Episodes
Monday Apr 10, 2023
Monday Apr 10, 2023
A new report from ProPublica exposed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s secret luxury trips from megadonor Harlan Crow. Thomas never disclosed the gifts as required by law. Republican media is crying about it wondering why people are being so mean to billionaires and their minions.
Tennessee House Republicans expelled two black representatives for protesting guns.
It doesn’t get any better for the Catholic Church. A new report on the Baltimore Diocese released last week shows more than 150 priests sexually abused more than 600 children over the past 80 years. The Church knew and covered it up. NOT just a couple bad apples.
New court rulings look to ban the abortion medication Mifepristone as two cases are likely headed the Supreme Court.
Jean Kwok, author of Central Bucks newly banned - sorry, “challenged” - book, Girl in Translation is heading to the school board to contest the board’s move.
Perkiomen Valley students stage a walkout to protest new moves to ban books at their schools.
Kutztown University joins in the austerity game, putting four programs in moratorium including Spanish, Philosophy, German, and Spanish Education.
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
This week I welcome Karen Feridun back to the show. Karen is the founder of Berks Gas Truth and co-founder of Better Path Coalition who organize the PA Climate Convergence. We'll be talking about a renewed push for hydrogen to power a green economy coupled with initiatives for carbon capture and storage. Sounds great, right? We'll get to the truth of the matter.
This October the PA Climate Convergence will bring advocates, activists, and concerned residents to Harrisburg to tell Gov. Shapiro, lawmakers, and regulators that they are having the wrong conversation on climate and need to change their stance. We’ll talk about why lawmakers are keeping PA from being part of the solution to the climate crisis and what all of us can do to change that.
LINKS:
- Berks Gas Truth: https://gastruth.org/
- PA Climate Convergence: https://www.pennsylvaniaclimateconvergence.org/
- Better Path Coalition: https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Monday Mar 27, 2023
This week I welcome Cyril Mychalejko back to the show. Cyril is the editor-in-chief of the Bucks County Beacon and host of their bimonthly podcast, "The Signal." On today's show, we'll be digging into the latest with the creeping extremism on Bucks County school boards and the people working to take back public schools from right-wing ideologues. We'll also get the latest updates from the Beacon and their current fundraising drive to support and expand hard-hitting, independent media in Bucks County.
LINKS:
- Bucks County Beacon: https://buckscountybeacon.com/
- Support the Beacon: https://buckscountybeacon.com/support-the-beacon/
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Monday Mar 20, 2023
This week I welcome Alan Gratz to the show. We'll be talking about his latest #1 New York Times bestselling young adult novel, Two Degrees and the controversy over the Kutztown Area School District's canceling their "One Book, Once School" middle school program that was set to read Two Degrees. Why did they cancel reading his book? It's a familiar story of right-wing extremism infecting our schools. Right-wing members on the school board and in the community objected to reading a book that accepted the reality and the threats posed by climate change.
On April 15th, Gratz will be one of the Featured Speakers at the 25th Annual Kutztown University Children's Literature Conference. In the wake of the decision by the Kutztown Area School District to cancel their "One School, One Book" program, he made extra time to meet with the community while in town. He will be doing two events at Firefly Bookstore in Kutztown on April 15th as well. At the evening event, he will be interviewed by Joslyn Diffenbaugh, founder of the local Teen Banned Book Club. Details for the events can be found on Firefly Bookstore's Facebook page and through the links in the show notes.
Alan Gratz is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels and graphic novels for young readers, including Two Degrees, Captain America: The Ghost Army, Ground Zero, Refugee, Allies, Prisoner B-3087, and Ban This Book. A Knoxville, Tennessee native, Alan is now a full-time writer living in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and daughter. Learn more about him online at www.alangratz.com.
LINKS:
- Alan Gratz's home page: https://www.alangratz.com/about/
- Get Two Degrees at your local bookstore: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781338735673
- Firefly Bookstore events on April 15: https://bit.ly/40nVH4m
- Article: "In Kutztown schools, the right's culture warriors block a book on climate change," by Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer: https://bit.ly/3Kk3ACR
- Article: "Kutztown One Book, One School literacy program halted after outcry over book's focus on climate change," by Lisa Mitchell, The Reading Eagle: https://bit.ly/3ZMzywI
- Kutztown Organized for Educational Excellence (KOFEE): https://www.kofee.info/
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Monday Mar 06, 2023
Monday Mar 06, 2023
This week I welcome Rohan Montgomery to the show. We'll be talking about his recent articles in In These Times about revolt against corporate greed in the tabletop role-playing gaming community - specifically Dungeons & Dragons - and labor organizing by anime voice actors.
Rohan's piece, "Slaying the Gold-Hungry Dragon" reports on the Dungeons & Dragons community epic victory against corporate greed. In "Anime Voice Actors Speak Out: It's Not Kawaii When We Aren't Paid," he dives into organizing fights by anime voice-actors for fair pay and better working conditions.
Rohan Montgomery is a journalist and fact-checker. His work has appeared in the BBC, The New Republic, and In These Times.
LINKS:
- Rohan Montgomery, "Slaying the Gold-Hungry Dragon," In These Times | https://bit.ly/3kTyebQ
- Rohan Montgomery, "Anime Actors Speak Out: It's Not Kawaii When We Aren't Paid," In These Times | https://bit.ly/41MPCQc
- Follow Rohan on Twitter @RohanMontroro | https://twitter.com/RohanMontroro
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Monday Feb 27, 2023
Monday Feb 27, 2023
This week I welcome Dr. Patricia Roberts-Miller to the show. We'll be talking about her book, Demagoguery and Democracy and her work on the continued threat a culture of demagoguery poses to democracy, equity, and justice. In Demagoguery and Democracy she writes, "Demagoguery isn't about what politicians do; it's about how we, as citizens, argue, reason, and vote. Therefore, reducing how much our culture relies on demagoguery is our problem, and up to us to solve."
Patricia Roberts-Miller, formerly Director of the University Writing Center and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin, is a scholar of train wrecks in public deliberation—that is, times that communities made decisions they later regretted, although they had all the information they needed to make better ones.
In addition to Demagoguery and Democracy, she is the author of Speaking of Race: Constructive Conversations About an Explosive Topic (2021), Rhetoric and Demagoguery (2019; finalist Rhetoric Society of America book of the year), Fanatical Schemes: Proslavery Rhetoric and the Tragedy of Consensus (2009), Deliberate Conflict: Composition Classes and Political Spaces (2004), Voices in the Wilderness: The Paradox of the Puritan Public Sphere (1999), and various book chapters and articles.
LINKS
- Get the book, Demagoguery and Democracy, by Patricia Roberts-Miller: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781615196760
- Patricia Roberts-Miller on the web: https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/
- More books by Patricia Roberts-Miller: https://bit.ly/3KK4x7M
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Monday Feb 20, 2023
Monday Feb 20, 2023
Welcome to this week's Out d'Coup LIVE. This week I welcome Robyn Underwood to the show. Robyn leads KOFEE - Kutztown Organized for Educational Excellence which formed to push back against rising extremism on the Kutztown Area School District. The KASD middle school was planning on reading Alan Gratz's book, Two Degrees as part of their "One Book, One School" program. Two Degrees centers around the lives of four middle-school students struggling to survive disasters brought on by climate change. Right-wing members of the school board and the community didn't want students to read about climate change, so the superintendent canceled the program. We'll talk about the impact of extremism on Kutztown's middle-school and the work of KOFEE to take back their schools.
Robyn Undersood has a BSc and PhD in entomology (study of insects) and specialize in honey bee research. She is the Mom of two kids who have been in the district their whole lives and are now in the high school. Robyn hesitantly began acting as an activist when she saw things she did not like happening at school board meetings. Now she leads KOFEE (Kutztown Organized for Educational Excellence).
LINKS:
- Check out KOFEE's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/KOFEE.kasd
- KOFEE's main webpage: https://www.kofee.info/
- Learn about the canceling of KASD's "One Book, One School" program: https://bit.ly/3kgPtnb
- Will Bunch's article on KASD's canceling of "One Book, One School": https://bit.ly/3Kk3ACR
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Monday Feb 13, 2023
Monday Feb 13, 2023
This week I welcome Alyssa Bowen back to the show. Alyssa is a Senior Researcher and Managing Editor for the progressive watchdog group, True North Research. Tonight we'll be talking about her recent article in TruthOut, "The Right has Expanded Its Dark Money Strategy for Dominating School Boards." If we thought we'd get a break from extremism in our school board elections, we were VERY wrong.
Alyssa received her PhD in History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2021 with an interest in fascism and antifascism, solidarity and social movements, immigration/exile and transnational history. She has bylines in the Nation and in Truthout, where she is a regular contributor. More of her public writing can be found on True North Research’s website and Substack.
Follow Alyssa on Twitter @AlyssaAnnBowen
LINKS:
- Alyssa Bowen, "The Right Has Expanded Its Dark Money Strategy for Dominating School Boards," TruthOut | https://bit.ly/3HG4ab1
- Lisa Graves & Alyssa Bowen, "Tax Docs Link Right-Wing 'Parents Group' to Leonard Leo’s Dark Money Network," TruthOut | https://bit.ly/3RWIIDn
RESOURCES:
- True North Research: https://truenorthresearch.org/
- Documented: https://documented.net/
- Center for Media and Democracy: https://www.prwatch.org/
- Racial Justice Training Series with H.E.A.L. Together: https://bit.ly/3f3vBRG
- All H.E.A.L. Together trainings: https://www.raceforward.org/trainings
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Monday Feb 06, 2023
Monday Feb 06, 2023
This week I welcome Hannah Leffingwell to the show. We'll be talking about her recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Academic Career is Broken" and the need for fundamental change in higher education. She argues, "We are in the midst of a crisis in academe, to be sure, but it’s not an economic crisis. It’s a crisis of faith. The question is not just whether our institutions pay faculty fairly, but whether any wage is worth the subservience and sacrifice that modern higher ed requires." No longer will hopeful stories about "revision" do the job. "We need a revolution, not a revision."
Hannah is a writer, historian, and PhD Candidate at NYU. Her dissertation in progress, “Becoming Lesbian: Sex, Politics, and Culture in Transatlantic Circulation, 1970-1998,” chronicles the spread of lesbian culture in the United States and Europe in the wake of Women’s Liberation. Her research has been published in Gender & History, and her writing has been featured in Jacobin, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Public Seminar, Eurozine, and Sinister Wisdom. Her first chapbook, A Thirst for Salt, was published by Gazing Grain Press in 2018.
LINKS:
- Follow Hannah on Twitter: @hanleffingwell | https://twitter.com/hanleffingwell
- "The Academic Career is Broken," The Chronicle of Higher Ed | https://bit.ly/3JkVOYS
- "I Love Higher Education. It Isn't Loving Me Back," Jacobin | https://bit.ly/3DhDyf5
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Monday Jan 30, 2023
Monday Jan 30, 2023
Welcome to this week's Out d'Coup LIVE. It's MLK Day. We've got an open show tonight. Taking a look at the headlines, your thoughts, and more.
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u