Podcasts about seeking

Iran Now Less Popular Than Iraq, Vietnam, Or Afghanistan. Media Blitz Pod A president who never served is once again diminishing the cost of war — calling traumatic brain injuries "just headaches," parading a fallen soldier's family at a political rally, and standing next to a Secretary of State who openly floats a "head for an eye" doctrine against Iran. Meanwhile, MSNBC reporting confirms the US military has been targeting civilian infrastructure inside Iran, including a bridge families were using to flee the danger zone. This is not how a country that claims to believe in the rule of law fights a war. And it's not how a country that claims to honor its troops treats them when they come home in boxes. Paul unpacks the strategic and moral consequences of a Pentagon that has canceled press briefings, killed embed programs, and gone silent on military families who deserve to hear from the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs every single day. He connects the diminishment of American sacrifice to the diminishment of Iranian civilian life — and to the invisible injuries a whole new generation of veterans will carry home. If you want to understand what forever wars actually cost, and why separating the people from the policy is a matter of national security, this is the episode. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Another War, Another Congress That Can't Stop It. Media Blitz Pod Six months in and Americans already revile this war more than they came to revile Vietnam. Trump went all gas, no brakes — no declaration, no authorization, no plan — and now Pete Hegseth is on the Hill with his hat in hand asking Congress for the money he swore he didn't need. Meanwhile Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton of North Carolina, thirty years old, husband and father, is dead in Iraq. Two more service members are dead in Jordan. And the Secretary of Defense can't tell you how many Americans have been wounded, because per New York Times reporting, this Pentagon is undercounting them. Paul brings the ground-truth veteran perspective live to MSNBC alongside David Rhodes and Tom Nichols: the human cost first, the political theater second. He calls out the joint hearing farce, the Hegseth spin, and the senators — from both parties — who still won't force a vote to stop this. This is what happens when you commit the troops before you commit the country. This is what a rigged two-party system looks like when the bodies start coming home. And this is why 'Independent is an attitude' isn't a slogan — it's the only posture left that makes sense. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mamdani vs Netanyahu and Why The Answer to the Extreme Right Isn't the Extreme Left. Media Blitz Pod Four young Americans are dead. The Secretary of Defense is asking Congress for more money after months of all gas, no brakes. The Saudis are quietly telling the world they don't trust Trump to neutralize Iran — so they're going to build their own bomb. And now the Washington Post reports the administration is weighing strikes on Mali, the eighth country hit since Trump returned to office. This is what a forever war looks like when nobody in Congress is willing to stop it. Paul Rieckhoff cuts through the noise from Union Square with a no-BS media blitz — MSNBC with Nicole Wallace, CNN with Erin Burnett — and lays out the human cost the White House doesn't want you to see. He calls out Mayor Mamdani's Netanyahu stunt as the extreme-left mirror of MAGA, honors Sergeant Angel Rampersat of Queens, and asks the question no anchor will: if this war is so noble, why isn't the president's own 20-year-old son in uniform? Independents are 45% of this country. The extremes running our politics are barely a quarter. It's time to act like it. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hegseth's $37 Billion Ask. Three Weekend KIA Troops Identified. Media Blitz Pod. Arizona is where the MAGA machine keeps breaking its teeth, and this episode explains why. Paul Rieckhoff files a rapid recap from inside 30 Hudson Yards after two hours in the Hegseth hearings and a night of primary results — with 34% of Arizona voters registered independent (more than Democrats), a Trump-aligned Andy Biggs winning the GOP nomination while still refusing to admit Trump lost in 2020, and Cindy McCain openly fundraising for the Democratic incumbent Katie Hobbs. It's McCain's revenge, it's a preview of the general, and it's a warning about where the money is about to flood. From there Paul widens the aperture: Pete Hegseth's $37 billion ask on Capitol Hill, Chairman Dan Kane on the record, three troops killed in and around the Iran war whose names deserve to be spoken, and a Republican war chest that now sits $541 million ahead of the Democrats. The primary system is broken, campaign finance is broken, and both parties are pushing more extreme candidates while the actual American middle — independents, veterans, mavericks — gets treated like an ATM. If you want to understand where 2026 is actually being decided, it's not in a party HQ. It's in Arizona. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dr Vin Gupta on How To Stay Healthy in Trump's Summer of WTF. Every six months, Paul brings in a doctor the country can actually trust. This time it's Dr. Vin Gupta — pulmonologist, ICU physician, Air Force Reserve major, and one of the sharpest independent voices on public health in America. They open with the human cost of Trump's Iran policy as a third service member's death is confirmed, then move to the Pentagon, where Pete Hegseth is pushing blanket testosterone screening for men over 30 while simultaneously making flu vaccines optional. Gupta, who has spent fourteen years in military medicine, calls it what it is: culture-war medicine with no readiness justification, dressed up as toughness while units at Lackland get sidelined by preventable flu outbreaks. From there the conversation widens. Wildfire smoke is no longer a Western problem — over thirty states now see native wildfires in a given year, and New York skies look like Seattle's used to. Gupta lays out concrete, no-nonsense steps to protect your indoor air and your family's lungs while the federal government abdicates. They dig into the cyclospora outbreak tied to Taco Bell suppliers, why you can't trust the current FDA's messaging, and what to actually do if you or a loved one gets sick. It closes where the show always does — on hope, connection, and the small acts of vigilance that keep a family and a country whole. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You already know that we seek for flexibility, efficiency, being clever, and owning a variety of mathematical strategies. But what about grading students based on how many strategies they own to solve a problem? And what does "clever" even mean?  Tune in as Pam and Kim discuss their definitions of "clever" and how we can help students seek for clever math strategies. Talking Points:The meaning of 'clever' and how to encourage it in students.How 'seeking for clever' is a mathematical behavior and mindsetCaution with requiring multiple solutions for a gradeImportance of experience in mentoring kids to represent their thinking Nudging students to reflect on a strategy they want to do 'next time'Links: NumberClub FREE Webinar RegistrationDMR Registration LinkMath is Figureoutable BlogPam's BooksCheck out Pam's social mediaTwitter: @PWHarrisInstagram: Pam Harris_mathFacebook: Pam Harris, author, mathematics educationLinkedin: Pam Harris Consulting LLC 

Seeking independence from God inevitably leads to a dependence on sin. Just as fish need the ocean, we need God's presence. Choose obedience over your own understanding, relying daily on prayer, fellowship, and His Word for true life and safety.

Stefanos Sifandos returns to the show six years after his first appearance, and this time the conversation goes straight to the bone. A behavioral scientist and relationship expert who's worked with Olympic gold medalists, world champion fighters, special forces operators, and high-performing couples, Stefanos helps successful people confront the emotional armor and old patterns that achievement can't hide. He's also the author of the new book Tuned In and Turned On. Larry and Stefanos both grew up with volatile, abusive fathers, and they open up about the exact moments they stood up to the men who terrorized them, the survival patterns that followed them into adulthood, and the slow inner work of forgiveness. If you're a man carrying more than you've ever said out loud, this conversation names it and points to a way through.   Timeline Summary [1:02] – Stefanos returns after six years and revisits growing up in violence [3:09] – A gambler father, criminal company, and never knowing which version you'd get [4:39] – How the abuse shifted between two brothers over the years [6:24] – Leaving the country at 18 and the eldest-child savior role [7:40] – Larry shares his own story of standing up to his mom's abusive boyfriend [10:09] – Why a terrifying confrontation can be a painful gift with a long trajectory [12:40] – Stefanos on the night at the kitchen bench when he told his dad "I'm not small anymore" [18:46] – Stefanos' full background in behavioral science, performance, and embodiment [21:24] – The unconscious, fractured initiation from boyhood into manhood [23:44] – Larry on deliberately taking his sons through rites of passage [24:26] – Where the relationship with his father stands now, and the memoir project [27:15] – Forgiveness as an inside job and letting go without relying on the other person [29:37] – Scarcity, hypervigilance, and why the nervous system prepares for the worst [36:18] – Why 80% of healing is how others show up and meet you [38:41] – How children internalize abuse as proof they're unworthy [41:24] – The book's practices: get a friend, and why men are so isolated [46:20] – Deliberate solitude in nature and learning to slow down [48:55] – Seeking physical challenge as the path to real confidence   5 Key Takeaways Standing Up Is an Initiation — For many men, the shift from boyhood to manhood happens through a raw, unchosen confrontation rather than a healthy rite of passage. Naming that moment helps you understand who you became because of it. Forgiveness Is an Inside Job — Closure doesn't require the other person to change or even participate. Peace comes from your own diligent inner work, not from waiting on an apology. Your Survival Patterns Made Sense Once — Scarcity thinking and catastrophizing were hypervigilant survival tools in childhood. The work isn't to shame them away, but to notice them and stop feeding the beast. Healing Is Relational — Around 80% of transformation is being met with compassion and nonjudgment by someone who can relate to you. Insight matters, but connection is what actually changes you. Get a Friend, Then Get Alone — Men are epidemically lonely, so build real friendships despite the risk. Then balance that with deliberate solitude in nature and physical challenge that builds genuine confidence.   Links & Resources Episode page and all links: https://thedadedge.com/1506 Join the Dad Edge Alliance: https://thedadedge.com/join Dad Edge Boardroom Goal Setting Intensive: https://thedadedge.com/goals Tuned In and Turned On by Stefanos Sifandos: published by Hay House, February 2026 (audiobook includes bonus material) Stefanos Sifandos on Instagram: https://instagram.com/stefanossifandos Stefanos Sifandos on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@stefanossifandos Follow Stefanos Sifandos on Facebook and TikTok: search "Stefanos Sifandos" The Pursuit of Legendary Fatherhood by Larry Hagner: referenced in episode   Enjoyed This Episode? If Stefanos' line about men leaking their pain sideways into aggression and avoidance hit home, don't carry it alone. Send this episode to a man in your life who might be quietly isolated, and think about who your own 3am friend would be. If the show keeps showing up for you, follow, rate, and leave a review so more fathers can find these conversations.

Sponsor Link:NordVPN - Secure your online presence with our exclusive offer for Space Nuts listeners. Check out www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts for details.In this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts, Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson dive into listener inquiries that span the cosmos. From the intriguing concept of black hole evaporation to the mysteries of Jupiter's atmosphere and the latest on the Artemis 2 mission, this episode is packed with fascinating insights and scientific discussions.In this episode:- The mechanics of black hole evaporation and how cosmic microwave background radiation affects their lifespan.- An exploration of Jupiter's thin atmosphere and how it compares to the dense atmospheres of moons like Titan and planets like Venus.- Insights into the Artemis 2 mission and the implications of visual observations of meteorite impacts on the moon's far side.- A look ahead at upcoming solar missions and the cutting-edge technology being deployed to study our sun.- The significance of cosmic rays and their impact on human perception in space.Resources & Links:- [Parker Solar Probe](https://www.nasa.gov/content/parker-solar-probe) - NASA's mission to study the sun's outer atmosphere.- [Artemis Program](https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/) - NASA's initiative to return humans to the moon.- [The Cosmic Microwave Background](https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_cmb.html) - Understanding the remnants of the Big Bang.- [Titan and Its Atmosphere](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/titan/overview/) - NASA's insights into Saturn's largest moon.Join Andrew and Fred Watson as they unravel the complexities of space science and encourage curiosity about the universe. Don't forget to send in your questions for future episodes!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.(00:00) Andrew Dunkley takes audience questions on this week's Space Nuts(02:53) If black holes are colder than cmb, how much does this lengthen(09:12) Fred: Does Jordy have an unusually thin atmosphere for a rocky planet(10:48) Titan has a much higher atmospheric pressure than our own planet Jordy(17:16) Michael from Switzerland claims Artemis 2 astronauts saw meteorite flashes on moon(24:55) Houston has had a main B undervolt problem(25:07) Final question today comes from somebody who forgot to tell us their name(34:04) Andrew Dunkley: Thanks for your company. Bye. You're listening to the Space Nuts podcast

Just got back from several weeks on the road. the studio is a mess. the dog has to get a tooth pulled that she broke on the road trip, but it was great to see family. All that is to say that things are crazy here at the old studio. but that doesn’t mean we don’t to the podcast. So, in this week's episode of The Perceptive Photographer, I dig into two big ideas that can impact your photography: who you invite to critique your work, and what it really means to “see” as a photographer. I have heard this a few times over the past few months so I wanted to talk a little about it this week. That idea is the belief that feedback should come exclusively from those within the same genre. For example, landscape photographers often seek critiques from fellow landscape artists. However, this approach can be limiting. If someone already shares your knowledge and perspective, they may not offer fresh insights. Seeking feedback from diverse art forms can unlock new ideas and perspectives that challenge your usual way of seeing. Consider, too, those who might not even identify as photographers. Legendary photo editors and publishers often lack a formal photography background yet possess a keen understanding of what makes an impactful image and more than photographers can they are amazing at recognizing the nuances of light, composition, and storytelling. Critiques can be incredibly valuable when they focus on the essence of what resonates in an image rather than genre-specific “guidelines” or “rules”. The second thing I wanted to talk about was how we approach and talk about the act of “seeing” in photography. for many of us, our initial feelings about an image in the field differ from how we perceive it in post-editing or years later. Seeing isn't just a one-time event. Seeing is actually an action. It’s something we do. It’s something we engage with. It’s not a passive response. “Photography is about seeing. And to be a good photographer, we need to be engaged in the act of seeing.”

We share Pastor Chris Mitchell's testimony about being prayed out of darkness and we join together to call prodigal names before God with faith and gratitude. We then move from valley thinking to higher ground, learning how humility, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit reshape our perspective and habits. • Praying together for prodigals by name and believing for homecoming • Asking “where are you” in your current season and naming trials honestly • Seeing higher ground as a spiritual place and a heart posture • Seeking what is above and setting our minds on heavenly things • Recognising higher ground through changed identity and secure footing • Understanding peaks as breakthrough moments and plateaus as formation • Building habits of going to God first and depending on the Word • Taking practical steps through holy dissatisfaction, Spirit-led living, and laying aside weights • Confronting hypocrisy as a weight that blocks growth 

Hello Beautiful, I'm so grateful you're here with me.

If this congregation can help you in any way, please contact us at www.normanchurch.com

It's been a surreal week. We must recognize that we are in a fundamentally altered reality. It's quite disorienting, so perhaps we can come together and begin to explore how to navigate it. Peg offers this Dharma talk: “What are we seeking?” It's an important inquiry, so we hope you will join us! Photo by Ben Syverson Chicago, July 16, 2026

Two US service members were killed and one is missing after another Iranian strike on American forces in Jordan. That brings the confirmed US KIA count to sixteen since the start of a war that Paul Rieckhoff calls unauthorized, unnecessary, and increasingly unpopular — a war Trump owns, and one the White House and the Pentagon show no sign of winding down. Two more families are getting the most devastating call of their lives while the rest of the country tries to enjoy a lake weekend and the World Cup final. Paul refuses to look away. In this quick response pod, Paul lays out what we know so far, why the  -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

7-17-26 Talking NFL with a QB battle in Cleveland & CFB with Belichick on the 'retirement' seat & Notre Dame seeking the vengeance tour

NFL legend Terrell Owens has entered the Nolan Wells chat — and Ben Crump couldn't be happier about it. T.O. released a video calling on President Trump to personally deliver justice for Nolan Wells, declaring: "If you can make a call to overturn a call for a soccer match, then you can make a call for the JUSTICE of Nolan Wells." It's a powerful sound bite. But powerful sound bites are exactly what Ben Crump needs to keep the case alive — and to keep his name in the headlines. At the same time, Christine Wonsley — Nolan's mother — released her own video, offering a public update on her well-being while her family fundraises funeral expenses. A grieving mother in pain? Or a carefully timed media move? Or both? Jason and Shemeka Michelle share their thoughts. ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://www.youtube.com/@TheShemekaMichelle  ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plus: The Iran Forever War Grinds On. Hegseth's Blue Angels “Morale ”Stunt. Quick Response Pod Donald Trump has been telegraphing this punch for months, and now it's landed. In a prime-time address to the nation, the president laid the groundwork to undermine free and fair elections this fall — the single greatest threat to his power. Paul Rieckhoff breaks down why this speech matters, why it wasn't a policy pitch but an opening salvo, and why the free and fair midterms are the circuit breaker Trump most wants to disable. The Democrats aren't ready. The Republicans are complicit or asleep. And most of America is trying to figure out if summer camp gets canceled tomorrow. Paul connects the dots from Iran to Venezuela to Minneapolis to the National Guard deployment in D.C. extended through 2029 — all gas, no brakes, no matter what Congress, the polls, or his own party say. He also gets into the Blue Angels flyover controversy and Pete Hegseth's “flyovers will continue until morale improves” post, and why using the military as a prop is a violation of protocol and a warning sign about accountability. This is a no-BS field briefing on a forever war that just refocused on the home front — your ballot. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon Connect: Instagram • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power. -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. And now part of the BLEAV network! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Seeking a brief escape from the suffocating hostility of the village, Daphne and Poppy take a quiet evening walk through the snow-laden pine forest. Away from the glare of the protestors and the cold judgment of the town council, they share a raw, deeply emotional heart-to-heart about the heavy toll the recent abuse is taking on their spirits, reclaiming the strength that built their life together.Celebrating classic television and radio, as well as looking ahead to what's on the telly now and later.

Figures provided to Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín reveal that 6,329 people have been claiming Jobseeker's payments for 10 years or more.The figures come despite Ireland's unemployment rate standing at just 5%, with around 145,000 people currently out of work, while employers across many sectors continue to report labour shortages and thousands of vacancies remain unfilled.With a strong economy and jobs available, why do so many people remain on long-term unemployment? Are persistent barriers such as health, skills, age or caring responsibilities preventing people from returning to work, or does the welfare system need reform to better encourage and support people back into employment?Joining guest host Shane Beatty to discuss is Head of Social Justice and Policy at Saint Vincent de Paul, Louise Bayless, Director of the INOU, Brid O'Brien and listeners.

Steve Yates analyzes the Taiwan People's Party's (TPP) historic visit to mainland China. Originally a pro-identity youth movement, the TPP is now seeking political power through a coalition with the pro-China KMT. This shift complicates Taiwan's political landscape, as the younger demographic overwhelmingly identifies as Taiwanese, not Chinese. (5)

Evan Ellis analyzes judicial cruelty in Brazil, where Flavio Bolsonaro is barred from visiting his ill father. In El Salvador, President Bukele is seeking an unconstitutional third term. Despite his high approval ratings and security successes, the move raises alarms about the global trend of abandoning democratic constraints. (12)R

Pete Hegseth is running the Pentagon like a locker room. He's blocking women from the top ranks of the U.S. military while opening the door for men to get tested and juiced up on testosterone boosters. Read that sentence again. This is the state of civilian leadership at the Department of Defense in 2026, and Paul is not letting it slide past as just another weird headline. It's a window into how the MAGA machine thinks about strength, service, and who gets to wear the uniform. From the middle of a packed World Cup semifinal crowd in New York, Paul flips the frame. England versus Argentina. Spain already through. Thousands of people from every country on earth, standing shoulder to shoulder, holding their breath for ninety minutes. Joy as a form of resistance. This one's all about  what America can still be when we stop performing dominance and start showing up for each other. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From a smoky, humid Times Square with the Canadian wildfires blanketing the city, Paul Rieckhoff delivers a quick-response warning ahead of Trump's primetime address. His read: this isn't a State of the Union or a policy rollout. It's the same rhetorical build-up we saw before the strikes on Iran and Venezuela — a president throwing rationales at the wall to justify an attack. Except this time, the target is the one thing that can still check his power: the midterm elections. Rieckhoff lays out the pattern already in motion — the National Guard extension in DC, the push against mail-in ballots, Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard sent in to re-litigate 2020, and the coming pivot to blaming China. He argues this is now the number one national security issue in America, and that a failure of imagination is the biggest risk. It's summer. People are at the beach. The MAGA machine is counting on you to tune out. This short pod is a direct call not to. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dr. Rob, Beth Kelley, and Dr. Brett Kennedy continue their conversation about the many faces of loneliness. They consider the challenge and impact of technology on authentic relationships, explore Dr. Rob's recent experience with ChatGPT, and reflect on the hard work that is creating human connection and combatting loneliness every single day.    TAKEAWAYS: [1:25] What about partners who are physically together but not connected?  [4:58] The role of ChatGPT and social media in loneliness.  [9:20] Seeking connecting is not simple work.  [12:30] How to regulate when you're feeling overstimulated.  [14:32] Acceptance of what is over what you want there to be. [16:21] Loneliness in the face of technology.  [22:04] Interpersonal relationships have to be two-way.  [26:40] Loneliness and betrayal in marriage.  [29:06] Connecting with Both and Brett.    RESOURCES: Sex and Relationship Healing @RobWeissMSW Sex Addiction 101  Seeking Integrity Free Sexual Addiction Screening Assessment Partner Sexuality Survey   Seeking Integrity Podcasts are produced in partnership with Podfly Productions.    QUOTES: “What is the connection that I'm seeking to make when I'm reaching for my phone?”  “Combating loneliness is hard work. It's the work of being human.”  “Acceptance is not always endorsement.”  “Until you're actually interacting with other humans, technology use will put you at a disadvantage.” 

ThePrintPod: Ray of hope for IIT student seeking transfer on mental health grounds, SC asks Roorkee to save a seat

In this episode, we perceive a person’s worry about another, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 289, penned by Eyinanthai Magan Ilankeeranaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands landscape’, the verse renders intricate aspects about the cultural beliefs and practices of the ancients. சிலை ஏறட்ட கணை வீழ் வம்பலர்உயர் பதுக்கு இவர்ந்த ததர் கொடி அதிரல்நெடு நிலை நடுகல் நாட் பலிக் கூட்டும்சுரனிடை விலங்கிய மரன் ஓங்கு இயவின்,வந்து, வினை வலித்த நம்வயின், என்றும்,தெருமரல் உள்ளமொடு வருந்தல் ஆனாது,நெகிழா மென் பிணி வீங்கிய கை சிறிதுஅவிழினும், உயவும் ஆய் மடத் தகுவிசேண் உறை புலம்பின் நாள் முறை இழைத்ததிண் சுவர் நோக்கி, நினைந்து, கண் பனி,நெகிழ் நூல் முத்தின், முகிழ் முலைத் தெறிப்ப,மை அற விரிந்த படை அமை சேக்கைஐ மென் தூவி அணை சேர்பு அசைஇ,மையல் கொண்ட மதன் அழி இருக்கையள்பகுவாய்ப் பல்லி படுதொறும் பரவி,‘நல்ல கூறு’ என நடுங்கி,புல்லென் மாலையொடு பொரும்கொல் தானே? In this trip to this difficult domain, though we do encounter scenes from the land, it’s more of a journey inside the mind, as we listen to the man say these words to his heart, as he parts from his lady and ventures on a mission to seek wealth: “Wayfarers, who have fallen to arrows that were aimed from bows, are covered with raised stone graves, and upon this, spreads closely intertwined vines of the wild jasmine. Flowers of these spreading vines are gathered for daily offerings rendered to tall hero stones in that drylands domain, along paths bereft of trees, where I have arrived, with the intention of earning wealth. Thinking about me always, with a confused heart, she would be wallowing in endless worry. That naive maiden, who would become anxious even if my hands that had been holding her gently loosen a little, would now be gazing at the sturdy wall, upon which the days I have spent apart from her would be marked. Then filled with sorrow, the dew of her eyes would scatter on her blooming bosoms, akin to pearls that break away from a string. Lying on that flawless, wide bed, upon a mattress filled with beautiful, soft feathers, with confusion brimming over, she would be losing her strength. Every time a split-mouthed lizard made a sound, she would tremble saying, ‘Speak of good things!' and keep fighting with that listless evening hour, won't she?” Time to take in the scenes of desolation in the drylands! The man starts by describing the place he’s at, and to do that, he talks about the death of innocent wayfarers, who have fallen to the arrows of highway robbers. Though they kill, these robbers have the custom of burying those dead under make-shift stone graves, and upon these stone graves, wild jasmine vines spread, the man adds. He then mentions how those who are coming to worship hero stones also installed in such places, would collect these wild jasmine flowers to bring them as offerings for their ancestor worship. All these facets have been recorded to say that the man has arrived to such a place, dry and parched, without the shade of trees, nudged by his heart to go seeking wealth. From his position, the man’s mind flies to the abode of his beloved, where he sees her wallowing in misery, missing him. The man recollects how this was a person who would suffer so much if the man so much as loosened the hold of her hand even a little. Now that he is so far away, the lady would be looking at a wall, marked with lines, signifying the days since the man had parted, the man visualises. At that moment, he sees the tears in her eyes dropping down and scattering like pearls from a string. He pictures her lying on their well-etched bed, upon a mattress made of soft feathers, and yet without any sleep or rest, suffering ceaselessly. The man concludes with the final portrait of how the lady would be pleading to the house lizard to render good omens about the man’s arrival, every time it opens its mouth and makes a click sound, as the lady would be fighting against the attack of the evening hour. Here, the prevalence of hero stone worship with offerings, drawing lines on a wall to mark a person’s absence and seeking the comfort of lizard omens are etched to talk about how people responded to death and parting in those times. The verse tells how sometimes we can see the plight of another in such a vivid manner even when we can’t see our own state, right before us! The eyes of love see far indeed!

APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. This Thursday APEX Express proudly presents “South Asians and The Labor Justice Movement.” This episode highlights Sandhya Jha, a pastor, founder and former Executive Director of the Oakland Peace Center, and racial, housing, and labor justice activist. In the first half of the episode, we discuss Sandhya's life, their path into organizing, and what they're up to now. The second half is dedicated to their recent project with the South Asian American Digital Archive's Archival Creators Fellowship Program. This episode was interviewed, produced, and edited by Swati Rayasam   Follow @Sandhya Jha on Facebook and check out Sandhya's website https://sandhyajha.com/    APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Listen to the episode live on KPFA 94.1 in San Francisco, 89.3 in Berkeley, and online at KPFA.org.  References throughout the Show and Links: Without Fear Consulting Interfaith Alliance Oakland Peace Center Book – Blueprint for a Revolution Book – The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad Podcast – Bending Toward Justice: Avatar the Last Airbender for the Global Majority The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action – ASATA Bay Area Solidarity Summer South Asian American Digital Archive Archival Creators Fellowship Program Sandhya Jha's project, you can listen to all of the oral histories here. Solidarity Forever Online Exhibit Arab Resource and Organizing Center Block the Boat No Tech for Apartheid  University of California Labor Center Equality Labs California Trade Justice Coalition NAFCON – National Alliance for Filipino Concerns Filipino Community Center Madhvi Trivedi Patak Transcript ​[00:00:00]  Miata Tan: Hello and welcome! You are tuning in to APEX Express—a weekly radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I'm your host, Miata Tan. Tonight we're revisiting an episode from our archives, first aired January 5th, 2023. We're bringing it back this week in honor of South Asian American Heritage Month. This one centers Sandhya Jha — a pastor, organizer, and founder of the Oakland Peace Center — in conversation with APEX producer Swati Rayasam. The first half traces Sandhya's path into organizing, from a labor campaign at Johns Hopkins to two decades of interfaith and racial justice work. The second half digs into Sandhya's project with the South Asian American Digital Archive, where she spent a year interviewing South Asian workers inside the labor movement — collecting stories that don't usually make it into the archive. Here's Swati Rayasam in conversation with Sandhya Jha. [00:01:00] Swati Rayasam: I'm really excited actually today to talk to Sandhya Jha, who is a really close friend of mine. Hi Sandhya. Hi there. Sandhya is, a Pastor is a consultant and has been working on this really amazing project with the South Asian American Digital Archive that will get into later in the episode. But yeah, Sandhya I'm just really excited to learn more about you and to hear more of your story and, let's just dive in. [00:01:26] Swati Rayasam: Absolutely. [00:01:27] Swati Rayasam: We should first talk a little bit about how we know each other, you have this long organizing background. I've been in the Bay Area for the past seven years and I would be totally lying if I said I have not historically been, or I'm not even currently an active fangirl of yours. You are literally a pastor. You are a movement worker, how did you get involved in organizing? [00:01:53] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. So I am the product of my parents who were generous, compassionate [00:02:00] people who thought about the world beyond themselves, but were never involved in organizing or activism or anything like that. I think for anybody who comes from immigrant backgrounds, it's hard to tell our stories without naming who we come from. Right. And so my father was Sunil Kumar Jha from the village of Tildanga in West Bengal. My mother, who is still alive is Jeanette Campbell Jha. She is from Glasgow. So I come from a mixed religion and mixed race home. My parents chose not to name me Sandhya Campbell Jha not to give me that kind of grounding, but I was called Sandhya Rani Jha, which is a lot to live up to, well, yes, Rani does mean Queen. But it was actually handed down to me, part of the reason they wanted that middle name was it was my aunt's name, Durga Rani Upadhyay and she was the one who really [00:03:00] brokered my mother's acceptance into the Indian family and I think that there was something about being accepted on the Indian side of the family and not for many, many years on the Scottish side. That caused my parents and particularly my mother to double down on making sure I knew who I came from and who I came from was my people in the village of Tildanga. [00:03:23] Sandhya Jha: I grew up in Akron, Ohio, so we immigrated to this country when I was a toddler, in the late 1970s, which was a complicated time for Asian immigrants to be in the Midwest because it was a time that the rust belt was rusting and there was a growing sense that we were the reason. But also I grew up alongside folks who were trying to figure out how to put food on the table. So I think that landscape shaped me in a lot of ways. And I also come from people who grew up in poor working communities. And[00:04:00] when I went off to college, there was an organizing campaign. The board of directors of the university had created a for-profit corporation with the exact same board. [00:04:15] Swati Rayasam: Oh wow. [00:04:16] Sandhya Jha: So that the universities could subcontract all of their catering, all of their custodial work to this… basically Shell corporation. [00:04:28] Swati Rayasam: Are we telling on the university? [00:04:29] Sandhya Jha: Mm, Yeah. Why not? It was Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and I think that's relevant because the tension between Black communities next to Johns Hopkins Medical School and the school itself were very real because this was part of a very long history of exploiting community members. So the workers were organizing, and you know, I had read about activism, I cared about it. I paid as much attention as I could for a high school student. But when I got to college, this organizing [00:05:00] campaign was going, and the workers were really clear, Hey, college kids who are excited about this, we do have a role for you. It's to fill the crowd. It's to cheer us on. It's to when we ask you communicate to the university that our well-being matters to you because they will listen to you in different ways. But the campaign centered the workers and was really clear with us about what our role was because we were the folks with all the privilege by getting to be there, right? We had tons of privilege and it was a really good lesson for me. I am so grateful. The first organizing campaign I was a part of was a labor campaign that understood what it meant to center the people who were the most impacted by injustice and I think that shaped the rest of my career. [00:05:46] Swati Rayasam: And that's so special too because I think for many people who come into organizing, and I will definitely cop to this myself, like coming up and organizing through high school and college level organizing. When you are a student, nobody ever [00:06:00] tells you that actually you are the least useful kind of organizer that exists. Right. You are in this incredibly enclaved community. Your oppressor, the university, all they have to do is wait for you to graduate institutional memory will not keep you. Yeah. Right. And I think that it is, it's this perfect storm of, you have actually sometimes cool ideas, sometimes very rudimentary ideas, but you also have this turnover issue and you have this sense of self import, which often comes with your teens, early twenties. Yep. As you're just figuring all of that out. So Yeah, self differentiation, right? It's a narcissistic phase in our development. . [00:06:46] Swati Rayasam: It absolutely is and I think that's so important, and I can't imagine how my life would be shaped if I didn't have to spend a lot of time unlearning the self import and narcissism that I had gained through student [00:07:00] organizing. [00:07:00] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. No, I am really, really grateful for it. [00:07:02] Sandhya Jha: My first job outta college was working for a member of Congress, which sounds super fancy and pretentious, but, a member of congress from Akron, Ohio. So put that all in perspective. His name, believe it or not, was Tom Sawyer. Oh, wow. What I loved about Tom was back in those days, he believed very strongly that 80% of legislation was nonpartisan and that was the part that he spent most of his time on. He would weigh in with his party, when they were dealing with that 20% pretty consistently. But he was more interested in the stuff that everybody could agree on and I remember for about 15 years after I worked for him, I looked back and found myself thinking that was so naive. How did he not understand where we were about to head with the divisions between the political parties? But at this point in my life, I realize the people I respect most in organizing work keep pointing out that the binary of [00:08:00] left and right actually doesn't serve us very well. One of my biggest heroes in the movement right now is the Reverend Dr. William Barber, [00:08:07] Swati Rayasam: Hometown hero of mine. Yes. [00:08:09] Sandhya Jha: Poor People's campaign from North Carolina. And he always talks about how it's not about right and left. It's about right and wrong. And it turns out that when we engage in organizing with the awareness that there are huge swaths of things that most of us are well served by, we can do better organizing. And that was actually how Tom was legislating. And at a certain point I realized that my deep passion was around racial justice, but the distinct experience I had in a multi religious household was an awareness of how religion was being used as a weapon. I had an obsession. Every paper in college I wrote was about the Christian coalition, this right wing, organizing body in the nineties. So a friend of mine [00:09:00] said, You know, there's an interfaith organization working against the Christian Coalition. And it was called the Interfaith Alliance. Her mom had been a superintendent in Washington state in eastern Washington and was a pretty conservative person by my standards. [00:09:18] Sandhya Jha: But, Dr. Chow believed in multiculturalism and believed in teaching evolution. And the Christian coalition had organized to push her out of her position as superintendent and the Interfaith Alliance of Washington State had supported her in that time. [00:09:38] Sandhya Jha: And so Liz said, you know, they've got a national chapter, a national office. And that's where I ended up, cutting my adult organizing teeth which was great because talk about learning lessons for our current moment where religion is being weaponized in ways that are anti-trans, that are anti-queer, that are anti-women, that [00:10:00] are anti reproductive rights, that are anti-immigrant and refugee. I am really grateful to have experienced the power of multi-faith organizing, around a lot of those same issues. So that was what I did in the early two thousands and then I went to seminary and public policy school, and then I ended up out here pastoring a congregation of 10 people in a building of 40,000 square feet. [00:10:29] Sandhya Jha: And long story short, that's how the Oakland Peace Center was born, was out of this dream of cultivating deeper collaboration among nonprofits who were dedicated to a shared cause. The Oakland Peace Center, which is a collective of 40 different nonprofits committed to dismantling the root causes of violence in our community. I was the founder of that organization and it was when I was pastoring First Christian Church of Oakland that I asked the handful of folks who were members of that church, what they wanted to [00:11:00] contribute to the community, and they said they wanted to contribute peace in the midst of violence. And for a dozen folks to have given birth to a space that in non pandemic years, saw over a hundred thousand people do things like the Lawyers for Black Lives Conference and to do Kingian non-violence training and to be a part of food and clothing distribution, to participate in all the very diverse ways that we can create peace is pretty impressive. [00:11:30] Sandhya Jha: And a couple of years ago, I left the Oakland Peace Center because a colleague of mine said, Anybody can run a non-profit. We need you to do what you're actually good at, and what she meant by that was we need more people of color doing diversity, equity, and inclusion work that is actually grounded in power analysis. That isn't just how do we be nicer to each other in the workplace, but how do we recognize the ways that systems of white supremacy [00:12:00] unconsciously often shape the culture of our workplaces? And what do we do to dismantle that white supremacy culture so that we can be building nonprofits and institutions of higher education and faith organizations, and even corporations that are dedicated to our full liberation, our liberation, the lands liberation. [00:12:23] Swati Rayasam: I mean coming, especially from the place that you come in grassroots organizing and in faith based organizing, what is it actually to transition into this kind of consulting space around racial justice and really interface with a lot of people that I feel like as organizers, we don't really talk to? [00:12:42] Sandhya Jha: One of my favorite things about this shift in my work is I love getting to work with folks who don't think of themselves as organizers, who, it turns out are organizers, Right. I think we sometimes create a cult of here's what an organizer looks like, you [00:13:00] have to be a Martin Luther King or a Cesar Chavez and what I love is getting to work with moms and with teenagers and with folks who think of themselves as caring, compassionate, individuals, and when I go into an organization and work with their handful of folks who care about this issue, the DEI team, I get to teach them how to strategically organize. I get to teach them how do you create culture shift over time? I get to teach them how do you figure out who your allies are? How do you figure out how to move people who are neutral? It turns out that there are a lot more organizers out there than we realize if we don't create one definition of what an organizer needs to look like. [00:13:45] Swati Rayasam: I have been reading this political scholar Eqbal Ahmed, who really talks about the way the burden is on those of us who are deeply committed to movement work, narrow definition people, the burden is really on us to try and [00:14:00] create a liberatory future that feels both achievable. Mm-hmm. and safe for everybody. Because when people engage in mass struggle and in revolution, there are people who are a hundred percent willing to put their lives on the line. People who are willing to die for the cause. And we absolutely need those people. And there are many people along the spectrum who, if you can create a future that feels like it's within their grasp, they will come with you. [00:14:30] Sandhya Jha: Yep. I teach a lot of organizing classes and have gotten a chance to teach alongside my beloved colleague BK Woodson at Allen Temple Baptist Church, they have a leadership institute there. And one of the books we use is Blueprint for a Revolution by Srđa Popović. And I feel like I learned a lot as we read that book together and thought about how to apply it to the work we're doing in Oakland. They talked about how by engaging in nonviolent direct action, [00:15:00] they created space for elders to be a part of their work and youth to be a part of their work and families to be a part of their work. By making the movement playful. They gave people hope and gave people courage because dictators are terrified of being mocked. [00:15:17] Swati Rayasam: Yeah, exactly. And I think by being really restrictive or narrow about who we view as actually valuable organizers. And I think labor movements teach us this a lot, right? We really cut ourselves off at the knees on our ability to build a network or to be in touch with the general population, many of whom are more connected than we ever give them credit for. [00:15:41] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. Yep. it's part of why I love labor organizing. I talk with a lot of people who are disenchanted with organizing who ask me how I can have stayed involved for the past 25 years. And why I've been able to stay in it is cuz I'm organizing alongside workers and they have [00:16:00] full lives. And the work that they're doing in the movement is so that they can live their full lives. And there's something about having that perspective and recognizing the why all the time instead of getting lost in the weeds of the what. Is so important in this work. I think that has been a big theme of my organizing life is how do we build to the greatest common denominator? As my friend BK often says how do we build towards those shared values that often get erased when we are engaged in the right versus left debate. [00:16:39] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I think that it is so important and I also think that it's really hard in this moment of what feels like constant trauma and re trauma. [00:16:51] Swati Rayasam: And to some extent especially when we're talking about the left right dichotomy there are real concerns [00:17:00] about safety. Yep. And there are real concerns about security and who you are in community with and who you can find even the smallest level of acceptance from to ensure that you won't have violence visited upon you. And I think that these conversations of united front organizing, Right. trying to bridge across difference mm-hmm. for a shared goal, for a shared liberatory future Yep. Are really important. And they feel kind of impossible to achieve right now. [00:17:31] Sandhya Jha: It's interesting cuz I think that in many ways that is true. There are a lot of conversations that I think people with privilege expect, people who are marginalized to engage in. And those expectations are unfair, what I found very frustrating was the number of people with a lot of privilege who would be like, Ugh, I just can't talk to those people. And I'm like, Then who's going to? Exactly. and so I do think that some of this is about being willing to have [00:18:00] hard conversations in the places where we have privilege and recognizing who's at actual risk and showing up in ways that are protective of who is at risk. But that doesn't mean walking away from people who aren't where we are. Right. Because the fact of the matter is everybody's on a journey. And I have watched at the same time some of the disposability culture in movements write off people without giving them any way to address harm, repair harm, and find a pathway back into community. [00:18:41] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. And I think that's why, at least I am feeling really hopeful about, what I've seen over the past couple of years, this really important track into transformative justice and restorative justice, to acknowledge that there is harm that has happened, there are harms that happen every day between people. [00:19:00] And also we are all on our own journey to unlearn the things that we have been taught either directly or indirectly by our upbringing, by our environment and that you cannot easily dispose of people and that people are able to come back into community. Now that comes with a very important caveat that like they recognize the harm. Mm-hmm. that. They have done or how they've been party to it, that they acknowledge that there is healing work that needs to be done both with the person that they harmed and also probably in internally. [00:19:35] Sandhya Jha: Well, and the community, folks who don't do RJ on a regular basis tend to skip the community aspect. Yeah. That there is actually repair that needs to be done with community and there's work community needs to do to figure out how to re-embrace reabsorb people who have done harm in ways that still protect the person who's been harmed. [00:19:55] Swati Rayasam: Exactly. In ways that do not erase the harm that has happened, but [00:20:00] acknowledge, contextualize it and say, Okay, we are patching this and we are working to move forward in step with each other. Absolutely. [00:20:09] Sandhya Jha: Can I just say that one of the other things that I think you and I have in common is a real passion for bringing joy back into the work of Justice I quote Fabiana Rodriguez a lot on this particular thing, because I was at an event she was doing eons ago, and she looked out at us and most of us were activists and she said, Listen, y ‘all you keep inviting people to a struggle. I'm on your side and I don't wanna join a struggle. I want to join a party. And that was like a call to arms for me when I heard her say that. I was like, Oh my gosh, you're right. We are so much more fun. Like, I've hung out with people who are anti-trans and anti queer and anti-immigrant and anti refugee. They are not fun people. No, no. We have all of the best parties. So I don't know why we don't [00:21:00] capitalize on that more. So I think the role of joy and justice is so important. And this is why I was so excited to have you on the podcast that I launched recently. [00:21:11] Sandhya Jha: Right. Bending Towards Justice Avatar the last Airbender for the Global Majority. [00:21:15] Swati Rayasam: So literally like bringing it together. Two of my favorite things right, is like TV shows, wholesome TV shows like Avatar, The Last Airbender that I deeply love and organizing. Yes. All the work that I love. And I think it's true You know, what is actually really the important work is to work to build toward a future that is desirable Yep. That people want to be a part of. Yeah. That people can see happen. Yeah. And I think that is a lot of the difficulty that I have seen in some organizing circles. We are so well versed in what we are against and all of the things that are bad that so many people have a really hard time seeing or visioning or communicating [00:22:00] what it is that we are fighting for. Yeah. Right. And it's not enough to say, I'm fighting for a world where we can all be safe. Right. Yeah. I'm not, I'm fighting for a world where we can all take long naps in the middle of the day if we'd like to do that. Right. Yeah. But like really building and visioning that future of like, in this world in which we are all safe, there will be harm that happens. How do we deal with that? Yeah. What do we do with that? How do we make sure that it is able to keep everybody safe and also able to account for the times in which it is not able to keep everybody safe. [00:22:38] Sandhya Jha: Visionary does not have to mean naive. And we need it to be visionary. And sometimes I forget to do the visionary stuff. I've got a colleague, Dave Bell, he's a farmer who is also an anti-racism trainer and we do a lot of work together. He's a white guy who lives in White Swan, Washington, on the reservation and I remember being at a training with him and I [00:23:00] was all fired up and I was so excited about the conversations we were having and the people were really ready to do the hard work and roll up their sleeves. And Dave says to them, I would like to not have to do this work. And I'm like, What is he talking about? This is amazing. We're doing such good work. And he says, I would like for us not to have to talk about racism all the time. I would rather be farming. I would rather be, taking care of the cows in my field. [00:23:26] Sandhya Jha: I would rather be talking about my pottery work that I'm doing badly but learning how to do, I would rather be doing anything than have this conversation. But I don't get to be on the farm with the wheat, with the cows, with my bad pottery until we figured out how to do this anti-racism work. And it was a really humbling moment for me because I also get into that like I'm an organizer, that's my identity space. And it was this reminder of Dave's doing this. So he gets to live in a world where he gets to hang out in the fields and he [00:24:00] gets to, love on the cows. There's something about being reminded that we're doing this so that eventually we don't have to do it. That I think is actually visionary in its own way and it's important. [00:24:12] Swati Rayasam: Moving into a little bit more of the grit of like why I asked you to be on the show today. I met you originally when I moved to the Bay Area when you were the executive director of the Oakland Peace Center because At that time I was doing organizing work with the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, which is a 20 year old bay area based organization, that was really founded around the Laki Reddy Bali Reddy sex trafficking. Yep. Caste and labor exploitation case that happened in Berkeley in 1999. And I was just so thrilled to be around and have in community so many rad desis. And you also did work with ASATA, right. Historically and are actively doing work with us. [00:24:56] Sandhya Jha: Absolutely. One of the places I think I invested the most [00:25:00] energy in where we got to spend a lot of quality time in the kitchen was one of the projects, Bay Area Solidarity Summer, an organizing institute, camp, however you wanna refer to it. [00:25:10] Swati Rayasam: Political education, Summer camp. [00:25:12] Swati Rayasam: Yeah, exactly. For young South Asian Americans who are committed to activism. What I think was the most beautiful part of that program when I was involved in it, and it's still the case today, is for young South Asians who think that they're the only ones who care about justice issues, who haven't met other people, who are South Asian, and identify as justice seekers first to meet each other and realize that there are people just like them. Then to look around and realize that those of us who are usually 10, 15, 20 years older than them are also committed to the work and have been doing it for decades. And then for them to get exposed to the long history of radical visionary organizing and activism of South [00:26:00] Asians here in the US and also in the homelands of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and diasporic countries all over the world. [00:26:13] Sandhya Jha: There's something about realizing, Oh, you have contemporaries, oh, you have elders, oh, you have ancestors. Mm-hmm. Especially in the face of the model minority lie that so many of us have had imposed on us, this lie that all we are all we're supposed to be is cogs in this larger capitalist machine that are non disruptive, which is why we're allowed to survive. And if we are non disruptive enough, we might even be able to be comfortable. And to discover that there's more to our story than that is so exciting and I love, love, love being a part of that. [00:26:52] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I think that is like fundamentally one of the most important kind of activities that [00:27:00] happens in the ASATA universe, I was a kid who also grew up thinking that there were no other South Asians like me, or there were no other folks who were interested in justice. I spent a lot of time doing, reproductive and queer justice in the south; I always think about what would it have meant if I came in, BASS for 18 to 24 year olds. Yep. what would it have meant if I had come in at a fresh 18 and been able to basically be apprised of the fact that I have this history Yeah. That it's not just me. And that actually, immigration and white supremacy and neo-colonial culture has created this project of assimilation that all of our parents have been in on, in a way to survive Yeah. And to be safe. And I tell my, I tell my mom that a lot because she's always a little surprised about the organizing work that I do. And I was just like, Your job was to survive. My job is to liberate. Yeah. [00:28:00] You know? Yeah. And I could not do that if you were not so focused on creating that environment for me. [00:28:07] Swati Rayasam: I love that. [00:28:07] Swati Rayasam: we'll drop in the show notes, but, BASS – Bay Area Solidarity Summer is solidaritysummer.org. So we'll put that in the show notes as well as ASATA, the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action is ASATA.org. And yeah, I think that is a really good segue into how we got involved in this amazing project. [00:28:31] Swati Rayasam: You're tuned in to APEX express at 94.1 KPFA and 89.3, KPFB in Berkeley. And online@kpfa.org. [00:28:43] Swati Rayasam: I think it was Fall 2021 that you and I were talking. Yep. And you were telling me that you were involved in this amazing archival fellowship project. Is run by the South Asian American Digital Archive and [00:29:00] that you were going to do your project about labor. Mm-hmm. and South Asians. Yep. And my immediate, incredibly naive response was, how many South Asians are there in labor? [00:29:12] Sandhya Jha: Exactly. And it's not naive. It's interesting cuz I think that this project actually emerged out of my favorite part of BASS, which was when the young adults would ask what their opportunities were in the world of justice. And I would say, you know, there's a place for us in labor justice. It had never crossed most of their minds. Right. We don't think of ourselves as having a role especially in formalized unions. And so SAADA, the South Asian American Digital Archives has an archival fellows project. And the whole purpose of it is to diversify their archives and collect the stories that are usually overlooked in the telling of South Asian American stories. [00:29:56] Sandhya Jha: And they have done a great job over the years of collecting the [00:30:00] stories of informal organizing, like the Punjabi Taxi Drivers campaign, the Bangladeshi Nail Workers Campaign. Those were informal labor organizing campaigns. That have been really well archived and they're amazing stories. I wanted to make sure that the next generation of South Asian activists knew about the South Asians who were actually part of the formal organized labor movement. [00:30:30] Sandhya Jha: And so I spent this past year interviewing, maybe a half a dozen or so South Asian American workers. Generally, not always, but mostly what would be classified as low wage workers who found a pathway into formal organizing bodies, unite here or the building trades or any number of the formal unions that keep [00:31:00] the labor movement alive across the country today. And I'm really proud of the fact that we do have South Asian workers who have moved up the ranks to be official organizers or to be at negotiating tables. And so that's part of the story I thought it was worth us telling. [00:31:19] Swati Rayasam: And I am, I'm so excited that we get to dive deeper into this project and I really love your framing too, around the three large bins that you have, solidarity, spirit and struggle. [00:31:34] Swati Rayasam: Right? Yeah. Yeah. [00:31:35] Sandhya Jha: I started out with certain assumptions about what I was going to learn, partly because I've been doing labor solidarity work for 25 years at this point. I really thought I knew what I was gonna hear. And what I discovered was there were these consistent themes across, the interviews. that there were these notions of, Oh, what's meaningful to me is [00:32:00] getting to organize across cultures, getting to organize with people who, on the surface and even deep down are very different than me, but we share this vision of what our lives can be. And so that solidarity message I found really powerful. Also, and admittedly because I come out of a spiritual background, was probably looking for it. I was really struck by how many of the interviews ended up talking about the role of spirituality and shaping people's values. And in a couple of instances, organizers said, what my religion taught me was that religion needs to be challenged. And building up that muscle was what helped me challenge systems of injustice in other places. But others said that their journey with their faith tradition was what guided them into the work of labor organizing. [00:32:52] Sandhya Jha: And then that third bucket of struggle, I think is the lived experience of how [00:33:00] hard it is to take on oppressive systems of capitalism, how hard it is to take on decks that are stacked against us and what it means to have somewhere to turn in the midst of those struggles. I will say there were also a couple of lessons I was surprised by because my South Asian identity is so central to my organizing work, I was expecting to collect stories of people who were proud South Asians, who were also proud to be involved in the labor movement. And I assumed that they would see connections between those things because I certainly do. But what I discovered is for the most part, they were like, Yeah, I'm South Asian. I'm not saying that doesn't matter, but it's not super relevant to my organizing work. My organizing work is about [00:34:00] our cross-cultural solidarity. And that was something I hadn't been expecting that emerged as I did those interviews. Interesting. And I'm really grateful that the South Asian American Digital Archives likes telling all of the stories because I think I promised them that what they were going to get was, we're proud to be South Asian organizers. And what I got was, yeah, we're South Asian, we're proud to be organizers. And the that SAADA is like, yeah, that's part of our story too. [00:34:28] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. And I think that's, that I think is incredibly important. We have this really, amazing series of audio clips from your SAADA interviews that really represent a lot of the themes that you were highlighting about solidarity, spirit, and struggle. And I'm just really excited to play them as we talk through these larger themes in your larger project and the experience of South Asian labor organizers. [00:34:55] Swati Rayasam: This clip is from somebody that you and I both know, which [00:35:00] is Prem Pariyar. I was so thrilled that Prem was a part of your project. I think Prem is an incredible organizer, so yeah tell our listeners a little bit about Prem. Prem [00:35:09] Sandhya Jha: It was pretty exciting to get to work with him you know, he moved here from Nepal and in Nepal he had been a Dalit activist and he came to the United States and had this notion that in the United States there is no caste and he was disabused of that notion very quickly as a restaurant worker dealing with anti Nepali bias in Indian restaurants, dealing with caste bias in Nepali restaurants, well dealing with Caste bias in all the restaurants. [00:35:35] Swati Rayasam: Hey, everyone, Narrator Swati here, I just wanted to put in an explanatory comma, a la W Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu to talk about some terms you just heard. Sandhya referenced that Prem was a Dalit activist and also talked about Caste bias. For those of you who don't know, Caste is a violent system of oppression and exclusion, which governs social status in many south Asian countries, although it is [00:36:00] most commonly associated with India. It works on an axis of purity and pollution, and it's hereditary. At the top of the caste system are Brahmins, by the way Sandhya and I are both Brahmin, and not even at the bottom, but completely outside of the system are Dalits who were previously referred to by the slur untouchable and Adivasis who are indigenous to South Asia. [00:36:25] Swati Rayasam: Despite being “illegal” Caste bias, Caste Oppression, Caste apartheid, are still prevalent, both in South Asia and as Sandhya references, in the United States. It manifests in many ways that people experience racial injustice, via socioeconomic inequality, systemic and interpersonal violence, occupation, and through the determination of marriage and other relationships. You can learn more at EqualityLabs.org and APEX currently has a show in the works that delves into this more deeply. Now. Back to Sandhya [00:36:58] Sandhya Jha: What is [00:37:00] delightful to me is Prem went on to get an MSW and is building out amazing mental health resources for Dalit communities for the Nepali community. Seeking to build out a program where there are more and more people in Nepal who are trained with MSW skills. [00:37:21] Sandhya Jha: I met with one of his professors from CSU East Bay where he got his degree and she said, You know, that the entire Cal State system is adding caste to its anti-discrimination policies thanks to the work he started at CSU East Bay. And it was really beautiful to hear that because the focus of my conversations with him were more around how his experiences in the restaurants led him into the solidarity work with nail salon workers. [00:37:53] Swati Rayasam: To just, kick back to the caste abolition work that Prem has been doing, that caste abolition work [00:38:00] at CSU East Bay has been such critical work in these ongoing conversations around caste that have been in the South Asian community primarily, but have been percolating elsewhere. [00:38:13] Swati Rayasam: You know, the state of California filed a lawsuit against Cisco systems Yep. For caste discrimination in their workplace and there have been all these conversations around caste and tech work and interplay that with the no tech for apartheid work. Right. That has been happening in Palestinian liberation circles. Yeah. And really building that solidarity movement. So I think that Prem is an absolute powerhouse Yeah. In that regard. But yeah, let's listen to this clip. [00:38:42] Prem: During that time, I got connected with other community organizer, like workers group. I got connected and so I was connected with nail salon workers, who were exploited at their workplace and with them, [00:39:00] I got to go to the capital in Sacramento. And so I thought I need to advocate for the restaurant workers. that was my first experience, like working with other workers and with the assembly members and like other other policy makers I shared what is happening what kinds of discrimination happening at the workplace. So I advocated for the restaurant workers at that time. I shared my stories and I supported the rights of nail salon workers. I was there to support them and they supported me as well, and it was wonderful. And finally that advocacy worked. And the bill was drafted and it was passed finally. And so it was huge achievement at that time. [00:39:49] Swati Rayasam: I love that. I think that is such a perfect story of when you win, we all win. [00:39:56] Sandhya Jha: And what I also love about it is he goes on [00:40:00] to talk about how he has remained in relationship with those nail salon workers. That they show up for each other, that they take each other food, that they show up to each other's baby showers and birthday parties, and there's this sense of community that emerges out of this shared struggle. And so that's a cross-cultural campaign. They were mostly Vietnamese. There were some Bangladeshi nail salon workers, but it was mostly people from a different culture than his. [00:40:27] Sandhya Jha: But somebody at the Asian Health Services program that he was at, saw his gifts, saw his passion, and he really responded to that in exactly, the most powerful way. I can imagine. [00:40:38] Swati Rayasam: And I think one of the nice things as well about that is that person at Asian Health Services connected Prem in and the Nail Salon Worker group, California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, Prem came from Nepal, I'm not sure, but the extent to which his organizing background and how comfortable he was in the US organizing space around labor [00:41:00] issues was probably significantly less that worker group took it upon themselves when they saw Prem come in to say, Oh, you are advocating on behalf of restaurant workers. Great. Why don't you join us? Let's help support and so the nail salon workers saw Prem, saw solidarity with Prem and said, It is our responsibility mm-hmm to bring you into this space to connect you in and to move in, struggle together. Yeah. Toward our shared goals of safety, of health, of rights. Yep. [00:41:35] Sandhya Jha: Exactly. [00:41:36] Swati Rayasam: So, we have this clip from Daljit, tell me a little bit about Daljit. Daljit [00:41:42] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. Daljit was an attorney who now reads tarot for people because she needed a break from the toxicity of that career and how it was taking her away from her family. Daljit is a deeply spiritual person and, [00:42:00] as I mentioned before, this theme of spirit showed up in some really beautiful ways in some of the interviews. I loved the way she understood her Sikh tradition as foundationally being connected with the land and foundationally connected with the people who work the land. [00:42:15] Daljit: Agriculture is our culture and the religion that I was born into, Siki, the founder of that faith was a farmer. And so a lot of the scripture, the analogies, the metaphors, the poetry, the music, the songs, the boon, the traditional folk songs, that can be taunting and teasing banter, all that stuff the land is the framework for that. And my most favorite line from the Guru Granth Sahib, our holy book, is, [speaks Punjabi] and that basically means that, the waters our guru, the airs our father, but our mother is Earth. And that's the greatest of all , and that's adherence to ecosystem. That's the [00:43:00] indigenous Cosmo vision that should be paramount. And that's what I try to teach my children. And so I think that's what I was taught as a kid without necessarily being able to pinpoint it, but it was just infused throughout our songs, our music, our food, the Harvest, there's two times a year that our celebrations, whether it Baisakhi or Lohri. It's so connected to the harvest and what is coming out of the soil or not. And you're connected to the cycles of nature. [00:43:28] Swati Rayasam: The connection between nature land, spirituality the way that it shows up in so many faith backgrounds and so many faith organizers, I think is really, really beautiful. [00:43:41] Sandhya Jha: And I love that Daljit Kaursoni who was raised in this tradition, has found her way to Buddhism and is raising her kids with those connections, but without ever losing this grounding in the liberation of the land, the liberation of the [00:44:00] people. [00:44:00] Sandhya Jha: And for that to be a key element of her spirituality, even as her spirituality evolves, I think it's pretty powerful. Tafadar [00:44:08] Sandhya Jha: One of the other people I got to interview ,Tafadar, he's a Bangladeshi American in the building trades and is a deeply committed Marxist. For me, this was a particularly exciting interview because I'm Bengali, so from West Bengal, before partition, Bangladesh and what's now West Bengal, were one state. And so it was fun to get to talk with him and to say, Hey, this is our legacy as Bengalis is radical worker organizing. [00:44:40] Sandhya Jha: And I remember saying to him, Some people in the building trades are not super excited to be working with brown people. And some people in the building trades are a little biased against women. And as a very, very progressive South Asian? How do you navigate that [00:45:00] space? [00:45:00] Sandhya Jha: And he said, Here's the thing is, yeah, I organize alongside some moderate to conservative white folks from New Jersey and he said, but in the building trades, if that moderate to conservative white guy from New Jersey decides he doesn't like my feminist politics, or he doesn't like my brown skin, if he decides that's a reason not to train me, he might die. And it was really interesting because even though I've been doing labor justice work for a long time, it was one of those moments I was like, Oh, right. Your work is very dangerous and you all have to rely on each other whether you like each other or not. That is the magic of organizing that no one ever talks about. This is why we can do cross class, cross-cultural work because literally you have to trust each other with your lives. Right. That was a really clarifying moment for me. And it was one of those interesting moments where I was like, [00:46:00] Solidarity is not a romantic thing. Uh, it is very much a matter of life and death. [00:46:05] Sandhya Jha: And I think that is really important and that exact thing that you brought up, you don't even have to necessarily trust somebody. Right. But you do need them. Yep. Right. And like that really clear understanding that like your fates are intertwined and it is truly in everybody's best interest. If you are trained well, irrespective of whether or not at lunch, I'm interested in sitting anywhere near you. I think that's really great. [00:46:32] Sandhya Jha: One of the things that was really exciting about talking with Tafadar was the reminder that labor organizing and formal union organizing at its best can be in solidarity with other movements really worker justice and housing justice and racial justice are inseparable, on some level. And so, one of the most inspiring stories I got to hear across all of these interviews [00:47:00] was a campaign that brought together folks across the anti- gentrification, the immigrant rights, and the labor justice movement. [00:47:14] Tafadar: It's ironic, building affordable housing with deadly exploitation. And, um, to do this, the de blassio administration, they embark on massive major rezonings of poor areas to relax the local zoning laws to be able to bring in these developments. And a couple of years ago, my, my union in local 79's. Took a very sharp turn towards a community organizing approach because labor can't win on our own, and that's the perspective that all of labor should adopt. In order to fight against the sweatshops in our industry. We united with a lot of community organizations in the South Bronx. [00:47:53] Tafadar: We formed the South Bronx, Safe Southern Boulevard Coalition. And along with these groups, we [00:48:00] protested and did a whole lot of activism, lobbying, community organizing to stop the rezoning of Southern Boulevard, which is a massive stretch in the South Bronx, while the De Blassio administration had succeeded in another part of the Bronx where there's like massive displacement still underway right now. And we were determined to stop it there. And it was a beautiful thing that we can unite because on our end as labor, we had to prevent all these trash companies from coming in and exploiting workers. And we were working with these tenants who are afraid of being displaced. And people generally, we do need revitalization of our neighborhoods. We do need investment. We do need things to be changed and made better. For us. If it's not for us, if it's done without us, then eventually we're not even gonna be here anymore. So we had that alliance going on and not only did we manage to stop that rezoning, we also educated the local city councilman on why his position was wrong and supporting the rezoning. And he eventually completely flipped this [00:49:00] position. And now chairs the land use committee of the city council from the perspective that we educated him on, which it's just been a very interesting dynamic. But, there's a lot of rezoning battles all over the city that's like the main front of anti gentrification struggles. And I've been watching those kinds of campaigns go on since I began organizing about 15, 16. I've seen very different approaches to them, but I've never seen any model really work until that one kicked in where Labor and the community came together. So that was one of my favorite campaigns because of that lesson that we were able to concretely put into practice and set as an example for not only for community movements all over New York City, but also for Labor. [00:49:43] Sandhya Jha: I think this hit me in particular because I've done so much work around antis displacement in Oakland, and my experience has been. [00:49:53] Sandhya Jha: That while for most of us on the ground, the connection between housing justice and labor justice is really clear. When you [00:50:00] start getting into the technical policy issues and the funding issues, the folks who are running labor and housing justice or affordable housing, struggle to find ways to collaborate. And it's been one of my consistent heartbreaks for at least a decade at this point because I work at the intersection of those things and sometimes I despair of us being able to find ways to move forward together. And so to hear a story like this one and to be reminded at core, those justice issues can and must be we already knew, must be, but actually can function together to build a better community. That was actually really life giving for me to hear. [00:50:45] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I a hundred percent agree. And I think the point that Tafadar as well brings in the clip of just saying we knew that we could do this, but we knew we couldn't do this without community organizing. Right? Yeah. That labor couldn't do this alone. Yeah. [00:51:00] And I think that is a lot of what, when we talk about solidarity politics, it's not just a backdoor way of inclusion for inclusion's sake, we have to all do this. Actually, it is integral that all of us are involved in any of these campaigns because it impacts all of us. And because we are not going to win with only a single constituency and in the very same way that, Tafadar was identifying that labor couldn't do that alone. in community organizing spaces that you and I have been in mm-hmm. , like we are constantly talking about how we cannot do any of this without labor. Yep. And I think a beautiful example of that is the Block the Boat campaign yeah that the Arab Resource Organizing Center, started back in 2014 and then again during 2021 to block the Zim ship from the port of Oakland. And like this community organization [00:52:00] AROC could not do that without working with the longshoreman to collaborate with the port workers. And I think that when we see the marriage of community organizing and labor organizing, that is when we get the power of grassroots organizing. [00:52:16] Sandhya Jha: Something I wanna mention about the SAADA Fellowship that I was really grateful for: two things. First off, they did a really good job of making sure we got trained in grassroots oral history. So they took really seriously what it meant for this to be justice work. And they made sure we had exposure to methodology that was gonna lift up and honor and foster the voices of people whose stories don't get heard often enough. And that was a really big deal to me. The other thing is they made sure that we had an advisory board, people who are in this [00:53:00] work who could help us, figure out who to talk with, who could help us build out an event strategy. And you helped me build out my advisory committee. Anibel Ferris-Comelo who is with the University of California Labor Center, [00:53:14] Swati Rayasam: Prem Pariyar, a Nepali Dalit restaurant worker, organizer pushing for Caste as a protected category with Equality Labs, a Dalit feminist organization, and a social worker supporting the mental health needs of his and many other South Asian communities in Alameda county. [00:53:31] Swati Rayasam: Will Jamil Wiltchko with the California Trade Justice Coalition, Terry Valen who I did a lot of organizing with at the beginning of the pandemic, around the struggles that seafarers were facing with the onset of COVID-19. And he's the organizational director of the Filipino Community Center in San Francisco. The president of NAFCON which is the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns and just an all in all amazing organizer [00:53:57] Sandhya Jha: the last thing I wanna mention [00:54:00] is SAADA also helped me set up a digital exhibit with Art by Madhvi Trivedi Patak and I wanted to give them a shoutout because they're an incredible artist, but also they grew up in a working class family and didn't get exposed to what it looks like to do labor justice. And so as they developed the artwork to go with the digital exhibit, they got to experience the possibilities of labor solidarity that they hadn't gotten to experience as a child. And so I really loved that Madhvi was a part of this project as well [00:54:38] Swati Rayasam: All of the clips that you shared really identifying, again, these like huge fundamental pillars of solidarity and spirit and struggle. these clips were amazing. They are so rich and so layered with all of these people's varying and different experiences. Really showing in [00:55:00] all of these different walks of life at all of these ages with all of these experiences, that all of these people have this unified and shared identity in struggle, in spirit, and in solidarity for liberation. [00:55:14] Sandhya Jha: And one of the things that I think is worth celebrating is whether they see it as part of their South Asian identity or not. People who do identify as South Asian now have this resource that says there's a home for you in the labor movement. Yes, there are. There is a value to your voice. There is a value to your wisdom, there's a value to your experience in the labor movement. [00:55:36] Swati Rayasam: I think it's a beautiful project. Sandhya, I think it has been an amazing amount of work I've watched you do over the past year. These stories are so wonderful. I really encourage people to check it out. Where can they find your project? [00:55:49] Sandhya Jha: The website's www.saada.org/acfp [00:56:00] /exhibit/solidarity-forever. We'll put that in the notes. We'll definitely put that in the show notes. [00:56:05] Swati Rayasam: I just wanna make sure that we replug your podcast Bending Toward Justice Avatar, The Last Air Bender for the Global Majority and you can find that at tinyurl.com slash ATLA podcast, Capital P (tinyurl.com/ATLAPodcast). And then the last thing that I also wanna make sure that we plug is Without Fear Consulting. [00:56:27] Sandhya Jha: I love working with folks who know that their organization could be a little more liberative, and are, just not quite sure where to start. I love working with a team of folks who want to be about the work of incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into the DNA of their organization and I love setting them up so that they can keep doing that long after I'm working with them. So please do find me withoutfearconsulting.com. If you're interested in that. [00:56:58] Swati Rayasam: Amazing. Sandhya [00:57:00] Jha, Pastor, Racial Justice consultant, podcast host, archivist, singer songwriter, amazing cook. You can do it all. I think you deserve a nap. it has been amazing talking to you. I am so glad to be able to hear about your project and also to hear a lot more about your life. [00:57:23] Sandhya Jha: Yay. Thank you so much. [00:57:25] Miata Tan: That was Swati Rayasam in conversation with Sandhya Jha. As Swati mentioned, you can learn more about her work in the show notes at kpfa.org/program/apex-express. Speaking of Swati — she's currently working on an episode marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, out in early September. It'll cover the work of the South Asian Coalition, a national network of organizations working together on South Asian American movement building. Keep an eye out for that one. This episode originally aired January 5th, 2023 — we're re-airing it this week in honor of South Asian American Heritage Month. This is APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, airing every Thursday evening at 7pm. Thank you for tuning in tonight. APEX Express is a proud member of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality. A network focused on long-term movement building, capacity infrastructure, and leadership support for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders committed to social justice. Learn more at AACRE.org This program produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's episode was produced by Swati Rayasam. Get some rest y'all. The post APEX Express – 7.16.26 – South Asians and The Labor Justice Movement appeared first on KPFA.

Residents in Arcadia woke to reports that ICE agents were headed into their neighborhood. Our immigration reporter explains what happened, what authorities have confirmed and how the operation has affected the community.Then, how Florida's expanded voucher program is helping children with autism learn to swim, the growing popularity of conservation cemeteries and education meets happy hour.Website: https://www.wusf.orgSign up for our daily newsletter: https://www.wusf.org/wakeupcall-newsletterFollow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WUSFInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/wusfpublicmedia/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsN1ZItTKcJ4AGsBIni3

0:07 - Podcast Introduction 2:11 - Superstitious Fan Talk 4:30 - Betting on Argentina 8:38 - Biggest moments discussed 10:39 - Intense soccer fans 15:00 - Madden gameplay discussion 17:00 - Conor McGregor injury 22:33 - Hard season recap 25:07 - Receiver needs analysis 30:27 - Josh Allen importance 32:40 - Jimbo Cook nickname 39:59 - Game number two 44:22 - Team complete! 46:55 - Final player selection 51:34 - Episode wrap-up   In this episode of the Respect the Game (RTG) podcast, the two co-hosts discuss a variety of sports topics, focusing heavily on recent soccer tournaments and NFL offseason news, before playing a team-building mini-game. Soccer, Superstitions, and Sports Betting The podcast kicks off with one of the hosts sharing a story about a series of unfortunate events, including a broken air conditioning unit, which led him to miss recording the podcast during the Copa America tournament. The "Time Traveler" Bet: The host shares a story about a Twitter user who claimed to be a time traveler and predicted the exact outcome of a soccer match in 2021. Following this prediction, the host made a live parlay bet during the Copa America final (Argentina vs. Colombia) and won, despite some initial confusion over official stats regarding Erling Haaland's shots on goal. Soccer Fandom: The hosts discuss the immense passion of soccer fans, comparing the intensity of the crowds at the Copa America final at Hard Rock Stadium to NFL games, noting that soccer fans seem much more die-hard. NFL Offseason Discussion The conversation then shifts to American football and the upcoming NFL season. Daniel Jones and the Giants: The hosts briefly discuss the New York Giants and express skepticism about quarterback Daniel Jones's ability to lead the team to a successful season. Buffalo Bills' Receivers: They analyze the Buffalo Bills' current roster, specifically their lack of a true number-one wide receiver after trading Stefon Diggs. They debate whether rookie Keon Coleman or Curtis Samuel can fill the void and discuss how Josh Allen elevates the players around him. Miami Dolphins: The hosts touch upon the Dolphins' roster, noting that they have a strong receiving corps but questioning their overall depth. First Down Studio: Team Building Games In the final segment of the podcast, the hosts share their screen and play a team-building game on a website called First Down Studio. Game 1: Build a 17-0 Team The goal is to build an undefeated team by selecting one player from a randomly generated NFL team for each position. Their Draft: They selected Lamar Jackson (QB), Saquon Barkley (RB), CeeDee Lamb (WR), Tyler Warren (TE), a Flex player, the Seattle Seahawks Defense, and Jim Harbaugh (Coach). Result: The game calculated their team's simulated record as 16-1, which they considered a very strong outcome. Game 2: Build the GOAT Team The objective of this game is to build a team that generates the highest possible fantasy points based on the players' best single-season performances. They played this game twice. Attempt 1: They drafted Joe Burrow, LaDainian Tomlinson, Emmitt Smith, Keyshawn Johnson, Jimmy Graham, and Christian McCaffrey. This team scored 2,574.8 points, earning a "B+" grade. Attempt 2: Seeking a higher score, they drafted Peyton Manning, Curtis Martin, Saquon Barkley, Randy Moss, Antonio Brown, Rob Gronkowski, and Jamaal Anderson. Despite feeling confident, this team scored lower, with 2,469.2 points, earning a "B" grade. The episode concludes with the hosts briefly discussing mobile AI assistants (Siri vs. Google Gemini) and looking forward to the start of NFL training camps.

Plus: Independents Under Attack: The Fight For South Carolina. E.Jean Carroll Finally Receives Justice. United Removing Middle Seats. Trump's forever war isn't in Venezuela or Greenland anymore. It's on the home front. National Guard deployments in Washington have been quietly extended through 2029, ICE has killed two more people during vehicle stops in a single week, and Trump is now planning a prime-time address to reopen his case against the 2020 election. Paul Rieckhoff walks through why this is the moment — with Lindsey Graham gone, Mitch McConnell sidelined, and the midterms looming as the last real circuit breaker on executive power — that the pieces are being moved into place. Plus: Independents Under Attack in South Carolina, the E. Jean Carroll payout, the Home Run Derby, the World Cup final in New York and New Jersey, and one small piece of good news for anyone who has ever been trapped in a middle seat. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ryan and Alex reflect on their recent skywatch with Isaac Weishaupt, sharing firsthand experiences with orbs and exploring what these encounters may reveal about the deeper spiritual journey. They discuss humility, initiation, the way of the heart, false light, the spirit world, and the pursuit of true enlightenment.

Nasty Neal talks with Katharine Isabelle, Lou Taylor Pucci and Daniel Stamm about their new film LOCKBOX!Seeking peace after her mother's death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.From the director of THE LAST EXORCISM, LOCKBOX is inspired by the cult podcast “Knifepoint Horror” and is based on an original story by writer, creator, and narrator Soren Narnia.FILMMAKERS:Daniel Stamm - Director (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil)Dark Castle Entertainment - ProducersKearie Peak - ProducerSoren Narnia - WriterJustin Yoffe - WriterCAST:Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald's Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) Lou Taylor Pucci (Evil Dead, Touch Me)Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms)Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOmwH7xVAhD-OOAqFWyTYTA/join#Horrormovie #NastyNeal #LockBox #CarlaGugino #KatharineIsabelle

Plus: DOJ Issues Subpoenas for NYT Qatar Plane Coverage. Jay Z is back. World Cup Final Four. MLB Allstar Game is Something Good. No guests today — just Paul Rieckhoff, coming to you from a brutally hot New York City with the five I's to keep you cool: independence, integrity, information, inspiration, and impact. The top story is a shock: Lindsey Graham, the 71-year-old South Carolina senator and staunch Trump ally, has died. Paul reflects on a complicated legacy — the man who voted to send him to war, drilled in the reserves as a sitting senator, disappointed vets by voting against the post-9/11 GI Bill, and eventually folded fully into Trump land, but who stood with Ukraine when it mattered. His pitch: pass Graham's Russia sanctions bill now and name it in his honor. He also flags the deeper problem with naming an inexperienced family member to a Senate seat that votes on war and peace, checks in on a silent, recovering Mitch McConnell, and breaks down Trump's reignited Iran war — the worst ceasefire ever, 140 targets hit over the weekend, and "President Mayhem" at his peak while markets churn. Then the throughline Paul says you can't look away from: ICE running rampant. Two more people killed in a week — in Biddeford, Maine, and in Houston — with DHS slow to explain and accountability nowhere in sight. Believe your eyes, he says: this is unlawful, unaccountable, and un-American, and shutting ICE down is a patriotic stance, not a partisan one — especially with the specter of the Insurrection Act looming. Paul also hits Trump's escalating war on the press (grand-jury subpoenas to the New York Times reporters who covered the Qatari-gifted Air Force One), some good news from the courts holding the line, a quick primary-season heads-up, and — because it's summer — Jay-Z at Yankee Stadium, a World Cup down to four headed for MetLife, and the "something good" of the MLB All-Star Game in Philly. Country over party, people over politics, light over heat. Stay vigilant. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.   -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's an exceptionally busy day in Washington, where two Supreme Court justices are testifying before Congress in a very rare, personal pitch to lawmakers requesting tens of millions of dollars in additional security funding. Over on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson is holding a news conference on the GOP's agenda. And we've also got our eyes on new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who's testifying on the state of the economy in a critical hearing that could set the tone for how he deals with inflation. Meanwhile, President Trump is preparing to greet the prime minister of Iraq as the White House escalates attacks on neighboring Iran and shifts its policy on the Strait of Hormuz.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Craig Grialou, Darren Urban and Dani Sureck return from vacation, there are things to catch up on, like the departure of Dave Pasch and what he meant over his 24 seasons. Meanwhile, as training camp draws near, our trio talk about the ongoing conversation of QB1, Jacoby Brissett's situation and workouts with teammates, Carson Beck's contract, a question of what under-the-radar player should be watched, a plea for reading (and reading comprehension), Cardinals on the top 100, Trey McBride's 99, Aaron Donald's potential return, Dani gets us cultured, Erling Haaland as an NFL player, and a shoutout to a longtime fan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Pastor Ralph continued our FOLLOW series with a teaching on Jesus' command to "seek first the kingdom of God." He began with a simple observation—everyone is seeking something. The real question is what sits at the center of our lives. Working through Matthew's Gospel, Pastor Ralph showed that before Jesus ever calls people to seek the Kingdom, He reveals the King. Pastor Ralph quoted "the only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one." Lasting change comes less from trying harder than from discovering a greater love. As Jesus becomes the center, everything else begins to find its proper place.

Paul Rieckhoff joins the roundtable to dissect the wreckage of Graham Platner's Maine Senate campaign — alongside Bangor Daily News political editor Michael Shepherd, former DNC chair Jaime Harrison, and Puck's Leigh Ann Caldwell. Paul called this one early: Platner was a ship with holes in it from the start, and progressives were so desperate for a gravelly-voiced tough guy that they were willing to ignore the Nazi tattoo, the Reddit posts, and a vetting operation that missed most of it. His bigger point — Maine is an independent-minded state with a Republican senator and an independent one, and the answer isn't another progressive heartthrob but a moderate bridge-builder who can reach the 300,000-plus independents who actually decide these races. That sets off a sharp exchange with Jaime Harrison over what "establishment" even means. Paul argues the party keeps losing, keeps falling for online-video fantasies that end in disappointment, and needs a real reckoning — the consultants who profit off every doomed surge should have no role in leadership. Harrison pushes back hard: Democrats hold the Maine governorship and most statewide offices, "establishment" is just the people who organize, recruit, and win, and the real task is a credible, high-character candidate who can prosecute the case against Susan Collins on abortion and Kavanaugh. Paul's throughline holds — you can't count on the Democrats to save you, and independents like Angus King are proof that Maine rewards something different. Stay vigilant. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We all long to find true, lasting reconciliation with God. Jesus told a series of parables to underscore how deeply God values the lost. In this message, Pastor Lutzer explores what Jesus truly thinks about lost people. All of us are prodigals, and our Father rejoices when we come back to Him. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/172/29?v=20251111

We all long to find true, lasting reconciliation with God. Jesus told a series of parables to underscore how deeply God values the lost. In this message, Pastor Lutzer explores what Jesus truly thinks about lost people. All of us are prodigals, and our Father rejoices when we come back to Him. This month's special offer is available for a donation of any amount. Get yours at https://rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Moody Church Media [https://www.moodymedia.org/], home of "Running To Win," exists to bring glory to God through the transformation of lives. Erwin W. Lutzer is Pastor Emeritus of The Moody Church in Chicago, where he served as Senior Pastor for 36 years. He is a prolific author of over seventy books. A clear expositor of the Bible, he is the featured speaker on "Running To Win" and "Songs In The Night," with programs broadcasting on over a thousand outlets in the U.S. and across more than fifty countries in seven languages. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in the Chicago area. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren.   SUPPORT: Tax Deductible Support: https://www.moodymedia.org/donate/ Become an Endurance Partner: https://endurancepartners.org/   SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MoodyChurchMedia Daily Devotional and Weekly Digest: https://www.moodymedia.org/newsletters/subscription/

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. In trials, God calls believers to pray for wisdom and keep faith without doubting, because testing produces endurance and perseverance. Give glory to God, seek help from the One who planned the trouble, and stop trusting weapons or fortifying walls.

The Moscow Summit: Stalin and Mao's Suspicious Alliance GUEST: Nick Bunker In late 1949, Mao Zedongtraveled to Moscow seeking Joseph Stalin's sponsorship for the nascent People's Republic of China. Mao required financial aid, an air force, and recognition as an equal leader in the communist world. Stalin, however, was a wary and suspicious character who initially treated Mao with distance to ensure he accepted a subordinate role. Stalin's primary motivations were industrializing China to strengthen communism against the West and securing the Soviet Far East. A breakthrough occurred in January 1950, partially influenced by Britain's early diplomatic recognition of China, which forced Stalin to reach terms with Mao to prevent him from being "seduced" by the West. Stalin ultimately viewed Asiaas the key to the future, seeing potential for communist expansion in Vietnam, Malaya, and Japan. This alliance solidified despite the Soviet leadership's private view of Mao as a "simple peasant" character. (2)

The Democrats Will Not Save You in Maine—or Anywhere. Cuba is Next. Sen Mitch McConnell is MIA. Independent is Not “a Schtick”. World Cup. And New Professional Women's Baseball League!  Trump's forever war is expanding faster than anyone in the mainstream press is willing to say out loud. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has quietly invited more than 60 countries to a meeting framing Antifa as a transnational terror threat — the rhetorical scaffolding for troops in American cities and a move on Cuba before the midterms. Iran is a sucking chest wound draining roughly 40% of the US Navy into the Arabian Sea. A brave American, Commander Gabriel Edwards, was lost in the Seahawk crash on July 1st and almost no one covered it. And at NATO, the commander in chief confused Iran with Japan and Zelensky with Putin on camera. Paul goes solo to connect the dots the two-party machine won't. The Graham Platner collapse in Maine is a case study in why Democrats cannot be trusted to vet, to listen, or to win — and why disrespecting the 45% of Americans who now call themselves independent is a losing strategy against Susan Collins or anyone else. Plus: Mitch McConnell has been hospitalized for three weeks with no straight answers, Ukraine is quietly winning, and there's still real reason for hope — the World Cup, a brand-new women's professional baseball league, and a growing independent movement that refuses to put on a jersey. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A quick-hit media blitz — Paul Rieckhoff's back-to-back TV appearances in one place. First, on NewsNation Now, Paul unpacks Trump's expanding conflict with Iran: the worst ceasefire ever, missiles still flying, the Strait of Hormuz unsecured, and the regime controlling the tempo while our military gets sucked into what he calls a "sucking chest wound" that's dragging down the economy and Trump's poll numbers. He breaks down the new US–Ukraine Patriot partnership announced alongside Zelensky — better late than never, and real upside for American national security — why defeating Russia is the only road to a deal with Putin, and why Graham Platner's collapse won't save the Democrats in Maine, where a toxic party brand and 300,000-plus independents will decide the race. Then, on CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett, Paul joins former Senator Barbara Boxer to press two questions Americans deserve answers to. First, the president's stumbles — the word confusions, the wrong names, the moments of visible fog — and why, just as with Biden, health questions about a sitting commander-in-chief actively directing troops in combat are fair game and dangerous to ignore. Second, the Qatar-gifted jet: the national security risk of a foreign-donated aircraft, the roughly $400 million in taxpayer money to renovate it, and the murky story behind the blinds-down flight home. Paul's bottom line — we can't believe Trump, we can't believe the Iranian regime, and a president putting himself ahead of national security is deeply troubling. Stay vigilant. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

God's heart is known by what He seeks—and He seeks the lost. Jesus demonstrated this by spending time with tax collectors and sinners. In this message, Pastor Lutzer explains that people are incredibly valuable yet lost. We are called to carry on His work, seeking the lost and seeing them in light of eternity. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/172/29?v=20251111

God's heart is known by what He seeks—and He seeks the lost. Jesus demonstrated this by spending time with tax collectors and sinners. In this message, Pastor Lutzer explains that people are incredibly valuable yet lost. We are called to carry on His work, seeking the lost and seeing them in light of eternity. This month's special offer is available for a donation of any amount. Get yours at https://rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Moody Church Media [https://www.moodymedia.org/], home of "Running To Win," exists to bring glory to God through the transformation of lives. Erwin W. Lutzer is Pastor Emeritus of The Moody Church in Chicago, where he served as Senior Pastor for 36 years. He is a prolific author of over seventy books. A clear expositor of the Bible, he is the featured speaker on "Running To Win" and "Songs In The Night," with programs broadcasting on over a thousand outlets in the U.S. and across more than fifty countries in seven languages. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in the Chicago area. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren.   SUPPORT: Tax Deductible Support: https://www.moodymedia.org/donate/ Become an Endurance Partner: https://endurancepartners.org/   SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MoodyChurchMedia Daily Devotional and Weekly Digest: https://www.moodymedia.org/newsletters/subscription/

Two stories broke in the same news cycle, and both are gut punches for anyone who cares about accountability. In Maine, Democratic Senate candidate and former Marine Graham Platner has withdrawn after a Nazi tattoo, ugly online history, and rape allegations from two women who went on the record. Paul was skeptical from day one — and lays out why Platner ducked every veteran interviewer who might have pressed him, why the progressive left keeps chasing candidates who look the part instead of doing the work, and why Maine, one of the most independent states in the country, deserved better than a binary between a compromised Democrat and Susan Collins. Then there's Iran. The so-called ceasefire was never real. Trump is now floating boots on the ground, still talking about hitting Cuba, and managed to blow up relations with Japan, Zelensky, and Putin in a single day. This is President Mayhem at peak volume — all gas, no brakes — with 50,000 U.S. troops in harm's way, 40% of the Navy in the region, and the Iranian regime emboldened. Paul explains why this is Trump's forever war, why Congress likely can't stop it, and what listeners can actually do about it before the December defense bill vote. -WATCH full video of this episode here. -Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we're doing to change that. -Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten. -Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months! -Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office. -Learn more about Paul's work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America. -Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here. -Remember Independent is an Attitude. -Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It's a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Connect with Independent Americans: Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms Read more at Substack Support ad-free episodes at Patreon  Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook  Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky -Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.  -And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.  Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.  And now part of the BLEAV network!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We've been told since the 90's that when it comes to elections, "It's the economy, stupid". I believe we have it backwards. If we seek first the most important things, a thriving economy will follow.

Mal and Jo are back to dive deep into the third episode of ‘House of the Dragon' Season 3, “Rhaenyra Triumphant.” They break down everything from Ormund's scheming with a fake Daeron to Rhaenyra's rough first day at the office.(00:00) Intro(05:53) Opening Snapshot(25:21) Daemon forces Ormund's “surrender” [wink wink](38:04) Opening credits update(41:57) Rhaenyra begins a normal one(55:17) Rhaenyra meets “Daeron”(01:17:13) Small Councils and empty coffers(01:31:28) Rhaenyra recants her pledge to Alicent(01:41:56) Mysaria's to-do list grows(01:47:15) A frosty meeting with the High Septon(01:54:05) Corlys makes his ask(01:57:47) Seeking some midnight cuddles(01:59:27) A moon blood interruption(02:04:42) Hearing petitions(02:08:14) The Small Council continues to bicker(02:1034) Knighting the seeds(02:12:51) Alicent guides—and warns—Rhaenyra(02:15:42) A ratty dinner is served(02:21:08) Daemon shares his simple platform: We're gods(02:28:14) Corlys and Rhaenyra argue(02:34:25) The Faeron and Tumbleton reveals(02:41:19) Book spoilers!Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Mallory RubinProducers: Carlos Chiriboga and Scott LeeStudio Production: Jacob CornettSocial: Jomi AdeniranAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices