Sirota

The American labor movement appears to be at a crossroads. One path forward seems to be a path of total demise -- today, only about 10 percent of all workers are in a union, those workers who want to join unions often face hostile bosses, and the Supreme Court recently delivered the Janus ruling that some see as a death blow to those who want to form unions. Another path forward seems to be one of possible resurgence -- according to Gallup’s most recent poll, 61 percent of Americans say they support unions, which is a 15 year high. On this episode, I discuss intensifying economic inequality and the future of the labor movement with Ron Ruggiero, who is the president of the Service Employees International Union’s branch here in Colorado.

In recent months, the Denver Post has been making national headlines -- though not for its journalism. Instead, it has been making big news because it has faced waves of layoffs at the hands of the hedge fund that bought the paper a few years ago. The Post has been seen as the most illustrative example of a larger trend whereby local news outlets are being crippled by budget cuts. On this episode, I talk to Denver Post features reporter John Wenzel, who has worked at the Denver Post for 18 years, and who has been an outspoken critic of the paper’s owners.

David Cay Johnston is one of the great investigative journalists of the modern era. He has won the Pulitzer Prize and covered everything from police corruption in Los Angeles to loopholes in the federal tax code to casinos in Atlantic City. During that time, he has extensively covered Donald Trump -- first during Trump’s career as a real estate developer, and now during Trump’s time as president. During a recent public event in Los Angeles, I interviewed Johnston about his brand new book called “It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America.” This was an event sponsored by Capital & Main, the investigative journalism outlet where I now work.

Elite universities are known as places that cultivate young minds and provide a world-class education -- but they are also big money operations, and some critics are starting to ask tough questions about how they spend all that cash. On this episode, I talk to Charlie Eaton, a University of California-Merced professor whose report details how elite universities are receiving billions of dollars of special tax breaks every year -- but are not necessarily using the money to make college more affordable.

Dylan Ratigan was never a standard cookie cutter cable TV host. He was a financial journalist who won awards for his coverage of the Enron scandal, and he made his name shining a spotlight on Wall Street excesses in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. He had a highly rated MSNBC show until he called it quits in 2012 and started a business for creating more distributed, people-centered systems to bring power, water, food, and communications to communities around the planet. Now, he’s back on the public stage -- running for Congress as a Democrat from the district where he grew up in upstate New York. On this episode, I caught up with Ratigan to talk about his campaign, and why he’s running. You’ll hear him talk about America’s trade policy, and why he both opposes Donald Trump, but also believes Trump is not the central problem in American politics.

How many jobs will automation and technology kill off? And is there anything we can do to make sure new technologies don’t intensify economic inequality? On this episode, I talk to Adair Turner, Britain’s former top financial regulator, who is now the chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and a member of the House of Lords. Turner says automation is about to create a massive economic revolution -- one that could cause immense upheaval across the world.

Before leaking the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg helped develop America’s nuclear program in the 1960s. On this episode, Ellsberg explains why he believes we should view that program as a “doomsday machine” -- and he details why he thinks the threat of total nuclear annihilation remains more imminent than ever. During the conversation, we also talked about Ellsberg’s time as a whistleblower -- and whether it has become easier or more difficult for whistleblowers to sound the alarm about government misdeeds. We also talked about Ellsberg’s time being surveilled by the government -- and how the new tools of surveillance are even more powerful than the ones he faced.

Is House Speaker Paul Ryan about to get thrown out of office in the 2018 election? Some Democrats think the answer is yes. On this episode, I talk to union ironworker Randy Bryce, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to face Ryan in the upcoming election. Bryce’s campaign is challenging the old formula of Democrats running more conservative, corporate-friendly candidates in Republican-leaning districts. He’s instead running on an openly progressive platform, pushing for Medicare for All and stronger union rights for workers. Can it work? It’s hard to say at this point -- but Bryce is pulling no punches. He says that even though the district has elected the ultra-conservative Ryan for years, he thinks is a winnable district for Democrats if the party puts up the right candidate.

Can a middle-class progressive Democrat beat a billionaire heir to a hotel empire? That’s the big question in Illinois’ upcoming election -- which could end up being the most expensive state election in American history. On this episode, I talk to Democratic State Sen. Daniel Biss -- a progressive lawmaker who some polls show is running a close race against the heir to the Hyatt empire, who has spent more than $60 million on the primary. Biss argues that Democratic voters face a clear choice in the race -- a choice between siding with the middle class or siding with oligarchy.

When you think of college, you may think of frat parties, beer bongs and long nights of cramming for tests. But there is another side of college that has to do with national security. On this episode, I talk to Pulitzer Prize winning author Dan Golden about his new book called Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America’s Universities.

Foreign influence is the big topic in Washington, D.C. after Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 13 Russian nationals for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential election. On this episode, I talk to investigative reporter Andrew Perez of MapLight about how pervasive foreign influence is in the nation’s capital -- and how it is often right out in the open for everyone to see. We also discussed Andrew’s latest series that looks at the Republican Attorneys General Association and how it quietly shapes state policy.

How much of what you watch on TV or at the movies is directly shaped by the CIA and the U.S. military? It turns out, quite a lot. On this episode, I talk to Tom Secker -- the co-author of a new book that documents how the government's national security apparatus stealthily influences Hollywood. The documents revealed in the book detail an intricate system that empowers military officials to quietly sculpt the seemingly apolitical popular culture that ends up shaping Americans' views on militarism, foreign policy, national security and politics.

Economics is considered science -- it’s supposed to be about empiricism, facts and data. But after so many economists missed the warning signs about the financial crisis, some critics have questioned whether something is fundamentally broken about the way economics is understood, taught and promoted in the political debate. On this episode, I talk to Rob Johnson, one of the most prominent o of those critics. He's the president of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, also known as INET. The group’s mission is, in part, to try to introduce new ideas into the stodgy world of economics.

Should we be concerned that Trump is going to launch a nuclear weapon? And can Congress do anything to stop him? To try to answer those questions, I caught up with California Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu. He is pushing legislation that would prohibit the President from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress.

What is in the giant Republican tax bill that just passed Congress? Why are people calling a key provision in the bill the “Corker Kickback”? On this episode, I talk to Matt Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy -- a think tank that has been critical of the legisation. We go over many of the different provisions of the bill -- and how it could change the country.