesky: @therealnews.com [https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com] Facebook: The Real News Network [https://facebook.com/therealnews] Twitter: @TheRealNews [https://twitter.com/therealnews] YouTube: @therealnews [https://www.youtube.com/therealnews] Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork [https://www.instagram.com/therealnewsnetwork/] https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today! [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support]

Harsha Walia: Abolishing ICE Is the Floor, Not the Ceiling

While calls to "abolish ICE" have exploded during the second Trump presidency, critics have been calling out the threats the agency poses to immigrants, US citizens, and democracy itself since it was created just over 20 years ago. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host and former political prisoner Mansa Musa speaks with author and immigrant justice organizer Harsha Walia about the origins of ICE and what it will take to abolish it and the new American police state. Guests: * Harsha Walia [https://www.instagram.com/harshawalia8/?hl=en] is the award-winning author [https://x.com/HarshaWalia] of Undoing Border Imperialism [https://www.akpress.org/undoing-border-imperialism.html] and Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism [https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1553-border-and-rule]. She has been involved in community-based grassroots migrant justice, feminist, anti-racist, abolitionist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements for over two decades, including No One Is Illegal, Defenders of the Land, and the DTES Women’s Memorial March Committee. Credits: * Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss]. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support] Follow us on: Bluesky: @therealnews.com [https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com] Facebook: The Real News Network [https://facebook.com/therealnews] Twitter: @TheRealNews [https://twitter.com/therealnews] YouTube: @therealnews [https://www.youtube.com/therealnews] Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork [https://www.instagram.com/therealnewsnetwork/] https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today! [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support]

Brazil’s Battle Against Fake News & the US War to Undermine it

This is really a tale of two countries: The United States and Brazil. In both countries, far-right presidents come to power — Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. In both those countries, the presidents spent several years unraveling democratic institutions and public policy. Both presidents then ran for reelection. Both presidents lied about their country's voting systems in order to undermine the elections and whip up their base.  Both those president lost their reelections — Trump in 2020. Bolsonaro in 2022. They both claimed fraud and tried to carry out a coup to stay in power.  But that is where these two paths diverged. In the United States, president Donald Trump continued to peddle his lies about the elections. He created his own social media platform and he used it to push his agenda. He was reelected in 2024 and returned to power. In Brazil, however, the country’s Supreme Electoral Court blocked former president Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for 8 years, because of the lies he told about the country’s electoral system. It wasn't censorship… it was a different interpretation of free speech. One that said the right to free expression must be balanced with the other rights in the country and the country’s democratic system. The United States doesn’t agree. And the Trump administration has been pushing to bend Brazil toward its definition of "free speech." In this episode, co-host Michael Fox journeys to Brazil to understand the lengths that this country has gone to fight disinformation.  Michael is joined in the episode by Maximillian Alvarez, [https://therealnews.com/author/maximillian-alvarez] editor-in-chief and co-executive director of The Real News and the host of the Working People Podcast [https://therealnews.com/working-people]. The Battle for Free Speech is a production of The Real News Network Hosted by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner Theme music by Michael Fox [https://foxviolin.com/], Jordan Klein and Daniel Nuñez Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound Production and Sound Design by Michael Fox and Stephen Frank Editorial support by Kayla Rivara Research by Ben Schweiger [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-schweiger] Guests:  * Fabio de Sa e Silva [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabio-de-sa-e-silva-16a2331a] * Artur Romeu [https://www.instagram.com/aromeu/] * Fernando Paulino [https://lapcom.unb.br/fernando-oliveira-paulino] * Brian Mier  [https://bmier.substack.com/] Resources:  Follow The Battle For Free Speech on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/033olXvh3dLzQFJc1HSd6O?si=3bf7552736124ef3] or Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-battle-for-free-speech/id1896829044] Support Michael Fox's reporting at patreon.com/mfox [http://patreon.com/mfox]. Never miss an episode — sign up for The Real News newsletter at therealnews.com [https://therealnews.com/sign-up] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss]. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support] Follow us on: Bluesky: @therealnews.com [https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com] Facebook: The Real News Network [https://facebook.com/therealnews] Twitter: @TheRealNews [https://twitter.com/therealnews] YouTube: @therealnews [https://www.youtube.com/therealnews] Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork [https://www.instagram.com/therealnewsnetwork/] https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today! [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support]

Establishment Democrats PANIC as Socialists Keep Winning

Establishment Democrats have racked up disastrous electoral losses over the past decade—so why are they furious when their own party actually wins? Taya Graham and Stephen Janis break down the meltdown of Democratic "centrist" operatives and pundits after recent socialist victories in New York and Colorado, from James Carville calling for a party "schism" to Rep. Josh Gottheimer's panicking about the future of the party on CNN. Plus: we revisit our interviews with actual Mamdani voters—the people the mainstream media refuses to talk to. Credits: * Production / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino, Stephen Janis Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss]. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support] Follow us on: Bluesky: @therealnews.com [https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com] Facebook: The Real News Network [https://facebook.com/therealnews] Twitter: @TheRealNews [https://twitter.com/therealnews] YouTube: @therealnews [https://www.youtube.com/therealnews] Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork [https://www.instagram.com/therealnewsnetwork/] https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today! [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support]

Train Crashes Destroyed Their Towns. Will Yours Be Next?

10 years before the catastrophic train derailment and chemical disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, one of the deadliest rail disasters in North American history took place in the Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. On July 6, 2013, an unattended freight train that had been parked on the tracks overnight began to roll downhill and gather alarming speed as it careened towards the city center of Lac-Mégantic. The train, which was operated by Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic Railway and carrying over 2 million gallons of crude oil, derailed around 1:15 AM. The resulting explosions and fire killed 47 people and destroyed over 40 buildings, obliterating a large portion of the downtown area and prompting mass evacuations. In this special episode of Working People, we speak with a panel of survivors of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Canada and the East Palestine rail disaster in the USA. Panelists include: Robert Bellefleur, a resident of Lac-Mégantic and spokesperson for the Lac-Mégantic Citizens' Coalition for Railroad Safety; Gilbert Carette, a resident of Lac-Mégantic and a member of the Lac-Mégantic Citizens' Coalition for Railroad Safety; Gilles Fluet, a resident of Lac-Mégantic who narrowly escaped the 2013 train crash and witnessed the derailment firsthand; Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny, award-winning writer, videographer, social and environmental justice activist, and author of Mégantic: A Deadly Mix of Oil, Rail, and Avarice; Jami Wallace, a displaced resident of East Palestine, Ohio, and founder of the Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition; Christina Siceloff, a Creek Ranger and resident of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, affected by the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical disaster. If you or members of your community are interested in attending or participating in TRNN’s 2026 No More Sacrifice Zones conference, please contact us by emailing contact[at]therealnews[dot]com.   Additional links/info: * Lac-Mégantic Citizens' Coalition for Railroad Safety website [https://fondferlm.com/] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/Fondferlm/] page * Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition (CICC) Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/groups/1076305207484310] page * Railroad Workers United website [https://www.railroadworkersunited.org/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/railroadworkers] page, and X page [https://twitter.com/railroadworkers] * Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny, Talonbooks, Mégantic: A Deadly Mix of Oil, Rail, and Avarice [https://www.amazon.com/Megantic-Anne-Marie-Saint-Cerny/dp/1772012599] * Dimitri Lascaris, TRNN, “‘Bomb Train': Oil Execs Try to Blame Workers for Tragic Accident [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56vM4194QOU&t=65s]” * Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “America’s toxic future looks like East Palestine, Ohio, today [https://therealnews.com/americas-toxic-future-looks-like-east-palestine-oh-today]” * Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Toxic Avengers: America’s poisoned and abandoned communities must stand together or die [https://therealnews.com/toxic-avengers-americas-poisoned-and-abandoned-communities-must-stand-together-or-die]” Credits: * Pre-Production: Maximillian Alvarez, Dr. Nicole Fabricant, Fritz Edler * Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez * French-English Interpretation: Anne Lagacé Dowson * Voice Acting: Ethan Cox, Daniel Lemieux * Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor, Alina Nehlich * Music: Jules Taylor  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss]. Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer. [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support] Follow us on: Bluesky: @therealnews.com [https://bsky.app/profile/therealnews.com] Facebook: The Real News Network [https://facebook.com/therealnews] Twitter: @TheRealNews [https://twitter.com/therealnews] YouTube: @therealnews [https://www.youtube.com/therealnews] Instagram: @therealnewsnetwork [https://www.instagram.com/therealnewsnetwork/] https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support Become a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today! [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support]