Thinking CAP

On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Igor speaks with Sam Fulwood III, a veteran journalist and columnist with ThinkProgress who has covered race relations for decades. Fulwood shares the expectations he held as a child believing that racial segregation would be figured out by the time he had grown up; how the memorialization of King often misses his radical economic agenda; the racial progress that has been made in the 50 years since King’s death; and what is still left to be accomplished.

Igor speaks with Sarah McBride, a transgender activist and author of “Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.” McBride talks about what it was like coming out to her parents on Christmas Day; losing her husband, Andrew Cray, a transgender man, to cancer just four days after they were married, and the lessons in advocacy, politics, and relationships she has learned since. Then she speaks to the prejudice and harmful policies that the Trump administration has shown to the transgender community throughout year one and what is still ahead in the fight for LGBTQ rights.

More than 1 million people descended on the National Mall and cities across the country on Saturday for March for Our Lives, a movement led by high school students from Parkland, Florida, advocating for stricter gun laws in the wake of the mass shooting at their school six weeks ago. Igor and guest host Chelsea Parsons, vice president of Gun Violence Prevention at CAP, were on the National Mall and spoke with a few of them for this special bonus episode. Daniel Konis, a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shares his experience of the shooting in Parkland; Caitlyn Caruso, a senior at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who had friends working on the Las Vegas strip the night of the shooting last year, talks about the backlash she received for becoming a vocal advocate on gun reform; and Jacobi Crowley, the youngest African American Oklahoman to run for state-elected office, explains his decision to run after graduating from college and his advice for other young people thinking of doing the same. Correction: This episode, and the above description have been updated to clarify that Caitlyn Caruso was not on the Las Vegas strip the night of the shooting, but had friends who were and received updates throughout the night from them.

Under the campaign and presidency of Donald Trump, America has witnessed a rise in hate crimes, anti-Semitic incidents, anti-Muslim violence and a resurgence of white supremacy like never before. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and George Selim, senior vice president of programs at the Anti-Defamation League join Igor and guest host Ed Chung, a former prosecutor of hate crimes at the Department of Justice, to discuss the face of hate in America, what has fueled the rise in these incidents, what individuals, states and the federal government can do to combat hate at every level and why we have seen a lack of outrage from our politicians.

It’s March Madness! As basketball fever sweeps through the country, Michele and Igor speak with Kevin Merida, senior vice president at ESPN and editor-in-chief of The Undefeated to discuss the FBI investigation into the NCAA’s alleged illegal payments to student-athletes, the NBA’s consideration to do away with the one-and-done rule, and the role that race might play in determining which professional sports require college experience. Then, Merida gives his take on the experience of black athletes during the Trump administration and the different challenges facing black journalists today as compared with their trailblazing predecessors.

This morning in Sacramento, California, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration will sue the state of California over their so-called sanctuary state laws. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg—after missing his flight out of Washington, D.C., in hopes of joining protesters at Sessions’ announcement—shares his initial reaction to the lawsuit with Michele and Igor. He discusses what his city and California will do to fight back, why this attack from the U.S. Department of Justice will only hinder public safety in his city, and how this Trump policy is rooted in racism. Mayor Steinberg also discusses recent initiatives in his city to conquer mental health issues and the stigma that surround them.

In part two live from the Power Rising Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, Michele and Daniella speak with fashion editor, social influencer, and president of The Tai Life, Tai Beauchamp, and Kristi Henderson, founder of Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network, about what it really looks like for black women to support each other well and why the extra baggage they carry in their personal lives often makes succeeding in a professional environment that much more difficult. Luvvie Ajayi, New York Times bestselling author of "I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual" joins to discuss why the dumpster fire political scene of 2017 was a good thing for black women and why they cannot lose this moment. Then, Vanessa K. De Luca, editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine, discusses the ways that culture has helped black women be more of their authentic selves in the past few years.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey sits down with Michele and Igor to discuss the renewed debate on guns following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. She shares how her state's strict gun laws have helped make Massachusetts safer and could be a good framework for the nation; her disappointment after Trump rescinded an invitation to meet with her and other state AGs; and how she is fighting back against what she believes are unconstitutional measures from the White House. Over the last year, Healey has sued the Trump Administration more times than she can count—over the president's executive orders on immigration, his repeal of the Clean Power Plan, and the Department of Education's failure to discharge student loans for students who attended predatory for-profit institutions.

Live from the Power Rising Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, Michele and Daniella speak with a star lineup of black women. In part one of the two-part episode, they chat with Stacey Abrams, former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives, about how the 2017 elections in Virginia and Alabama showed that black women can change the trajectory of the nation with their votes. They speak with Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL), who shares her strategies for getting more black women to run for office and raising the money needed to win. Then, Michele speaks with Elle Hearns, founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, who gives her raw take on the inclusivity of the conference and how it felt to be included only to represent the experience of being a black trans women but not thought of first.

Michele and Igor are joined by Kenneth B. Morris Jr.—the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass; the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington and the co-founder and president of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives—to discuss the bicentennial of Douglass' birth, his legacy as a radical abolitionist and civil rights leader and what young activists can learn from him today. Morris also speaks to President Donald Trump’s ignition of racial tensions in the last year, shares what he believes American classrooms are getting wrong in their teaching of slavery, and why Trump’s reaction to Colin Kaepernick mirrors the backlash Frederick Douglass received for his protest 200 years ago.

Akilah Johnson, a reporter with the Boston Globe joins to discuss the Spotlight series “Boston. Racism. Image. Reality,” which confronts the city's racist reputation by examining its social life, academic institutions, health care systems, sports and newly developed Seaport district. Also, Michele and Igor give their take on the official presidential portraits unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery this week of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, the first time two black artists have ever been commissioned for this job. We’ve now made is possible for you, our listeners, to support the work we’re doing here at Thinking CAP. You can donate to the podcast at thinkingcap.americanprogress.org. Thinking CAP is funded 100% by charitable donations.

The Pyeongchang 2018’s Winter Olympic Games are upon us. Michele and Igor go behind the scenes with Huffington Post reporter Travis Waldron to discuss the economic, environmental, and political impacts of the Olympics; the $109 million stadium that will be used for four events before being torn down, the likelihood that Korea’s unified team will bring lasting resolution to geopolitics of the Korean peninsula, and why the Olympic ban on Russia for doping is just a public relations tactic from the International Olympic Committee.

As we commemorate the beginning of Black History Month, Michele and Igor speak with two of today’s prolific leaders who are making moves to change the world we live in. First, Melissa Harris-Perry joins in studio and shares why she’s sick of hearing about Trump’s tweets in the A block of cable news shows; why his strategy to win white voters in 2016 worked; and the real reason why she believes we aren’t hearing from more black women in the midst of the #MeToo movement. Then, we hear from activist, organizer and host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the People, DeRay Mckesson on why he didn’t watch the Super Bowl; why America’s inability to let Colin Kaepernick be great at football and interested in social justice is a clear sign of racism, and the lessons he learned from his activism in Ferguson and his time on Twitter. We’ve now made is possible for you, our listeners, to support the work we’re doing here at Thinking CAP. You can donate to the podcast at thinkingcap.americanprogress.org. Thinking CAP is funded 100% by charitable donations, so we appreciate any support your able to give us to continue to grow our production.

Early Friday morning on February 2, parts of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument were reopened for mining and drilling. The move follows Trump’s December decision to slash the size of the two national monuments. Now, tens of thousands of Native American sacred sites are at risk, along with key wildlife habitats and areas used for outdoor recreation. On this bonus episode, Michele and Igor speak with two tribal leaders, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Davis Filfred of Navajo Nation, about the devastation these actions will have on sacred land and sites ingrained in their tribes’ legacies and what they’re doing to fight back against it.

In Tuesday's State of the Union address, President Trump called for a modernization and rebuilding of our nuclear arsenal. Daniel Ellsberg, most notable for leaking the Pentagon Papers in 1971, who recently revealed new secrets he kept while working as a government consultant at the RAND Corporation in his new book “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” joins Michele and Igor to discuss the real threat of nuclear destruction, whether President Trump is fit to operate control of our arsenal, the recent false alarms in Hawaii and Japan, and why they are proof nuclear war may come by human error. Plus, Thinking CAP national security correspondent Mike Fuchs, also former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs breaks down President Trump’s speech on Tuesday, and the story behind the sudden reversal on Trump's pick of Victor Cha to be the U.S. envoy to South Korea.