Episodes

During the week when President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address, we went OUTSIDE the White House, where the cry was SHUT IT DOWN, meaning shut down the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay Prison, site of indefinite detention and torture. Also, authors and artists of a new book, WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN!: Twenty First Century Movements and the Activists that are transforming our World visit the nation’s capital. Headlines include “Side-Eye on Election 2016” with Jamila Bey and Amy Alexander,...

Activists gear up for President Obama’s final State of the Union Address. Topics include Witness Against Torture, the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty, the Black Radical Tradition Conference in Philadelphia and “Y’All Qaeda” in Oregon. Other Headlines: Activists like Moms Demands Action on Sensible Gun Laws enjoy a victory. Services announced for Dr. Frances Cress Welsing. Town Hall on Cove Point. Texas state trooper Brian Encinia charged with perjury yesterday in connection to the traffic stop ...

‘Can’t Stop, Wont Stop’—WPFW Pacifica’s year-end live special on social activism in the nation’s capital, reviewing 2015 and looking forward to 2016 for such urgent issues and movements, including Black Lives Matter, Climate Justice, and economic Justice. With Gerald Horne, Barbara Arnwine, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Kevin Zeese, Makini Owusu of APPEAL,Tawanda Jones, Sister of Tyrone West slain in Baltimore, and much more—music, poetry, voices of protest from 2015 right here in the belly of the beast...

Voices from the 10th Anniversary of the Sunday Kind of Love poetry series held December 20, 2015 at Busboys and Poets in DC. Like WPFW’s Sunday Kind of Love music program, the poetry series takes its name from the popular 1940’s jazz standard. The poetry program is produced by Split this Rock, poems of provocation and witness, which evolved from DC Poets Against the War. BROADCAST INCLUDES THE FIRST HOUR OF THE ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM. THE LAST HOUR IS POSTED HERE IN TWO PARTS AS A WEB EXCLUSIVE. T...

On our final segment of The F-Word this year, Esther Iverem looks back at 2015 and look forward to 2016 with activist Medea Benjamin. And why is the race for the U.S. presidency a scary circus with scary clowns? Jamila Bey offers lumps of coal for GOP contenders for the presidency. Guest: Medea Benjamin. Other voices: attorney Billy Murphy, Palestinian activist Rajaa Natour, Pakistani activist Erum Haider, journalist Zaid Jilani, Chris Christie and Hillary Clinton. Headlines on the mistrial in t...

Ron Davis, whose son Jordan Davis was shot to death by Michael Dunn after a dispute over loud rap music at a Florida gas station, talks about the award-nominated documentary “3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets” and about the economic boycott to support Black lives. Also, Side-Eye on the creeping fascism of Election 2016 and headlines on Catharsis on the Mall, paid family leave legislation in DC and a new report from the Alabama Justice Center about White supremacists on a police force targeting young Bla...

As the world continues to reel from terror attacks, activists marched in DC this week against economic violence—the violence that would be wrought by the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty or TPP, a global corporate takeover that is flying under the radar as Congress must vote in the coming weeks to approve it or not approve it. Also, what’s next for activists opposing the takeover of our utility, PEPCO, by the Chicago nuclear giant Exelon. Side-Eye explores the 2016 Presidential race. GUESTS AND ...

An extended conversation with veteran activist and organizer Makani Themba, who is stepping down as executive director of The Praxis Project, which has raised more than $20 million for advocacy organizations working in communities of color nationwide. Now 13 years after she founded Praxis, she is turning over the reins of the organization to the next generation of leadership, and Makani will be celebrated November 14 in the DMV at Busboys and Poets in Hyattsville, MD. Headlines on “Our Generatio...

Today, we’re on the ground with activists for the environment and humanity’s survival to talk about a victory. The big news this week is that the company Trans Canada asked the Obama Administration to postpone consideration of its proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring carbon-intensive tar sands oil-sludge from Alberta, Canada to Texas for export. And, as it turns out, that request sounds pretty much like the deal is dead because president Obama has responded that he has n...

OCTOBER 29, 2015 Based on deceptively edited videos showing a Planned Parenthood staffer discussing donated fetal tissue for research, Republicans in Congress have held hearings, attempted to defund Planned Parenthood and have even threatened to shut down the government in order to attempt the defunding. In the crazy circus that is the Republican presidential primary, the leaders—Ben Carson and Donald Trump—jockey to appear the most opposed to a woman’s right to choose. In the meantime, Planned ...

OCTOBER 22, 2015 Today, a history of social justice. We speak with prolific author and activist Gerald Horne about his new book, Confronting Black Jacobins: The U.S., the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic. The book chronicles the world and historic impact of the Haitian Revolution, which was the product of the first successful slave revolt. Not only did the leading powers then—France, Great Britain, and Spain—suffer a huge beatdown, the revolt by enslaved Africans had...

OCTOBER 15, 2015 Following up the October 10 “Justice or Else” march and the first Democratic presidential debate, this show focuses on activism and economics. We speak to Black Lives Matter activist Kymone Freeman and activist Ruth Caplan, about new initiatives to create more control over our public dollars. Then in the second half of the show, ‘The F Word,’ our monthly discussion of fascism and pre-fascism. This month’s guest is Jon Jeter, former Washington Post reporter, Facebook iconoclast, ...

OCTOBER 8, 2015 The run-up to the October 10, 2015 “Justice or Else” rally, the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. We talk to a march organizer and the DC chapter of the National Black United Front. Also, what Dr. Chu Chu Onwuachi-Saunders is doing to focus on and help girls and another doctor, Dr. Margaret Flowers who got arrested Monday protesting the US bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan, is in-studio. Other guests and voices: Salim Adofo, DJ Wise, Min. Louis Farrakhan, Robert Reich...

OCTOBER 1, 2015 More voices from the September 24, 2015 Moral Action on Climate Justice Rally, a national and international mobilization of musicians, faith leaders and climate activists, including the Rev. William Barber of the Moral Monday Movement, musicians like Sean Paul and also Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union. Part 1 https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/OTG-OCT1-2015.PART1_.mp3 Part 2 https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06...

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 This expanded, two-and-a-half-hour edition includes coverage of Pope Francis in Washington, DC and what he and activists have to say on issues of climate justice, immigration, income inequality and the controversial canonization of Junipero Serra, who established Catholic missions in California that historians say led to the extermination of tens of thousands of indigenous people. Voices include Archbishop George Augustus Stallings, founder of the Imani Temple African-American...

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 This month’s installment of “The F Word” is all about the migration crisis and the root of that crisis in imperialist wars, plunder and destruction. Also, anti-war activists supporting the Iran-nuclear deal celebrate a victory and there are actions to end the blockade on Cuba. Guests: Gerald Horne and Arturo Viscarra. Other voices: speakers at the anti-war rally sponsored by MoveOn.org and Gail Walker of Pastors for Peace at the action to end the Cuba blockade. Headlines and m...

SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 At a town hall meeting called by the ACLU, residents of Ward 8 in Washington, DC express frustration with Mayor Muriel Bowser’s new anti-crime plan that they say targets their community without helping it. Also, protesters give Saudi Arabia’s king an UN-royal welcome at the White House. Voices include Medea Benjamin,the Rev. Joseph Evans, Tyrone Parker and Eugene Puryear. Headlines and more. https://onthegroundshow.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/OTG-SEPT10-2015.mp3

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 Can a new law in Illinois set a national standard to end killings and torture by police? We talk to attorney Flint Taylor who has been revealing what is criminal in the criminal justice system for more than 45 years, from the 1969 assassination of Black Panther Fred Hampton by the Chicago Police and FBI to today’s cases of torture in Chicago. Also, voices of “Heroes, Not Looters” after Hurricane Katrina. Guest: Attorney G. Flint Taylor. Other voices, A. Dwight Pettit, Jon Swain...

AUGUST 27, 2015 In a huge David-versus-Goliath victory for activists, The D.C. Public Service Commission denies the proposal by Exelon for a $6.4 billion takeover of the DMV’s electrical utility Pepco. And, on this fourth Thursday dedicated to arts and activism, two movies about social justice: “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and “Rosenwald.” Guest: Aviva Kempner. Other voices: Stanley Nelson, friends of activist Sylvia Robinson wish her a happy birthday. Headlines and more. ht...

AUGUST 20, 2015 Salon writer Andrew O’Hehir and WPFW host Garland Nixon join us to talk about police and the “true face of American fascism” for this month’s installment of “The F Word.” Also, disenfranchised men and women in Baltimore take to the streets to talk about “the new Jim Crow.”. Headlines include funeral services for Julian Bond, former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling blasts civil rights organizations, protests against Arctic drilling and the culture and media moment includes “Straight O...