Category Archives: history

Malcolm Harris WHAT’S LEFT: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis

On this edition of Forthright Radio our guest is journalist, author, activist and critic, Malcolm Harris.

After being arrested in the October 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest on the Brooklyn Bridge, his court case became “a significant focus of attention for its involvement of posts to social networking sites and legal arguments over who controls that material” as the prosecution sought to undermine his defense using his own Twitter posts which he had deleted.

His books include Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials; Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World; and most recently What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis, published in Spring, 2025 by Little, Brown.

We spoke with Malcolm Harris about his latest book, which includes a reference to Judi Bari, on July 21, 2025 via Zoom. He was very patient and kind, re-connecting after a couple of disruptive technical problems.

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Gil Duran on Trump, Tech, and “The Nerd Reich” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W3tmCBEnE

What’s the Matter with Abundance? https://thebaffler.com/latest/whats-the-matter-with-abundance-harris

Kurdish leader Ocalan issues message from prison, urging PKK to disarm to make peace with Turkey https://apnews.com/article/turkey-pkk-ocalan-peace-talks-68decd55c35fa537f04b117bc9736128

Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here’s what to know https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/13/kurdish-leader-ocalan-told-the-pkk-to-disband-it-did-heres-what-to-know

Trump fossil-fuel push setting back green progress decades, critics warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/20/trump-energy-environment-agenda

The Revolutionary and Radical Tenderness of Andrea Gibson https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/opinion/andrea-gibson-poetry.html

Andrea Gibson – Homesick: A Plea For Our Planet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmKDa2qQ-w&list=RDJsmKDa2qQ-w&start_radio=1

Andrea Gibson – Say Yes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfh3z55AL9s

Andrea Gibson MAGA HAT IN THE CHEMO ROOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCX-0zJTEbk&list=RDWCX-0zJTEbk&start_radio=1

Andrea Gibson – Living Proof https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADJJ4W9p3c

When It Comes to Undermining America, We Have a Winner https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-republican-party-democracy.html

Has America learned anything from the George Floyd uprisings? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/13/has-america-learned-anything-from-the-george-floyd-uprisings

Nearly 300 pages of Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ records released after first-of-its-kind ruling https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/20/atlanta-police-foundation-cop-city-records

Is Decarbonization Dead? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jesse-jenkins-jane-flegal.html

‘We were heard’: the Pacific students who took their climate fight to the ICJ – and won https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/25/pacific-students-who-won-climate-case-icj-international-court-of-justice-hague

Caribbean leaders hail ICJ climate ruling as ‘historic’ win for small island states https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/25/caribbean-leaders-hail-icj-climate-ruling-as-historic-win-for-small-island-states

Vali Nasr IRAN’S GRAND STRATEGY: A National History

Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. His books include THE DISPENSABLE NATION: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN RETREAT; THE SHIA REVIVAL: HOW CONFLICTS WITHIN ISLAM WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE, and (with Ali Gheissari) DEMOCRACY IN IRAN: HISTORY AND THE QUEST FOR LIBERTY.

His latest book, IRAN’S GRAND STRATEGY: A POLITICAL HISTORY, which was published by Princeton University Press in late May, 2025.
We spoke with Professor Nasr from Brussels, Belgium via FaceTime .

We spoke with Professor Vali Nasr on Monday, June 9th, 2025. On Thursday, June 12, The International Atomic Energy Agency declared that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, the first time the UN watchdog has passed a resolution against the country in 20 years. A few hours later, Israel launched what Defense Minister Israel Katz called “preemptive strikes” simultaneously in many places Iran, hitting both civilian and military targets. One remembers Supreme Leaders Khamenei’s skepticism of the value of diplomacy, when this happens as the talks in Vienna were happening.

Then, on June 21, 2025 the US military under orders of Donald Trump executed a night time bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

The Ayatollah Has a Plan (by Vali Nasr) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/iran-nuclear-ayatollah-cease-fire.html

How the Attacks on Iran Are Part of a Much Bigger Global Struggle https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/opinion/iran-israel-attack-global-struggle.html

How Iran and Israel are rethinking strategy https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/22/world/video/gps-0622-us-iran-israel-middle-east

Trump’s ‘total obliteration’ of Iran’s nuclear capabilities isn’t ‘100% accurate’: Scott Lucas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLo1emW6Oc

Leah Litman LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes

University of Michigan Law Professor, Leah Litman teaches and writes on constitutional law, federal courts, and federal post-conviction review. Her research examines unidentified and implicit values that are used to structure the legal system, the federal courts, and the legal profession. With her fellow law professors, Kate Shaw and Melissa Murray, she co-hosts the popular podcast, Strict Scrutiny, providing in-depth and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court – its cases, culture, and personalities.

Her book, LAWLESS: HOW THE SUPREME COURT RUNS ON CONSERVATIVE GRIEVANCE, FRINGE THEORIES, AND BAD VIBES, is published by Atria/One Signal Publishers. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wrote this: “Lawless is a lively narration of how big special interests captured the Supreme Court and redeployed it to deliver on the least popular policy planks of the Republican Party. Litman ably documents the Court’s devolution, as it was yoked into service to a political party and a billionaire class.”
We spoke with her on May 6, 2025.

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of legal status for 500,000 immigrants https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/08/trump-supreme-court-parole-00336940

Trump Administration Live Updates: U.S. Welcomes White South Africans Given Refugee Status https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/12/us/trump-news

David H. Souter, Republican Justice Who Allied With Court’s Liberal Wing, Dies at 85 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/us/david-souter-dead.html

150 Former Judges Tell Pam Bondi They’re Not ‘Deranged’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/former-judges-pam-bondi-letter_n_6819403de4b085c2f857aeb9

Trump order targeting law firm Perkins Coie is unconstitutional, judge rules https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-perkins-coie-unconstitutional

Ketanji Brown Jackson Gets Standing Ovation For Slamming ‘Relentless Attacks’ On Judges https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kentanji-brown-jackson-slams-relentless-attacks-on-judges_n_681486aae4b0c3c651ebe017

TRUMP’S BIGGEST BENEFICIARY: HIMSELF https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/opinion/trump-crypto-musk-spacex.html

Trump receives widespread backlash to social post calling himself ‘king’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/19/trump-backlash-social-media-king

Wisconsin Judge Arrest: What We Know https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/us/wisconsin-judge-hannah-dugan-arrest.html

The US used to be the gold standard for press freedom. Not any more https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/28/press-freedom-us-trump

The Henchmen Strategy: What Trump Is Doing To Make The Law His Own https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-henchmen-strategy-what-trump-is-doing-to-make-the-law-his-own_n_680fe032e4b0a4f4db7f0bfd

Trump warns ‘nothing will stop me’ at rally to celebrate 100 days in office https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/29/trump-100-days-rally-michigan

Hegseth Directs 20% Cut To Top Military Leadership Positions https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-us-pentagon-leadership-cuts-pete-hegseth_n_681923a9e4b09d0e11f7c9a5

Judge Orders Elections Board to Certify Democrat’s Victory in Contested N.C. Race https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/us/north-carolina-supreme-court-federal-ruling.htm

Trump’s Justice Department Is Squandering Its Biggest Asset https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/06/trump-justice-department-trust-supreme-court-00329222

Judge strikes down Trump executive order punishing prominent law firm https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-law-firms-executive-00324973

Trump asks Supreme Court to let DOGE access sensitive Social Security data https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-doge-supreme-court-social-security-00324876

Trump’s immigration ‘shock and awe’ is losing in the court of law https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-immigration-court-losses-00324683

US supreme court allows Trump trans military ban to take effect https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/trump-trans-military-ban-court

E.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/climate/epa-energy-star-eliminated.html

Feds Urged To Investigate Pizzas Sent To Judges Using Name Of Judge’s Murdered Son https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-investigation-pizza-deliveries-judges_n_681a0193e4b09d0e11f86cad

No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.htm

Paul Pierson Liberty or Tyranny?

Paul Pierson is the UC Berkeley John Gross Endowed Chair of Political Science. He was our guest in 2022 to comment on the midterm election and in 2020 when his book, co-authored with Jacob Hacker, LET THEM EAT TWEETS: HOW THE RIGHT RULES IN AN AGE OF EXTREME INEQUALITY, was published. They also collaborated on the books, WINNER TAKE ALL POLITICS; and AMERICAN AMNESIA: HOW THE WAR ON GOVERNMENT LED US TO FORGET WHAT MADE AMERICA PROSPER.

We were curious to learn what he was thinking of the first 90 days of the second Trump administration. We spoke with him first via Skype on April 21st, and when Skype refused to function half way through, he graciously agreed to another interview via FaceTime on April 22nd.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

The rise of end times fascism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk

Trump Power Flex Over Universities, Judge Rules on Trump Admin. Contempt, Prof. David Cay Johnston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N09BEuLMi8

Playing Chicken With the Constitution | Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAzzhPSE8i4

Heather Cox Richardson Speech – 250 Year Lantern Anniversary – Old North Church https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv5lfpOMUiE

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-data-collection-hhs-epa-cdc-maternal-mortality

Time for a Civic Uprising https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/opinion/trump-harvard-law-firms.html

Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation http://Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation

The Trump-Harvard showdown is the latest front in a long conservative war against academia https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/20/harvard-trump-conservative-history-academia

Blackfeet tribal members sue feds over Canada tariffs https://montanafreepress.org/2025/04/07/blackfeet-tribal-members-sue-feds-over-canada-tariffs/

‘An Enormous Usurpation’: Inside the Case Against Trump’s Tariffs https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/21/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-legal-arguments-00299467

Six Men Are Charged After Woman Was Dragged From Idaho Town Hall https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/idaho-coeur-dalene-town-hall-charges.html

Don’t believe the doubters: protest still has power https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/22/protest-trump-resistance-power

The Next Terrorist Attack https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-next-terrorist-attack

Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/24/american-refugees-escape

Susanne Mueller Redwood: Competitive Autocracy in the Trump Era

Susanne Mueller Redwood is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Montana State University. Her research focuses on the international dimensions of authoritarianism. She investigates the role that economic cooperation plays in the survival and breakdown of authoritarian regimes. Her work has analyzed the role of trade, central banking, and currency politics under dictatorship, and has been published in different outlets, including the Review of International Political Economy and Cambridge University Press.

The broadcast of this Forthright Radio program ended with an interview by The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York with U.S. historian and author, Marci Shore, who had announced that she — along with her husband, historian Timothy Snyder, and colleague Jason Stanley — would be leaving their posts at Yale University and moving to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto.
It ended with John Lithgow‘s reading of Timothy Snyder‘s 20 Lessons on Tyranny. Due to copyright issues, we do not include them in this recording, however they can be accessed here:

Why this US historian is leaving Trump’s America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJ4rMMYvdo

20 Lessons on Tyranny: by Timothy Snyder / read by John Lithgow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXR5HLodsT8

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Democratic Senate & House members hold shadow hearing on Trump DOJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcP8zEQgUC8

Personalism and the politics of central bank independence under authoritarianism https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09692290.2022.2127118#d1e125

To Save Democracy, Here’s a Playbook That Works https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/opinion/poland-democracy-us.html

Trump’s counter-terror cuts will harm fight against far right, experts warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/30/trump-counter-terrorism-cuts

Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/31/trump-greenland-us-morally-wrong-strategy-disastrous

Logging is quietly ravaging US forests. Trump is taking an axe to protections https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/31/trump-logging-us-forests

Former Trump Cabinet Official Explains Why Trump Loves Tariffs: ‘It’s Personal Power’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ryan-zinke-trump-tariffs-presidential-power_n_67ec11ade4b0c630d055461a

Fraudster-In-Chief On A Pardon Spree Of His Fellow White-Collar Criminals https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-fraud-pardon-spree_n_67eafd86e4b0d17863f2f781

If Putin Designed a Plan to Collapse America, What Would It Look Like? https://hartmannreport.com/p/if-putin-designed-a-plan-to-collapse-2ce

The Path to American Authoritarianism: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump

A turning point for the dollar is coming https://www.ft.com/content/7b97f48b-87e2-4cb3-bd3c-4e963356f109

‘Invasion’ barges, subsea cable cutters and surprise naval drills: how China is testing Donald Trump https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/14/china-taiwan-military-drills-trump-barges-asia-pacific-security

Lydia Reeder and Pagan Kennedy

This edition of Forthright Radio is in two segments. In the first part, award-winning author, Lydia Reeder, discusses her latest book, THE CURE FOR WOMEN: DR. MARY PUTNAM JACOBI AND THE CHALLENGE TO VICTORIAN MEDICINE THAT CHANGED WOMEN’S LIVES FOREVER, published by St. Martin’s Press. It explores the pseudoscience that ties women’s health issues to their reproductive biology, and highlights the women doctors, scientists and suffragists, particularly Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, who fought back against these attempts to control women’s bodies and lives. At the end of her book, she quotes Ely Van De Warker, who wrote, “A woman’s ovaries belong to the Commonwealth; she is merely their custodian.”

We spoke with Lydia Reeder via Skype on March 7th, 2025.

Then, in our second segment, we speak with Pagan Kennedy about her latest book, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE RAPE KIT: A TRUE CRIME STORY. Our interview with Pagan begins at 25:50.

We spoke with Pagan Kennedy on March 10, 2025.

Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll https://web.archive.org/web/20240116123815/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/19/trump-carroll-judge-rape/

Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit for Sexual Assault Examination https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_2009657

‘I screamed and the world listened’: how astronaut Amanda Nguyen survived rape to fight for other victims https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/05/i-screamed-the-world-listened-how-astronaut-amanda-nguyen-survived-rape-fight-for-other-victims

Pronatalists are ascendant on the right. Can they agree on how to make Americans have more babies? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/what-is-pronatalism-right-wing-republican

Idaho’s parental consent law prohibits minors from accessing rape kit exams without parents https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/08/06/idahos-parental-consent-law-prohibits-minors-from-accessing-rape-kit-exams-without-parents/

Idaho’s anti-trans law makes it illegal to medically examine child rape victims https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/08/idahos-anti-trans-law-makes-it-illegal-to-medically-examine-child-rape-victims/

Idaho set to train 250 sexual assault nurse examiners by the end of the year https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/08/09/idaho-set-to-train-250-sexual-assault-nurse-examiners-by-the-end-of-the-year/

Andrew Tate, Accused of Sex Trafficking, Is Trump’s Kind of Guy https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/opinion/andrew-tate-donald-trump.html?searchResultPosition=1

Ultrasound now needed for pill abortions in Wyoming after lawmakers override veto https://apnews.com/article/wyoming-pill-abortion-bill-law-veto-override-087e35a9d245a8d063fc8c047f4fe050

Dana Frank WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION? Stories of Ordinary People & Collective Action in Hard Times

Dana Frank, Professor Emerita of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is a longtime historian of labor, women, and social movements in the US and beyond. For many years she has worked on human rights and US policy in Honduras. She has been an expert witness testifying in the US Congress, The House of Commons in The Canadian Parliament, as well as the CA Legislature.

Among her seven books are Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism; The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup; and, with Robin D.G. Kelly and Howard Zinn, Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century.

Her work has been published in diverse outlets ranging from the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, to Labor Notes, The Nation, The Baffler, The Jacobin, The Progressive, to Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, to mention just a few, as well as in many scholarly publications.

Her latest book is WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION? STORIES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE & COLLECTIVE ACTION IN HARD TIMES, published by Beacon Press.

We spoke with her on February 24, 2025, the third anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, via Skype from her home in Santa Cruz, CA.

‘Fixing a problem we didn’t cause’: the Black Appalachian activists cultivating community power https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/23/black-appalachia-activists

Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump’s FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/neo-nazi-trump-fbi-chief

No Money, No Milk https://hammerandhope.org/article/black-wet-nurses

You Know About the KKK, but What About the Black Legion? https://jacobin.com/2024/10/black-legion-white-supremacist-violence

Donald Trump Has Already Spent $10.7 Million Of Taxpayer Money Playing Golf https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-golf-doge_n_67b50fbfe4b0319f377e6c6a

Kristi Noem Says $200 Million DHS Ad Campaign Thanking Trump Was His Idea https://www.yahoo.com/news/kristi-noem-says-200-million-035856089.html

Lessons for the resistance 2.0 on how to fight back against Trump https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/21/lessons-for-the-resistance-20-on-how-to-fight-back-against-trump

With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa75V-tdBko

Opinion: Trump says he’ll expel a million immigrants. Believe him — it happened before https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-10-10/donald-trump-immigration-repatriados-depression

America Is Pushing Its Workers Into Homelessness https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/opinion/crisis-working-homeless.html

Cory Doctorow: Picks and Shovels

Cory Doctorow is a multiple awards winning author, blogger, critic and activist. He has co-founded an open software company, been the European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and he helped establish their Open Rights Group.
When he left the blog site, Boing Boing after 19 years of co-ownership, MetaFilter called it “the equivalent of the Beatles breaking up for the blog world.” He metablogs currently at pluralistic.net.
Cory Doctorow popularized the term “metacrap” and created the neologism, “enshitification,” which the FCC does not allow us to use on the air, which we replaced with “enpoopification,” defined as “the process of degradation of an online environment caused by greed.”
He is a prolific author in many genres, fiction and nonfiction.
His nonfiction books include: THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATON; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM: HOW BIG TECH AND BIG CONTENT CAPTURED CREATIVE LABOR MARKETS AND HOW WE’LL WIN THEM BACK (written with Rebecca Giblin); and HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM.

His most recent fiction books include THE LOST CAUSE, A NOVEL OF TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION IN OUR POLARIZED FUTURE, which has been described as “A solarpunk, hopepunk novel of the climate emergency, endorsed by Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Rebecca Solnit and Kim Stanley Robinson.” The first of his Martin Hench books, RED TEAM BLUES, which actually features Mendocino County in a small but crucial role, was published in 2023. This was followed by Bezzle, and the third book, which will be published on February 18, 2025, PICKS AND SHOVELS. We spoke with him about it via Skype on February 11, 2025.

Wired Portrait of Cody Doctorow above by Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud (JUCO) 5

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur

Picks and Shovels with Yanis Varoufakis (Jacobin/virtual), Feb 15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4LM

With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It (Indiana University/virtual), Mar 7 https://events.iu.edu/mediaiub/event/1783095-with-great-power-came-no-responsibility-how-enshitti

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

Who is helping Elon Musk gut the US government? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/08/elon-musk-doge-team-staff

Russell Vought: Trump appointee who wants federal workers to be ‘in trauma’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/who-is-russell-vought-trump-office-of-management-and-budget

Trump orders USDA to take down websites referencing climate crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/trump-order-usda-websites-climate-crisis

To Obey or Not to Obey (Masha Gessen) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/opinion/trump-power-surrender.html

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

I met the ‘godfathers of AI’ in Paris – here’s what they told me to really worry about https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/14/ai-godfathers-paris-industry-dangers-future

How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa

Jesse Welles Black Hawks and DEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAswA556a8

Melissa Hornbein & Anne Hedges: MT Supreme Court Ruling Upholds Held Verdict

On December 18, 2024 in a 6-1 ruling, The Montana Supreme Court upheld District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s verdict in favor of the 16 Youth Plaintiffs in the Held v State of Montana case. They had sued the state for violations of their rights to a clean and healthful environment under the Montana State Constitution.

Melissa Hornbein Western Environmental Law Center

After the ruling, I invited Western Environmental Law Center attorney, Melissa Hornbein, a member of the plaintiffs’ legal team, and Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center, whose lawsuits over the decades were cited by Chief Justice Mike McGrath’s opinion, and who had been an expert witness during the trail.

Anne Hedges Montana Environmental Information Center

Below are links to our coverage during the June 2023 trial, as well as other articles, etc. pertinent to the case and our interview.

Text of MT Chief Justice Mike McGrath’s Opinion with Justice Dirk Sandefur’s Concurring Opinion and Justice Jim Rice’s Dissent: https://dailymontanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Opinion-Published.pdf

Text of Helena District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s 2023 Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law : https://mtclimatecase.flatheadbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Findings-of-Fact-Conclusions-of-Law-and-Order.pdf

Testimonies of Witnesses from the June 2023 Trial:

Mae Nan Ellingson http://kgvm.org/show/held-mae-nan-ellingson-testimony-6-12-23/Ricki Held http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-ricki-held-testimony-6-12-23/Dr. Steven Running http://kgvm.org/show/held-dr-steve-running-testimony-6-12-23/Grace Gibson-Snyder http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-grace-testimony/Eva http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-eva-testimony-6-12-23/

Dr. Cathy Whitlock http://kgvm.org/show/held-dr-cathy-whitlock-testimony-6-13-23/Mica http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-mica-testimony-6-13-23/Dr. Daniel Fagre http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-dr-dan-fagre-6-13-23/Badger Busse http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-badge-testimony-6-13-23/

Dr. Lori Byron http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-dr-lori-byron-testimony-6-13-23/

Dr. Shane Doyle http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-shane-doyle-testimony-6-14-23/ Michael Durglo, Jr. http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-michael-durglo-jr/Sariel Sandoval http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-sariel-sandoval-testimony-6-14-23/

Taleah Hernández http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-taleah-hernandez-testimony-6-14-23/ Georgianna Fischer http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-georgianna-fischer-testimony-6-14-23

Kian Tanner http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-kian-tanner-testimony-6-15-23/

Anne Hedges http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-anne-hedges-testimony-6-15-23/

Claire Vlases http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-claire-vlases-testimony-6-15-23/

Peter Erickson http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-peter-erickson-testimony-6-15-23/

Mark Jacobson http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-mark-jacobson-testimony-6-16-23/