The Real News Podcast
Daily Reports, specials, and podcasts by The Real News Network (TRNN). TRNN makes media connecting you to the movements, people, and perspectives that are advancing the cause of a more just, equal, and livable planet. TRNN is a nonprofit media organization. We do not accept advertising revenue or corporate sponsorship.Sign up for our newsletter at therealnews.comText us at (410) 431-0868Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.
Zumbi dos Palmares: Brazil's hero of Black resistance
Nov. 20 is Black Consciousness Day in Brazil. A day celebrating the struggle of Black organizations, people, and movements in Brazil. Celebrating the ongoing fight against racism. And, above all, celebrating the history of Brazilâs most historic Black leader: Zumbi dos Palmares.
He was leader of the great Palmares Quilombo, present-day Alagoas, an autonomous state built by escaped slaves in the 1600s.
Palmares would last for roughly a century. It would grow to a population of tens of thousands of people spread out over 11 towns in the forested mountains and hillsides of northeastern Brazil. And they would de...
What does it mean to be a union member in these times?
Making ends meet in todayâs economy is difficult enough, but with so many societal crises affecting working peopleâs lives on and off the shop floorâfrom mass layoffs to untenable costs of living, from an authoritarian federal government to AI and the climate crisisâit can feel all but impossible. What does it mean to have a union job, to be a union member, and to be part of the labor movement in these overwhelming times? What role do unions and other labor organizations have to play, not just in the fight for economic justice, but in the fight fo...
At COP30, humanity must choose: Fossil fuel industry profits or a livable planet?
The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP30, began on Nov. 10 in BelĂ©m, Brazil, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. This yearâs COP conference has more fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance than any previous conference, but it has also drawn the biggest delegation of Indigenous peoples from around the worldâeach group representing competing visions for addressing the climate crisis. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter at Guardian US, about what actions are and are not being taken at COP30, and what the results of this yearâs clima...
'The Alabama Department of Corrections is a drug cartel'
The Alabama prison system functions like a modern-day plantation: overcrowded, understaffed prisons like Bullock Correctional Facility run on forced labor, violence, and deliberate neglect. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with journalist Matthew Vernon Whalan about his book Bullock: Chronicles of Deprivation and Despair in an American Prison, and about the systematic corruption and inhumane horrors endured daily by incarcerated people in Alabama.
Guest:
Matthew Vernon Whalan is a writer and oral historian living in New England. He is the author of the book Bullock: Chronicles of Deprivation and Despair in...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Monday, November 17, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Monday, November 17, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Starbucks workers strike nationwide
Over 1,000 unionized Starbucks workers in over 40 cities across the US walked off the job on an indefinite Unfair Labor Practice strike on Thursday, Nov. 13. The union, Starbucks Workers United, says more workers at more unionized stores will be joining the picket line during the busy holiday season to pressure Starbucks to return to the bargaining table with proposals that seriously address workersâ ongoing demands regarding better pay and work hours, safe staffing, and resolving the hundreds of Unfair Labor Practice charges that have been filed against the coffee giant. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez reports on the ground from the picket li...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Friday, November 14, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Friday, November 14, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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How farmers fought the banks and won: Penny auctions in the Great Depression
It was the Great Depression. Early 1930s. United States. More than a thousand mortgages a day were being foreclosed on. Hundreds of thousands of families were losing their homes each year.Â
Times were hard for everyone. Especially hard for farmers. But neighbors found a way to push back and help their friends in a very creative way. They called it a penny auction.
BIG NEWS! This podcast has won Gold in this yearâs Signal Awards for best history podcast! Itâs a huge honor. Thank you so much to everyone who voted and supported.Â
And pl...
âThis is the hill to die on for universitiesâ: Free speech can survive Trump, but not without a fight
Historian David Hollinger connects the history of the 1964 free speech movement in Berkeley, California, to the protest movements and repressive crackdowns on free speech gripping universities today. In this episode of the Marc Steiner Show, co-hosted by Marc Steiner and Michael Fox, Hollinger draws on his firsthand experience and decades of research to explain the lessons we can learn from 1960s civil rights activists and antiwar organizers about how to defend free speech and academic freedom from extinction today.
Guest:
David A. Hollinger is the Preston Hotchkis Professor of History Emeritus at the University of...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Thursday, November 13, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Thursday, November 13, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.
'We're done': Starbucks workers prepare for indefinite national strike
Four years after the first Starbucks store in the US unionized in 2021, workers across the country are still facing rampant union busting and still fighting for a first contract with the coffee giant. That is why a supermajority of unionized baristas with Starbucks Workers United recently voted to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike, which is set to begin on Thursday, Nov. 13, on âRed Cup Day,â in over 25 cities around the US. âUnion baristas mean business and are ready to do whatever it takes to win a fair contract and end Starbucksâ unfair labor practices,â says Michelle Eisen, Starbucks Workers United spo...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Wednesday, November 12, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Nora Loreto's news headlines for Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Tuesday, November 11, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Inside the modern-day plantation: How theater confronts incarceration
Rattling the Bars's Mansa Musa explores how a one-woman play, The Peculiar Patriot, reveals the human cost of mass incarceration and the enduring ties between slavery and the prison system. The artist behind the play, Liza Jessie Peterson, has worked with incarcerated youth for decades, bringing their stories to the stage and to national audiences. Performed in more than 35 US prisons and filmed at Louisianaâs Angola Prisonâonce a plantation, now a maximum-security facilityâthe play became the basis of the documentary, Angola: Do You Hear Us? (Paramount Plus / Amazon Prime). As the fight for abolition and prison re...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Friday, November 7, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Friday, November 7, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
Become a supporter of this podcast:Â https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.
Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.
...
Weâve reached the âshow me your papersâ stage of American authoritarianism
Just 11 months into his second term, President Trump has harnessed the brutal power of the federal government to go to war with American cities, communities, and citizens. Since the launch of âOperation Midway Blitzâ in September, Chicago has become the epicenter of the Trump administrationâs assault on immigrants, protestors, and political opponents, but Chicagoans on the front lines of that assault say the reality is even worse than people think. In this episode of the Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with CODEPINK national co-director Danaka Katovich to get an on-the-ground view of the federal siege of Chicago and the powerf...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Thursday, November 6, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Thursday, November 6, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.
Campus life is unrecognizable in the Trump era: âThereâs so many cops everywhereâ
Life on college campuses has changed dramatically in the last 10 months. While institutions of higher education continue to reel from the Trump administrationâs top-down attacks and scramble to adjust, workers on campus say that their universities are simultaneously expanding their own internal repression and surveillance apparatuses to squash dissent. In this episode, we speak with a panel of graduate student workers and union members from Columbia University and the University of Michigan about the chilling new reality on their campuses and what itâs like to live, learn, and work there today.Â
Panelists include; Vayne, a PhD candi...
Why more mega-prisons wonât fix Alabamaâs crisis
From chronic overcrowding and inmate deaths to systematic abuse and lawbreaking by corrections officers, prison conditions in the state of Alabama have reached a crisis point. And yet, state leaders continue to push an âAlabama solutionâ that involves building more mega-prisons and expanding qualified immunity for officers. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with Dakarai Larriett, a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Alabama, about about the true cost of Alabamaâs carceral crisis and his vision for an alternative vision of criminal justice. Guest:Dakarai Larriett is a community leader, entrepreneur, and Democratic candidate for US...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Wednesday, November 5, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.
Tupac Amaru IIâs Indigenous uprising against colonial Spain | Stories of Resistance
In the late 1700s, Indigenous peoples in the Spanish colonies of the Andes were forced to work for the Spanish. They tilled the land, worked in the textile mills and the mines. Those that didnât faced heavy taxes. But in early November 1780, Indigenous Incan leader Tupac Amaru II led an uprising against the Spanish that he hoped would end it all.
It was the largest revolt against colonial Spain. Thousands would join the months-long rebellion. It would inspire uprisings elsewhere across the continent, and independence leaders. South America would gain its freedom from Spain just 40 years later.
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.
NYC Voters want real change. They hope the next mayor can deliver it.
Taya Graham and Stephen Janis speak with voters in Harlem just 24 hours before the NYC mayoral election about what issues are important to them, what they think of the frontrunner candidate Zohran Mamdani, what they think of his opponent, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and what they want the mayor to do for them.
Credits:Pre-Production: Taya Graham/Stephen Janis
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.
Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly...
NYC taxi drivers remember: Mamdani didnât forget them
In 2021, when New York City taxi drivers were dying by suicide and others were going on hunger strike, begging City Hall for relief from the debt trap that had set them up for failure and financial ruin, a young NY Assemblyperson named Zohran Mamdani stood with them. Now, taxi drivers are standing with Mamdani in his bid to become the next mayor of New York City. Reporting on the ground in New York, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Yellow Cab driver-owner and NY Taxi Workers Alliance member Mouhamadou Aliyu about the ongoing struggle for justice for NY taxi driversâan...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Monday, November 3, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Monday, November 3, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Zohran Mamdani: Building working-class power in NYC
Just a year ago almost no one had ever heard of him. Just a name in a crowd. A fairly obscure member of the New York State Assembly. Just one in a packed pool of Democratic candidates running for mayor of New York City. A longshot. Now he is the leading candidate in the cityâs mayoral race next Tuesday, November 4. A \Democratic socialist who has ignited a movement. A glimmer of hope amid dark days. Hope for not just New York City, but elsewhere around the country, and a road map for other progressive candidates.
BIG NEWS! Th...
Life after genocide: A Gazanâs message to the world about the ceasefire
In September, before the current ceasefire deal was announced, we spoke with two Palestinians in GazaâMohamed Abu Tawila (a former English teacher) and his nephew Abdul Rahman (a would-be college student)âabout surviving 700 days of genocidal destruction at the hands of Israelâs military and with the full backing of the United States. In this critical follow-up episode, we speak once again with Mohamed Abu Tawila from Gaza to get an on-the-ground account of life for Palestinians after the shaky implementation of the ceasefire began on Oct. 10.
Additional links/info:
Mohamedâs Instagram accountLiving Water Mut...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Friday, October 31, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Friday, October 31, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Nora Loreto's news headlines for Thursday, October 30, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Thursday, October 30, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Workers replaced by AI have a dire warning for the world
In this special crossover edition of Working People and The Marc Steiner Show, hosts Maximillian Alvarez and Marc Steiner examine how the âartificial intelligenceâ (AI) boom is shaping the economy and the impact it is already havingâand will continue to haveâon working peopleâs lives, livelihoods, and jobs. Alvarez and Steiner speak with two members of a new mutual aid and advocacy group called Stop Gen AI, which formed this year out of the critical need to provide material support for creatives, knowledge workers, and anyone else impacted by generative AI.
Guests:
Kim Crawley is...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Wednesday, October 29, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Nora Loreto's news headlines for Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Tuesday, October 28, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Resisting ICE
ICE agents are detaining thousands of people a day from communities across the country. But people are resisting. And itâs having an impact. Millions have protested in recent weeks, from the #NoKings rally to demonstrations in front of immigration detention centers, and protests against ICE in their communities. Neighbors in one Chicago suburb pushed back by yelling and honking car horns when ICE agents descended on their community. Elsewhere theyâve handed out thousands of whistles to neighbors at risk. And people are lifting up their cell phone cameras and their voices, and putting their bodies on the line to f...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Monday, October 27, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Monday, October 27, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Nora Loreto's news headlines for Friday, October 24, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Friday, October 24, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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A civil rights iconâs advice for combatting Trump, ICE, and fascism today | The Marc Steiner Show
While each period is historically unique, veterans and scholars of the civil rights movement say there are some important similarities between the era of Jim Crow and racial segregation and our current moment. One similarity, as author and professor Joshua Clark Davis notes, is the role that local law enforcement plays in enforcing regimes of racial oppression and attacking the movements opposed to them. But, as civil rights Icon Judy Richardson argues, there are also critical similarities when it comes to organizing and executing successful resistance efforts then and now. In this extended episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Thursday, October 23, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Thursday, October 23, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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This government shutdown is not like the others: Furloughed federal workers explain
The federal government shutdown is now in its fourth week. Over 700,000 federal employees have been furloughed, with nearly as many continuing to work without pay, yet there are still no signs that an end to the shutdown is near. âUnlike past presidents, Mr. Trump appears to feel little urgency to strike a deal to reopen the government,â Luke Broadwater writes at The New York Times. âInstead, he has used the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, as an opportunity to further remake the federal bureaucracy and jettison programs he does not like, seizing on unorthodox budgetary maneuvers that some have called illegal.â In this...
Nora Loreto's news headlines for Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Wednesday, October 22, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
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Nora Loreto's news headlines for Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Tuesday, October 21, 2025.
TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and worldwide.
Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.
Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.
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