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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cassie Creswell and Samay Gheewalla from Raise Your Hand Action join us to discuss recent developments in Chicago Public Schools.
Cook County Commissioner elect Brandon Johnson co-hosts with guests authors and activists Eve Ewing and Barbara Ransby.
Progressive political strategist Joanna Klonsky discusses sexual assault against women. Jose Rico is running for Alderman in the 12th Ward.
Progressive political strategist Joanna Klonsky discusses sexual assault against women. Jose Rico is running for Alderman in the 12th Ward.
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.
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.
This podcast features the newest member of the Illinois legislature, Representative Celina Villanueva and Chicago Teachers Union organizer, Martin Ritter.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.