Episodes

This episode features two amazing women doing hugely important things for our democracy. Our first guest is Amanda Litman. Amanda is the co-founder and executive director of Run for Something, an organization supporting young candidates running in state and local elections. Later in the program, we hear from Kat Calvin, founder and executive director of Spread the Vote, a non-profit dedicated to clearing obstacles that keep poor people from getting the IDs needed to vote. Have you made your vot...

Elizabeth Lesser is a bestselling author and the cofounder of Omega Institute, the renowned conference and retreat center located in Rhinebeck, New York. Elizabeth’s first book, The Seeker’s Guide, chronicles her years at Omega and distills lessons learned into a potent guide for growth and healing. Her New York Times bestselling book, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow, has sold almost 500,000 copies and has been translated into 20 languages. Her newest book Cassandra Speaks: Whe...

Julian Castro has been many things: Mayor of San Antonio, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama Administration, Author of An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream, 2018 presidential candidate, and now is hosting the new podcast "Our America." He’s a brilliant advocate for making sure everyone who is searching can find the American Dream

Our guest this week is Ebony Underwood. Ebony is a Soros Justice Fellow and the daughter of William Underwood, who has served decades of a cruel and unnecessarily harsh mandatory life sentence without parole. As the founder and CEO of We Got Us Now, Ebony is an advocate for children impacted by parental incarceration and keeping families connected and doing incredible and important work.

In the new book Shattering Glass: A Nasty Woman Anthology, Kelli Stanley of Nasty Woman Press brought together essays from so many remarkable women, and she’s brought two of them here with her today. From 1993-2017, Barbara Boxer represented California in the United States Senate, where she was a hero for women’s rights. Valerie Plame served as an undercover agent in the CIA protecting our national interests until she was outed by senior members of the Bush Administration. All three of these rem...

Chris Murphy is the United States Senator From Connecticut. Before his election to the senate in 2012, he served the people of Connecticut’s fifth congressional district in the House of Representatives. He’s the author of the remarkable new book The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy. This powerful examination traces the roots of violence in America to our shameful history of slavery and American gun culture. It is now available to order.

Fred Guttenberg is the first person we’ve asked back on the podcast for a second episode. His brother Michael was a doctor and a 9/11 responder who died in 2017 from 9/11 related cancer. Fred's family was still grieving when his daughter Jaime was murdered five months later in the Parkland school shooting. But rather than run from it, Fred’s spent every second of every day fighting to make sure it never happened again. His new book Find the Helpers: What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recover...

In 40% of presidential elections this century, the electoral college selected a candidate who lost the popular vote. This institution results in mostly white, rural voters having votes which count much, much more than voters of color in more populous locations. We've asked Jesse Wegman on this episode to discuss the electoral college and efforts to mitigate it. Jesse is a New York Times Editorial Board member and the author of Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electo...

The United States Postal Service is under attack—from our own government. Donald Trump, terrified of a landslide loss, is manipulating the mail to make it harder to vote. And his new Postmaster General is a nightmare. Louis DeJoy has financial holdings in post office contractors and competitors and has been sabotaging the Post Office’s ability to sort and deliver mail in a timely fashion. Alyssa Milano asked New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney on the show to talk about it. Carolyn is the Chai...

Shockingly, in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century, children and teachers are being forced back into schools at the risk of their own lives. Already, we’ve seen outbreaks in schools across the nation, and a president that refuses to bow to science in a sick attempt at political gain. Nicholas Ferroni is a nationally recognized educator and activist who educates, mentors and inspires students to reach their goals while driving a national dialogue about education reform. He joined Alyssa...

Ron Klain served as Chief of Staff to both Vice President Gore and Vice President Biden before being appointed by President Obama as his Ebola Czar in 2014. He’s now an advisor to the Biden Campaign who appeared at the Democratic National Convention. He has amazing first-hand insight into the problems and opportunities facing America today.

Last year, Katie Hill left the House of Representatives after her abusive ex-husband released personal photos of her without her consent. In a swarm of misogyny and puritanical faux outrage of these photos, the 30-year-old Congresswoman was railroaded out of office. But Katie’s not done. Since leaving office, she’s started a PAC, a Podcast, and is the author of the newly released book She Will Rise.

Representing Ohio’s 13th district since 2013, Tim Ryan has been a stalwart voice for blue-collar workers and manufacturing jobs. He ran for the Democratic nomination for president in the 2020 elections. More recently, he’s been working with Urban Yogis on Breathe for Eight, a mindfulness campaign in support of racial justice.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who has been representing California’s 13th district since 1999. She was the only person in Congress to vote against the expanded use of force authorization immediately after the 9/11 attacks and has been a constant force for peace in Congress since. She is working now to advance a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Commission through Congress.

In 2018 Doug Jones won a special election to replace Jeff Sessions in the United States Senate. Since then, he’s been one of the few members who can reach across the aisle and find common ground on important issues affecting veterans, access to healthcare, and more. Doug’s a moderate, and a former prosecutor who tried the people who bombed the 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham. He’s up for reelection in 2020, and he joined Alyssa Milano to make the case as to why he is the right person to...

In 2016, disinformation from foreign sources like Russia had a devastating effect on our domestic politics, and we’re still paying the price. They’re not stopping in 2020, and their tactics are expanding. It’s so important to understand what’s happening and what we can do about it, so we’ve invited Nina Jankowicz on the show. Nina is the Disinformation Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She’s also the author of the new book “How to Lose the Information War: Russia, ...

For nearly thirty years, women in the Mexican border city of Juarez have been disappearing, many of them turning up dead in mass graves. We don’t know who the killers are. Very few people have been charged, and fewer convicted. My guests today have been dedicated to finding out why. Oz Woloshyn and Monica Oritz Uribe, host the amazing podcast Forgotten: The women of Juarez, the final episode of which is now available. It's both a powerful true crime story and an important human rights story that...

Richie Reseda experienced the school to prison pipeline first-hand when he was sentenced to ten years in prison as a teenager. While incarcerated, Richie started Success Stories, a feminist group for prisoners which gained national attention. He’s a wonderful musician, a talented designer, and a leader in the fight for abolition of police and prisons. He has such an inspiring story and gives us so much hope for the future.

In the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many more people, criminal justice reform has surged to the forefront of the national debate. From the racial biases in policing to the criminalization of poverty and for-profit prisons, our criminal justice system is broken. We've asked Alyssa Milano's friend Eliza Orlins on the show this week to talk about these issues and more. Eliza spent years as a public defender in New York City and is now a candidate for Manhattan...

Our guest this week is A.G., co-host of the brilliant podcasts Mueller She Wrote and the Daily Beans. She’s also a Navy veteran who experienced sexual assault while serving and a former Veterans Affairs department staffer who lost her job in Trump’s loyalty purges. Her experience, insight, and humor can teach all of us. And just a warning—this episode contains frank discussions of sexual assault and trauma.

Many of you may be surprised by our guest for this episode. David Frum is a proud conservative, having served in the George W. Bush administration as a speechwriter, where he is credited with coining the phrase “axis of evil.” He and I don’t agree on a lot of things. But it turns out Donald Trump is the great uniter after all. Following on the success of his book Trumpocracy, David has just released his book Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy. It’s a powerful argument against Trumpism, ...

Today’s episode is a treat. We’ve invited David Litt, one of President Obama’s speechwriters, on to the show. He’s very funny, and we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t a bittersweet interview remembering when we had a president who had a sense of humor and was able to complete a sentence. David’s got a new book out, Democracy in One Book or Less, and we think you’ll find our conversation inspiring. I know we sure did.

This special Juneteenth Eve episode features Ben Jealous. Ben is the newly elected president of People for the American Way, the former Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, and the youngest person ever elected to be president of the NAACP. He’s a brilliant organizer, a great mind, and has truly deep knowledge of American history. It’s an honor to welcome him to the show.

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Stephon Clark. Tamir Rice. Michael Brown. Philando Castile. John Crawford. Akai Gurley. Freddie Gray. We say their names over and over again. The list never stops. Black and Brown Americans murdered by police at wildly disproportionate rates, and a white America which refuses to surrender our power and privilege to stop this from happening. And in the middle of the latest national response to the murder of George Floyd comes Juneteenth. It’s a commem...