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Hitting Left

Mike gets together each week, often with special guests in studio and from around the country, to discuss current topics involving politics, education and social justice "from the Left side of the plate." The topics covered may be local, national or international but always with a Chicago sensibility and perspective.
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Now displaying: 2018
Dec 14, 2018

This podcast brother Mike is taking some time off. Newly elected, former teacher and CTU leader, County Commissioner Brandon Johnson. Lori Lightfoot is running for Mayor of Chicago. Niketa Brar, coming off a great win to save the National Teachers Academy is now working on the Vote Equity Project

Dec 7, 2018

Lawyers Brendan Shiller and Aaron Goldstein were organizers of the first electoral defeat of a sitting Cook County judge in nearly 30 years. Judge Coghlan was heard cases involving Jon Burge and Reynaldo Guevara, dirty cops and torturers and was most blatant in bias towards the police. The conversation moves to the Chicago Democratic Party and the changing demographics of the city is forcing progressive change.

Nov 30, 2018

The union of part-time faculty at Chicago's Columbia College have been bargaining with their administration for over a year. It is a story of the corporatization of what once was a unique gem of a learning community. What is happening there has implications for organizing adjuncts nationally and for the transformation of work to a gig economy.

Nov 16, 2018

We are talking neighborhood disinvestment and neighborhood gentrification. Two sides of the same coin. Christian Diaz is housing organizer with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. Cory Stevenson is a designer and community activist around equity and the built environment at Open Architecture Chicago.

Nov 9, 2018

Rebecca Sive is a long-time feminist and progressive activist and author of Vote Her In. Cassie Walker Burke is the Chicago bureau chief of Chalkboard Chicago. We talk about Tuesday's election, electing more women to executive positions. Executive, as in President of the United States. The election's impact on education.

Nov 2, 2018

There was a radio glitch in the first half hour that was heard live on the air with Chris Bearhend of the Chicago Teachers Union's charter chapter Chi-ACTS. So he is not on the podcast. But we still get to share our conversation with National Teachers Academy parents/activists Anika Matthews-Feldman and Elisabeth Greer.

Oct 26, 2018

Jeffreen Hayes and Regina Martinez join us to talk about a new art exhibit that documents the destruction of a westside neighborhood to build the Eisenhower Expressway in the 50s and 60s. Stevie Valles of Chicago Votes on their work in Cook County jail registering voters.

Oct 20, 2018

Cassie Creswell and Samay Gheewalla from Raise Your Hand Action join us to discuss recent developments in Chicago Public Schools.

Oct 19, 2018

Cook County Commissioner elect Brandon Johnson co-hosts with guests authors and activists Eve Ewing and Barbara Ransby.

Oct 6, 2018

Progressive political strategist Joanna Klonsky discusses sexual assault against women. Jose Rico is running for Alderman in the 12th Ward.

Oct 6, 2018

Progressive political strategist Joanna Klonsky discusses sexual assault against women. Jose Rico is running for Alderman in the 12th Ward.

Sep 28, 2018

Palestine Legal's executive director Dima Khalidi joins us this week to talk about the current situation in Gaza, the movement around boycotting, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, Israeli and Zionist influence on U.S. politics and elections and attacks on the rights of Palestinians.

Sep 21, 2018

Esteemed educator Bill Ayers joins us for a critique of How Schools Work, the latest book by the former Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Duncan would not join us. We asked.

Sep 14, 2018

This podcast features the newest member of the Illinois legislature, Representative Celina Villanueva and Chicago Teachers Union organizer, Martin Ritter.

Sep 7, 2018

Rahm is out but Ja'Mal Green as been in it all along and shares his views about what Chicago needs and why he is the progressive choice. Maria Gaspar and Christopher of the 96 Acres Project, a collaboration between artists and those incarcerated at Cook County Jail.

Aug 17, 2018

Omar Lopez (Young Lords), Billy Che Brooks (Black Panthers), Mary Scott-Boria (Black Panthers), Rev. Slim Walter Coleman Emma Lozano (SDS), Michael James (Rising Up Angry), Marilyn Katz (SDS), my brother and I talking about the Movement in Chicago before, during and after '68. 

Aug 3, 2018

AFSCME's Elijah Edwards joins us to talk about life after Janus. Ronald Kitchen, author of My Midnight Years, is one of the Death Row Ten and a victim of Jon Burge torture and false conviction.

Jul 27, 2018

Dan Cooper is co-author with Ryan Lugalia-Hollon of The War on Neighborhoods: Policing, Prison and Punishment in a Divided City. Amanda Klonsky is a Chicago teacher, activist and researcher of youth incarceration. 

Jul 20, 2018

Ricardo Muñoz joins us in-studio again to talk about Chicago property taxes (they're up!), family separations at the border and kids being held in Chicago, Amazon and the window washers strike. We remember Rudy Lozano and talk about Chuy in Congress. Ric declares himself part of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party and promises a Latinx candidate for mayor.

Jul 13, 2018

Chicago poet Nate Marshall reads his Chicago poem, talks about culture and politics in Chicago. Alderman Munoz joins us late, but will be back with us next podcast. And Jennifer sings her latest about families separated.

Jun 29, 2018

Lori Lightfoot is running against Rahm Emanuel for Mayor of Chicago. An hour wasn't long enough, as usual. But we got into police conduct, the cop academy, immigration, pensions, taxes, school closings. Don't underestimate Ms Lightfoot. She was quarterback back in the day, and she's tough.

Jun 22, 2018

Rus Bradburd joins us to talk about his book, All the Dreams We've Dreamed: A story of Hoops and Handguns on Chicago's West Side. It is a story about sports, coaching, college recruitment, schools, gun violence and real folks, like Shawn Harrington. Shawn went to Chicago's storied Marshall High School. 

Harrington, 41, was a Division II All-American at Northwest Missouri State, where he landed after playing at Mineral Area (Iowa) Junior College, then New Mexico State following graduation from Marshall in 1993. 

His career as a basketball coach was cut short by a bullet as he covered his daughter and saved her life and who now sits in a wheel chair, tells as much about this city’s Black flight and transformation to a city for the rich, as any sociologist’s academic study.

Jun 15, 2018

Progressive political strategist and consultant Joanna Klonsky brings us up to date on the #MeToo Movement in Illinois' state capital. Greg Kelley, President of the midwest local of SEIU Healthcare talks about the labor response to the impending Janus decision and their experience with Harris v Quinn, where the court ruled against SEIU.

Jun 8, 2018

Our old friends, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, join us to report on their trip to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice that opened recently in Montgomery Alabama. Our discussion covers issues of the criminal justice system in Chicago, gun violence, the CPS sexual abuse scandal and more. An hour talk among friends.

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