activism | Forthright Radio

Our guests today on this edition of Forthright Radio are co-authors of a new book, SOMEBODY SHOULD DO SOMETHING: HOW ANYONE CAN HELP CREATE SOCIAL CHANGE, published by MIT Press.

Michael Brownstein is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at John Jay College, as well as Professor of Philosophy at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York. He is the author of THE IMPLICIT MIND: Cognitive Architecture, the Self, and Ethics.

Alex Madva is Professor of Philosophy , Director of the California Center for Ethics and Policy, as well as Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Consortium at Cal Poly Pomona. He is a co-editor of An Introduction on Implicit Bias: Knowledge, justice, and the social mind.; and THE MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES: Philosophical Perspectives.

Not joining us, but also co-author of SOMEBODY SHOULD DO SOMETHING is Daniel Kelly, Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University and author of YUCK! THE NATURE AND MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DISGUST.

They explore the question “Climate Change, racial injustice, systemic inequality – it’s all so huge – What difference can one person make?” They write, “We’re not wonks. We’re three philosophers frustrated by the wrong lessons we were taught about these problems.”

We spoke with them via Zoom on September 22, 2025.

Keep America Beautiful: The Crying Indian (1970) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sxwGlTLWw

Keep America Beautiful – Crying Indian on Horseback https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_QGBWaD-A4

Controversial 1970s “Crying Indian” ad donated to the National Congress of American Indians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfH72-SziMA

Climate activists gather in New York for ‘Sun Day’ solar energy and anti-billionaire rallies https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/22/sun-day-climate-new-york

Trump DoJ seeks to kill Vermont law that makes big oil pay for climate harm https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/trump-vermont-oil-climate-superfund-act

I have now been a journalist for 40 years. The forces ranged against my profession have never been so powerful https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/20/journalist-40-years-forces-profession-power

Political Violence Isn’t New. But Something About This Moment Is. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/magazine/tyler-robinson-political-violence.html

I Look at This Country and I See a Stranger by M. Gessen https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/opinion/trump-kirk-trans-people-russia.html

From Nazi Germany to Trump’s America: why strongmen rely on women at home https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/sep/21/fascism-women-homemaker-trad-wife

Judith Butler is being targeted by the US government. We must stand up https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/22/judith-butler-is-being-targeted-by-the-us-government-we-must-stand-up

“It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.” from A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism

In this edition of Forthright Radio, we welcome back Professor Henry Giroux, who holds the McMaster University’s Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department, and who is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. He is a prolific author and journalist. His books -more than 65 – include AMERICA AT WAR WITH ITSELF; DISPOSABLE FUTURES: VIOLENCE IN THE AGE OF SPECTACLE; HEARTS OF DARKNESS: TORTURING CHILDREN IN THE WAR ON TERROR; ZOMBIE POLITICS AND CULTURE IN THE AGE OF CASINO CAPITALISM, and THE VIOLENCE OF ORGANIZED FORGETTING.

Articles by Professor Giroux cited in this interview include:

A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism https://truthout.org/articles/a-democracy-in-exile-fights-against-fascism/

Trump’s Racist Language of Pollution Drives His Neoliberal Fascism https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-racist-language-of-pollution-drives-his-neoliberal-fascism/

Striking Teachers Beat Back Neoliberalism’s War on Public Schools https://truthout.org/articles/striking-teachers-beat-back-neoliberalism-s-war-on-public-schools/

Neoliberal Fascism and the Echoes of History https://www.truthdig.com/articles/neoliberal-fascism-and-the-echoes-of-history/

Henry A. Giroux on Developing a Language of Liberation for Radical Transformation https://truthout.org/articles/henry-a-giroux-on-developing-a-language-of-liberation-for-radical-transformation/

Trump’s act of state terrorism against children https://theconversation.com/trumps-act-of-state-terrorism-against-children-98612

Neoliberalism in the Age of Pedagogical Terrorism https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/22/neoliberalism-in-the-age-of-pedagogical-fascism/

Killing Children in the Age of Disposability: The Parkland Shooting Was About More Than Gun Violence https://truthout.org/articles/killing-children-in-the-age-of-disposability-the-parkland-shooting-was-about-more-than-gun-violence/

Education as a Weapon of Struggle: Rethinking the Parkland Uprising in the Age of Mass Violence https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/26/education-as-a-weapon-of-struggle-rethinking-the-parkland-uprising-in-the-age-of-mass-violence/

Donald Trump’s fascist politics and the language of disappearance https://www.salon.com/2018/11/18/donald-trumps-fascist-politics-and-the-language-of-disappearance/