Episodes
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
AAM's "Build Back Better Blueprint"
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Leslie is joined by Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a partnership established by some of America’s leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union.
The two discuss AAM's 10-part blog series called "The Build Back Better Blueprint." They focus in on the following entries from the series:
1. Joe Biden’s China Challenge
2. Stop Currency Manipulation, Start Creating Jobs
3. It’s Time for a U.S.-China Reset
4. Will the U.S. Get Its Money’s Worth on Currency Policy?
5. Companies Are Discovering the Real Costs of Doing Business With China
WEBSITEs: 1. AAM - www.AmericanManufacturing.org 2. 2020 #MadeinAmerica Gift Guide - TinyURL.com/MadeInUSAGifts
TWITTER: 1. AAM - @KeepItMadeInUSA 2. Scott Paul - @ScottPaulAAM
INSTAGRAM: @AmericanManufacturing
FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/AmericanManufacturing
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
Tuesday Dec 15, 2020
The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His new show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.
Brad is first joined by Sarah Jones, Editor-in-Chief of PoliticusUSA. The two discuss the multiple crises that President-Elect Biden will be facing once he's inaugurated on Jan. 20th. They also outline what executive orders that Biden could take upon entering office, and what types of obstacles that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may try to place in Biden's way.
Sarah is a 2 time Telly Award winner, and now hosts Politicus News and co-hosts Politicus Radio. The website for PoliticusUSA is www.PoliticusUSA.com and their Twitter handle is @PoliticusUSA. Sarah's handle is @PoliticusSarah.
During the second half of the show, Brad leads a political round-table with Will Jawando and Mark Grimaldi. The roundtable discusses America's desperate need for COVD-19 pandemic relief, and what President-Elect Biden might be able to do in the way of a stimulus package once he takes office. Also, as a former member of the Obama administration, Will shares his personal expertise on the Cabinet nominations of President-Elect Biden.
Will Jawando is Councilmember At-Large for Montgomery County, Maryland. Described as “the progressive leader we need” by revered civil rights activist and Congressman, John Lewis, Will has worked with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Sherrod Brown, and then-Senator Barack Obama.
During the 8-year Obama Administration, Will had the honor of serving as Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, followed by a position as an advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in the U.S. Department of Education.
Will's handle on both Twitter and Instagram is @WillJawando.
Mark Grimaldi has been a progressive political activist for the past 12 years. He volunteered for the campaigns of President Obama (2008 and 2012), Senator Bernie Sanders (2016), Secretary Hillary Clinton (2016), and President-Elect Joe Biden (2020). Mark is also involved in campaign finance reform efforts around the country, and philanthropic efforts for Cancer research. His Twitter handle is @MarkJGrimaldi.
Brad writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.' He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles.
You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon.
Watch a video broadcast of the show here: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1ZkJzegyyoXGv
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Today the awesome Moe Vela guest hosts my show! Moe served in President Obama’s administration as the Director of Administration and Senior Advisor in the Office of Vice President Joe Biden. The stint was the second White House appointment for Moe, who served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Advisor on Hispanic Affairs for Vice President Al Gore. Moe holds the distinction of being the first Hispanic American and gay American to serve twice in a senior executive role in the White House.
He's first joined by Jean Card, Co-Host of 'BiPodisan,' to talk bridging the gap between the political left and right.
Then Basil Seggos, the Commissioner of the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, talks a huge priority for President-Elect Biden, climate change. The two also discuss the damage that President Trump has done to the EPA, and the opportunity to repair and strengthen the organization.
Here are the Twitter handles for everyone who appeared on today's show:
Moe Vela - @MoeVela
Jean Card - @JeanCard
Basil Seggos - @BasilSeggos
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
Leslie is first joined by Catherine Gray, Co-Founder of the 'She Angels Foundation,' which works to generate funds in order to support female founded non profits that are helping women.
They discuss how America has a female VP on her way to the White House, but still has a 98 percent gap in funding of women-led startups— a glaring indicator of gender inequity and unmet potential economic growth in the United States. Catherine also details the work that she and her organization are doing to address this inequity.
The website for her foundation is SheAngelsFoundation.org, and the Twitter handle for her film series is @SheAngelsSeries.
During the second half of the show, Leslie is joined by Col. Cedric Leighton, Founder and President of Cedric Leighton Associates, a strategic risk and leadership consultancy serving global companies and organizations.
They evaluate President-Elect Biden's nominee for Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin.
Leslie and Colonel Leighton also discuss the debate around choosing someone to fill the position who recently finished their active duty military service.
Colonel Leighton's Twitter handle is @CedricLeighton, and his website is CedricLeighton.com.
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His new show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.
Brad is first joined by Charlie Cook, Editor and Publisher of the 'Cook Political Report.' His Twitter handle is @CharlieCookDC.
The two preview the Georgia Senate runoff elections. They also discuss what they believe a Biden administration will look like, and what it might be able to accomplish depending on whether the Senate will be controlled by Republicans or Democrats.
During the second half of the show, Brad leads a political round-table with Tara Devlin and Mark Grimaldi. The roundtable details the dire need for a COVID-19 stimulus package. Unless Congress swiftly passes a stimulus bill:
- Nearly 7 million Americans are at risk of being evicted and without homes as the CDC’s temporary moratorium on evictions is set to expire Dec. 31;
- Millions more will slip into poverty and become food insecure;
- On Dec. 26, 12 million more unemployed people will lose their federal and state unemployment benefits as the remaining $300 weekly bonus as the CARES Act dries up
- The pause on federal student loans is set to end on Jan. 31, meaning loan officers will soon be able to start charging interest again
Brad, Tara and Mark also discuss whether they believe Trump will be the Republican nominee for President in 2024.
Tara Devlin is a New York City based comedian, writer, and the founder of RepublicanDirtyTricks.com, also known as RDT Daily.
Tara’s unapologetically-liberal podcast, "TARABUSTER,” is 100% listener supported, free from corporate influence, and 5-star viewer-reviewed.
Join the resistance by becoming a Patron of Tarabuster and RDT Daily at Patreon.com/TaraDevlin.
You can follow Tara on Twitter at @REALTaraDevlin and on Instagram at @Taradackty.
Mark Grimaldi has been a progressive political activist for the past 12 years. He volunteered for the campaigns of President Obama (2008 and 2012), Senator Bernie Sanders (2016), Secretary Hillary Clinton (2016), and President-Elect Joe Biden (2020). Mark is also involved in campaign finance reform efforts around the country, and philanthropic efforts for Cancer research. His Twitter handle is @MarkJGrimaldi.
Brad is on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles.
You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon and watch his previous 'Deadline D.C.' broadcasts at www.Periscope.TV/BradBannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon.
Watch a video broadcast of this episode here on Twitter/Periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/w/1RDGlPDVLljGL
Or here on Facebook Live: http://www.tinyurl.com/BradFacebook12720
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Relief Is Running Out
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Friday Dec 04, 2020
During this episode, Leslie is joined by United Steelworkers President Tom Conway(USW), North America’s largest industrial union.
They’re 1.2 million members and retirees strong in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. They proudly represent men and women who work in nearly every industry there is.
Leslie and Tom discuss how time is quickly running out for Congress – and specifically the Senate – to pass COVID-19 relief as tens of millions of Americans continue to struggle to make rent payments and put food on the table.
Unless Congress swiftly passes a stimulus bill:
- Nearly 7 million Americans are at risk of being evicted and without homes as the CDC’s temporary moratorium on evictions is set to expire Dec. 31;
- Millions more will slip into poverty and become food insecure;
- The pause on federal student loans is set to end Dec. 31, meaning loan officers will soon be able to start charging interest again;
- On Dec. 26, 12 million more unemployed people will lose their federal and state unemployment benefits as the remaining $300 weekly bonus as the CARES Act dries up.
There’s a bill ready:
- The House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act back in May – a $3 trillion relief package that would stimulate the economy and help American people stay afloat.
- And last month a record breaking 80 million Americans voted for Joe Biden, in no small part because they know the country needs more help from elected leaders.
- But the Senate refused to touch the stimulus bill, preferring instead to ram through Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation.
The House updated the HEROES Act this fall. It would provide crucial assistance to Americans fighting to pay their bills by:
- Funneling aid toward local, state and tribal governments to keep necessary public services up and running;
- Expanding paid sick days, family and medical leave, and unemployment compensation;
- Protecting essential workers by establishing a fund for employers to provide premium pandemic pay;
- Providing COBRA subsidies for laid-off workers;
- Protecting essential workers and helping stop the spread of the virus by establishing requirements for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing
- Extending and expanding the moratorium on certain evictions and foreclosures, which is set to expire Dec. 31 and leave thousands at risk of homelessness
- It’d be especially important for workers because it would require OSHA to establish an infectious disease standard – keeping employers accountable for COVID regulations, thereby increasing workplace safety.
A relief bill like the HEROES Act is not only necessary to repair the economy – it is needed to help our health care workers and stop the spread of the virus.
It would give health care workers the resources they need to conduct COVID-19 testing, track community spread, and fight the infection rate, while researchers and manufacturers work furiously to produce and distribute a vaccine.
There have also been a number of smaller solutions proposed that would at least serve as a beginning point for recovery, but Mitch McConnell continues to stand in the way of comprehensive help.
- Some states are scraping together funds to soften the blow of federal inaction.
- This week Democratic senators pushed to bring back enhanced unemployment benefits.
- And a bipartisan group of Senators put forward a much smaller stimulus bill that Mitch McConnell called, "a waste of time."
If you'd like to call Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Senate office and urge him to pass the HEROES Act, or the smaller bipartisan relief package, his Senate phone number is (202) 224-2541.
The website for the USW is USW.org. Their handle on both Twitter and Instagram is @steelworkers.
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
How Young People Are Getting Involved in the Georgia Senate Runoffs
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Today's guest hosts are Edwith Theogene and Charlotte Hancock, Organizing Director and Communications Director for Generation Progress.
During today's episode, they discuss how, after over a year of campaigning and organizing, a record number of Americans turned out on or before November 3rd to cast a ballot. Although it took several (very long) days for many races to be called, the results for most of them have now been decided—with a couple of notable exceptions.
In Georgia, a battleground state that Joe Biden ultimately won in the presidential race, two different Senate races are heading for a runoff on January 5th. According to Georgia election laws, candidates needed to win 50% of the vote in the November election to avoid a runoff, which none of the candidates for Senate did.
The enormous turnout of young voters, and particularly young voters of color, in Georgia played a significant role in Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Now, Senate campaigns are working hard through the holiday season to sustain the momentum from the November election and get out the vote for the two January 5th runoff elections.
To break down the role that young voters of color played in Georgia in November and what Senate campaigns must do to earn their votes on January 5th, Edwith and Charlotte are joined by two expert guests:
●Krys White, a political consultant and the former National Black Youth Vote Manager at NextGen America, as well as a founding Member of Our Black Party & Co-founder of Black Millennials 4 Flint.
●And Dominik Whitehead, the national civic engagement director at the NAACP
Our Black Party's website is OurBlackParty.org and their Twitter handle is @OurBlackParty. Krys's Twitter handle is @KrysWhiteSpeaks. The website for the NAACP is NAACP.org and their Twitter handle is @NAACP. Dominik's handle is @D_Whitehead87.
The website for "Generation Progress" is www.GenProgress.org and their Twitter Handle is @GenProgress. Edwith Theogene's Twitter handle is @WhoIsEdwith and Charlotte Hancock's handle is @CharlatAnne.
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
Tuesday Dec 01, 2020
Leslie is first joined by Catherine Gray, Co-Founder of the 'She Angels Foundation,' which works to generate funds in order to support female founded non profits that are helping women.
They discuss how, on this 'Giving Tuesday,' America has a female VP on her way to the White House, but still has a 98 percent gap in funding of women-led startups— a glaring indicator of gender inequity and unmet potential economic growth in the United States.Catherine also details the work that she and her organization are doing to address this inequity.
The website for her foundation is SheAngelsFoundation.org, and the Twitter handle for her film series is @SheAngelsSeries.
During the second half of the show, Leslie is joined by Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo. Dr. Nuzzo is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, and the Department of Epidemiology, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
She is also part of Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 Testing Insights Initiative, which is working to fill the void of publicly accessible COVID-19 testing data.
Dr. Nuzzo shares thoughts from her recent op-ed in The New York Times, titled, "COVID-19 Data Is a Mess. We Need a Way to Make Sense of It."
You can follow her on Twitter, where her handle is @JenniferNuzzo.
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Monday Nov 23, 2020
The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His new show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.
Brad is first joined by Dr. Bob Bollinger, the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They discuss the following issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Current status of the COVID-9 pandemic
- Prospects for vaccines
- What the Trump Administration should be doing to give the Biden Administration a head start on fighting COVID-19
- What steps President-Elect Biden should take immediately after his inauguration to combat COVID-19- Why Americans should stay home for Thanksgiving (recommended by the CDC)
Dr. Bollinger holds joint appointments in International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and in Community Public Health at the JH School of Nursing. He is Founding Director of the Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE). The Center is doing a lot of COVID-19 related work in the US and beyond. Their website is main.ccghe.net and their Facebook page is Facebook.com/CCGHE.
During the second half of the show, Brad leads a political round-table with the Boston Globe Opinion Writer Abdallah Fayyad, and progressive activist Mark J. Grimaldi.
The roundtable discusses:
-President-Elect Biden's nominees for his cabinet, including Antony Blinken for Secretary of State, Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary, Linda Thomas-Greenfield for Ambassador to the United Nations, Alejandro Mayorkas for Homeland Security Secretary, Jake Sullivan for National Security Adviser,
Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence and John Kerry as Climate Enjoy for National Security
- What President-Elect Biden can do to regarding an economic stimulus package, and an infrastructure bill, if Republicans retain control of the Senate following the two upcoming Georgia runoff elections
- How President-Elect Biden can balance the left and center lanes of the Democratic party as his administration begins creating public policy
Abdallah Fayyad is an opinion writer and Editorial Board member at The Boston Globe. He was previously a researcher at The Atlantic, and holds a degree in economics from American University. His Twitter handle is @Abdallah_Fayyad.
Mark Grimaldi has been a progressive political activist for the past 12 years. He volunteered for the campaigns of President Obama (2008 and 2012), Senator Bernie Sanders (2016), and Secretary Hillary Clinton (2016). Mark is also involved in campaign finance reform efforts around the country, and philanthropic efforts for Cancer research. His Twitter handle is @MarkJGrimaldi.
Brad writes a column every Sunday on the 2020 Presidential race for 'The Hill.' He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles.
You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon and watch his previous 'Deadline D.C.' broadcasts at www.Periscope.TV/BradBannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon.
Watch a video broadcast of this episode here on Twitter/Periscope: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1lDxLpWEEwPxm
Or here on Facebook Live: tinyurl.com/BradFacebook112320
Wednesday Nov 18, 2020
Young People Turned Out in 2020—Here’s What They Want To See Happen Next
Wednesday Nov 18, 2020
Wednesday Nov 18, 2020
Today's guest hosts are Edwith Theogene and Charlotte Hancock, Organizing Director and Communications Director for Generation Progress.
During today's episode, they discuss how the 2020 election results were made possible by the record-breaking turnout of young Americans and the decisive voter choice of young voters of color. At Generation Progress, they’ve always rejected the tired stereotype that young people aren’t politically engaged, but this election perhaps more than any other demonstrated the immense political power of millennials and Gen Z. After years of activism and organizing based on the issues they care about and record-breaking turnout in the 2018 midterm elections, young people have managed to not only maintain but build on their momentum to get to where they are today.
To break down how young people were able to impact the election in such a huge way and where they go from here, Ediwith and Charlotte are joined by two experts from URGE (Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity). They are Monica Edwards, the federal policy manager at URGE, and Jaz González, URGE’s digital campaign manager.
URGE's website is URGE.org and their Twitter handle is @Urge_org. Monica's Twitter handle is @monicaredwards and Jaz's handle is @jazz_956_g.
The website for "Generation Progress" is www.GenProgress.org and their Twitter Handle is @GenProgress. Edwith Theogene's Twitter handle is @WhoIsEdwith and Charlotte Hancock's handle is @CharlatAnne.