FEATURING KAMAU FRANKLIN - In our on-going coverage of the failure of the Democratic Party in the general election, with the loss of Senate control and the White House, the question arises: what could organizers have done more of or better? And can we organize our way out of the mess we’re now in? 

FEATURING DR. JENN JACKSON - Donald Trump is president-elect, winning his second term and beating Vice President Kamala Harris. Pre-election polls did not capture his popularity and on election night Trump made gains in all seven swing states early on, ultimately winning five out of seven. In addition to winning the electoral college vote, Trump also won the popular vote. However, turnout was lower this year than in 2020. 

We face a future where fossil fuels will likely be entirely unleashed, leading to faster, more catastrophic climate change than the one we now have, federal government workers will be fired en masse in an attempt to destroy the regulatory state in favor of businesses, and immigrants will be deported en masse. 

FEATURING SILKY SHAH - Ahead of the polls opening on election day, Donald Trump made his final pitch to voters, and, unsurprisingly, he relied on demonizing immigrants as a way to mobilize support. He described the U.S. as an “occupied country,” which referenced both undocumented people and those with documents and said he would “rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.”

Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s biggest supporter, has been outed as having violated immigration law in the past. Musk has been beating the anti-immigrant drums nearly as hard as Trump. 

Regardless of who wins on election day, immigrants have suffered from relentless dehumanization in terms of rhetoric and policy. While the Biden Harris administration hasn't chanted “Mass deportations now,” it has adopted Trumpian anti-immigrant policies at the border. What can immigrants’ rights activists do to prepare for the future, no matter who ends up in the White House? 

FEATURING SERENE KHADER - Election 2024 is upon us and today we’ll examine the ways in which women have been politicized and mobilized by numerous issues, including the attacks on their bodily autonomy. Most recently Donald Trump vowed to “protect women…whether they like it or not.”

By the time audiences hear this interview, we may know the outcome of the election. Regardless, we’ll examine today the role of women in the election, how candidates spoke to them and of them, and what a future presidential administration can do to serve women and their rights. 

FEATURING KHURY PETERSEN-SMITH - The genocide in Gaza has been front and center of our political landscape since last October. Leading up to Election 2024, a movement of “uncommitted” voters vowed to use their power to force the hand of the Biden Harris administration into embargoing U.S. weapons to Israel. 

As of election day, which is the day this program is being recorded, the Arab American-rich state of Michigan–a crucial swing state–has yet to turn toward Kamala Harris and it’s possible the outcome of the election may depend on her refusal to end U.S. facilitation of the genocide in Gaza. Regardless of how the election transpires, we’ll examine today the way in which Palestine has played a role in the election and how a future administration can be held accountable. 

FEATURING DORTELL WILLIAMS - There are two initiatives on the ballot in California this November dealing with the prison industrial complex. Proposition 36 would worsen penalties for petty crimes, increasing the prison population and reversing more than a decade of decarceration efforts. Meanwhile, Proposition 6 would end forced slavery inside California prisons. Prison abolitionists are calling for a No vote on 36 and a Yes vote on 6. With little public education on the propositions, polls show the reverse is likely. 

Our prison correspondent Dortell Williams in a past episode explained how California’s Proposition 36 would increase harms, particularly to low-income communities of color and how similar initiatives in other cities and states are reversing progress. Today he makes the case for why Proposition 6, if passed, would end the forced labor loophole in California, and puts it into a national context. 

FEATURING ERICA ENGLAND - There are only days left before the November 5, 2024 election, and all eyes are on a handful of swing states–a disturbing and direct outcome of the electoral college system. Not only are party nominees holding relentless rallies and campaign events in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina, but grassroots activists are mobilizing voters to the polls. 

In hurricane ravaged North Carolina, there is the added complication of climate disaster in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene with thousands left homeless, grieving those they lost, devastated infrastructure, a ruined economy, lost businesses, and more. 

FEATURING ARUN GUPTA - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump held a rally this past weekend at Madison Square Garden, which, in the words of the New York Times was A Closing Carnival  of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism. 

From Tucker Carlson to Stephen Miller, Trump brought out his favored cast of conspiracists and racist fearmongers. Among them were some new faces too, most controversially, a little-known comedian named Tony Hinchcliffe who referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” and made a racist joke about Black people carving watermelons for Halloween. 

Today we’ll get a report back from a journalist and frequent guest on this show who attended the rally and whose analysis goes far deeper than mainstream news media’s assessment of Trump’s Madison Square Garden gathering. 

FEATURING CHUCK COLLINS - With just weeks to go before the November 5 election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are crisscrossing the country making speeches and campaign stops. Among the economic issues plaguing voters, housing is close to the top of the list and Harris has unveiled some specific plans such as offering first time home buyers $25,000 in aid toward down payments, and building millions of new housing units. 

A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies called Billionaire Blowback on Housing highlights the worst culprits of the housing crisis, rarely blamed by politicians: billionaire investors who, for years, have been scooping up residential properties simply because they are so flush with cash, and entering the long term rental and short term vacation markets, as well as engaging in real estate speculation. The report also documents how grassroots housing rights and tenant rights groups are fighting back.

FEATURING ERICKA WILEY - Among some down-ballot races on November 5, 2024 will be judicial elections –but only a handful of states and localities. Local judges are elected in partisan or nonpartisan races, or, more often than not, simply appointed by state legislatures or by governors. 

Given the critical role that judges play in the criminal justice system which entraps poor people and people of color disproportionately, activists are calling for a need to democratize judicial selection. 

FEATURING ALEXSIS RODGERS - Polls around the nation show Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in a dead heat in several decision-making swing states ahead of the November 5 election. With enormous amounts of disinformation swirling in the media ecosphere, including from prominent figures like billionaire Elon Musk, little is guaranteed as voters begin mailing in ballots or readying their sample ballots to take into the voting booth. 

Much depends on increasing turnout and a newly formed coalition called Black Power Voters Alliance is ratcheting up its organizing in a critical Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) effort which includes on-the-ground canvassing, door-to-door outreach, targeted phone banking, and text message voter outreach, as well as in-person gatherings.