Who’s Afraid of Chris Smalls?

Rep. Jamie Raskin: ICE is Acting Like a Secret Paramilitary Police Force for President Trump

TRNN reporter Stephen Janis speaks with US Rep. Jamie Raskin about the unprecedented power of ICE in light of the $70 billion in additional funding just approved by Congress, his opposition to the proposed "anti-weaponization fund," and why the Epstein scandal needs further scrutiny.  Editor's note: This interview was recorded at the 2026 Netroots Nation conference on June 6. Studio Production: Taya Graham, Maximillian Alvarez Post-Production: Stephen Janis, David Hebden 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]

Working People LIVE SHOW w/ Kim Kelly, Alex Press, and Hamilton Nolan

The world as we know it is facing unprecedented crises today that are all converging at once, from “end-times fascism” and full-blown oligarchy to “artificial intelligence,” endless wars, and genocide. The formal institutions of American democracy and organized labor have shown that they cannot stop the ruling-class onslaught on working people’s lives, livelihoods, and futures, so it’s up to rank-and-file workers everywhere to stand up and fight back. In this special Working People live show, hosted by In These Times magazine in Chicago, Illinois, we speak with veteran labor reporters Kim Kelly, Alex Press, and Hamilton Nolan about the crises breaking our world today—and how to stop them.  Additional links/info:  * Support In These Times magazine [https://secure.actblue.com/donate/itt-2023-ws-01?refcode=20230621_WS_HDR]!  * Kim Kelly website [https://www.kim-kelly.com/], X/Twitter [https://x.com/grimkim] page, TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@unionmaid666], Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/kimkelly.bsky.social] page, and Instagram [https://instagram.com/kimkellywriter] * Alex Press Substack [https://thealexpress.substack.com/], X/Twitter [https://x.com/alexnpress?lang=en] page, and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/alexnpress/?hl=en] * Hamilton Nolan Substack [https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/], X/Twitter page [https://x.com/hamiltonnolan], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/hamiltonnolan] page, Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/hamiltonnolan.bsky.social] page 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]

How Trump and Big Tech Are Gutting Free Speech: AI, Censorship, and Media Mergers

On the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration—January 20, 2025—the heads of many of Silicon Valley’s most powerful tech firms sat in the rows just behind Trump. It was a sign of Trump’s deep ties to the industry and to these powerful individuals who are transforming how we communicate, and not for the better.   In this episode, Michael Fox visits Silicon Valley to try to understand the stranglehold that tech has over our media and our airwaves. Hosts Michael Fox and Marc Steiner dig into the ways media consolidation, social media, and AI are strangling our free speech, even as they claim to be liberating it—and us—with incredible insight from professors Todd Wolfson, Mary Anne Franks, Fara Dabhoiwala, Ramesh Srinivasan, and Jeff Cohen, the founder of the organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, FAIR [https://fair.org/]. 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 and Heather Gies. Research by Ben Schweiger [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-schweiger]. Guests:  * Todd Wolfson [https://sci.rutgers.edu/wolfson-todd] * Mary Anne Franks [https://www.law.gwu.edu/mary-anne-franks] * Fara Dabhoiwala [https://dabhoiwala.com/] * Jeff Cohen [https://jeffcohen.org/] * Ramesh Srinivasan [https://www.rameshsrinivasan.org/] Resources:  * Mary Anne Franks’ book, Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/mary-anne-franks/fearless-speech/9781645030539/] * Fara Dabhoiwala’s book, What Is Free Speech?: The History of a Dangerous Idea [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987319] * Todd Wolfson’s Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left  [https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Rebellion-Birth-History-Communication-ebook/dp/B00JMOLU0Y/ref=sr_1_1?crid=18Q5WWSQUYPSR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lPDB11AZ4OFWEBSB00PPECOukspkKc11fWmflWJQIp0.JN4IPs9lEmhTgM5_k7bUcbrukfaVhqlWgtbLAG2wVho&dib_tag=se&keywords=digital+rebellion+birth+of+the+cyber&qid=1781727724&sprefix=digital+rebelion+birth+of+the+cyb,aps,262&sr=8-1] * Marc Steiner’s Interview with Jeff Cohen, "How Democrats set the stage for Trump’s assault on free speech [https://therealnews.com/how-democrats-set-stage-for-trumps-assault-on-free-speech]” * You can hear Ramesh Srinivasan’s Utopias Podcast here [https://open.spotify.com/show/3mlf9RlcnbtukzOZXHlQwl], or wherever you get your podcasts 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]

Adam Johnson: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza

As a writer, podcaster, and columnist for TRNN, Adam Johnson has been one of the fiercest, sharpest, and most consistent critics of legacy and Western media’s roles in laundering, obscuring, justifying, and manufacturing consent for crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza genocide by Israel and with the full support of the United States. But critique is not enough anymore; to ensure that these horrific crimes don’t continue, we need accountability for the political actors and media organizations that made it happen, or helped. At a live event hosted by Red Emma’s Cooperative Bookstore and Coffeehouse in Baltimore, Maryland, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Johnson about his new book, How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza, and about how to hold media organizations accountable for their roles in manufacturing the conditions for genocide. Guests: * Adam Johnson [https://x.com/adamjohnsonCHI] is a writer, media critic, co-host of the podcast Citations Needed [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/citations-needed/id1258545975], and a columnist for TRNN [https://therealnews.com/author/adam-johnson]. He is the author of the book How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza [https://www.plutobooks.com/product/how-to-sell-a-genocide/]. Credits: * Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich 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]

A History of Free Speech from Abolitionists to Berkeley

Free speech in America was never given — it was fought for, bled for, and died for. In this episode, hosts Marc Steiner and Michael Fox dive into the history of the movements that built and defended the right to speak out: the abolitionists who continued to speak — even as mobs attacked the building where they gathered — Ida B. Wells, who exposed the truth about lynching in Jim Crow Memphis, and the students at UC Berkeley who launched the Free Speech Movement of 1964. Michael takes us to Sproul Plaza, ground zero of the Berkeley free speech movement, and Marc shares his own story of carrying that fight from the civil rights movement to campuses on the East Coast. Together they trace a brutal pattern that runs from Elijah Lovejoy — the abolitionist editor murdered by a mob in 1837 — to the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, to today's crackdowns on student protest and the firing of professors for their political views. Featuring law professor Mary Anne Franks, author of Fearless Speech, on the crucial difference between fearless speech and reckless speech — and why America has so often protected the wrong one. Plus UC Berkeley historian David Hollinger on why universities are "the hill to die on," and Princeton historian Fara Dabhoiwala on why free speech has always been a battle over power. This is the second episode of The Battle for Free Speech. In this podcast series, in the lead-up to the country’s 250th anniversary, journalists Michael Fox and Marc Steiner look at the battle for our free speech rights today, and the attacks on people speaking out in the United States. 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 and Heather Gies. Research by Ben Schweiger [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-schweiger]. Guests:  * David Hollinger [https://history.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/emeriti/david-hollinger] * Mary Anne Franks [https://www.law.gwu.edu/mary-anne-franks] * Fara Dabhoiwala [https://dabhoiwala.com/] Resources:  * Mary Anne Franks’ book, Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/mary-anne-franks/fearless-speech/9781645030539/] * Fara Dabhoiwala’s book, What Is Free Speech?: The History of a Dangerous Idea [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987319] * David Hollinger’s book, Christianity’s American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691233888/christianitys-american-fate?srsltid=AfmBOopGfVWWv1qlQpy9lQRVCSJ4QRfYwPYq3XS64BsYTysAQ6YdvTmL]  * The full KPFA documentary about the Free Speech movement: Voices of Independence – The Free Speech Movement: Sounds & Songs of Demonstrations [https://kpfa.org/episode/voices-of-independence-the-free-speech-movement-sounds-songs-of-demonstrations/] * Support KPFA here: https://support.kpfa.org/ [https://support.kpfa.org/] 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]