Charles G. Curtin PLACE-BASED SOLUTIONS: The Power of Regenerative Thinking in the Face of Crisis

Dr. Charles G. Curtin is the director of Regenerative Conservation Design.

He is the author of The Science of Open Spaces: Theory and Practice for Conserving Large, Complex Systems and the coeditor of Complex Ecology: Foundational Perspectives on Dynamic Approaches to Ecology and Conservation. His latest book is PLACE-BASED SOLUTIONS: THE POWER OF REGENERATIVE THINKING IN THE FACE OF CRISIS, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. His books explore the intersection of ecology and culture and focus on how the word’s messiness leads to uncertainty and unexpected outcomes, and what to do about it.

Not merely a world renowned ecologist with conservation collaborations including cross-cultural conservation exchanges from the Middle East and Africa to the fisheries of Maine. His Two-Cowboys Project involves cross-continent learning networks between Maasai pastoralists in Kenya and US ranchers in the New Mexico/Arizona and Mexico borderlands, as well as Montana’s Blackfoot Challenge. The Crown of the Continent Partnership is a collaboration project on the borders of Montana, Alberta, British Columbia and the Salish and Kootnai Confederation. You can find out more about this ecosystem here: https://www.crownmanagers.org/about-the-crown

We spoke to him via Zoom from his home in Ranchos de Taos, NM on March 23, 2026.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

How Minnesota Beat Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/opinion/columnists/minneapolis-ice-trump-neighbor.htm

Grasslands: Where Resilience Takes Root https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/stories-in-mn-nd-sd/grasslands/

Radical Ruralism: Regeneration on the Edge https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/fb86a-radicalrural-meandermagazine28229.pdf

Fear and Loathing Near Las Vegas https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/d39e6-greenfire1.pdf

New Mexico Wildfires: The Gift That Keeps Giving (Fear and Loathing Near Las Vegas Part 2) https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/50c35-greenfire2.pdf

Charting a Pathway Toward Long-term Fire Recovery https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/7f438-gft_janfeb2026_7-10.pdf

Fireshed-Watershed-Foodshed: Reenvisioning Agriculture in the Face of Climate Change https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/6fedb-beyondfiresheds.pdf

Fire, Power and Privilege in the Pyrocene https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/37aef-fire2cpower2candprivalegeinthepyrocene.pdf

The Sangre de Cristo Mountain Initiative: An Audacious Commonsense Proposal https://forthright.media/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/d18c1-greenfire328129.pdf

Alfred McCoy COLD WAR ON FIVE CONTINENTS: A Global History of Empire and Espionage

One month ago today, on February 13, 2026, our guest was the Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Alfred McCoy. We discussed his latest book, COLD WAR ON FIVE CONTINENTS: A GLOBAL HISTORY OF EMPIRE AND ESPIONAGE, published by Haymarket Books.

With the US and Israel’s continuation of the war against Iran, which began last June, 2025 and lasted 12 days, and then recommenced on February 28, 2026, I asked him to return to share his insights and analysis.

For well over five decades he has specialized in the foreign policy of the United States, European colonization of Southeast Asia, and CIA covert operations and illegal international drug trade. In June of 1972, he testified before the US Senate Committee on Appropriations’ Foreign Operations Subcommittee, testifying that American officials were condoning and even cooperating with corrupt officials at the highest levels in Southeast Asia’s illegal drug trade out of political and military considerations. He testified that the CIA chartered Air America aircraft and helicopters in northern Laos to transport opium harvested by their “tribal mercenaries”.

His multiple awards winning books include, THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: CIA COMPLICITY IN THE GLOBAL DRUG TRADE; A QUESTION OF TORTURE: CIA INTERROGATION, FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR; IN THE SHADOWS OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF US GLOBAL POWER; and TO GOVERN THE GLOBE: WORLD ORDERS AND CATASTROPHIC CHANGE. He was also our guest when those last two were published in 2017 and 2021 respectively.
We spoke with him via Zoom on March 9, 2026.

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Iran threatens to escalate war after Trump says ‘many countries’ will send warships to strait of Hormuz https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/13/trump-military-kharg-island-iran-oil-export

U.S. Navy Tells Shipping Industry Hormuz Escorts Not Possible For Now https://www.huffpost.com/entry/navy-shipping-industry-strait-of-hormuz_n_69b0e208e4b0f0830ae5ad8c

Fire damage, clogged toilets, and sinking morale: USS Gerald R Ford to set sail for repairs in Crete https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/18/onboard-fire-uss-gerald-ford-aircraft-carrier

How ignorance, misunderstanding and obfuscation ended Iran nuclear talks https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/18/ignorance-misunderstanding-obfuscation-iran-nuclear-talks-trump

How Iran has used the strait of Hormuz to throttle oil and gas – a visual guide https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/how-iran-has-used-the-strait-of-hormuz-to-throttle-oil-and-gas-a-visual-guide

Hegseth ignored military officials when he slashed offices that limit risk to civilians https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/13/military-leaders-warned-hegseth-not-to-gut-offices-that-limit-risk-to-civilians-00827722?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Hasty redeployment of US missiles from South Korea to Middle East leaves Seoul rattled https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/redeployment-us-missiles-thaad-south-korea-middle-east-seoul-iran

Russia Provided Iran With Information That Can Help Tehran Strike U.S. Military: AP Report https://www.huffpost.com/entry/russia-provided-iran-information-that-can-help-tehran-strike-us-military-ap-report_n_69ab27f8e4b0bda876a95108

Why Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil hub is still untouched by US-Israel bombers https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/why-irans-vital-kharg-island-oil-hub-is-still-untouched-by-us-israel-bombers

U.S. May Have Committed War Crime In Sinking Of Iranian Ship https://www.huffpost.com/entry/submarine-torpedo-geneva-conventions_n_69ab102ae4b03ae2f88670fb

‘A very dangerous person’: alarm as Pete Hegseth revels in carnage of Iran war https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/08/pete-hegseth-pentagon-trump-iran

Timothy Snyder’s substack 3-8-26 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQfCMpRXkRbBnRgjCghVqTKhtFB

From Bush Sr to Trump: the risks, lessons and legacy of US interference in the Middle East https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/mar/08/us-interference-middle-east-iraq-iran-conflict-legacy-lessons

Trump vows to use US military force against cartels across Latin America https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/07/trump-military-cartels-latin-america-iran-00818070

Viral International Media Coverage of MRFF’s Revelation that End-Times-Happy Commanders are Telling Troops Iran War is Part of God’s Plan to Bring Jesus Back https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/2026/03/viral-international-media-coverage-of-mrffs-revelation-that-end-times-happy-commanders-are-telling-troops-iran-war-is-part-of-gods-plan-to-bring-jesus-back/

US may not have capacity to take down full barrage of Iranian drones, officials warn https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/04/us-interceptors-iranian-drones

Trump’s “Warflation” Has Just Begun https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQfCDWVDjXZwvgNhKSxHmbQdzst

The US/Israeli Attack Was to Prevent Peace Not Advance It https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/02/the-us-israeli-attack-was-to-prevent-peace-not-advance-it/

12 days: How 2025 Iran blueprint trapped US, Israel in longer war https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/3/11/12-days-how-2025-iran-blueprint-trapped-us-israel-in-longer-war

Trump Gutted the Minesweepers. Then Trump Started the Mine War. https://www.flyingpenguin.com/trump-gutted-the-minesweepers-then-trump-started-the-mine-war/

Supercarriers Deployed To The Middle East Leave The US Navy Spread Thin https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2026/03/04/supercarriers-deployed-to-the-middle-east-leaves-the-us-navy-spread-thin/

The (ancient) history of now: Israel and Iran https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/the-history-of-now-israel-and-iran

Christine Webb THE ARROGANT APE: THE MYTH OF HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND WHY IT MATTERS

Dr. Christine Webb is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at New York University, where she is part of the Animal Studies program. Her research is driven by growing awareness that the ecological crisis demands a profound shift in how we understand other animals and our place among them.


Her work seeks to elucidate the complex dynamics of animal social life, and to apply this knowledge to foundational questions in animal ethics and conservation. She investigates how animals manage and mitigate social disruptions, the emotional and motivational states that underlie those processes, and the cultural influences shaping them, with a focus on nonhuman primates.


She also studies how prevailing societal norms, values, and institutions shape contemporary scientific knowledge of other animals. As you will hear, her work examines the pervasiveness of the belief in human exceptionalism, and how this ideology—oftentimes hidden—biases scientific exploration of the more-than-human world.


She asks: How are cutting edge scientific insights revealing striking interdependencies among different species? How has anthropocentrism fueled an essentially competitive, hierarchical view of Nature? How does this in turn obscure our understanding of evolution, and of ourselves, in ways that perpetuate notions of human exceptionalism?How has this emphasis on competition led people to misinterpret and misuse evolutionary theory to explain the current anthropogenic crisis of life on earth? And How can a less anthropocentric understanding help us re-imagine it?


She explores these questions and more in her book, THE ARROGANT APE: THE MYTH OF HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND WHY IT MATTERS, published by Avery. We spoke with Professor Webb on February 24, 2026 via Zoom as she, and many others were snowbound in New York.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Scientists recorded a sperm whale birth up close for the first time. They discovered something extraordinary. The marine mammals act like midwives, supporting mothers and their calves through delivery.  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/sperm-whale-birth-video?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

How Brainless Slime Molds Redefine Intelligence https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brainless-slime-molds/

Baby chicks link certain sounds with shapes, just like humans do https://www.npr.org/2026/02/19/nx-s1-5717039/baby-chicks-link-certain-sounds-with-shapes-just-like-humans-do

Chimpanzees pick up communication styles from their moms, not their dads https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5502642/chimp-moms-babies-human-language-communication-style

Is your dog bilingual? A new study suggests their brains can tell languages apart https://www.npr.org/2022/01/06/1070710852/is-your-dog-bilingual-a-new-study-suggests-their-brains-can-tell-languages-apart

Evidence for representation of pretend objects by Kanzi, a language-trained bonobo https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz0743

Butterflies crossing oceans, moths navigating by the stars: unravelling the mysteries of insect migrations https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/mar/18/butterflies-crossing-oceans-moths-navigating-stars-insect-migrations-aoe

Alfred McCoy COLD WAR ON FIVE CONTINENTS: A Global History of Empire and Espionage

Our guest on this edition of Forthright Radio is the Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Alfred McCoy.

For well over five decades he has specialized in the foreign policy of the United States, European colonization of Southeast Asia, and CIA covert operations and illegal international drug trade. In June of 1972, he testified before the US Senate Committee on Appropriations’ Foreign Operations Subcommittee, testifying that American officials were condoning and even cooperating with corrupt officials at the highest levels in Southeast Asia’s illegal drug trade out of political and military considerations. He testified that the CIA chartered Air America aircraft and helicopters in northern Laos to transport opium harvested by their “tribal mercenaries”.

His multiple awards winning books include, THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: CIA COMPLICITY IN THE GLOBAL DRUG TRADE; A QUESTION OF TORTURE: CIA INTERROGATION, FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR; IN THE SHADOWS OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF US GLOBAL POWER; and TO GOVERN THE GLOBE: WORLD ORDERS AND CATASTROPHIC CHANGE. He was our guest when those last two were published. His latest book is COLD WAR ON FIVE CONTINENTS: A GLOBAL HISTORY OF EMPIRE AND ESPIONAGE, published by Haymarket Books.

As in his earlier books, he reiterates the importance of maintaining dominance over the heartland of the “World Island,” comprised of Eurasia and Africa, which was articulated in Halford John Mackinder’s 1904 article, “The Geographical Pivot of History.”

https://ontheworldmap.com/eurasia/

Articles pertinent to this interview:

America Is Waving the White Flag in the New Cold War https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/opinion/us-china-cold-war-tariffs-trump.html

‘The powerful have their power. We have the capacity to stop pretending’: the Canadian PM’s call to action at Davos https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/21/mark-carney-davos-canadian-prime-minister-donald-trump-new-world-order

A War Foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/feb/20/a-war-foretold-cia-mi6-putin-ukraine-plans-russia

How Trump is Demolishing U.S. Global Power and Its World Order https://tomdispatch.com/in-the-autumn-of-americas-empire/

Energy Policy and the Politics of American Decline https://tomdispatch.com/ozymandias-on-the-potomac/

Thousands of Chinese Fishing Boats Quietly Form Vast Sea Barriers https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/16/world/asia/china-ships-fishing-militia-blockade.html

Expiry of nuclear weapons pact between US and Russia risks new arms race https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/03/expiry-nuclear-weapons-pact-us-russia-arms-race

C.I.A. World Factbook Ends Publication After 6 Decades https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/us/world-factbook-cia.html

The Secret History of the Deep State https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/opinion/trump-nixon-watergate-radford.html

The risk of nuclear war is rising again. We need a new movement for global peace https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/08/nuclear-war-risk-rising-global-peace

5 Times the US Invoked the Monroe Doctrine https://www.history.com/articles/times-the-usa-invoked-monroe-doctrine?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Further Back to the Future: Neo-Royalism, the Trump Administration, and the Emerging International System https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/further-back-to-the-future-neoroyalism-the-trump-administration-and-the-emerging-international-system/ABB12906CA345BBCA5049B544363D391#article

How to Read Scrooge McDuck in the Age of Donald Trump https://tomdispatch.com/trumps-foreign-policy-the-comic-book-edition/

Firesign Theater Temporarily Humboldt County https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqUyI5IIDOM&list=RDFqUyI5IIDOM&start_radio=1

Sven Beckert CAPITALISM: A GLOBAL HISTORY

“WHO CONTROLS THE PAST CONTROLS THE FUTURE, WHO CONTROLS THE PRESENT CONTROLS THE PAST.” George Orwell, 1984.

We first interviewed Harvard University’s Laird Bell Professor of History, Sven Beckert, when his tremendously informative Bancroft Prize winning book, EMPIRE OF COTTON: A GLOBAL HISTORY, was published in 2015. It weighed in at a respectable 640 pages.

His most recent tome, CAPITALISM: A GLOBAL HISTORY, dwarfs that earlier work at over 1,320 pages. In it he traces over the past thousand years, what he calls “the most impactful revolution the world has ever seen.” His exhaustive research took him to the archives on 6 continents, however it is anything but a dry disquisition. Rather it is people focused – examining their agency, resistance, ruthless coercion and innovations. From the merchants of 12th Century Aden, Yemen circulating goods from Asia, Africa and Europe to the workers in this decade’s sweat shops in Cambodia, he chronicles the ever adapting transformations of Capitalism.
We spoke with Sven Beckert, who was somewhere in Europe on January 13, 2026 via Zoom.

This edition of Forthright Radio is dedicated to the memory of Renee Nicole Good and the thousands of Iranians who have been killed demanding freedom and justice in their homelands, as well as the thousands more spurred on by the same imperatives and their courageous examples, who continue to brave dangerously cold weather and disproportionately armed agents of the state .

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Capitalism by Sven Beckert review – an extraordinary history of the economic system that controls our lives https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/23/capitalism-by-sven-beckert-review-an-extraordinary-history-of-the-economic-system-that-controls-our-lives

E.U. and South America to Form Free-Trade Zone With 700 Million People https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/business/economy/european-union-mercosur-trade.html

The Oil Company Drilled. The Government Slaughtered. Who Is Guilty? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/opinion/the-oil-company-drilled-government-slaughter-guilty.html

In Davos, the rich talk about ‘global threats’. Here’s why they’re silent about the biggest of them all https://www.theguardian.com/global/2026/jan/19/davos-rich-global-threat-economic-inequality-wealth

“The Secret Economic History of the World” with Pulitzer finalist Sven Beckert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3HZNxljhNc

‘Endangered lawyer’ day highlights US justice system’s plummeting standing https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/22/lawyers-judges-intimidation-trump

Thousands of workers flee Cambodia scam centres, officials say https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/21/thousands-of-workers-flee-cambodia-scam-centres-officials-say

ICE Said Agents Can Enter Homes Without Judicial Warrant, Group Claims https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/us/politics/ice-warrant-whistleblower.html

The Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fascists In Our Midst (Paul Cargnello w/Jonathan Emile) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2WgEOr-jaI&list=RDl2WgEOr-jaI&start_radio=1

I’m watching myself on YouTube saying things I would never say. This is the deepfake menace we must confront https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/05/deepfakes-youtube-menace-yanis-varoufakis

Agustín Fuentes SEX IS A SPECTRUM: The Biological Limits of the Binary

This edition of Forthright Radio features Princeton University Anthropology Professor, Agustín Fuentes. His research focuses on the biocultural, delving into the entanglement of biological systems and the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. Trained in both zoology and anthropology, his early work looked at the behavior and ecology of humans and other primates, and their patterns and trends in social organization. In the early 2000s, he added a focus on human biological variation, and the use – and misuse – of those patterns and processes in the context of race/racism and sex/gender.

Among his books, which we discuss in our interview with him, are his most recently published in 2025, SEX IS A SPECTRUM: THE BIOLOGICAL LIMITS OF THE BINARY; as well as his earlier, RACE, MONOGAMY, AND OTHER LIES THEY TOLD YOU; and THE CREATIVE SPARK: HOW IMAGINATION MADE HUMANS EXCEPTIONAL.

Illustration: Gender sexuality sex symbols – AnonMoos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Articles, etc. pertinent to this conversation:

Politics, Not Biology, Is Driving Legal Efforts to Classify Sex https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-trump-administrations-legal-argument-to-classify-sex-is-bad-biology/

Science of sex and gender being misrepresented by Trump officials, experts warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/27/trump-administration-gender-healthcare

This is not the time to step back from diversity, equity, and inclusion https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz9026

Sex, Biology, And Sports: Data And Context Matter https://americananthro.org/present-tense/sex-biology-and-sports-data-and-context-matter/

An initial report of circa 241,000- to 335,000-year-old rock engravings and their relation to Homo naledi in the Rising Star cave system, South Africa https://elifesciences.org/articles/89102

How America’s First Nonbinary Minister Created True Equality in the Newly Born United States https://lithub.com/how-americas-first-nonbinary-minister-created-true-equality-in-the-newly-born-united-states/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Human rights court says Caster Semenya did not get fair hearing in seven-year sex eligibility rules fight https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6485335/2025/07/10/caster-semenya-trial-athletics/?searchResultPosition=1

Caster Semenya: ‘I’m Still a Woman’ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/31/books/review/caster-semenya-the-race-to-be-myself.html?searchResultPosition=8

19 States Sue to Block White House Plan to End Gender-Related Care for Minors https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/us/states-lawsuit-kennedy-gender-care-hospitals.html

Health workers decry hasty House bills to ban gender-affirming care for children: ‘They hurt people’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/17/house-bills-ban-gender-affirming-care-children

3 Democrats Signed on to Marjorie Taylor Green’s Bill Criminalizing Trans Youth Care https://www.them.us/story/marjorie-taylor-greene-trans-gender-youth-care-bill-pass-criminalize

They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/nov/23/america-christian-evangelical-discrimination-immigration excerpt from this essay by Bill McKibben:

…Doug Wilson, the self-taught pastor who co-founded Pete Hegseth’s denomination has insisted that it was a mistake to let women vote. (He also teaches that sex “cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party”, because “a man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.”)….

Judge orders Montana DMV to issue driver’s license to youth who applied as nonbinary https://montanafreepress.org/2025/12/05/judge-orders-montana-dmv-to-issue-drivers-license-to-youth-who-applied-as-nonbinary/

How Monogamous Are Humans Actually? https://nautil.us/how-monogamous-are-humans-actually-1253734/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Humans rank above meerkats but below beavers in monogamy league table https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/10/humans-rank-among-leading-monogamous-mammals-study-finds

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick – The American Immigration Council

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick is Senior Fellow at The American Immigration Council. He previously worked as a Staff Attorney at the American Immigration Council, working on impact litigation, Freedom of Information Act litigation, and practice advisories. Prior to joining the Council, he was an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow and Staff Attorney at the Immigration Law Unit of The Legal Aid Society in New York City, representing immigrants placed in removal proceedings because of a prior criminal conviction.

Of course the implications for those from other countries, both documented and undocumented, are dire, but the implications for American rule of law and democracy are also increasingly disturbing. Things are happening so fast, norms are being shattered, judicial rulings are being ignored. To find out what’s going on, we spoke with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick on December 5, 2025 via Zoom.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

The Trump Administration Won’t Stop Firing Immigration Judges https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/deportation-judge-trump-immigration-court-purge-federal-plaza-new-york-city/

Putting Military Lawyers in Charge of Immigration Courts Is Problematic—and “Unlawful” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/trump-administration-military-lawyers-jags-immigration-court-judges/

US army lawyer fired as immigration judge after defying Trump deportation agenda https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/19/army-lawyer-fired-immigration-trump-deportation

“The Entire System Will Collapse”: Inside the Purge of US Immigration Courts https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/trump-immigration-courts-firing-doge-nonsensical-system-collapse-eoir/

ICE Investigations, Powered by Nvidia https://theintercept.com/2025/11/01/ice-nvidia-software-hsi-surveillance/

Trump’s Military Occupations of U.S. Cities Cost $473 Million and Rising https://theintercept.com/2025/11/11/cost-trump-national-guard-military-occupation/

The Contempt of Court Buck Stops With … Kristi Noem? https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/tcontempt-of-court-kristi-noem-emil-bove-alien-enemies-act

Chicago Protestors Reel After Fending Off Federal Charges https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chicago-protestors-reel-after-fending-off-federal-charges

ICE Is Targeting Workers. Here’s How Employers and Unions Are Fighting Back. https://truthout.org/articles/ice-is-targeting-workers-heres-how-employers-and-unions-are-fighting-back/

Trump’s Thanksgiving Attack on Immigrants Likened to ‘Stuff You Hear Coming Out of White Nationalists’ https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-immigration-national-guard

Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351/

Trump is using a tragic shooting to demonize millions https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/03/trump-national-guard-shooting-anti-immigration-push

Trump’s Immigration Forces Are Recklessly Deploying ‘Less Lethal’ Weapons. Protestors Are Getting Maimed https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trumps-immigration-forces-deploy-less-lethal-weapons-protests-are-getting-maimed

A Tale of Two ICEs https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/02/a-tale-of-two-ices/

Reverse Migration Is Not A Cure. It Will Only Make America Weak and Alone https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-reverse-migration

Charlotte activists met the immigration crackdown with ‘bless your heart’ resistance https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/activists-immigration-charlotte-north-carolina

A groundswell of activism takes hold in the US: ‘We are a bridge to the future’ ttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/21/us-activism-protests-boycotts-mutual-aid

20 states and D.C. sue DOJ to stop immigration conditions on funds for crime victims https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/20-states-and-d-c-sue-doj-to-stop-immigration-conditions-on-funds-for-crime-victims

The Education Department’s Forgotten Antiracist Origins https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/opinion/education-department-trump-antiracist.html

DHS Spends Millions Of Taxpayer Funds To Get Its Own Fleet Of Deportation Planes: Report https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scotus-blockbuster-case-2026-golden-globe-noms_n_6936a122e4b0a1c98be2a8f0/liveblog_6939a59fe4b028000c59fa6c?origin=home-latest-news-unit

Kristi Noem reportedly tried to buy 10 engineless Spirit Airlines planes that airline didn’t own https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/kristi-noem-spirit-airlines-planes

Trump administration moves to deny visas to factcheckers and content moderators https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/05/trump-administration-us-visa-crackdown

Arizona congresswoman says she was ‘pepper sprayed’ at protest against ICE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/05/adelita-grijalva-arizona-pepper-spray-ice-protest

Senator says ICE ‘attack dog’ caused ‘horrific’ injuries to unresisting man as he was detained https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/06/us-senator-ice-attack-dog-horrific-injuries

Michael McFaul AUTOCRATS VS. DEMOCRATS: CHINA, RUSSIA, AMERICA, AND THE NEW GLOBAL DISORDER and Jeff Mangan THE MONTANA PLAN

In our first segment we speak with Stanford University Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, Michael McFaul. He served for five years in the Obama administration, first as special assistant to the president and senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).


His latest book is AUTOCRATS VS. DEMOCRATS: CHINA, RUSSIA, AMERICA, AND THE NEW GLOBAL DISORDER, published by Harper Collins. His earlier books include Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin and the NYT bestseller, From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia.

Jeff Mangan

In our second segment, we speak with Montana’s former Commissioner for Political Practices, Jeff Mangan, about a proposed amendment to the Montana State Constitution, titled The Transparent Election Initiative. It has garnered tremendous interest and excitement nationally, and is being dubbed The Montana Plan. If enacted, it would effectively kill Citizens United in Montana, and would serve as a model for other states. Instead of being cut off at the pass by the Supreme Court’s first amendment ruling that money is free speech, it instead asserts a 10th amendment states’ right to govern and control corporate charters to determine what they can and cannot do.

Articles, etc. that are pertinent to these interviews:

MONEYBOMB: The Montana Plan To Kill Citizens United Tom Moore w/David Sirota https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuZ0cVE-nHM

The Transparent Election Initiative https://transparentelection.org/

AG: Anti-dark-money ballot initiative doesn’t meet legal requirements https://dailymontanan.com/2025/10/30/ag-anti-dark-money-ballot-initiative-doesnt-meet-legal-requirements/

Attorney general rules ‘anti-dark money’ ballot initiative has too many parts https://montanafreepress.org/2025/10/27/montana-ag-rules-anti-dark-money-ballot-initiative-has-too-many-parts/

Satisfaction with democracy below 50% in eight out of nine western countries, poll finds https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/14/state-of-democracy-survey-ipsos-western-countries

The Right’s Secret Plan to Help Billionaires Buy Elections https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/jd-vance-right-plan-billionaires-elections-1235445122/

China’s latest aircraft carrier enters service to extend reach into high seas https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/07/chinas-latest-aircraft-carrier-enters-service-to-extend-reach-into-high-seas

China advises against travel to Japan amid escalating row over PM’s Taiwan comments https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/15/china-advises-against-travel-to-japan-amid-escalating-row-over-pms-taiwan-comments

Hegseth Is Purging Military Leaders With Little Explanation http://5 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/us/politics/hegseth-firing-military-leaders.html

Taiwan vice-president presses case at EU parliament for joint efforts to counter China https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/08/taiwan-vice-president-presses-case-at-eu-parliament-for-joint-efforts-to-counter-china

Trump’s dollar delusion: how trade war risks ending the US’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/09/trump-trade-war-dollar-value

Resilience of Europe’s populist right carries warning for US Democrats https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/10/rightwing-czech-republic-poland-hungary-democrats

Trump says US will boycott G20 summit in South Africa, citing treatment of white farmers https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/07/trump-boycott-g20-south-africa-white-farmers

Reagan-Appointed Federal Judge Rebukes Trump In Damning Resignation Letter https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-judge-resigns-letter-trump_n_69121c3ae4b0b840aac12569?origin=home-whats-happening-unit

Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/10/donald-trump-ugly-american

Nexperia row shows how China is weaponising EU relationship – and winning https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/11/nexperia-row-china-trade-brussels-beijing-chips

Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has, often in open defiance of the law. His actions have raised a chilling question. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-autocracy-democracy-report.html

Forget diplomatic niceties: it’s beyond time Europe denounced Trump’s trashing of democracy in the US https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/europe-donald-trump-democracy-us

Playing dirty used to be the west’s preserve. Now we’re letting Moscow beat us at our own game https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/04/west-moscow-berlin-airlift-cold-war-civilians

Putin’s repressive machinery turns inward to target pro-war figures https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/06/putin-repressive-machinery-turns-inward-target-pro-war-figures

Trump’s Gilded Ballroom and the Fall of the American Republic https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trumps-gilded-ballroom-and-the-fall

Henry Giroux and Nate Bellinger

Today’s show is in two parts. First, longtime friend of Forthright Radio, scholar, public intellectual, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, and The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy, Henry Giroux, joins us again to discuss many issues facing our nation and the world – from the increasing militarization of America at home and on the seas, to the young people he teaches who are rising to the challenges of becoming effective cultural producers in this era unlike any in human history.

In the last part of the show Nate Bellinger, Our Children’s Trust’s Supervising Senior Staff Attorney, shares with us about the latest in the recent federal district court decision that Federal District Dourt Judge Dana Christenson rendered on October 16, 2025, in the Lighthiser v Trump case, and their on-going legal efforts representing their youth plaintiffs suing for a livable climate.

The link to read the students’ Public Intellectuals Project essays Henry Giroux mentioned in our interview: https://publicintellectualsproject.humanities.mcmaster.ca

In the KZYX pledge drive show, we read this poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko:

Talk

You’re a brave man they tell me.
I’m not.
Courage has never been my quality.
Only I thought it disproportionate
so to degrade myself as others did.
No foundations trembled. My voice
no more than laughed at pompous falsity;
I did no more than write, never denounced,
I left out nothing I had thought about,
defended who deserved it, put a brand
on the untalented, the ersatz writers
(doing what anyhow had to be done).
And now they press to tell me that I’m brave.
How sharply our children will be ashamed
taking at last their vengeance for these horrors
remembering how in so strange a time
common integrity could look like courage.

by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Translated by Robin Milner-Galland and Peter Levi

Articles pertinent to these interviews:

Stephen Miller and the Making of the Fascist Subject https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/17/stephen-miller-and-the-making-of-the-fascist-subject/

Trump’s America: Echoes of a Fascist Past https://socialistproject.ca/2025/10/trumps-america-echoes-fascist-past/

Pedagogies of Repression: Ford, Trump and the War on Education https://socialistproject.ca/2025/09/pedagogies-of-repression/

Charlie Kirk’s Death Is a Symptom of a National Political Culture in Crisis https://truthout.org/articles/charlie-kirks-death-is-a-symptom-of-a-national-political-culture-in-crisis/

Trump’s Theater of Cruelty: Fascism’s Malignant Return https://www.laprogressive.com/immigration-reform/theater-of-cruelty

The Democratic Party: Architects of Cowardice, Accomplices to Fascism https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/08/the-democratic-party-architects-of-cowardice-accomplices-to-fascism/

The War on Memory: How Trump’s Cultural Erasure Threatens Democracy in the U.S. and Canada https://www.laprogressive.com/democracy/trumps-cultural-erasure-threatens-canadian-democracy

Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’: ‘You’re going to look like Maleficent’ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/18/mar-a-lago-face-plastic-surgery

Trump’s Warfare State: Domestic Terrorism and Spectacular Violence https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/29/domestic-terrorism-and-spectacularized-violence-in-trumps-warfare-state/

Resisting the Deadly Language of American Fascism https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/11/resisting-the-deadly-language-of-american-fascism/

A Broad Wave of Firings Followed Charlie Kirk’s Assassination https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/us/kirk-critics-fired-free-speech.html

New Trump Order Among ‘Scariest Things I’ve Seen in US Politics,’ Civil Rights Attorney Says https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-vigilante-portal

Kamala Harris Thinks Trump Is a “Communist.” That’s Insane. https://jacobin.com/2025/09/harris-newsom-trump-communist-oligarchy

‘An unworkable request:’ Federal judge dismisses climate lawsuit https://dailymontanan.com/2025/10/16/an-unworkable-request-federal-judge-dismisses-climate-lawsuit/

The Kids Who Sued Trump Just Lost Big in Court. Or Did They? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/climate/climate-lawsuit-children-montana-trump-health.html

Judge Throws Out Children’s Lawsuit Against Trump’s Energy Policies https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/climate/montana-youth-trump-climate-lawsuit-dismissed.html

Young Activists Say 3 Trump Orders Violate Constitutional Rights https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/climate/lighthiser-trial-climate-trump.html?searchResultPosition=2

Young People Suing Trump Over Climate Have Their Day in Federal Court https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/climate/montana-lawsuit-trump-executive-orders-energy.html

Hawaii Settles With Young Plaintiffs in Climate Case https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/climate/hawaii-youth-climate-lawsuit.html

Youth Climate Activists Get Major Win in Montana Supreme Court https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/climate/held-montana-youth-climate-lawsuit.html